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1 – 10 of over 9000Matthias Kipping and Gerarda Westerhuis
Purpose – The broader aim of the research is to better understand the origins of firm heterogeneity in terms of strategy and structure, looking beyond convergence pressures…
Abstract
Purpose – The broader aim of the research is to better understand the origins of firm heterogeneity in terms of strategy and structure, looking beyond convergence pressures resulting from economic and institutional forces.
Design/methodology/approach – To identify firm-specific differences, the paper uses an in-depth analysis of two matched cases, comparing the introduction of diversification strategies and decentralized organizational structures in two Dutch banks. Based on detailed archival research it tries to understand how different outcomes were shaped by political processes involving a variety of internal and external actors.
Findings – The research shows the importance of these processes and, in particular, the role of management succession as a trigger for organizational changes as well as the potential power of management consultants based on a combination of their own “political” skills and the opportunity provided by internal divisions. Moreover, the study confirms the view that organizational change requires a change in dominant ideology.
Research limitations/implications – The research was able to go beyond the limitations of extant studies based on cross-sectional data or single cases. It demonstrates the usefulness of historical analysis when examining changes in strategy and structure. Its results need to be confirmed by conducting similar studies in different contexts.
Originality/value – The paper provides new insights into the complex and dynamic processes of organizational change and shows how external consultants – within a specific set of circumstances – were able to manage these processes. The results are valuable to scholars studying organizational change and those looking at consultants and their role. They might also provide insights for practicing managers working or planning to work with consultants.
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Purpose – This chapter traces the creation of a market for strategy by management consulting firms during the second half of the twentieth century in order to demonstrate their…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter traces the creation of a market for strategy by management consulting firms during the second half of the twentieth century in order to demonstrate their impact in shaping debates in the subject and demand for their services by corporate executives.
Design/methodology/approach – Using historical analysis, the chapter draws on institutional theory, including institutional isomorphism. It uses both primary and secondary data from the leading consulting firms to describe how consultants shifted from offering advice on organizational structure to corporate strategy and eventually to corporate legitimacy as a result of the changing economic and regulatory environment of the time.
Findings/originality/value – This study provides a historical context for the emergence of corporate and competitive strategy as an institutional practice in both the United States and around the world, and provides insights into how important this history can be in understanding the debates among consultants and academics during strategy's emergence as an academic subject and practical application.
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Chelsea Phillips, Marc Becker, Gaby Odekerken-Schröder and Dominik Mahr
Service robots present a new frontier in the provision of services, with far-reaching implications for customers and managers alike. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how…
Abstract
Service robots present a new frontier in the provision of services, with far-reaching implications for customers and managers alike. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how service robots impact service providers' current marketing strategies. For this, the authors perform an integrative, nonsystematic review of international gray and academic literature to understand how both practitioners and academics perceive the impacts of the technology. Based on this analysis, the present work identifies three key themes that emerge from the current state of practitioner and academic research, namely (1) service robots demand new core business capabilities and competencies, (2) service robots offer new value propositions, and (3) service robots impact not only service providers' cost structures but also revenue streams. These insights are combined into the Service Robot Innovation Canvas, a visual tool for service providers to identify the impact of service robot implementations on a company's marketing strategy. In addition, based on the analyzed literature, the most pressing questions for researchers are laid out in a research agenda.
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This study aims to assess the essential elements of internal organisational capability that influence the cybersecurity effectiveness of a construction firm. An extended McKinsey…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the essential elements of internal organisational capability that influence the cybersecurity effectiveness of a construction firm. An extended McKinsey 7S model is used to analyse the relationship between a construction firm's cybersecurity effectiveness and nine internal capability elements: shared values, strategy, structure, systems, staff, style, skills, relationships with third parties and regulatory compliance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a quantitative research strategy, this study collected data through a cross-sectional survey of professionals working in the construction sector in the United Kingdom (UK). The collected data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.
Findings
The findings underlined systems, regulatory compliance, staff and third-party relationships as the most significant elements of internal organisational capability influencing a construction firm's cybersecurity effectiveness, organised in order of importance.
