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Article
Publication date: 13 July 2012

Sheila Simsarian Webber, Karen Bishop and Regina O'Neill

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trust repair efforts of top management within an organization specifically focusing on the impact of perceived organizational support…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trust repair efforts of top management within an organization specifically focusing on the impact of perceived organizational support and issue‐selling success. Building on the theoretical trust repair literature, the authors bridge the gap between the laboratory dyad trust repair settings and the severe organization‐wide trust repair settings.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors focus on one organizational context that experienced competency‐ and integrity‐based trust violations between managers and top management. Surveys and interviews were conducted with 32 managers to capture trust in top management, issue‐selling success rate, and perceived organizational support.

Findings

Results demonstrate that perceived organizational support is significantly and positively related to trust in top management. In contrast, issue‐selling success rate is negatively related to trust in top management above and beyond the impact of perceived organizational support.

Practical implications

Trust repair approaches should include demonstrations of organizational support of employees by showing care and concern along with engaging employees in a change process that demonstrates top management commitment to repairing trusting relationships. In addition, top management trust repair efforts should focus on providing managers with the opportunity to engage in multiple issue‐selling episodes.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to an existing research base by extending the approaches to repairing trust in organizational settings to specifically examine the impact of perceived organizational support and issue‐selling.

Article
Publication date: 6 September 2013

Linda S. Henderson, Richard W. Stackman and Charles Y. Koh

The purpose of this study is to explore women project managers as a group in order to generate new understanding about the present project context within which they work and to…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore women project managers as a group in order to generate new understanding about the present project context within which they work and to promote new research‐based ideas for optimizing their potential in business organizations. To this end, the paper explore their demographics and project characteristics, their project challenges and issue selling moves, and their perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages for women in this profession.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative questionnaire items of 211 female project managers in North America.

Findings

The research results show significant associations among women project managers' career, age, cost of their projects, and their professional certifications. In addition, their challenges and issue‐selling moves produce six factors related to their influence of others. Lastly, the results reveal women's self‐described advantages and disadvantages in the project management profession showing that while women project managers do continue to experience marginalization from gender bias, they are leveraging particular job challenges and issue selling circumstances to their advantage in moving through gender bias.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study contribute to our knowledge of important real‐world challenges and career development opportunities for women managing contemporary projects. Several implications for future research that build on women's issue selling in project management are discussed. Suggestions for broadening the sample in future research are also included.

Practical implications

This paper highlights several important ways in which business organizations can strengthen and optimize their women project managers, and offset second‐generation gender bias.

Originality/value

This is only the second study to consider the real‐world contextual factors of women's projects, and the first study to explore their perspective specifically in terms of their job challenges, issue selling, and self‐described disadvantages and advantages in managing projects. Business organizations are in a unique historical position to uplift their project management capacity and leadership talent through developing and promoting women project managers.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2019

Kristina Lauche

While inter-organizational collaboration concerns processes of organizing between firms, it is always initiated and enacted by individual people who perceive a need for…

Abstract

While inter-organizational collaboration concerns processes of organizing between firms, it is always initiated and enacted by individual people who perceive a need for collaboration. This chapter takes the perspective of these actors and their efforts to seek collaboration as they pursue an agenda for change. Collaboration processes are thus conceptualized as path creation and internal strategizing. The chapter focuses specifically on how actors sell the need for collaboration internally and how they draw on their external network to promote change. It illustrates this process of issue selling and collaboration with six case studies in the area of new product development, new forms of network governance, and network-wide change of business practices. Comparing these more or less successful trajectories highlights the relevance of the relational context in issue selling, the role of intentionality within emerging processes, and interplay between external collaboration and internal strategizing.

