Work outcomes of relational demography in Chinese vertical dyads

Relational demography refers to the demographic differences (such as gender, age, race, and tenure) between supervisor and subordinate. This study examines its impact on employees' work outcomes in the setting of a foreign-invested enterprise in China. We hypothesize that dissimilarities on demographic attributes between supervisor and subordinate affect subordinate's leader–member exchange, trust in organization, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behavior. The hypotheses were tested on 239 supervisor–subordinate dyads via a questionnaire survey. The results of regression analysis showed that dissimilarities in gender and organizational tenure had negative effects on the outcome variables. In particular, a female supervisor with male subordinate displayed the lowest level of leader–member exchange and trust in the organization. Implications of these findings on human resource management are discussed.     

A psychoanalytic attributional model for subordinate poor performance

Managers and subordinates often have divergent perceptions as to the cause of a subordinate's poor performance. Normally, this is considered to be a significant problem in that it is correlated with a deterioration in productivity and in manager-subordinate relations. The position taken here is that under certain circumstances, convergence of perceptions can be even more damaging to the psychological well-being of the subordinate. These circumstances include the following: the manager's attributing the poor performance to the subordinate's lack of ability or lack of effort; the manager's being able to influence the subordinate to agree with this assessment; and the attribution being fundamentally inaccurate.     

Determinants of employee willingness to use feedback for performance improvement: cultural and organizational interpretations

This study was designed to identify determinants of employee willingness to use feedback for performance improvement. The proposed determinants included objectives of appraisal, supervisor's knowledge of subordinate's job, agreed plan for performance improvement, trust in supervisor and perceived fairness and accuracy of performance evaluation. Data were collected in two phases. The first phase consisted of a questionnaire survey among 100 Hong Kong Chinese employees working in public and private sector organizations. Regression analysis of questionnaire data indicated that agreed plan for performance improvement and perceived fairness and accuracy of performance evaluation had significant positive effects on employee willingness to use performance feedback. In the second phase, focus group interviews were held to triangulate survey findings. Interview data suggested that Chinese cultural characteristics of paternalism and personalism influenced the underlying dynamics of the evaluation process. Findings are interpreted in the context of employees cultural and organizational background.     

Beyond symbolic and substantive: Strategic disclosure of corporate environmental information in China

Under increasing regulatory pressure to disclose environmental impacts, corporate environmental information disclosure (EID) is becoming more prevalent. However, the motives for EID and disclosure approaches (i.e., symbolic or substantive) remain controversial. Using a sample of data for 742 listed manufacturing firms in China across 3 years, we provide evidence to show that the level of EID is significantly positively associated with a firm's advertising intensity and that firms in moderately competitive industries have a higher propensity for adopting an EID‐based differentiated strategy than firms in stronger or weaker competitive industries. We also find that firms that are more sensitive to environmental issues strategically understate their environmental impact when directly facing consumers. Our results suggest that the implementation of corporate EID is strategic and that firms have strong market motives, even under regulatory pressure to demonstrate legitimacy. We discuss this study's contributions to research on EID theory and implications for strategic EID management.     

Issues in the implementation of proactive environmental strategies

Management consultants, environmental groups, and industry trade associations have all recently offered guidelines for companies to improve environmental performance.¹ The guidelines suggest ways that companies can implement strategic change to move beyond compliance with regulation, assume responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products, and gain public credibility. Much of the advice offered can be useful to managers who are responding to rapidly changing environmental pressures. Nevertheless, implementation of some of the general guidelines could impose undue costs or introduce untoward organisational consequences for certain companies. While mentioned as an issue in the management literature, companies need more systematic advice on how best to tailor these broad guidelines for environmental strategic change to the specific needs and capabilities of their companies. In addition, as many companies are comprised of diverse business units that are sometimes linked together only through financial controls, managers must adapt environmental management programs to unique ‘substructures’ within the firm. These substructures can differ dramatically in their environmental performance and their management capabilities. Elsewhere we have offered a framework for analysing environmental strategies and management programs.² In this paper, we identify some of the implementation issues that confront companies when they introduce environmental strategic change. We argue that environmental strategies are most effectively implemented when they are consistent with the organisational characteristics and operating context of the company involved. We use Volvo's experience with environmental strategic change to highlight many of the difficulties that companies may encounter when altering their approach to environmental performance. The case illustrates how a company can modify its own strategy and management programs for more effective change. It is an interesting case to study because of the proactive and comprehensive nature of Volvo's environmental strategy and management programs.     

