Action forums: How general electric and other firms have learned to make better decisions,faster

As management consultants at GE and other global companies, the authors found that many of the common impediments to good decisions are removed when decision makers and information sources are in the same room at the same time. Action forums are broadly inclusive corporate meetings that involve key players from management, the factory floor and even outside suppliers and customers. The authors maintain that action forums reduce opportunities for vacillation and intrafirm political maneuvering, two major obstacles to swift decision-making in many organizations. Thus, they achieve better decisions, faster; ensure the commitment of those who must implement decisions; and make full use of the power, perspective and wisdom of those at the top of an organization. The results of these experimental forums suggest an important area for further research. While it is difficult to offer precise estimates of the increased efficiency of decisionmaking through action forums, the authors report that companies as far away as Japan are now seeking to develop action-forum approaches for their organizations.     

Time is money: An empirical investigation of delivery behavior in the U.S. T‐Bond futures market

This paper analyzes the delivery behavior observed in the CBOT T‐Bond futures market over the period spanning 1985–2016 in order to assess how timing decisions were made, and whether these decisions were optimal. During that period, delivery was generally deferred to the last possible moment, but early delivery episodes were also observed regularly. A regression model identifying the determinants of early exercise over the last three decades is proposed, along with a case‐by‐case analysis of specific delivery patterns. Finally, the optimality of the observed delivery strategies is assessed a posteriori.     

Intra‐stakeholder alliances in plant‐closing decisions: A stakeholder theory approach

This article discusses plant‐closing decisions by multinational enterprises (MNEs) applying a stakeholder theory approach. In particular, we focus on the emergence of “intra‐stakeholder alliances,” that is, alliances among the various stakeholder groups of a specific corporation. We analyze the emergence of stakeholder alliances in reaction to MNEs' decisions to terminate production locally and discuss their influence on the outcomes of such decisions. Our research is inspired by two exceptional case studies of two multinational breweries that announced their decisions to close niche breweries in small towns in Italy and Belgium. In both cases, the initial decision was ultimately reversed through the actions of intra‐stakeholder alliances. We combine insights from stakeholder theory and the social movement literature to analyze the action and influence of intra‐stakeholder alliances in seven cases of plant‐closing decisions. We conclude by formulating four general propositions that can provide guidance to MNE management in plant‐closing decisions. Our findings extend managerial stakeholder theory, show how this approach can improve strategic management analysis, emphasize the importance of the relationships among (local) stakeholders in the (global) value‐creation process, and shed light on the collective action and influence of intra‐stakeholder alliances.     

Purchasing policy in Switzerland: An empirical study of sourcing decisions

The economic ties between the United States and Switzerland are strong, both in terms of investment and trade. Swiss direct investments in the U.S. amount to US$35 billion providing some 300,000 jobs in the U.S. The U.S. is the second most important export market for Swiss goods (after Germany). These very striking facts demonstrate how closely intertwined the economies of the U.S. and Switzerland have become in the twenty‐first century. The recent attention to purchasing decisions in a variety of commercial and government contexts has grown much faster than detailed understanding of how sourcing decisions are made and their implications for organizations. This article provides an overview of empirical research into sourcing decisions made in Swiss organizations and will be of international interest to practitioners and academics in both purchasing (customer and purchaser) and marketing. The research demonstrates that sourcing decisions are highly contingent situations and the variable is policy. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Desire to be ethical or ability to self‐control: Which is more crucial for ethical behavior?

Promoting ethical decisions and behaviors is challenging for any organization. Yet managers are still required to make ethical decisions under conditions which deplete their self‐control resources, such as high stress and long hours. This study examines the relationships among symbolic and internal moral identity, self‐control, and ethical behavior, and investigates whether self‐control acts as the mechanism through which moral identity leads to ethical behavior. Findings indicate that internal moral identity overrides symbolic moral identity in the relationship with self‐control and that self‐control fully mediates the relationship between internal moral identity and ethical behavior. The implications for organizations is that while rules, procedures, and ethics training are useful, managers with a strong moral compass will be more likely to practice self‐control leading to more ethical behaviors.     

