Ownership and Control in Closely‐held Family‐owned Firms: An Exploration of Strategic and Operational Control

Much of the existing research into the divorce of ownership and control either focuses on the propensity for the separation of decision functions or upon scrutinizing conceptions, gauges or the practicalities of organizational control in large corporations. Although far from equivocal, such research appears broadly to concur that where ownership is dispersed, de facto control is likely to be exerted by management and that where ownership is closely‐held, de facto as well as legal control is exerted by owners. This study examines this assumption through exploring the nature of control in a closely‐held family firm. In this regard, the focus of this study is not on consequences of divorced ownership and control but rather on exploring the contingencies where ownership and control diverge. This research reveals a case wherein a closely‐held family firm is strategically and operationally controlled by its managers. Case research leads to the development of a range of insights regarding the owner/family and the management characteristics that contribute to this scenario. The paper concludes with a series of implications and conclusions.     

How does homeland security affect U.S. firms' international competitiveness?

This paper frames the issue of homeland security and its relationship to the international competitiveness of U.S. firms in general. This is largely a conceptual statement, identifying the areas of national security (homeland security) that are key to business, and exploring the management concerns of business to the new threats and opportunities that have arisen.We establish the point that homeland security is a purposeful, conscious, and rational response to terrorist events that is an emergent and evolving systems phenomenon. This systems approach is an especially useful way to look at the implications of homeland security in its relation to business. We then look specifically at the kinds of costs and risks that are generated for U.S. international business (exports, imports, incoming and outgoing investments) as a result of this phenomenon. Management strategies for dealing with these costs and risks are explored for U.S. firms.Our conclusion is to demonstrate the scope of analysis that is needed to understand and to managerially cope with the homeland security problem. We show the value of using theory from various disciplines for analyzing a multi-dimensional problem like this. And finally we are able to recommend some policy dimensions for both companies and the U.S. Government toward mitigating the negative impacts of the homeland security problem.     

A Manifesto for Information Management Research

This paper calls for major rethinking in information management research as we enter the second half of the 1990s and approach the 21st century. It argues that, should we not take up the challenges identified herein, it is likely that what little remains of the discipline ‘information management’ will be subsumed into the realms of computer science/engineering at one end of the spectrum, and strategic management and organizational behaviour at the other. It argues that while it is no bad thing that aspects of the topic are dealt with in these related fields, it is important that information management should be seen as a discipline in its own right. In order to achieve this recognition – indeed, in order to earn this recognition – major restoration is required. The paper seeks to begin a debate on this topic by presenting a manifesto¹ for reform in the field of information management by discussing a series of concerns regarding the focus, methods and quality of research in this field; its reference disciplines, and its international and cross-cultural considerations. This is not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the issues by any means, but an attempt to present aspects of the topic that are of importance. By commencing the debate, it is hoped that the issues will become clearer, and action can begin to be taken. The list will doubtless be refined as the debate ensues.     

Sustained Monopolistic Business Relationships: An Interdisciplinarity Case

Business‐to‐business relationships within sustained monopolies, such as those within UK defence procurement, have received scant attention by management researchers. This is unusual because under these market circumstances there appear to be few incentives to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes despite their strategic policy importance. This paper argues that an understanding of the monopolistic environment using a transaction cost economics theoretical framework and supply‐chain management, relationship marketing and transaction cost economics concepts provides an innovative, interdisciplinarity approach to solving this problem as well as testing aspects of these disciplines empirically in a novel area. This paper describes the results from a substantial research project to test this hypothesis in the UK defence procurement situation. It reveals a number of key dynamics within the sustained monopolistic relationships surveyed and suggests considerable potential for further research.     

Use of risk assessment and life cycle assessment in decision making: a common policy research agenda.