Individual modes and patterns of rational and intuitive decision-making by purchasing managers

This study extends the literature on decision modes in purchasing. While decision modes have traditionally been divided broadly into rational and intuitive processing modes (dual-process approach), following the tenet of recent psychology research, we further differentiate the latter into experience-based and emotional processing (multiple systems approach). Previous decision-making research has been inconsistent in its findings about the relationship between decision modes and performance. Using the purchasing manager's supplier selection decision process as our unit of analysis, we first investigate the relationship between individual decision modes and the financial and non-financial performance of the selected supplier. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that rational processing is positively related to both financial and non-financial performance, while emotional processing is negatively related to financial performance, and the interaction of rational and emotional processing is positively related to both performance outcomes. Because recent cognitive psychology assumes that some combination of rationality and intuition is commonly used, we then apply a configuration approach and develop a taxonomy of decision-making modes surrounding supplier selection. Cluster analysis results show five decision-making patterns that are related to the performance of the selected supplier.     

Overcoming the main barriers in initiating and using purchasing-BSCs

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), as a strategic management and control tool with an integrated set of leading and lagging performance measures, can secure successful implementation of purchasing strategies. However, the quality of the BSC itself as well as the effectiveness of the process to set up, implement, and use the BSC are crucial. Recognizing the growing importance of the purchasing-BSC (P-BSC) combined with the problems companies are facing, the authors emphasize the necessity for a better management process for purchasing strategies, introduce the P-BSC concept as a means to improve implementation success, and study the main barriers companies are facing when they initiate and use P-BSCs. This study and the recommendations how to overcome these barriers are based on seven in-depth case studies which derived from an action research project with European multinational firms.     

Achieving purchasing competence through purchasing performance measurement system design—A multiple-case study analysis

Purchasing competence, the level of strategic integration and alignment, is a key determinant of the purchasing function's impact on overall corporate success. Previous research has revealed that the implementation of a mature purchasing performance measurement system (PPMS) can be a means to attain a high level of functional strategic integration. In this research, we develop five propositions on how PPMS should be designed to facilitate strategic integration. We challenge these propositions using data gathered from four case studies with German companies from different industrial sectors. While each of these companies pursues multiple strategic objectives within Purchasing, the PPMSs designs focus heavily on cost-related strategy and performance dimensions. Thus, our findings indicate the need to develop PPMS schemes allowing a direct linkage between financial performance and non-financial performance measures in order to incentivize the desired multiple strategic goals beyond periodical cost reduction. Moreover, such measurement systems need to be adapted at the category level of purchasing practices to obtain the desired level of pre-defined strategic performance dimensions. Hence, the level of purchasing competence is determined at category level and a PPMS must transform strategy into measurable goals at this level.     

基于平衡计分卡的A大学战略绩效评价体系研究

平衡计分卡作为一种新型的战略绩效评价工具,从财务、客户、内部流程、学习与成长四个维度进行业绩评价,不仅重视财务指标,还重视非财务指标。我国民办大学运用平衡计分卡建立的战略绩效评价体系,为实现学校战略提供了制度保障和绩效动因。论文主要对A大学的绩效考核体系进行研究,先将学校发展战略细化分解,再基于平衡计分卡设计全新的战略绩效评价体系,最后提出A大学有效实施平衡计分卡的保障措施,从而不断完善A大学的战略绩效评价。     

Human resource management control system and firm performance: a contingency model of corporate control

This study explores how corporate controls used by the parent company of a conglomerate affect subsidiaries' human resource management (HRM) control–performance relationship. Empirical results from 93 firms reveal that the appropriate use of HRM control systems was a contributing factor to firm performance. When a subsidiary's approach to HRM was based on behavior control, performance was lower when the parent company emphasized financial control. When a subsidiary's approach to HRM was based on output control, performance was higher when the parent company emphasized either strategic or financial control. When a subsidiary's approach to HRM was based on input control, performance was higher when the parent company emphasized strategic control.     

