企业高层管理者内部冲突和解决策略的实证研究

根据对企业高层管理者的调查结果,分析了高层管理者传记性特征、工作压力及情绪和认知冲突之间的关系。研究发现,随着年龄的增加,高层管理者体验到的工作压力会逐渐减少;学历越高,体验到的认知冲突越多;情绪冲突的增多也会引起认知冲突的增加;工作压力的大小与认知冲突呈正相关关系。另外,高层管理者重视以整合的方式解决冲突,其次也会选择竞争的方式处理冲突。     

Planning Forward by Looking Backward: Retrospective Thinking in Strategic Decision Making*

Retrospective thinking occurs whenever one remembers something from the past, but one can also think retrospectively about hypothetical future events, by imagining that the event has already transpired and then working backward in the mind from the future toward the present. Designers, artists, planners, and other creative individuals utilize retrospective thinking when they mentally envision the object they wish to create and then thinkabout how it might be constructed. Some theorists and some previous research have suggested that forward and backward thinking are different cognitive processes, but there has been little investigation on the nature of these differences. This article examines the literature and describes a laboratory study designed to investigate retrospective thinking as a technique for increased idea generation. Subjects (n=64) were professional planners and managers with an average business experience of over 20 years. In a planning task, significantly more ideas were generated in the retrospective thinking mode than in the prospective mode, but the ideas were not found to be of greater quality. Evidence emerged that a subset of subjects were better able to make use of the retrospective technique, suggesting that selection along with training may be appropriate for the technique's mosteffective use.     

The ebb and flow of identity: How sustainable entrepreneurs deal with their hybridity

The identity of sustainable entrepreneurs progresses and is primed by certain identity dimensions, including society, community, or competition as their frames of references, their social motivation, and their self-evaluation. Because sustainable entrepreneurs aim to achieve the goals of generating profit and create social and/or ecological value at the same time, they experience two types of tensions: one that concerns social and ecological and the other with an extension of economic aspects. To leverage these, we find identity shifts dependent on the tension sustainable entrepreneurs’ experience, activating a certain combination of identity dimension. Building on 29 case studies with European sustainable entrepreneurs, the study investigates the dynamic role of entrepreneurial identity, thereby informing about fluid hybrid identity conflict management strategies. This adds to theory on entrepreneurial identity that has widely found multiple, yet coherent entrepreneurial identities and conflict management strategies.     

Reconsidering Scale: Using Geographic Information Systems to Support Spatial Planning Conversations

How do planners compose plans that fit complex environmental systems? How do they align mismatched ecological and governance landscapes? We studied a small group of practitioners planning for groundwater sustainability to explore these questions. We recorded and transcribed their talk as they worked with geovisualization tools to diagnose and resolve future water shortages. Our findings showed how these planners crossed scales and levels as they reconsidered the relationships between groundwater supplies and consumers. While they recognized the urgency of aquifer overdraft, they complained about a lack of fine-grained hydrogeologic data, which they rely on for managing local water shortages.     

Design,Disability and the Planning Challenge: The Reality of Living with Severely Disabled Children

This paper investigates the effects of the speculative and standardized house building model dominant in the UK on the residential experience of families with severely disabled children and evaluates the barriers to the provision of inclusive accommodation through the planning and development process. Unlike previous studies on the theme, this paper draws together, compares and contrasts, within one location, the experiences of families that include severely disabled members, local planners and housing developers. The results indicate that, as a result of the deficiencies of mainstream housing design and delivery, real and substantial stress can be created for families with disabled children. Moreover, it was found that institutional and attitudinal inertia restricts communication between developers and planners in responding to the needs of these families. It is argued that evidence based on experiential knowledge of the needs of disabled groups is a critical first step in meeting their requirements for appropriately designed housing.     

Cooperation in the Face of Conflict: Effects of Top Managers’ Trust Beliefs in their Firms’ Major Suppliers

As with any relationships, those between buying firms and their major suppliers are likely to experience situations of conflict. When facing such situations, top managers tend to approach conflict either cooperatively or competitively. However, when and why top managers tend towards cooperation or competition is far from clear. This study proposes a novel link between the theory of cooperation and competition and the discounting principle of attribution theory to argue that it is top managers’ trust beliefs in their firms’ major suppliers that influences their intended approach to conflict. Using survey data from 140 C‐level managers and business owners, the authors develop and test a model that differentiates between two attributional dimensions of trust (competence and goodwill) and the specific relational conditions that influence how these attributions operate. The results indicate that top managers’ trust in their suppliers’ competence and goodwill is, in fact, decisive in determining how they intend to approach conflict. Further, the authors demonstrate that a top manager's trust belief in the supplier's goodwill is of particular relevance in driving the top manager to cooperate in the face of conflict. However, this link seems to be contingent on the specific conditions of the buyer–supplier relationship in question.     

