Competing resort hotels Word-of-mouth communication and guest retention

Word-of-mouth (WOM) communications were the most often reported method of first learning about hotel choices in an ocean resort area. WOM communications were associated positively with customer retention by resort hotels, ie resort hotels having the most WOM communications had the highest reported most recent visits from customers known to have stayed at the respective hotels. Specific hotel services perceived to have been better than expected were found to be associated with WOM communication. The study Included a five-page questionnaire sent to samples of customers of six hotels. Comparisons of WOM communications by customers across hotels are provided.     

Increases in trust and altruism from partner selection: Experimental evidence

This paper examines how selection affects trust and altruism in a Trust and Modified Dictator Game. Past Trust and Dictator game experiments not allowing partner selection show substantially more trust and altruism than equilibrium predicts. We predict partner selection will cause sorting in which behavior across partner types without selection will be positively correlated with partner choice. This selection pattern will cause trust and altruism to be higher with selection and the increase will be proportional to a maximum possible gain. We find selection has all these effects. We also find greater gains in the Trust than Modified Dictator game consistent with larger possible gains in the Trust game. The results imply that theories ignoring selection will underestimate trust and altruism in markets with selection.     

The Gordian Knot of Ethics: Understanding Leadership Effectiveness and Ethical Behavior

Recent ethical misconduct in American business has resulted in volumes of written commentary, various legislative responses, as well as litigation by those identified as victims. While legislators, judges, juries, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pursue an increasing number of cases, there is little attention devoted to understanding what drives executives and other leaders to behave in ways that violate the ethical and legal standards of business in the United States. This understanding is a prerequisite to selecting leaders and designing interventions that prevent future misconduct. Understanding leadership’s nature and functioning is one key to understanding the ethical behavior of an organization as a system and of the people who lead the organization. Two models or frameworks provide the foundation for this paper. The first is a model of leadership competencies. This model identifies five key areas of competence related to overall, long-term leadership success. The second model targets leadership effectiveness. This model has three components – motivational patterns, decision criteria, and competencies. Using the Leadership Effectiveness Model to frame the discussion, the authors describe the nature and importance of the models, with particular focus on motivational patterns. Research suggests these patterns often account for 40–60% of overall leadership effectiveness. This article defines motivational patterns and describes key patterns that may impact ethical behavior of leaders. The article concludes with a discussion of how to use data on motivational patterns in leadership selection, development, and evaluation processes. Carl L. Harshman, Ph.D. is president of Harshman & Associates, Inc., an organizational and leadership development firm and founder of the Institute for Work Attitude and Motivation, an organization performance and research institute. He researches and writes in the areas of individual and organization performance, team development, and leadership and ethics. He can be contacted at carl@harshman.com. Ellen Harshman, Ph.D., J.D. is dean of the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University and associate professor in management. Her research interests include leadership, individual and organizational ethics, and issues in employment law. She can be reached at harshman@slu.edu.     

Brothers and Breadwinners: Legislating Living Wages in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

Attention to the implicit and explicit wage theories articulated by economic actors and embedded in public policy reveals the underlying social norms and values in specific historical and industrial contexts. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), the first federal minimum wage legislation in the United States, legitimated and institutionalized the idea that living standards and workers' needs matter in setting wages. They matter not simply in generating labor supply, but as the basis for government intervention in market mechanisms. Rather than viewing market mechanisms and government regulations dichotomously, economic actors debating the FLSA treated both market mechanisms and socially defined living standards as legitimate elements of wage-setting. Wage regulations also, by necessity, must grapple with issues of identity, that is, which workers (especially as defined by class, gender, and race?–?ethnicity) are deserving of particular living standards. Debates over the language in the FLSA reveal the contested nature of masculinity during the period of economic crisis in the 1930s. Advocates responded by defining a multiplicity of living wages corresponding with different living standards, as well as a multiplicity of strategies for achieving them.     

Values and Poetic Organizations: Beyond Value Fit Toward Values Through Conversation

In the midst of greed, corruption, the economic crash and the general disillusionment of business, current conceptions of leadership, organizational values, and authenticity are being questioned. In this article, we fill a prior research gap by directly exploring the intersection of these three concepts. We begin by delving into the relationship between individual values and organizational values. This analysis reveals that the “value fit” approach to creating authenticity is limited, and also indicates that a deeper exploration of the nature of values and the role of leadership is necessary. More specifically, we propose that organizational values should be viewed as an opportunity for ongoing conversations about who we are and how we connect. Through this type of dialogue which we define as “value through conversation”, we can create what we call poetic organizations. A typology of four interconnected values each of which forms a foundation for the critical questioning and inquiry that might be found in poetic organizations is developed. We suggest that this conceptualization offers a new and dynamic approach for thinking about the relationships between leadership, values, and authenticity and has important implications for both research and practice.     

The Governance of Good Business

What goals are implied if a company is to pursue 'good business'? Does 'good' refer to compliance with moral rules or does 'good business' simply mean being a successful company? Good business requires long-term planning, and good management has to take place within a certain structure of corporate governance. However, good business is not simply a matter of good systems.