Environmental Management — the European Way

While international agreements, international standards, and internationally operating companies have left behind the idea of national borders for environmental management issues, research is still lagging behind in describing developments in this area from an international perspective. The European Business Environmental Barometer (EBEB) is a quantitative survey of the state and development of environmental management in Europe and one of the first to regularly provide results on this issue at a European level. It covers topics such as perceived environmental impact, environmental stakeholders, corporate environmental activities, and environmental management (systems).The results presented in this article are drawn from the latest completed round of the EBEB during which data was gathered in 1997/98. The questionnaire-based survey includes information on more than 2,800 companies from the producing sector with 50 or more employees in 11 European countries.¹     

The Management Skills of Russians: Do Work,Management, and Government Experiences Matter?

This study examines the impacts of different types of experience on management skills of working adults in Russia. The study is based on a sample of 527 MBA students, line and middle managers covering 32 regions in 13 different industries in Russia. This study proves that work experience, management experience, and government experience are significant factors in their technical, human, and conceptual skills. Human skills scores are significantly higher for all groups than group with no management experience. Score for human skills increased with years of government experience only, but not with working or management years of experience.     

Risk Management and the Responsible Corporation: How Sweeping the Invisible Hand?

Although enterprise risk management (ERM) has many benefits for corporations, there has been virtually no discussion of the extent to which its practice may be said to constitute corporate social responsibility. This article presents a prima facie case for the convergence of the two and examines this case through a consideration of four possible objections or challenges. The conclusion of this article is a tempered optimism that ERM has the significant, but as yet untapped, potential to constitute socially responsible activity, which, if realized, would enable Adam Smith's invisible hand of the marketplace to have an expanded sweep.     

Similarity,Isomorphism or Duality? Recent Survey Evidence on the Human Resource Management Policies of Multinational Corporations

There is considerable debate as to the determinants of the human resource policies of human resource management: do they reflect national institutional or cultural realities, emerging common global practices, parent country effects or the dual effects of transnational and national realities? We use an extensive international database to explore these differences, assessing variations in a range of human resource practices. We find new evidence of national differences in the manner in which indigenous firms manage their people, but also evidence of a similarity in practice amongst multinational corporations. In other words, multinational corporations tend to manage their human resources in ways that are distinct from those of their host country; at the same time, country of origin effects seem relatively weak. Whilst there is some evidence of common global practices, sufficient diversity in practice persists to suggest that duality theories may provide the most appropriate explanation.     

Disrupting Management Research? Critical Reflections on British Journal of Management COVID-19 Research and an Agenda for the Future

Research interest in extreme contexts was growing before the COVID-19 pandemic and has intensified since. The climate crisis, significant geo-political conflict, political polarization and upheaval, and economic/financial crises that present existential challenges to organizations have all contributed to rising interest in extreme-context research. COVID-19 itself has generated an enormous body of research across all sub-fields of management. However, the substantive, methodological and conceptual implications of this large volume of research remain unclear. In this introduction to the British Journal of Management COVID-19 Online Virtual Issue, we describe and analyse COVID-19 research so far published in the British Journal of Management. The Journal was proactive in seeing the profound implications of COVID-19 for management research and practice, issuing an early call for contributions, and publishing several exploratory commentaries as early as July 2020. In this paper, we situate COVID-19 research within the broader extreme-context research, analyse contributions made so far, and build upon an extended taxonomy of extreme contexts to suggest ways for future research to generate further impactful insights.     

Entreprise Management in the USSR: is there a Productivity Drive?*

Abstract. According to some neo-institutional economists, the trade-off of perestroika is between the benefits of solving economic problems via institutional changes and the costs of upsetting the nomenklatura. The “sub-institutional” analysis shows instead a series of organizational adjustments of the productive system that can render this dilemma less pressing, provide Western financial aid increases. This aid will ease the social and political tensions of the transition much more than helping the start of a productivity drive in Soviet firms.     

‘Management Standards’ work-related stress in the UK: practical development

Research commissioned for the UK's Health & Safety Executive (HSE) supports the view that a preventative, risk-assessment based approach would be more effective than case-based methods in achieving a nationwide reduction in work-related stress. The background to this approach is described and discussed in a companion paper in this issue (Mackay, Cousins, Kelly, Lee, & McCaig, ). The present paper describes the development of HSE's new stress Management Standards—which offer organizations continuous improvement through a three-phase stress preventative process—and the development of a supporting ‘Indicator Tool’ (a two-phase questionnaire to assess employee perceptions of working conditions). The Management Standards comprise a series of ‘states to be achieved’, which are statements of good practice in six key stressor areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and organizational change. For each stressor area there is also a ‘platform statement’ that outlines the main aims to be achieved by the organization. This statement may include a target percentage of employees finding that the organization meets the standard: this matter will be settled after the standards have been assessed in a public consultation campaign. To use the new process, an organization's state can first be assessed using the Indicator Tool; liaising with workers in focus groups enables a further exploration of issues raised; finally, there may be formulation of interventions and subsequent review. It is not intended that the standards will be legally enforceable. HSE's aim is that they and the associated methodology will enable organizations to effectively tackle work-related stress, and subsequently reduce both its incidence and prevalence.     

