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Delivering negative feedback to employees is highly problematic for managers. Negative feedback is important in generating improvements in employee performance, but likely to generate adverse employee reactions. However, if managers do not address poor performance, good performers may become demoralized or exit the organization. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how managers communicate negative feedback and the factors that drive their choice of tactic.

The authors use interview data from practicing line managers with experience in delivering negative feedback to learn whether their tactic choices are consistent with Implicit (“best practice”) or Contingency (“best fit”) theory.

The authors identify five negative feedback tactics: evidence, emotive and communication tactics are foundation tactics while evidence + communication and evidence + emotive tactics are bundles of the foundation tactics. Managers apply a “best fit” approach from a set of “best practice” negative feedback options. The choice of negative feedback tactic is driven by the manager’s assessment of the “best fit” with the employee’s personality.

Most of the managers believed that their negative feedback tactic had been effective. Future researchers should investigate which negative feedback tactics employees regard as most effective.

A best fit approach to the delivery of negative feedback requires organizations to give managers discretion in the delivery of negative feedback. Managers may mis-assess fit which can undermine the effectiveness of the appraisal process.

The authors focus on how negative feedback is communicated by managers. Existing research focusses on reactions to negative feedback without taking into account how it is delivered.

The purpose of this article is to study how two different managerial environments of the state‐controlled economy in Belarus – “private small business management” and “state or privatized large enterprise management” – influence middle managers' implementation of decisions. Two kinds of data are analyzed: “should” option or presented data, and “would” option or managers' preferred in reality option of activity.

The research was completed in two stages: survey research based on open‐ended questions and face‐to‐face structured interviews based on the principle of controllable projection. A total of 193 decisions are analyzed.

Managers of large and state enterprises should present an appearance of active tactics, but in reality they would prefer tactics of delay or no‐action. Managers of small private businesses should present all varieties of tactics except a tactic of inaction. In reality, they would prefer to act directly, or less often, to wait or not act at all.

The effect of other organizational factors than the size and form of ownership should be subjects of future research. The comparison of decision implementation tactics of mid‐level managers in large and small organizations, in state‐owned and private companies in countries with different economies should also be studied.

The findings of this paper have managerial implications for companies willing to open subsidiaries or establish partnership with enterprises from countries with a state‐controlled economy.

The paper is original research that proves the influence of the business environment and characteristics of a company on a middle manager's behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how three types of socialization tactics – content, context and social tactics – influence fit perceptions, and then how three types of fit perceptions – person–organization (P–O) fit, person–job (P–J) fit and person–group (P–G) fit – mediate the relationship between socialization tactics and positive socialization outcomes: organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intent to quit.

Responses from participants – 207 Korean youth workers – were subjected to ordinary least squares path analyses with bootstrapping to test the hypotheses.

First, this study found that socialization tactics promote youth workers’ perceived fit with organization, job, and people. Then, the mediation model showed that content socialization tactics do not influence dependent variables (socialization outcomes) through mediators (fits), while context tactics influence through perceived P–O fit and P–G fit for organizational commitment only, and social tactics through perceived P–O, P–J and P–G fit for organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intent to quit.

The results of this study suggest that institutionalized social tactics can serve as a key socialization method for new employees. In addition, youth organizations need to implement jointly formal and collective training programs with follow-up social workplace learning (e.g. mentoring and study circle) to help newcomers share the values of the organization and integrate well into it.

This study contributes for understanding the socialization process of new employees working in educational and social work fields and role of fit perception between socialization tactics and their career successes.

The authors examine the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and the selection of upward influence tactics. The purpose of this paper is to integrate research on perceptions of justice, LMX, and influence tactics in order to empirically test an integrative model.

Questionnaires were administered to n=407 employed Masters of Business Administration students at a private Southeastern University in the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to test the statistical significance of paths specified in the models.

Results indicate that perceptions of organizational justice have indirect effects on upward influence tactics reported. LMX had mediating effects on the relationship between interactional justice and the use of rational and coalition tactics.

The data are cross-sectional and were collected using self-reports, which limits the conclusions that can be drawn. The findings however, suggest that perceptions of interactional justice are associated with LMX, whose effects in turn are associated with the use of influence tactics.

