Search results

This is an empirical article which aims to examine the extent and nature of management role modelling and the learning achieved from role modelling. The article argues that the spread of taught management development and formal mentoring programmes has resulted in the neglect of practice‐knowledge and facets of managerial character formation, the learning of which are largely attributable to informal role modelling.

Empirical research was conducted with middle manager respondents who compiled portfolios of images representing the process of their “becoming” managers. Respondents then participated in in‐depth interviews to explore their portfolios.

Respondents typically learned from observing several positive role models and at least one negative role model. Positive role models were selected on the basis of charisma but also competence and contextual compatibility. The key lessons respondents learned from role models involved values, attitudes and ethical stances.

The research study was limited to a particular group of middle managers, MBA student‐managers and recent graduates and ways of extending the research are suggested. Implications for HRD research include the significance of social learning in managers' lives and of social learning theory in explicating the processes of manager development.

Managers require training in recognising the contribution of role models to their practice, in selecting role models and in deriving learning from role models.

Management role modelling has been little researched to date. Through in‐depth qualitative research and analysis, the article addresses this gap.

This chapter combines quantitative studies of the connections between stressors and performance in accounting settings and identifies the mediators and moderators of stressors–performance relationships. Using meta-analyses and path analyses, this research compiles 72 studies to investigate the relationships of stressors with accountant and auditor performance. As hypothesized, bivariate meta-analyses results indicate that work-related stressors negatively affect performance, and burnout and stress are negatively related to performance, whereas motivation is positively related to performance. Moreover, a meta-analytical structural equation modeling indicates that role stressors have significant direct and indirect effects (through burnout and stress) on job performance. Accumulation of multiple samples through meta-analysis bolsters statistical power compared to single-sample studies and thus reveals the sign of residual direct effects of role stressors on job performance in accounting settings.

The growth of women in management has been argued to offer a route to reduce organizational and social inequality. The purpose of this paper is to explore the careers and experiences of female managers from a variety of organizations operating in the West Midlands region of the UK.

This study is based on 56 interviews conducted with women managers within various sectors. The interviewees also completed pictorial careers maps, which along with interview recordings were analyzed.

The key themes to emerge from this research centre upon the factors that draw women into management (which we term seductive elements) as well as some of the hindering practices that prevent women from progressing. Significantly, we find that managerial careers are associated with gendered assumptions and practices (e.g. facilitating and developing people) which contribute to construct management (done by women) as bounded‐up characteristically with “feminized” behaviours.

The research is based upon a relatively small sample that is multi‐sectorial. Wider studies that increase population size, together with deeper studies that hold sectorial variables constant would further add weight to the findings presented here.

The paper draws attention to the “lived reality” of doing management, which, we argue often, for women in particular involves the reconciliation of contradictions and conflicting pressures. We draw attention to the lack of “alternative models” of organization and highlight the potential for gender‐focus mentoring and management education.

The paper is of value in giving voice to a selection of women managers by allowing them to reflect upon and explore their experience of management. The paper also documents the day‐to‐day reality of women's managerial careers that require the re‐enactment and reproduction of stereotypical gender norms.

This paper describes managed care, competition and high health care costs and reductions in funding as the major market forces that affect US academic health centers. As academic health centers continue to preserve their missions of providing patient care, educating and training health professionals and conducting research, they are negatively impacted by these market changes, thus, resulting in increased expenses and lowered revenue. A key component to surviving in difficult times is market‐focused management. This paper develops a model to show the path of senior level management teams in their decision making. Through the performance of essential managerial roles, senior level managers are responsible for strategies that result in the long‐term viability and growth of academic health centers.

