The journeyman executive: The demise of the lifetime contract

“We have a great incentive system around here; make one mistake and you're fired.” Until recently, executives would have found no meaning in what is now a cliche. The traditional concept, however, of an employer-employee lifetime contract has under-gone discernible alteration since the 1950s. This article explores this growing trend toward “journeymen executives.” All the factors contributing to this new management lifestyle-fluctuations in the economy, demands for innovations, attitudes of employers, expectations of employees—are considered. The implications in the changes are explored and questions raised on how the new assumptions are working.     

Effects of managers' entrepreneurial behavior on subordinates

The recent surge of interest in promoting corporate entrepreneurship seems linked to a growing body of empirical evidence of a positive relationship between a firm's entrepreneurial orientation and its improved financial performance. Logical induction suggests that organizations that promote corporate entrepreneurship must employ managers who are entrepreneurial in their behaviors. By extension, it would seem that managers who are entrepreneurial must have a positive impact on their subordinates if the organization's entrepreneurial initiatives are to be successful. Unfortunately, despite the implicit appeal of this logic, what would “seem” to be true has not yet been substantiated empirically.To address this shortcoming and to provide managers with information from which to judge their efforts to promote corporate entrepreneurship, research was undertaken to address two specific research questions:

• 1.1. What behaviors distinguish managers who exhibit an entrepreneurial orientation?
• 2.2. How do subordinates judge the actions of managers who work for an organizational metamorphosis to an entrepreneurial model of management?

Providing a rigorous assessment of these issues necessitated the selection of a setting not typically seen as receptive to entrepreneurial initiatives. Thus, the data were collected from the two largest units of an electric utility system, one with 8,000 employees and $2.847 billion in 1992 revenues and the other with 10,000 employees and $4.297 billion in 1992 revenues. Together, these units employed 60% of the corporate staff and generated 89% of total corporate revenues.Because of the perception of the company's top management that the prospect of deregulation, if not its inevitability, threatened the viability of the company's traditional management style, executives considered specific programs to become more competitive. They formulated a plan for the long-term development of an entrepreneurial organization based on the belief of the company's executives that its future success required fundamental change in corporate culture and competitive posture.To track the evolution of its managers toward an entrepreneurial orientation, the company used two survey instruments developed with and administered by executives of the company to monitor each manager's progress and to evaluate its impact.To assess the types and frequency of entrepreneurial behaviors among managers, a theoretically driven, management “behaviors” questionnaire was developed. Eleven of its items were designed to assess entrepreneurial behavior as a distinguishable subset of generally advocated management practice. This survey was administered by the company to all 833 immediate subordinates of each of 102 individual managers.A second survey instrument, completed approximately 6 months after the behaviors questionnaire, was used to assess the “effects” of the managers' behaviors. Of particular interest were 12 questions from this instrument that measured the satisfaction levels of the 102 managers' 1,522 immediate and second level subordinates with the supervision that they received, i.e., the 12 items provided an indication of the effects of managers' entrepreneurial behaviors on their subordinates' satisfaction with the managers.The results of the data analyses support the idea that managers who are entrepreneurial in their behavior have a positive impact on their subordinates' satisfaction with their supervisors. The results indicate that as entrepreneurial behaviors increased, subordinates' satisfaction with supervision increased. Whereas 62% of the subordinates of entrepreneurial managers reported high levels of satisfaction with their supervisors, 69% of subordinates of bureaucratic managers reported low levels of satisfaction with their supervisors. Further analysis indicated that eight of 11 of the “behaviors” survey items were able to discriminate high and low subordinate satisfaction. This demonstrated that the scale developed through this research is robust in the measurement of entrepreneurial behaviors of managers.The major contributions of this study were in the development and validation of a scale that can be used to gauge entrepreneurial behaviors, and the finding that corporate entrepreneurship, as gauged by these behaviors, was well received by subordinates even when entrepreneurial management was counter to its organization's preexisting culture.     