Details

Managing Inter-organizational Collaborations: Process Views
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-592-0

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2015

Koen van den Oever and Xavier Martin

We study the decision-making process behind business model change, focusing specifically on the tactics managers employ to gain support for such changes. We first argue for the…

Abstract

We study the decision-making process behind business model change, focusing specifically on the tactics managers employ to gain support for such changes. We first argue for the prominent role of middle management in business model change, and second, we revisit the literature on issue selling and championing as they may apply to business model change decision-making. We subsequently analyze the case of a business model change initiative in the Dutch water authority sector, revealing two specific tactics that middle management employed to obtain top management’s agreement to business model change: leveraging external agreements and continuously informing top management. We discuss how these findings extend and in some ways suggest a rethink of the literature on organizational change. Finally, we describe the specificities of business model change that distinguish it from other types of change. In sum, this paper demonstrates the interest of research at the nexus of business models and organizational change.

Details

Business Models and Modelling
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-462-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Biao Luo, Qiong Wang, Yuan Lu and Liang Liang

The purpose of this paper is to examine how subsidiary managers gain attention from top executives at headquarters for their desired issue in order to initiate a bottom-up change…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how subsidiary managers gain attention from top executives at headquarters for their desired issue in order to initiate a bottom-up change. Specifically, it focuses on relationships among a change issue’s characteristics, environmental threats and top executives’ attention.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical test of hypotheses by a hierarchical regression approach has been applied to analyse the data collected through a survey of 81 headquarters-subsidiary dyads in China.

Findings

There are three main findings, including first, the headquarters’ attention is positively related to the organizational benefits of an issue; second, there exist inverted U-shaped curves between an issue’s legitimacy or novelty and the headquarters’ attention; and third, the headquarters’ attention to an issue is also moderated by environmental threats.

Originality/value

The present study has noted that the headquarters’ attention to the issue varies not only according to the issue’s distinctive characteristics but also to their perception of environmental threats. It contributes to the advancement of organizational change theory by focusing on the empirical examination of an issue-selling process which is a key component part in a bottom-up change.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2017

Hammad ul Haq

Subsidiaries use their weight and/or voice to get attention for the initiatives they share with the headquarters. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether subsidiaries with…

Abstract

Purpose

Subsidiaries use their weight and/or voice to get attention for the initiatives they share with the headquarters. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether subsidiaries with a low weight can effectively use their voice to get the headquarters’ attention.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a combination of the attention-based view of the firm and the issue-selling literature applied to the context of subsidiaries selling their initiatives to the headquarters of a multinational corporation.

Findings

Subsidiaries with a low weight are trapped in a vicious circle in which they are unable to get more influence and gain a central position in the organization through the initiative-taking approach. This problem may mainly be attributed to their limited access to (or even entire lack of) direct and rich communication with the headquarters, which impedes the ability of these subsidiaries to gain knowledge about headquarters and the organization in general. As a result, low-weight subsidiaries are unable to make the correct decisions about which selling moves to use regarding initiatives that are able to capture headquarters’ attention; this inability means that they are less likely to gain approval from headquarters for implementing the proposed initiatives.

Originality/value

Subsidiary voice is not an accessible and effective bottom-up tool available to low-weight subsidiaries for gaining influence, which is contrary to what is claimed by extant mainstream research in international business and strategy. Hence, subsidiaries with low weight are completely marginalized from the sharing of subsidiary initiatives that takes place within multinational corporations.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2021

Carsten Lund Pedersen and Torben Juul Andersen

This study of a market-leader in a turbulent hostile telecommunications market uncovers how the competitive context influences strategy-making and cultivates central control that…

Abstract

This study of a market-leader in a turbulent hostile telecommunications market uncovers how the competitive context influences strategy-making and cultivates central control that opposes autonomous initiatives. It shows how a highly competitive industry context reduces organizational slack that inhibits autonomy and drives central actions. Strategic initiatives primarily arise as deliberate actions induced by top management. This creates an information gap between ongoing experiences gained by employees operating in the periphery of the organization and the perceptions of decision-makers at the corporate center. In this organizational setting, the authors observe maverick behavior among entrepreneurial individuals that deliberately circumvent the formal rules to turn autonomous initiatives into viable strategic ventures in the best interest of the firm. Where conventional views presume that power delegation and organizational slack are necessary for autonomous strategic initiatives to emerge, the authors find that central control can provoke autonomous rule-breaking maverick behavior among resource-deprived entrepreneurial individuals inside the organization.

