Category Archives: Management

Management

Imitate Others? Not if We Have the Chance: Competitive Differentiation in Medical Malpractice Insurers’ Pricing Decisions under Uncertainty

Vinit M. Desai
British Journal of Management, Volume 25, Issue 3, Pp. 589–606

Several perspectives assert that organizations facing uncertainty tend to imitate other organizations’ actions. While one might therefore expect to see great homogeneity across fields characterized by uncertainty, it is surprising that this homogeneity has not been observed more frequently in practice. Research investigating this puzzle has typically focused on the role played by organizational characteristics or the information organizations possess about their environments. Instead, this study turns attention to the information others possess about the organization. To that end, I disaggregate organizational uncertainty into the uncertainty facing decision makers and the uncertainty faced by others about what those decision makers might ultimately do, providing a more fine grained analysis of uncertainty and its impact on competitive action than typically offered in this literature. I suggest that uncertainty in competitors’ evaluations of the organization provides an opportunity for the organization to differentiate itself rather than imitate others. I also suggest that this effect is stronger than the effects of the uncertainty facing the decision makers themselves. Related hypotheses are tested on a panel of medical malpractice insurance providers. The study’s perspective generates unique predictions regarding imitation and differentiation in this industry and across other contexts featuring both uncertainty and competition.

Management

Does disclosure matter? Integrating organizational learning and impression management theories to examine the impact of public disclosure following failures

Vinit M Desai
Strategic Organization, vol. 12 no. 2, May 2014, pp. 85-108

The typically disparate literatures on organizational learning and impression management have both separately sought to examine how organizations respond following failure, with the former asking how organizations learn from these events and the latter investigating how organizations use public disclosures to manage perceptions following these events. This study integrates these perspectives to ask how disclosures might impact learning through failure. The study distinguishes between major and minor failures, asserting that public disclosures exert a distinct influence on learning through either form of experience. Related hypotheses are tested on failures arising within the US air-traffic control system. Although no support is obtained for predictions about major failures, the study finds that facilities can learn through minor failures but the process is impeded by public disclosures, suggesting the notable influence that these disclosures have over audiences’ perceptions of the organization or its role in these events. This approach addresses a longstanding tension regarding why some organizations learn more effectively than others by emphasizing how organizations shape interpretations of their experience.

Management

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders, Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation

David Chandler, William B. Werther Jr
Sage Publications, Inc., 2014

Blending theory with practical application, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, Third Edition is a comprehensive CSR and strategy text. As such, it supports courses taught either as standalone electives or as core components of the business school curriculum across all discipline areas. Integral to the book’s unique format is its mix of theory and practical application divided into two parts. After five chapters that provide an overview of the field, core concepts, and practical challenges, the second half of the book illustrates the …

Management

Talent management: Current theories and future research directions

Akram Al Ariss, Wayne F. Cascio, and Jaap Paauwe
Journal of World Business, Volume 49, Issue 2, P. 173–179

Research on Talent Management (TM) has been lagging behind businesses in offering vision and leadership in this field. After sketching a comprehensive outline of knowledge about TM, theoretical as well as practical, we introduce the papers in this special issue and their important contributions. This introductory article contributes to filling the knowledge gap by offering a research agenda at multiple levels and in multiple contexts. We also discuss methodological issues in the study of TM, and conclude by identifying several key trends that are now, and will continue to influence the practice and study of TM in the future.

Management

Leveraging employer branding, performance management and human resource development to enhance employee retention

Wayne F. Cascio
Human Resource Development International, Volume 17, Issue 2, Pp. 121-128

Global economic recovery from years of depressed growth has accelerated voluntary turnover, along with employer concerns about retention. More employers are also promoting from within their ranks, and this has put growing emphasis on HRD and career-development initiatives. This article argues that the biggest winners in this emerging economic environment, at least from a talent perspective, are organizations with positive employer brands, performance management strategies that help employees develop expertise that maximizes their potential, and innovative approaches to the design and delivery of HRD initiatives, especially technology-delivered instruction (e.g., mobile and virtual applications, simulations, MOOCs) and social-learning tools (e.g., wikis, communities of practice, social media). These strategies are by no means exhaustive, but they are three key elements of employee retention.

Management

The Impact of Media Information on Issue Salience Following Other Organizations’ Failures

Vinit M. Desai
Journal of Management, vol. 40 no. 3, March 2014, pp. 893-918

Research on organizational decision making seeks to understand how external events shape how organizational decision makers attend to particular issues and allocate scarce resources across the organization’s activities. The author investigates whether supplemental information available to decision makers about their own and other organizations impacts this process. He finds that media coverage about particular issues following failures throughout the field can influence decisions regarding resource allocation and that coverage about other organizations may in some cases be more influential than coverage about the focal firm. The study and its findings forward our understanding regarding how organizations scan their environments and how multiple, interacting forms of external information may collectively influence internal organizational processes.