Perceived Leadership Integrity in the Manufacturing Industry

Ethics is a significant issue among those in leadership positions, especially since the ethical corporate scandals of the 1970s followed by corporate scandals in the 1980s and the S&L scandals of the 1980s and 1990s and most recently the global financial crisis of 2006–2009. The purpose of this research was to measure the perceived leadership integrity in today’s manufacturing environment, since the global financial crisis, as perceived by their employees. This study included 7,233 manufacturing employees in the United States. A total of 66 surveys were used to calculate data for this study. The Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS) was used to collect data from respondents that included demographic questions. The research addressed the following question: To what degree are leaders in the manufacturing industry considered “low ethical,” “moderate ethical,” and “high ethical” on the PLIS?     

The calling of the virtuous manager: Politics shepherded by practical wisdom

This paper extends an ongoing discussion about establishing a sharper way to conduct ethical investigations into managerial virtue. It does so by relying on Alasdair MacIntyre's moral philosophy in place of those more dominant approaches taken by scholars who make up the field of positive social science. A connection is drawn herein between a MacIntyrean “narrative approach” to investigating managerial virtue and the idea of “work as a calling.” Specifically, it will be argued that the MacIntyrean-influenced idea of “work as a calling” provides a substantive moral vision that supports an understanding of how virtuous managers ought to narrate their primary workplace motivations. Ultimately, virtuous managers fulfill a “political calling” to support and sustain (a) good work, (b) the good of individual lives, and (c) the common good of communities that their organization reaches. To do this, they must rely on the “shepherd virtue” of practical wisdom (phronesis). Practical wisdom aids virtuous managers’ thinking about achieving the ends of their “calling” as well as any necessary course-corrections that ought to be made toward the better achievement of those good and worthy ends.     

Why we hate performance management—And why we should love it

Individual performance is a building block of organizational success. Not surprisingly, virtually all organizations have in place some type of performance management system. Yet, managers and employees are equally skeptical that performance management adds value; usually, it is seen as a waste of time and resources. We argue that the potential benefits of performance management are not realized because most systems focus exclusively on narrow and evaluative aspects such as performance appraisal. Herein, we offer a broader view of performance management, including discussion of how it differs from performance appraisal. We highlight specific and important benefits of performance management for employees, managers, and organizations. We also describe research-based conclusions regarding how performance management systems should be designed and implemented to realize these benefits. We hope our article will demonstrate that well-constructed performance management systems should not be hated, but rather embraced.     

The Link Between Ethical Climates and Managerial Success: A Study in a Polish Context

This study examines perceptions of ethical climate and ethical practices in a sample of Polish organizations and the relationship between ethical climate and behaviors believed to be associated with successful managers. A survey of Polish managerial employees (N = 200) indicated that “efficiency” was the most reported, and “professionalism” was the least reported ethical climate type. A majority of the respondents (61.5 %) perceived successful managers as being ethical, and in particular, those that believed that their organization had a “professionalism” and “independence” climate perceived a strong positive link between success and ethical behavior. Implications of these findings are then discussed.     

The Buy-in Benchmark: How Staff Understanding and Commitment Impact Brand and Business Performance

This paper considers the way that greater staff understanding (intellectual buy-in) and commitment (emotional buy-in) can enhance brand and business performance. Focusing on internal branding it shows from the literature review why these two issues are important drivers of brand success. The intellectual-emotional buy-in matrix is developed, showing how managers can better use internal communication to enhance employee buy-in and thus achieve better performance. Interviews with 350 managers and employees provided benchmark readings about intellectual and emotional buy-in. Links between buy-in and perceived employee performance are reported. The proportions of employees in each quadrant of the matrix are detailed, with strategies proposed to increase the proportion of “champion” employees. The positive impact effective communication has on buy-in, and therefore performance, is noted.     

Does organisational support promote citizenship? The moderating role of market-focused HRM

This paper describes how employment relationships and human-resource management (HRM) functions can influence employees’ citizenship role definitions in service settings. Integrating social exchange and role theory, the paper suggests that contact employees will reciprocate felt obligations of high-quality employee–organisation relationships (i.e. perceived organisational support (POS)) by expanding their role in ways consistent with contextual behavioural expectations. The longitudinal survey of 1387 contact employees and 108 managers in a large supermarket chain shows that POS and several market-focused HRM practices influence employees’ service-oriented citizenship role definitions. In particular, high-quality employment relationships contribute to expanded service-oriented citizenship role definitions when market-focused HRM practices were implemented.     

