A managerial and personal control model: predictions of work alienation and organizational commitment in Hungary

This article examines the influence of managerial and personal control upon work-related alienation and organizational commitment in the Eastern-European nation of Hungary. The research identifies the extent to which Western management theory and practices are relevant to transitional economic nations such as Hungary. We chose leadership and job characteristics as managerial control mechanisms and locus of control as a personal mechanism of control. These categories of control variables have well-established associations to attitudes and behaviors in the Western management literature, but limited evidence has been generated in Hungary. A survey among 395 Hungarian workers in five companies found that leadership, job characteristics, and individual locus of control explained work-related alienation but did not explain organizational commitment. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Finding and Implementing Energy Efficiency Projects in Industrial Facilities

This study addresses the challenges of finding and implementing profitable energy efficiency (EE) projects, a critical foundation for sustainable operations. We focus on manufacturing enterprises, but many of our findings apply also to the back office of service operations. Our starting point is that, in nearly every industrial enterprise, there are many profitable EE projects that could be implemented but are not. An oft‐cited hindrance to implementation is the lack of an internal management framework in which to find, value, and execute these projects. Using a conceptual approach, we rely on proven sustainable operations tools to develop such a framework. We identify three major value drivers of EE projects: savings intensity, “green” image, and project complexity. We then describe a framework for understanding the context of EE projects in industry, with an underlying analytic foundation in optimal portfolio analysis. A case study of a large manufacturing site is used to illustrate emerging best practices—based on Kaizen management principles—for integrating EE project management with operations, engineering, and strategy.     

业务退出的动力机制

企业业务退出过程中各参与者的利益冲突制约了退出决策的顺利进行.本文认为,为了促进业务退出,企业除了应建立完善的经营体制和以董事会为首的内部监控体系外,更应该注意从企业管理层和公司战略决策层的角度,建立起一个战略业务退出的动力机制.     

The effects of the interactive use of management control systems on process and organizational innovation

This study examines how the interactive use of management control systems (iMCS) affects process and organizational innovation. Firstly, it is postulated that iMCS directly influences the development of process and organizational innovations. Secondly, we argue in favor of a moderating role of iMCS in the relationship between innovation and financial performance. Most studies of MCS and innovation have focused on new product development. However, process and organizational innovations follow innovation patterns that clearly differ from product innovation. The research model is empirically examined using data collected from a survey of 230 firms. Results from a structural model tested applying Partial Least Squares regression, controlling for size, family ownership, R&D, and product innovation, reveal that iMCS fosters process and organizational innovation. Results also suggest that iMCS could play a moderator role in the relationship between process innovation and financial performance. These findings highlight the role of iMCS in process and organizational innovation, expanding previous literature on Simons’ Levers of Control and innovation. The results are also discussed with regard to their managerial implications.     

Distinction making and pattern recognition in management

The ability to make new distinctions in management, and to diffuse these rapidly throughout a company into shared practices, will be a corporate strategic advantage in the future. Johan Roos justifies this view on the grounds that knowledge development provides the foundation for distinction making, and it is the management of this knowledge that provides the driver.The author argues it is the process of distinction making which is a conscious managerial process. He first discusses the art of making distinctions in general, and then focuses on a particular form of distinction making: pattern recognition. He concludes with three managerial actions that can be taken to enhance the pattern recognition capability of an organisation.     

Knowledge modelling for contract disputes and change control

The construction industry involves many participants with different perspectives and requirements. Contracts can provide significant value, and yet ineffective contract management frequently leads to disputes. In practice, contracts are hardly reviewed, and contract management is limited. This study aims to investigate how firms can improve their internal processes relating to knowledge management (KM) through effective contract management to aid construction practitioners in managing contract disputes and changes. Using a questionnaire survey and a workshop involving experienced industry practitioners and researchers, the findings reveal that project- and individual-level implementation of KM processes is stronger than at the organizational level, and also there are substantial human resources (HR) practices that support contractual KM. Workshop participants believe efficient and effective KM can minimise losses from contract changes and disputes. A construction contract management process framework, a 19-step benchmarking model for contract management and a construction planning checklist for contractors are proposed.     

