Changing perspectives on the capital investment process

The environment within which institutions undertake commercial and industrial activity changes both as a result of decisions dependent on the institution itself and as a result of decisions independent of the institution. In recent years many of these changes have resulted in changing perspectives on the range of criteria which should be considered when determining how and where large corporations should invest their money. This paper examines these changes in corporate practice and identifies the cumulative results of these changes in the environment of corporate activity. The paper also examines some of the key elements in new approaches which corporations are adopting to capital investment decisions by utilizing data on a broadly based research project which examines in depth the capital investment/ resource allocation processes of five large, worldwide, manufacturing firms. The subject is of vital importance to large and small businesses, both because of the crucial importance of investment decisions and because of the importance for future strategic planning of identifying the environment within which corporate activities take place.     

Changing Conceptions of Employee Compensation

Abstract

This paper reviews and discusses many differing forms of incentive compensation systems that are being used in today's organizations. The review traces the roots of bonus compensation from individual piece-work plans through the adoption of organization-wide gainsharing plans to the growing recognition of open-book management. Reasons for the shift in units of analysis from the individual employee to the work team or organization as a whole are discussed. Explanations are also given for why many companies are beginning to concentrate on outcomes rather than process measures as indicators of organizational success. Lastly, suggestions for enhancing the research agenda and bridging the gap between science and practice are provided for the scientists and practitioners of organizational behavior management.     

Governance,boards and value co-creation: Changing perspectives towards a service dominant logic

In this multidisciplinary and conceptual paper, we use insights from new and challenging developments in the management and marketing literature to inform corporate governance research. We shed light on the role of governance and specifically boards of directors in value creation in small and medium enterprises. While corporate governance research mostly tends to emphasise the role of governance mechanisms such as boards in the protection and distribution of value, our research problematises such a narrow view and (re)conceptualises their role in value co-creation. By exploring the role of boards as resource integrators within a wider service ecosystem, we propose novel ways in which boards can become integral to firms’ value creation processes. In doing so, we develop a new logic for framing the boards’ tasks and suggest new directions for corporate governance research and practice. We apply an empirical conceptualisation strategy in order to make our findings more accessible.     

Disaffected Loyalties in a Changing Contractual Environment

In this paper we examine the effects of the changing employee-employer relationship on loyalty – a construct we developed along Hirschman’s model. The impact on perceptions of loyalty during a downsizing is assessed using a design that manipulates HRM policies toward the use of temporary employees, retraining, employee voice, seniority and community coordination. We introduce ideological orientation as a variable that will have direct and indirect affects. Both MBA students and managers (N = 269) participated in the study. All HRM policies and ideological orientations have direct affects; in addition some indirect effects for ideological orientation emerged. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

组织结构变革的复杂适应系统观

复杂适应系统的组织被认为是现代经营环境条件下企业生存的重要形式,它要求构成组织的行为主体既相对独立又相互联系和依赖,能够根据各自所处的环境条件进行内部变革和相互关系调整,以适应复杂变化的环境和条件。本文根据复杂适应系统理论,阐述了组织变革的趋势和未来形式,给出复杂适应组织设计原理,指出现有企业组织变革成为复杂适应系统的途径。     

Changing Forest Disturbance Regimes and Risk Perceptions in Homer, Alaska

Forest disturbances caused by insects can lead to other disturbances, risks, and changes across landscapes. Evaluating the human dimensions of such disturbances furthers understanding of integrated changes in natural and social systems. This article examines the effects of changing forest disturbance regimes on local risk perceptions and attitudes in Homer, Alaska. Homer experienced a spruce bark beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) outbreak with large-scale tree mortality and a 5,000-acre fire in 2005. Qualitative interviews and quantitative analysis of mail surveys are used to examine community risk perception and relationships with land managers pre- and post-fire. Results show a decrease in the saliency of the spruce bark beetle as a community issue, a coalescence of community risk perceptions about fire, and conflicting findings about satisfaction with land managers and its relationship with risk perception.     

