Boardroom Strategizing in Professional Associations: Processual and Institutional Perspectives*

abstract This study examines strategic decision‐making at the boardroom level of two non‐profit professional associations, penetrating directors' strategic orientations, discourse and decisions in their holistic context. In comparison with the predominantly survey and interview based literature on board level strategy behaviour, this study employs a longitudinal complete member researcher, participant observer methodology. Its findings are analysed from an institutional theory perspective and reveal selective championing of strategies by directors, the evaluation of strategic proposals and progress in predominantly financial resource/outcome terms, and directors' attention to navigating strategic initiatives through organizational politics. Also revealed are private sector philosophies imported into the non‐profit boardroom, the predominantly ceremonial role of formal strategic plans, and an informally enacted strategic discourse. This study offers a unique insider view of strategizing at the highest organizational level.     

Organizational sustainability identity: Constructing oneself as sustainable

In the literature, organizational sustainability identity tends to be treated as something that is ‘engineered’ within business organizations through control, reporting, target setting, strategic communication, and other instruments. Through a case study of a company mainly active within the recycling industry, an alternative understanding is given. A distinct organizational sustainability identity is, rather, a social construct based on perceptions of the core operations as “sustainable in themselves” and collaborative work with customers that is perceived as entailing sustainable solutions. Understood in this way, organizational sustainability identity has relatively little to do with formal controls such as codes, policies, reports used by management to position the company as sustainable. Rather, for organizational members, the process of constructing oneself as sustainable builds on convictions about the core operations and the possession of specific capabilities manifested in customer relations. The article adds to current literature through its constructivistic approach and through identifying underlying beliefs that condition the process of forming an organizational sustainability identity.     

Organizational Performance Consequences of Age Diversity: Inspecting the Role of Diversity‐Friendly HR Policies and Top Managers’ Negative Age Stereotypes

This paper seeks to advance the diversity literature by investigating organizational performance consequences of age diversity. Drawing from social‐identity and social‐categorization theory, we theoretically argue that, in age‐diverse companies, age‐based subgrouping processes occur, favouring a shared perception of a negative age‐discrimination climate. This perceived negative age‐discrimination climate in turn negatively relates to organizational performance. As the main contribution, top managers’ negative age‐related stereotypes and diversity‐friendly HR policies are introduced as organizational‐level moderators that increase and attenuate, respectively, the social categorization processes affecting performance in age‐diverse companies. We utilized structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses using a multisource dataset comprising 147 companies. The results supported all hypotheses, indicating that low negative top managers’ age stereotypes as well as high diversity‐friendly HR policies are potential organizational factors that can prevent the negative relation of age diversity with organizational performance transmitted through the negative age‐discrimination climate. These results are discussed in light of their contribution to the diversity literature and social‐categorization theory as well as their implication for practitioners.     

Assessing the value of the relationship between organizational culture types and knowledge management initiatives

This mixed‐methods study assessed the relationship between organizational culture type and continuous knowledge management initiatives in a prominent global company in the transportation industry. The two‐part sequential phase of grounded theory included triangulation through collection and analysis of quantitative data from a questionnaire followed by collection and analysis of qualitative data from interviews, observations, and documents. The theory emerged from the findings, and the results of this research study revealed the importance for leaders of assessing their organizational culture type as it relates to continuous knowledge management initiatives. Research indicates that it is imperative for leaders to understand organizational culture types for long‐term success to occur. By generating the right organizational culture and continuous knowledge management initiatives, leaders will enhance value and help increase an organization's competitive advantage.     

How Does Executive Strategic Human Resource Management Link to Organizational Ambidexterity? An Empirical Examination of Manufacturing Firms in China

Despite a plethora of studies that demonstrate the positive impact of strategic human resource management on firm performance, existing knowledge of the processes through which such gains can be achieved remains limited. This study aims to extend our knowledge by investigating the mechanism through which a teamwork‐oriented executive strategic human resource management system impacts organizational ambidexterity. Specifically, by integrating the resource‐based view and information‐processing theory, we examine the mediating role of top management team effectiveness and the moderating role of knowledge–sharing intensity from middle managers to top management teams. Drawing on a multiple‐source and multiple‐respondent survey from 144 manufacturing firms in China, we show that top management team effectiveness partially mediates the effect of the executive strategic human resource management system on organizational ambidexterity. Moreover, knowledge‐sharing intensity from middle managers to top management teams strengthens the effect of the executive strategic human resource management system on organizational ambidexterity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