Quantitative risk assessment (RA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are both analytical tools used to support decision making in environmental management. They have been developed and used by largely separate groups of specialists, and it is worth considering whether there is a common research agenda that may increase the relevance of these tools in decision-making processes. The validity of drawing comparisons between use of the tools is established through examining key aspects of the two approaches for their similarities and differences, including the nature of each approach and contextual and methodological aspects. Six case studies involving use of each approach in public decision making are described and used to draw out concerns about using RA and LCA in this context. The following categories of concern can be distinguished: philosophical approach of the tools; quantitative versus qualitative assessment; stakeholder participation; the nature of the results; and the usefulness of the results in relation to time and financial resource requirements. These can be distilled into a common policy research agenda focusing on: the legitimacy of using tools built on a particular perspective in decision making; recognition and role of value judgments in RA and LCA; treatment of uncertainty and variability; the influence of analytical tools in focusing attention on particular aspects of a decision-making situation; and understandability of the results for nonspecialists. It is concluded that it is time to bring together the experiences of RA and LCA specialists and benefit from cross-fertilization of ideas.     

Towards Common Ground and Trading Zones in Management Research and Practice

The purpose and nature of management scholarship is contested, evidenced by debates about the ‘academic–practitioner divide’ and attendant remedies for addressing it, including mode 2 and mode 3 research, engaged scholarship, evidence‐based management and design science. In this paper the authors argue that, without a culture of dialogical encounter, management scholarship will never be able to emerge from its adolescence, and management will not develop into the profession that it should and can become. The central proposition is that the highly fragmented landscape of management (practice and scholarship) lacks sufficient capability for dialogue among the plurality of actors situated across that landscape. Developing the dialogical capability ultimately required to break this fundamental impasse demands, first, a shared sense of purpose and responsibility (akin to the Hippocratic Oath in medicine) and, second, institutional entrepreneurship to establish more and better ‘trading zones’. Drawing on the philosophy of pragmatism, the authors further this endeavour by identifying and proposing key elements of a statement of shared purpose and responsibility. Finally, they explore the nature and characteristics of successful trading zones, highlighting particular examples that have already been created in management studies.     

Leadership Development in Organizations: Multiple Discourses and Diverse Practice

Research on leadership development in organizations is abundant, as are the resources invested in developing their leaders. Although rarely made explicit, much of this writing and activity is driven by functionalist assumptions, with a primary concern for good design and enhanced corporate performance. Given the politically sensitive, culturally complex and institutionally embedded nature of leadership, as well as controversy over the way leadership itself is best defined and developed, the author argues that this reliance on a single perspective is potentially limiting. The aim of this paper is to enhance leadership development practice in organizations by proposing a fresh and theoretically informed approach for exploring the multiple meanings of leadership development. This is done, first, by clarifying the discursive assumptions underlying studies in this field and revealing the distinctive insights that arise from functionalist, interpretive, dialogic and critical discourses of leadership development; and second, by exploring how each of these discourses, or ‘readings’, might promote quite different approaches to leadership development in organizations.     

Voices and values: Linking values with participation in OR/MS in public policy making

It is now widely accepted that public policy development requires both an appreciation of public values and an ability to involve insights from local people. Operational research (OR) has made some contributions to public policy development, and there has been a call to use problem-structuring methods (PSM) in this environment. This growing need for greater use of OR/management science (MS) in policy making is due to its ability to work with insights that are sometimes hard to pin down. This paper presents some research about values and local people's voices in public policy making, which the authors believe present a challenge to OR/MS and to the use of PSM. The paper will describe a framework for understanding values and exploring insights into including local voices in policy making using PSMs. Key to the framework is in the emphasis on differences, rather than similarities, in value priorities. A case study in which local people as well as decisions makers and politicians were engaged in a process to decide the future of a local hospital will be described.     

Productive Resistance within the Korean Public Sector: Exploring Organisational Culture

The article examines how South Korean civil servants responded to the introduction of pay for performance. Drawing upon 31 in-depth interviews with career civil servants, it identifies what became known as 1/n, a form of ‘discreet resistance’ that emerged and evolved. The analytical framework allows productive resistance to be seen as ebbing and flowing during organisational change that sees institutionalisation, deinstitutionalisation and re-institutionalisation. In understanding the cultural context of organisational resistance the contribution is three-fold. First, a nuanced definition and understanding of productive resistance. Second, it argues that productive resistance must be seen as part of a process that does not simply reflect ‘offer and counter-offer’ within the change management process. Thirdly, it identifies differences within groups and sub-cultures concerning commitment towards resistance and how these fissures contribute towards change as new interpretive schemes and justifications are presented in light of policy reformulations.     

