Building Organizational and Scientific Platforms in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Process Perspective on the Development of Dynamic Capabilities

In this paper, we examine the process of dynamic capability development in a large pharmaceutical firm. Using interviews with multiple managers at different organizational levels, we developed two narratives of the process of developing two separate dynamic capabilities in the same firm. We focus on three areas that prior research has shown to be critical in the early stages of the process of implementing new strategic initiatives: the cognitive orientations of key personnel, managerial action undertaken within the firm, and the firm's internal and external contexts. We provide evidence that managers undertake specific initiatives based on their own particular cognitive orientations , and that senior managers play a major role in the development of capabilities by imprinting the organization with their specific cognitive orientation and then orchestrating the multilevel organizational routines necessary for actualization of a capability. These replicable actions by senior management during the early stages of capability development can lead to the development of a capability that is not initially in the cognitive frames of lower level employees. Finally, we will show that internal and external contingencies have a profound impact on the decision to develop a capability, and to discontinue its development. Our findings thus suggest that the process of developing new capabilities shares common elements with other strategic initiatives.     

A Comparative Analysis of Quality Practice in Manufacturing Firms in the U.S. and Taiwan*

The aim of this paper is to determine if there is a causal relationship between multivariate constructs for quality (i.e., customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and employee service quality) and organizational performance. The presence of such relationships, as well as the identification of key indicators within each quality construct for different types of firms, are explored in this empirical study on the perceptions of middle managers in Taiwan and the United States. The study found a significant causal relationship between the quality constructs and organizational performance. These relationships are different, however, for the four types of firms based on age and size. Also, within the same firm types, there are differences among countries. For example, for older firms, Taiwanese managers tend to perceive customer satisfaction as the most important quality construct in improving organizational performance, while U.S. managers tend to perceive employee satisfaction as the most important. For younger firms, U.S. managers perceive customer satisfaction as influencing organizational performance, while Taiwanese managers perceive both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction as doing so. A further breakdown of the quality constructs identified the key indicators within each construct that separates “better performers'’from “lesser performers'’in both countries for the four types of firms. These indicators are dissimilar, thus suggesting that focus on quality constructs may lead to improvements in organizational performance by focusing on different indicators in different environments. These results have implications for the adoption and implementation of quality practices in different countries.     

An empirical study of quality management practices in the petroleum industry

The purpose of this paper is to empirically study quality management practices in the petroleum industry in Iran. A reliable and valid survey instrument has been used for data gathering from managers in the petroleum industry in Iran. The instrument has been developed based on the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), which consists of 13 dimensions of quality management. Correlation analysis has been used to test for a relationship between the quality management constructs and quality results (internal quality results and/or external quality results). Most of the linkages within the Baldrige criteria were supported, which indicates the universal applicability of the Baldrige Award criteria. The result of the correlation analysis indicates that top management support is the major driver for quality management implementation which is significantly correlated with most of the quality management constructs. Furthermore, the results indicated that employee training and employee involvement are significantly correlated with internal (operational) quality results. Customer orientation and supplier quality are not significantly correlated with external quality results (business performance).     

Cultural Intelligence and Institutional Success: The Mediating Role of Relationship Quality

As managerial rationality is always bounded, managers utilise their cognitive abilities and social relations to manage their operational environmental uncertainties. We posit that relationship quality (RQ) mediates the association between cultural intelligence (CQ) and success in managing challenges arising out of differences in the institutional environments i.e. institutional success. Our CQ measure comprises cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioural CQs. We included the interactive effects of two inter-related mental capabilities, namely cognitive and metacognitive CQs, and motivational and behavioural CQs while examining the mediating role of RQ between CQ and institutional success. Based on data from 186 Indian senior managers doing business with New Zealand, we find mixed support for our hypotheses. We find indirect-only mediation effects for interactive effects of cognitive and metacognitive CQs, and complementary mediation effects for motivational CQ. Contrary to expectations, we find negative direct-only non-mediation effects of behavioural CQ.     

Antecedents of the adoption and success of strategic cost management methods: a meta-analytic investigation

In the course of this study, a quantitative meta-analysis of the antecedents of the adoption and success of strategic cost management methods was conducted, based on 50 primary studies. Primarily qualitative reviews of previous literature in this field were expanded by examining and comparing the effect sizes of and between antecedents of primary studies and by integrating their diverse measurements of effects. The mediation of relationships between antecedents was quantitatively explored and integrated using a comprehensive structural model which is unaccounted for in current literature reviews. Quantitative moderator analyses demonstrated that conflicting effects could be explained by referring to country of origin, firm size, objects of analysis, and the position of respondents. The majority of these relationships could be seen to be valid across countries and industries. Surprisingly, however, most of the external, technological, and organisational context variables had no significance or only a weak impact, whereas a network of internal individual characteristics of responsible managers (such as the identification with cost management or the methodological knowledge of managers) had a strong correlation with the adoption and success of cost management methods.     

