An exploratory analysis of global managerial mindsets: a case of U.S. textile and apparel industry

Increase in business across international borders has led to many studies demonstrating the need for “global” managers. However, few operational frameworks for a global mindset have been proposed. This paper discusses the characteristics of such a global mindset in terms of conceptualization/contextualization abilities. In particular, the paradigm developed by Kefalas [Thunderbird Int. Bus. Rev. 40 (6) (1998) 547-561] was used to determine whether managers in U.S. textile and apparel industries can be defined as “globally minded”. Empirical results indicate that U.S. managers scored higher on conceptualization than on contextualization. The study demonstrates the importance of training on the development of global mindsets and the need for U.S. managers to improve their abilities in adapting to the local context, i.e., contextualization. It is recommended that global corporations should place more emphasis on the training of these skills prior to international assignments of their managers.     

Leadership styles,Machiavellianism, and needs of Saudi Arabian managers

The findings indicated that the economic environment and the cultural and religious orientations of managers in Saudi Arabia significantly influenced their scores on Machiavellianism and the relationships between their needs and leadership styles. In comparison to the U.S. norms the Saudi Arabian managers were found to be lower on Machiavellianism. Need for achievement was found to be positively related to need for power and structure dimension of leadership. The findings also showed Machiavellianism to be positively related to need for power and negatively related to consideration dimension of leadership. The findings are discussed in the context of a fast-growing economy and a highly religious and a traditional society.     

Bringing Japanese Continuous Improvement Approaches to U.S. Manufacturing: The Roles of Process Orientation and Communications*

Continuous improvement (CI) has played a key role in Japan's quality management. U.S. companies have begun to adopt CI in recent years. This paper studies the implementation of CI in seven U.S. manufacturing companies. We view values as the core concept of culture that impacts CI effectiveness. Using both qualitative and quantitative data with a sample of seven companies, we observe empirically a relationship between process-oriented values and CI effectiveness. We also find that communications involving workers is strongly associated with CI effectiveness. Finally, we find an association between process orientation and communication frequency, and argue that communications act as an intervening variable between process orientation and effectiveness.     

Linear and Nonlinear Valence Functions: A Behavioral Decision-Making Assessment

In Vroom's [45] original formulation of expectancy theory, the relationship between affect and perceived instrumentality was assumed to be linear. Others have suggested that such a relationship may be better modeled by a nonlinear, utility-type function [30]. The current research contrasts the predictive ability of two linear and four nonlinear functions. Using four levels of McClelland's [26] needs for achievement, affiliation, and power as instrumentalities, 101 subjects provided more than 12,900 decisions on the valences of jobs in a behavioral decision-making experiment. Nearly 40 percent of the subjects exhibited nonlinear valence functions. The results emphasize the need to specify the appropriate functional form of the valence component to enhance predictive accuracy and to prevent misspecification problems.     

Understanding managers' preferences for internal markets versus business planning: A comparative study of German and U.S. managers

Internal markets and centralized business planning are alternative organizational designs for coordinating the economic activities within a firm. While some preliminary theory about when to use each exists in the literature, little is known about how managers understand and decide when to use one or the other. The study develops and tests in samples of German and U.S. managers a preliminary theory about factors that influence the preferences of managers for internal markets or planning as alternative modes of coordination. Managers' preferences are influenced by key constructs of internal markets and planning theory (the perceived limits of planning, speed and efficiency of markets, motivation potential of markets), but also by differences in their institutional contexts (national government and business context, company culture, and recent company experience with planning and internal markets). The study is the first to explore the substitutability of internal markets and planning within the strategic decision process of managers, closer to where it becomes reality.     

On becoming a leader in Asia and America: Empirical evidence from women managers

In concordance with recent calls for cross-cultural leadership research as well as research on women leaders, this study investigated how women in Asia and the U.S. become leaders and how they enact their leadership. In-depth interviews with 76 mid- to upper-level female managers in Asia (China, India, Singapore) and the U.S. were conducted. Analyses revealed that a simple dichotomy of “Asian” versus “Western” leadership did not appropriately describe the data. Rather, factors such as achievement orientation, learning orientation, and role models emerged as crucial success factors for advancement to leadership positions across continents. However, the particular meaning differed between countries. Furthermore, with regard to women's leadership style differences between Asian countries were more salient than between Asia and the U.S. Implications for leadership theory and practice are discussed.     