Coalition strategies were used more when subordinates experienced poor LMX. The research suggests that perhaps for individuals experiencing poor relationships with the supervisor, coalition strategies might present an alternative to “rational” influence tactics (which are used more in high-quality relationships).

The current study extends LMX research by examining differing subordinate influence strategies in high- and low-quality relationships. It also extends organizational justice research by examining the effects of the interpersonal implementation of fair procedures on the dynamics between leadership and upward influence.

This paper aims to describe a study of the negotiation process, focusing on the use of seven competitive-unethical tactics in dyadic negotiations. The initial use of these tactics and their effects on process and outcomes are examined.

In total, 230 Brazilian professionals from a large financial institution participated in two-party, property-leasing negotiations involving eight issues with assigned point values. Negotiations were conducted online and, from the recorded transcripts, seven competitive-unethical tactics were tracked and analyzed with respect to the negotiation process and outcomes (individual and joint, perceived and actual).

The study found that most participants employed one or more tactics, the stage and incidents of initial use affected overall employment, and participants often reciprocated when tactics were employed. Reciprocation was best described by a logarithmic function, with a small number of tactics answered with as many or more tactics, but a large number of tactics producing a smaller response. Also, number of messages exchanged and number of tactics per message were related to likelihood of reaching an agreement and, to some extent, to individual outcomes (actual and perceived). Reaching an agreement and perceived individual outcome were associated with a participant's desire to negotiate with a counterpart in the future.

The vast majority of studies to date have employed questionnaires to measure ethical attitudes or intentions, or have limited their empirical studies to competitive tactics only. This study moves beyond these methodologies to examine the actual use of a range of competitive-unethical tactics, and their effects on process and outcomes.

This paper aims to examine how remote (i.e. global, regional or divisional) management accountants communicate in interpersonal contacts with operational managers when trying to exert influence on them.

An ethnographic field study focusing on budgetary control meetings between regional management accountants and operational managers is used as the basis for a micro-level analysis of situated face-to-face interactions and communicative influence tactics.

Remote management accountants mainly use soft rather than hard influence tactics. They, furthermore, employ what is referred to as “panoramic knowledge” gained explicitly from their structurally as well as physically removed “meta-positioning” to suggest certain measures to operational managers that have proved successful in other units and – by doing so – try to exert influence on these managers. Moreover, they use information that they gain in their position in between senior and operational managers by acting as “double agents” – that is, informing operational managers about senior managers’ focus as well as making transparent to operational managers that they will inform senior management about specific operational matters. By doing so, they try to prompt operational managers to address these issues. Additionally, strengthening their verbally articulated suggestions, as “minute takers” they are able to document their suggestions by moving from spoken to a more binding written text. Through these purposeful and rather unobtrusive tactics, remote management accountants try to take influence on operational managers without generating their resistance.

The paper shows how remote management accountants (as staff members) can skillfully turn their apparently powerless position within the organization into a source of strength to exert influence on operational managers.

Adaptive selling can help build positive relationships between salespeople and consumers. The literature shows that consumers respond positively to salespeople under approach but not avoidance motivations. This paper aims to demonstrate a circumstance under which consumers with avoidance motivations can also respond positively, something not previously shown in the literature.

This research paper uses three experimental between-subject designs to test hypotheses.

The current research identifies appropriate sales influence tactics (e.g. a customer-autonomy-oriented or a loss-avoidance-oriented influence tactic) where consumers with avoidance motivations can also respond to sales agents positively by the evidence of higher purchase intentions. In addition, this research shows that consumers with approach motivations may not always respond positively to salespeople. Further, goal facilitation appraisals of the salespeople serve as a mechanism between consumers’ shopping motivations and their behavioral responses (e.g. purchase intentions).

First, while the previous literature demonstrates that approach motivations generally lead to more positive effects (Elliot and Trash, 2002), this research indicates that avoidance motivations can also have positive effects, which is a finding that has not been demonstrated in the literature thus far. Second, this research identifies goal facilitation appraisals as one underlying process that explains the interactive effect between matching influence tactics and consumers’ approach/avoidance motivations when shopping. Third, the authors integrate regulatory focus theory by using gain- or loss-avoidance-oriented sales influence tactics to match approach and avoidance motivations.