New evidence on absenteeism and presenteeism

This paper draws from two separate but complementary theories, namely social exchange theory and social identity theory, as a means of understanding the organizational antecedents of organizational commitment. Its purpose is to study the connections between the characteristics of work in the organization (a source of perceived organizational support), the characteristics of the organization (reflected in perceived external prestige), organizational commitment and turnover intentions. We test our assumption using a sample of 249 managers and a longitudinal design. The results show that perceived organizational support and perceived prestige are differently influenced by the characteristics of and in the organization. This suggests that the characteristics of the firm, reflected in the notion of perceived external prestige, play a complementary role to the characteristics of work in the organization, reflected in perceived organizational support, in shaping organizational commitment and turnover intentions.     

The moderating effect of organizational change cynicism on middle manager strategy commitment

This paper focuses on middle managers as key actors in organizational strategizing. Through an empirical study we explore some of the barriers to effective implementation of strategic change initiatives. This research is motivated by the recognition that to understand strategizing in organizations we need to appreciate both when it is successful and when it is not, but that we still know little about the latter. To develop better insights into what lies behind the actions of strategists and to present implications for HR managers concerned about increasing the chance of successful change and reducing the prevalence of organizational change cynicism (OCC), we first explore antecedents to middle managers' strategy commitment. We examine perceptions of the workplace context, including procedural justice and senior management support for the strategy and middle managers' levels of strategy relevant knowledge, incorporating participation in decision-making and information available for implementation. We then investigate the moderated effect of OCC on middle managers' strategy commitment. Our study suggests that failure of a new strategy or strategic direction is due to the inability or resistance of individual employees to commit to a strategy and adopt the necessary behaviours to accomplish an organization's strategic objective.     

The False Promise of Organizational Culture Change: A Case Study of Middle Managers in Grocery Retailing*

ABSTRACT The strategic importance of managing organizational culture has been a central theme in organizational literature over the past two decades. But relatively little attention has been given to the impact of culture change initiatives on managers. This paper reports on the impact of a programme of culture change on managers at one of Britain's leading grocery retail chains. Based on a series of detailed interviews with managers together with examination of company documents and an understanding of trends in grocery retailing, we explain the purpose and content of change, and document and analyse the reactions of those managers who are expected to change their own cultural orientations as well as persuade their subordinates to change. We conclude that in this case at least changes in managerial behaviour, as with previously documented changes in the behaviour of shopfloor workers, are related more to surveillance, direct control and the threat of sanction than any transformation of managerial values. Indeed, the situation and experiences of managers – one of reduced autonomy, close monitoring and control, and perceived career insecurity – are explained less in relation to ‘organizational culture’, more in relation to organizational (re‐)structuring intended to create a more centralized form of organizational control.     

Consistency Matters! How and When Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Employees’ Organizational Identification?

Despite the increasing attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the management literature, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions explaining employees’ responses to CSR. Drawing on social identity and cue consistency theory, we develop a mediated moderation model that explains how and under which conditions perceived CSR affects employees’ organizational identification. We test the model by carrying out a three‐wave longitudinal study on employees of an international utility company. The findings indicate that perceived CSR interacts with overall justice to predict organizational identification through the successive mediation of perceived external prestige and organizational pride. The study clarifies and advances some of the theoretical foundations surrounding the micro‐level approach of CSR and has key implications for management research and practice.     

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to Internal Stakeholders: Walking the Walk or Just Talking the Talk?

As organizations recognize the need to engage in CSR and sustainability initiatives, it is integral to success to communicate that they are doing so. However, the research focus is more often on communicating with external stakeholders to draw attention to corporate responsibility initiatives. Internal stakeholders as employees are not researched as often, despite their integral role in communicating the organization's CSR vision and sustainability as they interact with external stakeholders. In order to explore employee perceptions of CSR communication, a two‐phase mixed‐method study was undertaken, including semi‐structured interviews with 20 CSR managers in NZ organizations to provide content to inform an online questionnaire survey to seek feedback from employees in these same organizations. This paper contributes to research on internal stakeholders in revealing the influence of the perceived value congruence between managers and employees in influencing internal stakeholder perceptions of CSR and sustainability initiatives. The findings have implications for public policy, enhancing organizational communication, the need for authenticity and managerial recognition of their role in facilitating employee commitment to CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Examining the Draw of Diversity: How Diversity Climate Perceptions Affect Job‐Pursuit Intentions

