Search results

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need for and propose a more aligned and integrated standard for performance evaluation to enhance effective strategic control.

The paper reviews the various issues creating discontent with the performance appraisal systems within many organizations and demonstrates how these problems inhibit successful strategic control. It attempts to cogently incorporate the performance appraisal characteristics needed for the exercise to function as a critical organizational control metric and a useful feedback mechanism for strategic management of the firm.

The paper finds that, whereas performance evaluation has received reasonably robust examination in the human resources literature, explicit guidance toward the integration with strategic control is inadequate. Without consistent alignment between these functions, however, performance appraisal becomes an exercise in futility instead of a vital control measurement, often resulting in not only personnel dissatisfaction, but also, more importantly, an impediment to systematic strategy implementation.

The paper offers a viewpoint based upon the authors' experiences and a review of the literature. It aims to stimulate a broader understanding and discussion of the crucial link between performance evaluation and strategic control.

Although it is possible to theoretically separate the human resource function of performance appraisal from broader strategic management processes, such an approach is not realistic for organizational leaders charged with strategy execution. These leaders would benefit from a framework for ensuring this important HR function also meets the requirements for operative strategic control.

While many in the literature have focused on how to conduct legal and efficient performance evaluations, guidance on crafting such appraisals as control metrics is insufficient. The paper endeavors to provide this direction.

Although communal forms of leadership are being called for to provide contemporary organizations with more responsive leadership platforms, the paper can find no compelling description as to how such leadership might develop in a world of hierarchy. The purpose of this paper is to fill this void.

Attempting to comprehend the sharing of leadership will require contemplation of unconventional approaches in opposition to the dominant logic associated with conventional organizational leadership. One current example of such unorthodox deliberation is the emerging awareness of the Grateful Dead's influence on business management and leadership. Accordingly, the paper examined and interpreted the experiences and expressed beliefs of Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead to offer a conceptualization of how shared leadership could emerge in traditional organizational settings.

The analysis indicates that Jerry Garcia exhibited aspects of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and authentic leadership that allowed him to influence the environment needed for the emergence of shared leadership.

As a single case study, the primary limitation is one of generalizability. The paper accepts the trade-off, however, due to the significant conceptual insights available with a case methodology.

Without greater understanding of how shared leadership might unfold practitioners will assume the construct of shared leadership is laudable but naïve. The paper must begin developing plausible conceptualizations if the notion of sharing leadership is to be taken more seriously in organizations.

The paper offers a counterintuitive, counterculture conceptualization of how shared leadership could emerge and flourish in traditional hierarchical settings.

The purpose of this article is to develop a moral identity perspective on Barnard's conceptualization of executive responsibility.

The paper uses a prospective study design, as an alternative to a transitional grounded approach, to develop a theory-based framework to compare textual patterns in Barnard's writings. By using Barnard's conceptualization of executive responsibility within the identity control theoretical framework, the paper analyzes the challenges of executive moral identification.

The paper develops a theory-based, yet practical, typology of moral identification of responsible executive leaders.

Although this proposed typology appears rather parsimonious, it is recognized that issues of moral behavior are certainly complex, and therefore should be addressed in a requisite manner in future model developments.

The paper posits that Barnard's conceptualization provides a useful channel to address the critical domain at the intersection of responsible executive leadership, identity, and ethics relative to the issues of CSR, diversity management, gender equity, and community involvement. The paper considers the typology of moral identification to be an operative conduit for subsequent empirical research and practical guidance for executive leadership development.

The aim of this paper is to propose an action-interaction-process framework to extend research on institutional entrepreneurship. The framework examines an actor's characteristics, interactions in an institutional context, and the process by which entrepreneurial action is accomplished.

Via a sociohistorical archival method of narrative analysis, the action-interaction-process framework is applied to an exemplary case of institutional entrepreneurship – the case of James Meredith and the integrationist movement at the University of Mississippi in the 1960 s.

The findings show that institutional entrepreneurs who maintain little power and influence over the institutional field must form strategic alliances to mobilize constituents and capitalize on the convergence of resources in the social setting.

Through the process of collective action, institutional entrepreneurs can overcome resistance to change and displace inequitable institutional policies, while establishing new practices and norms.

This research provides a stronger approach to examining institutional entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurs, the interaction between the institutional entrepreneur and the social context in which the individual operates, and the process by which inequitable institutionalized norms are reformed through collective action. This approach is useful to researchers examining institutional entrepreneurship or any area in which power disparity plays an important role.

