Japanese managerial and organizational learning

The article describes how the external forces of Japanese culture, industrial organization, and government intervention support managerial and organizational learning. It provides an overview of the culturally explicit philosophies that govern and stimulate learning in Japan, then explains how these philosophies are exhibited in Japanese management practice today. A model is presented which demonstrates the relationships among external forces, philosophical origins, management practice, and managerial and organizational learning. The conclusion is that managerial and organizational learning constitute one of Japan's most valuable competitive advantages. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Some perspectives of managerial ethical leadership

If managerial leadership means deciding responsibly in a complex situation, the ethical dimension of leadership — besides its analytical and instrumental aspects — has to be clarified. I present and discuss several essential aspects of managerial ethical leadership: (a) some major presuppositions (the concepts of leadership and responsibility), (b) three normative-ethical tasks of the activity of leadership (perceiving, interpreting and creating reality — being responsible for the effect of one's decisions on the human beings concerned — being responsible for the implementation of corporate goals) and (c) some claims on the leader as a subject responsible for his or her own activities. I shall conclude by adding some reflections on the limits of managerial ethical leadership. Georges Enderle is a private tutor for business ethics at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Since 1983 he has been Director of the Institute for Business Ethics. He is the author of Sicherung des Existenzminimums im nationalen und internationallen Kontext — eine wirtschaftsethische Studie,and he has written various articles on business ethics.     

Cultural context and its influence on managerial leadership in Thailand

In this paper, we explore excellence in leadership in Thailand, a nation that has strong roots in Theravada Buddhism. Summated scales and a structural model were constructed to explain the relationships between the excellences in leadership constructs. A sample frame of 401 Thai managers employed in organizations in Bangkok, North Thailand, and East Thailand participated in this research. The findings suggest that there are strong cultural factors such as non-confrontation, respect, and deference for authority mediating the perceptions of Thai managers with regards to perceptions of an excellent leader. Age and gender are also demonstrated as key differentiating factors in the perceptions of Thai managers.     

Afro-Diasporic women navigating the black ceiling: Individual,relational, and organizational strategies

In this article, we describe how the black ceiling—upheld by the powerful institutional logics of patriarchy and white supremacy, inordinately challenging and interlocking systemic barriers to leadership advancement—leads to the dearth of Afro-Diasporic women in senior corporate leadership positions and pathologizes Afro-Diasporic women as multiple outsiders. As a result, Afro-Diasporic women’s well-being in the workplace is compromised and many adopt coping and survival strategies to navigate a myriad of relational and environmental phenomena, such as spirit murder, emotional taxation, social closure, white privilege, and white fragility. To navigate and ameliorate these dynamics, we advance several individual, relational, and organizational strategies that support Afro-Diasporic women thriving in the workplace.     

Multi-item models for evaluating managerial and organizational resources in service firms

Services are the primary source of wealth in almost every nation around the world. Domestic competitiveness increasingly depends on the health of its service firms. Then understanding the source of competitive advantage for the case of service industry is a challenge that cannot be deferred. Resource-Based View literature gives sound evidences that intangible assets like managerial and organizational resources are the primary source of competitive advantage, especially in the service industry. However, the development of managerial tools for measuring and managing these resources remains as an open gap. In the last few years, some academic work has been devoted to develop intangible assets measurement devices. Nevertheless, these scales are either oriented towards manufacturing industry or do not take specifically into account the distinctive features of service delivery. This study replies the multi-item model proposed by Camisón (Manag Res 3(1):27–48, 2004) over a sample of 152 medium and large services companies. We have taken different tests to demonstrate validity and reliability of the scales. Results show that these scales may also be suitable for being used in all the types of service companies. However, some partial modifications should be done in order to give more relevance to soft managerial competences and to organizational human capital. This study was carried out as part of research project (reference GV2007-075) which has been subsidized by the “Valencian Government Programme Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects”.     

