FOCUS: Women in Management: An Empirical Exploration of Ethical Issues

Dr Goffee reviews empirical evidence on the labour market position and work experience of women managers, assesses the kind of work situations which are likely to be perceived by women managers - and, in some cases, their partners and colleagues - as involving an "ethical" dimension, and suggests possible sources of differentiation in the experiences of European women managers which are worthy of further comparative research. The author is Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School.     

Globalization and Confrontation: The Transformation of the Australian Coal Industry

The Australian coal industry serves as a vivid illustration of the impact of globalization on workplace organization and workplace industrial relations. In this contribution we outline the changes and developments, from the organization of production through to the product market, that are impacting on workplace organization and industrial relations of the Australian coal industry. In particular the authors highlight the attempts and strategies of management to increase productivity, to realize functional and numerical flexibilities in the deployment of labour and to deregulate employment relations. Simultaneously, trade unions are faced with institutional, legal and global competitive pressures to conform to the flexibility strategies of managers. The result has been persistent and sporadic outbreaks of industrial disputation in the midst of the erosion of employment conditions and a shift towards greater managerial control of the labour process. The forces identified as globalization are systematically transforming workplace organization and impacting on the strategies of coal mine managers and trade unions.     

An Exploration of Managerial Views on Positioning Services in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The paper constitutes an analysis of the views of managers of service firms on positioning strategies in Ghana. The research employed a qualitative research method. Data were collected from 21 service managers and analyzed using content analysis procedures. The results indicate that for service managers, the perceived dominant positioning strategies of their organizations were: service quality, customer relationship, innovation, availability of service, community support, and leading organization, among others. The findings suggest that the dominant managerial views of Ghanaian service managers form a ‘hybrid’ of those of the Western manager. This research is important in clarifying this position. Additionally, as an exploratory piece, the study provides bases for further research on a topic in Ghana with a rather scant evidence of research.     

Over the Line: Managers' experience of a labour strike

The experiences of managers who continue to work through a labour stoppage is a largely overlooked question in industrial relations research and practice. Qualitative long interviews were conducted with managers who worked through a strike. A shared narrative for managers' strike experiences emerged. Managers perceived that their prestrike workplace was cooperative and characterized by positive labour‐management relationships. The strike was experienced as contentious and personalized with managers reporting that they and their families were targets of aggression from strikers. The managers envisioned a more formal poststrike workplace characterized by less collegial labour‐management interactions. We discuss the implications of these findings and call for further research on managers' experiences of industrial relations events. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Country Relational Distance,Organizational Power and R&D Managers: Understanding Environmental Challenges for Foreign R&D in China

This study examines the challenges of foreign research and development (R&D) in China, based on interviews with 32 senior R&D managers. It confirms the findings from previous research that many barriers still exist in China for foreign R&D, and such barriers include institutional environment, infrastructure and labour management. Among the three categories, issues related labour management, such as increasing labour cost and mobility, lack of experience and creativity and cultural differences among the research staff, prove to be most challenging for management, while China's institutions and infrastructure do not seem to pose big problems for foreign companies. This study also finds that responses from R&D managers are not consistent, and the differences could be largely explained by three types of factors: relational distance between the parent country and China, the strength and experience of foreign companies, and the manager's personal experience and closeness with China. Further research is needed to explore these issues due to the small sample size of this study.     

Employee brand engagement on social media: Managing optimism and commonality

This article considers how employees engage with B2B firms on social media, a topic that is largely overlooked in the extant brand engagement literature. Using the results from a large-scale study of employee brand engagement on social media, we identify two key drivers of employee brand engagement using the content analysis tool DICTION—namely, optimism and commonality. Employees of top-ranked and -rated firms express higher levels of optimism and commonality in their reviews of their employers on social media than do their counterparts in bottom-ranked and -rated firms. This permits the construction of a 2 × 2 matrix that allows managers to diagnose strategies for increasing or improving employee brand engagement. This creates four different kinds of employee brand engagement situations, and offers human resources and marketing managers different strategies in each case. We demonstrate how practitioners and scholars can shed new light on the way stakeholders engage with brands.     

Markets and managerial discretion: Tooth & Co., 1970–1981

Studies of business have often sought to explain features of management activity, particularly labour management activity, with reference to the product market conditions faced by managers. This paper argues that a more nuanced understanding of management can be gained by examining both the product and financial market environment. These conditions influence the structuring of management and the development and application of managerial policy. This paper examines the management, particularly the labour management, of one of Australia's leading companies during the twentieth century. Specifically it examines how the product and financial market environment faced by this company in the 1970s influenced the labour management strategies pursued. It shows that particular market conditions will privilege or provide justification for certain types of labour management activity. This is illustrated by examining this company's operation under two distinct sets of market conditions.     

