Empirical research was conducted to investigate retrenchment as an integral component of the overall turnaround process. An industry study provided an anchored operational definition of a turnaround situation, indications of its internal and external causes, and an application of an absolute measure of its severity. The research further produced an empirical discrimination between retrenchment as a stand-alone response to financial decline and retrenchment as an initial phase of a turnaround strategy, and an identification of activities that can be used to classify entrepreneurial vs. efficiency emphases in a turnaround firm's recovery response.

Turnaround: Retrenchment and recovery

Following the landmark corporate scandals of the early 21st century, there appeared to be a tremendous increase in the U.S. business media’s emphasis on issues of ethics in corporate leadership. The purpose of this research was to examine whether that apparent increase was reflected in an actual change in that media’s portrayals of successful leaders. We content analyzed the text of a total of 180 articles in Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes magazine, 90 from the five years preceding the landmark scandals and 90 from the five years following the scandals. We found no evidence that the landmark scandals had any impact on the media’s incorporation of ethics in their portrayals of leaders. We attribute this substantially to the persistence of a worldview in the U.S. business press that emphasizes leader traits and actions that have a direct impact on corporate profits. Additionally, we found some interesting consistencies and differences in media portrayals across the two time periods, likely related to the rise and fall of dot-com businesses. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and corporate leaders.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/25482123

An Examination of Leader Portrayals in the U.S. Business Press Following the Landmark Scandals of the Early 21st Century

Managing organizational change : trainer's guide

Purpose – In this article, the authors aim to review the extant literature and analyze the theoretical influence in the academic research of organizational decline and related topics (turnaround and bankruptcy, for example). They examine the theoretical contribution and the most influential authors to better understand the intellectual structure that connects theories and authors that have researched organizational decline. This study makes it possible not only to understand the current state of the art of research on organizational decline but also to uncover and guide future studies on organizational decline, based on the conceptual gaps identified.Design/methodology/approach – Empirically, the authors conduct a bibliometric study involving analyses of citations and co‐citations to uncover the connections between authors and theories used. The bibliometric study was performed in 18 top‐ranked management journals. Their sample of 104 articles was retrieved from ISI Web of Knowledge.Findings – The authors...

/pdf/organizational-decline-a-yet-largely-neglected-topic-in-5rjd652143.pdf

Organizational decline: a yet largely neglected topic in organizational studies

The purpose of the paper will be to develop a framework for the objective evaluation of leadership styles, including effective and dark side leadership. In the framework, various leadership approaches are identified, such as (1) Transformational Leadership, (2) Transactional Leadership, (3) Charismatic Leadership, (4) Situational Leadership, (5) Pseudo-Transformational Leadership. Using this framework, two historical leaders will be compared and contrasted according to their leadership style. In the final section, dark side leadership dimensions will be reviewed and evaluated. Based on the framework, a vision of leadership strategy plan will be completed for incorporating effective leadership, including recognizing darker characteristics and providing solutions to avoid the emergence of dark leadership.

/pdf/vision-of-effective-leadership-9cixac46l5.pdf

Vision of Effective Leadership

In 2002, the entire globe was rocked by the WorldCom accounting scandal that led to the bankruptcy of the fourth-ranked Fortune 500 telecom company, and raised several questions in relation to corporate governance, ethical leadership and corrupt practices in American companies. The consequences of this famous scandal led to unrest within the ranks of investors, pension funds, banks and the public at large. Later, the company appealed to the US court for reorganization under chapter 11 of US bankruptcy code and under the leadership of the new CEO, Michael Capellas, the new company (MCI) not only reconsolidated its financial position but also overhauled all its internal systems and transformed itself from a corrupt company to an ethical one. This article presents insights learnt from this case study in the context of managing organizational turnaround. It also focuses on the role that the new chief executive played in installing an ethical work culture in the organization. The authors have used Chowdhury's ...

Organizational Decline and Turnaround: Insights from the Worldcom Case

This paper examines some hypotheses with respect to the interregional wage variations in Indian manufacturing from 1950 to 1960. The choice of this period was determined by the availability of relevant data. It was found in an earlier study that the regional wage structure tended to be flexible during the period under consideration. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explain the inter‐regional wage differentials by analysing the data on trade unionism, per capita income, productivity, capital intensity, non‐primary employment and consumer prices. It is argued that the level of regional wage differentials can be explained by relative differentials in productivity and in trade unionism, but the change in wage differentials depends upon the changing capital intensity in respective regions.

Regional wages and economic development: A case study of manufacturing wages in India, 1950–1960

An attempt is made in this paper to analyse recent strike activities in India. It was found that inflationary conditions had significantly influenced the strike activity. The wage-productivity ratio had some influence, A crosssection analysis for inter-state and inter-industry variations in the strike activity was also attempted. It was found that employment, salaried staff-workers ratio, and wage-productivity ratio accounted for dispersion in the strike activity. The explanatory model developed by the author could substantially explain strike-proneness in Indian industry. Pramod Verma is Professor and Chairman of the Personnel and Industrial Relations area at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His research and teaching interest is in industrial relations, personnel management, and industrial economics. The industrial relations scene may either display signs of harmony and cooperation between management and union or it may be dominated by conflicts, strikes, and disharmony. Each of the situations has its impact on the process of production and hence industrial progress and growth. The latter situation obviously has evoked much concern since conflicts, if not resolved in time, ultimately take the shape of strikes or lock-outs resulting in loss of production and profitability of the organization. The attendant negative impact is equally shared by workers in the form of loss of wages and other benefits.

http://www.vikalpa.com/pdf/articles/1978/1978_Jul_Sep_199_213.pdf

Industrial Conflicts in India A Statistical Analysis

What are the distinct trends and patterns of industrial conflicts in India in the past two decades? This article by Verma and Kumar addresses this issue and discusses the emerging trends based on an analysis of considerable data.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0256090919920302

Industrial Conflicts: A Statistical Analysis

Employing the known universal, controllable solution of finite deformations of incompressible, isotropic elastic dielectric material, a perturbation scheme helps in extending the solution to the slightly compressible case. This technique is used to investigate the stress and displacement fields around a finite screw-dislocation in a slightly compressible dielectric. With polarization, the strength of the dislocation is increased.

Pramod Verma

Papers

Organizational Decline and Turnaround: Insights from the Worldcom Case

Regional wages and economic development: A case study of manufacturing wages in India, 1950–1960

Industrial Conflicts in India A Statistical Analysis

Industrial Conflicts: A Statistical Analysis

Finite deformation of slightly compressible materials on finite screw dislocation