International investment motivations of U.S. wineries

This study used personal and telephone interviews of wine industry executives and observers to examine the foreign direct investment motivations of U.S. wineries. Underlying most winery motivations was the recognition that U.S. wineries sense increasing pressure to offer a competitive range of wines that meet the price/quality needs of consumers and retailers in important markets and market segments. Wineries’ marketing plans are often constrained by their ability to obtain adequate grape and juice supplies that meet important price and quality criteria, especially when domestic grape production drops. The importance of product portfolios and the industry’s resource dependence have placed tremendous pressures on U.S. wineries to coordinate winegrape and juice acquisitions, especially as retailers consolidate their supply chains. Some U.S. wineries have invested abroad in response to these pressures while others have not. Interview results suggest that foreign investments by U.S. wineries were primarily motivated by the need for greater access to stable or adequate winegrape/juice supplies, the need for more control over the winegrape costs within given quality levels, and the desire to expand wine portfolios.     

Values predicting leader performance in the U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Assessment Center: evidence for a personality-mediated model

The notion that leaders' values and motives influence their effectiveness is an old one. Little is known, however, about the role of values and motives on the ratings of leadership in assessment center settings. The present study examined the interrelationships between motives and values, personality, and rated leadership performance in a military assessment center designed for Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets. We examined power and affiliation, two value orientations found to predict leadership effectiveness as measured by managerial/leader performance in McClelland and Burnham's leader motive pattern (LMP). We expand on past research using the LMP by studying its utility in an assessment center setting and by positing that the personality factor of extraversion acts a mediator of the values–leadership linkage. Analyses revealed that extraversion completely mediated the relationship between affiliation and cadet leadership assessment, and extraversion partially mediated the relationship between power and cadet leadership assessment. Our results are discussed along with implications of the present study and directions for future research.     

Flexible manufacturing systems performance in U.S. automotive manufacturing plants: a case study

Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) philosophy is a key weapon in achieving global manufacturing competitiveness. It encompasses a wide range of dimensions to improve all aspects of operational performance metrics. The aim of the study is to examine the current state of flexibility adoption in U.S. automotive manufacturing facilities and its impact on operational performance metrics. It utilizes survey questionnaire developed based on previous work in U.S. manufacturing industry. The survey was originally distributed to 420 facility managers in the U.S. domestic automotive industry. It was revealed that 70% of the respondents had implemented all 15 flexibility dimensions listed in the questionnaire. The data analysis conducted shows that implementation of certain flexibility dimensions will lead to significant improvement in specific operational performance metrics. This considerable finding can be used as a guide for manufacturing managers to achieve certain objectives in operational performance improvement in a rapidly changing environment.     

Facts and myths about suicide: a study of Jewish and Arab students in Israel

This research investigates the knowledge and myths regarding suicide among students in Israel, and examines whether they are affected by ethnic origin, gender, and religiosity. A random sample of 450 undergraduate students from two colleges was asked to fill out the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ). Knowledge was measured by five SOQ items (alpha = 0.57) and myths of suicide by 20 SOQ items (alpha = 0.67). The level of Israeli students' knowledge about suicide is generally good (X = 3.21; SD = 0.58). There are significant differences, however, between the Jewish (n = 266) and Arab (n = 154) students in knowledge about basic facts of suicide in Israel [(X Arabs = 3.04; X Jews = 3.32; t (419, 0.95) = 4.63, p < .001)]. Although both groups share the same educational milieu, the Arab students tend more to believe that suicide rates are higher in Israel, and even more so among people of Asian African origin and minorities. They also perceive suicide by shooting to be the most popular suicide method. There are also significant differences between those groups with respect to their belief in suicide myths [(X Arabs = 2.91; SD = 0.40; X Jews = 3.17, SD = 0.41; t (419, 0.95)= 6.31, p < 0.01)]. Arabs tend more to relate suicide to lower religious affiliation, mental illness and chronic tendency, and to believe that the victim's relatives know nothing about the coming suicide. No significant differences were found based on religiosity or gender. Discussion focuses on the influence of the different cultural characteristics of lifestyle and the social control systems among Jews and Arabs in Israel on perceptions toward suicide.     

