Building Organizational and Scientific Platforms in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Process Perspective on the Development of Dynamic Capabilities

In this paper, we examine the process of dynamic capability development in a large pharmaceutical firm. Using interviews with multiple managers at different organizational levels, we developed two narratives of the process of developing two separate dynamic capabilities in the same firm. We focus on three areas that prior research has shown to be critical in the early stages of the process of implementing new strategic initiatives: the cognitive orientations of key personnel, managerial action undertaken within the firm, and the firm's internal and external contexts. We provide evidence that managers undertake specific initiatives based on their own particular cognitive orientations , and that senior managers play a major role in the development of capabilities by imprinting the organization with their specific cognitive orientation and then orchestrating the multilevel organizational routines necessary for actualization of a capability. These replicable actions by senior management during the early stages of capability development can lead to the development of a capability that is not initially in the cognitive frames of lower level employees. Finally, we will show that internal and external contingencies have a profound impact on the decision to develop a capability, and to discontinue its development. Our findings thus suggest that the process of developing new capabilities shares common elements with other strategic initiatives.     

Employees' perceptions of organizational restructuring: the role of social support

Organizational change and restructuring is often perceived as leading to increased occupational stress, impacting negatively on the psychological well-being of employees. This pragmatic study investigates the role of social support and dispositional affect as moderators of role stress post-restructuring for employees in a public utility company. A total of 176 employees, including 37 managers, 60 graded staff and 78 industrial staff completed a self-report questionnaire, approximately 1 year postrestructuring, retrospectively assessing role conflict, ambiguity, overload and positive and negative feedback pre- and post-restructuring. Results suggested that overall role stress increased for managers/ senior officers and graded staff, but not for industrial staff. Social support was linked with lower role stress, more positive feedback and less negative feedback at post-restructuring. For certain role stressors this impact was moderated by dispositional affect, but the effect was not consistent across occupational groups. Positive affect enhanced the effect of manager support in reducing role conflict for graded staff, and the effect of co-worker support in increasing positive feedback and reducing negative feedback for industrial staff. Findings suggest that managers should pay particular attention to support and feedback for employees during periods of chronic occupational stress following organizational restructuring.     

Employees' perceptions of organizational restructuring: The role of social support

Organizational change and restructuring is often perceived as leading to increased occupational stress, impacting negatively on the psychological well-being of employees. This pragmatic study investigates the role of social support and dispositional affect as moderators of role stress post-restructuring for employees in a public utility company. A total of 176 employees, including 37 managers, 60 graded staff and 78 industrial staff completed a self-report questionnaire, approximately 1 year postrestructuring, retrospectively assessing role conflict, ambiguity, overload and positive and negative feedback pre- and post-restructuring. Results suggested that overall role stress increased for managers/ senior officers and graded staff, but not for industrial staff. Social support was linked with lower role stress, more positive feedback and less negative feedback at post-restructuring. For certain role stressors this impact was moderated by dispositional affect, but the effect was not consistent across occupational groups. Positive affect enhanced the effect of manager support in reducing role conflict for graded staff, and the effect of co-worker support in increasing positive feedback and reducing negative feedback for industrial staff. Findings suggest that managers should pay particular attention to support and feedback for employees during periods of chronic occupational stress following organizational restructuring.     

The Effectiveness of Management‐By‐Walking‐Around: A Randomized Field Study

Management‐by‐walking‐around (MBWA) is a widely adopted technique in hospitals that involves senior managers directly observing frontline work. However, few studies have rigorously examined its impact on organizational outcomes. This study examines an improvement program based on MBWA in which senior managers observe frontline employees, solicit ideas about improvement opportunities, and work with staff to resolve the issues. We randomly selected hospitals to implement the 18‐month‐long, MBWA‐based improvement program; 56 work areas participated. We find that the program, on average, had a negative impact on performance. To explain this surprising finding, we use mixed methods to examine the impact of the work area's problem‐solving approach. Results suggest that prioritizing easy‐to‐solve problems was associated with improved performance. We believe this was because it resulted in greater action‐taking. A different approach was characterized by prioritizing high‐value problems, which was not successful in our study. We also find that assigning to senior managers responsibility for ensuring that identified problems get resolved resulted in better performance. Overall, our study suggests that senior managers' physical presence in their organizations' front lines was not helpful unless it enabled active problem solving.     