Institutionalization of organizational ethics through transformational leadership

Concerns regarding corporate ethics have grown steadily throughout the past decade. In order to remain competitive, many organizational leaders are faced with the challenge of creating an ethical environment within their organization. A model is presented showing the process and elements necessary for the institutionalization of organizational ethics. The transformational leadership style lends itself well to the creation of an ethical environment and is suggested as a means to facilitate the institutionalization of corporate ethics. Finally, the benefits of using transformational leadership are demonstrated through the components of a psychological contract, organizational commitment, and ethical culture to institutionalize organizational ethics.Dawn S. Carlson is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Behavior at the Florida State University. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of Organization Behavior, Ethics, and Human Resource Management. Dawn continues to be active in the Academy of Management and Southern Management Association. She recently presented a paper at the National Academy Meetings on Work/Nonwork Conflict.Dr. Pamela L. Perrewe is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Management Department in the College of Business at Florida State University. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Pam has recently co-authored a textbook entitled,Strategic Human Resource Management. She is a member of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, Decision Sciences Institute and the Southern Management Association (SMA). Recently, she was elected to the Board of Governors for SMA.     

Transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational innovation

This study proposes a model of the impact of transformational leadership both on followers' creativity at the individual level and on innovation at the organizational level. The model is tested on 163 R&D personnel and managers at 43 micro- and small-sized Turkish software development companies. The results suggest that transformational leadership has important effects on creativity at both the individual and organizational levels. At the individual level, the results of hierarchical linear modeling show that there is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and employees' creativity. In addition, transformational leadership influences employees' creativity through psychological empowerment. At the organizational level, the results of regression analysis reveal that transformational leadership positively associates with organizational innovation, which is measured with a market-oriented criterion developed specifically for developing countries and newly developing industries. The implications of the findings along with some potential practical applications are discussed.     

Empowering salespeople: Personal,managerial, and organizational perspectives

The traditional seven steps of personal selling have remained virtually unchanged since the early 1900s. Meanwhile, the actual roles and duties of salespeople have pushed far into customer relationship management (CRM). Psychologically and professionally, salespeople need greater empowerment for their expanding CRM responsibilities. However, empowerment is a complex process requiring several individual, managerial, and organizational changes for successful implementation. As part of the empowerment process for its salespeople, companies need to provide supporting structures, processes, and incentives for customer‐oriented behavior. At the same time, the Internet and other telecommunications advances in the macroenvironment are accelerating empowerment changes in personal selling—mainly on the customer side of the exchange. To effectively and efficiently carry out their growing yet still poorly defined CRM roles, salespeople need to be comprehensively empowered, trained, motivated, and rewarded. Companies that most effectively empower their salespeople should reap substantial rewards in profitability and loyalty from both their salespeople and customers. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ethics,spirituality and self: managerial perspective and leadership implications

This paper argues that the self, as both the centre of our identity and the focus of our spiritual life, has not been given enough consideration with regard to the ethics of managers and leaders. Informed by models of self‐realisation and the Jungian process of individuation, our discussion suggests that the way we perceive and interpret our self affects our moral behaviour. In particular, integrity of the self fully participates in enhancing servant leadership and consistent ethical practice. We illustrate the argument with comments from various managers on the statement: ‘Being true to your self’.     

Individual ethical beliefs and perceived organizational interests

Two contrasting types of individuals were each predicted to agree, for different reasons, that conventional ethical standards of society need not be upheld if organizational interests appear to demand otherwise. The hypotheses were investigated using questionnaire responses from two samples (employed and student, total N=308). Clear support was obtained for the prediction that individuals inclined toward self-interest and behavior counter to conventional standards would agree with the preceding position. Partial support was obtained for the hypothesis that individuals who simply feel obligated to support an employing organization would also agree. While the latter's perspective may be somewhat narrow or perhaps even cynical, they do not seem to reflect the self-interest profile of the first group. This study also extends the groundbreaking work of Froelich and Kottke by exploring individual difference correlates of their promising ethics scale assessing the extent of agreement that organizational interests legitimately supersede more conventional ethical standards.Peter E. Mudrack is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization Sciences at Wayne State University's School of Business Administration, Detroit, Michigan, 48202, U.S.A.E. Sharon Mason is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and HRM at Broke University's Faculty of Business, St. Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1, Canada.     