Corporate versus independent new ventures: Resource,strategy, and performance differences

This study examines differences between independent ventures (IVs), which are established by individual entrepreneurs, and corporate ventures (CVs), which are controlled by larger companies. It focuses on differences between these ventures related to the resources, strategies, and performance of firms in the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries. Thus, the findings increase the understanding of the different challenges faced by each venture type and provide insight into how each venture type should be managed.The study finds that managers of CVs and IVs emphasized different resources and strategies. Specifically, CVs emphasized the following resources: internal capital sources, proprietary knowledge, and marketing expertise. IVs emphasized external capital sources, technical expertise, and development of brand identification. They also differed in their strategies; IVs pursued greater strategic breadth, more customer service, and focused more on specialty products. The findings that CVs had less strategic breadth was surprising in that CVs emphasized resources, such as internal capital sources, which could make pursuing broad strategies more feasible for CVs. It is possible that some CVs do not pursue broad strategies because they may be “infringing upon someone else's turf” within the corporation and thus may be discouraged.In spite of finding significant strategy and resource differences, the study found that IVs and CVs did not differ in performance and that resources were not directly related to performance. Based on the concept of equifinality, it follows that both venture types can be equally successful, even if they follow different roads to success. Success may be less a function of the different resources IVs and CVs have and more a function of what strategies the firms choose based upon their resources.Strategy variables did relate to performance: a low cost strategy lowered performance regardless of venture type and the influence of an aggressive strategy (i.e., wide strategic breadth) on performance depended upon venture origin. Managers pursuing a low cost strategy may have had lower performance if they became penny wise and pound foolish, missing opportunities in their efforts to lower costs. This suggests that regardless of venture type, managers of new ventures in these industries and perhaps in other volatile industries may need to be opportunistic.This study indicates that pursuing broad strategies increased the performance of IVs and decreased the performance of CVs. This finding was surprising in that CVs had greater resources, which one might think would lead to successful implementation of aggressive strategies. In securing enough resources to pursue aggressive strategies from their parents, CVs may lose the freedom of action they need to cope with the dynamism of high technology industries. This suggests that managers of CVs within the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries should either not pursue broad strategies, or if pursuing broad strategy, they should maintain their flexibility. In contrast, IVs that pursued broad strategies achieved higher performance, indicating that perhaps IVs, unencumbered by the bureaucracy that characterizes CVs, may be able to pursue aggressive strategies while simultaneously maintaining flexibility.Thus, this study offers IV and CV managers several valuable insights. First, it argues that managers of each type of venture may need to pursue different strategies to increase venture performance and make optimal use of their unique resources. Furthermore, it suggests that CV managers encounter difficulties in applying resources to strategies and not in accessing resources. Whereas political obstacles may occur, CV managers may primarily encounter these difficulties when trying to implement strategies rather than when accumulating resources from the parent, suggesting a pitfall that managers of CVs and their parents need to avoid. Although this study has indicated that both venture types can be equally successful, it suggests that they may face different obstacles and follow different roads to success.     

Return on investment for workplace training: the Canadian experience

One of the central problems in managing technological change and maintaining a competitive advantage in business is improving the skills of the workforce through investment in human capital and a variety of training practices. This paper explores the evidence on the impact of training investment on productivity in 14 Canadian industries from 1999 to 2005. Our productivity analysis demonstrates that in 12 out of 14 industries, training had a positive effect on productivity. However, when the analysis is put within a financial context, the return on investment was positive in only four industries. Faced with negative rates of return, why should managers in most of the industries in the study promote investment in training? Probably the best explanation is that new technology requires an investment in training. The investment in training is necessary just for the firm to maintain its current labour productivity. Employee turnover necessarily impedes the efficacy of training, because trained workers leave, and untrained workers arrive. Thus, training in this instance again is necessary just to maintain current labour productivity.     

Employment Policies in the Service Sector: Training in Retail Distribution

This article presents in summary the results of the recent study by the Distributive Trades EDCs Part-Time Employment Group, which focussed attention on the training practices and career opportunities for this major and increasing component of the labour force of retail firms. There is no great certainty or unanimity about the training needs of retail staff, and differences in skill requirements are evident across the various retail trades and diverse organisational structures. Retailing is a dynamic and rapidly changing industry arid employers are not unaware of the training needs associated with labour intense operations yet the training implications of the industry's considerable dependence on part-time workers do not appear to be fully appreciated. In discussing the Report's findings in the context of the ongoing training debate in Britain, it is argued that the corporate strategies of retailers must comprehend the centrality of the training function, if effective use is to be made of all their employees.     