Management

Investing in HRD in Uncertain Times Now and in the Future

Wayne F. Cascio
Advances in Developing Human Resources February 2014 vol. 16 no. 1, pp. 108-122

The Problem We live in uncertain times, exacerbated by many direct and indirect effects of the global financial crisis. However, there is a lack of understanding about how human resource development (HRD) is responding to the global financial crisis or how HRD scholars and practitioners can best respond to these new realities and thus successfully ensure the future of HRD.

The Solution To appreciate the future, it is critical to understand the past. Thus, this reflective piece outlines several factors that have caused, and continue to cause, uncertainty in the global economy, including structural changes in labor markets and developments in technology. A literature review revealed several HRD responses of firms to these new realities. These include technology-delivered instruction and social-learning tools. The article concludes by identifying characteristics of effective training and examines some distinctive practices of three firms that have been recognized as the global best in class for their leadership-development efforts.

The Stakeholders Scholars and practitioners interested in the HRD, technology-delivered instruction, and social-learning fields.

Finance, Management, Sustainability

Determinants of corporate carbon reduction targets

John Byrd, Elizabeth S Cooperman, Ken Bettenhausen
Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, Volume 15 Issue 4, January 2014, Pages 271-289

This paper examines attributes affecting a corporation’s choice of an intensity-only (carbon emissions relative to sales, production, etc.) versus an absolute carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions goal. We investigate alternative hypotheses for this choice including: 1) a high growth hypothesis whereby high growth companies select an intensity goal, to continue to grow without an absolute emission reduction; 2) a high emissions industrial sector hypothesis where firms in high CO 2 emission industries prefer an intensity goal that is …

Management

HR strategy: Optimizing risks, optimizing rewards

Wayne Cascio and John Boudreau
Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp.77 – 97

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest that in the arena of human capital, risk-mitigation may overshadow risk-optimized decisions, and show how a more balanced approach can be achieved by understanding and applying frameworks from behavioral decision theory, as well as framing human capital risk using tools and frameworks that have a long history in other management arenas, such as finance.

Design/methodology/approach – Review risk-optimization frameworks in human resource and general management, distill key connections, suggest ways to enhance risk optimization for human capital, and offer suggestions for future research and practice.

Findings – For human capital, risk-mitigation may overshadow risk-optimization, a balanced approach can be achieved by applying behavioral decision theory and by using frameworks from other management arenas, such as finance.

Practical implications – Organizations must acknowledge and skillfully manage the connections between human capital and competitive strategy in this emerging arena of human capital risk, or they will miss key strategic opportunities.

Originality/value – Attention to human capital risk has largely emphasized minimizing or controlling unwanted outcomes, but the paper proposes that risk-optimization requires balanced attention to risk-taking as well.

Management

Reflections on the Metamorphosis at Robben Island: The Role of Institutional Work and Positive Psychological Capital

Wayne F. Cascio and Fred Luthans
Journal of Management Inquiry, Volume 23 Issue 1, pp. 51-67

Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners from South Africa were imprisoned on notorious Robben Island from the mid-1960s until the end of the apartheid regime in 1991. The stark conditions and abusive treatment of these prisoners has been widely publicized. However, upon reflection and in retrospect, over the years, a type of metamorphosis occurred. Primarily drawing from firsthand accounts of the former prisoners and guards, it seems that Robben Island morphed from the traditional oppressive prison paradigm to one where the positively oriented prisoners disrupted the institution with a resulting climate of learning and transformation that eventually led to freedom and the end of apartheid. At a macro level of analysis, we use the theoretical lens of institutional work, and, at a micro level, positive psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resiliency, and optimism) to explain what happened. This metamorphosis led to one of, if not the greatest, societal transformations in modern history. We conclude by discussing some implications and lessons learned for organizational scholars and practitioners.

Finance, Management, Sustainability

Context-Based Sustainability and Corporate CO2 Reduction Targets: Are Companies Moving Fast Enough?

John W Byrd, Ken Bettenhausen, Elizabeth S Cooperman
International Review of Accounting, Banking, and Finance, Volume 5 Issue 3/4, Fall/Winter 2013, pp. 87-104.