Inside Out? Organizational Membership,Ambiguity and the Ambivalent Identity of the Internal Consultant

Changes in organizational structure, roles and technologies have led to an increasing appreciation of the complexities of organizational membership. While a growing literature has focused on this issue with regard to precarious and marginal employees, this paper explores how senior and middle managers in ambiguous roles make sense of their work identity and organizational membership. Based on extensive interviews with human resource and organizational development managers operating as 'internal consultants', it is argued that managers in such ambiguous roles seek to develop a preferred identity which balances both organizationally distinctive and inclusive elements. While potentially conflicting, this ambivalent position can also be a source of strength and differentiation, involving claims to structural autonomy and specialist expertise, aligned to an intimate understanding of organizational politics and personalities. Through analysis of the interview data, the paper highlights the boundary dimensions around which managers in internal consulting roles develop such an ambivalent organizational identification, the ways in which distinctive and inclusive aspects of identity are rationalized, and the constraints upon the achievement of a preferred identity as an internal consultant.     

The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure

There is an extensive private sector literature on organizational change management. However, recent studies have suggested that the specific context of public organizations may have consequences for the management organizational change. This study examines to what extent different change approaches and transformational leadership of direct supervisors contribute to the effective implementation of organizational change in public organizations, and to what extent the bureaucratic structure of public organizations makes the implementation of organizational change s3pecific. The implementation of an organizational change in a Dutch public organization is studied using quantitative methods and techniques. The results indicate that bureaucratic organizations may effectively implement organizational change with both planned and emergent change approaches. The contribution of transformational leadership depends on the type of change approach and organizational structure. Transformational leadership behavior of direct supervisors contributes little to planned processes of change, but is crucial in emergent processes of change in a non-bureaucratic context. Although the literature on change management mostly emphasizes the leadership of senior managers, the leadership role of direct supervisors should not be overlooked during organizational change in public organizations.     

Researching the Roles of Internal-change Agents in the Management of Organizational Change

There has been relatively little empirical research on the roles played by internal-change agents in the processes of developing and managing organizational and cultural change, or on their learning needs. There is a particular dearth of research on these issues in the public-service sector. This paper discusses an innovative methodology for studying the work of internal-change agents within local government. It describes an action-research project, the learning laboratory, which the authors piloted with a small group of senior managers involved in developing programmes of corporate organizational and/or cultural change in their own local authorities. Using a variety of action-research and action-learning techniques within the laboratory, together with before and after interviews with the participants and their line managers in their authorities, the project was able to explore the roles, perceptions and learning needs of these internal-change agents. The research makes a contribution to the study of internal-change agents in their organizational context, and draws attention in particular to the implications for change agents of the political context of public-service organizations. The value of the learning-laboratory methodology for assessing the learning needs of internal-change agents is also assessed.     

The Importance of Role Models and Demographic Context for Senior Women's Work Identity Development

The lack of senior female role models continues to be cited as a key barrier to women's career success. Yet there is little academic research into the gendered aspects of role modelling in organizations, or the utility of role models at a senior level. The paper starts with a review of papers examining the construction of role models in organizational settings. This leads to the inclusion of two related areas – organizational demographics as the contextual factor affecting the availability of role models and how they are perceived, and work identity formation as a possible key explanatory factor behind the link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression to top organizational levels. The literature looking at social theories of identity formation is then considered from a gender perspective. The key gaps identified are that while the behavioural value of role models has been well documented, a better understanding is needed of how gender and organizational demography influence the role modelling process. Importantly, the symbolic value and possibly other values of female role models in the identity construction of senior women require further in‐depth investigation. Finally, this review calls for a more integrated approach to the study of role models and work identity formation, pulling together literatures on organizational demography, the cognitive construal of role models and their importance for successful work identity formation in senior women.     