Some Implications for Management Development of Research into Managers' Moral Dilemmas

In this paper, we present two cases of moral dilemmas as told by the managers who had faced them. We analyse the cases, drawing on frameworks developed by Toffler (1986), Kohlberg (1981) and Maclagan (1990). We also comment on the broader findings of the research from which the cases were taken. These analyses and findings and those of other researchers (e.g. Waters et al., 1986) suggest a number of requisite ‘moral attributes’ for managers and have, we argue, significant implications for the curriculum for ethical education and development for managers and intending managers. One is that case material needs to reflect more strongly the actual experiences of practising managers; another is that there is scope for wider use of experiential methods on management ethics courses. We conclude with a call for a multifaceted approach to ethical education as a lifespan process entailing the development of personal and interpersonal skills and qualities, and self-knowledge as well as cognitive skills. While we acknowledge that ethical education needs to take account of learners' differing levels of prior experience, stages of moral development and levels of learning maturity, our over-riding concern is that learners are prepared for and helped to live through the very ‘real’ dilemmas that they are likely to experience in managerial work.     

End-to-end process management: implications for theory and practice

The term ‘end-to-end’ process management is now commonplace in the language and practice of operations. Managers are encouraged to migrate from functional process management to end-to-end process management to realise a range of performance improvements. However, these improvements are often elusive; the specific challenges associated with such a migration are under-researched. This paper uses a cross-sector study to identify the challenges of end-to-end process management and to generate practical managerial guidance. Three areas are identified that demand particular managerial attention: the need to move beyond process mapping, the role of IT in process management and maintaining the process infrastructure as a strategic asset. More significantly, the findings highlight the need for greater conceptual clarity regarding the end-to-end concept itself. The existing literature suggests that scope is the primary differentiator of the end-to-end process – the requirement to manage an extended boundary from customer order through to customer fulfilment. However, this research suggests that the end-to-end concept is more complex, comprising of three core constructs with seven dimensions: scope (boundary conditions, sequence/flow and controls); scale (resources and input/output transformation) and complexity (interrelationships and orientation). End-to-end process management involves much more than an extended boundary. It requires a systemic perspective and clarity regarding controls and transforming resources.     

Managerial Perceptions and the Essence of the Managerial World: What is an Interloper Business Executive to Make of the Academic‐Researcher Perceptions of Managers?

I argue that the Mezias and Starbuck (2003) research programme misses being managerially relevant by investigating the extent of perceptual inaccuracies among managers rather than the more valuable question of from where these inaccuracies arise and what their consequences are in practice. As a sometime business executive, it seems to me that the closer one gets to an actual managerial position, the less significant some of the explanations and recommendations in the academic research literature appear as regards managerial concerns. To ensure relevance in the managerial research enterprise, I suggest that academics should make concrete efforts to become reasonably conversant with the managerial world before undertaking any empirical research. I also make the point that the discussion of the Mode 2 approach to knowledge production in the management field needs to move away from the current focus on straightforwardly 'bridging the relevance gap' and toward finding ways to improve the competence of Mode 2 researchers by insisting on a minimum understanding of the managerial world before embarking on management research.     

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.     

Community-Based Service-Learning: Does It Have a Role in Management Education?

Community based service-learning is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs, together with structured opportunities designed to promote student learning and development. Can it be effectively applied to address the current struggles of management education? Management education is facing a gap between traditional curricular content and society's needs for new competencies. The Academy is also faced with the challenge of more effectively relating to society's social, economic and civic problems. The results of this analysis indicate that service-learning offers a means of closing the gap by helping to prepare students who are lifelong learners and active, caring participants in their communities. Service-learning appears to be a promising means of developing such managerial skills as leadership, critical thinking, teamwork, and cooperation. The limitations of service-learning for management education are addressed as well.     

HR perceptions and the provision of workforce training in an AMT environment: An empirical study

Research literature indicates the importance of workforce development in the successful implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs). However, the relationship between advanced technologies and workforce training is assumed to be a direct one with limited consideration provided to factors that may influence it. This study examines the impacts of environment and human resource (HR) manager perceptions on the provision of workforce development activities. A human-centered technology philosophy is proposed as a conceptual framework for examining the role of HR manager perceptions to mediate the relationship between AMTs and workforce development. Results from hierarchical regressions indicate that the perceptions of HR managers regarding technology-driven workforce need to explain a large portion of the variance for both individual and process development activities. Findings support that the managerial role of assessing workforce developmental needs from basic AMTs places HR managerial perceptions at the focal point of social–technical systems. The role of environmental uncertainty is also examined as a moderator of managerial perceptions of technology-driven needs in an AMT environment. The results suggest that environmental uncertainty did not moderate the relationship between HR perceptions as a predictor of workforce development activities. This could imply that HR managers may not consider critical external environment issues when making decisions of workforce development activities. The implications of these findings for HR perceptions in an AMT environment are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

