The new class of chief executive officer

This article summarizes the results of research into the ways in which environmental forces are changing the management task of chief executive officers of large corporations. The article comments on the changing business environment; on the time spent by managers on environmental forces; changes in the basic strategies of managers concerned with major social and political environmental forces; the characteristics which chief executive officers believe their successors must have to be effective managers; major ways in which the impact of environment on the CEO is changing the infra-structure and decision-making process; and, finally, a brief look at the future.     

Integration of project management,human resource development,and business teams: a partnership,planning model for organizational training and development initiatives

The changing business environment has challenged organizations to explore unique ways to ensure the success of online training initiatives. Thus, project teams, including training managers, should not only support organizational training and development initiatives; but, they also need to use project-focused, planning models for implementation. This paper proposes a model that is an extension of the model for business and training partnership developed by Price. The proposed model includes the integration of project management, human resource development (HRD), and business teams in order to enhance the success of training implementations through a sequential, planned framework. The model includes phases, best practices, and supporting tools to assist in managing and administering training and development projects. The approach developed in this research includes an account of the activities associated with initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing processes for an online training initiative conducted in an oil and gas organization. This research also discusses implications of the proposed model for HRD professionals, because they are typically the champion of training and development initiatives within organizations today.     

Top management support for management science

Two aspects of the relation between top managers and in-house management science units are considered in this paper. First, the impact of top management sponsorship and support on the progress and success of management science (MS) activities is considered. Secondly, the impact that an MS activity has had on the thinking and activities of top managers is discussed. The question of the role of the “professional” in an organization and the implications for client-professional perceptions of trust as these are influenced by the top manager are explored. Top management awareness and utilization of the management sciences are also reviewed.     

Cognitive and interpersonal abilities related to the primary activities of R&D managers

This study attempted to identify the primary activities performed by R&D managers at different supervisory levels, and the cognitive and interpersonal ability requirements that underlie these activities. A task inventory containing 244 managerial tasks was completed by 117 R&D managers in nine organizations. The 48 tasks which managers rated as having spent the most time were factor analyzed, resulting in the identification of three primary activities: project management, personnel supervision, and strategic planning. Furthermore, these activities varied with supervisory level, with R&D managers performing a wider range of these activities with the progression from first-line to upper-level management.Thirty R&D managers later rated the degree to which 19 cognitive and interpersonal abilities were required for performing these primary activities. Strategic planning was rated as requiring significantly higher levels of oral expression, logical reasoning, originality, fluency of ideas, oral defense, and resistance to premature judgement than was required for the other two primary activities. Personnel supervision required a higher level of social sensitivity than was required for the other two activities. Project management required high levels of information ordering, oral fact- finding ability, problem sensitivity, and oral and written comprehension. Implications of the findings for understanding R&D managerial performance and personnel staffing functions are discussed.     

Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept

This article presents projects as powerful strategic weapons, initiated to create economic value and competitive advantage. It suggests that project managers are the new strategic leaders, who must take on total responsibility for project business results. Defining and assessing project success is therefore a strategic management concept, which should help align project efforts with the short- and long-term goals of the organization. While this concept seems simple and intuitive, there is very little agreement in previous studies as to what really constitutes project success. Traditionally, projects were perceived as successful when they met time, budget, and performance goals. However, many would agree that there is more to project success than meeting time and budget. The object of this study was to develop a multidimensional framework for assessing project success, showing how different dimensions mean different things to different stakeholders at different times and for different projects. Given the complexity of this question, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and two data sets were used. The analysis identified four major distinct success dimensions: (1) project efficiency, (2) impact on the customer, (3) direct business and organizational success, and (4) preparing for the future. The importance of the dimensions varies according to time and the level of technological uncertainty involved in the project. The article demonstrates how these dimensions should be addressed during the project’s definition, planning, and execution phases, and provides a set of guidelines for project managers and senior managers, as well as suggestions for further research.     

Understanding managers' preferences for internal markets versus business planning: A comparative study of German and U.S. managers

Internal markets and centralized business planning are alternative organizational designs for coordinating the economic activities within a firm. While some preliminary theory about when to use each exists in the literature, little is known about how managers understand and decide when to use one or the other. The study develops and tests in samples of German and U.S. managers a preliminary theory about factors that influence the preferences of managers for internal markets or planning as alternative modes of coordination. Managers' preferences are influenced by key constructs of internal markets and planning theory (the perceived limits of planning, speed and efficiency of markets, motivation potential of markets), but also by differences in their institutional contexts (national government and business context, company culture, and recent company experience with planning and internal markets). The study is the first to explore the substitutability of internal markets and planning within the strategic decision process of managers, closer to where it becomes reality.     

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.     

