IT服务企业中文化对知识共享与创新行为关系的影响

在全球一体化进程加速、IT服务企业员工文化价值取向趋于多元化的背景下,有必要了解员工文化观念对企业的影响。本文研究员工的集体主义观念和权力距离观念对IT服务企业中知识共享与创新行为之间关系的影响。在北京、西安的具有不同文化特色的IT服务企业进行问卷调查,收集了484份问卷,运用SPSS及SmartPLS进行数据分析。研究结果表明:员工的集体主义观念增强时,知识共享对创新行为的影响会增加;权力距离增大时,知识共享对创新行为的影响会减弱。对实践的启示是:管理者应培养、提高员工的集体主义文化价值观;根据公司的企业文化特色,区分对待员工权力距离对知识共享与创新行为之间关系的影响作用。     

Hong Kong managers' perceptions of American business values

This report describes empirical research conducted to study the research question, “To what extent do foreign managers' own cultural values influence their perceptions of the corporate values of companies in other cultures?” Using the authors' “Business Values Questionnaire,” business managers from Hong Kong gave their perceptions of publicly stated corporate values of very large U.S. service companies. A similar United States sample was used as a comparison group. Results gave partial support to the authors' hypotheses that an individual's own cultural values influence perceived values of another culture.     

Personal values and managerial decision-making: Evidence from a developing economy

This study attempts to investigate to what extent the personal values of managers from a developing economy affect their managerial decisions. Previous studies have suggested the relationship between values and managerial behavior. The purpose of the study was to examine this relationship in the context of a developing, less industrialized economy, identify peculiar issues given the context of the study, and discuss the managerial implications of the findings. The subjects studied were Nigerian managers, using the value survey designed by England. Results showed that values do affect behavior, but more significantly, that the cultural values of the managers play a significant role in their managerial decisions.     

Zombies and Originals: How Cultural Theory Informs Stakeholder Management

The question of stakeholder salience has recently resurfaced in the suggestion that the ethical foundations of corporate cultures result in stakeholder cultures that largely explain how firms allocate resources among stakeholders. The present article seeks to complement this novel approach to understanding stakeholder management by adding insights from the multilevel influences that create the corporate culture in the first place, and ultimately affect managers in their stakeholder decisions. This article draws on cultural theory to examine how the individuals who compose firms present group and grid solidarity that results in cultural biases in the corporate culture. These cultural biases—individualism, hierarchy, fatalism, and egalitarianism—are then paired with the stakeholder cultures they enable, and inferences are extracted concerning the salience managers are likely to accord to various classes of stakeholders as a result. Future research and managerial implications stemming from this new view on stakeholder management conclude this article.     

The Impact of Organizational Culture on Time‐Based Manufacturing and Performance

Firms are utilizing an array of manufacturing practices in their quest for survival and success in the marketplace. The implementation of those practices has not always resulted in success stories as the focus had been mostly on technical issues, with little concern for “soft issues.” For example, the enabling role of organizational culture has often been ignored. Using Schein's conceptualization of culture as underlying assumptions, espoused values, and artifacts, we examine a framework that relates culture and manufacturing practices to performance. The underlying assumption of customer orientation is posited to affect espoused values such as beliefs on investing in facilities and equipment to leverage intellectual work and to promote creativity, beliefs on working with others, beliefs on making decisions that are global, beliefs on management control, and beliefs on integrating with suppliers. The espoused values are hypothesized to affect visible attributes of culture (behaviors) such as time‐based manufacturing practices, which firms are employing for competitive advantage. A sample of 224 firms is used for developing research instruments and testing the hypothesized relationships advanced. Results indicate that high levels of customer orientation lead to a set of managerial beliefs that are collaborative and integrative. In turn, certain espoused values support a high level of time‐based manufacturing practice, which leads to high performance.     

Innovation, cultural values, and the management of change in British hospitals

This paper describes the results of a study of innovation in the management teams of 27 UK hospitals. It is argued that the content of innovations provides an accurate representation of the underlying cultural values of the management teams, and the cultural values which they seek to purvey within the wider organizational settings. The authors propose that values in action (as opposed to espoused values) are manifest in the range of innovations introduced by top management within organizations. Using a typology of organizational culture, they categorize the innovations introduced by the management teams, in order to map their underlying cultural values. The results indicate predominant orientations of hospital management teams towards rational goal and hierarchical values in the current context of health care in Britain. Internal climate and service innovations were relatively infrequent, suggesting that the hospitals were dominated by management concern for control rather than flexibility. The costs of such cultural strategies in health service settings are discussed.     

ALIGNING ACCOUNTABILITY AND AWARENESS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE IN OPERATIONS

This study assesses internal drivers of a firm's level of environmental awareness, including methods for incorporating environmental objectives into the strategic planning of operations, communication of objectives throughout the organization, and deployment of accountability to operating personnel and managers for environmental performance. Challenges firms may encounter in motivating and holding employees and process owners accountable for environmental performance are discussed, as well as a potential for inconsistencies between management's espoused theories and theories in use. A case study of a steel manufacturer is used to determine how accountability for and awareness of environmental objectives can be operationally implemented.     