Details

Strategic Responses for a Sustainable Future: New Research in International Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-929-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2011

Christoph Dörrenbächer and Jens Gammelgaard

As subsidiary power has received relatively little attention in existing research, this paper aims to enhance the understanding of genuine sources of subsidiary power and how they…

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Abstract

Purpose

As subsidiary power has received relatively little attention in existing research, this paper aims to enhance the understanding of genuine sources of subsidiary power and how they work in headquarters‐subsidiary relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a review of the relevant literature and four illustrative case studies, which are written on the basis of secondary sources. Each case was selected because it adequately represents a particular type of power. This allows for cross‐case comparisons of the strengths and sustainability of different types of power, and facilitates the exploration of the application of subsidiary power in headquarters‐subsidiary relationships.

Findings

Four genuine types of subsidiary power are identified. One of these – micro‐political bargaining power – plays a subtle but crucial role, as it is important in the enactment of the three other types of power, i.e. systemic, resource‐dependency, and institutional.

Practical implications

As headquarters have unlimited access to formal power, subsidiaries find it necessary to constantly apply micro‐political bargaining power. The empirical material suggests that the effectiveness of micro‐political bargaining power for subsidiary actors is based on two factors: information retrieval from headquarters and the leveraging of such information in issue‐selling or conflict‐handling processes.

Originality/value

The paper contributes by theoretically delineating genuine types of subsidiary power and by illustrating the strength, sustainability and interaction of these types of power in headquarters‐subsidiary relationships.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2008

Herman Aguinis, Mahfooz A. Ansari, Sharmila Jayasingam and Rehana Aafaqi

Based on the leadership, entrepreneurship, and issue selling literature, we hypothesized that entrepreneurs who are perceived to be successful can be differentiated from…

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Abstract

Based on the leadership, entrepreneurship, and issue selling literature, we hypothesized that entrepreneurs who are perceived to be successful can be differentiated from unsuccessful entrepreneurs based on their degree and type of social power. We conducted a field experiment including 305 Malaysian managers with considerable experience in working with entrepreneurs and in entrepreneurial environments. Entrepreneurs perceived to be successful were ascribed greater referent, information, expert, connection, and reward power; less coercive power; and similar legitimate power than unsuccessful entrepreneurs. These results provide evidence in support of social power as a distinguishing individual characteristic of successful entrepreneurs and make a contribution to theories linking social capital with entrepreneurial success. Aspiring entrepreneurs need to be aware that their social power profile is associated with various degrees of perceived success. Our paper points to the need to investigate variables beyond personality and that are more directly relevant to social and interpersonal interactions that may differentiate entrepreneurs perceived to be successful from those who are not.

Details

Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1536-5433

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 April 2003

Kibok Baik

In this paper, we explore a new leadership theory termed “Issue Leadership,” where a leader is considered to be a person who looks for critical issues in the ordinary, involves…

Abstract

In this paper, we explore a new leadership theory termed “Issue Leadership,” where a leader is considered to be a person who looks for critical issues in the ordinary, involves the audience (i.e. those who are directly or indirectly related to a particular issue) in an effective way, and achieves outstanding performances and desired changes through efficient implementation of a proposed issue. Specifically, an issue leader is required to exhibit three distinctive behaviors: issue-creating, audience-involving, and issue-implementing. Antecedents and moderators of issue leadership behavior are identified, and their interrelationships are proposed in a comprehensive issue leadership model. After a detailed explanation of the issue leadership theory, we researched, and tried to answer the question, “How do we apply the theory to global business settings?”

Details

Advances in Global Leadership
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76230-866-8

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