A study on motivating employees’ learning commitment in the post-downsizing era: Job satisfaction perspective

From the resource-based perspective, organization learning is the foundation of firms creating their special resources and thereby increasing their competitive advantage. Organization learning is indeed derived from individual learning within the organization. However, many firms have adopted downsizing strategies to reduce the redundancy. Nevertheless, it had a great impact both on laid-off employees and remaining ones. The remaining employees lost their trust, loyalty toward the firm and eventually left. The consequence not only affected the firms’ daily operation but also impacted employees’ learning motivation for improving their ability to enhance the firm's competitive advantage. In the post-downsizing era, applying appropriate human resource management practices to motivate employees would be a critical issue. The study began with two psychological constructs: job satisfaction and learning commitment to explore the content of job satisfaction which significantly influenced remaining employees’ learning commitment. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyze the data. The results revealed that the two criterion in job satisfaction “the relationship with colleagues” and “the relationship with the family” significantly influenced employees’ learning commitment. However, this was clearly different from managers’ subjective expectation. The findings provide important implications for both the research field and practical management of downsizing, employee motivation, cross-culture management and strategic HRM practices.     

Exploring the Role of Productivity Propensity in Frontline Employee Performance: Its Relationship with Customer Orientation and Important Outcomes

Numerous studies have investigated the performance of frontline employees (FLEs) and how these employees influence organizational success. Because customer‐perceived outcomes are important, much attention has been devoted to the customer orientation (CO) construct. The weak influence of CO on external measures, however, has led to numerous research questions. The current work addresses these questions by introducing a new construct, “productivity propensity,” while examining its relationship with CO and multiple outcome measures. Results from two distinct samples suggest that the construct is a valuable addition to the FLE literature.     

The Effects of Channel Experiences and Direct Marketing on Customer Retention in Multichannel Settings

In customer relationship management (CRM), it is critical for managers to understand how and when customers terminate their relationships with the company in order to make more accurate predictions for CLV. However, in many non-contractual settings, customer churn is not easily observed, which presents difficulty for estimating customer retention. In this research, we present a framework for estimating multichannel customer relationship dynamics in a non-contractual setting that flexibly allows for relationship revival and investigates the effects of different channel experiences and marketing communication on retention and profitability. We use a multi-segment, multivariate hidden Markov modeling framework to model three managerially relevant customer behaviors: purchase amount, purchase incidence, and channel choice. Using data from a multichannel clothing retailer, we uncover two latent relationship states that customers migrate to and from — an active state and an inactive state characterized by different levels of purchase frequency, responsiveness to marketing, and profitability. We find that an offline (retail-store) channel can be used to migrate customers from an inactive state to an active state, effectively serving the purpose of “education” or “revival,” whereas an online channel is most effective in keeping the existing active customers active, thus serving the purpose of “retention”. Using counterfactual analysis, we highlight an opportunity for the multichannel firm to optimize marketing strategies to dynamically manage and increase the retention and hence also the value of its customer base.     

The impact of Enterprise 2.0 in organizations

Many organizations have embarked on Enterprise 2.0. However, not many have successfully implemented it. Availability of inexpensive tools does not guarantee their usage by organizations and their employees. To have Enterprise 2.0 implemented widely and effectively by organizations, it is important that both managers and employees benefit from using it. It is expected that the level of congruence of management–employees perceived benefits would affect the level of adoption of Enterprise 2.0 in organizations. Testing this is the purpose of this research. Using the case study of two large global organizations, this study analyzed the use of Enterprise 2.0 by both employees and managers. The results showed that even though both employees and managers believe that Enterprise 2.0 usage does have a positive impact on communication, collaboration, community building, and employee engagement, the level of belief is different: managers’ perception of Enterprise 2.0 benefits is less than that of employees. There was a greater degree of congruence though between both the groups on the perceived benefits of Enterprise 2.0 on knowledge management and organizational outcomes. The size and the type (not-for-profit) of organization was a disadvantage in adopting such tools. The not-for-profit organization was more at loss when applying Enterprise 2.0 as its employees are less aware of the type of tools and of their benefits, and there is less managerial support.     