Organizations must target talented applicants, who will often be demographically diverse, to attract the most competent and competitive workforce possible. Despite the bottom‐line implications of attracting the best and brightest, surprisingly little is known about how and why diversity recruitment strategies affect recruitment outcomes (e.g., job‐pursuit intentions). To gain insight into this question, we conducted an initial experimental study (N = 194) to test the premise that other‐group orientation moderates the relationship between perceived organizational value of diversity and job‐pursuit intentions. In a follow‐up experiment (N = 255), identity affirmation was examined as the mediating mechanism for the interaction observed in the first study. Mediated moderation analyses supported the proposed model. Collectively, the studies indicate that job seekers high in other‐group orientation are more intent on pursuing employment with organizations deemed to value diversity because they feel that their salient identities are likely to be affirmed. No such indirect effect is present for those lower in other‐group orientation.     

Managing Persistent Tensions on the Frontline: A Configurational Perspective on Ambidexterity

Ambidexterity research has noted that firms’ simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation causes organizational tensions that are difficult to resolve. To make these tensions manageable, scholars have generally suggested that senior managers take the central role in designing organizational solutions, such as the structural separation or contextual integration of the exploratory and exploitative tasks. Yet, in an inductive study of ten corporate innovation initiatives, we find that our informants assigned far less importance to the senior managers’ initial design choices than to the frontline managers’ subsequent configurational practices. Frontline managers used these practices to constantly adapt and align their initiatives’ organizational contexts, which allowed them to cope with persistent exploration‐exploitation tensions in their daily business activities. Based on these empirical insights and drawing on paradox theory, we develop a configurational perspective on ambidexterity, where frontline managers play a more central, proactive, and strategic role than purported by the established design perspective on ambidexterity.     

Employee Responses to Changing Aspects of the Employer Brand Following a Multinational Acquisition: A Longitudinal Study

This study examines changing employment brands in the context of a multinational acquisition, specifically the implications for current employees. Using a sample (N = 251) from both the acquired and acquiring workforces, employees are tracked across 12 months following acquisition. The study explores predictors of identification with the acquiring organization, intent to quit, and discretionary effort. We focus on employment brand–related predictors, specifically perceptions linked to the provision of unique employment experiences, organizational identity strength, perceived prestige, and judgments of whether the acquiring organization acts in accordance with its corporate identity claims. The study showed that perceptions of prestige immediately after acquisition predict identification 12 months hence, as do judgments of whether the organization acts in accordance with its corporate social responsibility–based corporate identity claims. These judgments also predict subsequent levels of discretionary effort and long‐term intent to leave, as do perceptions linked to the provision of unique employment experiences. Perceived change in these unique employment experiences is also related to change in identification and intent to leave across time. Importantly, these elements have a varied effect on the adjustment outcomes when comparing the two workforces.     

Placing Knowledge Management in Context

ABSTRACT We welcome the increased emphasis on practice‐based theories of knowing as an alternative to the more representational, knowledge‐as‐object approaches which have characterised many organizational attempts at ‘knowledge management’ to date. Building on the findings of a short empirical study into the ‘knowledge management’ initiatives of a global software organization, which highlighted the value of rich context in the generation of meaning, we seek to shed some light on a perceived confusion about the nature of organizational context. We show such context to be an inseparable part of knowing, which it creates and by which it is defined, and re‐use Blackler's (1995 ) taxonomy of ‘knowledge types’ to illustrate the relational interaction between shared and deeply personal components of context. Finally, we use these insights to suggest a way in which organizations may be able to derive more value from their investments in internal initiatives by increasing their ability to support knowing – and hence the generation of meaning – amongst their employees.     

Organizational Cultural Intelligence: A Competitive Capability for Strategic Alliances in the International Construction Industry

Cultural intelligence (CQ) on the organizational level is an organization's capacity to reconfigure its capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse environments and to gain and sustain its competitive advantages. This study aims to present a model, examining how organizational CQ through competitiveness framework might potentially affect the strategic alliancing ability of contracting firms operating abroad. The research involves a questionnaire survey conducted with the contracting firms. The research findings support the contracting firms leveraging their cultural intelligence as their main cross‐cultural competence for establishing and increasing the performance of international strategic alliances.     

