Agent-based modeling in managerial science: an illustrative survey and study

This article provides an overview of the current state of agent-based modeling in managerial science. In particular, the aim is to illustrate major lines of development in agent-based modeling in the field and to highlight the opportunities and limitations of this research approach. The article employs a twofold approach: First, a survey on research efforts employing agent-based simulation models related to domains of managerial science is given which have benefited considerably from this research method. Second, an illustrative study is conducted in the area of management accounting research, a domain which, so far, has rarely seen agent-based modeling efforts. In particular, we introduce an agent-based model that allows to investigate the relation between intra-firm interdependencies, performance measures used in incentive schemes, and accounting accuracy. We compare this model to a study which uses both, a principal-agent model and an empirical analysis. We find that the three approaches come to similar major findings but that they suffer from rather different limitations and also provide different perspectives on the subject. In particular, it becomes obvious that agent-based modeling allows us to capture complex organizational structures and provides insights into the processual features of the system under investigation.     

Evaluating managerial personnel

A scaled concensus evaluation of personnel in several dimensions was achieved by random presentation of pairings to a rating group. Preferences shown by the raters were translated into linear programming constraints to obtain scores for the personnel which minimized inconsistencies among raters.     

Constructing managerial manoeuvring space in contradictory contexts

This paper discusses manoeuvring space and demonstrates how autonomy, power and discretion need to be understood as constructed and integrated behaviours where managers manoeuvre between dilemmas in their own management practices. Twenty-seven Norwegian police managers were shadowed and interviewed. We found that constructions of manoeuvring space presupposed that managers balanced dilemmas. We identified three different strategies through which managers constructed manoeuvring space by navigating between dilemmas and actively constructing demands and constraints. These strategies were (1) decoupling, (2) sensegiving and (3) strategic positioning. Our findings add to the managerial discretion literature, arguing that constructions of manoeuvring space are central to managers’ development and to how they create opportunities and possibilities to make choices that balance conflicting dilemmas in contradictory contexts.     

Coaching at the heart of managerial effectiveness: A cross-cultural study of managerial behaviours

This article considers the assessed performances of non-commissioned officers in aprogramme perceived as an important career enhancing activity for British military personnel. We introduce the idea of cognitive style as an important individual difference affecting performance on programmes of training and development and the implications for career progression. The research methodology adopted involved mixed methods as an alternative way of ‘seeing’, ‘researching’ and ‘theorising’ human resources development in this context. The research drew upon a mix of data from course participants and organizers, and it comprised cognitive style testing, within course assessment data and notes recorded during field observation. The results revealed relationships between the factors associated with ‘styles’, ‘assessed learning performance’ and ‘course experience’. Key perspectives on the experiences of training in terms of success and strategic direction were also identified. The study provides a deeper understanding of career-development processes in the military organization, considers the implications in which knowledge of an individual's style may have for the individual and course organizers and imports new theoretical frameworks into the study of human resource development.     

The managerial implications of networking

Recent years have shown a proliferation of publications about interaction and networks. All in all, these articles and books tend to focus on the formulation of theory and hypotheses. Despite the relevance of further development of theoretical thought, managers display more interest in scientifically-based recommendations with direct practical relevance. Wim Biemans presents the findings of an in-depth analysis of seventeen cases of new product development in the Dutch medical equipment industry by discussing eight critical success factors related to networking. He maintains that, while the existence of networks offers great opportunities to management, the practice of networking involves some serious potential pitfalls and problems as well. The conclusions are summarized by The Five C's of Innovation Management.“Marketing can be seen as relationship management: creating, developing, and maintaining a network in which the firm thrives”(Gummesson).     

Portfolio selection for managerial control

The paper formulates a decision problem where stocks are purchased to maximize the voting power of the portfolio. The statistic representing the voting power is derived from game theoretic solutions namely the “Shapley Value”. The tradeoff between the variance of the portfolio returns and the value of the voting power statistic is explicitly considered.     

Identifying managerial potential for manpower planning

This article describes the approach of a South African retail store organization to the problems of Manpower Planning, The emphasis is upon the assessment of potential using the Assessment Centre technique.     

Benchmarking airports from a managerial perspective

Benchmarking airports is currently popular both in the academic literature and in practice but has proved rather problematic due to the heterogeneity inherent in any reasonably sized dataset. Most studies either treat the airport production technology as a black box, or separate the terminal and airside activities, assessing them individually. In this article we analyze airports as a single unit due to the direct complementarities, thus avoiding the artificial separation of inputs. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), we open the black box in which a network describes the production process, thus demonstrating the sequential effects that separate final from intermediate outputs, including those under partial managerial control and those that are known to be non-discretionary. To further improve the benchmarking process, we identify appropriate peers for a case study of 43 European airports over 10 years, through a restricted reference mechanism according to pre-defined characteristics. Compared to basic DEA models, the results of the proposed structure provide more meaningful benchmarks with comparable peer units and target values that are potentially achievable in the medium term. By identifying each unit's individual reference set, unique outliers influence the performance measurement less severely than occurs under basic DEA. In addition, the formulations produce an implementation path that moves the airport towards the Pareto frontier gradually, taking into account the regulatory and business environment in which the unit is located.     

Information systems and managerial decision making

The role of an information system is to support managerial decision processes. Some of these processes can be completely specified in advance and, as long as the specification remains acceptable to management, resolution can be done automatically, within the framework of the information system. However, in other cases, managers are involved in all stages of the decision process, which cannot be completely specified in advance. The task of the information system in these cases is to provide information to the managers engaged in making the decisions. This paper considers these problems from the point of view of the information system designer and makes recommendations about design and implementation.     

