Managerial markets in transition in Central and Eastern Europe: a field study and implications

In this paper, we report findings from the first comprehensive study of managerial labour markets in Central and Eastern Europe, drawing on field data from 157 firms in six countries. Results indicated widespread and deep changes occurring in the region’s managerial markets. Despite differences among countries in reform and economic performance, we found these particular changes to be surprisingly common across the countries studied. They included rapid rises in salary and benefit levels, narrowing of some skill gaps, shifts to more sophisticated methods of recruitment and an overall move towards Western management practices. The study also revealed severe shortages of qualified managers in all the countries studied. The resulting tightness in the managerial labour markets was reducing only modestly, despite other improvements. Foreign and joint-venture firms were relying disproportionately on expatriate managers, and may not have been sufficiently developing locals. We argue that, partly because of this, the distortions in pay, promotions and performance resulting from these tight markets are likely to persist for some time.     

Career management practices: An empirical survey and implications

A key ingredient in the knowledge economy is the development of people's careers. Companies approach career development in a variety of ways. To better understand how these approaches fit together and how they are used to address different situations, the authors surveyed 194 United Kingdom companies and identified five groups of practices. These groups were associated with certain organizational characteristics. Drawing on concepts from the careers literature, the authors suggest a two‐dimensional model to explore how these groups of practices can be systematically understood and applied. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Exit as governance: do blockholders affect corporate innovation in large US firms?

Using a sample of large US firms, this study shows that blockholders in combination with liquidity can contribute positively to innovation (R&D investments). We contribute to the literature on managerial myopia that has focused mainly on large owners and their type (short-term/long-term). Our results are in line with recent theoretical studies arguing that blockholders in combination with market liquidity can mitigate managerial myopia, as suggested by the exit model of governance. The results indicate that blockholders can be efficient in resolving agency problems and that they can enhance long-term prosperity, even when the individual blockholder investment horizon may not be long.     

Richard J. Orsi. Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. xxii + 615 pp. ISBN 0-520-20019-5, $29.95.

This richly detailed labor of love by Richard J. Orsi attempts"a new approach to an important theme in the history of theAmerican Far West: the complex impact of a large, powerful businesscorporation on the process of settlement, economic development,and environmental change in a frontier region" (p. xiii). Itpays scant attention to traditional corporate history, withits emphasis on leaders, interline relations, politics, regulation,labor, freight, and passenger matters. Orsi dispatches     

Coming Full Circle: The Study of Big Business since 1950

Taking a broad view of historians' work on the rise of big businessin the United States over the last half-century, this articleattempts to assess both where business history has been andwhere it may go in the future. The analysis recognizes the centralityof the impact made by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., but it also delvesinto other paths, including some not taken, of interest to historians.This wide-ranging interpretation also maintains the importanceof big business itself as a subject worthy of historical attentionand argues that its crucial role in the development of Americansociety has not yet been considered by mainstream historianswith the intensity it deserves. Musing over the nearly constantpreoccupation of practitioners with defining the scope of businesshistory as a field, the essay highlights a number of topicsneeding attention, suggesting that historians of business arewell positioned to shed light on the growing role of businessin all aspects of life in the twenty-first century.