Exploring How Managers Conceive and Practice Market Orientation in Near “Perfect” Food Markets

Abstract

This paper explores what it means to be market-oriented in food commodity markets, i.e., markets that are near “perfect” as characterized in economics. This is an almost neglected topic in past research on market orientation. By eliciting how top managers in food commodity firms conceptualize market orientation, we reveal that their understanding and practice of market orientation partly deviates from the prototypical views reflected in the market orientation literature. Findings are discussed and implications highlighted.     

Computer‐based data and organizational learning: The importance of managers’ stories

While many organizations are investing large amounts of money to provide computer‐based data to their managers, little is known about how, or even whether, managers use these data to learn about the business environment. This issue is explored by examining how grocery product managers use supermarket scanner data to learn about changes in the marketing environment. Managers’ stories play a central role in the four‐step process used by one product management organization as it learns from analyzing computer‐based data. First, a manager examines the data and looks for unexpected results—findings that contradict one or more of her stories about the marketing environment. If something is found, the manager carries out a relatively unstructured, multistage process to make sense out of the unexpected result. This process can be viewed as a dialogue between the result and a set of tools at the manager's disposal (including analyses of computer‐based data). Next, the manager tells the story to share her insights with peers and superiors, developing a common understanding. Finally, the manager creates an official story, which is used to “sell”; new marketing approaches to people outside the product manager organization—the sales force and supermarket buyers.     

Helping workers understand and follow social media policies

While social media can have significant benefits for organizations, the social media presences and postings of employees can be problematic for organizations. This is especially true when employees have connections to co-workers and managers. Workers posting content deemed inappropriate or detrimental to the organization has led to a significant number of workers being fired for their social media behavior. To avoid such situations, organizations should create social media policies to guide employee content. Organizational implementation of social media policy is on the rise, but serious questions remain as to how to make it effective. One crucial question is how well employees know and understand their employer's policy. In this article, we discuss how to communicate social media policies to workers and help their understanding. To inform our recommendations, we draw on exploratory data from a sample of young adult workers regarding their knowledge of their own company's social media policies.     

Preferred human resource development activities and their functions: differences in perspective between managers and employees

This exploratory study uses the learning‐network theory as a framework to investigate how managers and employees differ in their preference for the human resource development (HRD) activities of employees and in the functions they attribute to HRD. The research design was quantitative and cross‐sectional. Data collection took place in six countries in Europe, Asia and North America. A new instrument was used, which views work improvement (WI), career development (CD) and personal development (PD) as three main functions of HRD that can serve managers and employees. Results show that managers and employees prefer different HRD activities for employees to undertake; respectively, formal courses and programs over job experiences, and vice versa. The two groups also differ in the scores they give to WI and PD as relevant functions that employee participation in HRD can provide. It is concluded, therefore, that differences between managers and employees in their views of the relevance of HRD activities should be taken into account in theory and practice when organizing employees’ HRD activities.     

Managerial learning from social capital during internationalization

This study explores managerial learning from social capital during internationalization. Its two research questions are these: (1) how different managers perceive, interpret, and respond to foreign-market institutions, and (2) how connections, relations, and cognition enhance managerial learning. Using an interpretive approach, the study analyzes patterns of internationalization and strategic decision-making in four contrasting Norwegian case companies that internationalize to the Russian oil and gas market. The findings show that the managers of the case companies hold similar perceptions about foreign-market institutions, but that they interpret and respond to those institutions from various levels of learning, resulting in different enactment on institutions. Managers learning at a “higher” level adapt patterns and decisions to ensure institutional conformity, while those at a “lower” level makes minor adjustments in patterns and behavior only when necessary and therefore maintain institutional conflict. Further, the findings show that all three dimensions of social capital have a vital role in enhancing managerial learning, but that the various forms that the dimensions can appear as, affects the learning process. Furthermore, the findings show that managers who share cognitive frame of reference with few embedded relationships are better equipped to interpret and respond to institutions. This study contributes fresh insight about managerial enactment on foreign-market institutions, and reconciles our understanding about social capital as embraced by the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions. This study also contributes to a greater understanding about how the three dimensions of social capital ought to be formed to enhance managerial learning.     

