Search results

The cornerstones of servant leadership theory (service, trust, credibility, and vision) were used to analyze how one of the most outstanding leaders of the twentieth century, Jean Monnet, used his skills to solve difficult problems of regional and global dimensions. Many believe that this Frenchman possessed unusually astute leadership skills in guiding individuals and governments during critical times. His contributions during World Wars I and II were notable, but he is best remembered for his conception and instigation of the European Union. Known as the "Father of Europe," he became one of the most influential figures of the postwar era. Focusing on economic cooperation among European nations, he effectively used a quiet, behind the scenes approach, to advance his objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Deming's ideas on the twenty‐first century.

A ProQuest search of articles is done mentioning “Deming” and “quality” or “legacy” in the title published between 1994 (Deming died in December 1993) and 2006.

It is found that 136 articles described Deming's legacy. Legacy in five areas are examined: professional accreditation, customer satisfaction, business ethics, human error, and supply‐side management.

Deming's ideas have furthered not only quality management but have also touched areas in the social sciences, such as ethics and organizational relationships.

This paper shows that Deming's ideas continue to flourish in areas that he emphasizes, such as the importance of customer satisfaction and understanding human error, and areas that he did not foresee, such as business ethics and supply‐side management.

The paper aims to evaluate 141 publicly traded US firms in the traditional sectors of the economy to assess intellectual capital disclosure levels.

Content analysis was conducted using 10‐K annual reports.

It was found that traditional sector companies had a mean disclosure of intellectual capital of 24.227 in fiscal year 2000 and 27.709 in fiscal year 2004 (t=3.68, df = 140, p=0.01). This supported the authors hypothesis that traditional sector companies would show an increase in the level of intellectual capital disclosure in 2004 as compared to 2000. Within the total sample, 78 companies increased their intellectual capital disclosure in fiscal year 2004 as compared to fiscal year 2000 (z=−3.4756, p=0.01).

While the authors generated 121 phrases to tap the intellectual capital construct, there may be other word combinations given the differences in vocabulary between academia and the corporate world.

These findings are particularly noteworthy because traditional sector companies are capital intensive and are reliant upon fixed assets which are reported on the balance sheet. This study suggests that even managers in the traditional sectors of the US economy are coming to recognize the growing importance of intellectual capital.

This is the only longitudinal study to focus on intellectual capital disclosure of traditional firms in the USA, and this research was conducted over the time that the Financial Accounting Standards Board called for increased disclosure of intangible assets.

Despite interest in management’s evolution, the discipline is devoid of systematic frameworks addressing historiography. Hence, Hirst’s (1965) theory of “forms of knowledge” is applied to demonstrate that management history satisfies his four criteria and qualifies as a valuable research domain. Hirst’s first criterion states that there must be certain central concepts that are distinctive to the subject. Management historians fulfill this criterion by investigating not only specific people, events and trends, but also topics such as motives and linguistics. Second, Hirst suggests that the discipline must offer distinctive ways of relating concepts. Management historians follow a unique investigatory process using three steps: investigation, synthesis, and interpretation. Third, there must be characteristic ways of adducing evidence in support of propositions. Historians define and refine by the available facts. The fourth criterion states that there be utilization of characteristic techniques for conducting investigations. Example methodologies include biographies and oral history. A fifth criterion, examining history’s pragmatic utility, is then advanced.

Suggests that the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City in 1911 was the veritable genesis of laws safeguarding workers. The events of the 18‐minute inferno which killed 146 young, immigrant garment workers are summarized, as are the factory owners’ responses to the fire, along with the rationalizations they used to defend their lethal actions, which included moral justification, accusing the accuser, blaming the victim, advantageous comparison, responsibility displacement, responsibility diffusion, dehumanization, and blame attribution. Reviews workplace reforms initiated as a direct result of this fire and discusses why such historical disasters are unlikely to re‐occur if three simple lessons are heeded: first, it is unfortunate that it has required major trauma or carnage to awaken the public to the realities of existing dangers; second, mere compliance with existing statutes is often insufficient for protecting workers; and third, organizations which fail to self‐monitor will often be subjected to external control and regulation.

The purpose of this research is to assess the impact of espoused individual cultural traits on proactive behaviors within an organizational environment. While there have been many reports about the positive outcomes of proactivity, there is much less known about the antecedents, particularly those related to culture.

Sales employees (n=147) in a multi-national organization from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA were surveyed to assess the impact of cultural trait influences on proactive behavior at the individual level. Using linear regression and partial least squares structural equation modeling, three independent variables were found to be significant antecedents to proactive behavior.

Long-term orientation positively influenced proactive behaviors as did uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance was hypothesized to have a negative impact on proactive behaviors, but the results of this study implied that individuals found it safer to adjust to a fluid environment rather than to remain inflexible. No relationship was found between power distance and proactivity. Masculinity was found to be positively related to proactive behaviors but collectivism was not.

The results of this study should be limited to its own population and not generalized to larger, more culturally diverse populations which were not represented in the sample.

This study provides better understanding of managerial proactive behavior related to cultural traits, particularly in the domain of field sales.

This study is unique in that it explores individual proactivity in an organizational selling environment related to cultural traits at the individual level.