A managerial approach to environmental assessment

The external environment of a corporation is one of the major determinants of its strategy. While this view is readily accepted, the tools to monitor this important determinant are still relatively underdeveloped. The authors have developed a managerial process which fills this gap by enabling an organization to assess its external environment effectively and economically. The approach helps executives identify major forces for strategic change in the market and non-market dimensions of the environment. The relevance of these changes is determined by measuring their impact on the mission and the strategies of the company. The process, furthermore, provides a starting point for assessing an organization's capabilities to respond to these forces for change.     

Econometric analysis and managerial decision making

Econometric analysis is concerned with the quantitative relationships between economic variables and it can provide an important input into the decision making process of managers. Typically econometrics differs from other apsects of management science in that it considers problems primarily, though not exclusively, from a background of economics rather than of other disciplines and behaviour is usually dealt with at higher levels of data aggregation than the individual firm.This paper considers some applications of typical econometrics to the general area of managerial decision making, where primarily the techniques have a role to play in assisting the general process of data analysis. Initially discussion is pointed towards the use of the analysis for predictive purposes and the contrast with time series methods. Subsequently examples are presented where the objective is to obtain a better understanding of individual economic relationships that aim to be important inputs into the decision making process, for example cost and revenue analysis. Finally, an example is given of how these ideas contribute more generally to the activity of model building for the firm as a whole both for the purpose of forecasting and policy simulation.     

A behavioural classification of managerial jobs

This article describes the aims, hypotheses, and first stage of a research project which seeks to compare some of the behavioural characteristics of managerial jobs, and to develop a typology of jobs on this basis. The criteria for selecting these characteristics and the different characteristics that are being explored are described. Management scientists may find that the research can provide them with a new perspective on the jobs of the managers with whom they work.     

A framework for optimizing managerial decision

There have been numerous attempts to analyze and formulate management problems within the general framework of Management Science and Operations Research, so as to help managers in their decision making problems. This paper focuses on the fundamental aspects of management decision making and introduces a conceptual framework in which problems of management and its different levels of functioning are systematically identified. Management problems are considered within two major categories: Enterprise and Operations problems. In spite of the difficulties in defining a clear-cut boundary between Enterprise and Operations problems, such a broad classification leads to three basic levels of management functioning, namely: Policy making, coordinating and implementation. The universal relationship among these three basic levels of functioning provides a basic functional element called the Management Triad. In contrast to classical higherarchial structure, triad structure provides a methodology to analyze relationships among different levels of management functions in terms of a given decision problem. It is demonstrated that for different decision making problems individuals can shift from one end of the triad to another and perform a different management function.A quantitative approach has been introduced for operations management decision making by adapting Shewhart's control chart philosophy which in turn provides for quasi-automated decisions for corrective action and also for filtering significant signals of change to appropriate management functioning levels.     

基于文献计量的大数据管理决策研究热点分析

传统的模型驱动的决策范式正在演变成大数据驱动的决策新范式,国家自然科学基金委员会于2015年启动了“大数据驱动的管理与决策研究”重大研究计划,以推动我国管理学领域大数据的基础研究.本文以重大研究计划资助的14个项目的文本信息,及2012年~2019年在51种管理类重要国际期刊上发表的近6000篇论文为基础,利用文本挖掘与文献计量方法,从词粒度和主题粒度展开比较分析,并对部分以大数据作为关键词的文献按研究方向进行分类分析.对比分析结果清晰地呈现出大数据驱动的研究在管理学领域的研究态势和创新脉络;剖析国内学者与国际领域主流关注的焦点与异同;揭示出大数据驱动的管理与决策方向上研究热点及其演化趋势,以及未来值得深入研究的一些科学问题.     

国外企业经营者报酬理论研究的新进展

企业经营者报酬在国外引起广泛的关注. 早期的主流学派代理理论集中于对报酬与业绩 的敏感性研究. 近期人力资本学派、劳动力市场学派和“企业组织”学派从经营者人力资本、经 理市场和企业组织特征等角度对企业经营者报酬理论又有新的发展. 未来的研究将通过注重 各种理论的融合,寻求经营者报酬的综合分析模型来推动这一领域研究的发展.     

Information processing in managerial decision making: A preliminary study

This paper reports the preliminary findings of an exploratory investigation into information processing in a managerial context. The vehicle for testing several research objectives was a laboratory decision-making experiment in which subjects purchased information items and evaluated a set of organizational goals. The methodology included multidimensional statistical methods that hold promise for dealing with the complexity of problems in implementing managerial decision models. Within a specific information-decision scenario, the statistical evidence favorably supports the existence of individual differences in information perception and information selection, and the use of goal preference hierarchies as predictors of information preferences.     

Behavioural determinants of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in Argentina

The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the perceptions of Argentinean managers and non-managerial employees about managerial and leadership effectiveness, and the extent to which the findings are generalized to other countries. The central research question addressed was as follows: How do people employed in Argentinean companies behaviourally distinguish effective managers from ineffective managers, and to what extent are the findings culture-specific or context-general? A total of 42 employees from private and public sector organizations in Cordoba, Argentina, were interviewed using critical incident technique. The interviews generated 302 critical incidents of which 155 were examples of positive (effective) managerial behaviour, and 147 of negative (ineffective) managerial behaviour. The findings suggest that Argentineans perceive as effective those managers who are supportive, considerate, motivating, caring, good decision makers, approachable, participative, fair-minded, communicative, actively involved, and who act as role models. This challenges the widely held belief that Argentineans prefer authoritarian managers over democratic ones.