Who will lead?

A recent survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Services Management and the Physician Executive Practice of Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search firm, sheds light on the emerging physician executive's role. The goal of the research was to identify success factors as a means of evaluating and developing effective industry leaders. Respondents were asked to look at specific skills in relation to nine categories: Communication, leadership, interpersonal skills, self-motivation/management, organizational knowledge, organizational strategy, administrative skills, and thinking. Communication, leadership, and self-motivation/management emerged, in that order, as the three most important success factors for physician executives. An individual's general competencies, work styles, and ability to lead others through organizational restructuring defines his or her appropriateness for managerial positions in the health care industry.     

Shifting power: is the consumer next?

Consumers are not likely to act as patients much longer. They'll demand the same level of information and service they receive from every other sector of the economy. Dozens of new, innovative companies are changing the health care coverage purchasing methods to allow more control and accountability for consumers. They can be broadly categorized into four groups: (1) the "Charles Schwab" clones, (2) spot markets, (3) "make me a doctor," and (4) personalized health care systems. Physicians become directly accountable to their patients in these new models. But choosing health plans may not be enough. It is only a matter of time before consumers demand the right to build their own customized heath plans using the defined contributions from their employers. This article describes the benefits of personalized health care systems and why the death of medical necessity is not far away.     

Who influences strategic decisions?

Drawing on information provided by 407 European top managers, the results of this study indicate that the influence process varies for different types of strategic decisions. Each of three types of strategic decisions—product-market, technological and administrative—was primarily influenced by a different set of departments. Only the managing director maintained moderate influence over all decisions. The patterns of effective power bases also differed for each type of decision. Environmental scanning was a more important source of departmental influence on product-market decisions while formal position and access to resources proved more important for influencing technological and administrative decisions.     

What is the board of directors good for?

The history of corporate crisis in recent years indicates that the present method of operation of boards of directors is inadequate to deal with crises or influence events. Whether the remedies lie within the present structure or whether they should be found by establishing a new system is the challenge facing the corporate world and the academic business school. If, however, remedies are difficult or impossible to find, then at least the limitations of the boards of directors should be made clear.     

Why is the Return to Training So High?

Abstract. Cross‐sectional results show that training increases wages by 5 per cent. This return is on a par with the return to 1 year of education. Considering that the average duration of training is very short, this result is strange and needs further examination. After leaving out the importance of measurement error, we control for accumulated stock of firm‐specific skills, unobserved heterogeneity in wage levels, heterogeneity in training returns, and heterogeneity in wage growth. By this we manage to reduce the return considerably. Unobserved heterogeneity in wage levels is the most important contributor to the ‘too high’ returns to training.     

Who is Appointed to What Position? The Politics of Appointment in Quangos of Korea

This study identifies the determinants of appointment of executives in quangos. Using data from 85 quangos in Korea over 15 years between 1993 and 2007, we investigate the degree to which various characteristics of organizational actors affect the choice of executives. Three organizational actors include presidents, sponsoring government departments, and the concerned quangos. Although results vary by executive position, the findings of the empirical analysis with multinomial probit and generalized linear mixed models support the idea that the appointment of quango executives is not the result of presidential choice but that of the interactions among the key organizational actors, with different incentives and resources, on the appointment. Compared to former bureaucrats, presidential allies are more likely to be appointed when presidents have more political support from the National Assembly and it is easier for insiders to be promoted as executives from larger and older quangos with clear legal origins.     

Who is it that Would Make Business Schools More Critical? A Response to Tatli

Our short paper, as a response to Tatli's recent comment on our work, provides the opportunity to develop further an exploration of problems that both Tatli and ourselves identify in critical management studies (CMS). Here, we articulate ideas that we shied away from in our original paper, notably regarding an unreflexive masculinity that dominates some aspects of CMS. We suggest that many of Dr Tatli's concerns resonate with our own. This response therefore aims to generate further debate about CMS and how it may be perpetuating some of those very practices it abhors in management and organizations.     

Who Shall Follow? factors affecting the adoption of succession plans in Taiwan

Succession planning is widely believed to help business organizations with internal resourcing, reduce attrition of the work force caused by job-hopping high-fliers, and prepare qualified candidates for appointment to senior management positions. It is further known that when organizations fail to treat their succession plans as living documents, they may not only threaten their own continuity but also lose the opportunity to revitalize themselves. Even so, succession planning has been slow to take root in traditional Chinese businesses, which have been noted for their informal organization, top-down decision making, and emphasis on personal ties and relationships. However, rapid growth and increasingly tougher competition may force these firms to change their style of management. This study assesses the extent to which formal succession planning has taken hold among Taiwanese business firms, and identifies factors underlying the decision to adopt a formal plan. For those local firms that have not introduced formal planning, it seeks to determine the concerns that have inhibited or prevented them from doing so. Finally, this paper attempts to detect differences that may exist between Chinese- and foreign-owned firms in the tendency to adopt succession plans.     

