Ethlyn A. Williams

Bio: Ethlyn A. Williams is an academic researcher from Florida Atlantic University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Transformational leadership & Team composition. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 24 publications receiving 2823 citations. Previous affiliations of Ethlyn A. Williams include University of South Florida & University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Research Methodology In Management: Current Practices, Trends, And Implications For Future Research

Abstract: This study is a comparison of the strategies employed in management research in two periods, 1995–97 and 1985–87. Through a content analysis of articles from the Academy of Management Journal, Admi...

Transformational leadership, self‐efficacy, group cohesiveness, commitment, and performance

Abstract: We tested a model proposing that transformational leaders build committed and high performing work groups by enhancing employee self‐efficacy and cohesiveness. Questionnaires were completed by 303 fire department personnel following preliminary in‐depth interviews with fire rescue personnel. After accounting for missing data, 271 responses were included in our data analysis. Results indicated support for the theoretical model in comparison to three alternative models that were considered. Implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.

Leadership and Organizational Justice: Similarities and Differences across Cultures

Abstract: International management scholars and practitioners agree that managers cannot simply assume that leadership behaviors effective in one culture can be readily transferred to other cultures. This study examines the relationship of transformational leadership and leader member exchange to organizational justice and job satisfaction in five separate cultures. Results indicate that while there is consistent support for some of the proposed linkages, there are also some interesting differences across cultures. Implications for theory and future research on international business are discussed.

The knowledge-creating company

Abstract: How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

Economy and Society

Abstract: The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Validation guidelines for is positivist research

Abstract: The issue of whether IS positivist researchers were validating their instruments sufficiently was initially raised fifteen years ago. Rigor in IS research is still one of the critical scientific issues facing the field. Without solid validation of the instruments that are used to gather data on which findings and interpretations are based, the very scientific basis of the profession is threatened. This study builds on four prior retrospectives of IS research that conclude that IS positivist researchers continue to face major barriers in instrument, statistical, and other forms of validation. It goes beyond these studies by offering analyses of the state-of-the-art of research validities and deriving specific heuristics for research practice in the validities. Some of these heuristics will, no doubt, be controversial. But we believe that it is time for the IS academic profession to bring such issues into the open for community debate. This article is a first step in that direction. Based on our interpretation of the importance of a long list of validities, this paper suggests heuristics for reinvigorating the quest for validation in IS research via content/construct validity, reliability, manipulation validity, and statistical conclusion validity. New guidelines for validation and new research directions are offered.

Formative Versus Reflective Indicators in Organizational Measure Development: A Comparison and Empirical Illustration

Abstract: A comparison is undertaken between scale development and index construction procedures to trace the implications of adopting a reflective versus formative perspective when creating multi-item measures for organizational research. Focusing on export coordination as an illustrative construct of interest, the results show that the choice of measurement perspective impacts on the content, parsimony and criterion validity of the derived coordination measures. Implications for practising researchers seeking to develop multi-item measures of organizational constructs are considered.