Business strategies for transitions towards sustainable systems

This paper develops a strategic perspective for business to contribute to the innovation of societal systems. Sustainability issues at the level of societal sectors cannot be addressed by single organizations but need to be thought of as systemic challenges in which business, government and civil society each play different roles. Sustainability involves structural changes over longer periods of time, and requires co‐evolutionary changes in technology, economy, culture and organizational forms. We propose that the transition management framework offers a fruitful way to analyze such co‐evolutionary processes of social transformation and subsequently develop strategies to influence and accelerate such processes. We present the case of two firms working in this new context of transition management in The Netherlands. From these cases we conceptualize a more general approach for business to redefine and reframe the societal context in which it is operating and develop novel business strategies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Energy Performance: A Municipal Energy Manager Level Study

For energy managers, finding personal meaning in the activities they are engaged in and gaining an identity in connection between energy efficiency and organizational goals is a necessary condition to mobilize passion and commitment, which in turn are fundamental to achieve organizational goals under tight budget constraints. Despite this, little is known about how municipalities, which are typical budget‐constrained organizations, can enhance the empowerment of employees with roles as energy managers. This paper draws from the literature on the person–organization fit in order to adapt and test the hypothesis that multiple dimensions of organizational culture are strong predictors of perceived managerial and technical energy performance. Data from 729 questionnaire responses from energy managers of Italian municipalities show that formalization, team orientation, innovation, centralization and reward systems are the key elements that enable energy managers to act as business partners instead of task managers. Causal relations are discussed and presented along with theoretical and policy implications that can provide inspiration also to private organizations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Horizontal alliances and the merger paradox

Mergers and alliances are two organizational forms which allow firms to combine complementary capabilities to realize strategic goals; they are, in many cases, strategic substitutes. Managerial decision‐makers, therefore, require a framework for choosing between the two strategies. This paper contributes to this decision‐making process by highlighting one advantage of alliances over mergers. Specifically, while the profitability of a cost‐reducing horizontal merger is diminished by the resulting expansion of non‐merging competitor(s), an alliance, where partners collaborate to reduce costs but sell their product independently, enables its partners to realize the benefits of merging but avoid the problem of strengthening competitors. A model is developed which demonstrates the profitability of establishing such an alliance compared to a merger. The implications of this strategy for antitrust review are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motivating Employees towards Sustainable Behaviour

Workers engaging in voluntary and unrewarded environmental actions that go above and beyond their job requirements in an organizational setting can crucially contribute to a reduced environmental impact of organizations. This research investigates some of the factors that may contribute to the emergence of such organizational citizenship behaviour directed towards the environment (OCBE). The hypotheses predicted employees' concern for the environment, employees' perceived organizational support for environmental efforts and organizational commitment as antecedents of OCBE. Employees from two organizations (n = 547) completed an online survey. Controlling for organizational tenure, a significant relationship between (a) employees' concern for their environment and OCBE, (b) perceived organizational support for environment efforts and OCBE and (c) organizational commitment and OCBE were found. Furthermore, organizational commitment mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support for environmental efforts and OCBE, but not environmental concern. This study's insights into the factors that can drive employees' engagement in small, voluntary environmental actions at work can guide organizations wishing to encourage such behaviours. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility Aberrations,Trends, and Hypocrisy: Reactions to Firm Choices in the Stock Option Backdating Scandal

Drawing on strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reputation theory, this paper examines the market reaction to firm disclosures of involvement in the US stock option backdating scandal. We examine how a firm's prior signals regarding ethical behaviour and values, as demonstrated through CSR initiatives, may both ameliorate and exacerbate market reactions. CSR initiatives may buffer a firm against general wrong‐doing but expose it to greater scrutiny and sanction for related wrong‐doing. Our results show that firms with enhanced overall reputations for CSR are partially buffered from scandal revelations. However, we find that when firms possess an enhanced reputation for CSR associated with corporate governance, violations pertaining specifically to governance are viewed as hypocritical and more harshly sanctioned. We also find lower and negative market reactions for firms that delay but self‐disclose their involvement in the scandal. The study extends the emergent, related literatures on strategic CSR and reputation management, and documents dynamics in the relationship between corporate social and financial performance.