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1 – 10 of over 67000This paper examines the effect of job‐relevant information on the relationship between management accounting systems (MAS) and task uncertainty affecting managerial performance…
Abstract
This paper examines the effect of job‐relevant information on the relationship between management accounting systems (MAS) and task uncertainty affecting managerial performance. Data are obtained via survey questionnaire of a sample of 131 senior managers from manufacturing firms in Australia. The study finds a statistically significant three‐way interaction between the extent of use of broad scope MAS information, job‐relevant information and task uncertainty affecting managerial performance. More specifically, the results suggest that under low task uncertainty situations, the use of more broad scope MAS information, regardless of job‐relevant information, would potentially result in information overload, which is detrimental to managerial performance. On the other hand, the results suggest that under high task uncertainty situations, the use of more broad scope MAS information and high use of job‐relevant information for decision‐making leads to improved managerial performance.
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Chong M. Lau, Liang C. Low and Ian R. C. Eggleton
Examines the three‐way interaction between budget emphasis, participation and task difficulty affecting managerial performance within the framework suggested by Harrison (1992…
Abstract
Examines the three‐way interaction between budget emphasis, participation and task difficulty affecting managerial performance within the framework suggested by Harrison (1992) with a sample of 197 functional heads from Singaporean and Australian manufacturing companies. The results support a three‐way interaction between budget emphasis, budgetary participation and task difficulty affecting managerial performance and second, cultural differences between Singapore and Australia (pertaining to power distance) which interact neither with budgetary participation nor budget emphasis. The results also suggest that high budgetary participation (regardless of budget emphasis) in high task difficulty situations and high budget emphasis (regardless of budgetary participation) in low task difficulty situations are associated with improved managerial performance in Singapore and Australia.
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The purpose of this paper is to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of medical and nursing managers, in a Christian-affiliated hospital in Israel, in order to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of medical and nursing managers, in a Christian-affiliated hospital in Israel, in order to promote the job satisfaction of their subordinates.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered via questionnaires, administered to 107 doctors and nurses of a small Christian-affiliated hospital in Israel, regarding the job satisfaction of the respondents, and their evaluation of the managerial capabilities of their medical and nursing superiors. Correlations and regressions were carried out on the data.
Findings
Overall managerial capabilities of medical and nursing managers were shown to be significantly related to how their subordinates felt about their teams and about their work. The results suggest differences between nurses and doctors. When analyzed for the two dimensions of managerial capabilities and the two dimensions of job satisfaction, the results were significant for the nurses, but not significant for the doctors. When tested for Christians vs non-Christians, the results for the nurses were the same as in the sample as a whole; whereas for the doctors, there were differences between the two religious groups.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is small and culturally specific, thus limiting the generalization potential of this study.
Practical implications
Findings of this research may have practical implications regarding hospitals’ recruitment, promotion, instruction and follow-up policies.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the issue of hospital management and leadership within a specific cultural-religious setting, which has not been previously investigated.
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Johanna Anzengruber, Martin A. Goetz, Herbert Nold and Marco Woelfle
The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the relative importance of task, relations, and change capabilities of managers at low, middle, and top hierarchical levels.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the relative importance of task, relations, and change capabilities of managers at low, middle, and top hierarchical levels.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from performance reviews and evaluations from human resources personnel for 2,307 managers in one large company in a high-tech industry. Separate regressions for each management level were performed with standardized regression coefficients allowing comparisons across the different regressions.
Findings
Significant differences were observed in the effectiveness of managers using task, relations, and change capabilities. At top management, change-oriented capabilities become 2 to 3 times more important than at the lowest level. Task-oriented capabilities become significantly less important at the top level. Relations-oriented capabilities are important at all levels.
Research limitations/implications
Studies with participants from multiple industries and longitudinal studies could benefit research by further validating the findings and offering new insights on other situational factors, which change over time.
Practical implications
Managers, who have been successful in lower and middle positions, may not necessarily be effective top managers.
Originality/value
Few studies have explored differences in managerial capabilities at different hierarchical levels in organizations. The study offers a clear rationale to consider when conducting any analysis of different levels of management by practitioners or researchers.
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Yannick Dillen, Eddy Laveren, Rudy Martens, Sven De Vocht and Eric Van Imschoot
Few high-growth firms (HGFs) are able to maintain high-growth over time. The purpose of this paper is to find out why only a small number of firms become persistent HGFs…
Abstract
Purpose
Few high-growth firms (HGFs) are able to maintain high-growth over time. The purpose of this paper is to find out why only a small number of firms become persistent HGFs, explicitly focusing on the role of the founding entrepreneur in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Initially, 28 semi-structured interviews were performed with high-growth entrepreneurs to discover why so few founders could become persistent high-growth entrepreneurs. In a second phase, four case studies were conducted to uncover the factors that facilitate a swift evolution from the “managerial” role to the “strategic” role.
Findings
High-growth entrepreneurs, who quickly make a transition from a managerial role into a strategic role are more likely to keep their firm on its high-growth trajectory. This transition is made possible by: the early development of strategic skills; the presence of a high quality human capital base; and an organizational structure with characteristics from Mintzberg’s “machine bureaucracy.”
