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Public sector reforms of recent decades in Europe have promoted managerialism and aimed at introducing private sector thinking and practices. However, with regard to public sector executives’ self-understanding, managerial role identities have not replaced bureaucratic ones; rather, components from both paradigms were combined. In this chapter, we introduce a bi-dimensional identity approach (attitudes and practices) that allows for different combinations and forms of hybridity. Empirically, we explore the role identities of public sector executives across Europe, building on survey data from over 7,000 top public officials in 19 countries (COCOPS survey). We identify country-level profiles, as well as patterns across countries, and find that administrative traditions can account for these profiles and patterns only to a limited extent. Rather, they have to be complemented by factors such as stability of the institutional environment (indicating lower shares of hybrid combinations) or extent of reform pressures (indicating higher shares of hybrid combinations).

Managers are responsible for implementing reasonable accommodation (RA) for people with disabilities (PwD). Yet, little is known about the extent to which managerial views of RA shape attitudes toward PwD. The study draws on conservation of resources (COR) and job demands and resources (JD-R) theories to examine the relationship between managerial views of RA availability and implementation ease on attitudes towards hiring PwD.

In total, 162 full-time managers at a large New Zealand (NZ) healthcare organisation completed an online survey. Moderated multiple regressions were conducted to test the main effects and interactions between perceptions of RA process and attitudes towards hiring PwD.

The study results indicate that line managers held positive attitudes towards hiring PwD when they viewed RA implementation as easy, particularity around the provision of flexible work arrangements.

This study shows the importance of gaging managers' views of RA processes to understand their attitudes toward PwD and highlights potential linkages between managerial perspectives on RA, PwD experiences in the organisation and the effectiveness of disability support and inclusion initiatives.

RA availability from the organisation is insufficient to elicit positive managerial attitudes toward hiring PwD. Policies and procedures that reduce RA implementation complexity are expected to foster positive managerial attitudes toward PwD and improve employment outcomes for this employee group.

This study is the first to test how managerial attitudes towards hiring PwD are influenced by views of RA availability from the organisation and of RA implementation ease. It also provides a multidimensional measure that captures managerial views of RA availability from the organisation and RA implementation ease.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between managerial skills and effectiveness in a cross-cultural setting to determine their applicability.

Data from 7,606 managers in 5 countries from a large multinational firm were analyzed using structural equation modeling to assess all relationships simultaneously and reduce error effects.

The results support the cross-cultural validity of the model of managerial skills-effectiveness. Few cross-cultural differences were found. Interactive skills had greater positive impact on attitudes than initiating skills. Pressuring skills had a negative impact on attitudes. None of the skill sets were related to job performance.

Using a single firm and industry to control for other cultural levels may limit the generalizability of the results. Only three skill sets were assessed and one coarse-grained measure of culture was used. These factors may account for the few cultural differences observed.

Training programs for managers going overseas should develop both interactive and initiating skills sets, as both had a positive impact on attitudes across cultures.

The model of managerial skills and effectiveness was validated across five cultures. The use of structural equation modeling ensures that the results are not an artifact of the measures and represents a more direct test for cross-cultural differences. Managing successfully across cultures may require fewer unique skills, with more emphasis placed on using basic management skills having positive impact.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study carried out to establish the contribution of audit committee (AC) effectiveness, isomorphic forces and managerial attitude to the adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS).

This study is cross-sectional and correlational. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 67 MFIs that are members of the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU).

Both AC effectiveness, isomorphic forces and managerial attitude significantly contribute to the adoption of IFRS. However, the explanatory power of managerial attitude is subsumed in isomorphic forces and AC effectiveness. Results further indicate that AC effectiveness partially mediates the relationship between isomorphic forces and adoption of IFRS. In terms of control variables, ownership and capital structure are not significant predictors of adoption of IFRS.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the contribution of AC effectiveness, isomorphic forces and managerial attitude to the adoption of IFRS in MFIs using evidence from a developing country on the African scene like Uganda. Further, earlier literature has not tested the mediating effect of AC effectiveness in the relationship between isomorphic forces and the adoption of IFRS which has been reported in this paper.

Studies show the benefits of supplier integration, yet negative attitudes toward supplier integration exist that research fails to explain. The purpose of this paper is to investigate managerial attitudes toward supplier integration and how intra-firm processes and culture affect the formation of such attitudes. In particular, the paper aims to examine the differing influences between the USA and China.

Using multi-group structural equation modeling, the authors re-analyzed the data collected by Nahm et al. (2004) and Li et al. (2014) comprised of responses from 224 US and 117 Chinese manufacturing managers.

The study finds that managerial attitudes toward supplier integration depend on the degree to which a collaborative organizational culture and synchronous manufacturing practices exist within a firm. Moreover, in the Chinese context, the influence of a collaborative organizational culture is lower than the influence of synchronous manufacturing practices. The opposite is found in the US context.

The results suggest that overcoming negative attitudes of supplier integration requires more than simply espousing the benefits of supplier integration; looking deeper into an organization’s internal characteristics and situational context is required. In particular, if the country context already emphasizes the collaborative culture, the organization should focus on synchronous manufacturing practices in order to form a positive attitude toward supplier integration.