Unethical behavior in organizations: empirical findings that challenge CSR and egoism theory

In the egoism philosophical framework, it is contended that when organizations focus on their long‐term interests, they, without knowing it, advance the interests of society as a whole, which is perceived as ethical. In this research, this premise is challenged using data collected from the social media outlets of 29 randomly selected companies from the 2013 Fortune 500 list. Through qualitative comparative analysis, the exact opposite was found. In fact, the organizations that focused on striving for their long‐term success are perceived as unethical. It was also found that socially responsible organizations are perceived as ethical whereas those that misrepresent their positions and attempt to influence the decisions of others are perceived as unethical. Implications for managers are discussed, and future directions are suggested.     

HRM Role in EEO: Sheep in Shepherd’s Clothing?

Despite a plethora of laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, supporting and enforcing equal employment opportunity (EEO) principles has proven to be an enormous challenge for those charged with this responsibility. The question often asked is who should exercise this role in organizations. Not surprisingly, there has been a call for HRM to become the guardian of EEO in organizations but should human resource managers be male or female, and/or would line managers be better positioned to assume this responsibility? This paper overviews the literature and then summarizes an empirical study that attempted to address the possible impact of these options as they exist in organizations. One hundred and eighty respondents who met the criterion of having interviewed one or more job applicants in the previous 6 months were systematically selected from business telephone listings. Based on self-reported behaviors, no significant difference was found between the expected and actual distributions of HR and line managers in respect to whether decisions were made on unlawful grounds. The percentage of each respondent category that asked unlawful questions varied from 1% to 36% depending upon the attribute (unlawful ground of discrimination) under consideration. This begs the question as to what value HR managers contribute to EEO in the selection process. The second finding was that significantly less female managers admit to making decisions on the basis of unlawful questions than male managers. Thus, support was found for female line managers as guardians of EEO but no clear justification for HRM in this role.     

A Study of Community Events Held by Not‐for‐Profit Organizations in Australia

This research questions the role and purpose of community‐based events hosted by not‐for‐profit organizations (NFPs), particularly charities. Followed by a review of the relevant literature, open‐ended interviews were conducted with managers of several Australian charities. The findings identify the key themes of strategic tension, stakeholder engagement, competitive pressures, event structure, event analysis, and review which are likely to be of importance to managers of NFPs who are involved in community events.     

Emotions,deliberations, and end‐of‐life products

Death is inevitable; yet, not all consumers prepare for death by purchasing end‐of‐life (EOL) products. Using the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the dual‐process model framework, this study aims to examine the role of emotions and cognitions in influencing consumers' decisions to engage in planning for death. A mixed methodology design was used. Study 1, a qualitative study, uncovered positive and negative emotions and deliberative reasoning that comprise consumers' EOL purchase decision process. Study 2, a quantitative study, confirmed that emotions and deliberations independently and jointly influenced consumers' EOL attitude and behavior and that emotions affected deliberations for both prepaid funerals and wills. Subjective norms outperformed attitude in predicting both products' purchase behavior. These finding supported the dual‐process model of behavior and the TRA in the EOL research context and contributed to the EOL literature by investigating the effects of emotions and deliberations concurrently; thus validating the important role of emotions in influencing EOL planning and purchase. In light of our findings, marketers could, after due cognizance of the morbidity and sensitivity of the topic, develop actionable promotional and segmentation strategies for EOL products and other emotion‐laden, unsought products and service.     