Selecting managers for cross-border assignments: building value into the process

Selecting cross-border managers simply by relying on an assessment of technical competence, isolated and domestic management success as well as perceived commitment to the organization has become inadequate. Multiple value orientations associated with cross-cultural business performance need to be examined as an integral part of the selection process. Value orientations associated with cultural identity, cross-border business focus and personal and professional development, are missing from and need to be taken into consideration when selecting managers for cross-border assignments.
A cross-cultural manager typology is developed, which identifies four cross-border manager 'types'. These 'types' are described as (1) transnationalist, (2) internationalist, (3) ethnocentrist and (4) transitionalist. The implications of these 'types' for the selection of cross-border managers are then explored within the context of, and interplay between, three value orientations. First, how and why managers value their cultural identity. Secondly, how and why managers value involvement in cross-border business activity. Finally, how these two value orientations are better understood based upon personal and professional development.     

Conflict of values— the central strategy problem

There is growing evidence that the central strategy question for business is no longer ‘what business are you in?’ but‘why are you in business?’ The traditional answers to this question—‘to make profits’, ‘to grow’ and ‘to give an adequate return to the shareholder’, are all being questioned. In their place others are being suggested—‘to provide satisfying jobs’, ‘to help solve social problems’, ‘to assist in urban and regional development’.In this article, Bernard Taylor suggests that the conflict between business goals and social goals has become the central strategy problem. Business enterprises like other organizations tend to develop their own distinctive sub-cultures with their own value systems which may differ markedly from the values accepted in society generally. The more effective the selection, training and reward systems, the more these business values will be reinforced.But this can lead to difficulties when society begins to reject business values in favour of other social goals; particularly at a time when the power and autonomy of management is being challenged and Corporate Planning is being transformed from an internal dialogue between managers at headquarters and managers in divisions into an open debate involving public servants, employees and self-appointed representatives of community interests.     

Cultural Values of Indian Managers: An Exploration through Unstructured Interviews

The present research addressed and explored the cultural values that Indian managers may apply in their business activities. Criticisms of research in this area include the use of Western theories and methods that may ignore cultural factors. The present study sought to overcome this concern by using unstructured interviews to collect qualitative data. This approach allowed for exploration of value diversity and contextual influences, which both tend to characterize Indian organizational behavior. Results suggested evidence of cultural values such as yogic spirituality, non-attachment, interconnectedness with others, nonviolence, tolerance, and a sense of duty. Some respondents however espoused values in direct opposition to the traditional culture. The managers in this sample also largely espoused the use of participative management and employee empowerment. Results are discussed with regard to current literature. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The influence of organizational identification on organizational knowledge management (KM)

Information technology (IT) outsourcing vendor organizations contain isolated business units whose creation and sustenance greatly facilitate business operations. But they also introduce important challenges for organizational knowledge management (KM). In this paper, based on 7 months of intensive field-work at India Inc., a leading Indian IT firm, we looked at how members’ identification with two organizations, their own and their client organization, influences their compliance with an organizational KM initiative. The findings show that members have difficulties in complying with the expectations of the organizational KM initiative owing to a stronger identification with their client organizations. At the same time, they comply readily with KM initiatives at the business unit level. The findings show that KM managers at India Inc. use the help of middle level managers in the business units in their efforts to improve members’ compliance with organizational KM. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.     

人工智能时代企业管理变革的逻辑与分析框架

人工智能作为社会发展和技术创新的产物,已经成为新一轮科技创新和产业变革的核心驱动力,正在对世界经济、社会进步和人民生活产生极其深刻的影响。人工智能的商业应用会改变企业内部运作和生产经营的过程,为企业管理带来了诸多挑战和变革机遇。本文结合人工智能的特征与发展趋势,从管理对象、管理属性、管理决策和管理伦理四个方面对人工智能时代企业管理变革的逻辑进行了梳理,得出如下推论:第一,人工智能时代,被管理者将出现越来越多的"人工智能员工",以"社会人"为中心的管理理论和管理手段的适用性降低,如何管理"人工智能员工"以及协调人类员工与智能机器人的关系将对管理者提出挑战;第二,人工智能时代,管理属性不仅包括管理理论的科学性、管理实践的艺术性,还包括管理过程的技术性;第三,人工智能时代,将出现一批优秀的技术管理者,此时,技术管理者指的不是管理技术的人,而是掌握智能技术的管理者;第四,人工智能时代,管理者的决策环境得到优化,管理活动中的决策准则将由"满意决策"过渡为"最优决策";第五,人工智能时代,管理手段的智能化发展可能会加剧管理效率和管理伦理的冲突,管理者必须提升管理道德,经营过程中强化社会责任的履行;第六,随着人工智能技术发展,政府、社会团体和行业协会有必要从政策、法律与行业标准等多个方面构建人工智能发展伦理的多层次约束机制。     

