A meta-analysis of humble leadership: Reviewing individual,team, and organizational outcomes of leader humility

Humility is a concept grounded in a self-view that something greater than oneself exists. A multitude of disciplines to date have sought to understand how humility impacts leaders, as well as the individuals, teams, and organizations they lead. Despite overlapping research questions, methodologies, and empirical contexts, studies examining leader humility have developed largely in isolation with little overlap between fields. This has created a fundamental divide between micro and macro researchers who suggest that humility is conceptualized as both a mutable behavioral state and a stable leader trait, respectively. We provide a systematic review of research on leader humility at multiple organizational levels of analysis to provide linkages across disciplinary and theoretical divides. We couple our systematic review with a meta-analysis of 212 unique studies, identifying 99 estimates for the relationships between leader humility and numerous individual, team, and organizational variables. Among all variables, we find humble leadership most strongly predicts followers’ satisfaction with the leader and the leaders’ participative decision making. We also find humble leadership does not affect their own job performance or the performance of organizations, but improves the performance of their followers and teams. Building on our results, we call for research across academic disciplines.     

8 Organizations and Management in China

Abstract

China’s economic transition and its integration into the global economy have been widely recognized as among the most important social changes in the past three decades. This transformation has attracted scholarly attention from multiple disciplines, and sociologists have made particularly important contributions to literature emphasizing theories of organizations, organizational change, and management practice. In this article, we present a critical review of the state of sociological literature on organization and management issues in the transition process. We focus on studies that explore how organizations shaped the trajectory of China’s economic transition, how organizations affect important social and economic outcomes during transition, and the unique challenges that managers face in China’s transition context. We conclude with suggestions for resolving central debates and future research directions.     

Essential Micro‐foundations for Contemporary Business Operations: Top Management Tangible Competencies,Relationship‐based Business Networks and Environmental Sustainability

Although various studies have emphasized linkages between firm competencies, networks and sustainability at organizational level, the links between top management tangible competencies (TMTCs) (e.g. contemporary relevant quantitative‐focused education such as big data analytics and data‐driven applications linked with the internet of things, relevant experience and analytical business applications), relationship‐based business networks (RBNs) and environmental sustainability have not been well established at micro‐level, and there is a literature gap in terms of investigating these relationships. This study examines these links based on the unique data collected from 175 top management representatives (chief executive officers and managing directors) working in food import and export firms headquartered in the UK and New Zealand. Our results from structural equation modelling indicate that TMTCs are the key determinants for building RBNs, mediating the correlation between TMTCs and environmental sustainability. Directly, the competencies also play a vital role towards environmental practices. The findings further depict that relationship‐oriented firms perform better compared to those which focus less on such networks. Consequently, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the micro‐foundations of environmental sustainability based on TMTCs rooted in the resource‐based view and RBNs entrenched in social network theory. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings, and we provide suggestions for future research.     

Hawthorne revisited: Organizational implications of the physical work environment

The influence of the Hawthorne studies on the field of Organizational Behavior is pervasive. Originally intended to demonstrate the effect of the physical work environment on worker productivity, the Hawthorne studies reached an unexpected conclusion that social relations, but not the physical environment, shape organizational outcomes, spawning an enormously generative social relations movement. This chapter attempts to revisit the conclusions of the Hawthorne studies and revitalize interest in influences of physical work environments on diverse organizational outcomes. We do so by reviewing recent research in related disciplines suggesting that concrete physical constructs, such as light and darkness, are not only features of the physical environment, but also important psychological foundations for abstract understanding. We discuss how findings in metaphor and embodied cognition can illuminate our understanding of how, why, and when features of the physical work environment, such as illumination, temperature, and space may shape organizational behavior.     

The Social Lives of Products: Analyzing Product Demography for Management Theory and Practice

Abstract

Despite the centrality of products in many strategic and managerial theoretical frameworks, little is known systematically about how and why specific products come and go from markets. We argue that narrowing this gap will likely enhance management theory, and we propose that research on product demography—the social lives of products—is a promising way to proceed. For organizing various theoretical ideas used in prior studies, we offer a classification framework. It defines four broad theoretical perspectives on product demography: market rationality, firm rationality, organizational bounded rationality, and institutional rationality. We also outline an approach to product demography that studies empirically the rates of product launch, growth, and withdrawal using stochastic models and data on all products ever appearing in bounded industrial domains. Finally, we discuss the challenges presented by such a fragmented approach to research on product demography and propose a generic research program intended to avoid stagnation.     