Collective Intuition: Implications for Improved Decision Making and Organizational Learning

This article establishes the foundation for research on collective intuition through a study of decision making and organizational learning processes in police senior management teams. We conceptualize collective intuition as independently formed judgement based on domain‐specific knowledge, experience and cognitive ability, shared and interpreted collectively. We contribute to intuition research, which has tended to focus its attention at the individual level, by studying intuition collectively in team settings. From a dual‐process perspective, we investigate how expert intuition and deliberation affect decision making and learning at various levels of the organization. Furthermore, we contribute to organizational learning research by offering an empirically derived elaboration of the foundational 4I framework, identifying additional ‘feed‐forward’ and ‘feedback’ loop processes, and thereby providing a more complete account of this organizational learning model. Bridging a variety of relevant but previously unconnected literatures via our focal concept of collective intuition, our research provides a foundation for future studies of this vitally important but under‐researched organizational phenomenon. We offer theoretical and practical implications whereby expert intuitions can be developed and leveraged collectively as valuable sources of organizational knowledge and learning, and contribute to improved decision making in organizations.     

Managers’ Resources for Authentic Leadership – a Multi‐study Exploration of Positive Psychological Capacities and Ethical Organizational Climates

While authentic leadership is highly valued in today's business world, managers do not necessarily have the resources to attain it. Building on conservation of resources theory, we propose a conceptual model to address how personal and contextual resources predict authentic leadership. Study 1 analyses the day‐to‐day variability in managers’ positive psychological capacities as personal resources in relation to changes in authentic leadership. In addition, it tests ethical organizational climates as stable, contextual resources for authentic leadership. In Study 2, we replicate our results on the between‐person level and extend the research model by exploring promotion focus as a link in the relationship between personal resources and authentic leadership. Evidence from an experience sampling study with 89 managers surveyed daily on 10 consecutive working days (Study 1) and a field survey of 130 managers at two points in time (Study 2) supports the hypothesized role of personal resources and promotion focus for authentic leadership. In both studies, only principled but not benevolent ethical organizational climates emerged as a contextual resource for authentic leadership. We discuss the implications for current management research and practice.     

When do Public Managers Imitate Each Other? Mimetic Decision Making in Contracting Decisions of Danish Municipalities

Using organizational new institutional theory, this paper explores a core mechanism underlying contracting decisions in public organizations. A central proposition of this branch of institutional theory is that uncertainty leads to organizational isomorphism. The present study investigates this proposition by asking: When does perceived uncertainty lead public managers to imitative behavior in contracting out decisions? Contrary to most previous studies, we apply an individual level approach and relate different types of perceived uncertainty of decision makers to mimetic decision making. We define mimetic decision making as when decision makers deliberately obtain information about other organizations in order to possibly imitate them. In a survey of Danish municipal managers facing important and complex contracting decisions, we test our hypotheses about three types of perceived uncertainty and mimetic decision making. The results show that technological uncertainty is strongly related to mimetic decision making among public managers. However, we do not find significant results for either volume uncertainty or performance uncertainty. The paper illustrates how uncertainty, through mimetic decision making, is connected to organizational isomorphism. It further highlights that future studies should pay attention to the multidimensionality of uncertainty and its consequences.     

