Strategic issues for the Trustee Savings Banks

Since the mid-1970s, the TSB Group has changed from a group of 73 savings banks offering basic deposit services to one of the U.K.'s leading financial service groups. The object of this article is to outline the background to the U.K. savings bank movement, the TSB Group's strategy in the period 1976–1984 and current business issues. The article is divided into four sections: The Background to the U.K. Savings Bank Movement; TSB in Transition 1976–1984; The TSB Group Reconstruction; TSB in the 1980s and 1990s.     

National programmes to promote youth training

The importance of education and training to this country's national performance is increasingly recognized. The introduction of the Youth Training Scheme, offering a year's workbased foundation training to 16- and 17-year-old entrants to the labour market, marks a major advance on Britain's poor record in this field. This article describes the Scheme's aims and mode of operation, traces its long gestation and reviews the progress during its first year. It relates the Scheme to wider national objectives for the development of training and to complementary initiatives in education, and discusses how it might be evaluated.     

Organizing for strategic management— A conceptual model

Managing the strategic problems is a complex process. In order to organize this process efficiently in one's own company it is necessary to understand and be able to communicate the basic factors involved. In the author's view there is a need to compile into a model concepts, relations and organizational principles of major importance to successful strategic planning. This article is based on the author's analysis of current literature and his own practical experience in Scandinavia. The article presents a conceptual model for strategic management including the planning process as well as the execution of strategic decisions. This model is related to basic organizational principles and the methodology used in project management.     

The second decade—The economic outlook for a developing nation

The author of this article argues that the people of Singapore are one of the crucial determinants of the country's economic position in the next decade. He attempts to sketch the economic panorama for Singapore 10 years ahead to illustrate the importance of human resources in the fulfillment of the country's potential. The article will be of interest to all planners who have to take a view of the potential of developing countries.     

Forecasting and research for supply markets-commodity buying systems

In this article the author illustrates the potential of forecasting and research with regard to the commodity markets. Following on from Owen Davies' article in our last issue Dr. Kingsman's discussion provides specific examples of application of techniques in the important area of supply management.     

Boas Shamir: The person,his impact and legacy

This article is divided into three parts. In the first part, Galit, Boas's spouse, chronologically reviews the five periods of Boas's professional life—describing what is special to each period and what connects them—while relating to the centrality of values and the secret of charisma according to Boas Shamir. In the second part, Ronit, Boas's colleague, and his first doctoral student, relates to his role as mentor and presents the unique and novel theoretical perspectives that Boas developed concerning the identities of leaders and followers, and how they interact within the charismatic relationship. In the third part, Micha, Boas's friend and colleague, analyzes the relationship between Boas's personal history, the psycho-historical background in which he grew up, and the origins and uniqueness of his oeuvre.     

The NFC buy-out—A new form of industrial enterprise

When the Conservative Government's plans for floating the National Freight Company, Britain's biggest road freight business, on the Stock Exchange were delayed by economic factors, senior management in the business put together a scheme to buy NFC. In what became Britain's largest employee buy-out, with over 10,000 employees and pensioners putting up £6·187m of the purchase price, a new form of industrial enterprise was created. In this article Sir Peter Thompson, leader of the buy-out team and now Chairman of the National Freight Consortium plc, describes the background to the buy-out, the complex financial, legal and communications activities involved, and the way in which employee-involvement has become an integral part of the operation of what has proved to be a commercially successful business providing exceptional returns on investment.     

Planning—Satisfaction and productivity

The areas of worker satisfaction and productivity have been of continual importance to managers of all types of organizations. Unfortunately, the analysis of these topics have usually been done in a segmented manner. This article attempts to develop a total conceptual scheme for planning to increase worker satisfaction and employee productivity. Both internal work and external environmental components are included in the models which examine social psychological, physical, and environmental components of the worker's life in a total system's approach.     

QUEST—Quick Environmental Scanning Technique

This paper describes a new technique designed to scan the environment quickly and inexpensively to focus management's attention upon critical issues for strategy formulation. The technique has been applied successfully in several different corporate settings including a major savings and loan association, three divisions of a large food manufacturing firm and a medium-sized moving and storage company.     