Advancing national human resource development research: suggestions for multilevel investigations

National human resource development (NHRD) is now an important area of investigation within human resource development with significant growth in publications over 49 years. Scholars have, however, highlighted the need for multilevel approaches to NHRD. We reviewed 192 papers to identify gaps on multilevel theorizing, and we propose a multilevel framework incorporating macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis. We develop principles and guidelines around WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY questions to promote multilevel NHRD research. Finally, we discuss research and methodological implications of our review.     

Cognition and Capabilities: A Multi-Level Perspective

Research on managerial cognition and on organizational capabilities has essentially developed in two parallel tracks. We know much from the resource-based view about the relationship between capabilities and organizational performance. Separately, managerial cognition scholars have shown how interpretations of the environment shape organizational responses. Only recently have scholars begun to link the two sets of insights. These new links suggest that routines and capabilities are based in particular understandings about how things should be done, that the value of these capabilities is subject to interpretation, and that even the presence of capabilities may be useless without managerial interpretations of their match to the environment. This review organizes these emerging insights in a multi-level cognitive model of capability development and deployment. The model focuses on the recursive processes of constructing routines (capability building blocks), assembling routines into capabilities, and matching capabilities to perceived opportunities. To date, scholars have focused most attention on the organizational-level process of matching. Emerging research on the microfoundations of routines contributes to the micro-level of analysis. The lack of research on capability assembly leaves the field without a bridge connecting the macro and micro levels. The model offers suggestions for research directions to address these challenges.     

The role of HRD in bridging the research-practice gap: the case of learning and development

ABSTRACT

An enduring challenge for HRD is ensuring academic research achieves impact on professional practice. We have located this research within debates about the research-practice gap. To investigate this challenge, we analyse case studies of academic impact from all disciplines submitted to the United Kingdom’s 2014 research assessment exercise (REF 2014). We found that Learning and Development was a primary focus of significant number of impact case studies submitted across all disciplines compared to other areas of HR and HRD. We also found that Learning and Development was a key path to Impact. These findings reveal that Learning and Development in a work context plays a pivotal role in helping researchers irrespective of discipline achieve impact. Our findings therefore speak to the research-practice gap across academia. We conclude by considering the potential role for HRD in generating impact.     

MNE dynamic capabilities in (un)related diversification

While we know that dynamic capabilities (DCs) are important for multinational enterprises (MNEs), little is known about the multiple DCs they may exercise and how they configure the DCs to support their related or unrelated diversification activities. Our qualitative empirical case study findings illuminate how an MNE does so. We confirm that DCs rest on the ostensive microfoundations that encompass the three principal DC processes of sensing opportunities, seizing opportunities and transforming resources. Furthermore, we explicate their performative microfoundations. We reveal that for all the DCs, performative microfoundations of sensing include information gathering and strategic analysis. The performative microfoundations of seizing include a capacity to experiment, then formulating a course of actions. Finally, the microfoundations of transforming include resource structuring, then capability renewal (for unrelated diversification) or capability improvement (for related diversification), and capability implementation. While the process flow of ostensive microfoundations is uniform across DCs, the transforming process flow of performative microfoundations differs for related and unrelated diversification activities. Alongside evidencing the different exploitative/explorative learning and involvement of lower/top-level management associated with the DCs supporting related/unrelated diversification activities respectively, we foreground DCs' configurational nature and extend the IB DC literature on MNE diversification and DCs' microfoundations.     