Changing Leadership and Gender in Public Sector Organizations

The aim of this paper is to examine the ways in which leadership at middle management level in the public realm is gendered. This is attempted largely through a consideration of academic literature, supported by some empirical findings from a research investigation into higher education and social work in Sweden and England and a review of literature that reveals varying types of leadership characterized as masculinist. Taking the position that context shapes social relationships and subject positions, and provides opportunities as well as constraints, we consider leadership in the public sector under the sway of new public management, framed by neo‐liberalism and the valorization of competition, self‐interested instrumentality, uncertainty and risk, operationalized in public sector organizations through performative regimes. It is argued that while some women and men are willing participants in the new regimes, others are antagonistic or ambivalent, finding themselves mired in neo‐bureaucratic processes of surveillance and control, often stuck in occupational cul‐de‐sacs. It is contended that neo‐liberalism and new public management are associated with masculinist forms of rationality that elevate individual winners and losers and divert attention from collective issues of gender. Rather than focus on gendered styles of leadership it is suggested that it is more important to look at their gendered performance and effects.     

Changing values and lifestyles

It has been apparent for several years that changes in people's values in the United States, have been occurring more frequently and having greater impact than has previously been experienced. The most significant impacts appear to be coming from people whose values and lifestyles are considerably less materialistic than traditional American values.Work at SRI, spanning more than a decade, had identified a new and rapidly growing group of people, the ‘inner directeds’; while more traditional groups—‘outer directeds’ and ‘money restricted’—have been declining as percentages of the population. These three major groups and their subdivisions are described in the article and particular emphasis is given to the inner directed group since it is likely to have the greatest impact on business, the market and government.     

The Adaption of Management Accounting Systems to Changing Market Conditions: Japanese Evidence

This paper considers how Japanese management accounting interfaces with the new production environments being implemented in Japan. A review of evidence on the relative importance of the set of management accounting and production engineering techniques is presented. On the basis of these results the paper presents tentative predictions about the evolutionary path of future management accounting in Japan.     

Changing competitive strategies in the telecommunications subscriber equipment industry

This paper will outline recent major changes in the international structure of the subscriber equipment industry and attempt to explain the factors which have caused these changes. The focus will be the strategies and competitive behaviour of the leading telecommunications subscriber equipment firms in the major OECD countries, within the context of the changing technological and regulatory environment.     

The Changing Influence of Societal Culture on Job Satisfaction across Europe

This paper contributes to the growing multidisciplinary body of literature on subjective well‐being by investigating the longitudinal stability and impact of societal cultural values (SCVs) – as opposed to the more common organizational values – on job satisfaction. It is assumed that SCVs evolve slowly; hence, their impact on job satisfaction is likely to remain stable over time. False adherence to this assumption could cause misalignment between organizational policies/practices and expectations formed by societal culture, decreasing job satisfaction and adversely affecting productivity, competiveness and prosperity. Four waves of the European Values Study are used to examine whether SCVs have evolved and their impacts on job satisfaction over a relatively short time: 1981–2008. SCVs are parameterized through reference to traditional vs secular‐rational, and survival vs self‐expression value continuums. Results indicate that the strength of many SCVs has declined, the impacts of traditional societal values on job satisfaction have remained fairly constant, and the impacts of survival societal values on job satisfaction have declined substantially over this sample period. These reductions in SCVs amplify the importance of accounting for such changes when designing new or adjusting existing policies/practices to enhance job satisfaction and stimulate improvements in productivity, competitiveness and prosperity.     