Management and the social environment

Most social change in the past 50 years in the U.K. has been associated with the relatively slow maturing of a highly industrialized society. There are now clear signs that Britain is entering an ‘age of discontinuity’ and that, increasingly, social change will reflect transition from an industrialized to a post-industrial stage of development. This transition will inevitably involve a transfer of power in society, away from the industrial organization and on to other institutions—the state itself, organized labour, consumer organizations and various pressure groups. In the context of such changes it becomes more and more imperative that business organizations should take social factors into account in decision making and that managers should acquire new knowledge and techniques to enable them to contribute to this process. The role of the management educator should be to heighten social awareness among managers, to stimulate a need for knowledge of the social environment and of social change, to indicate where and how such knowledge can be acquired, and to help managers develop skills and techniques of analysis and decision-making appropriate to social data.     

Emotional labour,collectivism and strain: a comparison of Turkish and U.S. service employees

ABSTRACT

Global growth in service employment highlights the need to understand how cross-cultural differences impact emotional labour processes for service employees. The current study investigates these differences by examining the impact of national and individual level collectivistic values on emotional labour strategies and employee strain (emotional strain, turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment). Cross-sectional data was collected from U.S. (n?=?191) and Turkish (n?=?249) customer service employees. Results indicate that collectivism impacts the process model of emotional labour via direct and interaction effects. Collectivism was associated with higher emotional labour engagement and lower employee strains. Surface acting was uncorrelated with Turkish employees’ strain, though moderated regression analyses revealed interaction effects associated with national and individual level collectivism. These results suggest that collectivistic values may serve as a buffer against harmful effects associated with surface acting. This study is the first to directly compare emotional labour processes in U.S. and Turkish service employees and expand the process model of emotional labour to include collectivism. The theoretical implications of this expanded model are discussed, along with future research directions and practical applications of these findings.     

An empirical investigation of managerial achievement,job statisfaction and values: An informational perspective

Provision of appropriate information and feedback to managers is crucial for the success of an organization. This study examines the availability and desirability of various informational feedback mechanisms to a group of managers in Saudi Arabia. Study results highlight some interesting differences among managers with varying value orientations and satisfaction profiles in terms of their informational needs. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

A Comparative Analysis of Quality Practice in Manufacturing Firms in the U.S. and Taiwan*

The aim of this paper is to determine if there is a causal relationship between multivariate constructs for quality (i.e., customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and employee service quality) and organizational performance. The presence of such relationships, as well as the identification of key indicators within each quality construct for different types of firms, are explored in this empirical study on the perceptions of middle managers in Taiwan and the United States. The study found a significant causal relationship between the quality constructs and organizational performance. These relationships are different, however, for the four types of firms based on age and size. Also, within the same firm types, there are differences among countries. For example, for older firms, Taiwanese managers tend to perceive customer satisfaction as the most important quality construct in improving organizational performance, while U.S. managers tend to perceive employee satisfaction as the most important. For younger firms, U.S. managers perceive customer satisfaction as influencing organizational performance, while Taiwanese managers perceive both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction as doing so. A further breakdown of the quality constructs identified the key indicators within each construct that separates “better performers'’from “lesser performers'’in both countries for the four types of firms. These indicators are dissimilar, thus suggesting that focus on quality constructs may lead to improvements in organizational performance by focusing on different indicators in different environments. These results have implications for the adoption and implementation of quality practices in different countries.     