Using a Qualitative Approach to Gain Insights into the Business Ethics Experiences of Australian Managers in China

This study investigated the business ethics experiences of Australian managers in China, using qualitative methodology to identify themes. Thirty-one Australian managers who had spent on average 8.7 years working in business connected to China participated in in-depth interviews regarding their business ethics experiences in China. Commonly, managers identified issues relating to a broad spectrum which could be labelled "bribery and facilitation". Other repeated themes included requests for visa assistance, employee theft, nepotism and non-adherence to contractual obligations. This study has important implications for helping Australian managers improve the way they approach potential ethical situations in China. Four key coping strategies can be identified from the data: managers spoke of not compromising their own morals, of attempting to understand the motivation of Chinese colleagues, of talking to others and of adhering to company policy. These strategies suggest practical steps may be taken by organisations when training managers for business activities in China. In particular, structuring of mentoring relationships between experienced and less experienced practitioners may be of assistance. Cultural training for managers and clear company policy on contentious issues such as bribery may also be of benefit. The themes identified in the study also have implications for academics researching expatriate business peoples' experiences in China.     

Using Social Identity Theory to Predict Managers’ Emphases on Ethical and Legal Values in Judging Business Issues

The need to fill three gaps in ethics research in a business context sparked the current study. First, the distinction between the concepts of “ethical” and “legal” needs to be incorporated into theory building and empiricism. Second, a unifying theory is needed that can explain the variables that influence managers to emphasize ethics and legality in their judgments. Third, empirical evidence is needed to confirm the predictive power of the unifying theory, the discernable influence of personal and organizational variables, and the importance of the issue to the managers in determining their emphasis on the ethical and legal values of their judgments. Focused on these needs, the current research combines social identity theory with empirical findings from business ethics research. This theory building initiative framed hypothesis-driven research to investigate the influences on managers’ emphasis on ethical and legal values in making business judgments. An empirical research study was conducted involving 252 practicing managers who judged 12 newsworthy business events. Data was collected on the managers’ individual factors, on the groups that influence their judgments, and on the importance that the managers place on ethics and legality in judging the 12 scenarios. The research findings contribute to theory development (1) By successfully utilizing a blended extension of social identity and issue-contingent theories to understand managers’ judgments, and (2) By providing evidence on the relationships between the perceived importance of an issue and the emphases managers place on ethical and legal values in their judgments. The analysis of the data was extended to provide insights on the needs of employers to tailor management training on legal and ethical decision-making. The participating managers were clustered according to their emphases on Ethical Importance and Legal Importance in judging business situations. Analysis of Variance was then combined with Scheffé Multiple Comparison Tests to assess whether the factors derived from a blended extension of social identity and issue-contingent theories were significantly different across the clusters. The product of this analysis is unique sets of attributes that describe each cluster of managers, and provide an empirical basis for determining training priorities. Finally, the carefully constructed and thoroughly tested 12 research scenarios that form the core of the survey instrument enable their redeployment in subsequent research and their use by practicing executives who wish to compare data provided by their managers to results from the study participants.     

Demand uncertainty and the capital–labour ratio in Poland

This paper investigates the effect of demand uncertainty on the capital–labour ratio of non-financial firms in Poland. An eclectic model is used to characterise a utility maximising firm in a transition economy with demand uncertainty and imperfect competition. It is assumed that labour is completely variable and capital is quasi-fixed. The demand for capital, and hence the capital–labour ratio, derives from the optimisation of expected costs and the firm's pricing and output decisions, and crucially depends on the sign of the covariance term, i.e. the firm's risk behaviour. The main testable proposition of the model is that if firms are risk-lovers, an increase in demand uncertainty increases the capital–labour ratio, whereas the capital–labour ratio decreases when firms are risk-averse. The model is estimated using data from a cross-section of 148 non-financial firms in Poland. The results unambiguously show that there exists a significant positive relationship between demand uncertainty and the capital–labour ratio. This finding suggests that Polish firms are risk-lovers, i.e. they respond to demand uncertainty by increasing their capital–labour ratio because they are more concerned to have stable labour costs than they are to have stable profits. The evidence has important implications for the needed set of regulations and corporate governance in Poland as part of the necessary economic reform.     

Formal voice mechanisms and portfolio career workers’ prosocial voice in Japan and Korea: the mediating role of managers’ issue-related leadership activities

ABSTRACT

This study analyses the relationship between formal voice mechanisms and prosocial voice among portfolio career workers (PCWs) in Japan and Korea. We particularly focus on the leadership activities of managers as human resource management agents and issue sellers. Under similar conditions, data on 400 and 409 PCWs in Japan and Korea, respectively, are gathered through web-based longitudinal surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018. The findings are threefold. First, when PCWs perceive that formal voice mechanisms are activated, they also rate the levels of their managers’ issue-related leadership activities more highly. Second, when PCWs evaluate the issue-related leadership activities of managers as being at a high level, they perceive that employment relations are based on a social exchange relationship. Third, when PCWs perceive employment relations based on a social exchange relationship, they provide their prosocial voice more actively. These results are discussed relative to the internal labour market models of Japan and Korea.     