Research limitations/implications
Future research possibilities are proposed including the extension of the proposed diagnostic model to consider additional external factors, examining it under varying industrial relationship conditions and developing a dynamic framework that helps improve cybersecurity capability levels while overseeing execution outcomes to ensure success.
Practical implications
The extended McKinsey 7S model can be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the organisation's internal capabilities and evaluate the effectiveness of implemented changes. This can provide specific ways for construction firms to enhance their cybersecurity effectiveness.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the field of cybersecurity in the construction industry by empirically assessing the effectiveness of cybersecurity in UK construction firms using an extended McKinsey 7S model. The study highlights the importance of two additional elements, third-party relationships and construction firm regulatory compliance, which were overlooked in the original McKinsey 7S model. By utilising this model, the study develops a concise research model of essential elements of internal organisational capability that influence cybersecurity effectiveness in construction firms.
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Digitalization has a profound impact on economies as a whole, and on sectors, businesses, and daily life. Digitalization is possible through development of a variety of digital…
Abstract
Digitalization has a profound impact on economies as a whole, and on sectors, businesses, and daily life. Digitalization is possible through development of a variety of digital technologies which led to creation of digital products and services in almost every sector. Almost all sectors benefit from digital technologies; however, there are also challenges about digitalization which encounters conflicts. These conflicts are either macro-level or related to digitalization of business processes. With efficient functioning of governmental policies, macro-level conflicts could be diminished or prevented. Conflicts arising from business process could be avoided by improvement of business relations.
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David Seidl, Tanja Ohlson and Richard Whittington
This paper develops the practice-driven institutionalist perspective by introducing the concept of “restless practices.” Drawing on the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki, the…
Abstract
This paper develops the practice-driven institutionalist perspective by introducing the concept of “restless practices.” Drawing on the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki, the authors distinguish practices by their “teloi”: some practices are devoted to replication, others are restlessly aimed at change. These restless practices are themselves composed of constitutive practices orientated toward “collecting,” “selecting” and “directing.” The authors illustrate restless practices and their constitutive practices by drawing on examples from consulting and standard-setting, both repeatedly generators of purposive, field-level change. The authors conclude that practice-driven institutionalism can accommodate change originating both from local improvisatory activities on the ground and from the designs of restless practices oriented toward fields at large.
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Jonas Bäcklund and Andreas Werr
Hiring management consultants as external support in organizational change is in the literature described as a socially and emotionally stressful activity for managers. Management…
Abstract
Purpose
Hiring management consultants as external support in organizational change is in the literature described as a socially and emotionally stressful activity for managers. Management consultants need to deal with these threatening aspects of their service. This paper aims to explore the subject positions management consultants offer managers in their self‐presentations on the World Wide Web.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper studies the self‐presentations on the www of four large management consultancies–Accenture, BCG, KPMG, and McKinsey & Co. Using a Foucault inspired discourse analytical framework, we analyze the subject positions offered to client‐managers in these self‐presentations and how these subject positions relate to the management regimes of bureaucracy and post‐bureaucracy.
Findings
The study identifies two different discursive practices–one normalizing practice, constructing the use of management consultants as a natural aspect of management and a second practice rationalizing the use of management consultants, providing arguments aimed at reducing the pressures on the manager. The normalizing discourse which draws on a post‐bureaucratic regime was found in Accenture and KPMG. The rationalizing discourse was found in McKinsey and BCG and draws on the bureaucratic regime.
Originality/value
This work highlights how consultants deal with the pressures their presence puts on managers. It illustrates how managerial truth regimes contribute to shaping the conditions for management consulting and the consultant‐client relationship.
