Fostering green product innovation through green entrepreneurial orientation: The roles of employee green creativity,green role identity,and organizational transactive memory system

Developing new green products is critical to an organization's achievement of sustainable goals as well as competitive advantage. This study aims to unravel the mechanisms through which organizations with green entrepreneurial orientation (green EO) can foster green product innovation. The dataset for testing these mechanisms was garnered from employees and managers who worked in manufacturing firms based in an Asia-Pacific market. Through a multilevel analysis of the data, the study revealed the positive nexus between organizational green EO and green product innovation. The results of the study further lent credence to employee green creativity as a mediation path for such a relationship. Furthermore, employee green role identity and organizational transactive memory system were found to fortify the linkage between green EO and employee green creativity. These results suggest to organizations how to optimally translate their green entrepreneurial strategy into new green products that met customer preferences and societal expectations.     

Electronic monitoring in public organizations: evidence from US local governments

Technology use in the workplace expands the ability to monitor employees through activities such as website tracking, email scanning, and social media monitoring. Monitoring is a fundamental aspect of the relationship between organizations, employees, and stakeholders and can affect perceptions of privacy, autonomy, and trust in the workplace. However, electronic monitoring is little investigated in public management research and we have minimal knowledge about the factors that prompt public managers to adopt electronic monitoring. Focusing on small- and medium-sized US municipalities, we investigate types of electronic monitoring and how organizational, sociopolitical, and technological factors shape electronic monitoring intensity. We test our hypotheses with data from a 2014 national survey of 2,500 local managers, website coding data, and US Census data. We find that electronic monitoring, especially monitoring online activities, is a response to organizational centralization, participation of internal stakeholders, social media use, and technology concerns.     

HOW TO SOLVE COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS ON THE R AND D INTERFACE

It is now widely recognized that isolation of the R and D department from the rest of the company, influences the rate of innovation in a negative way. An essential condition for the innovation process to proceed smoothly, is cooperation between the various functional departments (e.g. R and D, marketing, production). In this paper some results of an empirical study among R and D managers in medium sized Dutch industrial companies will be presented. The four main hypotheses tested are as follows: (1) R and D managers disagree with actual company policy with respect to importance of short-run vs. long-run goals in setting the R and D budget. (2) The level of influence that the R and D managers allow from non- R and D managers (e.g. on the R and D budget) depends on the level of integration between R and D and the rest of the company. (3) Some identifiable organizational devices have a positive influence on the level of integration (understanding) between functional departments. (4) The level of integration has a positive influence on the performance of the R and D department. Our material can give some useful suggestions to the general manager in deciding how to improve the communication between R and D and the rest of the company.     

Shared values make a difference: An empirical test of corporate culture

Is the recent popular management literature on corporate culture and cultural values just a passing fad or is it highlighting some fundamental organizational realities? The results from a recent nationwide survey of American managers shows, we are convinced, that clearly articulated organizational values do make a significant difference in the lives of employees, as well as in their organization's performance. This article is an effort to integrate this broad-based data on individual managers' values with the reported experience of successful organizations that pay careful attention to their culture. It also offers ideas on how human resource managers can facilitate the alignment of personal and organizational values.     

Caught in the Middle: Organizational Impediments to Middle Managers’ Work-life Balance

As increased work demands and longer working hours become the reality for many employees, the concept of work-life balance has received increasing attention. This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of Australian middle managers, which investigated the impact of middle managers’ daily organizational experiences on their lives both in and beyond the workplace. We focus on respondents’ reports of the difficulty in achieving work-life balance, specifically, the organizational impediments to creating balance. Three particular areas where these impediments were apparent are: the impact of new technologies; limits to autonomy and control in the middle management role; and difficulties in taking advantage of flexibility initiatives in the workplace. As middle managers are caught in the middle between work and personal life, there is a need for organizations to support middle managers’ efforts to achieve work-life balance if the organization’s long-term goals are to be achieved.     

Incentives,Capital Budgeting,and Organizational Structure

Divisional managers compete for financial resources in what is often referred to as an internal capital market. They also have a common interest in maximizing corporate profits, as this determines the resources available to the firm as a whole. Both goals are powerful motivators but can at times conflict: while the amount of resources available to the firm depends on corporate performance, divisional funding depends upon the division's performance relative to the rest. We propose a model in which organizational form is endogenous, divisions compete for corporate resources, and managers have implicit incentives. We show that organizational design can help companies influence their divisional managers' potentially conflicting goals. Our analysis relates the firm's organizational structure to the source of incentives (external vs. internal), the nature of the incentives (competition vs. cooperation), the level of corporate diversification, the development of the capital market, and to industry and firm characteristics.     

