Pushing up to a point: Assertiveness and effectiveness in leadership and interpersonal dynamics

Past work on interpersonal assertiveness and organizational effectiveness paints a mixed picture: some research suggests a positive link, other work highlights negative effects. This article reviews recent research and an account that stems from a different perspective, looking at assertiveness as a factor in leadership shortcomings and failure. This approach suggests that interpersonal assertiveness is a major factor and has a curvilinear, inverted-U-shaped relationship with leadership effectiveness. I review evidence for this effect as well as social and instrumental outcome mediators. I consider moderators and boundaries, sources of individual differences in assertive behavior, prospects for changing assertiveness, and factors in the perception of assertive behavior. Beyond the specific results I review, I argue that this program of work offers value by highlighting the lens of conflict as a generative perspective on leadership. Exploring how, and how hard, leaders fight pulls in insights from a variety of literatures and prompts new research that can help expand the scholarly portrait of leadership.     

Negative affectivity and gender as moderators of the relationship between work-related stressors and depressed mood at work

The present study provided further evidence on the role of negative affectivity (NA) and gender as moderators of stressor-strain relations. Based on theoretical and empirical research, it was hypothesized that the moderating effects of NA would moderate the relationship between stressors (role ambiguity, workload, role conflict and interpersonal conflict) and work-related depression. Questionnaires were returned form 442 subjects of whom 74% were recruited from external degree courses and the rest were full-time employees. Results revealed significant three-way interactions for two of the four stressors (workload and role ambiguity) in predicting work-related depression. NA moderated the relationship between these stressors and work-related depression for females but not for males. These effects were modest, however. No significant interactions were found for role conflict and interpersonal conflict. The implications of these results are discssed.     

Why middle managers quit

The current trends in organizational downsizing may be causing the involuntary loss of high-performing, middle-level managers. This article reports on the perceived causes of turnover and how managers at differing levels of the organization have dramatically differing perceptions. Lower- and middle-level managers place greatest importance on lack of control and input on the job, while upper-lever managers see dissatisfaction with rewards and interpersonal conflicts as the critical causes of middle manager turnover.     

我国基金经理投资口碑效应研究

本文考察了四大城市(上海、深圳、北京和广州)各基金系基金经理投资之间的关系。结果发现,同城基金经理投资相互影响显著大于其他城市基金经理的影响。这种现象可由口碑效应解释,同城投资者之间更易通过口头交流传递关于股票的信息和看法,进而影响投资行为。同时发现各城市基金经理倾向于采取相同投资决策,优质上市公司资源有限、基金公司股票池雷同、基金经理生存压力等原因可能导致基金持股趋同,该结果也一定程度上反映出基金管理公司的治理水平存在不足。     

人际公民行为及其前因和结果变量的研究与评价

人际公民行为是基于社会网络视角所提出的组织公民行为特定的表现形式,指的是同事之间在非工作需要情况下的帮助行为,其结果直接或间接的提高了个人的工作成绩并最终促进团队和组织的运行。文章首先提出人际公民行为概念的由来及其发展,并介绍了人际公民行为结构的发展演化,然后对人际公民行为的前因变量和结果变量的相关研究进行了分析和归纳。最后指出未来要立足于本土文化做出进一步的理论和实证研究。     

Coalitions of Actors and Managerial Innovations in the Healthcare and Social Healthcare Sector

This paper studies the behavior of a variety of stakeholders around the adoption of managerial innovations desired by operational managers of health services institutions. We show that if the operational manager may cause the managerial innovation, the tool prospective is subject to power games around coalitions of actors. The study of several management situations in health services institutions enables us, using the game theory, to highlight the “winning”, “losing” and “uncertain” coalitions that can achieve operational management within the establishment to settle a managerial innovation.     

Muscle pain and coping with working life in Norway: A review

ABSTRACT

Talking about work during leisure time is an important part of employees’ daily life and represents a behavioural pathway connecting work and home. However, past research has not paid much attention to this phenomenon of sharing work experiences during after-work hours, its possible antecedents and consequences. In the present study, we examine how interpersonal work experiences (i.e. social conflicts and perceived prosocial impact) are associated with work-related conversations during after-work hours, and how work-related conversations, in turn, are associated with affect at bedtime and in the next morning. A daily diary study with three measurement occasions per day over five consecutive workdays (N?=?144 employees) showed that negative work-related conversations during after-work hours were directly related to negative affect at bedtime and indirectly related to negative affect in the next morning. Positive work-related conversations were directly related to positive affect in the next morning. Moreover, perceived prosocial impact and positive work-related conversations during after work hours were negatively related to negative affect at bedtime. Our results suggest that employees actively shape their work-home boundaries by talking about work during after-work hours which show both beneficial and harmful associations with subsequent affective states.     

Decision Making,Risk and Gender: Are Managers Different?

