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This paper examines how differences in management styles impact the performance of cross-border acquisitions. Two principal findings are reported. First, the study focuses on the individual dimensions of management style and highlights the particular influence that differences in risk orientation exert on acquisition outcome. This result, although unexpected, is argued to be consistent with prior literature that places risk orientation in a central role within organisational behaviour. Second, the relationship between management style compatibility and cross-border acquisition performance is found to be contingent upon the level of organisational interaction imposed by the post-acquisition process. Implications are drawn for both researchers and practitioners.

Decision-making rationality is said to be bounded by managers’ cognitive capabilities. Recent studies indicate that accounting functions evolved to augment the cognitively bounded human brain in handling complex economic exchanges. The neuroscience discipline suggests that human brains have the ability to implement “automatic” processes of positive versus negative emotional stimuli to make rational decisions. Neuroscientific evidence shows that the activations in the ventral striatum decrease with negative emotional information/motives and increase with positive emotional information/motives. The authors, hence, argue that our understanding of the decision-making rationality in financial and managerial decisions could be enhanced by using a functional neuroimaging approach.

Decision-making rationality has been focal in debt covenant violation and earnings management research. The contracting theory predicts a relationship between managers’ decisions and the proximity of violating debt covenants. However, no prior research has investigated brain activities associated with the evaluation of debt covenant violation and earnings management. Meanwhile, in another strand of research, there is an extensive prior literature concerning the consequences of managers’ decisions and the use of accounting information in relation to their evaluative style, i.e., supervisory style. The authors argue that the relationship between the proximity to debt covenants violation and earnings management incentives is contingent upon managers’ supervisory style. However, no previous research has examined the impact of the supervisory style on earnings management in the context of the proximity to debt covenants violation and other earnings management incentives.

In this research note, we argue that neuroaccounting could be relied on to examine the relationship between the proximity to debt covenants and earnings management, contingent upon managers’ supervisory style, by capturing brain activities. The adoption of the neuroscience functional neuroimaging approach in this field should contribute to the understanding of managers’ behaviors and provide implications for research and practitioners. The goal of this research note is to provide a new avenue for future research in this field.

There is a proven linkage amongst the theories, practice, and literatures of entrepreneurship, management, and leadership. Accordingly, this chapter explores these linkages in policing and criminal contexts. Traditionally, the police have adopted a combination of heroic, bureaucratic, and autocratic approaches to leadership although individual police leaders do utilise a wide variety of appropriate leadership styles including charismatic and Laissez–Faire leadership. Great Man theory also influences police leadership styles and actions. Other novel appropriate leadership styles such as ‘humble’ and ‘agile’ leadership are also considered because of their potential fit with entrepreneurial policing philosophy and practice. Police leadership is immersed in the Military model of policing discussed in Chapter 2 and this includes its semiotics and symbolism. There is an inherent and ongoing tension between two very different competing leadership styles namely the ‘Commander Model’ versus the ‘Executive Model’. Both are relevant in different circumstances.

Styling is plagued by prejudice in the literature on the management of design – making it a taboo to talk about styling and designers as stylists. At the same time, the ability of designers to shape the look and feel of products still represents the most defining work of designers. However, reduced to superficial changes in form, styling has been misrepresented as simplistic decoration that is of limited strategic interest for managers of design, especially when compared to the more immaterial (processual) qualities that the discipline has to offer.

In this chapter, we question the validity of the conceptualization above, arguing for a renewed interest in the work of designers as stylists. Building on a general reassessment of style in art and design, we appropriate Ackerman's (1962) work on style for studies on styling and the management of design. In doing so, we propose that styling relates to the problem-solving activities of companies, in which designers create and shape solutions and their expressions. By defining styling along these lines, we account for the ‘‘everyday’’ view that designers (as stylists) shape the look and feel of products, but we no longer disregard the central concern of designers to integrate their decisions on form and function when shaping the look and feel of new products in practice.

The antecedents and typical stages of development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in a given organization or type of organization have been of minor interest in CSR research. Contrary to that the chapter argues that CSR communication strategies need to take the genesis and drivers of CSR institutionalization into account.

The chapter develops a complex set of interrelated drivers for CSR institutionalization from a literature review – among them leadership styles and management fashion. The chapter further discusses the influence of leadership styles and management fashions on CSR institutionalization and focuses on the diffusion of management concepts along a management fashion cycle. It then refers to executive trainers as the key facilitator and promoter of new business concepts and presents data from a first online-survey among German speaking management trainers.

The chapter clears manager’s role in institutionalization of CSR by contextualizing their behavior in a portfolio of performance indicators. From a management fashion perspective the various forms of explicit and implicit CSR are linked to management styles.

The chapter lays ground for further research of CSR institutionalization and integration into business strategy by providing a conceptualization of CSR drivers and settings that relate to a given organization. As such it is designed as groundwork for a yet to develop CSR scorecard.