Assessment of aircraft logistics planning models

An assessment of military logistics planning models offers a great deal of information about the modelling state of art. Such tools include both analytic and simulation model types. They can deal with both static and dynamic characteristics of the environment. They require highly detailed data for their operation and can compute over a large number of interacting variables. Unfortunately, these models do not satisfy adequately the requirements of the particular logistics issue for which they were assessed, which is whether such models can be used in early logistics planning for new weapon systems. One difficulty is that such planning must make extensive use of tradeoffs and sensitivity analysis to take account of the flexibility and uncertainties existing at the early stages. Another is that the existent models call for detailed data which is usually not available at that time. Therefore, although the models do fulfill a particular useful planning function, they must be replaced or augmented by a new class of models that will much more closely satisfy the planning need. This new capability requires a serious research effort that will benefit not only the military logistics planners, but also other planners dealing with large capital development programs.     

Competitive information systems

The problem of keeping abreast of relevant competitive developments for strategic purposes is common to many organizations. In this article the authors describe a system which they have developed and which is currently in operation which they believe can prove beneficial in meeting this need. They believe that their system provides competitive data in a useful form. Also it ensures that information, and not data, are processed and provided for planners and managers to support their decision-making.     

From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries

Middle managers have been under attack as organizational downsizing and reengineering have reduced their number. They are also frequently portrayed as obstructive and resistant to change. However, recent research suggests that managers at middle levels in organizations may be able to make a strategic contribution. Data from research on how managers in an organization undergoing transformation experience change are used to build on this existing research to demonstrate that middle managers fulfil a complex 'change intermediary' position during implementation. The findings reveal that a key aspect of this position is the need for middle managers to engage in a range of activities to aid their interpretation of the change intent. This interpretation activity then informs the personal changes they attempt to undertake, how they help others through change, how they keep the business going during the transition and what changes they implement in their departments. The interpretation aspect of their role is often overlooked, leading to workload issues and role conflict. These findings offer an alternative perspective on perceived middle manager resistance and lead into suggestions for future research and organizational implications.     

Interactive LP models in management—An analogue approach

The history is traced over 10 years of a project directed towards extending the use of Linear Programme methods by managers and planners themselves. Both computational aspects as they affect the end user, and possible alternatives to digital computation, are discussed in the light of practical experience and of recently proposed criteria for mathematical modelling in a managerial environment. The operating principles of an LP-based electronic analogue system are described, along with some of its observed implications in terms of human behaviour. It is concluded that LP and related techniques have hardly begun to exploit their potential, both as a control medium and as a language of managerial communication; that the concept of direct optimisation is largely irrelevant and has formed a barrier against implementation; and that the field of application for LP models is far wider than can be adduced by rigorous analysis, or by working to the practical bounds of digital computation.     

Social antecedents of the role stress and career-enhancing strategies of newcomers to organizations: A longitudinal study

Newcomers experience uncertainty and stress following entry into an organization. Two features of socialization are important for reducing their stress: socialization tactics and relations with superiors and co-workers. The present study tests a structural equation model, including, first, the effects over time of initial institutional socialization tactics and, second, the association between social relations at the workplace on newcomers’ role stress and career-enhancing strategies, two years later, among a large (N=661) international sample of job and organization stayers. Using LISREL 8.3 the results indicate a good fit between the model and data on several fit indices. Institutional socialization tactics had a significant association with newcomers’ relations with both their superiors and co-workers, and a significant negative association with their role conflict. Newcomers’ relations with superiors had a negative relationship with their role ambiguity, and a positive relationship with two kinds of career-enhancing strategies that they use to aid in their adaptation to their work situation. The relations of newcomers with co-workers were positively related to role conflict and negatively related to role ambiguity. Co-worker relations were also positively related to immediate career-enhancing strategies. Role conflict was positively related to immediate and negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies, while role ambiguity was negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies. The results are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical importance.     

Social antecedents of the role stress and career-enhancing strategies of newcomers to organizations: A longitudinal study

Newcomers experience uncertainty and stress following entry into an organization. Two features of socialization are important for reducing their stress: socialization tactics and relations with superiors and co-workers. The present study tests a structural equation model, including, first, the effects over time of initial institutional socialization tactics and, second, the association between social relations at the workplace on newcomers' role stress and career-enhancing strategies, two years later, among a large (N=661) international sample of job and organization stayers. Using LISREL 8.3 the results indicate a good fit between the model and data on several fit indices. Institutional socialization tactics had a significant association with newcomers' relations with both their superiors and co-workers, and a significant negative association with their role conflict. Newcomers' relations with superiors had a negative relationship with their role ambiguity, and a positive relationship with two kinds of career-enhancing strategies that they use to aid in their adaptation to their work situation. The relations of newcomers with co-workers were positively related to role conflict and negatively related to role ambiguity. Co-worker relations were also positively related to immediate career-enhancing strategies. Role conflict was positively related to immediate and negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies, while role ambiguity was negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies. The results are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical importance.     