Today, more than ever, businesses need to improve strategy implementation. Part of achieving implementation requires strategies to be embedded in the daily activities of executors (practitioners) – thus to embed strategy in implementation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a “lesser acknowledged” strategy type that is ill-considered by management and leadership alike. “Covert tactics” are described.

Through dialectic conversation and applying the devil’s advocacy approach to challenging embeddedness and implementation liabilities, the phenomenon of “covert tactics” was identified. Purposively selected subjects participated in the dialectic conversations. Their opinions were collected and patterns identified until their “tactics” became apparent. Another element of interest was the underlying thinking of subjects to understand what drives them to follow covert tactics.

Covert tactics are phantasmal individual ploys that employees take in response to their own micro situation. Higher-level managers are often not aware of their existence, as these tactics are not spoken about but do exist. Such managers assume the organisation’s professed strategies are pursued but are oblivious to the “real tactics” that are pursued.

The research proposes an “invisible concept” and depends on one individual view point.

Understanding and accepting the existence of covert tactics gives managers flexibility to respond.

To address their existence, there is no need to expose and oppose covert tactics, as this will make them more “invisible”. The innovative approach is to recognise their existence and align them to the organisation strategy. The quality of the strategy message was shown to be the fundamental tool that managers can use to address covert tactics by replacing the need for their existence.

The purpose of this study is to examine the negotiation tactics used in business-to-business (B2B) negotiations in creative sectors and to shed light on some of the characteristics of creative sectors that might drive these behaviors.

This is a multiple-case study involving interviews with 18 creative sector negotiators engaged in B2B negotiations.

The findings suggest that negotiators in B2B firms in creative sectors use a variety of negotiation tactics to reach agreement, but that there are some differences compared with other sectors. One group of tactics, not represented in existing taxonomies, is identified and termed closure-seeking tactics, referring to tactics intended to speed up the negotiation process and reach agreement as quickly as possible. The reasons for creative sector negotiators’ choice of closure-seeking tactics might stem from their desire to expedite the start of new projects to enable them to fulfill their creative drive.

In addition to the identification of group of tactics observed in creative sectors, but not anticipated by existing research, the findings indicate that negotiators in creative sectors seem to lack interest in, and expertise for, negotiating and might be driven more by the desire to get on with the creative process than by concerns over monetary gains when negotiating. This could reflect unique characteristics of creative sectors and the people who work in these sectors.

This work offers new insights and understanding about tactics used in B2B negotiations in creative sectors. These findings have important implications for both practitioners in creative sectors, who might be too eager to reach closure quickly, and practitioners negotiating with firms in creative sectors, who need to understand the unique characteristics of these firms.

The originality of this work lies in its consideration of tactics used in B2B negotiations in the under-studied context of creative sectors and investigation of the reasons that drive the choice of tactics.

The purpose of this investigation is to identify and examine the tactics and upward mobility strategies utilized by individuals who advanced into leadership positions.

Drawing on both narrative, consensual qualitative research (CQR) and empirical research, the authors conducted in‐depth interviews with 187 leaders from 136 organizations.

This study offers an elaboration on the interrelatedness of career tactics and presents a typology based upon the ranking, bundling and utilization of selected tactics by organization leaders. The analysis produced a framework of four strategic categories: foundation strategies, building self‐brand, being centered and seizing opportunity. The results suggest that the utilization of these strategies is likely to influence career advancement.

This study was confined to individuals who had achieved high level positions which may limit the ability to generalize.

Organization players will benefit by leveraging the upward mobility typology and recognizing the value of proactive preparedness and career self‐management. Inclusion of this tactical framework will also enhance the effectiveness of organization leadership, mentoring and career counseling programs.

The value of this study is twofold. First, it contributes to understanding of advancement tactics in the limited, and often inconclusive, research on upward mobility and predeterminants. Second, it underscores the importance of career tactics in the thought processes of career aspirants faced with a hypercompetitive market.