This paper explores differences in the nature of decisions taken by males and females. Women are playing an increasingly important role in business management and managers are ultimately tested and evaluated in terms of their success in making decisions. Consequently any difference in the character and quality of decisions taken by male and female managers will have important implications for organizations. This paper reviews the literature, and reports two pieces of empirical work which investigate the connections between gender and decision making. The decision-making characteristics of males and females in a ‘non-managerial’ population in which the majority of individuals have not undergone formal management education are contrasted with a ‘managerial’ population of potential and actual managers who have undertaken such education. It is argued that women are often excluded from managerial positions of authority and leadership due to stereotypes, which have been constructed by observing ‘non-managerial’ populations at large. The paper concludes, however, that these stereotypes may not apply to managers as in the ‘managerial’ sub-population males and females display similar risk propensity and make decisions of equal quality.     

Description and Evaluation of an Approach to Implementing Programs in Organizational Settings

A broad-based approach to implementing programs is described and evaluation information is reported from two investigations of its use by program managers in educational organizations. The approach consists of a framework of program implementation factors from which implementation procedures are derived. The procedures then are used by a manager to help facilitate implementation of a program according to plan. In the first investigation, three program managers were trained in the approach to assist them in implementing a behavioral group counseling program in three public high schools. In the second investigation, a program manager was trained to help implement a case management system in an elementary school. Results of both investigations suggest that managers were able to utilize the program implementation procedures, with their respective programs being more completely implemented when the procedures were applied. Reactions aboul the approach obtained from human service program managers, following both investigations, suggest that it may be a worthwhile managerial strategy. Advantages and limitations of the approach are considered and its relationship to organizational behavior management is discussed.     

我国上市公司高管人员过度自信与投资决策的实证研究

基于行为公司金融视角,本文对我国上市公司高管人员过度自信的现实表现及其与企业投资决策的关系进行了理论分析和实证检验。研究表明:(1)在实施股权激励的上市公司中,四分之一左右的高管人员具有过度自信行为特征。(2)同适度自信行为相比,高管人员过度自信行为不仅与投资水平显著正相关,而且投资的现金流敏感性更高。(3)过度自信高管人员投资的现金流敏感性随股权融资数量的减少而上升。(4)在我国上市公司特有的股权安排和治理结构下,过度自信高管人员在公司投资决策中更有可能引发配置效率低下的过度投资行为。     

Cognitive Mapping Tools: Review and Risk Management Needs

Risk managers are increasingly interested in incorporating stakeholder beliefs and other human factors into the planning process. Effective risk assessment and management requires understanding perceptions and beliefs of involved stakeholders, and how these beliefs give rise to actions that influence risk management decisions. Formal analyses of risk manager and stakeholder cognitions represent an important first step. Techniques for diagramming stakeholder mental models provide one tool for risk managers to better understand stakeholder beliefs and perceptions concerning risk, and to leverage this new understanding in developing risk management strategies. This article reviews three methodologies for assessing and diagramming stakeholder mental models—decision‐analysis‐based mental modeling, concept mapping, and semantic web analysis—and assesses them with regard to their ability to address risk manager needs.     

Personality differences in managers who have,and have not,worked abroad

The present, exploratory study examined bright-side personality trait (NEO-PI-R and MBTI) and dark-side trait (HDS) differences between middle to senior managers who had, and had not, worked abroad. It also examined the relation of personality trait variables to the duration of time spent abroad. In all 3165 females and 10,068 males aged between 23 and 65 years went to work-related assessment centre. Results for a Domain and Facet analysis of the Big Five, as well as from the Dark-Side traits revealed numerous differences. Those who had worked abroad tended to be more Open and Conscientious, and less Neurotic. There were fewer differences on measures of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and dark-side HDS among those with experience loving abroad. They tended to be more Thinking than Feeling Types, Colourful/Histrionic and less Dependent. Regression showed those with work experience abroad tended to be older, Extraverted, Open, Conscientious males with a tendency to move towards as opposed to away from people. Those who had spent longer times abroad tended to be more Open and Diligent and less Agreeable. Limitations of this cross-sectional study are discussed.     

AN ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR AND PERFORMANCE IN THE FOOD RETAILING INDUSTRY USING EXPERIMENTAL BUSINESS GAMING

This research tested hypotheses concerning the effects of organizational affiliation, differences among managers nested within organizational affiliation, degree of price competition and selected demographic and psychological traits of managers on economic behavior and performance. Experimental gaming in a behavioral science laboratory was used with a group of 60 subjects who were managers of Indiana supermarkets. The results support the influence of economic factors on the behavior and performance of managers. Degree of price competition imposed by the researchers significantly affected pricing decisions. At the same time, factors not usually considered in the static theory of the firm, such as organizational affiliation, had a significant influence on behavior and performance. While psychological and demographic traits generally did a poor job of explaining manager behavior, their effect may have been masked by the main treatments to which subjects were exposed. Realism in the experiment was not as high as expected, but the approach used was judged to be superior to alternative approaches.     