In Good Times but Not in Bad: The Role of Managerial Discretion in Moderating the Stakeholder Management and Financial Performance Relationship

We examine the role of managers in controlling the positive impact of stakeholder management (SM) on firm financial performance (FP) in the long term. We develop and test competing hypotheses on whether managers act as “good citizens” or engage in “self‐dealing” when allowed greater discretion. We test our assertions using dynamic panel data analysis of a sample of 806 U.S. public firms operating in 34 industries over 5 years (2005–2009). Our results indicate a nuanced influence of managerial discretion contexts on the SM‐FP relationship. We infer that given more latitude in decision making, as long as the “going is good” managers act as good citizens, but otherwise they revert to managerial self‐dealing. In light of our results, firms designing governance mechanisms to encourage managers to balance the needs of both shareholders and stakeholders must remain cognizant of contextual contingencies.     

Deducing a taxonomy of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness: a comparative study of effective and ineffective managerial behaviour across three EU countries

This qualitative multiple case derived etic study focuses on perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness. It explores what employees in various organizations, organizational sectors and culturally diverse nations perceive as effective and ineffective managerial behaviour. Empirical findings from six emic replication studies carried out previously within three European Union countries were subjected to cross-case, cross-sector, and cross-nation comparative analysis. High degrees of sameness and similarity were found. Further analysis led to the emergence of a behavioural taxonomy comprised of 10 positive (effective) and 9 negative (ineffective) behavioural criteria. We find that managers and non-managerial staff in British and Romanian public-sector hospitals, and in British and German private-sector companies, perceive effective and ineffective managerial behaviour in much the same way. Our findings challenge past literature which argues that managers need to adopt different managerial behaviours to be effective in different organizational sectors and countries.     

An examination of associations among manager-boss gender,self-awareness,and managerial derailment

Using the data of managers in the United States (N = 42,792), United Kingdom (N = 3,797), and China (N = 1,893), we examined the associations among manager-boss gender combinations, self-awareness and the managerial derailment potential. First, the study demonstrated an association between manager-boss gender combinations and managerial self-awareness, even though the specific gender joint effects were not consistent among the three countries. Second, both self-awareness and manager-boss gender combinations contributed to explaining additional variance of managerial derailment potential. Consistently across three countries, overestimators were more likely to derail than the managers who were in touch with their bosses. In terms of gender effects, compared to male managers, female managers with male bosses were more likely to derail. These results imply that, to achieve high levels of self-awareness and provide accurate prediction of managerial derailment potential, organizational scholars and practitioners must consider both the gender of both managers and their bosses.     

The Effectiveness of Risk Management: An Analysis of Project Risk Planning Across Industries and Countries

This article examines the effectiveness of current risk management practices to reduce project risk using a multinational, multi‐industry study across different scenarios and cultures. A survey was administered to 701 project managers, and their supervisors, in seven industries and three diverse countries (New Zealand, Israel, and Japan), in multiple languages during the 2002–2007 period. Results of this study show that project context—industry and country where a project is executed—significantly impacts perceived levels of project risk, and the intensity of risk management processes. Our findings also suggest that risk management moderates the relationship between risk level and project success. Specifically, we found that even moderate levels of risk management planning are sufficient to reduce the negative effect risk levels have on project success.     

Disengagement in Open Innovation: A Cognitive Perspective

The central tenet of open innovation (OI) is that useful knowledge is widely distributed. By purposively engaging in knowledge sourcing and sharing (KSS) activities, organisations can create and capture value through collaborative exchange with others. Organising for OI relies on the assumption that individual managers tasked to bring it to fruition will enact behavioural responses conducive to external KSS. However, understanding what characterises and informs managers’ disengagement in OI remains an unresolved challenge. The interactions between managers’ in-role demands in OI and their self-concept, which guide behavioural responses, are under-investigated. Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory (CDT), this article conceptualises the sources of managerial dissonance and situates discussions on underlying influencing mechanisms, culminating towards a cognitive model of disengagement in OI. Bridging OI, psychology and management literature, hypotheses are developed to stimulate investigations into what characterises and influences managers’ disengagement in OI. Managerial implications are discussed to curate approaches that can help manage managerial dissonance in order to attain the desired organisational OI goals.     

