Impression Management Tactics and Performance Ratings: A Moderated-Mediation Framework

Purpose: The objective of this study is to contribute to the sales management literature by analyzing whether self-monitoring dimensions (the ability to adjust the presentation of one’s self and the sensitivity to the expressive behaviors of others) play a moderating role in the use of impression management—supervisor liking—performance rating nomological network.

Methodology/approach: Empirical analysis is based on dyadic data from 122 industrial salespeople and their sales managers in 9 different industries. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the psychometric proprieties of the measurement scales, and conditional process analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Research implications: The results obtained indicate that the use of supervisor-focused impression management tactics is an indirect antecedent of a salesperson’s performance rating through sales manager liking, but not the self-focused tactics. Results also show that a self-monitoring dimension i.e., the ability to adjust the presentation of one’s self, moderates the “impression management—supervisor liking—performance rating” chain. These results provide an increased understanding of the processes involved in sales managers—salespeople’s interactions.

Practical implications: The main implication for salespeople is that the use of impression management tactics to influence performance ratings only is effective when they use supervisor-focused tactics because attempts to influence via self-focused tactics will not have any effect. The most important implication for sales managers’ is that not all impression management tactics are successfully executed and that the identification of combinations of impression management tactics and the levels of salespeople’s self-monitoring can positively influence performance appraisals by generating evaluative biases. Given that evaluative biases can produce inequitable behaviors by sales managers in the task assignments and support provided to the salespeople, it is important that sales managers are aware of when they can occur (i.e., when salespeople with a moderate ability to adjust their self-presentation use supervisor-focused tactics).

Originality/value/contribution of the article: This article contributes to the existing knowledge by two important means. First, this study proposes a model and presents an empirical test of constructs that mediate (i.e., supervisor liking) and moderate (i.e., self-monitoring dimensions) the “use of impression management tactics—sales manager liking—performance appraisal” relation. This model responds to calls for studies that analyze how impression management tactics are related to performance appraisal and when the relation between the use of these tactics and performance rating occurs. Two, this study uses data from both salespeople and their sales managers, which minimizes any risk of common method variance bias.     

中国金融环境对外商直接投资的影响

一国的金融环境对于FDI发展质量和引资政策的制订都具有重要影响。从对FDI影响较大的金融市场环境、金融服务环境和金融政策环境三个方面详细分析中国金融环境对FDI的影响,并提出改善中国金融环境的相应建议,以促进引资政策的合理化发展。     

知识经济对企业财务管理的若干影响

知识经济是以知识为核心,以在社会总体劳动中占主导地位的知识的劳动功能生产出高质量、低消耗、知识集约化的实物产品,并实现生产过程高效率管理的一种经济形态,知识经济对企业财务管理若干方面产生重大影响,增强了企业竞争的活力。     

员工参与对于预算管理绩效影响的路径分析

本文以路径分析方法为基础,对我国上市公司内员工参与和管理绩效之间的关系进行了实证研究。研究结果发现,员工对于预算目标的接受度会对员工参与和管理绩效之间的关系产生影响,其影响程度会受到预算目标困难度的调节,预算目标困难度高时,员工参与可经由强化预算目标接受而间接提升预算管理绩效;困难度低时,则无此效果。     

Environmental Innovation Strategy and Organizational Performance: Enabling and Controlling Uses of Management Control Systems

This study examines the extent to which enabling and controlling uses of management control systems (MCS) moderate the relationship between environmental innovation strategy and organizational performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze survey data collected from top managers in 175 manufacturing and services sectors representing multinational and local organizations operating in Sri Lanka. We find that while the enabling use of MCS positively moderates the relationship between environmental innovation strategy and organizational performance, in contrast, the controlling use of MCS negatively moderates the relationship. We compare the results for the manufacturing and services sectors. As predicted, we find a significant positive moderating impact of the enabling use of MCS in both manufacturing and services sectors. However, contrary to our expectations, we find no significant moderating impact for both sectors for the controlling use of MCS. We conclude that environmental innovation strategy per se does not lead to performance improvements; however, the extent to which organizations use enabling and controlling MCS determines the relationship. We provide theoretical insights and practical implications concerning the importance of strategic alignment between managerial controls, environmental innovation strategy, and organizational performance.     

