Search results

Over a two‐month period, the editor of this media review has searched worldwide for the most interesting and useful articles, blogs and books on the topic of strategic management.

In addition to his own finds, the editor sorted through suggestions by a team of veteran top managers and senior academics.

The result is a surprisingly diverse set of media articles about strategy and leadership on such topics as commoditization, myth of market share, blockbuster business model, negative effects of success on creativity, change‐agent trap, innovation and marketing ROI, open‐source economy, Idea engineering, polarized consumer markets.

URL links and references have been provided for the articles so that managers can easily follow up this quick scan of the media by reading the articles in full.

Provides a snapshot of what managers are reading and a guide to trends and fresh thinking.

Advances in Group Processes publishes theoretical analyses, reviews, and theory-based empirical chapters on group phenomena. The series adopts a broad conception of “group processes.” This includes work on groups ranging from the very small to the very large and on classic and contemporary topics such as status, power, trust, justice, influence, decision making, intergroup relations, and social networks. Previous contributors have included scholars from diverse fields including sociology, psychology, political science, business, philosophy, computer science, mathematics, and organizational behavior.

A plethora of organizational studies have found employee narcissism to be an unfavorable trait that impedes job functioning. Yet, the elevated confidence and self-assuredness associated with the narcissistic personality can also drive individuals to show initiative behavior. This paper aims to investigate how and when employees with narcissistic personalities can potentially contribute positively to effective functioning.

Data were collected from 91 supervisors and 273 subordinates in a corporate setting in central China. To account for the nesting effects, multilevel path analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.

Employee narcissism is positively related to psychological ownership, which in turn is positively related to initiative behavior in the workplace. Furthermore, job meaningfulness moderates the indirect effect of employee narcissism on initiative behavior through psychological ownership. Specifically, the indirect effect is more salient when the employee perceives higher, rather than lower, job meaningfulness.

This study examines how employees with narcissistic personalities can show initiative at work. Specifically, this research uncovers the underlying psychological mechanism as well as the boundary condition that facilitate this process. This study affirms the importance of self-determination for narcissistic employees and sheds light on how these employees can potentially contribute positively to effective functioning. Insights for theory, practice and future research are also discussed.

One interesting and unequivocal theme across the chapters is that everyone in teams, not just minority members, is affected by the group's composition – whites and blacks, men and women, and those who are experienced as well as inexperienced. Further, though there is evidence that minority members may be more affected than majority members (both positively and negatively – see, e.g., Chatman, Boisnier, Spataro, Anderson & Berdahl, in press), it is clear that majority members are influenced by group composition as well.