Explaining financial difficulties based on previous payment behavior,management background variables and financial ratios

Abstract

This paper shows evidence that it is possible to explain financial difficulties in small and medium sized firms based on non-financial variables. The results indicate that the estimated model based on non-financial variables classified firms even better than the financial ratio model, especially when classifying bankrupt firms and firms with payment delays. The best overall classification was achieved using the model combining financial ratios and non-financial variables. The non-financial variables measuring the number of payment delays were statistically the most important. The main implication of the results is that non-financial variables embrace important information in attempts to explain financial difficulties, and this should be of interest given that payment behavior variables (payment delays and payment disturbances) may occur more frequently than the publication of intermittent financial statements.     

Blockholdings in closely held corporations: An analysis of ownership coalitions in emerging countries

Blockholdings in closely held corporations have been examined in the literature to understand the importance of the size and structure of minimal coalitions in a volatile macroeconomic environment. We show, theoretically and empirically, that three-member minimal controlling coalitions provide the best performance results because the portfolio of potential strategies of such coalitions can increase strategic choices in the boom-bust-recovery cycle, but coordination costs are not that high. We also show that “competition” between potential minimal controlling coalitions (of the same firm) with two or more members improves the firm’s performance. With respect to the characteristics of the institutional owners of one-member controlling coalitions, we found that firms controlled by foreigners and/or other non-financial firms and financial holdings performed better than the average firm. Our study indicates that the change of ownership structures in emerging countries is determined by the extant economic systems and through administrative interventions.     

Manufacturing strategy implementation and cost management systems effectiveness

The fit between manufacturing strategy and the use of cost management systems that could effectively support a firm's information needs in strategic and operational decision-making is prerequisite for a firm's ability to attain desired objectives in its value chain. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the use of just-in-time and electronic data interchange systems, as an important dimension of a firm's manufacturing strategy, and the perceptions of top financial officers about the effectiveness of cost management systems in supporting strategic and operational decision needs. The results for the research hypothesis, which was examined using a sample of 604 manufacturing organizations in the USA, provided some support for the argument that perceptions of effectiveness of a firm's CMS can be a valid indicator of how well is the CMS designed to support strategic and operational decision needs that are necessary for the implementation of a firm's manufacturing strategy.     

Strategic interventions of management accountants: everyday practice of British and German brewers

A popular stereotype has it that German firms are somehow ‘long-term strategically oriented’ and British firms focus on short-term financial gain. Analysing ethnographic material from British and German brewers, this paper explores how management accountants in the two countries conceive of their relationship with processes of strategic formulation and how they seek to mobilize strategic arguments in their day-to-day contacts with operational management. The focus of this study is not on the strategy debates which one might expect among senior management, but on routine interaction between management accountants and managers in which the mundane events of organizational life are made to happen in the name of loftier ‘strategic’ priorities. From observations of such interaction and management accountants' reflections on them, contrasting ways of integrating management accounting expertise with operational knowledge of the firm are suggested for the British and German brewers studied. Those contrasts are developed by drawing on the relationship between time and the possibility for strategic intervention more generally.     