制度环境视野下的中国战略管理研究途径

目前,战略管理研究的一种误区在于,认为战略管理理论的重心是对组织能力来源的探讨。有鉴于此,通过导入新制度主义的制度环境、合法性和组织同构化的理论,并就其理论性质及其对组织和管理学研究的理论贡献,以及战略管理的理论局限展开了讨论。最后,在讨论转型期的制度环境及其组织同构化特性的基础上,提出了2个当前中国战略管理研究的重点。     

The Role of Shocks in Employee Turnover*

This paper reports the findings from a recent study of nurse leavers at eight large hospitals in the National Health Service (NHS) of England and Wales. The study develops and extends an influential theory of employee turnover by describing how for some leavers a single, jarring event or shock triggers the decision to quit. By elaborating on the nature of shocks for this sample of 352 nurse leavers, the paper allows for improved understanding of nursing turnover and thus offers an example of relevant management research. The analysis of shock illustrates how conventional research methodologies can lead to a distorted picture of turnover. This has wider implications, both for any organization wishing to manage turnover effectively and for future research. The paper adds to the limited body of empirical analysis on actual leavers, thereby contributing to an ongoing methodological debate concerning the use of proxy variables. By highlighting flaws in the dominant methodology used to study turnover, the paper offers an example of management research that is also rigorous, and thus ‘pragmatic’.     

Rerum Novarum and the modern corporation

This paper argues that Rerum Novarumis a classic text. The classic character of Rerum Novarumis evident in relation to contemporary business ethics, particularly when Pope Leo addresses questions concerning the moral workplace and the moral economic order. The paper is in three parts. The first section explores Rerum Novarumand Pope Leo's model for creating the moral workplace. The second section argues that Rerum Novarumanticipates, both conceptually and normatively, the thrust of much contemporary work in business ethics. Conceptually the encyclical responds to issues on the micro and macro arenas as does contemporary business ethics. Normatively the encyclical argues that moral reasoning ought to be a part of management decisions. Rerum Novarumappeals to personal forces and calls upon the conscience of managers. The third section suggests that the decisions of some modern corporations are consistent with the insights of Leo XIII. Three cases are used to illustrate themes in Rerum Novarumthat are morally significant today.     

Mode 2 Management Research

The terminology of mode 2 knowledge production has become increasingly prominent in discussions on the nature and purpose of management research. This paper attempts to move our understanding of this terminology forward, by providing a detailed exposition of the five features of mode 2 knowledge production in the context of management research and by offering an empirical account of a research project conducted in mode 2. The paper relates the established problem–solving management research traditions of action research, cooperative inquiry, grounded theory and clinical method to the conceptual territory of mode 2. It then considers a specific form of knowledge production where all five features of mode 2 appear simultaneously. The paper demonstrates how the terminology of mode 2 might provide a useful basis for dialogue between management researchers from different methodological traditions. Moreover, the paper concludes that the specific form of mode 2 where all five features are present (called here 5mode2) does differ, in both its conduct and the character of its output, from any of the established approaches considered in this paper.     

Comparing Spatial Planning Practice in Europe: A Plea for Cultural Sensitization

Abstract

Comparative research into spatial planning systems typically adopts a structuralist/legalistic approach. This article presents and argues for an integrated perspective which embraces both systemic structures and concrete planning practices . The article begins with a short survey of the current state of comparative research on planning and its weaknesses. At the heart of the article is the endeavor to sensitize the discourse in planning theory towards a culturalistically oriented interpretational context. The studies which display the greatest potential for connectivity in this regard come from comparative research on governance. The concept of the institutional milieu which such research has produced provides the starting-point for an outline of some of the key aspects of a culturally sensitized form of comparative planning research which focuses primarily on the micro level. This represents something akin to a research agenda.     

