Leader vision formation and forecasting: The effects of forecasting extent,resources, and timeframe

Vision formation, and vision articulation, is held to be a central component of leader performance. Less is known, however, about the variables giving rise to viable visions. In the present effort, the impact of forecasting on vision formation was examined. Study participants were asked to write a speech describing their vision for a new school. Prior to writing this speech, participants were asked to forecast the outcomes of vision implementation. It was found that the extent of forecasting, along with forecasting of temporal and resources considerations, influenced the quality of vision statements. Forecasting was improved when people thought about causes, as opposed to goals, and implications, as opposed to facts. The implications of these findings for understanding leader performance in vision formation are discussed.     

The value circle. A profile of J. Richard Gaintner, MD.

This article describes how the arrival of CEO J. Richard Gaintner, MD, at Shands HealthCare signaled a time for refocusing the organization's direction and helping physicians to cope with the changes buffeting the industry. He saw angst and disenfranchisement, sentiments that characterized not only Shands and the University of Florida Health Science Center, but also the entire establishment of American scientific medicine. Gaintner believes--and continually preaches--that practicing medicine in a cost-effective manner will improve, not harm, the quality of care. His willingness to face reality objectively is perhaps his greatest asset in helping physicians deal with managed care. He conveys heartfelt empathy with the day-to-day conflicts they face. But he does not allow himself the temporary luxury of cynicism, and he refuses to accept negativity and pessimism in others. Rather, he asks that physicians and managers understand the system and develop the capacity to work within it and take responsibility for improving it. Beyond exhorting physicians to be accountable for the success of the enterprise, Gaintner creates mechanisms for meaningful physician participation in enterprise management.     

Competence and Competitive Advantage: Towards a Dynamic Model

Over the last ten years the concept of ‘competence’ has emerged as a central concept for competitive strategy. Several rich theoretical streams have contributed an extensive array of frameworks, definitions and papers using the concept. There is now a need to integrate these many contributions. Indeed, some of the frustration expressed recently by academics may be due to the large volume of conversation and the low level of integration. A concept that is considered so useful that many writers have incorporated it in their work will be of little value if it takes on different meanings for every use. If competence is to be used to explain relationships among variables and to build richer understandings of the roots of competitive advantage, then the field needs to engage in a serious conversation that attempts to focus this concept. Competence needs to be understood in a way that is faithful to its theoretical roots, allows the multiple dimensions that underpin competitive advantage to be meaningfully integrated and is specific enough that meaningful differences can emerge when used as a variable in empirical research. This paper seeks to begin a conversation toward that end by presenting a conceptualization that meets all of these requirements. The paper builds its conceptualization around satisfying the elements of a dynamic model of the relationship between competence and competitive advantage.     

The changing structure of food retailing in europe: the implications for strategy

European food retailers have increased their scale and scope while concentrating sales into large stores. Strategic implications include the need for scale to compete and organisational relationships to move from supply push to demand pull retailing. Consequences are different for private label and for branded manufacturers, who must respond to the demands of retail supply chains whilst retaining control of product development. Further concentration in both sectors is likely. Consumers are more mobile, but more captive to the retailer in store. Public policy makers are challenged to find new measures of retail power and both allow for innovation and ensure equitable shopping opportunities.     

A Multilevel Analysis of Gender Differences in Psychological Distress Over Time

Females have higher rates of depression than males, a disparity that emerges in adolescence and persists into adulthood. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to assess the effects of school context on gender differences in depressive symptoms among adolescents based on two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N=9,709 teens, 127 schools). Analysis indicates significant school‐level variation in both overall symptom levels and the average gender gap in depression net of prior symptoms and individual‐level covariates. Aggregate levels of depressive symptomatology were positively associated with contextual‐level socioeconomic status (SES) disadvantage. A cross‐level contingency emerged for the relationship between gender and depressive symptoms with school SES and aggregate perceived community safety such that the gender “gap” was most apparent in contexts characterized by low SES disadvantage and high levels of perceived safety. These results highlight the importance of context to understanding the development of mental health disparities.     

Siting Noxious Facilities: A Test of the Facility Siting Credo

Over the past decade it has become increasingly difficult to site noxious facilities, despite the fact that there is a growing need to do so. To address this problem, a set of guidelines for a fairer, wiser, and more workable siting process—the Facility Siting Credo—was developed during a National Facility Siting Workshop in 1990. This paper presents an empirical test of these guidelines. A questionnaire based on the Credo was completed by stakeholders in 29 waste facility siting cases, both successful and unsuccessful, across the United States and Canada. Using an independent determination of outcome (success), a preliminary ranking of the importance of various Credo principles was obtained. The data reveal that establishing trust between the developer and host community is an important factor in facilitating the siting process. The siting process is most likely to be successful when the community perceives the facility design to be appropriate and to satisfy its needs. Public participation also is seen to be an important process variable, particularly if it encourages a view that the facility best meets community needs. Moreover, a siting process where communities volunteer to host facilities is an approach that holds promise for meeting many of these key success criteria.     

Old Structures,New Relations: How Community Development Credit Unions Define Organizational Boundaries

Studies of organizational dynamics examine the manner in which an organization's immediate environment defines the rules and requirements to which individual organizations must conform in order to receive legitimacy and support (Scott, 1992:132). In this paper we consider the question of how an organization can achieve legitimacy and support without necessarily compromising its organizational forms or practices to isomorphic pressures. We frame the question in terms of the boundaries between organizations and their environments. Where the population ecology studies show the survival value of adopting known organizational forms and practices, and neoinstitutionalism addresses the need to display compliance with accepted forms, our case study demonstrates the possibility of removing an organization or set of organizations from the familiar interaction by naming it as a subfield of the organizational field, sharing the environment, but out of the way of predefined norms and practices.     

The Chicago School,So-Called

Many sociologists believe in the myth of a Chicago School, a unified and coherent body of thought and research practice carried on at the University of Chicago from the 1920s through the 1960s. Chicago never constituted such a coherent system and is better understood as a school of activity, a group of people who cooperated in the day-to-day running of a major department.     

A Comparison of the Effect of Two Computer-Based Counseling Interventions on the Career Decidedness of Adults

This article describes two computer-based career counseling interventions provided for adults who are auto workers in career transition. It was found that these workers can increase their level of career decidedness and make progress in their commitment to occupational choice through the use of a computer-based career counseling program. Supporting previous research, this study indicated that computer-plus-counselor intervention is more effective in this type of career counseling than the computer-only intervention.