This paper is the first to examine how managerial attitudes toward supplier integration are formed. The work is novel because the authors suggest that the formation of managerial attitudes toward supplier integration inter-firm management can be affected by intra-firm management in the minds of managers, which are influenced by country contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to advance and investigate empirically how entrepreneurial attitude and normative beliefs influence managerial scanning for competitive intelligence and how managerial scanning efforts subsequently impact managerial interpretation of organizations' strengths and weaknesses in the competitive arena.

A structural equation model was tested with survey data from 309 managers in the USA.

The results indicate that entrepreneurial attitude orientation and market orientation significantly impact managerial scanning for competitive intelligence, which in turn leads to managerial representations of competitive advantage.

This paper demonstrates that scanning for competitive intelligence is more an entrepreneurial activity than a routine activity for managers, and that managerial scanning efforts can be maximized in highly market‐oriented organizations that value competitive intelligence collection and dissemination. Proactive scanning for competitive intelligence enables managers to develop a fuller picture of the superiority or deficiency of their organizations. Future research needs to address the inherent cyclicity of the managerial sense‐making process.

This paper is the first effort to examine empirically the scanning cycle – that is, the relationships between managerial business motivation, intelligence scanning and sense‐making. It offers strategic guides to both academicians and practitioners on how to achieve a better understanding of the complex and dynamic market through proactive scanning activities.

Based on a comparative case study of nine firms in the Canadian graphic arts industry in 1964–86, this paper suggests that managerial conduct plays a significant role in technological change. There were clear differences in managerial conduct between technological leaders and followers, and managerial conduct was influenced by firm performance, managerial capacities and attitudes and contextual conditions. These four elements, managerial conduct, firm performance, managerial capacities and attitudes, and contextual conditions, constituted feedback cycles of technological change. Firm performance induced managerial conduct that was influenced by managerial capacities and attitudes and by contextual conditions and led to technological change, depending on the intensity and extent of conduct, and technological change further affected firm performance. The paper focuses on managerial work processes as they cause differences in technological change in technological leaders and followers, but other elements of the feedback cycles are considered as well. Technological change has increased productivity growth and standard of living, but technological development also “destroys the economic viability of certain industries, firms, and jobs, as it creates new ones” (Nelson, 1981: 1054). This kind of impact has created a need to predict and control technological change, and thereby to understand the phenomenon better. Despite the fact that technological change takes place in firms (Moss, 1981: 51–53), most of the economics research explains technological development at the aggregate level (see Kamien & Schwartz, 1982 for a review), and the majority of the so called innovation studies concentrate on individual adoption behaviour (see Rogers, 1983 for a review). However, in order to understand the process of technological change, we must go inside the firms where the change takes place. A useful starting point seems to be a comparison between firms that are technological leaders and followers (Schumpeter, 1934; Porter, 1983). This would increase understanding of the factors facilitating and preventing technological change. Technology can be defined as the tangible production process of converting inputs to outputs (Shen, 1981), and it is often embodied in physical capital (Nelson, 1981). Changes in production processes via production equipment are the main concern here. The central question of this paper is: Why do some firms become technological leaders while others are followers? And more specifically: How does managerial conduct differ between technological leaders and followers? The answers were sought through a comparative case study of Canadian graphic arts firms. The results indicate that the crucial factor determining leadership and followership was managerial conduct, shaped by firm performance and by the context of the firm. The role of managerial conduct in technological leadership and followership is focused on in this report.

This study aims to examine the individual and contextual predictors of managerial attitudes toward employees with chronic depression (EwCD) in the hospitality and tourism field, the relationship between managerial attitudes toward EwCD and levels of organizational citizenship behavior, and the mediating role of personality in this relationship.

Empirical data were collected through an online survey of 305 managers working in the hospitality and tourism industry in the USA. SmartPLS 3 software was used to conduct a partial least squares-structural equation modeling analysis.

Organizational and individual characteristics of managers, such as pressure to be productive in the workplace, previous experience with depression, levels of anxiety and personality characteristics, are strong predictors of attitudes toward employees with depression. Personality mediates the effect of managers’ attitudes toward organizational citizenship behavior.

The study provided support that managers who have experienced depression are more understanding of the needs of EwCD and, consequently, can reduce related stigma in the workplace. Likewise, open and agreeable managers who do not feel the constant pressure to showcase high performance and who score low on anxiety and high on organizational citizenship behavior can create a safe working environment free from prejudice and discrimination toward EwCD.

Examining depression in the hospitality and tourism industry becomes even more critical as mental health issues are increasing in the workplace. This research contributes to the hospitality and tourism literature, which seldom investigates managerial perspectives of mental illness and sheds light on the desirable managerial personality traits necessary for creating an inclusive workplace.

Presents and compares two contrasting managerial attitudes towards strategic decisions. The first attitude is called maximizing behaviour, and it is founded on a set of assumptions that are unattainable in real‐world decision making. The use of this attitude invariably results in a failed strategic decision. The second managerial attitude is called satisficing behaviour, and its use is demonstrably conducive to strategic decision success. Applications of real‐world successful and failed strategic decisions tend to confirm the case for satisficing behaviour in quest of successful strategic outcomes.

Strategic decisions represent the most important product of managerial endeavors; and strategic choice is the most critical variable in strategic management. This article advances a set of foundations in which the effectiveness of a total organization may be ascertained from the effectiveness of the strategic decisions made by its senior executives. A categorization of strategic decision effectiveness is presented that is derived from managerial attitudes toward a given strategic choice and the process from which it originates.