How Does Performance Management Affect Workers? Beyond Human Resource Management and Its Critique

While performance management (PM) is pervasive across contemporary workplaces, extant research into how performance management affects workers is often indirect or scattered across disciplinary silos. This paper reviews and synthesizes this research, identifies key gaps and explores ‘recognition theory’ as a nascent framework that can further develop this important body of knowledge. The paper develops in three main stages. The first stage reviews ‘mainstream’ human resource management (HRM) research. While this research analyses workers’ reactions to performance management in some depth, its focus on serving organizational goals marginalizes extra‐organizational impacts. The second stage reviews more critical HRM research, which interprets performance management as a disciplinary, coercive or inequitable management device. While this literature adds an important focus on organizational power, there is scope to analyse further how PM affects workers’ well‐being. To develop this strand of PM research, the third stage turns to the emerging field of recognition theory independently developed by Axel Honneth and Christophe Dejours. The authors focus especially on recognition theory's exploration of how (in)adequate acknowledgement of workers’ contributions can significantly affect their well‐being at the level of self‐conception. Although recognition theory is inherently critical, the paper argues that it can advance both mainstream and critical performance management research, and also inform broader inquiry into recognition and identity at work.     

11 Evidence in Management and Organizational Science: Assembling the Field’s Full Weight of Scientific Knowledge Through Syntheses

Abstract

This chapter advocates the good scientific practice of systematic research syntheses in Management and Organizational Science (MOS). A research synthesis is the systematic accumulation, analysis and reflective interpretation of the full body of relevant empirical evidence related to a question. It is the critical first step in effective use of scientific evidence. Synthesis is not a conventional literature review. Literature reviews are often position papers, cherry‐picking studies to advocate a point of view. Instead, syntheses systematically identify where research findings are clear (and where they aren’t), a key first step to establishing the conclusions science supports. Syntheses are also important for identifying contested findings and productive lines for future research. Uses of MOS evidence, that is, the motives for undertaking a research synthesis include scientific discovery and explanation, improved management practice guidelines, and formulating public policy. We identify six criteria for establishing the evidentiary value of a body of primary studies in MOS. We then pinpoint the stumbling blocks currently keeping the field from making effective use of its ever‐expanding base of empirical studies. Finally, this chapter outlines (a) an approach to research synthesis suitable to the domain of MOS; and (b) supporting practices to make synthesis a collective MOS project.     

Cases of real-life policies related to risk: How can they enhance risk analysis and risk science?

Policies on risk constitute a core topic of risk analysis and risk science, and it is common at risk conferences to present real-life cases of such policies, for example related to the handling of climate change and pandemics. Although these are of broad interest, showing how important issues in society are dealt with, it can be questioned to what extent and how these cases contribute to enhancing risk analysis and risk science. The present paper addresses this concern. It is argued that, in order to learn from the cases, they need in general to be more thoroughly followed up with discussions of concepts, principles, approaches, and methods for assessing, characterizing, communicating and handling risk. Describing a governmental policy on, for example, the handling of COVID-19 is a point of departure for interesting discussions concerning its justification and performance, in particular in relation to risk and the most updated knowledge from the risk analysis field. Such discussions are, however, often lacking. The paper points to some key obstacles and challenges for the learning process, including the difficulty of distinguishing between policies, policy analysis, and politics.     

The robustness of linear models for decision-making

This paper elaborates on some issues discussed by Moskowitz, who presented evidence that linear multiple regression models, estimated from decisions made by individuals, often outperform the individuals themselves. In discussing his results, Moskowitz (1) suggested that inconsistency in information utilization by individuals may account for the relative superiority of regression models, and (2) expressed concern over the robustness of linear regression models to changes in (a) information environments, (b) weighting parameters, and (c) functional form of the model. This paper discusses reasons (in addition to inconsistency) for the relative superiority of model over man, and it summarizes recent research in psychology concerning the robustness of linear regression models (and linear models in general). This paper is supportive, rather than critical, of Moskowitz's research.     

Importance of issues related to RFID-enabled healthcare transformation projects: results from a Delphi study

Despite the high operational and strategic potential of Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in terms of increased healthcare efficiency and effectiveness, and better decision-making, its adoption and use within health care remain fairly low, mainly because of the challenging nature of RFID projects. Further, scholarly research has yet to identify key issues related to RFID projects. The present study intends to fill this knowledge gap in the literature by identifying and rating key issues related to RFID-enabled healthcare transformation projects through a panel of experts using four rounds of the Delphi study. Finally, implications for practice and research are discussed.