What Should Be the Implications of Uncertainty,Variability, and Inherent “Biases”/“Conservatism” for Risk Management Decision-Making?

This paper is a challenge from a pair of lifelong technical specialists in risk assessment for the risk-management community to better define social decision criteria for risk acceptance vs. risk control in relation to the issues of variability and uncertainty. To stimulate discussion, we offer a variety of straw man proposals about where we think variability and uncertainty are likely to matter for different types of social policy considerations in the context of a few different kinds of decisions. In particular, we draw on recent presentations of uncertainty and variability data that have been offered by EPA in the context of the consideration of revised ambient air quality standards under the Clean Air Act.     

The Active Audience? Gurus,Management Ideas and Consumer Variability

This study draws on an active audience perspective to develop a better understanding of mass audiences' attraction towards popular management ideas. It focuses on audience members' own experiences and, in particular, what audience activities actually play a role in shaping mass attraction, and how the deployment of these activities may vary. Analysing 65 in‐depth interviews with management practitioners in their role as audience members of guru seminars, the authors identify different key consumption activities, and explain how individual management practitioners may shift in consumption orientation throughout the communication process. This paper argues that such a broader and more dynamic understanding of consumption activity is essential in understanding the success and impact of management ideas, and opens several fruitful research directions.     

Bending over Backwards? Using a Pluralistic Framework to Explore the Management of Flexible Working in the UK Police Service

Professional reduced-hours working is a form of flexible working that runs counter to the increasing trend of employer-led flexibility, and exemplifies the rise of the so-called 'idiosyncratic' employment deal. Although an emerging body of literature, there is evidence to suggest that despite the claim that professional reduced-hours working provides 'better' part-time employment than usually typifies this pattern, it actually confers considerable costs to both individuals and organizations. Some academics have called for a more strategic approach to the introduction and management of professional reduced-hours working, in order to combat these problems. Utilizing a pluralistic perspective on the employment relationship, I draw on data from research in three metropolitan UK police forces to argue that the needs of the part-time employee and the organization will be difficult to integrate. Showing how the negotiation context of the employment relationship has changed and resulted in a power shift from the manager to the part-timer, I argue that the best that can be achieved is a minimal integration of the needs of both parties, and draw out the theoretical and practical implications of this position.     

Human Resource Management： A Case Study of the Air Traffic Controller Strike in 1981

The article discusses several hemispheres of human resource management based on a typical case review. The study presents the main problems of the case from both employees and organizations; the issued problems involve compensa- tions and benefits, restructuring, job design, and training. Based on the analysis of the ease, two alternative solutions state that the potential routes for the organizations to avoid serious negative results. The study intreduces a number of recommen- dations that can be used as a reference for other organizations to avoid similar risks.     

‘Management Standards’ and work-related stress in the UK: policy background and science

In the late 1990s, the Health and Safety Commission, as the lead authority in the UK responsible for Health and Safety at Work, conducted an extensive consultation exercise to elicit views about how work-related stress should be tackled. The Commission subsequently decided that regulation was not justified and opted for an approach with four strands. One of these was to work with stakeholders to develop clear, agreed standards of good management practice. This paper describes and discusses the rationale behind a standards-based approach that is essentially based on a method of controlling hazards. The Management Standards approach uses a taxonomy of six stressors that has evolved out of extensive research carried out on behalf of the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and in conjunction with stakeholders, and a three-phase risk assessment methodology. Further developmental work on the standards (which are to be subjected to public consultation) and associated measurement tools is described in a companion paper in this issue of Work & Stress (Cousins, Mackay, Clarke, Kelly, Kelly, & McCaig, ). The emphasis is on prevention towards reducing stress in the UK working population. We review current thinking on models of work stress, consider evidence linking workplace psychosocial factors and various health and organizational outcomes, and examine the effectiveness of organizational interventions. We argue that the literature supports an approach that aims to move organizational states (represented by the current situation) to more desirable ones (represented by the six Management Standards), and that this is an effective ‘population’ based approach to tackling workplace stress and promoting individual and organizational health.     

So, what's the problem?

Medical care presents complex problems to physician executives--thoughtful problem definition is a crucial management task. Without understanding the context, cultures, bottom line implications, and personal relevance, problem definition is incomplete and problem resolution may be inadequate or inappropriate. If our choices are complex, some of the difficulty may lie in our understanding of the problem. Until we have properly defined the problem, we can't act to resolve it. We need to step back, reframe the issue, ask if it feels right, and understand the whole story, not just the situation at hand. The tests of an organized story are coherence, direction, meaning, and implication. These should be perceptible both as individual attributes and as a whole. The purpose of such a story is not the resolution of the problem, but a coherent understanding of the direction to be taken. When the diagnostic work-up is complete, the next step can begin.