Pre-investment planning

Effective control of a firm's future depends upon sound pre-investment planning before further commitments are made. Therefore, the firm's situation has to be strategically characterized. In this article the author develops a strategic approach towards preplanning of investments. This approach can be helpful in suggesting a relevant investment policy. In this respect attention will be paid to acceptance criteria, financing considerations and types of commitment.     

Developing a strategy for an Industrial Training Board—a participative approach

The article presents the experience of the authors of designing and working in a participative strategic review and decision making process which involved representatives of employers, trade unions and education; and the analysis and presentation of the results on behalf of an Industry Training Board (a government funded organization) to the Manpower Services Commission, its parent body and link to Government. It considers past practice and the new approach adopted in October 1975, with particular reference to: The Overall Programme of Activities The Review Process The Strategic Workshop Process and gives the authors' conclusions and thoughts to date on the results together with possible developments and improvements to both the process and their own organization's future strategy.     

Competing with AT & T

This article discusses the transformation of the telecommunications industry from the perspective of one of the key long- distance voice industry participants, GTE Sprint. In reviewing the restructuring in long-distance voice telecommunications two major aspects are addressed; first, a commentary on the changes which have taken place and their causes, including a brief discussion on GTE Sprint's history and strategic planning process; and second, a section on the new, ‘post-divesture’ environment and GTE Sprint's strategic response to the new environment.     

The nature of the work-leisure relationship

This article is concerned with the development of an analytical framework, developed from a social psychological perspective, for viewing the nature of the work ethic and its changed character in contemporary industrial life. Toward this end, an analysis of how a typical Western person's attitudes toward work and leisure are formed is presented. The interdependent influence of this attitude upon the worker's mental health is examined. The influence of social evolution in Western culture seems to be altering work-leisure attitudes and this phenomenon is studied. Finally, based on the previous analysis, social policy recommendations for increasing the self-actualizing potential of both work and leisure are offered.     

How corporate planning responds to uncertainty

This article is based upon an SSRC research project into the influence of computer methods on decision making. During this research, information on the planning systems of a cross-section of British industry was obtained.The paper illustrates how managers in these firms were coping with planning in the present conditions of extreme uncertainty about the future, combined with adverse economic and business conditions. Conventional planning theory, together with some modern observations on it, are briefly described and then the paper shows how, in the firms visited, the structure of planning was more complex than this theory.It goes on to show that today's critical conditions were not leading to management putting aside their plans and computer models and “muddling through’. They were actually leading to an acceleration in the adoption of formal planning and decision making methods but in a somewhat different manner to conventional planning theory.Seven different modes of planning were identified with integrated operational planning being the most common, possibly the most essential to survival and sometimes the only planning possible into today's conditions. A trend to extend the operational plan to 2 to 3 years and to reduce the firm's long range plan from 5 to 3 years was also observed.Long range plans were being considered as planning and decision making tools and not as blue-prints of the firm's future, as accurate long range forecasting was impossible. Three types of strategic planning were identified with that carried out at intervals probably being the most appropriate for medium sized firms in today's conditions.     

Top Management Team Internationalization and Firm-level Internationalization: The Moderating Effects of Home-region Institutional Diversity and Firm Global Focus

The factors that determine firms' levels of internationalization remain a focal area of international business research. Within this research stream, studies building on the upper echelons theory have investigated the influence of the demographic characteristics of the top management team (TMT) on firms' international expansion. However, the literature to date has overlooked the TMT's overall degree of internationalization as a key driver of firm-level internationalization. In our paper, we argue that by having self-selected into careers abroad, foreign TMT members by definition have a higher cognitive tolerance of foreignness than domestic TMT members do. We theorize that foreign TMT members' higher cognitive tolerance for foreignness enhances the overall TMT's level of international attention and international trust, thereby facilitating strategic decisions that favor firm-level internationalization. Additionally, we propose two key contingencies that attenuate this relationship: the institutional diversity of the firm's home region and the firm's global focus. Analysis of Fortune Global 500 firms supports the hypothesized relationship between TMT internationalization and firm-level internationalization, as well as the two moderation effects.     