Unfair,uncertain, and unwilling: How decision-making unfairness and unclear job tasks reduce problem-focused voice behavior,unless there is task conflict

In an attempt to expand extant literature devoted to employees' voice behavior, the current research unpacks the connection between their experience of procedural unfairness, such that organizational decision-making lacks transparency, and their problem-focused voice behavior. In this link, the authors predict that job ambiguity functions as a mediator, and coworker task conflict takes a moderating role. Survey data, collected among employees in a large Portuguese retail organization, affirm that perceptions about unfair decision policies can curtail employees’ propensities to raise their voice about organizational failures, because they develop the belief that their employer is failing to provide sufficient job-related information. If they can exchange conflicting viewpoints with others though, this detrimental process might not proceed. Organizations should take care to avoid accusations of unclear job roles, because they create a route by which frustrations about opaque decision-making can escalate into employee complacency; they also should encourage productive idea clashes within their ranks to help block that route.     

Conflict and cooperation: A revised model

The authors report one aspect of their study in which they observed and analysed the activities of 21 middle managers at work in five different manufacturing firms. Although originally incidental to the main purpose of their study, they soon observed patterns of conflict and cooperation between colleagues which were not consistent with previous reports. Incidences of cooperation were more frequent than had been expected. The paper analyses the cooperative incidents particularly within lateral contracts and proposes a revised model and calls for more balance in future research between conflict and cooperation.     

Direct and indirect conflicts at work in China and the US: A cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

Most studies on interpersonal conflict at work have been conducted in Western countries. However, cultural differences may affect how people behave towards each other, and understanding these differences may shed light on how people in culturally dissimilar countries experience stress. Using the Cross-Cultural Interpersonal Conflict Scale (CC-ICS) developed for this research, we assessed both direct (face-to-face) and indirect (negative behaviour behind someone's back) conflict at work in 166 and 204 university employees from China and the United States (US), respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a three-factor structure (direct conflict, indirect conflict engaged in by oneself, and indirect conflict by others) of the CC-ICS in both countries. MANCOVA and Bonferroni-adjusted univariate tests revealed that US employees reported more indirect conflict, both by self and by others against self. Moderated regression analyses showed that country moderated the relations between interpersonal conflict and job strains. Direct conflict played a more important role in predicting US employees’ psychological strains, whereas indirect conflict played a more important role in predicting Chinese employees’ physical symptoms. Hotelling t-tests showed that in China indirect conflict by others was more strongly related to psychological strains than was direct conflict. Thus, employees’ cultural backgrounds appear to be associated with how they express conflict behaviours.     

Everywhere,planners are in pain

In this provocative article the author suggests that planners should now leave the field of rational decision-making to high technology machines and should themselves concentrate on the non-rational judgmental aspects of human activity. Management is not and never can be a science, and with the growing awareness among businessmen and academics that over-rationality is eventually harmful, planners should be adding qualitative analysis and interpretation to their role and becoming more aware of the complexities of the non-rational aspects of managerial planning.     

How Senior Glaswegian Planners are Adjusting to the Scottish Government’s Modernization Agenda

This paper is grounded in what 15 experienced Glaswegian planners said about their work. Many spoke of their misgivings about the Scottish government’s efforts to modernize national and local planning practices, whereby, in their view, they are expected to be facilitators of economic development above all other considerations. They spoke of how they thought planning should be practised and in their resource-constrained circumstances, how they strive to do so. Most grew up in the Glasgow region prior to the current neo-liberal ascendancy in public policy and planning and remain committed to their places and people. Whether their professional concerns are now largely residual or still relevant, so presaging possible emergent professional practices are discussed.     

Konfliktcoaching in der Gruppe Trainingskonzept und Erfahrungsbericht

Conflict coaching in groups. A training concept and a case study The following article lines out and discusses the main contents of a workshop on conflict coaching in groups: focussing on conflict and conflict related issues, relaxation training, forms of targeting, solving strategies, cognitive restructuring and personal change processes. The experience shows, that conflict coaching can be very well practised in a group setting.     

What kind of corporate planner do you need?

The planning literature ignores distinctions among types of plans and types of planners. Consequently, a systematic pairing of planners and a company's level of planning need is not well understood or implemented in practice. This paper provides two missing links in order to bridge this shortfall between theory and practice. One is a planning matrix which establishes six possible planning modes for a company based on its stage of development and management style. The second is a distinction between three types of planners who would be appropriate to each planning mode. The matrix plus the three categories of planners provides a new tool for management in its responsibility for planning the job of the corporate planner. In doing so, it also surfaces some underlying causes of organizational strain and stress associated with the corporate planner's position.     

Surfacing important but invisible issues in American companies in Japan

This paper explores cross-cultural conflict between Americans and Japanese working together in Japan. Drawing on participant observation, this study develops and pilot tests an application for facilitating group dialogue around organizational conflict, based on Arnold Mindell’s Process Work model of group facilitation. The model proposes several major concepts: (1) rank awareness and how people in authority use their authority; (2) roles and polarities, including primary and secondary identities; and (3) how the marginalization of views can spawn conflict. The application of this model to several conflicts between Americans and Japanese suggest three sources of conflict that often stem from unvoiced cultural assumptions. First, the case findings here suggest that the freedom to speak up is often taken for granted by Americans, but not by Japanese. Second, Japanese are more aware and constrained by social norms than are Americans. Third, Americans in positions of authority in this case are relatively unaware of how the way they use their authority impacts the Japanese around them.