How Top Management HR Beliefs and Values Affect High‐Performance Work System Adoption and Implementation Effectiveness

What explains why high‐performance work systems (HPWSs) are not adopted more widely by firms that would appear to benefit economically by adopting them? We address this question by drawing on the upper‐echelons perspective to consider the role of the top managers’ beliefs concerning the financial payoffs from investments in HR (“HR cause‐effect belief”) as well as their employee‐centered value‐based beliefs (labeled “HPWS values”). We propose a conceptual model in which top management HPWS values moderate the relationship between HR cause‐effect beliefs and the intensity of HPWS programs reported by managers as well as the relationship between HPWS programs and employees’ perceptions of implemented HPWS practices. We test our model using a unique multisource data set collected from 120 hotel franchisees that includes survey responses from 648 managers and 1,293 employees. We find that firms’ ability to translate top managers’ cause‐effect beliefs about the economic value of HR investments into adoption of HPWS programs, as well as their ability to effectively implement these HPWS programs, is significantly affected by the value‐based HR beliefs held by top managers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The emergence of shop-floor trade union power in South Africa

This is the first of two papers dealing with the emergence of black shop floor union power and the changing structure of industrial relations in South Africa. This paper examines the evolution of black and white trade unions and their attitudes towards the officially sanctioned system of industrial relations. The observation is made that black unions are placing greater emphasis on shop-floor organization, leading to the development of an additional, but unofficial, tier in the negotiation structure in the form of work pi ace-level union recognition and bargaining.     

DIFFERENCES IN BELIEFS ABOUT WORK BETWEEN MANAGERS AND BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS

The beliefs about work of managers and blue-collar workers in the U.S.A. and Scotland were determined through a questionnaire. Both managers and blue-collar workers strongly endorsed humanistic beliefs and were indifferent to the work ethic. Blue-collar workers endorsed more strongly than managers beliefs about worker exploitation and the value of participation. In Scotland, there was a wide difference in the perceived value of leisure between managers and workers. It appears that the Scottish respondents hold fewer independent beliefs than their U. S. counterparts.     

The changing structure of industrial relations in South Africa

This is the second of two papers dealing tvith the emergence of black shop-floor union power and the changing structure of industrial relations in South Africa. This paper examines union developments in the post-Wiehahn era, The policies of the major union federations and the impact of the black unions' emphasis on shop-floor bargaining. It is clear that the established unions, the State and individual company managements have been significantly affected by this development. The main issue in the near future is seen to be the dividing-line between managerial prerogatives and worker-participation.     

WHY EUROPE? A CRITIQUE OF INSTITUTIONALIST AND CULTURALIST ECONOMICS

Abstract Economists have recently started to discuss the roles of institutions and cultural beliefs in explaining the performance of civilizations. This paper investigates two views, ‘institutionalist economics’ and ‘culturalist economics’, with regard to the question of why Europe rose economically a few centuries ago, while other regions of the world lagged behind. These two views share a common platform raised on two pillars. First, both regard institutions/beliefs as extra‐economic – as primordial entities that ultimately stand independent of economic performance. Second, both regard economic performance as fully determined by institutions/beliefs – i.e. normative causality in the sense that institutions/beliefs determine performance. Douglass North's (2005) analysis of economic performance, for example, is based on both pillars. Concerning the primordial pillar, he attributes ‘the mystery’ of the rise of Europe to primordial beliefs, viz. ‘Christian dogma’ and English ‘individualism’. Concerning the normative pillar, he presumes that such beliefs have almost one‐to‐one correspondence with economic performance. This paper, though, maintains that the two pillars (primordial analysis and normative causality) are rather fragile: Advocates of the first pillar fail to recognize that institutions/beliefs are endogenous. Advocates of the second pillar fail to recognize that institutions/beliefs can give rise to diverse economic performances.     

When do threats mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability? An environmental belief model

In pursuit of counteracting today's environmental problems, corporate management will have to implement organizational changes factoring in sustainability, which is why it is important to understand exactly what leads managers to initiate these changes. It has been established that managers' personal values are critical for their behavior and that threats to these values can mobilize managers to change their actions. However, when confronted with environment-related threats, managers may face value conflicts and various tensions between their aim to implement sustainable changes and their desire to fulfill business requirements of their job positions. Only recently have researchers begun to investigate the underlying beliefs that may lead managers to initiate organizational change toward sustainability. Borrowing theoretical assumptions from the domain of health psychology (from the well-established health belief model), the present conceptual article develops an environmental belief model that specifies when exactly threats lead managers to initiate organizational change. The environmental belief model proposes that environment-related threats trigger change (i) when managers believe that their firms are susceptible to these threats, (ii) the threats are considered as serious for the company, (iii) the perceived benefits of the change outperform (iv) the perceived barriers, and when there is (v) an external cue (e.g., an information campaign). All these propositions are supported with empirical findings from business contexts. Besides theoretical advancement on the role of environmental threats as precipitators of organizational change, the model provides guidance on how to frame environment-related threats that will mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability.     