Anxiety, Politics and Critical Management Education

The focus of this paper is a discussion of anxiety and politics as they relate to business school pedagogy. Using ideas from critical management education (CME), the paper explores why and how to engage with the anxiety mobilized through attempts to learn. The aim is to discuss emotional and political dynamics that are generated, and too often avoided, in management education. Making these dynamics overt in the classroom can help managers to comprehend the political context within which management takes place. Examples informed by CME are presented, as well as reflections from the author on the anxiety and politics that emerge for the critical management educator in a business school context. The contribution in the paper is to show the way that anxieties and politics within the business school classroom offer opportunities to change how business schools approach the teaching of managers. CME adds value to management education because it challenges what and how individuals and groups expect to learn, and consequently it challenges assumptions about how learning takes place within business schools. Such challenges are seen as an important and integral part of 'making the business school more critical'.     

Crossing international cultural boundaries in business using common contingency frameworks

This paper discusses situation-specific contingency processes used by managers and business educators in handling such (1) common cross-boundary links or frameworks and (2) significant cross-boundary differences — two seemingly divergent aspects of cross-cultural management situations. This paper is based on the authors' conducting business training programs (focusing mainly on free market planning and management and on advanced computer technologies) for Asian and Russian/Central European business managers and graduate business students. It is also based on their research work done while investigating investment opportunities and in consulting in these countries over the past seven years.     

Corporate expatriate career development

Western business expatriates assigned to Hong Kong responded to a mail survey regarding availability and usage of corporate career development activities. Despite the strategic need for expatriation, it was found that corporate development activities had a low availability indicating little interest on the part of parent organizations to assist in the development of expatriate careers. Large-size parent organizations, with substantial interests in international business operations, generally provide more expatriate career development assistance as opposed to small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer resources and little experience to cater to such needs. Experienced expatriate managers generally use more career development activities than less experienced managers, which could pose a problem for the procurement and advancement of new generations of expatriate managers. Implications of these findings for managers and their employers are discussed in detail.     

On the strategic project management process in the UK upstream oil and gas sector

This paper reports on an investigation into strategic project management in the UK upstream oil and gas sector. The management process is represented by a set of elements which covers context, content and output and are balanced across financial, internal business, external environment, and learning and innovation perspectives. The paper uncovers elements that appear to explain successful project management and compares these with the elements to which managers pay greatest attention. There appears to be a mismatch between those elements which are associated with success and those receiving significant management attention.     

SELF-SAMPLING: A UNIQUE AND EFFECTIVE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Self-sampling, which is similar to work sampling, is a measurement technique where participants categorize their own activities. The ratio of observations in an activity category to the total observations provides an estimator of the population proportion of time spent on that category of activity. This paper summarizes how self-sampling works and describes an example involving business school faculty.     

The Effects of Personality and Management Role on Perceived Values in Business Settings

This paper examines the effects ofpersonality variables and functional management role,either entrepreneur, manager in an entrepreneurialfirm, manager in a traditional firm, or small businessowner, on perceived business values. Functionalmanagement role had minimal discernible effects;personality variables differentiated entrepreneursfrom managers and produced many effects for ratings ofbusiness values. Results are discussed in terms ofMBTI and DISC theoretical constructs and theirimplications for entrepreneurship and management.     

The impact of organisational politics and trust in the top management team on strategic decision implementation success: A middle-manager's perspective

The implementation of strategic decisions is a complex and demanding process that requires an open and lateral communication of free-flowing information to make sense of and champion a firm's intended changes. For the process to be effective, middle managers need to operate within an environment that nurtures a pro-social mindset and helps to cope with stressors caused by the possibility of harm done by the intended changes to their vested interests. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, we argue that organisational politics represent an organisational demand, which may hinder the implementation of strategic decisions. To cope with this demand, implementers recruit organisational resources (i.e. trust in the top management team) that may moderate the negative effects of dysfunctional politics. To test our hypotheses, we drew on a sample of 228 middle managers from 114 private Greek firms with more than 100 employees across various industries. We found that when organisational politics were high during the implementation process, implementation success diminished. However, their negative impact was reduced when trust in the top management team was high. Conversely, when organisational politics were low, middle managers reported a higher implementation success regardless of how highly the top management team was trusted. Our study is the first to test the influence of organisational politics on the success of the implementation process from a middle manager's perspective. In addition, we show that implementation success can be viewed through a demands-resources lens, which provides a meaningful contribution to research on strategy implementation.     

Managing business portfolios in German companies

This study analyzes the behavior of top managers in managing their firms' business portfolios. A review of the existing literature provides a conceptual framework for a research design combining quantitative and qualitative techniques. Data were collected through interviews with 35 top managers of well-known German business firms and the findings of this study translated into guidelines for managers. The results suggest that successful top managers should be concerned with the social relationships and management processes within the corporate office, as well as with their use of management concepts in managing the business portfolio.