The interplay between learning strategy and organizational structure in predicting career success

The institutionalization of management development and the money spent on it is in sharp contrast to the importance attached to what we know about how managers learn and whether it helps them to get promotion, given the specific organizational context in which they work. We therefore examined career success as a complex positive or negative function of the individual's learning strategy and the organization's structure. One hundred and twenty-seven managers from three government-related organizations completed a questionnaire. A deep learning strategy, characterized by a focus on meaning and relations, fosters career success, especially in a lowly specialized context. In contrast, a surface learning strategy, characterized by a focus on instructions and facts, hampers career success, especially in a highly integrated context. The findings strongly suggest that management development programmes need to be made to measure, taking into account both how the manager learns and how the organization is structured.     

教学改革创新与学习型组织创建

教学改革中面对的常见问题包括参与者对教学改革目标的理解力问题、教学内容改革中师资配合问题、教学方法改革的适应力问题和教学改革的执行力问题。上述问题可以通过构建学习型组织来解决。学习型组织通过将教学改革目标与教师职业生涯规划有机结合来,调动参与者的积极性;通过组织成员开放式讨论,改变师生传统的思维模式;通过投入-实施-反馈-修正-再投入形成教学改革良性循环。学习型组织在教学改革中的成效,最终需要具备系统化思维的领导者来实现。     

Intelligent technology,intelligent workers: A new pedagogy for the high-tech work place

When the focus of technology is on automation, it may be reasonable to have training programs that merely teach workers the objects and actions necessary for them to respond to smart machines. However, as the OTA report clearly points out, “There is uncertainty about how current instructional programs should be revised or expanded. …” This uncertainty comes from the informating function of the technology. As one manager said: “Our competition can buy the same black boxes that we can. Our future depends on how well our people use the information generated by that technology.”When the informating quality of the technology is recognized, the importance of smart people becomes apparent. Traditional training, with its focus on objects and actions, is not enough. In the informated environment, on-line, interactive learning is necessary if people are to create new meanings out of the information generated by computer technology.A pedagogy for meaning is a collective enterprise that can unleash individual and organizational energy in an informated work place. It has implications for (1) rethinking traditional worker-training and management-education programs, (2) transforming the work place into a learning environment, (3) reconceptualizing the roles of workers and managers so that they can become partners in creating meaning, and (4) designing rewards for people who create and participate in an environment of inquiry.A pedagogy for meaning is concerned with peoples learning how to learn. A work force that has learned how to learn is one of the most important competitive levers an organization can have in an environment of ongoing technological change.     

From ideas to action: Creating a learning organization

Discussions of learning organizations too often end up intangible and obscure. While organizational learning is easy to recognize, it is often difficult to describe and dissect. Here, emphasizing the pragmatic rather than the abstract, the authors offer a solid strategy for creating a learning organization. Their extensive research suggests that at least five elements are essential for companies to become learning organizations. Together, these elements provide a formula for creating a learning organization. By closely examining each element within that formula, managers can measure and increase the rate of learning within their organizations. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The impact of the presence of biased managers as strategic commitment on endogenous market structures

We consider the endogenous selection of strategic contracts in an asymmetric duopoly with substitutable goods. The market includes a biased manager, in terms of the market size the manager expects, in a managerial duopoly with separation between ownership and management. In particular, we focus on how the types of managers selected by owners affect the equilibrium market structures. Furthermore, by considering that each manager's expectation of market size depends on their own type and the type of the rival manager, we examine a situation in which the owner is less certain of the type of manager.     

Residual income claimancy,monitoring, and the R&D firm: Theory with application to biotechs

This paper models the assignment of residual income claimancy to an R&D manager and applies the model to biotechnology firms. Residual income claimancy provides incentives for the manager to monitor the R&D process. Since the nature of R&D and of monitoring scientific effort is different, our model predicts stark differences in the residual income claimancy of managers and in other aspects of organization for innovative R&D firms like biotechs. In particular, R&D firms are expected to be more owner‐managed, more expert‐managed, and smaller in size. Cross‐sectional data on biotechnology firms is consistent with these implications. Additionally, longitudinal data indicate that as firms alter their focus on biotech research, their organizational structure changes as expected. Our approach suggests a process of firm and industry evolution related to technological maturity and points to the importance of incentives rather than risk sharing in determining organizational form, similar to the original analysis of franchising. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Authenticity and the Other: Coleadership in Arts Organizations

Coleadership as a form of management structure has emerged in financial and technological companies, yet remains under researched in the wider management literature. Although regarded as a relatively recent phenomenon, models of coleadership are common in arts organizations because of the dual nature of activities within such organizations: an organization management function and an artistic creation function. Coleadership is particularly common in the management structure of performing arts organizations where a general manager and artistic director may have very separate responsibilities but share the leadership role for the overall organization. Based on interviews with the general managers and artistic directors of performing arts companies in Australia, this research examines the relationship between authentic leadership and coleadership. Detailed analysis of these interviews reveals that the interviewees in the six coleadership arrangements examined displayed characteristics of authentic leadership.     