The Impact of Managerial Quality on Employee Turnover

Abstract

This paper empirically examines, at the organizational level, the impact of quality public managers on turnover. Quality managers can influence turnover through human capital management, budgeting, setting tasks and providing goals. However, their ability to affect turnover depends on managerial level, which in this study are the upper and middle levels. Managerial quality is operationalized with superintendent and principal salaries and turnover is operationalized with the retention rate of teachers in school districts. The findings reveal that quality middle managers exert a significant and negative effect on organizational turnover and quality upper level managers do not directly influence turnover.     

Propensity for participative decision making in Latin America: Mexico and Peru

Increased subordinate participation in management decisions has been a recognized trend in developed Western organizations in recent decades. This study examines a manager's propensity for engaging in participative decision making (PPDM)in two emerging Latin American nations, Mexico and Peru. Although these two nations possess some degree of cultural similarity, two key differences were identified. First, Mexican managers who believed that PDM reduces a manager's power base were also likely than others to see a positive link between PDM and organizational effectiveness. In contrast, Peruvian managers who believed that PDM reduces a manager's power base were less likely than others to see a positive link between PDM and organizational effectiveness. Second, Mexican managers operating in participative organizational cultures were less committed than other managers to participation as a management philosophy and to their organizations. In contrast, Peruvian managers operating in participative organizational cultures were more committed than other managers to participation and to their organizations. Conclusions and directions for future research are also presented.     

Strategic Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Complex Environments

Abstract

Strategic management research is increasingly concerned with understanding processes of network governance in which mechanisms for building partnerships among a number of public agencies and non-governmental organizations are more important than ever. Drawing examples from Canada, the paper analyses the nature of inter-jurisdictional and inter-organizational collaboration in complex and dynamic environments, and their implications for the strategic pursuit of organizational goals. The premise of the discussion is that public managers often pursue organizational goals in the context of external environmental systems characterized by complexity and constant change. From this perspective, public agencies must often seek to maintain relatively stable alliances while anticipating and adapting to environmental change in the pursuit of their organization's goals. The two cases in the paper illustrate three critical elements of collaborative network governance: first, the vertical and horizontal inter-jurisdictional dimensions of joint policy action; second the multiplicity of lenses of interpretation among agents, including the perceptions and values of non-governmental stakeholders and the strategic outreach of public agencies to these groups; and third, it traces the various stages of evolving networks, highlighting the changes and adaptations characterizing the processes involved in joint policy actions.     

Organizational complexity and participatory innovation: participatory budgeting in local government

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examined the relationship between organizational complexity and the adoption of participatory innovation in German municipal government. We proposed that organizations with more complex organizational structures are more likely to adopt participatory innovation. We investigated municipalities (N = 394) of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and used participatory budgeting as an indicator for innovation. Our results indicate that organizational complexity expressed by functional differentiation has a positive relationship with the occurrence of participatory innovation. The results inform a debate about the value trade-offs that are inherent to the structural design of public organizations.     

Public and Private Management: What’s the Difference?

Critics of New Public Management argue that differences between public and private organizations are so great that business practices should not be transferred to the public sector. In this paper the theoretical arguments on the differences between private firms and public agencies are reviewed, and 13 hypotheses are identified on the impact of publicness on organizational environments, goals, structures and managerial values. Evidence from 34 empirical studies of differences between public agencies and private firms is critically evaluated. Only three of the publicness hypotheses are supported by a majority of the empirical studies: public organizations are more bureaucratic, and public managers are less materialistic and have weaker organizational commitment than their private sector counterparts. However, most of the statistical evidence is derived from studies that use narrow measures of publicness and fail to control for other relevant explanatory variables. Whether the existing evidence understates or overstates the distinctiveness of public agencies is therefore unclear. A research agenda and methods are identified for better comparisons of management in public and private organizations.     

An Empirical Exploration of Decision-making Under Agency Controls and Stewardship Structure

abstract Two theories have emerged in the managerial control literature as to the best way for organizations to ensure that managers are acting in the firm's best interest: agency theory, which stresses controlling decision‐makers through monitoring and incentives aligned with organizational goals, and stewardship theory, which stresses that decision‐makers will act in the organization's best interest even in the absence of controls. Much of the research investigating the utility of these two positions is based on archival data where actual decision‐making can only be inferred. In this study, we utilize a laboratory methodology in order to determine if decision‐makers actually make different decisions when under the types of control (or lack thereof) suggested in these two theories. The results of this study show that individuals under agency controls invest more in alternatives that maximize profits of an organization than individuals under stewardship controls.     