Cultural Industries: Product–Market Characteristics,Management Challenges and Industry Dynamics

During the last decade, cultural industries have grown in economic importance, and research interest in them has increased. Despite prolific research, there is a lack of a comprehensive view on the subject. The purpose of the present paper is to offer a reconceptualization of cultural industries by tracing their boundaries, their features and the dynamics that follow from these features. This is achieved through a review of 314 cultural industries studies, whereby a classification system of three main and six sub‐categories is constructed. On the basis of the review, a framework for future research is presented. Most importantly, future research should examine selection criteria and selection performance, and explore the relationships between tastes, sales, diversity and quality. In this way, researchers might be able to create some order in the extreme uncertainty that cultural industries managers face.     

Culture and Organization: The Case of Transmanche-Link

The relationship between culture and organization has often been discussed, but rarely explored directly. This paper implements a cultural values instrument taken from Hofstede together with a behavioural instrument derived from Van de Ven to matched samples of British and French managers working on the Channel Tunnel project. The results largely replicate the findings of Hofstede regarding cultural values, but do not support the predicted implications for behaviour. In essence, the British were found to be more bureaucratic and more team-oriented than their French counterparts, who tended to be more fonceur and competitive. This indicates that the relationship between culture and behaviour might be more complicated than research to date suggests.     

Confucian philosophy and influence on perceived values and behavioural orientations by Taiwan’s millennials

This study examines the millennials’ perceptions of Confucianism and their influence on their personal values and behavioural orientations with a sample from Taiwan to address the research gap in intergenerational and intercultural human resource development (HRD) research. It complements results from western research and offers important insights to worldwide managers and HRD practitioners for talent development and learning-related initiatives when working with employees and organizations with East Asia backgrounds. The concept of Confucius’ process of developing into a virtuous person seems to be rooted in the Taiwanese millennials’ mind, who as guided by Confucius tend to have a primary focus on accumulating knowledge, practicing moral behaviour, and correcting one’s mind and behaviour. Along with the globalization and technology advancement, the sampled millennials hold a strong traditional values of Confucian philosophy; yet, such strong cultural values may be attenuated a great deal after exposing to western culture over times. The Confucian virtue (moral) behaviour practice, harmonious relations, and self-cultivation are found as top three factors of Confucian values. Implications for HRD practices and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Generational Differences in Work Values: A Review of Theory and Evidence

This paper presents a critical review of the theoretical basis and empirical evidence for the popular practitioner idea that there are generational differences in work values. The concept of generations has a strong basis in sociological theory, but the academic empirical evidence for generational differences in work values is, at best, mixed. Many studies are unable to find the predicted differences in work values, and those that do often fail to distinguish between ‘generation’ and ‘age’ as possible drivers of such observed differences. In addition, the empirical literature is fraught with methodological limitations through the use of cross‐sectional research designs in most studies, confusion about the definition of a generation as opposed to a cohort, and a lack of consideration for differences in national context, gender and ethnicity. Given the multitude of problems inherent in the evidence on generational differences in work values, it is not clear what value the notion of generations has for practitioners, and this may suggest that the concept be ignored. Ultimately, it may not matter to practitioners whether differences in the values of different birth cohorts reflect true generational effects, provided one can reliably demonstrate that these differences do exist. However, at present this is not the case, and therefore significant research is required first to disentangle cohort and generational effects from those caused by age or period. The suggestion that different groups of employees have different values and preferences, based on both age and other factors such as gender, remains a useful idea for managers; but a convincing case for consideration of generation as an additional distinguishing factor has yet to be made.     

Mexican and Swedish Managers' Perceptions of the Impact of EIS on Organizational Intelligence,Decision Making,and Structure*

Although information technologies in business organizations around the world may be very similar, the meanings conveyed through the technologies may be dependent on managerial values and national culture. Cultural differences need to be understood before information technology developed for organizations in one country can be effectively implemented in organizations in another country. Drawing on survey responses from managers using Executive Information Systems (EIS) across many organizations in Mexico, Sweden, and the United States, the current study examined whether cultural differences influence perceptions of the relationship between Executive Information Systems' use and various outcomes related to decision-making behaviors and processes. The study found significant differences, predicted by cultural factors, in the impact of EIS use on senior management decision making. The findings confirm the notion that IT is used by executives to reinforce the decision-making behaviors valued in their culture.     