The Stock market impact of social pressure: The South African divestment case

Using the South African divestment case, this study tests the hypothesis that social pressure affects stock returns. Both short-run (3-, 11-, and 77-day periods) and long-run (13-month periods) tests of stock returns surrounding U.S. corporate announcements of decisions to staf or leave, South Africa were performed. Tests of the impact of institutional portfolio managers to divest stocks of U.S. firms staying in South Africa were also performed. Results indicate there was a negative wealth impact of social pressure: stock prices of firms announcing plans to stay in South Africa fared better relative to stock prices affirms announcing plans to leave.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MANAGERIAL SUCCESS AND PERSONAL VALUES IN SOUTH AFRICA: A RESEARCH NOTE

T he relationship between personal values and job success was investigated in a sample of 92 South African managers. The correlation between scores on a specially developed key of the Personal Values Questionnaire and relative salary per age (index of success) was significantly positive ( r = 0.36, P < 0.001). More successful managers had dynamic and pragmatic values while less successful managers had more passive and static values. The results offer further cross-cultural support for the close relationship between personal values and managerial success.     

Black trade unions and the wage gap in South Africa

This paper puts forward a model of real wage determination for black workers in South Africa. The model is fitted to data for mining and manufacturing for the post-war period. It is found that since 1980 the rise of black trade unions has been a major factor underlying wage increases in manufacturing. In the 1970s, rising gold prices and reduced foreign labour supplies were favourable for mining labour, and in both industries pass law limitations on mobility are found to have lowered balck wages.     

EXPLORING THE NEED FOR A SHARED COGNITIVE MAP

This article reports on an experiment that was undertaken to elicit the shared perceptions of a group of individuals in relation to a particular organizational domain. These shared perceptions were termed collective beliefs, and were to be modelled in the form of a causal cognitive map. An initial conceptual framework was presented in which it was posited that groups of individuals who work closely together share a set of common beliefs which enable them to function successfully as a group. These shared beliefs are an integral part of the group's cultural identity. Collective beliefs were defined as those beliefs which are a function of the group, encompassing more than those beliefs that are shared by the individuals within the group. Following the experiment it was proposed that it is not necessary for members of a group to have a complete set of shared beliefs in order to function as a decision-making group. In the new model, collective cognitions are described as merely transitory phenomena, changing in response to circumstances. The reforming of such phenomena over time results in the formation of shared belief systems. This framework was supported by the literature.     

Why demotion of older workers is a no-go area for managers

Abstract

Demotion – the reduction of an employee’s rank and salary – is often mentioned by managers and policy-makers as a means of increasing the employability of older workers in an ageing labour force. However, so far in practice demotion is rarely applied. This paper is the first empirical investigation of how managers perceive demotion as an instrument of human resource management. By means of a survey and a vignette study among managers in the Netherlands (N = 355), we examine whether managers consider demotion of poorly performing older workers a fair solution. Three contributions stand out. First, based on attribution theory we find support for the hypothesis that managers judge demotion to be fair in those cases where deterioration in task performance is caused by controllable factors (such as work motivation) and unfair when the causes are uncontrollable (such as age). Second, the expectations of managers about the organization-wide consequences of introducing demotion as a human resource policy play a significant role in considering demotion. Most managers perceive negative organizational externalities (e.g. decrease in loyalty and motivation of staff) to arise when introducing demotion and are reluctant to apply demotion in practice. And a third contribution: positive (negative) beliefs of managers about the hard skills – e.g. creativity, willingness to learn, flexibility – of older workers make demotion less (respectively more) likely.     

Managing change in South Africa: developing people and organizations

The interaction of Western and non-Western management practices is a growing issue in transitional and emerging economies through the world, not least within the multicultural context of South Africa. This is characterized in this article as an antithesis between instrumental and humanistic views of people in organizations, which is fundamental to the way change is being managed. In order to better understand how the management of people and change may be related to this antithesis, the results of an exploratory study, involving focus-group methods with thirty managers, and of a survey of some 200 employees in participating organizations are presented. Indicative results suggest that, despite best efforts from organizations which may represent best management and development practice, issues concerning the value attached to people in these organizations are still not being properly addressed. It may be only through understanding and reconciling this antithesis that change concerning the development of people, in South Africa as well as in other emerging economies, may be successfully achieved.     

