Field Research Practice in Management and Organization Studies: Reclaiming its Tradition of Discovery

This review reasserts field research's discovery epistemology. While it occupies a minority position in the study of organization and management, discovery-oriented research practice has a long tradition of giving insight into new, unappreciated and misappreciated processes that are important to how work is accomplished. I argue that while methods discourse has long emphasized that particularizing data and an emergent research design are productive for discovery, little to no attention has been paid to the conjectural processes necessary to imaginatively interpret these observations. I underscore them. What is the future for discovery work in business schools today? Issues arise when an increasing interest in discovery-oriented research is expressed in an institutional context that is bounded off from field research's home disciplines and is dominated by a validation epistemology. In light of this current context, I offer some initial thoughts on the work to be done to maintain fieldwork's discovery tradition in management and organization studies.     

“Seeing to be seen”: The manager’s political economy of visibility in new ways of working

Recent changes in the world of work have modified the conditions of the exercise of management in ways that challenge managers’ traditional authority and identity, both symbolically and physically. In this context, we analyse the “visibilizing process” of managers, through which they attempt to make themselves more visible, in ways that reaffirm their authority and restore their identity as managers. To that end, we develop a Foucauldian framework on power and visibility, which sheds light on the “political economy of visibility” of the manager. We apply this framework to a case study that encouraged a re-spatialization of remote work in coworking spaces. The findings show how the manager in our case study staged his own visibility, by enhancing managerial control, to manage his invisibility and shape his intertwined identities. Through the visibilizing process, the manager legitimated his role, materialized his function, and restored his authority.     

Your direct reports loathe you. Does it matter?

Chalk it up to the labor shortage or to growing worker independence, but today almost everyone agrees that management effectiveness rests heavily on grass roots support. Why do subordinates despise a superior? Indecisiveness, non-support, expense account abuse, and arrogance are some of the documented reasons. Your direct reports can cause you to fail and their perfidy will never be detected. They can question your competence and decisions often-through the grapevine-bombarding top management with derogatory information it ultimately can't or won't ignore. Moreover, the movement of workers from organization to organization means that negative gossip will be repeated in dozens of grapevines. What is the worst thing disgruntled workers do to a manager's career? Not only will victims protest and flack your sins in the grapevine, they'll vote with their feet. Worker shortages mean that turnover is watched as closely as salary expenses. Explored herein are some signs that should cause a manager to examine how he or she stands with the troops.     

国外高绩效人力资源实践:理论回顾、分析与展望

顺应组织发展要求构建有效人力资源管理模式,增强企业的持续竞争力,已经成为战略人力资源管理的热点之一。通过梳理近年来相关研究成果,剖析国外高绩效人力资源实践的概念及其构成。从员工态度和行为、组织资本、组织能力等方面指出高绩效人力资源实践的结果变量。根据实证研究相关文献,梳理高绩效人力资源实践与企业绩效的内在关联性。在此基础上,提出高绩效人力资源实践的未来研究方向,为相关理论和实证研究提供指导。     

Interorganizational Governance Value Creation: Coordinating for Information Visibility and Flexibility in Supply Chains*

More thoroughly understanding how interorganizational governance value can be created by information technology and other governance mechanisms is critical for supply chain management. Based primarily on transaction‐cost economics and supplemented by the resource‐based view, this study investigates how interorganizational governance (i.e., relational governance and virtual integration) can create value (i.e., information visibility and supply chain flexibility) in the supply chain context. The findings show that both relational governance and virtual integration benefit information visibility. Those results also support both direct and indirect (via information visibility) effects of relational governance on supply chain flexibility. Although failing to affect supply chain flexibility directly, virtual integration can still improve supply chain flexibility with its ability to enhance information visibility. Thus, interorganizational governance mechanisms emphasizing both control and collaboration can influence the gain from collaboration‐specific capabilities, leading to the competitive advantage of a supply chain. The results of the study suggest that firms can gain greater supply chain flexibility within existing interfirm relationships by enhancing information visibility through virtual integration and relational governance.     

Single‐ and Multiple‐Informant Research Designs to Examine the Human Resource Management−Performance Relationship

During the last decades, many empirical studies have analysed the relationship between human resource management and firm performance. Despite the call for multiple‐rater designs, a relatively large number of researchers still rely on survey responses provided by a single informant in each organization. Single‐informant designs suffer from a number of problems, especially when the responses provided by different types of raters across firms are pooled into a single dataset prior to assessing their equivalence across raters. Using an illustration of the relationship between high performance work systems and firm performance, in this paper we observe that responses provided by managers holding different positions (human resource managers and sales managers) differ significantly and therefore pooling their responses into a single dataset may result in confusing conclusions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that differences arise in the estimated parameters when a multiple‐key‐informant approach, compared to a single‐informant design, is adopted. For these reasons, data collection using multiple key informants is recommended, based on the assumption that some raters in the firm will be more knowledgeable about the variables of interest than others.     