Logistics Innovation and Social Sustainability: How to Prevent an Artificial Divide in Human–Computer Interaction

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is a cornerstone for the success of technical innovation in the logistics and supply chain sector. As a major part of social sustainability, this interaction is changing as artificial intelligence applications (Internet of Things, autonomous transport, Physical Internet) are implemented, leading to larger machine autonomy, and hence the transition from a primary executive to a supervisory role of human operators. A fundamental question concerns the level of control transferred to machines, such as autonomous vehicles and automatic materials handling devices. Problems include a lack of human trust toward automatic decision making or an inclination to override the system in case automated decisions are misperceived. This paper outlines a theoretical framework, describing different levels of acceptance and trust as a key HCI element of technology innovation, and points to the possible danger of an artificial divide at both the individual and firm level. Based upon the findings of four benchmark cases, a classification of the roles of human employees in adopting innovations is developed. Measures at operational, tactical, and strategic level are discussed to improve HCI, more in particular the capacity of individuals and firms to apply state‐of‐the‐art techniques and to prevent an artificial divide, thereby increasing social sustainability.     

Organizational ethics education and training: a review of best practices and their application

Insuring that ethical action remains a vibrant aspect of an organization's climate and culture is an ongoing challenge for those responsible for training and development. To better understand what best practices are being utilized today, eight organizations in the Silicon Valley region of the United States were studied. Findings suggest that ethics training is particularly intensive when an employee is first hired, when rules, regulations and corporate values are shared during the indoctrination period. Training continues, but is often limited to online activities. Face‐to‐face interaction, necessary for learning and development, is usually reserved for specialized functions and senior level managers. Most firms emphasize a compliance‐based approach, with little attention directed toward developing moral competencies over time. In addition, assessment tools to measure ethical competencies are rarely used as performance criteria. Findings from this study reveal specific trends, which can inform, guide and improve practitioners' efforts to further develop ethical decision‐making and action within their organizations.     

The Influence of Reputation and Sector on Perceptions of Brand Alliances of Nonprofit Organizations

Brand alliances long have been used in the private sector and are being more frequently engaged by nonprofit organizations. It is assumed that the alliance benefits both organizations, particularly the focal nonprofit organization that strategically forms the partnership. But care must be taken in selecting partners. A quasi‐experimental design examines the relationship between partner reputation and sector (private or nonprofit) on subject willingness to contribute to a focal nonprofit organization. Partner public reputation was systematically varied using created organizations and a positive reputation enhanced willingness to contribute. Partnering with private sector organizations was only slightly less desirable than nonprofit organizations.     

Linking Social Issues to Organizational Impact: The Role of Infomediaries and the Infomediary Process

When do organizations decide to ‘adopt’ a given social issue such that they come to acknowledge it in their patterns of action and communication? Traditional answers to this question have focused either on the characteristics of the issue itself, or on the traits of the focal organization. In many cases, however, a firm’s decision to adopt or ignore an issue is not a straightforward function of firm or issue characteristics. Instead, we view issue adoption as a socially constructed process of information exchange between parties that are involved in the emergence and evolution of the issue, mediated by third-party organizations. We refer to this process as the infomediary process and these latter organizations as ‘infomediaries,’ after the information mediation and brokerage roles they play in the social processes linking social issues to organizational impact. We present a concise theoretical model of how infomediaries establish credible linkages between focal organizations and social issues. The thrust of the model is that the infomediation process, rather than the issue or firm characteristics, is what really drives firm-level issue adoption decisions.     

Communication costs in the performance of unrelated tasks: Continuum models and finite models

We consider two two‐person organizations, called A and B. Each organization faces a changing environment; an environment has two components and each of them is privately observed by one of the organization's two members. Each organization's task is to respond to the current environment by taking a correct action; the correct action is a known function of the environment. However, the task of A is totally unrelated to the task of B: if A knew B's current environment and B's current correct action, that would tell A nothing at all about its own current correct action (and vice versa). Now suppose that each organization performs its task by a sequence of message announcements that stop when an “action‐taker”; has just enough information about the two members’ private observations so that he can take the correct action. Suppose we measure the effort this requires by the size of the set of possible message announcements. Then a compelling conjecture says that there can be no saving in total effort if we merge the two organizations into a single four‐person organization in which a single action‐taker takes both actions.