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Rene Paquibut and Ahmed Al Naamany
Higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide are required to acquire accreditation for the sake of their academic reputation at the institutional as well as programs levels…
Abstract
Purpose
Higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide are required to acquire accreditation for the sake of their academic reputation at the institutional as well as programs levels. Meeting the requirements of standards established by accrediting bodies can be daunting for HEIs undergoing accreditation for the first time. Drastic organizational change is required to overhaul and implement systems to meet the requirements of quality standards. HEIs in the Sultanate of Oman are determined to acquire and maintain institutional accreditation from the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA). The purpose of this paper is to describe how a HEI has undergone organizational change to meet the requirement of the research–teaching nexus standard using Lewin’s and McKinsey 7-S change management models.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative research which made use of primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected through focus group discussions and workshops, and documents analysis while internet resources were used for secondary data. The dimensions of the research–teaching nexus were determined through review of the literature which became the basis for evaluating the HEI’s practices in the area. Lewin’s and McKinsey 7-S change management models were combined to provide the conceptual framework for describing the process of change the HEI undertook.
Findings
Lewin’s and McKinsey 7-S change management models allowed for a systemic and systematic perspective of the change required for the HEI to meet the research–teaching nexus standards and acquire institutional accreditation. The HEI documented its practices, conducted an evaluation and instituted the changes in the dimensions of the research–teaching nexus and the supporting 7-S elements. As final result, the HEI was granted institutional accreditation.
Research limitations/implications
This is a case study of the experience of an HEI in the Sultanate of Oman in its effort to acquire institutional accreditation from the OAAA. However, this case study can provide insights to a larger audience of institutions in Oman and within the Gulf region (or even outside the region) that are in the process of going through a similar experience. For those who have already undergone a similar exercise, this case study can provide a valuable comparison.
Practical implications
The practical experience of the HEI in the Sultanate of Oman can provide valuable lessons/insights to those in the praxis of educational management and quality assurance in education.
Social implications
Quality in education is a social issue. HEIs are pressured to acquire and maintain accreditation as evidence of quality. The case study provides the larger audience a perspective of how much effort HEIs place in this aspect.
Originality/value
This paper documented the experience of an HEI in the Sultanate of Oman. This is the first paper describing an HEI’s change process in a country which is also implementing a new academic accreditation system. In this paper, two change models – Lewin’s and McKinsey’s 7-S – were integrated to provide a more comprehensive perspective in analyzing organizational change. Review of the literature has shown that these two models have not been used together in one paper, providing novelty to otherwise “classic” models. This paper should be valuable to HEIs pursuing accreditation. It is a “universal” knowledge that acquiring accreditation is a major goal of all HEIs worldwide. The described process of organizational change should be insightful to those who are responsible for steering this process with the goal of acquiring accreditation. Educational leaders at the forefront and center of the change process should find in this paper a valuable reference material, providing a systemic and systematic view of the change they have to lead in order to acquire the much-coveted accreditation. Faculty, staff and students of HEIs can be advocates or sources of resistance. This paper should provide better understanding of the process of change and how they, as stakeholders, benefit from it. Finally, students of educational management and leadership should find this paper as a useful case study for class discussion.
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Over the past five years, McKinsey has been involved with over 800 individual post merger engagements. The perspective gained from post‐merger management (PMM), combined with…
Abstract
Over the past five years, McKinsey has been involved with over 800 individual post merger engagements. The perspective gained from post‐merger management (PMM), combined with corporate finance and strategy (CFS) research, has helped the firm improve target selection and evaluation. McKinsey found several patterns of success in their analysis of M&A data. Larger, high‐performing companies making smaller acquisitions of less successful companies do better than average. When companies pursue a balanced buy‐and‐sell approach over time, performance improves. Companies with an integration program – they make a series of acquisitions that seem to be heading towards a particular goal – do well. Companies that undertake formal, post‐transaction learning improve their performance. Acquirers who are relatively strong performers compared to their targets do better than average in the acquisition game. Acquirers tend to do a better job of making estimates of cost‐based synergies than they do of estimating revenue‐based synergies. Some 70 percent of mergers fail to achieve expected revenue synergies. But on the cost side, the experience is considerably better, though they are still overestimated by 20 percent or more in about 35 percent of the cases.
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