Conceptualizing leadership perceptions as attitudes: Using attitude theory to further understand the leadership process

Leadership is one of the most examined factors in relation to understanding employee well-being and performance. While there are disparate approaches to studying leadership, they share a common assumption that perceptions of a leader's behavior determine reactions to the leader. The concept of leadership perception is poorly understood in most theoretical approaches. To address this, we propose that there are many benefits from examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In this review, we show how research examining a number of aspects of attitudes (content, structure and function) can advance understanding of leadership perceptions and how these affect work-related outcomes. Such a perspective provides a more multi-faceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged and this can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions affect outcomes. In addition, we examine some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area. The cross-fertilization of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research.     

Some financial implications of risk in the UK

This paper explores ways in which risk taking is entwined with financial considerations, and examines the trade-off between acceptable levels of risk and associated costs. The changing identity of holders of funds available for risk investment, combined with the evolving attitudes of fund-seekers as to the nature of acceptable risks, points to the need for a re-examination of traditional approaches. In formulating public policy aimed at reducing risks a more formal consideration of the overall cost of Government measures, set against the achievements anticipated from the measure concerned, is required whether or not that cost falls on Government. In commerce, increased use of joint ventures is seen as a likely vehicle for the development of largescale risk activities, with a loan guarantee scheme to assist in nurturing new enterprises and small businesses. Finally, the role of pension funds is examined and a case made for the consideration of index linked gilts as a means both of assisting the Government with the orderly handling of the National Debt and meeting the pension schemes' need to match liabilities that are susceptible to inflationary pressures.     

中国股票市场行业间金融传染检验和风险防范

运用一个新的金融传染检验统计量对2015 年6 月中旬中国股市暴跌时各行业间的传染效应进行检验． 跟传统的金融传染检验统计量相比,他可从不同的分位数水平上检验金融传染; 跟已有的分位数回归检验方法相比,他对于可能存在的模型误设是稳健的． 本文首次检验了国内全部十个一级行业以及四个金融二级子行业之间的金融传染情况,并从市场风险的角度对不同行业间的传染关系和传染的可能途径进行了分析． 新的金融传染检验统计量检验结果表明: 在此次暴跌中大部分行业间存在金融传染,尤其是在低分位数下,而传统的检验方法忽略了这种传染效应的存在,这对市场风险的提示有着重大意义．     

Assessing financial risks using a multicriteria sorting procedure: the case of country risk assessment

The assessment of financial risks is a problem of major interest for corporate entities (organizations, financial institutions, firms, etc.). The vulnerable economic and financial environments necessitate the development of operational approaches to measure and control financial risks. Most of the methodologies that have been proposed in the past employ a probabilistic notion of risk. This paper proposes an alternative approach to measure financial risks, considering their multidimensional nature. The proposed approach is based on the multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) method Multi-Group Hierarchical DIScrimination (M.H.DIS). The aim of the M.H.DIS method within the financial risk assessment context is to develop a set of additive utility functions that classify the considered alternatives (firms, investment projects, portfolios, countries, etc.) into predefined risk classes. The efficiency of the method is illustrated through a case study regarding the country risk assessment problem. Using the M.H.DIS method a discrimination model is developed that classifies the countries into four groups, and measures the corresponding creditworthiness and risk of the countries. Several validation tests are performed in order to compare the classification results obtained through M.H.DIS to the results obtained through multiple discriminant analysis.     

Corporate social responsibility,financial performance and risk in times of economic instability

Journal of Management and Governance - This article examines the relationship between the social performance of companies and their financial performance, analyzed from the systematic risk...     

Managerial and economic barriers and incentives to the commercialization of solar energy technologies

This paper considers the emerging solar industry with emphasis on the active solar systems industry. Active solar systems use thermal collectors, pumps, storage devices and associated equipment to provide hot water and space-heating. Solar systems can provide an important portion of the nation's energy in the future. However, diffusion of these technologies will require several years or decades depending upon the innovation characteristics of the systems. The innovation characteristics of active solar systems are measured, in part, by economic measures, reliability, and communicability of the qualities of the system among others. The active solar systems industry is characterized as emerging, struggling, underfinanced and diverse. A questionnaire and interview survey of 97 solar industry firms was accomplished. Based on the survey results it is recommended that while the government continue incentive tax credits, the industry develop itself as a strong, high-quality industry through the emergence of industry leaders dependent upon improved manufacturing process innovation.     

