ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT AND THE INTERPRETATION OF STRATEGIC ISSUES: A NOTE ON CEOS’ INTERPRETATIONS OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT*

This paper explores the relationship between organizational context and the interpretation of strategic issues by examining the hypothesis that CEOs' interpretations of foreign investment in the USA are influenced by the organizational context in which they are embedded. Three aspects of organizational context - the global business experience of the firm; the firm's level of organizational inertia (as represented by firm age and size); and the resources available for responding - are examined as predictors of CEOs' perceptions of foreign investment as a threat or an opportunity. Analysis of data from 320 organizations, controlled by industry, shows that global business experience, firm size, and perceived capability are significant predictors of the perception of threat and opportunity. the discussion addresses the implications of these findings for future research on issue interpretation and organizational context.     

The emergence of next generation internet users

The Internet is central to the new media, but the Internet is itself a dynamic technology that is constantly evolving as users adopt and reject new features, devices and applications and use them in ways that are often unanticipated. This article is anchored in longitudinal survey data on how Britons use the Internet, which illuminates the emergence of new patterns of accessing the Internet over multiple devices—some of which are portable—in everyday life and work. We call those who adopt this new approach ‘next generation users’. In contrast, first generation users remain anchored to one or more personal computers in the household or workplace for accessing the Internet. The analysis shows how this emerging pattern of access is reshaping the use and impact of the Internet, such as in supporting the production of user generated content. The analysis also shows how next generation access is socially distributed; creating a new digital divide that reinforces socioeconomic inequalities. Future research needs to move beyond the study of access to the Internet to track the diffusion of next generation access and its implications across a wider array of nations.     

THE PROCESSING OF CRISIS AND NON-CRISIS STRATEGIC ISSUES

This paper asserts that organizations process different types of strategic issues in systematically different ways, proposing that organizational decision-makers expend greater resources, centralize authority and generate a greater volume of causal explanations during the processing of crisis versus non-crisis strategic issues. Data from comparative tracings of several crisis and non-crisis issues in a single organization lend preliminary support to the propositions. By conceptualizing the process of issue resolution both from an instrumental and symbolic perspective, this type of response to crisis issues can be interpreted. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Toward understanding strategic issue diagnosis

This paper calls attention to a central but neglected process in strategic decision making, i.e. strategic issue diagnosis (SID). A framework for discussing SID is presented in terms of three critical components: inputs, process characteristics and outputs. The framework is illustrated in the context of PIMS and BCG, two widely recognized strategy models. The major implications highlight the theoretical significance of SID for understanding strategic decision making.     

More than a feeling: using hotel room attendants to improve understanding of job quality

Recent research by Adler and Adler reveals contradictory claims about the job quality of hotel room attendants; suggesting that an objectively ‘bad’ job can be perceived as subjectively ‘good’ by workers. This contradiction resonates with wider issues about how job quality is conceived – objectively and/or subjectively. Drawing on empirical research of room attendant jobs in upper market hotels in three cities in the UK and Australia, this paper addresses the contradiction by examining both the objective and subjective dimensions of job quality for room attendants. In doing so it refines Adler and Adler's work, constructs a new typology of workers and a new categorisation of job quality informed by workers characteristics and preferences. This categorisation improves conceptual understanding of job quality by enjoining its objective and subjective dimensions.     

INTERPRETATIONS ON AUTOMATIC: A DIFFERENT VIEW OF STRATEGIC ISSUE DIAGNOSIS*

Models of strategic decision-making and environmental scanning typically assume that decision-makers diagnose issues actively, using conscious and intentional effort to identify and to interpret potentially significant events, developments and trends. This article establishes that conditions in organizations put decision-makers ‘on automatic’in their diagnosis of strategic issues, with direct implications for the process and content of strategic action. Implications for theory and practice are established.     

Leading in times of trauma

An employee is diagnosed with cancer or loses a family member unexpectedly. An earthquake destroys an entire section of a city, leaving hundreds dead, injured, or homeless. At time like these, managerial handbooks fail us. After all, leaders can't eliminate personal suffering, nor can they ask employees who are dealing with these crises to check their emotions at the door. But compassionate leadership can facilitate personal as well as organizational healing. Based on research the authors have conducted at the University of Michigan and the University of British Columbia's CompassionLab, this article describes what leaders can do to foster organizational compassion in times of trauma. They recount real-world examples, including a story of personal tragedy at Newsweek, natural disasters that affected Macy's and Malden Mills, and the events of September 11, 2001. During times of collective pain and confusion, compassionate leaders take some form of public action, however small, that is intended to ease people's pain and inspire others to act. By openly demonstrating their own humanity, executives can unleash a compassionate response throughout the whole company, increasing bonds among employees and attachments to the organization. The authors say compassionate leaders uniformly provide two things: a "context for meaning"--creating an environment in which people can freely express and discuss how they feel--and a "context for action"--creating an environment in which those who experience or witness pain can find ways to alleviate their own and others' suffering. A leader's competence in demonstrating and fostering compassion is vital, the authors conclude, to nourishing the very humanity that can make people--and organizations--great.     

East vis‐à‐vis West: The evolution of work values within China regions

Numerous studies have investigated between‐country cultural differences. However, the subnational cultural differences, particularly in emerging markets, have remained an underexplored research topic despite its importance. Likewise, multiperiod studies in the cross‐cultural management area have also remained an underexplored topic. This study concurrently addresses both of these voids in the literature. Specifically, we examine changes in work values of businesspeople in the economically developed East region and the less developed West region of China over the first decade of the 21st century (2000–2010). Our findings show that, across the eight work values dimensions analyzed in this study, three exhibited static crossvergence, while the other five value dimensions exhibited conforming crossvergence. An implication of these findings is that the dissimilar work values, which had been found across the regions of China of the past century, are moving toward a more countrywide set of homogeneous values among the workforce professionals of China.