Illegitimate tasks as a source of work stress

Illegitimate tasks represent a task-level stressor derived from role and justice theories within the framework of “Stress-as–Offense-to-Self” (SOS; Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007). Tasks are illegitimate if they violate norms about what an employee can properly be expected to do, because they are perceived as unnecessary or unreasonable; they imply a threat to one's professional identity. We report three studies testing associations between illegitimate tasks and well-being/strain. In two cross-sectional studies, illegitimate tasks predicted low self-esteem, feelings of resentment towards one's organization and burnout, controlling for role conflict, distributive injustice and social stressors in Study 1, and for distributive and procedural/interactional justice in Study 2. In Study 3, illegitimate tasks predicted two strain variables (feelings of resentment towards one's organization and irritability) over a period of two months, controlling for initial values of strain. Results confirm the unique contribution of illegitimate tasks to well-being and strain, beyond the effects of other predictors. Moreover, Study 3 demonstrated that illegitimate tasks predicted strain, rather than being predicted by it. We therefore conclude that illegitimate tasks represent an aspect of job design that deserves more attention, both in research and in decisions about task assignments.     

Top-Management-Coaching in mittleren Unternehmen

Top-Management-Coaching in mid-sized companies The author discusses coaching of business leaders in mid-sized companies. These companies appear to be under considerable pressure to professionalize at times regarding their understanding, functions and instruments of leadership and management, — unlike their technical and product know-how. Due to the strong personalization of leadership in mid-sized companies, this professionalization can only take place if the business leaders build up an adequate understanding of leadership by alternating self- and business reflection. A coach can be of great help, acting as a sparring partner by combining the ?personal perspective“ with the ?functional perspective“. A prerequisite on behalf of the coach, aside from his competence in individual and interaction psychology, is however the ability to transport himself into the specificities of a mid-sized company and its management as well as profound knowledge of the management of complex sociotechnical-economic systems.     

Technologiebasierte Spin-offs ?C Ein Forschungs??berblick zu Einflussgr??en ihrer Entwicklung

Technology-based spin-offs from academic institutions and private corporations represent an important proportion of young innovation-oriented ventures. They encounter specific starting conditions in terms of their core technology, the composition of the founding team, and the critical junctures during their establishment. This study analyses the state-of-the-art in quantitative empirical research on factors impacting the development of these types of firms. We present findings of both research fields and discuss them critically. Methodological and measurement issues receive particular attention in our analysis. Based on the literature review we identify factors impacting the development of both types of firms. Additionally we expose gaps in past and current research on academic and corporate spin-offs and suggest interesting opportunities for future research. Methodological shortcomings of existing studies are discussed. We derive implications for research on academic and corporate spin-offs and for the management of these types of firms.     

Digitales Recruiting

This article in the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. provides an overview of past, present and future of recruitment and assessment. It illustrates how in the process of digitization the methods of recruitment and assessment change through the use of Artificial Intelligence, which opportunities and risks are associated with these developments, and what needs to be considered when introducing the new technologies.     

Strategic Renewal: Past Research,Theoretical Tensions and Future Challenges

Strategic renewal has become a prominent theme in a variety of organization and management research domains in recent years. It refers to the process that allows organizations to alter their path dependence by transforming their strategic intent and capabilities. With contributions from an increasing range of theoretical perspectives and research contexts, the strategic renewal literature has become fragmented and lacks common definitions and conceptual clarity, which prevent cross‐fertilization and harm further development. This study systematically reviews the various literature streams on strategic renewal to provide a more integrative perspective. The authors identify three key theoretical tensions at the heart of strategic renewal research, namely learning vs. resource, induced vs. autonomous, and co‐alignment vs. co‐creation. By exploring these key tensions, the authors define strategic renewal's conceptual core, identify gaps in the past literature, and provide guidance for future research.     

Die Verbreitung moderner Managementkonzepte im Mittelstand

Within existing studies on the diffusion of modern management concepts, such as Lean Management, Business Process Reengineering or Shareholder Value Management, small and medium-sized enterprises are frequently examined as a homogeneous group of hesitant adopters. Differences among small and medium-sized companies with regard to concept adoption can thus hardly be explained by referring to existing research. In this paper, we argue that differences in adoption patterns of modern management concepts across small medium-sized companies can be explained on the basis of their resource endowment and embedment in different social environments. We thereby employ central arguments from organizational diffusion theory. Based on a multivariate analysis of online-survey data on the diffusion of 22 modern management concepts among 272 German SMEs, our results show that adoption decisions are mainly based on relationships to local organizational environments, whereas concept awareness can be best explained by media-exposure.