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1 – 10 of over 19000The purpose of this paper is to identify the major variables that should be studied when exploring the relationship of innovations in career management tactics and successful or…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the major variables that should be studied when exploring the relationship of innovations in career management tactics and successful or unsuccessful interorganizational transitions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes a conceptual stance, using the careers and diffusion of innovation literature to identify the major variables.
Findings
Two innovations and two major refinements in career management tactics suggested by contemporary career concepts are identified, personal criteria for transition success are described, and likely barriers to accepting these tactical innovations are hypothesized. Other factors likely to affect transition success are also revealed by analyzing a conceptual model of interorganizational transition success.
Originality/value
The paper introduces the idea that the use of new career management tactics might be related to interorganizational transition success or the lack of it. It proposes one method of developing quantitative data about how personal career management may be changing, as well as providing normative data about perceptions of successful and unsuccessful interorganizational transitions. In addition, a survey based on these concepts would uncover the primary perceptual barriers to the adoption of the new career tactics by employees.
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Po-Yao Chao, Chia-Ching Lin and Ming-Shiang Wu
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a visualized search system utilizing graphical images to represent the story elements and concepts to help elementary…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a visualized search system utilizing graphical images to represent the story elements and concepts to help elementary students describe and seek their desired storybooks; and second, to explore the effect of the proposed visualized search system on elementary students’ tactics, success, and motivation for seeking storybooks.
Design/methodology/approach
A quasi-experimental approach was conducted with a sample of 61 elementary students in this study. The students’ tactics, motivation and the success of their storybook searching were addressed as dependent variables for further comparisons of the visualized searching system and a conventional keyword searching system.
Findings
The results revealed that the students in the experimental group exhibited more frequent tactics and greater motivation for storybook searching than those in the control group. Further χ2 analysis indicated a significant relationship between the searching interface and the success of the students’ storybook searching.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a new visual search approach which allows young children to search for storybooks by describing an intended storybook in terms of its characters, objects, or the background colors of the cover page. The findings provide some evidence of the effectiveness of the visualized searching interface in terms of promoting young children’s learning through storybook searching and reading activities.
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To report on empirical research which tested the use and value of ten specific characteristics of communication, the principles of authentic communication, and based on the…
Abstract
Purpose
To report on empirical research which tested the use and value of ten specific characteristics of communication, the principles of authentic communication, and based on the findings, to recommend them as corporate communication best practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The principles of authentic communication were grounded in both professional and academic literature to establish their applicability in corporate communication and their role in cultivating symmetrical communication. A survey was mailed to large US water utilities to determine various aspects of their communication programs. Analyses were conducted using SPSS.
Findings
Data analyses showed that all ten principles of authentic communication were correlated with communication success.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of the study include a fairly low response rate and the self reporting of success. Suggestions for further research are testing the principles with larger samples, in different industries, and/or in a multiple‐industry mix. In addition, defining the concept of success within the survey instrument might render insight into the respondents' interpretations of the term.
Practical implications
Based on this study, it is recommended that the principles of authentic communication be utilized to a high degree in professional practice.
Originality/value
Although each principle has been recognized in communication literature, it is the first time that these ten characteristics have been specified as a set of ten and have been shown through empirical research to be correlated with success. The value of this work is that it provides hard evidence to support the use and value of the principles of authentic communication in corporate communication.
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Robert Johnston and Panupak Pongatichat
The aim of this paper is to explore an important but relatively uncharted territory: the actual functioning of performance measurement systems (PMS) in their organisational…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore an important but relatively uncharted territory: the actual functioning of performance measurement systems (PMS) in their organisational context. The objective of the paper is to document the ways in which managers go about aligning operational measures with their organisation's strategy in practice.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts an interpretive multiple‐case approach in order to gather rich data on the strategies used in managing operational PMS. Data were collected from detailed interviews with managers and supervisors in four government agencies.
Findings
The expectations were that the operations managers would adjust their performance measures to support the changes in strategy. This was not the case. All the interviewees employed one or more tactics to cope with the tensions between strategy and performance measures. The ten tactics identified are collected into three strategies; do‐nothing strategy, pseudo‐realigning strategy, and distracting strategy.
Research limitations/implications
This paper casts some doubt on the practice, rather than the principle, of strategy‐aligned performance management. More work needs to be carried out to ascertain how other, both for profit and public sector, organisations deal with these tensions in practice.
Practical implications
From a practitioner point of view it raises the question as to whether senior managers are exerting sufficient control over the alignment issue or providing suitable tools, methods or indeed incentives to bring alignment about.
Originality/value
The paper highlights a gap between theory and practice and suggests that the way to ensure implementation of “modern management methods,” might be to deal firstly with the issues of relevance, timeliness, structure, integration, and symmetry.
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Felice F. Martinello and Charlotte Yates
Cluster analysis is applied to the union and employer tactics used in a sample of Ontario organising campaigns to identify the combinations of tactics or strategies that are used…
Abstract
Cluster analysis is applied to the union and employer tactics used in a sample of Ontario organising campaigns to identify the combinations of tactics or strategies that are used most often. Seven union organising strategies and five employer resistance strategies are revealed. Contingency table analysis shows that the union and employer strategies are not independent of one another. More active campaigns by one side (in terms of more tactics used) are met by more active campaigns by the other side. Regression analysis is used to estimate the effects of the strategies on the outcome of the organising campaign. The most active strategies, including intensive communication with workers and worker committees, work best for the employers. For unions, strategies emphasising personal communication through house calls are the most effective.