Learning the Organisation: Confusions and Contradictions For New Managers

Diane Preston, who is Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Loughborough University Business School, draws on a study of graduates from four sites of a multinational chemical company to discuss the process of socialisation of new managers. She argues that of particular significance is the new managers’ relationship with their own manager; where the manager is supportive and encouraging, this creates a positive lens through which other organisational activities are seen.     

Finding the culture of productivity

Taking a cultural approach to understanding diverse, productive work situations revealed a common structure associated with getting work done. A culture of productivity does exist, and it accomplishes the work of the organization. Particular instances of that culture can be understood in terms of the five elements that are used to organize experience and inform action: types of people, team-work, the work structure, the person in charge, and the management. The quality and strength of the culture can be understood in terms of its legibility, coherence, and open-endedness.The structures that we have found can serve as a map for the findings of the particulars that give rise to productivity in any specific setting. It is those particulars, the unique, inherent excellence found in any organization, that are the foundation and guide for improvement.From our study, we have concluded that productivity occurs when management, supervisors, and workers focus primarily on the work being done and on how things go right. Enriched with this cultural understanding, the manager is in a position not only to find a culture of productivity but also to be an agent in enhancing it.     

Supply structure: The pendulum in action

Using an in-depth longitudinal case study based on an “historical retrospective”, this article focuses on how some factors (“drivers”) set into motion the pendulum of change in supply structures, a research theme neglected in the supply field. It examines, over a 20-year period, the changes made to the supply structure of a well-known organization. The data comes mainly from: (a) semi-structured interviews with 21 managers and professionals within eight operating units, and (b) documentary analyses of the archives. This article shows how to map structural changes of the supply function, while explaining the nature and the causes of these changes. Understanding the pendulum movement from one supply structure to another can be very valuable, as well for academics as for managers.     

Firms’ Response to Climate Change: The Interplay of Business Uncertainty and Organizational Capabilities

With climate change emerging as one of the most important issues increasing uncertainty in the business circle, firms have shown different reactions. Why do firms differ in adopting and implementing carbon management practices (CMPs) in response to the global warming issue? This paper attempts to explore this question with particular attention to two factors: external business uncertainty and internal organizational capabilities. This study investigated whether business uncertainty, organizational learning and lean production capabilities influenced the adoption and implementation of CMPs as well as examining how organizational capabilities moderate the relationships between business uncertainty and the level of CMPs. The results of a cross‐sectional survey and hierarchical regression analyses indicate that perceived business uncertainty decreases the adoption of CMPs, organizational learning and lean production capabilities strongly facilitate the adoption and implementation of CMPs, and lean production capability positively moderates the impacts of business uncertainty on the adoption of CMPs. This study provides guidance for managers and academics considering how to identify, design and manage the dimensions of a firm's practices in response to the global warming issue within the organization as well as with other organizations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Perspectives on line managers in human resource management: Hilton International's UK hotels

Although contextual factors act to encourage the devolvement of human resource management to line managers, recent research indicates that there is substantial potential for human resource specialists and line managers to share more effectively responsibility for their organization's human resource activities in business partnerships. The foundation for this is arguably commonality in opinions on the principles and practices of human resource activities. However, line managers and human resource specialists often have dissonant opinions on human resource management.

This paper explores line manager and human resource specialists' perspectives on line manager involvement in human resource management, theoretically and empirically. The primary work comprises a survey of the views of line managers and human resource specialists on devolving a range of human resource activities to line managers in a case organization, Hilton International's UK hotels. Differences between line managers' and human resource specialists' perspectives are found in five aspects: understanding and ownership of the company's service and HR strategy; line manager involvement in and rankings of HR activities; HR specialists' support of line managers; barriers to line managers' involvement in HR activities; and the competence of line managers in HR activities. Importantly, it is found that where there are divergent views across line managers and their HR specialist in their hotel there is poor hotel business performance and, conversely, convergent views are evident in the effectively performing hotels. These findings may have resonance for other organizations in devolving human resource management to the line and developing human resource business partnerships for business performance. It is proposed that three types of line manager buy-in are central to their active involvement in HR, namely: conceptual understanding of the rationale for their involvement; implementation effectiveness through HR role clarity and capability; and affective commitment in believing in the value of their involvement in HR.     