Environmental Mutual Funds: Financial Performance and Managerial Abilities

For 15 years, former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky used his Penn State University perquisites to lure young and fatherless boys by offering them special access to one of the most revered football programs in the country. He repeatedly used the football locker room as a space to groom, molest, and rape his victims. In February 2001, an eye-witness alerted Penn State’s top leaders that Sandusky was caught sexually assaulting a young boy in the showers. Instead of taking swift action against Sandusky, leaders began a cover-up that is considered one of the worst scandals in sports history. While public outcry has focused on the leaders’ silence, we focus on the talk that occurred within the organization by key personnel. Drawing from court documents and internal investigative reports, we examine two euphemism clusters that unfolded in the scandal. The first cluster comprises reporting euphemisms, in which personnel used coded language to report the assault up the chain of command. The second cluster comprises responding euphemisms, in which Penn State’s top leaders relied on an innocuous, but patently false, interpretation of earlier euphemisms as a decision-making framework to chart their course of (in)action. We use this case to demonstrate how euphemistic language impairs ethical decision-making, particularly by framing meaning and visibility of acts, encouraging mindless processing of moral considerations, and providing a shield against psychological and material consequences. Further, we argue that euphemism may serve as a disguised retort to critical upward communication in organizations.     

Corporate Support for Ethical and Environmental Policies: A Financial Management Perspective

A random sample of 146 fortune 500 firms were surveyed in 1996 to determine whether firm size and industry type affect employers' level of involvement and support of ethical and environmental policies and practices. The study found relationships between firm size and ethical and environmental policies and practices. While the majority of firms (90.3%), regardless of size, have a formal written code of ethics, large firms are more likely to employ an ombudsperson to handle ethical concerns and to have a network confidentiality policy. Although most firms (83.5%) have a formal written environmental policy, large firms are more inclined to invest in new ways to reduce the production of various types of waste. Another interesting twist to the study has to do with the relationships found between industry type and ethical and environmental policies and practices. Industries, such as the computers and electronics and scientific and photographics sectors, that are involved with high precision products and industries, such as mining, crude oil, and petroleum refining, that utilize natural resources are more inclined to have a formal written code of ethics and social responsibility. In addition, industries that utilize natural resources are more likely than other industries to have formal written environmental policies and practices.     

The Impact of Human Resource Management on Environmental Performance: An Employee-Level Study

This field study investigated the relationship between strategic human resource management, internal environmental concern, organizational citizenship behavior for the environment, and environmental performance. The originality of the present research was to link human resource management and environmental management in the Chinese context. Data consisted of 151 matched questionnaires from top management team members, chief executive officers, and frontline workers. The main results indicate that organizational citizenship behavior for the environment fully mediates the relationship between strategic human resource management and environmental performance, and that internal environmental concern moderates the effect of strategic human resource management on organizational citizenship behavior for the environment.     

企业信息化对企业财务管理的影响

现行企业财务管理存在的主要问题是会计信息滞后、财务监督流于形式、缺乏企业财务支持决策的有效手段、资金使用效率低下。这已严重影响了企业管理的科学化、合理化、现代化进程。应建立以财务管理为核心的内部信息管理系统,改变会计信息孤岛现状,实现资源的优化配置,积极推进企业财务与业务一体化的工作,构建合理的财务管理模式。     

增值税转型对财务管理的影响

自我国2009年初实施增值税从生产型转为消费型的税收体制改革以来,对我国企业财务管理活动产生了重大影响。增值税转型后,企业在消费型增值税制度下,重复征税的问题得到解决,企业在不违反税收政策的前提下,可以在纳税人身份、销售方式、固定资产投资、经营决策等方面进行适当的选择,尽可能的少投入多产出,实现企业利润最大化的财务管理目标。     

The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance, and Organizational Size, Financial Performance, and Environmental Performance: An Empirical Examination

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the corporate social performance of an organization and three variables: the size of the organization, the financial performance of the organization, and the environmental performance of the organization. By empirically testing data from 1987 to 1992, the results of the study show that a firm's corporate social performance is indeed impacted by the size of the firm, the level of profitability of the firm, and the amount of pollution emissions released by the firm.     

The Cultural Impact of Workflow Management Systems in the Financial Services Sector

The implementation of information systems is increasingly resulting in significant changes to the host organisation's culture. In particular, the workflow management system (WFMS) is one new technology that, because of its tendency to have a direct impact on the organisation and execution of work, has the potential to significantly modify an organisation's culture. This qualitative research investigates the nature of the relationship between WFMS and organisational culture, in the UK financial services sector. The research concludes that WFMS have the potential to modify culture in a positive way by improving the organisations' customer orientation, flexibility and quality focus.     