International entrepreneurial marketing strategies of MNCs: Bricolage as practiced by marketing managers

The extant research lacks information on entrepreneurial marketing in large international firms. This study explores the international entrepreneurial marketing strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs), and its results reveal that MNC marketing managers use bricolage to develop international entrepreneurial marketing. A novel finding of the study is that the international entrepreneurial marketing strategies of MNCs include co-innovation, accelerating customer value, and international expansion based on regional market leadership. Marketing managers use both parallel and selective bricolage in their international entrepreneurial marketing. Environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurship culture are important drivers of the implementation of bricolage to develop international entrepreneurial marketing. The research findings can inform MNC management of the options available to utilize corporate venturing to facilitate bricolage and in turn to realize international entrepreneurial marketing strategies.     

Managerial Perceptions of SMEs in the Wood Industry Supply Chain on Corporate Responsibility and Competitive Advantage: Evidence from China and Finland

Our comparative study investigates the Chinese and Finnish managers' perceptions of corporate responsibility (CR) and how CR engagement can benefit small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the mechanical wood processing industry. Based on the semi‐structured interviews with 23 line managers between December 2009 and December 2010, our study provides evidence that with a focused stakeholder approach, managers in wood industry SMEs adopt informal corporate social responsibility strategies and tools to meet the specific expectations of their key stakeholders. Legal aspects were the key drivers of CR, whereas advanced production technology, efficient wood procurement, customer focus, and a competent workforce formed the four principal cornerstones in their pursuit of competitive advantage. Despite the two vastly different cultural and operational settings, the importance and the role of CR were found to follow a fairly similar logic in how CR was understood and implemented in the wood industry SMEs seeking for competitive advantage.     

Competitive edge: A strategic management model

To assess a firm's strategic position, its managers must collect and interpret data regarding the firm itself, its competitors, its stakeholders, and the industry. Having implement a strategy based on that information, the managers further must measure that strategy's effect. The “competitive-edge model” presented in this article provides a series of questions to guide the strategic decision-making and data-collection process so that managers gain an explicit picture of what is happening with their firm, their competitors, and the industry. Equipped with the requisite information, managers can develop marker and non-marker strategies by matching internal resources with external opportunities. Market-based strategies seek to provide an advantage for the firm over its competitors by appealing to specific customer attributes. Non-market strategies take into account aspects of the environment not directly related to customers, including the actions of government, shareholders, and special interest groups.     

Small Firm Growth: Intentions, Implementation and Impediments

Recent evidence suggests that many small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK experience difficulty growing from the start-up phase into larger well established firms. This research uses survey data from UK instruments, printing and software SMEs to explore the attitudes of SME managers towards growth, to identify the strategies they pursue to achieve growth, and to establish the main factors they perceive to be limiting their growth. We find that although most managers profess to value growth and follow expansionary strategies, the main limits on the growth of SMEs are the intensity of competition stemming from the recession, and the inability or unwillingness of management to deal with the increased administrative burden arising from expansion.     

Collaborative workplaces for innovation in service companies: barriers and enablers for supporting new ways of working

The paper aims to provide a systematic overview of the barriers and enablers that contribute to the success or failure of collaborative workplaces initiatives aimed at fostering innovation in service companies. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with innovation managers, human resource managers and facility department executives from a sample of multi-national service companies. Its primary focus is on the workplace initiatives carried out in their Spanish subsidiaries. The paper contributes to the extant research by identifying a conceptual model for collaborative workplaces and by providing a systematic overview of the related barriers and enablers. From the interviews, these factors were organized within a framework usable by practitioners for analysis. This paper is of interest to companies that aim to design collaborative workplace strategies to justify associated investments. It can also provide their managers with guidelines to lead the company in the transition toward new ways of working based on higher employee collaboration and flexibility.     

Mad women: gendered divisions in the Swedish advertising industry, 1930–2012

This article constitutes a first attempt to systematically map the presence of women in the greatly changing Swedish advertising industry since 1930. The overarching aim of the study is to analyse how the gendered divisions of labour and business changed in relation to both business structure and the overall labour market in Sweden. While we conclude that women constituted around 40–50% of the workforce over time, we see an increase in the shares of women in higher positions and in women who were self-employed and managers. This upturn, however, stabilised during the 1990s. We argue that the changes in gendered divisions of labour and business coincided with a fast-changing business structure. First, the old cartel broke down in the mid-1960s. Then, the number of firms increased quickly during the 1970s and 1980s, and the market share for the largest firms declined. This, in turn, meant new business opportunities for women at the same time as their overall labour market participation increased. The article stresses the importance of both acknowledging women’s presence in the industry development as well as the structures constituting gender divisions.