94 Australian business graduates completed measures of perceived socialization, tactics during their initial few months in their first job after graduation. Three years later in…
Abstract
94 Australian business graduates completed measures of perceived socialization, tactics during their initial few months in their first job after graduation. Three years later in the same firms, they completed a measure of career satisfaction, and indicated how much their salary had grown and how many promotions they had received over this period. Perceived individualized tactics were significantly positively related to career satisfaction, whilst perceived institutionalized tactics were significantly negatively related. However, neither of these tactics were related to either salary growth or promotions received. Implications of these findings for the socialization of managers are discussed.
Lloyd Dosier, Thomas Case and Bernard Keys
An empirical study of managerial influence tactics is described using a structured interview process. Two hundred and fifty‐seven usable narrative accounts of downward influence…
Abstract
An empirical study of managerial influence tactics is described using a structured interview process. Two hundred and fifty‐seven usable narrative accounts of downward influence attempts were obtained using this approach. Respondents also reported the nature of the influence attempt, the reasons for success or failure, whether other people were used, and the long‐term consequences of the influence attempt. These categories derived, described successful and unsuccessful attempts by a wide variety of managers in both private and public sector organisations, large and small. Influence tactics were organised into 17 categories by a systematic and well‐established process. One way chi‐square tests were used to analyse categorised responses. Generally it was found that influence tactic success was more likely when associated with the initiation of new tasks or goals and more likely to fail when trying to eliminate subordinate violation of rules, procedures, or policies. There was a trend for more threatening tactics to be more closely associated with unsuccessful than successful influence attempts. The data suggest that short‐term influence tactic success may be obscured in the research by the use of multiple tactics and by long‐term relationships and that unsuccessful influence attempts may result in the deterioration of interpersonal relationships.
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Jerry A. Carbo, Steven J. Haase and M. Blake Hargrove
The purpose of this chapter is to develop a model of union reform that may help to revitalize the labor movement. Our model presents a path using democracy and militancy to…
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to develop a model of union reform that may help to revitalize the labor movement. Our model presents a path using democracy and militancy to overcome union oligarchy to build stronger unions and a stronger broader movement. We develop a new model of union revitalization by expanding the Voss and Sherman (2000) model from our own experiences and a review of past union revitalization efforts. Democratic and militant strategies are a key to successful reform efforts. Entrenched union leaders tend to oppose such efforts. Reformers must adequately overcome entrenched leader responses to succeed in reforming their unions. We have developed a new conceptual model of union revitalization. Our model should be tested further through in-depth case studies and analysis of reform efforts which have failed or succeeded. Our model presents strategies and tactics for labor activists to revitalize their unions and the labor movement. We present a new model of union revitalization that looks at both internal and external union revitalization. This chapter accumulates evidence across reform efforts throughout the modern history of unions. This comparative and contrasting analysis of the evidence from these efforts is a unique contribution to the field. Further, the resulting model from this review presents a unique focus on the strategies and tactics of reform efforts as well as the interaction between union reform efforts and entrenched leaders. This model provides a path for both future research and practical revitalization efforts.
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Sanjay Gupta and Thomas L. Case
An exploratory investigation of the outward influence tactics used by practicing managers. Narrative accounts of 117 successful and unsuccessful influence attempts were content…
Abstract
An exploratory investigation of the outward influence tactics used by practicing managers. Narrative accounts of 117 successful and unsuccessful influence attempts were content analyzed and categorized using Flanagan’s critical incident approach. Chi‐square analyses and Spearman Rank‐Order correlations were used to compare successful and unsuccessful influence tactics and determine the reasons these methods were employed. Similar to previous investigations, which focused on lateral and upward influence tactics, communicating facts and data in a rational manner was the most frequently used outward influence approach. Success was more likely when a combination of tactics was used and when more than one agent was involved. Successful attempts were associated with the achievement of objectives, creation of a positive image, and improved business relationships. Negative attempts were associated with a jeopardized future business relationship and generation of negative feelings. The implications of the findings and future research directions are identified.
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Ho Kwan Cheung, Alex Lindsey, Eden King and Michelle R Hebl
Influence tactics are prevalent in the workplace and are linked to crucial outcomes such as career success and helping behaviours. The authors argue that sex role identity affects…
Abstract
Purpose
Influence tactics are prevalent in the workplace and are linked to crucial outcomes such as career success and helping behaviours. The authors argue that sex role identity affects women’s choice of influence tactics in the workplace, but they only receive positive performance ratings when their behaviours are congruent with gender role expectation. Furthermore, the authors hypothesize that these relationships may be moderated by occupational continuance commitment. Results suggest that femininity is negatively related to the use of influence tactics overall, and this relationship is moderated by occupational continuance commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 657 women working in the construction industry were surveyed for their continuance occupational commitment and sex role identity and 465 supervisors whose responses are linked with the subordinates are surveyed for the women’s influence tactics and performance ratings.
Findings
Results suggested that femininity was negatively related to the use of influence tactics overall, and this relationship was moderated by occupational continuance commitment. Results also showed that women’s use of influence tactics was only positively received in terms of performance ratings when the influence tactic was congruent with gender role expectations.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this current study suggest that not all women are equally likely to use influence tactics and not all tactics result in positive perceptions of performance. Feminine women in general refrain from using influence tactics unless they are driven to stay in a given occupation, but they only receive positive results when their behaviours are congruent with society’s gender role expectations.
Originality/value
Past research has mostly focused on broad differences between males and females, and this study has shown that there are more nuanced differences that can more accurately describe the effects of gender disposition (i.e. sex role identity) on influence tactics. It also emphasizes the importance of occupational commitment as a boundary condition, which influences women to step out of their gender roles even though they may be penalized with lower performance ratings.
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