Management research in the Arab World: What is now and what is next?

Given the significant political and socio-economic transformations occurring in the challenging yet under-researched Arab world nowadays, this study seeks to (1) systematically review the literature in the leading mainstream management journals; and (2) develop a future research agenda that would enhance our understanding of the region. To do this, we conducted a systematic review of 176 published management studies (2000–2016). Our thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes. These were (1) avenues for economic development and improved performance, (2) leveraging and adapting to changing local institutional contexts and (3) overcoming legitimacy concerns/barriers in the Arab world. Our recommendations on the future research agenda of these themes were intended to provide key insights for researchers and managers interested in proactively contributing to the development of a timely research agenda for these promising markets.     

What is the impact of sustainable development on the re-localisation of manufacturing enterprises?

Rendering the supply chain more eco-friendly is an innovative idea progressively adopted by industry. Our research focuses on the CO₂ equivalent emissions along the supply chain due to freight energy use and storage. A supply chain model based on discrete event simulation was developed. The model uses reorder point production management policy (ROP) within a make to stock (MTS) demand response strategy. Manufacturing capability is also taken into account using an overall equipment effectiveness indicator (OEE). In addition, the location of the firms and their types of products are modelled. The purpose is to compare supply chain CO₂ equivalent emissions of different configurations. This method is applied to two industrial cases: Carrier (UTC group), a large cooler manufacturer and Zannier group, a textile industry. The principle objective of the study is to conduct pertinent experiments to give green guidelines to Carrier and Zannier group.     

Who is it That Would Make Business Schools More Critical? Critical Reflections on Critical Management Studies

We suggest in this paper that whilst exploring how to make business schools more critical we must also turn a critical and reflexive lens upon ourselves, critical management thinkers. Our endeavour is outlined here as a 'reflexive journey' in which we turn upon ourselves, academics who identify as 'critical' thinkers, the theories we use to analyse others. Our focus is upon critical management education. We use three vignettes drawn from our previous research. One is of graduands from the postgraduate programmes on which two of us teach, the second an analysis of knowledge transfer programmes in which we have participated, and the third a study of the construction of academic identities. The first study shows the academic teacher may become an internalized, judgemental gaze, the second that what we see as a critical approach may be construed by our students as another 'truth' that fails to encompass the complexities of organizations and management, and the third encourages us to ask some questions about our own positions. This causes us to ask some uncomfortable questions about our own positions as critical management scholars and the ways in which we conceptualize business schools and our colleagues who work in them.     

Union Density and Relative Wages: What is the Relationship?

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the impact of union density on relative wages under decentralised bargaining settings. Whilst, traditionally, empirical studies have focused on the impact of union status on wages (either at the individual or at the plant level), here it is argued that local trade union density can have an independent (positive) effect on wages. This occurs through the threat of collective action and the ability of the union to impose costs onto employers. First, a Nash bargaining model is presented under efficient-bargaining settings, and a wage-membership equation is derived. Wages are shown to be an increasing and convex function of union membership. Second, an empirical specification of the wage-membership equation, suitable for estimation, is obtained and fitted to establishment-level data for the Italian metal-mechanical engineering industry. A positive monotonic relationship between wages and union density is detected. Furthermore, wages are shown to be increasing with union density even where no formal local bargaining agreement is in force, thus suggesting that “union-threat” effects might be relevant.     

What is the future of work? A science mapping analysis

This article aims to systematise and provide a structure for research into the Future of Work (FoW). We used SciMAT to conduct a science mapping analysis based on co-word bibliographic networks. The Web of Science (WoS) database was used for article retrieval, and a total of 2,286 documents were identified from 1959 to 2019. Our results are counterintuitive, as concerns over satisfaction, leadership values or corporate social responsibility (CSR) appear alongside traditional human resource management (HRM) themes, such as organisational commitment or careers, as well as more current FoW themes, such as the impact of technological change on employment, wage inequality, vulnerable workers, telework or talent management. In addition, we offer a classification of the most prolific FoW research themes and challenges into technological, social, economic and political categories.     

Who supports physicians in malpractice cases?

Malpractice suits have a devastating emotional impact on physicians. Learn about a unique service offered by the HealthTexas Provider Network to help doctors deal with the shock and sadness.