Ethical Customer Value Creation: Drivers and Barriers

There is a long-standing discussion on the positive interactions between enterprise value creation and business competitiveness. The corporate value can be seen as being created from three major sources within the cycle – from employees, from processes, and from customers or investors through reinvestment. To achieve competitive advantages, a firm must create more value than its competitors in the industry. Emphasizing that, firms should explore the positive drivers of customer value creation, allowing for a true value creation that will lead to increments in competitiveness. In reality, however, there are also barriers that hinder customer value creation. Targeting the above issues that have not yet been explored or analyzed, we have collected related literature at the first stage. Based on these presumable assumptions, this paper then conducts an empirical study by surveying and analyzing the relevance given by the investigated leading machinery measuring equipment firms in Taiwan, regarding the concerns as drivers and barriers in relation to customer value creation. This paper especially aims to answer several key questions: What drivers revolving around employees and processes can facilitate the organization to create more value for its customers? Conversely, what barriers block the organization from creating value for customers in examining the same dimensions? Does value creation direct an organization’s profitability and competitiveness? Our questionnaire survey results show that the most recognized and agreed drivers of customer value creation in consideration of employees are “distinctive skills”, “personal experience”, “learning and training”, and “team work”; and, in regard to the firm’s processes, the key drivers are “innovation and evolution”, “R&;D capability”, and “capability for differentiation”. Conversely, the most recognized and agreed barriers to customer value creation in relation to employees are a “distrustful environment” and “inadequate knowledge”; and, in terms of processes, they are “short of core technology”, “poor resource support”, and “bad services and attitudes”. Furthermore, our in-depth interview outcomes reveal that “capital sufficiency” and “mergers and acquisitions” are in practice considered to be other important customer value creation drivers; in contrast, “cultural and structural barriers” and “short of mechanisms to measure customer value creation effectively” are viewed as additional critical barriers to customer value creation.     

The PEARL Model: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Sustainable Development

This article formulates institutional virtues according to sustainable development (SD) criteria to come up with a paradigmatic set of corporate principles. It aims to answer how a corporation might obtain competitive advantage by combining “going ethical” with “going green.” On the one hand, it brings out facts that indicate a forthcoming trend inclined to force relevant actors to comply with SD requirements. On the other hand, it suggests that SD may be implemented as a strategy to gain competitive advantage by the help of the PEARL model through its five fundaments: (1) perception friendliness, (2) environment friendliness, (3) action, (4) relationship, and (5) locality. This article finally shows that although a number of companies (e.g., Bosch, BP, and GE) implement SD as a tool of differentiation, they lack a holistic model that is fully responsive to current dynamics. The PEARL may be implemented as a proactive positioning to gain competitive advantage because transformation of this model into corporate strategy does not only respond to “stakeholder” claims, but also meets the changing characteristic of “societal demands.”     

Can social awareness be increased through business school curricula?

The study was prompted by (a) Frederick and Vogel's debate concerning future research in “business and society”, (b) such recently reported managerial excesses as golden parachutes, “greenmail”, and fraud, (c) the increasing emphasis on coursework in the area. It appears that there is a need to assess how students, our future business leaders, perceive social issues and if a “business and society” course can help them define and understand the importance of these issues. Three questions provided the focal point: (1) Which issues do students perceive as most important before and after completing the course? (2) How much importance do students place on issues? (3) Does completing a “business and society” course make a significant difference in how students perceive the importance of the issues presented? Students appeared to have already clearly defined priorities before entering the course as there was very little post-course reordering of priorities. However, they did display an increased perception of the importance of social issues. The study also indicated that a “business and society” course can contribute to an increased student awareness of the importance of social issues. Therefore, it was concluded that a “business and society” course can help students define and evaluate the importance of social issues.