Practical implications
The results are vital for entrepreneurs of “one-shot” HGFs with the ambition to make their firm a “persistent” HGF. If high-growth rates are to be sustained, the three factors that emerged from the authors’ analysis should foster the delegation of managerial tasks, resulting in an easier transition toward a “strategic role.”
Originality/value
Insights are valuable as both founders and governmental institutions can benefit from knowing which factors contribute to a successful phase transition from “manager” to “strategist.”
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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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Thomas Andersson, Nomie Eriksson and Tomas Müllern
The purpose of the article is to analyze how physicians and nurses, as the two major health care professions, experience psychological empowerment for managerial work.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the article is to analyze how physicians and nurses, as the two major health care professions, experience psychological empowerment for managerial work.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was designed as a qualitative interview study at four primary care centers (PCCs) in Sweden. In total, 47 interviews were conducted, mainly with physicians and nurses. The first inductive analysis led us to the concept of psychological empowerment, which was used in the next deductive step of the analysis.
Findings
The study showed that both professions experienced self-determination for managerial work, but that nurses were more dependent on structural empowerment. Nurses experienced that they had competence for managerial work, whereas physicians were more ignorant of such competence. Nurses used managerial work to create impact on the conditions for their clinical work, whereas physicians experienced impact independently. Both nurses and physicians experienced managerial work as meaningful, but less meaningful than nurses and physicians' clinical work.
Practical implications
For an effective health care system, structural changes in terms of positions, roles, and responsibilities can be an important route for especially nurses' psychological empowerment.
Originality/value
The qualitative method provided a complementary understanding of psychological empowerment on how psychological empowerment interacted with other factors. One such aspect was nurses' higher dependence on structural empowerment, but the most important aspect was that both physicians and nurses experienced that managerial work was less meaningful than clinical work. This implies that psychological empowerment for managerial work may only make a difference if psychological empowerment does not compete with physicians' and nurses' clinical work.
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Satu Rekonen and Tua A. Björklund
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes in managerial activities and challenges at different phases of innovative projects.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes in managerial activities and challenges at different phases of innovative projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Six NPD project managers were interviewed in three different project phases in a qualitative, longitudinal design. The resulting 18 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were content analyzed and categorized according to thematic similarity.
Findings
Altogether 19 categories describing managerial concerns in managing innovative projects were recognized. Task-oriented, rather than people-oriented, approaches were dominant throughout the projects, although the reported concerns clearly varied at each phase. The early development phase emerged as a transition point, where managers had to transform their roles, reported activities decreased, and reported challenges increased.
Research limitations/implications
Although based on a small number of participants in a single setting, the results highlight the need for longitudinal studies and differentiating between the various phases of the innovation process, as there was great variance in the concerns of each phase. Furthermore, domain expertise seemed to have a large impact on how the managers reformulated their role in transitioning from the front-end to the development phases.
Practical implications
The present study emphasizes the need to support managers in transitioning between different innovation phases and to recognize the need to adjust managerial roles. Further, it seemed crucial to establish the practices supporting successful teamwork in the front-end phase before the first phase transition.
Originality/value
The study is a rare example of a longitudinal research design examining the implications and transition between different phases of the innovation process within the same projects for project managers.
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Ira E. Bogotch, Paul Williams and Jim Hale
School managerial control is derived from perceptions ofbehavioural interactions between teachers and administrators along twodimensions: regular patterns of formal and informal…
Abstract
School managerial control is derived from perceptions of behavioural interactions between teachers and administrators along two dimensions: regular patterns of formal and informal structures and rules; and discretionary behaviours reflecting the quality of managerial performance. Analyses the interactive effects of these two dimensions across processes of control labelled as standards, information processing, assessments and incentives – all within the task domain of curriculum and instruction. The discussion of structure and discretion is significant in terms of the relationship, seemingly contradictory, between uniform guidelines of administrative practice and qualitative discretion.
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Matthew D. Roberts, Matthew A. Douglas and Robert E. Overstreet
To investigate the influence of logistics and transportation workers’ perceptions of their management’s simultaneous safety and operations focus (or lack thereof) on related…
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the influence of logistics and transportation workers’ perceptions of their management’s simultaneous safety and operations focus (or lack thereof) on related worker safety and operational perceptions and behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
This multi-method research consisted of two studies. Study 1 aimed to establish correlational relationships by evaluating the impact of individual-level worker perceptions of operationally focused routines (as a moderator) on the relationship between worker perceptions of safety-related routines and workers’ self-reported safety and in-role operational behaviors using a survey. Study 2 aimed to establish causal relationships by evaluating the same conceptual relationships in a behavioral-type experiment utilizing vehicle simulators. After receiving one of four pre-task briefings, participants completed a driving task scenario in a driving simulator.
Findings
In Study 1, the relationship between perceived safety focus and safety behavior/in-role operational behavior was strengthened at higher levels of perceived operations focus. In Study 2, participants who received the balanced pre-task briefing committed significantly fewer safety violations than the other 3 treatment groups. However, in-role driving deviations were not impacted as hypothesized.
Originality/value
This research is conducted at the individual (worker) level of analysis to capture the little-known perspectives of logistics and transportation workers and explore the influence of balanced safety and operational routines from a more micro perspective, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of how balanced routines might influence worker behavior when conducting dynamic tasks to ensure safe, effective outcomes.
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