Estimating demand systems when outcomes are correlated counts

We describe and employ a Bayesian posterior simulator for fitting a high-dimensional system of ordinal or count outcome equations. The model is then applied to describe the multiple site recreation demands of individual agents, and we argue that our approach provides advantages relative to existing methods commonly applied in this area. In particular, our model flexibly adjusts to match observed frequencies in trip outcomes, permits a flexible correlation pattern among the sites visited by individuals, and the posterior simulator for fitting this model is relatively easy to implement in practice. We also describe how the posterior simulations produced from the model can be used to conduct a variety of counterfactual experiments, including predicting behavioral changes and describing welfare implications resulting from shifts in exogenous demographic and site characteristics. We illustrate our method using data from the Iowa Lakes Project by modeling the visitation patterns of individuals to a set of twenty-nine large Iowa lakes. Consistent with previous findings in the literature, we see strong evidence that own and cross-price effects on trip demand are negative and positive, respectively, that higher income increases the likelihood of visiting most sites, and that a commonly used indicator of water quality, Secchi transparency, is positively correlated with the number of trips taken. In addition, the correlation structure among the errors reveals a complex pattern in which unobserved factors affecting trip demand are generally (though not strictly) positively correlated across sites. The flexibility and richness with which we are able to characterize the demand system provides a solid platform for counterfactual analysis, where we find significant behavioral and welfare effects from changes in site availability, water quality, and travel costs.     

INTEGRATED SYSTEM, AUTONOMOUS DEPARTMENTS: ORGANIZATIONAL INVALIDITY AND SYSTEM CHANGE IN A UNIVERSITY*

Research on the relationship between computers and organization structure has mainly focused on the probable impact of technology on features of structure, while the effects of structure on technology have been relatively little considered apart from the way ‘organizationally invalid’ systems cause conflict and resistance. In recent processual perspectives, the relationship between technology and organization is seen not as deterministic but as one of mutual influence, with the outcome both for the organization and the technology emerging from interaction among various stakeholders during system development and implementation. This article, using a longitudinal case study, shows how organization structures can impact on the development process so as to alter computer-based systems to a design which is unintended but more consistent with existing organizational arrangements. It also discusses how systems specialists and managers can assess organizational invalidity, and offers a contingent framework for the courses of action to be taken if invalidity occurs.     

The role of line managers in employee career management: an attachment theory perspective

Line managers increasingly play a key role in organizational career development systems, yet few studies have examined the nature of this role or its implications for employee career attitudes and behaviors. In two studies, we used attachment theory to explore this issue. In Study 1, in-depth interviews (N = 20) showed that employees viewed career management as a relational process in which line managers are expected to act as ‘caregiver’ to support individualized career development. Study 2 was a large-scale international survey (N = 891). Participants scoring higher on attachment avoidance in their line manager relationships reported more negative perceptions of career growth opportunities, lower participation in organizational career development activities and higher turnover intentions. Trust in the organization partially mediated the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications for HRM are discussed.     

The Conduct of Management and the Management of Conduct: Contemporary Managerial Discourse and the Constitution of the ‘Competent’ Manager*

The character and conduct of the manager has formed a central focus of attempts to govern economic life throughout the present century. and current programmes of organizational change involve radical attempts to reconstitute the nature and conduct of management. This is attempted through the identification and implementation of management competencies. Discourses of organizational reform such as human resource management, total quality management and business process re-engineering all place a critical emphasis on anti-bureaucratic, organic and flexible forms of organization, which are also seen to require the development of particular capacities and predispositions among managers. Essential to their vision of ‘managerial work’ is a composite of ‘entrepreneurial’ attributes. Management competencies appear to offer a congenial method for the reconstitution of the manager along ‘entrepreneurial’ lines, not simply because they are inherently founded on managers'self-management and self-presentation of identified behaviours, but also because they represent individualized forms of business functions (and are often associated with the establishment of market relations within the organization).     

Do Managers Matter? Manager Effects on Organization Performance

In this study, we examine how pre‐managerial experience and performance relates to managerial success. Some prior research has documented that managers contribute to organization performance, but the link between specific manager characteristics and performance has been dubious because data about managers' prior work history are typically quite limited. We overcome this limitation by examining our research question in the context of Major League Baseball, where data on pre‐managerial work history are available for a large subset of managers. This allows us to focus on two questions that have not been adequately addressed in prior studies. First, does success prior to becoming a manager translate into success as a manager? Second, what is the relative importance of measurable versus unobservable manager characteristics on performance? Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Management roles in the implementation of participative management systems

Although participative management supposedly cures the ills of low morale and productivity, managers in these organizations are often frustrated with their jobs. Part of this frustration may come from not understanding their changing roles in participative work systems. In this paper I introduce a model of the cycle of participative management which outlines the stages of organization maturity and the appropriate management roles for each stage. I also discuss how the manager acts as a Leader, Facilitator, Enabler, and Coach. My purpose is to help Human Resource Managers understand how management roles will change as the organization evolves to a mature participative work system and to show how they can support this challenging transformation.     

The learning organization: adapted from The fifth discipline by Peter Senge

In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge presents a system of thinking and acting that can be the basis for reducing the "learning disabilities" in an organization. In an article, written from the perspective of a multidepartmental health care manager, the author reviews Senge's disciplines and how they relate to running a department today.