Knowledge sharing for innovation performance improvement in micro/SMEs: an insight from the creative sector

Abstract

As economies become more reliant on innovative, knowledge-intensive firms, understanding the interaction between knowledge and improving innovation performance is increasingly important. Although most UK businesses are micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (micro/SMEs), knowledge management research has tended to focus on large companies Knowledge sharing can be critical for innovation performance, especially for smaller players with limited resources. Our study presents an insight from micro/SMEs operating in the highly knowledge-intensive and innovative games/entertainment software development sector. Using a mixed method approach, we investigate knowledge sharing and its contribution to firm innovation performance improvements. Our findings suggest that micro/SMEs are at the forefront of the creative sector precisely because of their smaller size. Our study reveals evidence of knowledge donation but limited evidence of knowledge collection in the knowledge sharing process. We develop a model highlighting the importance of industry context, individual knowledge and organizational size in knowledge sharing for innovation performance.     

12 Structural Equation Modeling in Management Research: A Guide for Improved Analysis

Abstract

A large segment of management research in recent years has used structural equation modeling (SEM) as an analytical approach that simultaneously combines factor analysis and linear regression models for theory testing. With this approach, latent variables (factors) represent the concepts of a theory, and data from measures (indicators) are used as input for statistical analyses that provide evidence about the relationships among latent variables. This chapter first provides a brief introduction to SEM and its concepts and terminology. We then discuss four issues related to the measurement component of such models, including how indicators are developed, types of relationships between indicators and latent variables, approaches for multidimensional constructs, and analyses needed when data from multiple time points or multiple groups are examined. In our second major section, we focus on six issues related to the structural component of structural equation models, including how to examine mediation and moderation, dealing with longitudinal and multilevel data, issues related to the use of control variables, and judging the adequacy of models and latent variable relationships. We conclude with a set of recommendations for how future applications of SEM in management research can be improved.     

Why management professors (should) teach ethics in the classroom

This article explains in comprehensive macro and micro terms why business management professors teach or should be teaching ethics as part of their classroom subject matter. Ten different perspectives, starting with transcendental and global, and ending with departmental and individual, are presented in convincing fashion. Ethics is an extremely popular topic today inside and outside of business schools. This article summarizes why; and it attempts to encourage professors who are not yet a part of the new environmental-ethical era of the 1990s to join the movement.     

International venture capital research: From cross-country comparisons to crossing borders

Venture capital (VC) has become an international phenomenon, and VC firms are a specific kind of service firm whose characteristics have distinctive implications for international behaviour. There is now a disparate body of research on international aspects of VC across a number of disciplines comprising finance, economics, strategy, entrepreneurship, international business and economic geography. A novel aspect of this paper is that we review and synthesize this disparate literature. A number of research gaps and limitations in the theoretical and methodological approaches involved in previous studies are identified and suggestions made for further research. We show that the vast majority of the literature relates to cross-country comparisons; that is, macro-level comparisons of VC industries across different countries and micro-level comparisons of VC behaviour across countries. From our review of the literature, we argue that an under-researched area concerns the influence of institutional contexts, especially the role of social networks and cultures. Furthermore, our review of the literature indicates that there is a major research gap in relation to work dealing with the crossing of country borders by VC firms. We suggest that resource-based, capabilities, institutional and network theories may be offer insights to further our understanding of the behaviour of VC firms in this area.     

INTEGRATED OPERATIONS: A PROPOSAL FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEACHING AND RESEARCH

This paper, addressed to professors of operations management (om) in research institutions, suggests that the long-term academic viability of our discipline requires the generation of a theory uniquely associated with the practice of OM. Such a theory will rest on foundations laid by other disciplines, but must find its own unique synthesis that attends to the problems of OM practice. The paper proposes a framework that recognizes physics, social psychology and philosophy as foundational disciplines for an integrative theoryof OM and suggests which concepts from those disciplines may find voice in such a theory.     

Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art

Abstract

For the last 30 years a growing number of scholars and practitioners have been experimenting with concepts and models that facilitate our understanding of the complexities of today’s business challenges. Among these, “stakeholder theory” or “stakeholder thinking” has emerged as a new narrative to understand and remedy three interconnected business problems—the problem of understanding how value is created and traded, the problem of connecting ethics and capitalism, and the problem of helping managers think about management such that the first two problems are addressed. In this article, we review the major uses and adaptations of stakeholder theory across a broad array of disciplines such as business ethics, corporate strategy, finance, accounting, management, and marketing. We also evaluate and suggest future directions in which research on stakeholder theory can continue to provide useful insights into the practice of sustainable and ethical value creation.     