Cross-cultural influences on organizational learning in MNCS: The case of Japanese companies in China

This paper draws on the social construction perspective and on social learning theory to examine the cross-cultural influences on organizational learning in MNCs. Social learning theory suggests that constructive engagement and member solidarity are key constituents of organization-based collective learning. Literature suggests, however, that cross-cultural differences in assumptions about social participation by organization members may impair organizational learning. The paper also reports a qualitative study, conducted at five Japanese-invested manufacturing companies in the Pearl River Delta, China. The research found that managers perceived Chinese frontline workers as lacking constructive engagement and member solidarity as compared with their Japanese counterparts, thus limiting organizational learning, and attributed these perceived differences to deep-seated cultural values. Attempts in two of the companies to ‘Japanize’ the workforces were reported to have had some impact, but appeared not to have substantially changed this picture. Urging caution regarding cross-cultural stereotyping and home country bias, we consider the implications for organizations with international manufacturing operations.     

Intercultural differences in issue interpretation: Effects of emotions and framing

The interpretation of strategic issues as threats or opportunities influences strategic actions and firm performance. The extant research identifies cultural differences as an important driver of strategic issue interpretation. Specifically, research from a socio-cognitive perspective shows that differences in cognitive styles across cultures lead to differences in the interpretation of strategic issues by East Asian and Western managers. Based on cross-cultural research on emotions and decision-making, we argue that cultural affordances also lead to differences in emotional experiences and behavioral consequences across cultures which affect the strategic issue interpretation of managers from East Asian and Western cultures in different ways. We theorize that Chinese managers are similarly affected by fear and happiness in their strategic issue interpretation, while German managers are only affected by fear. For German managers, this effect is moderated by issue framing, which is not the case for Chinese managers. A vignette-based decision experiment involving 194 German and 174 Chinese executives offers support for our hypotheses. These findings have implications for cross-cultural research on strategic issue interpretation and for cross-cultural research on strategic decision-making in general.     

Why aren't managers concerned about occupational stress?

Abstract

To explain the rarity of workplace stress management interventions, it is thought that managers are not concerned with the risks of occupational stress to health and job performance. Some writers consider either (1) deficiencies in theory, and/or (2) deficiencies in methodology to be the cause of this apparent lack of concern. The aim of this paper is to illustrate another perspective on this issue; that of risk perception. Two perspectives on risk perception are discussed; the psychometric view and the cultural view. The psychometric view suggests that senior managers may underestimate the risks associated with stress. The cultural view suggests that managers may consider stress management to be inappropriate, since individuals, not organizations, should be responsible for coping with stress. Both perspectives indicate that very few managers may consider stress to be a risk that should be actively managed by the organization. The associated disciplines of risk management and particularly risk communication are discussed to suggest ways to overcome lack of managerial interest in stress management.     

Why aren't managers concerned about occupational stress?

To explain the rarity of workplace stress management interventions, it is thought that managers are not concerned with the risks of occupational stress to health and job performance. Some writers consider either (1) deficiencies in theory, and/or (2) deficiencies in methodology to be the cause of this apparent lack of concern. The aim of this paper is to illustrate another perspective on this issue; that of risk perception. Two perspectives on risk perception are discussed; the psychometric view and the cultural view. The psychometric view suggests that senior managers may underestimate the risks associated with stress. The cultural view suggests that managers may consider stress management to be inappropriate, since individuals, not organizations, should be responsible for coping with stress. Both perspectives indicate that very few managers may consider stress to be a risk that should be actively managed by the organization. The associated disciplines of risk management and particularly risk communication are discussed to suggest ways to overcome lack of managerial interest in stress management.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Managers' Whistleblowing Tendencies*

In a global marketplace, managers often face major difficulties when it comes to handling ethical problems within a different cultural context. Whistleblowing is one possible response to ethical problems. This study considers the differences in culture between a United States sample of managers and a Jamaica, West Indies sample of managers using Hofstede's (1991) theory of International Cultures. The study explores how those cultural differences may help in our understanding of the differences in reported whistleblowing tendencies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Integrating Organizational-Cultural Values With Performance Management

Early analyses of organizational culture used and an approach derived from cultural anthropology to provide guidance for leaders, managers, and employees, but lacked units of analysis congruent with behavior science. More recent approaches identify values and practices, the latter being behavior which can be analyzed. However, the abstract language of this approach limits our ability to set specific performance expectations and relies on post-hoc recognition and reinforcement. This article outlines an approach that anchors performance analysis in the valuable work outputs (accomplishments) produced by behavior, and uses value statements to adjust expectations for work outputs and behavior. With this approach we can define how specific values apply to specific work outputs and behavior, and set clear performance expectations. The author proposes that performance analysis anchored in work outputs may improve our ability to set expectations and arrange conditions for optimizing values-driven performance in organizational or societal contexts.     

Business Ethics: Some conjectures and refutations

There has been some important research conducted in India between 1990 and 1994 on the question of Business Ethics and based on the data collected from the corporate sector of Indian Industry, this polemic has been attempted. In the first part it clarifies the positions taken by the Indian academia and in the second part gives some insights into the character of the Indian corporate decision makers. To that extent it lays claim to a being a contribution to the understanding of Business Ethics in India, and what sort of managers are produced by the corporate sector, the society within which this sector exists and the culture it imbibes.