Upward influence tactics and their effects on job performance ratings and flexible working arrangements: The mediating roles of mutual recognition respect and mutual appraisal respect

Supervisor's human resources (HR) decisions have a significant impact on the employees they manage but have been found to be subject to bias. The upward influence tactics use by subordinates can play a role in this. We investigated the effects of seven upward influence tactics on supervisor job‐performance ratings and the extent of subordinate flexible working arrangements (FWAs). Supervisors are often responsible for determining whether employees are granted FWAs. We posit an alternative theoretical mechanism by which upward influence tactics bring about their effects, mediated through two distinct types of respect, mutual appraisal respect and mutual recognition respect. We collected data from 389 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads, and found that both mutual appraisal respect and mutual recognition respect mediated relationships between several upward influence tactics and both job‐performance ratings and FWAs. Our findings show that upward influence tactics affect the quality of the relationship between employees and their supervisors, specifically, these two forms of mutual respect. Further, both mutual appraisal respect and mutual recognition respect may explain why supervisors show favoritism to some subordinates over others, in reaching HR decisions in these areas.     

Professionals' supervisor–subordinate relationships,autonomy and commitment in Australia: a leader–member exchange theory perspective

This article used leader–member exchange theory as a lens for comparing the impact of the supervisor–subordinate relationship on two types of professionals' perceptions of autonomy, and in turn upon their affective commitment. The reason for examining autonomy is because a characteristic of being a professional is having autonomy; however, we argued that such perceptions are affected by the quality of the supervisor–subordinate relationship. The findings confirmed this argument, although the trend was stronger for engineers than for nurses. Using the ordinary least square procedure, the goodness of fit of the model identified that supervision and autonomy accounted for approximately a third of the variance for engineers' levels of affective commitment and a fifth of the variance for nurses. That is, the impact of supervision practices was stronger on autonomy and commitment for engineers than for nurses in Australia. Moreover, statistically, the two groups of professionals were similar in their perceptions of the quality of their supervisor–subordinate relationship as well as in their perceptions of autonomy, and the qualitative findings supported similar factors impacting upon their perceptions. The only significant difference between the two groups was in their levels of affective commitment. The implications of these results include the need for those managing professionals to consider ways of improving workplace supervisor–subordinate relationships because of the impact upon perceived autonomy as well as commitment to their organisation, and hence the retention of such professionals.     

The impact of participative leadership on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior: distinguishing between the mediating effects of affective and cognitive trust

This study examines the mediating effects of cognitive trust and affective trust on the relationship between supervisors' participative leadership behavior and subordinate work outcomes, using data obtained from 247 dyads in a manufacturing organization located in mainland China. Structural equation modeling revealed that while affective trust fully mediated the relationships between participative leadership of supervisor and subordinate job performance and organizational citizenship behavior, cognitive trust had non-significant effects. These findings underscore the importance of interpersonal interactions between the supervisor and subordinate for engendering subordinate work outcomes. They also lend support to the exchange (relationship)-based explanation as to how trust enhances the response of subordinates to the participative leadership behavior of their immediate supervisor, given that affective trust involves a process of social exchange between both parties over an extended period of time.     

Political Skill,Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi and Career Prospects in Chinese Firms

The role of political skill was examined in the dynamics of supervisor–subordinate relationship in Chinese firms. Data from a survey of 343 employees, their 343 direct supervisors, and 662 of their peers were applied to test a model proposing that Chinese subordinates employ political skill to influence their guanxi with their supervisors, and so promote their career development. We found that supervisor–subordinate guanxi mediated the relationship between political skill and career development of the subordinates. Implications of the findings were discussed.     

The financial investment decision of non-financial firms in China

This paper constructs a portfolio model to analyze the determinants of the financial investment decision of non-financial firms in China. Unlike the literature assuming that financial investments are riskless, our model allows risks in both fixed and financial investments. We show that this extension provides an analytically similar but economically different model from the literature. In particular, it is relative risk and risk-adjusted return gap, not pure risk and simple return gap that enter into firms’ financial investment decision model. Using firm-level panel data of 1902 firms listed in Chinese stock market over the period from 2006 to 2016 with semi-annual frequency, we find that the ratio of fixed investment risk over total risk dominates financial investment decisions of non-financial firms. However, rates of risk-adjusted return gap between financial and fixed investments play no role in Chinese firms’ financial investment decisions, which is in stark contrast to the results using a model assuming riskless financial investments. The baseline findings are robust to alternative measures of financialization and investment risk and different firm sizes, ownership structures and time periods.