‘Intended’ and ‘implemented’ HRM: the missing linchpin in strategic human resource management research

We argue that inconclusive findings in the SHRM literature regarding the relationship between HRM systems and organizational performance may result primarily from methodological weaknesses and a failure of researchers to distinguish between HR practices intended by the organizations and those actually implemented. Rather than relying upon a single respondent per organization as is the norm, we contrast reports of both managers and non-managers from inside and outside HR departments to highlight differences between intended and implemented HRM. The findings, arrived at with the help of 195 interviews, 508 questionnaire responses and several company documents, support our expectation: implemented HRM may be substantially different from intended HRM; consistent implementation increases employee satisfaction with HRM, which is positively related to organizational performance. The current study thus highlights new factors that require attention in developing HR–performance analyses and also suggests that a mere imitation of HRM in the hopes of improving organizational performance creates no value. It is crucial that HR departments and managers remain committed and supportive to the development of effective HRM systems by focusing upon actual ‘implementation’ within their organizations.     

EMS models for business strategy development

This research investigation identifies the organizational barriers that can occur within large organizations to impede the introduction and development of environmental management systems (EMSs). The findings from the six case study investigations into multinational electronic and telecommunications organizations enabled the construction of four categorical models: devoid, isolated, devolved and integrated. They provide a profile of the way organizations use their EMSs and detail the types of organizational barrier that are likely to occur in each case. The models are designed to offer insight into the profile of the organization, the type of EMS being used and the operational advantages and disadvantages of using each model. They offer managers additional decision‐making tools with which to assess the EMS profile of their own organization and those of competitor organizations and to assess the effectiveness of an organization's EMS in weak and strong economic conditions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Strategic Global Human Resource Management: The Role of Inpatriate Managers

The need for highly qualified multicultural managers will increase as more organizations globalize their operations. These global managers may be perceived as organizational resources and, therefore, a resource-based view of human resource management is utilized. At the same time, relational view of human capital provides insight into the value of managers who have unique local market knowledge (i.e., social knowledge). By integrating the two aspects of the resource-based view, one can develop a dynamic capabilities approach to staffing global assignments. Within this integrative theoretical perspective, inpatriate managers (i.e., host or third country managers who are transferred into the home country organization on a semi-permanent to permanent basis) can be explored as a potential pool of uniquely qualified global managers to be utilized in global organizations. It is envisioned that through this unique building of managerial talents, organizations can develop/maintain a distinct competitive advantage in the markets they enter. This article explores inpatriation as an innovative means to develop managers as strategic resources to be used in formulating and implementing a global strategic plan.     

Can business‐oriented managers be effective leaders for corporate sustainability? A study of integrative and instrumental logics

This qualitative study investigates whether the views of managers need to be congruent with the corporate sustainability (CS) logics—either integrative or instrumental—of their employing organization. We assessed the CS performance of 25 organizations within the Australian forestry and wood products industry and analyzed the CS orientations of 32 senior managers within these companies to explore whether their individual CS views were consistent with organizational CS logics. The findings indicate that, in general, better performing organizations are led by managers that hold the integrative view, whereas poorer performing organizations are more likely to have managers with an instrumental view of CS. Nonetheless, there were noteworthy exceptions to this conclusion. The findings indicate that, under certain industry conditions, managers who hold an instrumental view may be able to generate ecological and social organizational outcomes that are at least equal to those produced by integrative managers.     

Managers as Practical Authors: Reconstructing our Understanding of Management Practice

In Conversational Realities (1993), John Shotter draws on social constructionist suppositions to conceptualize management as a rhetorically-responsive activity in which managers act as 'practical authors' of their social realities (pp. 148–59). From this perspective, organizations are reworked from permanent, independent social structures to relational landscapes continually shifting from the imaginary to the imagined in interactive moments. Managing is seen as an embodied and situated dialogical activity in which managers act as authors of organizational realities through their conversations. In this article, I take as my central premise, the constitutive and metaphorical nature of language, and explore the practical, enacted aspects of Shotter's concept of authorship. Specifically, I suggest authorship may relate to how managers attempt to construct a sense of who they are, create a shared sense of features of their organizational landscape, and how they may move others to talk or act in different ways through their dialogical practices. I draw on research conversations with managers to explore how everyday poetic talk may be crucial to the process of constructing self, realities, and meaning. This 'reconstruction' of management practice offers both a different way of thinking about managing and potential dialogical resources which may allow managers to author or construct organizational experiences in more deliberate ways.