Measurement of Perceived Organizational Readiness for Change in the Public Sector

Using the act frequency approach we developed and operationalized two constructs: perceived organizational readiness for change and perceived organizational unreadiness for change. Using a sample drawn from five Canadian public sector organizations, it was found that perceived readiness for change can be conceptualized with three sub-constructs: commitment of senior managers to the change, competence of change agents, and support of the immediate manager. Perceived unreadiness for change had two sub-constructs: poor communication of change and adverse impact of change on work. Using structural equation modelling techniques, the measurement scales of all these constructs were tested for reliability and validity using job stress and perceived organizational support as outcome variables.     

Short-term Perceptions,Corporate Governance and the Management of R & D in Italian Companies

The aim of this paper was tomeasure the short-term perceptions of FinanceDirectors and how managers react to pressuresfrom the financial and corporate governancesystems in the management of R and Dexpenditure and innovation. The studyreplicates Demirag's U.K. study.Results do not support the proposition that thefinancial and governance systems behave in ashort-term manner in general. The bankingsystem in Italy tends to be neutral as regardsthe firm's decision making and management hasthe freedom to steer the firm forward in aframework of long-term profitability andgrowth. Italian firms are not perceived asbeing possible candidates for take-overoperations, which might exacerbate the problemof pressure to deliver short-term profits atthe expense of long-term R and D investments.However, in some sectors and under certain sizeand ownership structure conditions short-termpressures are felt more strongly: they aremainly science-based sectors as well as sometraditional sectors (engineering and constructions).In higher-pressured firms (HPFs) managementtends to place more emphasis on costs than onproduct innovation and is more likely to view Rand D as an overhead that has to be trimmedduring a recession. Moreover, the controlmechanisms tend toward short-term accountingmeasures. In addition, the prevalent sources ofshort-term pressures – where they are present– are interestingly different in Italy than inthe U.K.: while in the Anglo-Saxon context theyare perceived to come from the market andfinancial institutions, in Italy they areperceived to come from the firm ownersthemselves.     

Strategic management in a firm of consulting engineers

This article describes the introduction of strategic management in a large and diversified company of consulting engineers in Brazil. This was done by a massive strategic planning effort in which the 60 top people of the company actively participated. This approach was chosen to produce both a comprehensive corporate strategy and strategic management capability throughout the company. The project therefore gave as much attention to training and guidance as to planning itself. Psychological, organizational and ‘political’ factors were taken seriously into account. Project management was a good joint-venture between some top people inside and some external consultants, strongly interacting with each other. The project resulted not only in plans, but also in decisions, including tidying-up the divisional structure of the firm. The article evaluates the project to determine success factors in such undertakings. It is interesting for managers to appreciate the factors involved in efforts to produce plans, develop managers and reorient a company at the same time. It is also interesting because it shows a fruitful, although demanding role for management consultants in strategic reorientations: more committed, more ‘on-line’ than experts submitting recommendations; less amorphous and more performance-oriented than organizational development gurus.     

Using a stress audit: The construction site manager experience in the UK

The aim of this study was to conduct a stress audit among construction industry site managers in the UK as a precursor to a stress management intervention programme. Qualitative data were obtained from in-dept interviews with a total of 36 male middle and senior construction site managers; and aquantitative data were obtained by questionnaire. Based on the analysis of 561 postal quenstionnaires, eight stressor factors were identified, most significantly, ambiguity (i.e. role and task). Job satisfaction levels were low compared to a normative population and influenced by grade level. Measures of mental health were similar to the norm for males, but both grade of management and type of contract affected mental health. Anxiety levels were signficantly high, independent of managerial grade. The stress of work overload and role insecurity (fear of failure) were associated with reduced mental health and high anxiety, and the stress of the organizational culture and climate was the strongest predictor of job dissatisfaction. There was some cause for concern for the vulnerable high-risk groups, i.e. the extreme type A and those working overtime. Medical data from a small subset of managers (n = 78) revealed that this group evidenced a better quality of psychological health than the group in total; but a high percentage of personnel had high levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. Recommendations for action focused on the needs of specific subgroups, and guided the organization on the acceptability of possible interventions at individual, interpersonal and organizational levels.     