The conjecture turns out to be true when the possible messages form a continuum whose size is measured by its dimension, provided the message‐announcing procedure obeys suitable regularity conditions. When we turn to a model in which the number of possible messages is finite, the situation is different. While a certain general proposition about coverings and projections is the main tool in proving the “continuum”; conjecture, the finite analog of that proposition is (surprisingly) false. The finite version of the conjecture holds, on the other hand, when one adds a certain regularity requirement ("contiguity") to the message‐announcement procedure. The truth of the finite conjecture without such a requirement remains open.     

Network centrality,organizational innovation,and performance: A meta‐analysis

Based on samples from 40 studies encompassing 15,860 organizations, we use meta‐analysis methods to examine the relationships between network centrality, organizational innovation, and performance, and to predict the influence of organization size, institutional environment, and industry on these relationships. Results show that network centrality positively influences both organizational innovation and performance. In addition, findings indicate that the impact of network centrality on organizational innovation is stronger for small organizations while that on organizational performance is stronger for large organizations. The influence of network centrality on overall organizational innovation/performance is stronger for organizations in developed institutional environments as well as in knowledge‐intensive industries. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ten commandments of legal risk management

Effective legal risk management is not a separate field of endeavor. Rather, it is inextricably linked with good management and with ethical management; managers who behave professionally and according to ethically defensible principles of action are quite unlikely to find themselves and their organizations stuck in a legal and/or ethical quagmire. Behavioral decision theory offers some explanations for why those managers who go astray do so, but explaining how basic human tendencies, uncorrected, may incline us to questionable decisions is not to justify such decisions. Managers who follow the guidelines set forth in this article may nonetheless find themselves or their companies under assault in the law courts or the court of public opinion, but should such an unlikely event occur, they will be far more likely to be able to successfully defend themselves.     

A situational analysis of consumer science skills used to improve incomes and create self‐employment in the Limpopo province,South Africa

A two‐phase study was conducted in the Mopani and Vhembe Districts of the Limpopo Province of South Africa to identify types of small‐scale businesses used by households to improve their income. The study sample was made up of 240 households from 16 villages and members from 16 organizations working with households in small‐scale, business‐related activities. Phase one of the study collected data on the types of small‐scale businesses carried out by households and organizations assisting them. Phase two developed training manuals and offered training to households. The findings revealed that self‐employment from sales of prepared and processed foods provided the main source of income for most households. Clothing and needlework and housing and art/craft were also used by families to generate income. Problems experienced included lack of technical/management skills, lack of marketing/business skills, inadequate operational funds, low profit margins, unavailability of raw materials and competition from big businesses. The findings highlighted the importance of consumer science‐related skills in poverty alleviation programmes targeting low‐resource households.     

Ethical Decision-Making in Corporate Entrepreneurial Organizations

No research thus far has attempted to examine ethical decision- making in corporate entrepreneurial organizations. Results of such study would provide management executives with insights on what action, if any, is essential for achieving business ethics and corporate entrepreneurship simultaneously. This paper argues, theoretically, that the work characteristics, organizational characteristics, and some individual characteristics in a corporate entrepreneurial organization are conducive to ethical decisions. These characteristics help mitigate the adverse impact of the turbulent environments on ethical decision- making behavior. Based on these arguments, a tentative model of ethical decison-making in corporate entrepreneurial organization is constructed.     

Environmental context and marketing planning processes

The traditional model of marketing planning assumes that the process by which organizations take planning decisions is constant with respect to context. Organizational environment, internal context, performance and distinctive competency affect marketing planning only as information inputs for the planning process, not as influences on the choice of process. However, rapid change in environments, in competitive patterns and in market responses all demand action from organizations. Intuitively, we expect that rapid environmental change will require a faster planning process, and that increasing environmental complexity requires more careful deliberation. The marketing planning model does not accommodate such intuition. This paper outlines the case for rethinking marketing planning models, and develops a conceptual framework through which the impact of environmental context on marketing planning processes can be effectively examined.