Corporate sustainability activities are often ad hoc; that is, the extent to which a company moves toward being more sustainable is based on organizational feasibility or economic acceptance rather than true sustainability criteria. This paper examines corporate climate and carbon policy through the lens of context-based sustainability (CBS). CBS argues that true sustainable efforts must consider the ecological capacity of the environment and the fair allocation of this capacity. Only by doing so will the result be an outcome of a livable and sustainable world. The paper combines aspects of physical science (atmospheric CO2 carrying capacity) and philosophy (inter-generational equity and resource allocation) with corporate policy. When applied to climate change this implies examining corporate efforts relative to climate stabilization paths and further examining what a fair allocation of future emissions would be. We look at the documented carbon reductions for a sample of large US corporations including EPA Climate Leadership Award Winners in 2012 and a larger sample of companies from the same industries and compare their carbon reductions to several allocations of the global carbon budget required to limit climate change to just 1°C or 2°C. We find that the emissions path of these US corporations only satisfies the most generous, business-as-usual allocation of carbon emissions.

Management

A Meta‐Analytic Investigation of the Within‐Person Self‐Efficacy Domain: Is Self‐Efficacy a Product of Past Performance or a Driver of Future Performance?

Traci Sitzmann, Gillian Yeo
Personnel Psychology, Volume 66 Issue 3, September 2013, Pages 531-568

We conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether the within-person self-efficacy/performance relationship is positive, negative, or null and to compare the strength of the self-efficacy/performance and past performance/self-efficacy within-person relationships. The self-efficacy/performance within-person corrected correlation was .23 but was weak and nonsignificant (ρ = .06) when controlling for the linear trajectory, revealing that the main effect was spurious. The past performance/self-efficacy within-person corrected correlation was .40 and remained positive and significant (ρ = .30) when controlling for the linear trajectory. The moderator results revealed that at the within-person level of analysis: (a) self-efficacy had at best a moderate, positive effect on performance and a null effect under other moderating conditions (ρ ranged from –.02 to .33); (b) the main effect of past performance on self-efficacy was stronger than the effect of self-efficacy on performance, even in the moderating conditions that produced the strongest self-efficacy/performance relationship; (c) the effect of past performance on self-efficacy ranged from moderate to strong across moderating conditions and was statistically significant across performance tasks, contextual factors, and methodological moderators (ρ ranged from .18 to .52). Overall, this suggests that self-efficacy is primarily a product of past performance rather than the driving force affecting future performance.

Management

The effects of firm reputation and status on interorganizational network structure

David Chandler, Pamela R Haunschild, Mooweon Rhee, Christine M Beckman
Strategic Organization, Vol 11, Issue 3, August 2013, pp. 217-244

In this article, we explore the differential effects of a firm’s reputation and status on its interorganizational network. We hypothesize that due to its stable, unitary, and relational characteristics, status has a stronger influence on partner selection than reputation, which is less stable, multidimensional, and based more on perceptions of product quality and financial performance. Results from our analyses of the director networks of the 300 largest US firms from 1985 to 1993 confirm that across multiple measures of network characteristics, it is status that is the stronger predictor. In particular, high-status firms have networks that are higher in partner quality but are less diverse and contain fewer opportunities to bridge structural holes than the networks of high-reputation firms. These results contribute to our understanding of the different effects of reputation and status on firm behavior by emphasizing the importance of studying both together in order to understand the effects of either. They also contribute to work on interorganizational networks by demonstrating how structure emerges primarily as a function of focal firm status.

Management

Reciprocal interactions between group perceptions of leader charisma and group mood through mood contagion

Sy, Thomas; Choi, Jin Nam; Johnson, Stefanie K
Leadership Quarterly. Aug 2013, Vol. 24 Issue 4, p. 463-476

Departing from the static perspective of leader charisma that prevails in the literature, we propose a dynamic perspective of charismatic leadership in which group perceptions of leader charisma influence and are influenced by group mood. Based on a longitudinal experimental study conducted for 3weeks involving 116 intact, self-managing student groups, we found that T1 group perceptions of leader charisma mediate the effect of leader trait expressivity on T2 positive and negative group moods. T2 positive and negative group moods influence T3 distal charisma perceptions by affecting T2 proximal perceptions of leader effectiveness. The current findings offer critical insights into (a) the reciprocal relationship between group perceptions of leader charisma and group mood, (b) the dynamic and transient nature of group perceptions of leader charisma, (c) the importance of understanding negative mood in charismatic leadership, and (d) the mechanism through which charismatic leadership perceptions can be formed and sustained over time.