The diversity gap in leadership: What are we missing in current theorizing?

Relational models of organizational inequalities offer numerous insights around the role of micro, meso and macro processes that drive differential progress of diverse individuals into senior leadership roles. We propose that the Bourdieusian relational framework of capital, habitus and field, and Bourdieu's conception of symbolic violence, provide a powerful explanatory lens for understanding the continuing lack of diversity among our corporate leaders. In applying this framework, we highlight critical shortcomings in current conceptions of leadership development and significant implications for leadership theory. We highlight the ways in which gendered and racialized structures are created and reinforced preventing access to opportunities for corporate leadership to diverse individuals. Future leadership theorizing needs to place greater attention upon the context in which development occurs, how valuable capital comes to be prescribed, as well as the forces at work in generating structures that perpetuate differential access to the capital necessary to progress as leaders.     

Does Management Development Add Value?

While the act of faith approach to management development assumes that training and development will improve performance, and that attention to the people factor will give organizations a competitive advantage, there has been little systematic study of the business benefits of management development. The extent to which competence-based management development made identifiable improvements to individual, organizational and business performance was examined in sixteen organizations using an in-depth embedded case-study protocol developed following the preparatory work of an expert group convened by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE). Interviews were conducted with senior strategic managers, line managers and members of management work teams, and triangulation was sought with documentary evidence. Case reports were validated with the organizations, then evaluated and ranked by an independent consultancy not involved in the fieldwork. The results provide support for attributing business benefits to management development, particularly in relation to individual and business performance. The performance improvements were found to be most significant where management development is linked with organizational strategy and where Human Resource Development (HRD) systems and processes adopt the management standards developed by Management Charter Initiative (MCI).     

The management of managers: A review and conceptual framework

The management of managers is an important contemporary concern, but the literature on the issue is not well integrated. This paper reviews key sources on the topic across organizational economics, human resource development and strategic human resource management. It presents a novel interdisciplinary framework for analysing how firms manage senior managers and for guiding future research, arguing that firms adopt different styles to attract–defend, develop–renew and motivate–harvest their senior managerial resource, depending on their contexts and choices that are made in the firm over time. The notion that some styles draw on early identification of élites while others treat management identification as more of an emergent problem is central to the typology. Within each of the styles identified, effectiveness in the management of managers hinges on recognizing and handling certain strategic tensions and problems.     

Factors impacting the knowing-doing gap in sexual harassment training

We examined the gaps between research-based sexual harassment training practices human resource (HR) managers believe their organization should use and the practices their organizations actually use (knowing-doing gaps). We studied individual (attitudes about academics) and organizational predictors (senior management support, managerial rewards, and organizational resources) of gaps at the pre-training, training design and delivery, and post-training stages. Organizational factors generally reduced gaps at the pre-training and post-training stages, while the individual factor marginally increased the gap at the pre-training stage. The knowing-doing gap for training design and delivery practices was not predicted by any of the individual or organizational variables.     

An interaction orientation approach to SME-Intermediaries relationships

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaging in foreign operations have drawn significant research attention in recent years. One of the aspects linked to such operations is SMEs’ expansion to foreign markets, often relying on local intermediaries. These intermediaries provide the firms with valuable resources such as market knowledge and recognition and reduce foreign operations’ costs. Hence, they are often considered as strategic partners. The current study aims to expand the existing knowledge regarding the relationships between business to business SMEs and their intermediaries by exploring interaction orientation as an organizational cultural aspect and its linkage to the trust-conflicts balance. Based on a survey of 165 international venture managers, complemented by in-depth interviews with 16 senior export managers, we found that by incorporating interaction-orientation constructs into the relationship management, SMEs can enhance affective trust while mitigating conflicts. We also reveal that the impact of emotional and task conflicts on SMEs’ performance is mediated through calculative trust, indicating the benefits of balancing between relational and formal governance.