Wisdom of the crowd and capabilities of a few: internal success factors of crowdsourcing for innovation

Crowdsourcing has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy to enhance the efficiency of a firm’s innovation process. In this paper, we focus on tournament-based crowdsourcing (also referred to as “broadcast search”), a method to solve technical problems in form of an open call for solutions to a large network of experts. Based on a longitudinal study of six companies piloting this application of crowdsourcing, we identify barriers and sources of resistance that hinder its implementation in firms. Our paper contributes to the state of research by analyzing crowdsourcing on the level of pilot projects, hence providing a workflow perspective that considers the creation of dedicated processes and operations of crowdsourcing. This project level analysis enables the identification of specific challenges managers face when implementing crowdsourcing within an established R&D organization. Following a design science approach, we derive suggestions for organizational interventions to overcome these barriers. We find that dedicated promoter roles strongly contribute to a successful implementation of crowdsourcing, turning pilot projects into an organizational routine.     

金融资产风险度量及其在风险投资中的应用——基于稳定分布的新视角

引入稳定分布对沪深两市指数数据进行检验,结果表明两指数具有“尖峰厚尾”的分形特征,在此基础上建立了DaR类风险测度,实证研究表明两指数跌幅时间序列存在协同跌幅共线性效应.其次,给出了蒙特卡洛稳定分布和正态分布模拟下的两类风险测度估计值,建立了离差率模型,结果表明稳定分布下的风险度量适合投资者进行风险管理.最后,研究了不同跟踪时间窗口下的风险测度指标MDD.投资者和风险管理人员不仅要关注VaR类风险,更要警惕DaR类风险指标.     

Global theory and the nature of risk, Part 2. Towards a choice-based model of managed care

Orthodox managed care depends on top-down, command and control techniques to squeeze efficiency out of the system. But for every unit of economic good this approach produces, two or three bad units come as result. The key to moving to an environment where value and efficiency become self-sustaining is to structurally recognize the medicoeconomic reality of medicine: the episode of care. The episode forms a natural unit of analysis that not only renders costs and outcomes information translucent and accessible, but it also forms the natural conduit through which premium dollars can find their optimal value. By bifurcating probability risk from technical risk and allocating them in the ex ante and ex post markets, respectively, health care insurers and providers return to their rightful economic roles, and to their appropriate fiduciary duties. And patients regain some semblance of reasonable sovereignty in managing their own medical affairs.     

金融风险决策中的主被动选择偏好研究——从情感体验的视角

从情感体验的视角,依次研究人们面临金融风险决策时的主动与被动选择模式偏好、伴随的情感体验差异、以及不同人格特质对风险偏好的影响.首先通过大规模在线问卷调查发现,在面临多种金融风险决策的情境下,人们偏好于主动而非被动选择,高感觉寻求的男性比女性更偏好主动选择,低感觉寻求的男性与女性主动选择意愿无显著差异;其次,利用仿真气球冒险任务(BART:balloon analogue risk task)进行行为学实验研究,结果表明,主动选择比被动选择带给被试更强的情感体验,包括更强的控制感、成就感、更多的喜悦感、较少的痛苦感;最后,借助感觉寻求量表和BART实验,探索了不同人格特质决策者的风险决策过程差异,发现感觉寻求水平高的男性比女性更偏爱冒险,但感觉寻求水平低的男性与女性偏爱冒险程度无显著差异.     

Pushing up to a point: Assertiveness and effectiveness in leadership and interpersonal dynamics

Past work on interpersonal assertiveness and organizational effectiveness paints a mixed picture: some research suggests a positive link, other work highlights negative effects. This article reviews recent research and an account that stems from a different perspective, looking at assertiveness as a factor in leadership shortcomings and failure. This approach suggests that interpersonal assertiveness is a major factor and has a curvilinear, inverted-U-shaped relationship with leadership effectiveness. I review evidence for this effect as well as social and instrumental outcome mediators. I consider moderators and boundaries, sources of individual differences in assertive behavior, prospects for changing assertiveness, and factors in the perception of assertive behavior. Beyond the specific results I review, I argue that this program of work offers value by highlighting the lens of conflict as a generative perspective on leadership. Exploring how, and how hard, leaders fight pulls in insights from a variety of literatures and prompts new research that can help expand the scholarly portrait of leadership.     