金融业外商直接投资对发展中东道国金融体系效率的作用机理分析

外资金融机构本身的高效率运作及其对内资金融机构的竞争与技术溢出是改善东道国金融体系效率的主要传导路径。外资金融机构具有较高的经营效率,有利于促进当地金融市场的发育,而金融业外商直接投资带来的竞争和技术溢出更有利于促进当地金融体系效率的提升。外商直接投资尽管对东道国金融体系效率存在诸多积极效应,但消极影响也不容忽视。     

The Harm of Symbolic Actions and Green-Washing: Corporate Actions and Communications on Environmental Performance and Their Financial Implications

We examine over 100 top performing Canadian firms in visibly polluting industries as we seek to answer four research questions: What specific environmental issues are firms addressing? How do these issues differ between industries? Are both symbolic and substantive actions financially beneficial? Does green-washing, measured as the difference between symbolic and substantive action, and/or green-highlighting, measured as the combined effect of symbolic and substantive actions, pay? We find that substantive actions of environmental issues (green walk) neither harm nor benefit firms financially, but symbolic actions (green talk) are negatively related to financial performance. We also find that green-washing (discrepancy between green talk and green walk) has a negative effect on financial performance and green-highlighting (concentrated efforts of the talk and walk) has no effect on financial performance. In this article, we provide explanations of our findings and put forth future research directions.     

统计分析在企业财务管理中的运用

随着市场竞争的加剧,企业管理者及外部利益相关者越来越需要第一时间准确掌握企业的经营成果与财务状况,这就对企业财务管理提出了更高要求.为让企业经营活动中产生的大量数据及时向信息需要者提供决策信息,需要运用统计分析这一重要手段完成数据分析,让统计分析在企业筹资、投资、财务分析等财务管理中发挥作用,从而提高企业财务的管理效率.     

Exporting and Environmental Performance: A Firm‐level Productivity Analysis

The objective of this paper is to study empirically the relationship between export orientation and firms’ environmental performance from different perspectives of trade theory. On the one hand, productivity heterogeneity is analysed within the new trade‐theoretical framework. The approach followed is to determine firm‐level productivity components, including an environmental productivity indicator (as a performance measure) and taking as reference the Spanish food industry. On the other hand, from the traditional comparative advantage perspective, this study also develops an export performance model to evaluate the effect of technology, environmental variables and factor endowment on exporting. The results show greater environmental productivity and corporate efficiency for export‐oriented firms. Our findings also determine the positive effect on firms’ export intensity of environmental performance as a factor of specialisation and technology proficiency.     

On Ethical, Social and Environmental Management Systems

There are three types of solutions to the problems deriving from companies' ethical, social and environmental responsibilities: those based on regulation by an authority or agency; those deigned to create market incentives; and those that rely on self-regulation by companies themselves. In the specific field we are concerned with here, regulation has significant costs and drawbacks that make it particularly desirable that companies should set up their own ethical, social and environmental management systems or programmes. The purpose of this article is twofold. On the one hand, it explains how implementing voluntary ethical, social and environmental management systems or programmes may help to develop and sustain ethical behaviour in organizations, overcoming the conflict between compulsory regulation and occasional ethical practices. On the other hand, it shows that conditions must be met for an ethical management programme to be effective.     

The Effect of Corporate Social Performance on Financial Performance: The Moderating Effect of Ownership Concentration

The purpose of this study is to extend prior research on this topic by investigating whether the impact of ownership concentration moderates the link between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance (FP). This study uses a set of unique, hand-collected pollution control data to measure CSP, based on a sample of Taiwanese listed companies during the period from 1996 to 2006. The results of the empirical analysis provide firm support for the idea that the divergence between control rights and the cash flow rights of controlling owners negatively moderates the link between social and short- and long-run FP.     

Environmental Motivations: The Pathway to Complete Environmental Management

The aim of this research is to ascertain whether a firm’s environmental motivations may help to predict how complete or incomplete its environmental management will be, understanding incomplete management to be that which neglects one or more of the three keys aspects of such management, namely, monitoring, action and results. We specifically posit that while motivations based on the search for legitimation lead to more incomplete styles of environmental management, competitive motivations entail a more complete management. The analyses conducted with a sample of 1,902 plants provide empirical evidence in favour of such reasoning. The contribution this research makes, therefore, is not restricted solely to showing the effect motivations have on the environmental performance of organisations, as it also introduces a new dimension of environmental management—the degree of completeness, which needs to be considered when understanding and evaluating this effect.