中国企业的组织学习与创新能力——基于问卷调查的实证研究

在目前竞争日益激烈,变化日新月异的外部环境下,一个企业的组织学习能力已成为其能否生存的必备条件之一。但关于组织学习的文献大多都局限在发达国家中的一些大型企业。而即便在西方与日本,对于组织学习的定义还存在着明显的分歧。中国作为世界上最大的制造业和服务提供国,受到了越来越多的关注,理解中国企业中组织学习活动已经成为研究组织学习和创新能力之间关系的一个新起点。本研究通过问卷对不同行业典型企业的中层和普通管理人员及大量员工进行调查,得出一系列中国企业有关组织学习和创新能力的特征。研究发现中国企业组织学习与创新能力同企业所在行业特征和企业的所有权结构、业务特征等因素相关,但很难显示出文化特异性的迹象。这一研究对于今后在研究中通过控制以上变量,以问卷以外的访谈方式,更好地进行研究设计,挖掘跨国家、跨地域和跨文化特征具有重要的意义。     

Does the Market Value Corporate Philanthropy? Evidence from the Response to the 2004 Tsunami Relief Effort

This study investigates the market reaction to corporate press releases announcing donations to the relief effort following the December, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. Based on a sample of 79 U.S. companies, results indicate a statistically significant positive 5-day cumulative abnormal return. While differences in the timing of the press releases do not appear to have influenced market reactions, the amount of the donations did. Overall, the results appear to support Godfrey’s (Academy of Management Review 30, 777–798; 2005) assertion that philanthropic giving must be perceived as being a genuine manifestation of the firm’s underlying social responsiveness in order to increase firm value.     

Conflict management capabilities in franchising

Conflicts are common in franchising, however, they become dysfunctional above a certain threshold. Our aim is to understand how conflict management processes and, in particular, problem solving, persuasion, bargaining and politics, are developed and implemented within franchise chains and how they contribute to franchisors’ organizational capabilities. We do so through a qualitative study based on 44 in-depth interviews with franchisors and franchisees operating in France. Our main findings show that the implementation of these conflict management processes over time and with various franchisees nurture conflict management capabilities of franchisors.     

Confronting indifference toward truth: Dealing with workplace bullshit

Many organizations are drowning in a flood of corporate bullshit, and this is particularly true of organizations in trouble, whose managers tend to make up stuff on the fly and with little regard for future consequences. Bullshitting and lying are not synonymous. While the liar knows the truth and wittingly bends it to suit their purpose, the bullshitter simply does not care about the truth. Managers can actually do something about organizational bullshit, and this Executive Digest provides a sequential framework that enables them to do so. They can comprehend it, they can recognize it for what it is, they can act against it, and they can take steps to prevent it from happening in the future. While it is unlikely that any organization will ever be able to rid itself of bullshit entirely, this article argues that by taking these steps, astute managers can work toward stemming its flood.     

Assessment of organizational climate in the restaurant industry

The objectives of this study were to assess organizational climate in restaurants and to examine the impact of the individual-level characteristics of employees on organizational climate based on the well-known 17-dimension-framework. Survey questionnaires were distributed to more than 380 foodservice establishments in the United States. For the data analysis, 418 responses from managers and frontline employees were used. Principal component analysis, factor analysis, and analysis of variance were employed. This study indicated that age, education, work experience, title, and employee status impacted the organizational climate in restaurants. These results will be useful in developing managerial strategies to improve organizational performance in restaurants.     

How organizational identification among retail employees is affected by advertising

This paper investigates whether the organizational identification among retailer employees can be influenced by advertising aimed at consumers. The results of an experimental study of employees at a large grocery retailer show a positive impact of advertising exposure on organizational identification. Employee perceptions of advertising effectiveness (and not their feelings of pride with regards to the advertising) are found to explain this effect. The results suggest that advertising can serve an important human resource role tool by helping retailers build organizational identification amongst its employees. Further managerial implications are discussed in the paper.     

Organizational values,work norms,and relational role behaviours: an empirical retail assessment

We apply the relationship-marketing concept to a retail setting in order to determine if customer-contact employees' relational role behaviours (RRBs) (consisting of both trust-building and attachment behaviours) have organizationally influenced antecedents. Using organizational culture and value–norm–behaviour linkage, we posit that organizational values (consisting of customer orientation, employee orientation, and financial orientation) influence work norms for customer retention (solidarity and role integrity) and, ultimately, RRBs. Hypotheses and a model which illustrates the relationships between the constructs are presented. A study is conducted in a US regional drugstore chain (n=246). LISREL is used to analyse the results. Six out of eight hypotheses are supported. The findings are discussed as well as managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions.     

Japanese Business in the Dutch Polder: The Experience of Cultural Differences in Asymmetric Power Relations

The article investigates the interrelation between organizational context and human agency in intercultural interactions. Arguing against the dominant approach in cross-cultural research that relies heavily on ‘objective’ dimension scores and therewith dissociates culture from actual intercultural encounters in specific contexts, it proposes that, under certain social–political conditions, organizational members may perceive or present particular cultural characteristics as especially significant. The article employs data from ethnographic materials gathered in the European head office of a Japanese multinational in the Netherlands. The implications of the findings are discussed with specific focus on the impact of the distribution of power and resources in an organizational setting on the salience of cultural differences in transnational cooperation.     

Boundary Spanners' Satisfaction with Organizational Support Services

SUMMARY

Internal services (i.e., support services) are an important form of organizational support for external boundary spanners (e.g., salespeople, customer service representatives). Internal services such as information systems, market research, training, accounting, and facilities support are intended to allow boundary spanners to better serve the firm's customer. Little research, however, has addressed factors that influence a boundary spanner's satisfaction with such services. The research presented here offers insight into how internal communication by both managers and service providers impacts a boundary spanner's satisfaction with support services. Results indicate that service provider and manager communications are largely complementary and that satisfaction with service outcomes, rather than service quality, appears to have an enduring impact upon a boundary spanner's overall job satisfaction. Implications for future research are addressed.     

Organizational slack and firm’s internationalization: A longitudinal study of high-technology firms

We employ both organization theory and economic theory for exploring how the effects of high-discretion organizational slack and low-discretion organizational slack impact the degree of firm’s internationalization. We tested hypotheses using longitudinal data (2000–2005) from 179 high-technology publicly listed companies in Taiwan. The results indicate a U-shaped relationship exists between high-discretion organizational slack and the internationalization of firms. In contrast, low-discretion organizational slack presents a positive linear relationship with the internationalization of firms.