A Trojan Horse? The implications of managerial coaching for leadership theory

This article examines the behaviours associated with managerial coaching and assesses the implications for leadership theory. Survey data from 521 line managers are analysed to: (i) identify the behaviours associated with managerial coaching, (ii) examine factors that affect the propensity of managers to undertake coaching and (iii) discuss the implications of the manager as coach role for leadership theory and practice. First, the analysis indicates that workplace coaching is distinct from specialized coaching practices. Second, demographic characteristics of individual managers, such as their age, experience or level of management qualification are unlikely to affect their propensity to undertake managerial coaching. However, leader-team member relationships (leader-member exchange) and occupational self-efficacy (OSE) are predictive of managerial coaching behaviours. Third, managerial coaching challenges traditional leader-centric models of leadership and requires an acknowledgement of reciprocity, collaborative ‘meaning-making’ and a diminished ‘distance’ between leaders and team members.     

Perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in a non-profit organization: an exploratory and cross-sector comparative study

This paper presents the results of an ‘HRD professional partnership’ study of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness carried out within a UK third sector (non-profit) organization. Using the critical incident technique, concrete examples [critical incidents (CIs) ] of observed effective and least effective/ineffective managerial behaviour were collected from a purposive sample of senior and middle-level managers of the collaborating registered charity. The CIs were content analysed to identify themes and analytical categories. Behavioural statements were then devised to reflect the constituent CIs of each category. The paper also reports the results of a subsequent cross-sector comparative analysis that explored the similarities and differences between the identified behavioural statements and the results of equivalent studies in the UK public and private sector organizations. The findings challenge the widely held image that managers need to adopt different managerial behaviours to be effective in non-profit organizations because of inherent differences between the sectors. How the resultshave been used by the collaborating organization is outlined. Finally, thelimitations, implications for practice and research recommendations are discussed.     

Greening the health care supply chain: Triggers of change,models for success

A historic agreement signed in July 1998 between the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signals changes in waste management in the health care industry. The agreement, which calls for a fifty percent reduction of hospital waste by 2010, will not only have an impact on hospital facility managers, but throughout the entire healthcare supply chain. As this article argues, improving the environmental impact of the health care industry should start with the health care delivery institutions themselves. The health care industry has a long way to go in addressing its environmental impacts, compared to the energy and chemical industries, for example. One reason is that these industries are raising their suppliers' environmental performance. Health care delivery institutions can effectively pull environmental performance requirements through the entire supply chain as well. This can be accomplished by examining supply chain strategies of leading industries and firms and considering the role of environmental management systems such as a ISO 14001 throughout the entire chain.     

设计有效的经营者持股激励机制——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

本文从企业财务控制系统设计的角度对上市公司经营者持股问题进行了实证研究。通过考察实施经营者持股激励制度的我国A股上市公司2002年到2004年的业绩,本文发现,经营者持股金额与经营者年薪金额的比例是衡量持股激励强度的有效指标,该指标与股票报酬率呈线性正相关关系,与会计利润指标没有正相关关系。在上述公司中,董事长和总经理持股数量多的、高成长性的公司提高(长期)股票报酬率的效果更加明显。同时,本文的实证结果说明:如果持股数量能对经营者(特别是董事长和总经理)的个人利益有充分影响,经营者持股激励制度会以较低的成本达到较好的效果(公司股票报酬率显著较高)。     

Managerial Perceptions and the Essence of the Managerial World: What is an Interloper Business Executive to Make of the Academic‐Researcher Perceptions of Managers?

I argue that the Mezias and Starbuck (2003) research programme misses being managerially relevant by investigating the extent of perceptual inaccuracies among managers rather than the more valuable question of from where these inaccuracies arise and what their consequences are in practice. As a sometime business executive, it seems to me that the closer one gets to an actual managerial position, the less significant some of the explanations and recommendations in the academic research literature appear as regards managerial concerns. To ensure relevance in the managerial research enterprise, I suggest that academics should make concrete efforts to become reasonably conversant with the managerial world before undertaking any empirical research. I also make the point that the discussion of the Mode 2 approach to knowledge production in the management field needs to move away from the current focus on straightforwardly 'bridging the relevance gap' and toward finding ways to improve the competence of Mode 2 researchers by insisting on a minimum understanding of the managerial world before embarking on management research.     

Decision Making,Risk and Gender: Are Managers Different?