We study the decision-making process behind business model change, focusing specifically on the tactics managers employ to gain support for such changes. We first argue for the prominent role of middle management in business model change, and second, we revisit the literature on issue selling and championing as they may apply to business model change decision-making. We subsequently analyze the case of a business model change initiative in the Dutch water authority sector, revealing two specific tactics that middle management employed to obtain top management’s agreement to business model change: leveraging external agreements and continuously informing top management. We discuss how these findings extend and in some ways suggest a rethink of the literature on organizational change. Finally, we describe the specificities of business model change that distinguish it from other types of change. In sum, this paper demonstrates the interest of research at the nexus of business models and organizational change.

This paper aims to examine citizen interaction with e‐government using three e‐participation models. The two major research questions of this paper are: what is the current level of e‐participation in the USA?; and what factors explain why citizens participate in online government?

Survey evidence of citizens in the USA and their use of e‐participation is examined using quantitative methods.

Citizens were most likely to use e‐participation for management activities. Citizens were much less likely to use the internet for more advanced consultative and participatory activities. Using regression analysis, factors such as demand by citizens for e‐government, the digital divide, and political factors influenced the level of e‐participation.

The results of this study imply that governments should do more to stimulate demand for e‐government, address issues of the digital divide, and provide for more open and transparent government. A limitation of this study is its focus on e‐participation through a survey instrument, which does not consider all possible forms of e‐participation.

For e‐participation to blossom, governments should do more to promote citizens' demand for e‐government, bridge the digital divide, and promote more open and transparent government.

Existing research on e‐participation has focused on theory building and case studies; this paper provides empirical evidence, through a survey, of the level of e‐participation and factors that promote e‐participation.

This chapter attempts to advance our understanding regarding social innovation with a focus on public sector organizations. The aim is to answer the following question: “How does a manager’s novel knowledge gained from decisional interventions act as a resource to achieve social innovation?” The study employed a qualitative research approach. Findings have stemmed from secondary sources such as officially published reports and media releases of three local councils of Victoria, Australia. The data were first contextually positioned and then analyzed by following the Gioia methodology. Research findings indicate that tacit knowledge gained by public managers helps them to make better decisional interventions. In different situations such as handling disturbance, negotiating with other parties, allocating resources, or being an intrapreneur, the decisions and its quality will be improved if public managers enhance their personal knowledge. This study also offers policymakers a new approach to deal with the social problems innovatively. It, therefore, provides insights on topics such as sustained social transformation through public reforms, navigation of resources, and wise leadership.

Presents a critical account of the implementation of the Management NVQ in three case study companies. Deals with two main themes: first, the way in which the candidates reacted to the management standards, reinterpreting their own roles and adopting the concept of a “real” manager, and second, the way working towards the NVQ changed the candidates’ work practices. The “paradox of consequences” inherent in the qualification is highlighted as the apparently rational and “relevant” competences result in distinctly irrelevant activities and it is argued that, rather than representing a model of best practice the “management competences” are, at best, irrelevant and at worst, actively harmful.

This study highlights the instrumental role of the mission statement as a tool used by managers to shape value congruence to achieve enhanced employee performance levels.

A variance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data obtained from a sample of 123 managers working in private organisations in Malaysia.

The management sensemaking approach is useful in mission statement research. Managers' involvement in clarifying the mission statement to various firm stakeholders, especially employees, is the strongest predictor of value congruency between employees and the firm, leading to improved levels of employee behavioural performance. Managers can influence value congruency through two processes: (1) guiding and shaping employees' values and (2) adapting the mission statement's contents.

Future studies can consider the impact of managerial role modelling on employees' value alignment with the firm in longitudinal studies. Other aspects of alignment offer further research opportunities, for example, HR policy alignment and alignment of marketing and operation strategies with the mission statement.

Managers should move beyond treating the mission statement as a management tool. Instead, it is a firm philosophy that reflects managers' words and deeds and exemplifies their philosophical ideals.

Despite three decades of research into the relationship between the mission statement and performance, the results have been mixed. Therefore, this study adopts a sensemaking approach to research the mission-performance relationship underpinned by the resource-based view (RBV) theory.