人文视野下的中西方管理思想比较

在承认管理理论具有超越地域文化的普适性基础上,以中西方管理思想的比较为逻辑起点,通过比较中西方在管理视角、管理基点、管理方法、管理行为和管理原则等方面存在诸多的差异,力图为管理理论在中国的学科建设中建立不同于西方的测量维度,提供可资观察和应用的理论工具。     

The Impact of Insider Power on Fraudulent Financial Reporting

This study examines the relationship between top management team duality and the decision to release false financial information. Using a matched sample of 103 firms that were convicted of issuing fraudulent financial statements in the period from 1992 to 1996, the results show that this form of illegal corporate behavior is more likely to occur when there is a concentration of power in the hands of insiders. For these firms, insiders control the top management team and the Board of Directors by simultaneously occupying the key managerial positions of clout within the firm while also sitting on the Board (duality), and through their ownership interest in the firm.     

The individualized corporation: An interview with Sumantra Ghoshal

Sumantra Ghoshal discusses the main features of his and Christopher Bartlett's new book, The Individualized Corporation, leading on to some of his current thinking on management issues in multinational corporations.Much of the book is devoted to describing the new corporate model, and to suggesting how such a company can be built and managed. Ghoshal points out that the major challenge to an individualized corporation is to manage people. A successful firm has a ‘smell of the place’ which motivates and invigorates its people. It also is capable of joint learning and a transformation process that progressively involves rationalization, revitalization and continuous self-renewal: the last of these is called in the book ‘cooking sweet and sour’.Reflecting Ghoshal's evolving thinking, the book moves well beyond managerial specifics to the realm of corporate philosophy. Management doctrine is changing from the old model of strategy, structure and systems to one built on purpose, process and people - a doctrine which embodies a new moral contact with employees.Looking at the future, Ghoshal insists we need an institutional theory of the firm, which recognizes their role as social institutions and also the role of management in distinguishing the visible hand of companies from the invisible hand of markets. This, and an inquiry into the management of the process of change - at a managerial, micro-level of analysis - is his new personal intellectual challenge.     

Augmenting Local Managerial Capacity Through Knowledge Collectivities: The Case of Volvo Car China

The investigation of socialization as a conduit of knowledge transfer and development (KTD) to subsidiaries in emerging economies is still in its infancy. This paper aims to discern empirically and theoretically the underlying mechanisms of interpersonal-level micro-foundations of socialization as a conduit of KTD in emerging economy subsidiaries. This study draws on a four-year longitudinal in-depth qualitative case study of Volvo Car China. The observational unit is the subsidiaries' temporal dual management constellations referred to as matched pairs (MPs). The study illustrates how the MPs acted as a means of temporal socialization, conducive in the creation of knowledge collectivities that aided in the development of local managerial capacity. A grounded model with four overarching theoretical dimensions is developed and discussed to illustrate the theoretical insights derived from this study. The main overarching disclosure is the prevalence of recursive interrelatedness between competence and competency of the individual, context-, and the expansion of managerial capacity. Findings of the case study opens up for a more nuanced view on transferring- and developing tacit and explicit knowledge in a context with less dense social capital. The study contributes to research on knowledge transfer and development, managerial capacity development, and internationalization of multinational corporations.     

New technology and developments in management organization

New technology can provide the means to institute considerable changes in management organization, both through its application to operations and through its direct use in managerial work. These changes are expected to lead to smaller more cohesive management structures on the basis of the advantages offered by new technology for control and integration. However, a number of organizational design choices are involved with the introduction of new technology. These may present uncertainties, and it is not expected that the changes discussed will be appropriate to all kinds of organization. In Britain, there are also particular institutional and cultural barriers to the full realization of new technology's managerial potential.     

情境理论化:基于中国企业战略管理实践的探讨

中国企业管理学科的发展经历了"情境钝感"、"情境敏感"和"情境效应"3个阶段,情境理论化成为基于管理实践实现理论创新的突破口。为了有效推进情境理论化的研究,应该从环境、组织与人的交互作用和动态演化来理解企业所处的情境特点。在此基础上,以中国企业战略管理研究为例,分析了情境理论化的2个途径和4个方面的能力要求;提出以市场分割性为对象,研究市场分割性的情境效应,应该是实现中国情境理论化的一种有益的尝试。