This paper explores differences in the nature of decisions taken by males and females. Women are playing an increasingly important role in business management and managers are ultimately tested and evaluated in terms of their success in making decisions. Consequently any difference in the character and quality of decisions taken by male and female managers will have important implications for organizations. This paper reviews the literature, and reports two pieces of empirical work which investigate the connections between gender and decision making. The decision-making characteristics of males and females in a ‘non-managerial’ population in which the majority of individuals have not undergone formal management education are contrasted with a ‘managerial’ population of potential and actual managers who have undertaken such education. It is argued that women are often excluded from managerial positions of authority and leadership due to stereotypes, which have been constructed by observing ‘non-managerial’ populations at large. The paper concludes, however, that these stereotypes may not apply to managers as in the ‘managerial’ sub-population males and females display similar risk propensity and make decisions of equal quality.     

区域性企业战略集团的划分与效率分析

战略集团理论是近年来在国际管理科学界兴起的一个研究热点。在理论和实践上,它对产业战略重组、企业竞争战略的选取等方面都具有较好的指导作用。通常意义下,人们都是从产业的整体角度去讨论战略集团的存在与划分问题。本文缩小了产业范围,对产业内的局部企业进行了分析,通过一个煤炭企业战略集团划分的实例,证明了现实的战略集团在区域性产业内的存在性。同时,本文还运用数据包络分析(DEA)技术进一步证明了在战略集团之间存在着明显的差异性。最后指出,战略集团的划分并结合企业效率的评价对整个产业或局部性产业内的企业重组具有较高的参考价值。     

On the folly of principal's power: Managerial psychology as a cause of bad incentives

Faulty and dysfunctional incentive systems have long interested, and frustrated, managers and organizational scholars alike. In this analysis, we pick up where Kerr (1975) left off and advance an explanation for why bad incentive systems are so prevalent in organizations. We propose that one contributing factor lies in the psychology of people who occupy managerial roles. Although designing effective incentive systems is a challenge wrought with perils for anyone, we believe the psychological consequences and correlates of higher rank within organizations make the challenge more severe for managers. Patterns of promotion and hiring typically yield managers that are more competent than their employees, and ascending to management positions increases individuals’ workload and power. In turn, these factors make managers more egocentrically anchored and cognitively abstract, while also reducing their available cognitive capacity for any given task, all of which we argue limits their ability to design effective incentives for employees. Thus, ironically, those with the power to design incentives may be those least able to effectively do so. We discuss four specific types of bad incentive systems that can arise from these psychological tendencies in managers: those that over-emphasize compensation, generate weak motivation, offer perverse motivation, or are misaligned with organizational culture.

“There is no doubt that in our society the superior/subordinate relationship—the hierarchy itself—is crucial in terms of motivation.” (Lawler, 1973, p. 7)

     

Key Issues in the Senior Female International Career Move: A Qualitative Study in a European Context

Research investigating the position of women in management has, largely, been confined within national boundaries. Over the last 15 years, empirical studies of women in international management have been undertaken, predominantly in North America. Overall, however, in this research field, many questions remain unanswered or have been only partially addressed. The particular focus of this study is on the senior female international managerial career move in Europe – a relatively unexplored area. Fifty senior female expatriate managers were interviewed, representing a wide range of industry and service sectors. The aims of the study were to develop an understanding of the senior female international career move in a European context in order to more fully understand both the covert and overt barriers that may limit women's international career opportunities. The results of the study show that the senior international career move has largely been developed along a linear male model of career progression, a development which, taken together with gender disparity both in organizations and family responsibilities, frequently prevents women employees from reaching senior managerial positions. The findings suggest that organizations which adopt a proactive approach to female expatriate managers should have a competitive advantage in the international environment.     

Reconstruction of decision-making behavior in shareholder and stakeholder theory: implications for management accounting systems

This paper focuses on two interrelated research questions. First, an analysis of managerial decision-making is incorporated into shareholder and stakeholder theory. Secondly, the paper investigates what consequences result for management accounting from inherent conceptions of managerial decision-making behavior. These research questions are based on assumptions of complex interrelationships among decision-making managers, management accountants, and techniques they employ. The findings of this research support that tenets of management accounting systems correspond best with shareholder theory. In doing so they apply financial measures, pursue the goal of profit maximization, and focus on decision-making behavior resulting from the agency relationship between shareholder and manager. Stakeholder theory, however, is fundamentally different from shareholder theory in terms of goals, management philosophy, relationships, behavioral assumptions etc. For these reasons differences with respect to managerial decision-making behavior are reasonable and different requirements related to management accounting systems appear appropriate.