Learning in organizations: HR implications and considerations

This paper looks at learning in organizations as one response to competitive pressure and accelerating environmental change. Two approaches, the learning organization and HRD, are examined in the light of new models of management and learning and a move towards the integration of work, learning, and strategy. The significance of employee participation is considered in relation to learning and some benefits and drawbacks discussed. The development of a learning orientation is seen as an organization-wide responsibility but HR practitioners can play a key role in the promotion of learning by gearing the more traditional HR activities towards the achievement of organizational goals.     

高绩效人力资源管理系统对新产品成功影响机制研究

本文以383家中国医疗器械生产企业调研数据为依据,实证研究了新兴市场企业高绩效人力资源管理系统对新产品成功的影响机制。由于新兴市场企业产品创新机制和发达国家不完全相同,在有效控制相关影响变量后,本文发现,动态能力对高绩效人力资源管理系统和新产品成功之间的关系起到部分中介作用;环境动态性对高绩效人力资源管理系统与新产品成功直接和间接关系以及总的关系存在显著负向调节作用。本文的研究丰富了新兴市场高绩效人力资源管理系统对组织创新影响的文献内容。     

Multiple Commitments: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Investigation in a Community Health Service Trust

This study examines different work–related foci of commitment, such as the work group and the employing organization as well as the current occupation. It assesses how these foci of commitment are influenced by, and influence, attitudes and emotions at work. Data from employees and managers in the British health–service sector shed light on the associations. Regression analysis reveals a strong association between positive work–related emotions and commitment levels, leading to a higher intention to stay with the organization. Implications for management and how the study fits into the existing body of commitment literature are discussed     

Religion and Organization: A Critical Review of Current Trends and Future Directions

Given the profound role that religion continues to play in contemporary societies, it is surprising that management researchers have not explored the intersection between religion and organization in a more meaningful and determined way. This may be because religion is considered too far removed from the commercial organizations that form the empirical focus of much work in the discipline, or simply because it is deemed too sensitive. Whatever the reason, the upshot is that we know relatively little about the dynamics of religious organizational forms or the influence of these forms (and the values and practices that underpin them) on broader social processes and other kinds of organization. This paper is designed to highlight the potential of religion as a domain of study in management and to provide concrete suggestions for taking forward research in this area. The paper consists of three parts. I begin by reviewing some of the key literature in the sociology of religion and religious organizations. I then evaluate the existing literature on religion and organization, noting the salient contributions to date and highlighting some of the issues raised by this body of work. In the third and final main section, I suggest promising directions for future research.     

企业人力资源管理质量评价模型及实证分析

本文针对企业人力资源管理是否存在质量问题及该问题是否值得研究的分歧,基于高绩效工作系统和人力资源管理效能假设,通过案例研究、实地访谈和问卷调查,提出包含技术水平、专业水平和战略人力资源管理3个一阶因子、17个具体指标的企业人力资源管理质量(HRMQ)评价模型,并检验该模型的有效性。实证结果表明,企业HRMQ的标准差系数随着成熟度等级的提高而逐步收敛,企业HRMQ存在客观性。同时,随着企业提高HRMQ,技术水平、专业水平和战略人力资源管理三者之间的变异程度逐渐缩小,高质量企业人力资源管理阶段比低质量阶段更强调管理的一致性,从HRMQ角度验证了平衡计分卡(BSC)思想和方法在企业管理中的普适性。     

论知识经济时代的人力资源管理

结合世界发达国家的知识经济的兴起 ,阐述了知识经济的特征及发展现状 ;分析了知识经济时代对人力资源要求的基本特征 ;进而 ,结合国情 ,提出了我国发展知识经济框架下人力资源管理的模式和策略 .它们可作为人力资源管理的高层决策的依据和参考 .     