Management

Women entrepreneurs and business venture growth: an examination of the influence of human and social capital resources in an Indian context

V. Kanti Prasad , G. M. Naidu , B. Kinnera Murthy , Doan E. Winkel and Kyle Ehrhardt
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,Vol. 26, Issue 4, Pages 341-364

Current understanding of women entrepreneurs, and in particular those within emerging economies, remains limited. This is despite the fact that the prevalence of women entrepreneurs across emerging economies has grown. Consequently, using India as a research context, the purpose of this study was to identify specific human and social capital factors that may contribute to venture growth for women entrepreneurs in emerging economies. Results suggest that both human and social capital factors play a role in determining business growth for Indian women entrepreneurs. Specifically, human capital factors related to industry experience as well as prior entrepreneurial experience were significant contributors, as were social capital factors related to the size of individuals’ business networks and the support received from family members. However, education, parental business ownership, and network composition characteristics relative to kinship ties were not significant predictors of venture growth in an Indian context.
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International Business, Management

Current issues in International HRM: Alternative forms of assignments, careers and talent management in a global context

Marion Festing, Pawan S. Budhwar, Wayne Cascio, Peter J. Dowling, Hugh Scullion
German Journal of Research in Human Resource Management, Vol. 27 Issue 3, March 2013, P. 161-166

International Human Resource Management (IHRM) has become an important field of research. The first textbook on International Human Resource Management is approaching its 25th birthday (Dowling & Schuler, 1990; Dowling, Festing, & Engle,
2013) and the first journal dedicated to the investigation of human resource management topics in an international context established in 1989, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, is also close to it 25th Volume. Another specialized journal dedicated to international staff mobility, the Journal of Global Mobility, has been established by a group of prominent IHRM researchers this year. A regular conference dedicated to IHRM was established in the late 1980s and for more than 20 years this conference has convened biennially. It still enjoys strong support and the 13th Conference will be organized in Cracow, Poland in 2014.

Management

Crossing the threshold: The spillover of community racial diversity and diversity climate to the workplace

Belle Rose Ragins, Jorge A. Gonzalez, Kyle Ehrhardt, and Romila Singh
Personnel Psychology,Vol. 65, Issue 4, Winter 2012, Pages 755-787

We examined the spillover of community diversity to the workplace using a sample of 2,045 professionals living in communities across the U.S. Spillover effects were examined using 2 measures of community diversity: the degree to which employees were racially or ethnically similar to others in their community and perceptions of their community’s diversity climate. Aligned with theories of group threat and racial segregation, Whites who were racially dissimilar to their communities expressed stronger intentions to leave their communities, and ultimately their workplaces, than those living in primarily White communities. However, community diversity climate offset these relationships; Whites who lived in communities that were racially dissimilar to them, but experienced the climate as inclusive, had lower moving intentions than those in communities that were experienced as racially intolerant. In contrast, for people of color, community diversity climate, rather than racial similarity to the community, predicted moving intentions. For both groups, the diversity climate in the community predicted moving intentions, which in turn predicted work turnover intentions, job search behaviors, and physical symptoms of stress at work. These findings suggest that the intention to leave one’s community, and ultimately one’s workplace, is influenced by community experiences and the community’s perceived diversity climate.
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Management

Leaders’ conceptions of followers: Implications for naturally occurring Pygmalion effects

Paul Whiteley, Thomas Sy, Stefanie K. Johnson
The Leadership Quarterly, Vol 23, Issue 5, Oct 2012, Pages 822–834

We investigated the relationships between leaders’ implicit followership theories (LIFTs) (conceptions of followers) and naturally occurring Pygmalion effects (leaders’ high performance expectations that improve follower performance). Results based on 151 workplace leader–follower dyads supported a model of naturally occurring Pygmalion effects. Positive LIFTs led to higher performance expectations, liking, and relationship quality from leaders, which impacted follower performance. Supervisory experience moderated the relationship between positive LIFTs and leaders’ performance expectations for their followers, such that the performance expectations of leaders with less supervisory experience were more strongly influenced by their conceptions of followers. Implications of the findings for improving follower performance are discussed. Suggestions for future research are offered: antecedents of LIFTs, negative LIFTs, Golem effects, and role reversed Pygmalion effects, among others.

Management

The Two Faces of Voluntary Disclosure: Quality Improvement and Organizational Learning from Selfreported Problems

Vinit M. Desai
British Journal of Management, Vol 23, Issue 3, Sept 2012, pages 344–360

Research suggests the promise of voluntary self-reporting, given that organizational quality can be difficult to monitor. However, I explore opposing theoretical arguments regarding its impact. On one hand, self-reported problems may motivate intensive investigation, resulting in subsequent improvement. However, self-reports may instead represent relatively superficial impression management efforts, and their value to organizational performance may be more dubious. Associated hypotheses are tested on a longitudinal panel of nursing homes. Findings suggest that self-reports generally detract from performance except when they are reinforced by other, complementary forms of experience. Contributions to organizational learning theory, institutional theory and regulatory policy are discussed.