The connection between organizational type, organizational environment, leadership behavior, and the chosen CSR approach of a corporation is usually overseen. The chapter aims to uncover this connection.

The combined roles of strategic planning and decentralized strategy-making remain an essential issue in strategy research and its resolution has implications for management practice. To this end the current study considers the added effects of adopted leadership style and use of interactive controls and thereby uncovers new interesting insights about the combined strategy-making process. The authors use structural equation analyses to investigate these more fine-grained relationships based on an updated cross-sectional dataset from among the largest companies in Denmark. The analyses find that a participative leadership style drives the application of interactive controls, which in turn has a positive interaction effect on the relationship between strategic planning and corporate performance. A participative leadership style also exerts positive influence on autonomous strategic actions, which in turn has a negative direct relationship to performance, but a positive interaction effect on performance together with use of interactive controls. The authors discuss the theoretical foundation for these intricate relationships and consider opportunities to extract further research insights.

In this chapter, I argue, contrary to some current views, that workflow process mapping can be an important and relevant tool for assessing and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of library Technical Services departments. I also propose that linking workflow process mapping to the “High Performance” style of organizational management of W. Edwards Deming underlines both the value of process mapping and how the latter can obviate the need for hierarchical managerial control, by building a cohesive and efficient technical services team. First, I describe the “High Performance” management style of Deming, focusing in particular on what is generally called the “Deming Cycle.” Second, I describe the process of mapping workflows and emphasize its value for highlighting waste, improving existing processes, and maintaining sustainability. Third, I argue that linking workflow mapping to this larger understanding of management style results in several positive consequences for technical services departments, such as a team-based rather than hierarchical style of management, increased departmental and interdepartmental effectiveness and efficiency, and a better return on investment. I illustrate these points by looking directly at an example of an acquisitions department.

We examine, from an institutional perspective, labor management structures in China's foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). Focusing on the adoption of two Chinese-style and two Western-style labor structures, we seek to understand the influences of global capitalism vis-à-vis those of China's domestic institutions which themselves are undergoing market-oriented transformations. Our empirical analysis is based on data collected in a national survey of FIEs conducted in 1996. The results show that a significant proportion of FIEs localize their labor practices by adopting Chinese-style structures and that the extent of localization is shaped by both institutional processes and strategic considerations. We also find that the two Chinese-style structures effectively reduce tension and conflict between labor and management, whereas the two Western-style structures do not appear to serve such function. These findings underscore the potency of the Chinese institutional environment and reveal how organizational interest interacts with institutional forces, giving rise to a distinctively “local” mixture of managerial structures and practices in the era of globalization.

Female leader is a major topic in the male of today that’s hardly getting attention. World today needs women in more positions of leadership. Today’s organizations need effective and agile leaders who understand the complexities of the rapidly changing global environment. This situation requires urgent attention as the world needs female as well as male characteristics to address global issues. Women represent half of the modern world’s abilities and population. They are important for economic and social prosperity for the world. Women carry a viewpoint that respects not only competitiveness but also organizational and team cooperation. Their female ideals are a functioning structure of new, cooperative and open economy. Eventually, the leadership of women will not only boost business, family and culture, but also the environment that will become more prosperous and peaceful as a result. In today’s modern world many researches are conducted on global, social and cultural forces, such as globalization, e-commerce, changing markets, the spread of technology and the need for teamwork, alliances and partnerships, show a high need for women leaders. But what is the role and leadership style of female leaders here? In this context, the purpose of this study is to discuss the leadership styles and what kind of leadership style female managers exhibit in line with the literature. The research showed that female managers have more agile leadership qualities and the authors suggested that female leaders should be brought forward for the opportunity to lead others toward a better future.

This chapter examines if women in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are constrained in their leadership style and if the organizational culture makes them less valued in senior management teams. It then explores if the 7-S organizational framework has relevance to gender and leadership in HEIs.

The nature of authority within HEIs increases the complexity of leadership within an academic context. Leadership is often vested in a single person, and the positional power of Rectors/Vice-Chancellors (VCs) is based on authority, discipline knowledge, experience, and peer and professional recognition. The literature highlights that HEIs continue to be male dominated and that women are underrepresented in university leadership.

A total of 44 interviews with female and male university senior managers in Australia and Portugal were conducted by the authors and then analyzed using thematic content analysis.

This chapter analyzed the leadership styles of female and male leaders in HEI management teams in Australia and Portugal. It found that both women and men in Australian universities valued transformational leadership skills, whereas the male respondents in Portugal saw traditional management as more effective, even though female respondents considered women demonstrated transformational leadership. It also found that while women’s leadership is recognized in Australian universities, in Portugal men saw women’s leadership as problematic.

The findings suggest that there is more possibility for transformation in the academy if both men and women in HEI leadership value women’s leadership role.