Managerial style and the strategic choice of executive incentives

This paper analyzes a two-stage duopoly model where owners provide incentives to managers who then select output levels. Unlike the previous Cournot models on the strategic use of incentives (e.g. Fershtman and Judd, 1987; Sklivas, 1987), managers hold different beliefs about their rivals. Managers and executives are classified by ‘management style’ based on the aggressiveness of their beliefs. It is shown that many of the standard results of the strategic managerial incentive literature no longer hold when executives have differing managerial styles. For example, owners may ‘penalize’ their managers for sales, or they may optimally instruct their managers to maximize profits, in contrast to the standard Cournot findings. Indeed, the model yields a necessary and sufficient condition for compensation contracts to specify pure profit-maximizing behavior when managers have differing managerial styles. Thus, the analysis suggests that when ownership and control are separated, owners must carefully assess the belief structure (management style) of their executives before designing the compensation package.     

Single Mothers in Various Living Arrangements:

The economic status of single mothers with dependent children has recently been shown to vary greatly according to their living arrangements, a finding with implications for poverty policy and welfare reform. The economic and time resources of single mothers in various living arrangements were compared using the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households, Cohabitation is significantly related to increased income adequacy and lesser receipt of public assistance for white mothers, but not for black mothers. Living in the parent's home is significantly related to a reduced likelihood of receipt of public assistance for both white and black single mothers, but living with parents is related to lesser time demands in household work for only white single mothers. Differences in resource levels may be related to the finding that, among those living in the parental household, a large majority of white mothers live with two parents, while a majority of black mothers live with one parent.     

Compensation,esteem valence and job performance: an empirical assessment of Alderfer's ERG theory

Improving the job performance of employees has been the focus of many motivation theories, especially the need theories. These theories have however been questioned because of a lack of research on the causal relationship between need satisfaction and job performance. Research on the link between the need satisfaction-job performance relationship and individual personality differences among people has also been neglected. This study addresses these research gaps as far as the intervening influence of personality variables on the need satisfaction-job performance relationship is concerned. The present study investigates the influence of need satisfaction (as suggested by the Alderfer theory) on self-esteem (the personality trait) and the influence of self-esteem on performance intention (the surrogate measure for job performance) of top managers and frontline employees. The empirical results show that esteem as a personality variable exerts a significant influence on the job performance of both top managers and frontline employees. These and other findings provide important guidelines for managers on how to address the motivational needs of top managers and frontline employees in order to improve their job performance.     

ANALYZING CULTURAL STEREOTYPES IN MULTINATIONAL BUSINESS: UNITED STATES AND AUSTRALIA

As U.S. business becomes more international, so does U.S. management education. Executive development programmes offer courses in the U.S. and abroad to managers from many nations. As part of the transfer of U.S. management methods, the concepts, techniques and beliefs taught in these programmes may not be easily accepted, especially by foreign managers. Careful examination of cultural differences in attitudes and opinions is a necessary step in the successful transfer of management technology. This paper compares U.S. and Australian managers' values, attitudes, beliefs and opinions on a wide range of topics using a modified version of Schein's Public Opinion Questionnaire. Our findings suggest that there are common business management views as well as national differences among managers in the U.S. and Australia.     

Bourgeois Blacks Breach Apartheid

Russell Lewis' analysis of the expansion of service industries in the UK is borne out by the improvement they have made in the living standards of South African blacks. Despite the South Africa government's commitment to illiberal racial policies, it is finding itself unable to prevent blacks benefitting from the embourgeoisement of the South African black people.     

The crumbling of apartheid: An application of managerial economics

The thesis of this examination of Apartheid in the Republic of South Africa is that the sophistication of capital structure, whether viewed macro-economically or at the level of the firm, passes nigh-irrestible power to even unorganized workers. This non-Marxist social system model is empirically substantiated by South African economic history but, more particularly, from managerial decisions in respect of the production function – especially in the critical gold-mining industry – over time. This leads to the logical conclusion that the dynamic intensification of foreign capital investment in the Republic alone can end that country's system of Apartheid.     

Will We Ever Meet Again? The Relationship between Inter-Firm Managerial Migration and the Circulation of Client Ties

A large body of research shows that the migration of managers from one professional service firm to another weakens the old employer’s relationship with its clients, because migrating managers remove their relationship-specific knowledge and expertise – i.e., human and social capital – from their old employers, redeploying it to their new employers. This study extends this research by introducing a bi-directional perspective of social capital in which both firms and managers may exploit these relationship-specific resources. We use theory on social capital to build arguments about how one form of manager mobility, manager migration between two service providers in a single market, can both lead and lag the movement of client ties between those providers, and signaling theory to hypothesize the conditions under which this is likely to occur. Analyses using longitudinal data on New York City advertising agencies generally support our arguments. Our findings contribute to theory and research on manager migration, social capital, and signaling, and raise new questions for how the portability of relationship-specific social capital shapes markets.