The more,the merrier? How a subsidiary's organizational identification with the MNE affects its initiative

How does a subsidiary's organizational identification influence its tendency to demonstrate initiative? In this study, we argue that a subsidiary's organizational identification with the MNE may affect its initiative via two mechanisms: subsidiary motivation and headquarters screening. On the one hand, subsidiary motivation mechanism suggests that a subsidiary's organizational identification with an MNE may affect its tendency to demonstrate initiative. On the other hand, the headquarters screening mechanism maintains that headquarters may rely on organizational identification to support or dismiss the subsidiary's projects. In light of the two mechanisms, we propose that a subsidiary's organizational identification may first increase its initiative, but after a certain point, the effect will diminish, ultimately leading to an inverted U-shaped relation. Building on this central argument, we also examine the boundary conditions at the subsidiary and MNE levels that may shape the proposed effect. Findings based on a sample of Taiwanese MNEs support these arguments. Our findings contribute to the literature by highlighting the role that a subsidiary's organizational identification plays in its initiative.     

Mechanisms for environmental scanning

Over the past decade long range planning for industrial concerns has needed to take into account an everbroadening spectrum of environmental influences. Whereas at one time planning largely concerned itself with those aspects of the environment to do with the company's markets, nowadays the influence of other parts of the environment may have equal, or even greater influence than markets on the company's operation. The current environment of most industrial concerns appears to be characterized by three main components. Firstly, the environment is increasingly turbulent and uncertain. Secondly, organizations are increasingly less autonomous. Thirdly, other formal organizations are increasingly important components of a company's environment. The environment of most companies is therefore complex and uncertain. This complexity and uncertainty can only be reduced by attempting to analyse and understand the environment as an ongoing process, this process is now being called ‘environmental scanning’. The aim of this article is to describe some of the mechanisms which have been used to help companies scan their environments as a way of planning and controlling their destiny in the turbulent environment in which industry operates.     

‘It is not fair that you do not know we have problems’: Perceptual distance and the consequences of male leaders' conflict avoidance behaviours

This study investigates perceptual distance in terms of managers' conflict avoidance behaviour and its consequences for subordinates. We argue that perceptual distance, or the disagreement between a manager's perception and that of his or her subordinates of his or her conflict avoidance, is a genuine phenomenon. We examine the extent to which the perceptual distance regarding managers' avoidance behaviour influences a team's justice climate as well as the role of gender. The data collected from three multinational companies in China show that the perceptual distance of a male manager's avoidance behaviour exists and that it is associated with a negative justice climate within the team. These findings provide evidence of gender's effect on leadership and highlight the benefits of female leadership.     

Corporate strategy at Admiram Manufacturing Company: An Iranian case study

In this article, corporate strategy is delineated for an Iranian firm, Admiram Manufacturing Company. Environmental and corporate resources are conceptualized upon which Admiram's corporate strategy formulation and implementation are based.     

CEO burnout,managerial discretion,and firm performance: The role of CEO locus of control,structural power,and organizational factors

Despite the possibility of burnout resulting from dynamics in firms' upper echelons, little if any work has focused on chief executive officer's (CEO's) burnout and firm performance. Drawing on managerial discretion theory, this article analyzes the influence of CEO burnout on firm performance and the moderating roles of the individual (CEO locus of control), structural power (CEO duality and CEO tenure), and organizational characteristics (size, age, and resource availability) related to managerial discretion. Using a sample of 156 CEOs in Swedish firms, we find a negative association between CEOs who report higher burnout and firm performance. Our results confirm that CEO duality and resource availability ameliorate and firm size exacerbates the negative association between CEO burnout and firm performance. Contrary to our expectations, CEO locus of control, CEO tenure, and firm age do not influence this relationship. We discuss the implications of our research for upper echelons theory and strategic leadership theory.