Performance Appraisal,Performance Management,and Firm-Level Performance: A Review,a Proposed Model,and New Directions for Future Research

Abstract

There has been a long history in management and industrial/organizational psychology of studying methods to improve performance at work. These efforts have traditionally been concerned with individual-level performance (with some attention paid to team performance as well); even when research began to more broadly consider the topic of performance management instead of just performance appraisal. However, the often unstated assumption was that, if an organization could effectively improve the performance of individual employees, this would accrue to improvements in firm-level performance as well. A review of the literature suggested that this link had never really been established in a direct way. Instead, we found considerable support for relating “bundles” of human resource (HR) practices to firm-level performance, and several models for how these practices could create the transformation from individual-level to firm-level performance. We drew upon several of these models, from somewhat diverse literatures, to propose a model whereby bundles of HR practices, when aligned with the strategic goals of the organization, can be used to create a climate for performance that could transform generic knowledges, skills, and abilities (KSAs) into specific KSAs needed to improve firm-level performance.     

Organizational commitment: a critique of the construct and measures

Organizational commitment has been at the centre of studies into individual and organizational performance for several decades. During this time, much has happened to the ways in which organizations behave, including the evolution of new forms of employee relations and new psychological contracts. Against a transformational background for organizations, developments in the ways that commitment is measured have been incremental and arguably detached from the broader context of 'new deals' for employees. This paper examines classical approaches to defining and measuring organizational commitment and, in the context of strategic human resource management, argues for its continued importance. Classic approaches, however, are criticized on the basis of diminished utility in light of revised employee–organization linkages. Suggestions for improving the relevance of commitment research to contemporary management research and practice are given.     

Supply Chain Management: Relationships, Chains and Networks

The term supply chain management is used to represent a variety of different meanings, some related to management processes, others to structural organization of businesses. This paper identifies and discusses various definitions of supply chain management, summarizes the associated bodies of knowledge and connects them using a systems approach. Systems levels of supply chain management are identified as the internal supply chain, the dyadic relationship, the external supply chain and the inter-business network.
Empirical research on behavioural aspects of relationships, chains and networks in the European automotive aftermarket is discussed, identifying gaps in perceptions of requirements and performance held by customers and suppliers in the areas of quality, delivery, service, range and price. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis demonstrates substantial differences between approaches to supply chain management, though performance in relationships, chains and networks in the territories examined does not differ significantly.
Customer dissatisfaction in relationships is shown to increase upstream in the supply chains examined, extending the applicability of the industrial dynamics 'Forrester effect' to softer, behavioural aspects of performance. Conclusions are drawn supporting the suggestions of operations strategists that position in the supply chain is an important strategic variable which, to date, have not been comprehensively proven empirically.     

基于熵权和粒子群的资源均衡新方法研究

施工网络计划中资源均衡优化是解决资源供需矛盾的手段之一,也是工程建设项目的重要管理内容。在工程项目管理中,对有限资源进行全面系统地分析,并进行均衡优化,对于提高工程建设项目的综合效益具有很重要的意义。本文定义了资源熵的概念并利用熵函数建立工程项目管理的资源均衡优化模型,并针对传统解决方法的不足使用粒子群算法对模型进行求解。最后通过一个案例对模型的可行性和实用性进行了验证。     

TOP WOMAN: Identifying barriers to women's access to management

Despite some recent advances, women face more difficulties in accessing management positions. Previous research analyzed several types of barriers contributing to the maintenance of the glass ceiling, including factors such as gender stereotypes, difficulties in work–family balance, human resource policies, difficulties in accessing networks, organizational culture, and higher demands for women to demonstrate their value. The perception of the gender barriers can be different or may have a different value depending on the characteristics of specific organizations, teams, jobs, and employees. In this study, we develop the scale “TOP WOMAN” (Testing the Obstacles to Promotion of WOmen to MANagement) to measure barriers to women's promotion. The TOP WOMAN scale was carried out in a large sample from the financial sector in Spain (n = 1304 workers). The scale, composed of 33 items, identified seven dimensions: differential performance appraisal, gender stereotypes, work–family balance, motivational barriers, unfair human resource practices, organizational culture barriers, and barriers to accessing influential networks. The TOP WOMAN scale offers a practical tool to human resource managers to analyze the situation of gender discrimination and to implement best practices in their own organization.     

Burnout and work organization in hospital wards: A cross-validation study

The relationship between nurses' work organization in hospital wards and the level of burnout experienced by them was analysed in two independent and highly comparable samples of nurses. The hypothesis that the greater the number of nurses who are responsible for, or are having contact with, one patient during one work shift, the higher their experienced level of burnout will be, was partially confirmed in one of the two samples. We have attributed the contradictory results to differences in the management of nurses' work organization, and warned against fashionable ideas concerning the ideal type of nurses' work organization in hospital wards.