Transformational leadership theory is a relatively recent entrant into the realm of management thought. In fact, the majority of this literature has been published in the past 15 years. That being said, the ideas that are central to transformational leadership are not necessarily new. Many of these constructs can be found in the writings of earlier management theorists. The literature indicates that transformational leadership can positively impact on organizational outcomes and employee satisfaction. Without an understanding of its historical roots, however, transformational leadership risks becoming nothing more than the latest “buzzword” for enhancing organizational performance. To fully understand and appreciate the paradigm, one must trace the development of the transformational factors from a historical perspective.

The purpose of this article is to broaden our understanding of the relationship between footholds and feints, particularly within a context of judo strategy, and propose a framework whereby organizational decision makers might differentiate foothold attacks from strategic feints as competitive moves.

The paper used utilized an inductive approach to framework development using an in-depth case study for contextual explanation of firm rivalry between Nectar and Coca Cola in the Balkans region. To identify the framework dimensions, the paper integrated real options reasoning with game-theoretic and competitive dynamics perspectives. It also used a market multiples approach to conduct a retrospective valuation analysis to support our framework.

The examination of the competitive interplay between Nectar and Coke in the Balkans region provides meaningful intimation of the linkages between foothold moves, feints, and judo strategy techniques. Based on insights from the case, we develop a framework for practical differentiation of foothold attacks from feints.

A limiting factor is that only a case approach to framework development was used. However, we accept that the framework dimensions could have been identified using other methods. Another limiting factor is that our analysis only considered foothold moves for the geographic markets, but not for product markets.

The paper offers management practitioners an operative framework for differentiating foothold attacks from strategic feints.

This unique contribution is the development of an operable framework for practical differentiation of competitive foothold attacks from feints. The extant literature offers no guidance as to how one might differentiate a true foothold attack from a feint. The ability to do so from a competitive standpoint could prove profound for firm success.

The purpose of this paper is to further fill the void of American slavery within management history and leadership studies by presenting the unique case of Joseph E. Davis's paternalistic leadership.

This case was selected because of Davis's attempt to transplant Robert Owen's utopian practices of social harmony in an industrial, textile‐mill setting to the backdrop of his slavery plantation. The method used is the historical method of analyzing both primary and secondary sources of data about Joseph E. Davis, a Mississippi planter, during the time periods of antebellum and reconstruction.

This analysis indicates that Joseph E. Davis exhibited benevolence, authoritarianism, and, to a degree, moral paternalistic leadership with his slaves. Yet, due to his ideology and the context, he still defended slavery and Southern rights.

Historical knowledge about paternalistic leadership during the antebellum slavery and reconstruction time period will help to end the denial of slavery in management studies, as well as contribute to the understanding of paternalism in many contemporary cultures.

This is the first article to provide primary evidence of paternalistic leadership in management history studies within this erroneously disregarded period.

This research examined the relationship between the behaviors associated with transformational, transactional, and laissez‐faire leadership and followers’ success in marketing financial services in a proximal sales unit environment. Although transformational leadership has received significant support in non‐sales settings, empirical research investigating the transformational sales manager/sales follower dyad is limited. Recent research has suggested that a transactional style of sales management may be preferable when attempting to influence follower work outcomes. This examination reports results that support the notion that transformational sales leadership may be advantageous to services sales organizations in settings where sales managers and their followers are in close proximity.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is historical support for the proposal of Smith, Montagno and Kuzmenko that the specific cultures associated with transformational and/or servant leadership would be more or less applicable, based on context. Moreover, its purpose is also to demonstrate that a historical approach can be used effectively to examine such constructs.

The paper presents a historical examination of the military retreats of Xenophon, a transformational leader, and Chief Joseph, a servant leader, during very similar contextual crises.

Given similar contexts, the historical record offers support for the proposal of Smith et al.

First, the retreats of Xenophon and Chief Joseph were separated by many hundreds of years and miles. Also inherent with this type of methodology is simple disagreement among readers. Although this author finds great similarity in the retreats of Xenophon and Chief Joseph, there are certainly differences that could be scrutinized as well. Moreover, others might be dissatisfied with the selection of Xenophon and Joseph to represent the leadership styles presented, or with the conclusions regarding their effectiveness. Such debate should be encouraged and could provide additional avenues for future research. Further, the current study considered leader effectiveness only as it related to the achievement of the organizational goal(s). It could be that Joseph's cohorts were more satisfied, committed, etc. than were the followers of Xenophon. This line of inquiry should also be pursued.

This research suggests that transformational leader behavior is likely to be more appropriate during times of significant organizational change.

This is the first study that has examined the speculation of Smith et al. and the first to demonstrate that a historical approach can add to one's understanding of such constructs.