次贷危机前后国际原油市场与中美股票市场间的协动性研究

本文运用基于动态条件相关的多元GARCH(DCC-MVGARCH)模型,对美国次信贷危机发生前后国际原油市场和中、美股票市场间的协动性变化进行了研究。实证结果表明在次信贷危机发生后,国际原油市场与中、美股票市场间的协动性有了明显的增强,不同市场间的波动具有明显的传导作用。国际原油市场与美国股市的协动性相对于中国股市波动性更强,说明冲击在国际原油市场与美国股市间的传导更强烈,其协动性对冲击的反应更敏感。另外,运用偏最小二乘方法(PLS)对影响国际原油市场和中、美股票市场的诸多因素在次信贷危机爆发前后对协动性解释能力的变化进行了分析,结果发现次信贷危机对这些因素的解释能力有明显的影响。     

Cooperation among competitors as status-seeking behavior: Network ties and status differentiation

Status-based affiliation represents a valuable resource in economic exchange. However, affiliation strategies introduce a status ordering paradox: whereas higher status actors seek to maintain status hierarchies, lower status actors strive to affiliate with more prestigious actors. In this paper, using original data on the network of social and professional ties among 72 hotel managers clustered in an Italian hotel district, we develop a theory of status-seeking behavior that involves the exchange of status for valued resources.     

The General Manager's Perspective On How Factionalism Can Impact the Behaviors and Effectiveness of Top Managers Inside A Shared Management Joint Venture

This research is focused on joint ventures that are operated with a shared management governance structure. It is argued that the effectiveness of top management inside such a joint venture will be significantly determined by the nature of relations between the managers transferred from the different parent firms. Within that context, emphasis is placed on relational factors that can have an important bearing on the quality of decision making inside the joint venture. Data is collected from top executives at seventy-five shared management joint ventures and the results suggest several significant linkages. First, a growing sense of ``us' versus ``them' factionalism between managers from different parent companies is associated with a heightened propensity for the use of power in an impersonal and manipulative way. Second, those attitudes and behaviors undermine the openness of communications and information exchanges between the managers. Third, as those attitudes and behaviors intensify they have increasingly dysfunctional consequences for the development and execution of high quality decisions, and management effectiveness deteriorates. Moreover, interdependence between the managers aggravates this phenomenon because it strengthens the link between negative attitudes and dysfunctional behavior. The implications for joint venture performance are evident.     

Power sharing at senior management levels

The paper presents research findings on decision making and differences in skill perception between 55 dyads of German managers of large organizations. These findings are related to research on carefully matched samples in the U.S. and U.K. The data, while still confined to two variables (two vertical and one horizontal method of measuring power sharing, and two ways of measuring perceptual differences between closely related decision makers), confirm the validity of a contingency model of managerial decision making and power sharing.     

Effective leadership in the Mexican maquiladora: challenging common expectations

This article reports a cross-cultural study of Mexican and U.S. leaders in Mexican maquiladoras. The research builds on relational demography to determine if leader ethnicity, regional Mexican culture, and organizational affiliation moderate the impact of leadership behavior on important organizational outcomes. We examined the impacts of specific leader behaviors on follower attitudes and performance. Contrary to expectations from the current cross-cultural leadership literature, managerial leaders from the United States had approximately the same effects on the Mexican workforce as managerial leaders from Mexico. However, regional differences within Mexico and organizational affiliation were significant moderators. We postulate that there are at least two leader prototypes in Mexico: the “transitional” leader and the more “traditional” leader. Additional implications of these findings for leadership in Mexico are discussed.     

Globalization and its impact on global managers' decision processes

Globalization of business can have a profound impact on the decision-making processes of managers responsible for making these complex interrelated decisions. This paper explores the global decision-making processes of global managers. The first element examined is the multiple intelligences that global managers need to be able to address the issues associated with global decisions. These eight IQs are considered critical elements in the decision-making capabilities of global managers. Following this discussion, the composition of global groups and their impact on the decision-making process is explored to determine how the composition of the group inhibits/supports the global manager. The next step in the decision-making process discussed in the paper is that of the nature of the task(s). The type of task can have a direct impact on the effectiveness as well as the efficiency of global manager's decision-making. The crux of the issue is that a global orientation to decision-making is poised as being significantly different from decision processes use by managers in a multinational context.