Changing bonuses and the resulting effects of employees’ incentives to an inspection game

The following paper analyses an intraorganizational conflict in materials management between a manager, a controller and the company management. By using a game theoretic approach, this paper especially seeks to answer the question: ‘Do bonuses change employees’ incentives when the focus is directed at the control level of company management?’ This analysis is based upon an application of a three-person inspection game. Within the three-person game a partial influence of a variation of penalties and bonuses is measured analytically. A simultaneous variation of the bonuses for the subordinated players, as the incentive effect to guarantee rational behaviour, is presented here as a simulation. While different intervals of bonus values, which also affect the payoff of the company management, and their influence on the equilibrium probabilities are examined, it becomes apparent that bonuses are able to neutralize each other in their effect on improved decision-making behaviours of the manager (inspectee) and the controller (inspector). But also a diverse variation leads to positive and negative effects on the manager’s behaviour.     

The Changing Informal Labour Market in Brazil: Cyclicality versus Excessive Intervention

Although following an anti-cyclical behaviour over the last decade, Brazil's informal sector seems to have grown recently as a response to excessive government intervention in the productive system. Despite high inflation and sluggish economic performance, Brazil continues to live with low unemployment and only sporadic social unrest. A substantial informal sector is thought to be acting as a cushion to help minimize labour market instability. This paper reviews the main concepts and methodologies proposed in the literature, summarizes the results obtained by different authors, and presents some additional information on the recent informalization of the Brazilian labour markets.     

Engineering or metal-bashing?—Changing the image

This paper is concerned with the image of two large engineering firms, both based in the UK, but with global ambitions rapidly being realized. In both cases, the firm's image had conveyed the impression of a Midland's ‘metal-basher’, a traditional engineering firm manufacturing a wide range of uncomplicated products. In neither case was this image an accurate reflection of the firm's businesses, and in neither case was the image deliberately cultivated. However, in one case senior management saw the metal-bashing image to be so incompatible with global aspirations that it was deliberately expunged. In the other, the same image was deemed less damaging to international aspirations and no specific efforts were made to change it. The paper examines some of the strategic implications of making such a change, and considers some of the lessons that might be derived for organizational change in general. Senior managers in both companies were interviewed over a two-year period and their views are recorded in quotation throughout the paper.     

Changing Public Service Organizations: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects

As governments and public service organizations across the globe engage in strategies of institutional and organizational change, it is timely to examine current developments and a future research agenda for public governance and management. The paper commences with reflections on the state of the field, based on an analysis of papers published in the British Journal of Management over the last decade. While there was some variation apparent across the set, the 'typical' article was found to be influenced by the discipline of organizational behaviour, set within the health-care sector, using case-study methods within field-based studies, and investigating shifts in roles and relationships and the management of change. It has also in the past been UK-centric, though the journal editorial policy and our own article call for a stronger international and comparative focus in the future. The second section of the article summarizes the articles and themes contained in this collection of papers on public service organizations. The third section explores a possible research agenda for the future, arguing for the significance of public sector research for the understanding of management more generally, and for examining the interface between private and public organizations (an increasingly common phenomenon). We suggest the need to set public services research in policy and political contexts, and suggest this may reveal organizational processes of wide interest. We call for a wider set of disciplines to engage in public management research, and to engage in moving the agenda from the study of efficiency to effectiveness as defined by a variety of stakeholders. We address the issue of how far public management researchers should become directly engaged with the world of policy and suggest that whether researchers engage in Mode 1 or Mode 2 research, their work would benefit from a stronger theoretical base.     

Changing Public Service Organizations: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects

As governments and public service organizations across the globe engage in strategies of institutional and organizational change, it is timely to examine current developments and a future research agenda for public governance and management. The paper commences with reflections on the state of the field, based on an analysis of papers published in the British Journal of Management over the last decade. While there was some variation apparent across the set, the ‘typical’ article was found to be influenced by the discipline of organizational behaviour, set within the health‐care sector, using case‐study methods within field‐based studies, and investigating shifts in roles and relationships and the management of change. It has also in the past been UK‐centric, though the journal editorial policy and our own article call for a stronger international and comparative focus in the future. The second section of the article summarizes the articles and themes contained in this collection of papers on public service organizations. The third section explores a possible research agenda for the future, arguing for the significance of public sector research for the understanding of management more generally, and for examining the interface between private and public organizations (an increasingly common phenomenon). We suggest the need to set public services research in policy and political contexts, and suggest this may reveal organizational processes of wide interest. We call for a wider set of disciplines to engage in public management research, and to engage in moving the agenda from the study of efficiency to effectiveness as defined by a variety of stakeholders. We address the issue of how far public management researchers should become directly engaged with the world of policy and suggest that whether researchers engage in Mode 1 or Mode 2 research, their work would benefit from a stronger theoretical base.     

All Things Great and Small: Organizational Size,Boundaries of the Firm,and a Changing Environment

Abstract

Research findings have established a relationship between organizational size and a substantial set of organizational outcomes, resulting in size's distinction as “perhaps the most powerful explanatory organizational covariate in strategic analysis”. We draw on the theory of the firm to provide a theory-driven definition of firm size and as a framework to organize the diverse research on firm size. We examine studies over the last 20 plus years since the last review of research on organizational size that have expanded our understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of larger firms, the environmental factors that have changed the merits of firms relative to markets, the managerial bias to pursue growth, and the most recent findings on the performance implications of organizational size. In doing so, the review provides extensions to our understanding of the theory of the firm, by integrating contingency theory, the resource-based theory of the firm, leadership theories, and the knowledge-based view of the firm. In addition, based on an extensive review of the measurement methodologies for the most common control variable employed by strategy scholars, this review outlines a rich and robust set of opportunities for future research to explore the nature of organizational size and its effects.     

Changing Patterns of Residential Care

The use of soft-tie restraint, a common means of controlling the assaultive behavior of mentally retarded residents in institutions, was examined with a retrospective design. Naturally occurring changes over a 39-month period were divided into (a) changes in management personnel that were associated with changes in management support of behavioral programming, (b) changes in staff training and feedback, and (c) a change in the physical location of the Program. Use of restraint decreased when the use of behavioral programming was supported by management and increased when it was not. When a four-person Training Team provided staff with training and formal and informal fecdback, restraint was used less than it was when the Training Team was outside the Program and training and feedback were not provided. Changing the physical location of the Program had little effect on the use of restraint. Relative to baseline, use of restraint decreased by 80% when management supported the use of behavioral programming and the Training Team was in the Program providing training and feedback. Reductions in the use of restraint were correlated with a corresponding reduction in Special Incident Reports which were filed when an event such as injury to a resident or staff member occurred.     

The Production of Several Items in a Single Facility with Linearly Changing Demand Rates

In this paper we extend the ELSP model to allow for linearly changing demand rates over a fixed planning horizon. This extension of the ELSP research provides a model that can be used in coordinating the production and marketing planning activities in a firm. The model allows the user to evaluate the impact of changes in product demand on production costs and customer service. We solve the model using a standard nonlinear programming package (MINOS) and show through examples based on actual production data how the model can be used to support coordinated production and marketing planning.     

无风险利率变化时的实物期权定价方法研究

在现有的实物期权定价模型中,作为折现率的无风险利率被视为常数不发生变化,但实际上由于实物期权的到期时间较长而且不一定固定不变,作为折现率的无风险利率也并不总是固定的,而有可能发生变化.因此,研究无风险利率变化时的实物期权定价方法具有重要的理论意义和现实意义.本文正是考虑到这一点,首先假设无风险利率的变化服从Ornstein-Uhlenbeck随机过程,得到无风险利率变化时的实物期权定价公式,然后放松假设条件用Cox的利率均衡模型重新描述无风险利率的运动形式后,又对上述定价公式进行了修正,在此基础上本文给出一个数字实例对传统实物期权定价方法和考虑无风险利率变化时的实物期权定价方法进行比较.