The Effects of Personality and Management Role on Perceived Values in Business Settings

This paper examines the effects ofpersonality variables and functional management role,either entrepreneur, manager in an entrepreneurialfirm, manager in a traditional firm, or small businessowner, on perceived business values. Functionalmanagement role had minimal discernible effects;personality variables differentiated entrepreneursfrom managers and produced many effects for ratings ofbusiness values. Results are discussed in terms ofMBTI and DISC theoretical constructs and theirimplications for entrepreneurship and management.     

Direct Observation of Road Construction Worker Behavior

Many construction workers are paid with public dollars and typically earn large salaries within the manual labor workforce. The present study used a momentary time sampling procedure to directly observe the proportion of road construction workers engaged in work-related behavior and compared the observation to repeated observations of one worksite. Both observations suggested that a small number of highway workers may be performing work tasks at any time, suggesting a need for behavior analysts to devise more effective work-related contingencies to ensure taxpayers receive more return on their investment.     

The Structured Meeting System

The effectiveness of a structured meeting system, incorporating weekly meetings, deadlines and task monitoring was evaluated with four middle managers. The manager/experimenter introduced the system according to a multiple-baseline across-subjects design, and each supervisee improved markedly during intervention on measures of timeliness and productivity. A behavioral analysis suggested that the meeting system changed both the manager's and the supervisees' contingencies, and made the planned consequence of manager approval more contingent on desired supervisee behavior.     

Consequences of expatriate top manager replacement on foreign subsidiary performance

Integrating expatriate staffing and leadership succession literature, this study investigates the influence of expatriate top manager replacement on foreign subsidiary performance and the moderating effects of subsidiary context. Building on a refined understanding of agency theory and evidence from 2113 firm-year observations, including 260 expatriate successions, this study shows that when expatriates are replaced, regardless by whom (either host-country national or expatriate manager), the performance of the subsidiaries declines, suggesting that the departure of expatriate top managers often see subsidiaries being left in a less than favorable condition. If the subsidiary's prior performance has been unsatisfactory, the newly appointed expatriate might not be able to prevent further deterioration of its performance. Replacing expatriates with host-country national managers can help improve subsidiary performance, but this usually happens in older, more established subsidiaries. These findings framed in a refined agency theory provide us a more in-depth understanding of expatriate staffing failure.     

人力资源经理职业化的发展

职业化是一个行业发展成熟的重要标志,市场环境的变化使得我国的人力资源经理面临着职业化的挑战。人力资源经理职业化的关键在于建立职业化的人力资源经理市场。通过人力资源经理市场,人力资源经理拥有的专业技能能够进行认证、定价、交易和发展。人力资源经理职业化具体表现在:严格的职业资格认定机制、规范化的人力资源管理教育、专业性协会和专业化培训、专业化的人力资源管理人员配置、较高的人力资源管理专业人员薪酬等方面。人力资源管理从业人员的职业资格认证是人力资源职业化发展的重要环节。论文首先探讨人力资源管理职业化的发展及其重要性;进而介绍美国和英国主要的人力资源资格认证制度;最后,作者提出了人力资源经理的职业化对人力资源管理从业人员在教育、技能和职业道德方面一些基本标准要求。     

Do Shareholders Really Prefer Their Executives to Maximize the Equity Value? A Newsvendor Case*

In this article, we study how the operational decisions of a firm manager depend on her own incentives, the capital structure, and financial decisions in the context of the newsvendor framework. We establish a relationship between the firm’s cost of raising funds and the riskiness of the inventory decisions of the manager. We consider four types of managers, namely, profit, equity, firm value, and profit‐equity maximizers, and initially assume that they may raise funds to increase the inventory level only by issuing debt. We show that the shareholders are indifferent between the different types of managers when the coefficient of variation (CV) of demand is low. However, this is not the case when the CV of demand is high. Based on the demand and the firm’s specific characteristics such as profitability, leverage, and bankruptcy costs, the shareholders might be better off with the manager whose compensation package is tied to the firm value as opposed to the equity value. We, then, extend our model by allowing the manager to raise the required funds by issuing both debt and equity. For this case we focus on the equity and firm value maximizer managers and show that our earlier results (for the debt only case) still hold subject to the cost of issuing equity. However the benefit of the firm value maximizer manager over the equity maximizer manager for shareholders is considerably less in this case compared to the case where the manager can only issue debt. The Board of Directors can take these factors into consideration when establishing/modifying the right incentive package for the managers. We also incorporate the notion of the asymmetric information to capture its impact on the board of directors’ decision about the managers’ incentive package.