创业研究回顾与展望

创业实践因新兴技术驱动的经济社会环境变革而发生了重大变化,涌现出了不少组织和战略理论甚至是创业研究也难以回答的新现象和新问题,这些现象和问题在中国情境下表现得非常突出,但并没有引起学者们的足够重视。基于此,本文采用扎根理论的编码设计,开展2008~2018年间发表的1842篇国际顶级创业研究文献的统计分析,在描述和评价研究主题发展态势和进展基础上,归纳出以创业前因、创业实施、创业结果与创业情境为体系的创业研究主题框架,进一步提出未来研究趋势和中国情境下开展创业研究的建议。研究结果对于推动我国创业研究的深化发展并开展具有国际学术影响力的高水平研究有着重要的理论价值。     

History in Organization and Management Theory: More Than Meets the Eye

Abstract

There has been a growing debate about the role of history in management research with several authors making suggestions on how to bring the two (back) together and others even highlighting the need for a “historic turn”. What we argue in this paper is that, while history was indeed sidelined by the scientization of management since the late 1950s, it started to make a comeback from the 1980s onwards and is increasingly employed in a number of research programs. We stress that the crucial question for management scholars engaging with history (or wanting to do so) is how it relates to theory. First of all, we present a systematic overview of the way history has been used—both at the micro (organizational) and macro-levels of analysis—distinguishing between what we refer to as “history to theory” and “history in theory”. In the former, we consider those research programs, such as (neo-)institutionalism, where history serves as evidence to develop, modify or test theories. In the case of “history in theory” we identify research programs where history or the past are part of the theoretical model itself as a driver or moderator, with “imprinting” as a prime example. Second, we also identify a growing number of studies that go further by displaying what we call “historical cognizance” in the sense of incorporating period effects or historical contingencies into their theorizing efforts. Finally, drawing on our broad overview, we make more specific suggestions for increasing the visibility and influence of history in organization and management theory.     

On Reinventing OBM

Abstract

This article comments on an argument in favor of a change in OBM's content and focus to include certain empirical findings and theoretical constructs derived from fields like Cognitive and Social Psychology. Specifically, the argument suggests that personal beliefs such as optimism, self-efficacy, and response-efficacy are influential determinants of behavior that give rise to achievement motivation and a success-seeking typology. By incorporating such constructs into OBM, it is suggested that the field will better align itself with related disciplines sharing the goal of promoting personal success, thereby enhancing its performance-improvement toolkit and fostering greater recognition and acceptance for itself within mainstream Psychology. After summarizing key aspects of this argument, this paper identifies certain of its associated challenges and then presents some specific strategies by which the OBM community can chart a future course for the field.     

The Hype and Hope of Interdisciplinary Management Studies

Demand for multi-, if not interdisciplinary, research is currently strong, especially from funding bodies. But it often leaves little more than a shrill echo within the corridors of management departments and business schools. Academic respectability still seems to remain with the single disciplinary approach of economics, finance, sociology, etc. and also increasingly with those management subjects such as marketing, human-resource management or operations research that depend upon other social sciences for their existence, although the latter have considerable difficulty in gaining recognition and respect from those in the disciplines from which they draw their theoretical inspiration. As academics struggle to find ways of bridging their separate and distinct disciplines, practitioner divisions are being questioned and eroded as they are increasingly regarded as dysfunctional in achieving the flexibility and speedy responses demanded of the modern corporation. This paper seeks to develop an analytical understanding of the obstacles to the development of interdisciplinary research and teaching in management.     

Decision Sciences Research in China: A Critical Review and Research Agenda—Foundations and Overview*

This article focuses on decision sciences research in China, providing an overview of current research and developing a foundation for future China‐based research. China provides a unique research opportunity for decision sciences researchers, owing to its recent history, rapid economic development, and strong national culture. We examine recent economic reforms and their impact on the development of research questions in the decision sciences, as well as discuss characteristics of the diverse regions in China and their potential as sites for various types of research. We provide a brief overview of recent China‐based research on decision sciences issues relating to national culture, supply chain management, quality management, production planning and control, operations strategy, and new product development and discuss some of the unique methodological challenges inherent in China‐based research. We conclude by looking forward to emerging research opportunities in China.