The influence of corporate governance on changes in risk following the global financial crisis: evidence from the Portuguese stock market

This paper examines the influence of corporate governance characteristics on changes in total, market and idiosyncratic risk in the Portuguese capital market following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. We aim to address corporate practices, while determining if corporate governance characteristics can help predict future variations of the risk associated with a certain security and, in this sense, if these characteristics may be used to help monitor or forecast risk of an existing portfolio of securities over time. We find positive and significant changes in total and idiosyncratic risk for non-financial firms listed on Euronext Lisbon, consistent with increases in investor uncertainty during the crisis period. Our results suggest that changes in risk measures over a shorter-term and a longer-term period vary with governance characteristics. The capital market rewarded companies with a greater proportion of non-executive directors and directors that exercise (on average) management roles in more companies or institutions. On the other hand, the capital market punished companies with a greater proportion of independent directors and greater ownership concentration.     

Human resource development in a challenging financial environment: the case of a Greek bank

Changes in the external environment have reshaped the banking industry environment. Responding to that, Greek banks are adopting new strategies towards organizational development and realize that success requires adjustments to their HRD effort. The case example presented here refers to a leading Greek bank that was involved in a systematic HRD effort, based on the use of training interventions as a short-term solution to transit smoothly to the new era. The results of this effort are connected to the improvement of the bank's position in the market, despite its problematic past. However, the next challenge for the bank is to realize that the formation of a long-term development strategy and its integration with wider HR management policies are a priority.     

A theory of organizational response to hospital regulation: a reply to Smith and Mick

Smith and Mick identify four basic problems with the theory the present writers developed to explain organizational responses (in this case the behavior of hospitals) to regulation. They challenge the basic assumption regarding autonomy, disagree with the implied cause and effect relations between organizational response and regulation, criticize the omission of goals, and claim that the theory has only limited generality. In so doing they state that their primary concern is with "improving our understanding of the limitations and benefits of the theory." Each of the four topics they raise for consideration will receive comment.     

Testing the gender similarities hypothesis: differences in subjective task value and motivation to transfer training

ABSTRACT

Are female and male trainees similar or different in their reaction to training programmes, specifically regarding their subjective task value and motivation to transfer? According to the gender similarities hypothesis, women and men are alike on most psychological variables. However, according to research in organizational behaviour, female and male employees differ on certain aspects, such as their job satisfaction and work identity. To test these two views on gender similarities and differences in the context of human resource development and training evaluation, the present study examined the extent to which gender moderated reactions to training. Based on the expectancy-value theory of motivation and self-determination theory, a web-based questionnaire was used to measure six training reactions: intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, perceived relative cost, autonomous motivation to transfer, and controlled motivation to transfer. The results indicated that women and men differed in their ratings of attainment value but were similar for the remaining five reaction measures. These outcomes support the gender similarities hypothesis. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for modelling gender effects in HRD research and their practical significance for promoting training effectiveness and transfer of training.     

The risk implications of diversification: Integrating the effects of product and geographic diversification

The risk implications of product diversification have received considerable attention from scholars. However, our understanding of the effects of geographic diversification on risk is more limited. Relying on resource-based theory to frame our arguments, we argue that despite some similarities, the two types of diversification have differing effects on firm risk. We first establish the risk reducing effects for product diversification. We then integrate the unique aspects of geographic diversification that serve as a boundary condition to the RBV perspective, arguing for the risk increasing effects of geographic diversification. Finally, since many firms pursue both forms of diversification simultaneously, we explore the joint effects of both product and geographic diversification. We test our hypotheses in a longitudinal model on a sample of S&P 500 firms. Our findings suggest that total product diversification, as well as related diversification reduce risk, while total geographic diversification increases risk. Furthermore, our data provide evidence of a complex combination of joint effects of these two forms of diversification. These findings offer a more complete understanding of the risk effects of corporate diversification.