Human capacity development in Indonesia: leadership and managerial ideology in Javanese organizations

Abstract

In this paper, leadership is viewed as a driver for change, showing directions towards a society with high adaptive capacity. This study, in particular, investigates whether the eight ancient principles of Javanese statesmanship (Asta Brata) can be employed as change agents for analysing managerial leadership excellence in Javanese organizations. Factor analysis, regression modelling and structural modelling are used to explain what constitutes leadership excellence in Javanese organizations. These findings based on the perceptions of 312 Javanese managers suggest they favour a paternalistic leadership style that is nurturing but not authoritative. This then calls for institutions that stimulate progressive leadership and entrepreneurial leadership as necessary but not sufficient until tempered with personal quality factors such as trustworthiness, dependable and discerning behaviours, patience and decisive action and acknowledgement of environmental influence.     

Dual career couples: Individual and organizational implications

Since the introduction of the term ‘dualcareer’ family by Rapoport and Rapoport in 1969, an increasingly large body of literature concerning this phenomenon has developed — perhaps in response to the rapid growth of dual-careerism in North American Society. This literature is extremely diverse, ranging from purely ‘academic’ articles in the professional journals of economics, business, sociology, psychology, etc., to ‘self-help’ and ‘trade’ books such as The Two Career Couple by Hall and Hall; to ‘light’ articles in popular magazines such as Redbook, People, Good Housekeeping, etc. This paper reviews this literature and discusses the implications of the dual-career family structure from both the individual and the organizational points-of-view. Specifically, five major topic areas are covered: (1) advantages and disadvantages of the lifestyle, (2) marital satisfaction, (3) egalitarian relationships, (4) the impact of transfers, relocations and living apart, and (5) the employing organization's reaction to and adaption to the phenomenon.     

Symmetric and asymmetric leadership cultures: A comparative study of leadership and organizational culture at Hyundai and Toyota

This study compares national cultures, leadership strategies, and work environments in two successful global automobile companies, Hyundai Motor Group and Toyota Motor Corporation. Despite competing head-on in the same market, it was found that these companies use very different leadership strategies as a basis for both global competition and local operations. Based on the results of a comparative case study, structured interviews, and related media and empirical data, it was found that Toyota competes both strategically and managerially by emphasizing planning and work systems to mitigate the impact of any turbulence in the external environment (stability is key), while Hyundai competes by accepting environmental uncertainty and risk as a part of normal daily operations (flexibility is key). We refer to these approaches as symmetric and asymmetric leadership and organizational cultures. As a result of these differences, Hyundai is able to change course more quickly than its larger competitor as new opportunities and technologies emerge. While national cultures played a role in differentiating between the two firms, leadership differences had a more pronounced effect on organizational behaviors and subsequent performance. Results are consistent with previous research and reinforce the conclusion that top management leaders’ behavior can have a significant influence on emergent organizational cultures and performance.     

Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional leadership

This study examines a comprehensive model comprising of various relationships between transformational and transactional leadership, knowledge management (KM) process, and organizational performance. Data are collected from human resource managers and general managers working in 119 service firms. Exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis are used to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that transformational leadership has strong and positive effects on KM process and organizational performance after controlling for the effects of transactional leadership. Further, KM process partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance after controlling for the effects of transactional leadership. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.     

女性如何跨越障碍提升领导力——以智造就“半边天”

<正>“一个势单力薄的女性面对‘狼来了’的威胁,是用拳头、棍棒,还是匕首、手枪?”“一个女性领导陷于日常工作的巢臼,用什么跳出管理事务的泥潭?继续用手工,拍脑袋,还是利用‘人海’战术?抑或还用什么方法?”“一个现代女性所追求的‘半边天’为何总成了‘一线天’?‘巾帼不让须眉’为何总难理直气壮?”类似这样的问题不是什么新鲜的事情,也是事实,人们对于女性站在商界巅峰的怀疑与不适感由来已久。撇开性别歧视不说,女性在领导过程中的水平问题应该是多数人不欢迎女性领导、也是女性难以迈向成功巅峰的主要原因。直面女性缺点,正视两性差异(如生理差异、思维方式