Showing papers in "Journal of Management Inquiry in 2007"

Corporations, Democracy, and the Public Good

Abstract: Organizational theorists have had much to say about how environments affect organizations but have said relatively little about how organizations shape their environment. This silence is particularly troubling, given that organizations, in general, and corporations, in particular, now wield inordinate political power. This article illustrates three ways in which corporations can undermine representative democracy and the public good: promoting legislation that benefits corporations at the expense of individual citizens, the capturing of regulatory agencies by those whom the agencies were designed to regulate, and the privatization of functions that have historically been the mandate of local, state, and federal governments.

Competitive Advantage Revisited: Michael Porter on Strategy and Competitiveness:

Abstract: Strategic management is constantly evolving as both an academic discipline and as a reflection of management practice. This article, based on a recent interview with Michael Porter, assesses his contribution to the development of the discipline in the context of the advances that have taken place since the publication of his seminal work Competitive Strategy in 1980. The authors conclude that Porter has made major lasting contributions to strategy, increasing both its academic rigor and its accessibility to managers. The article and interview place Porter's work at the center of the development of strategic management in terms of the provision of practical analytical frameworks, transforming it into a recognized and recognizable field of academic study and management practice. This feat of transformation has not been equaled before or since, so that 25 years after his first seminal contribution, Porter's work continues to provide remarkable insights into the nature of competition and strategy.

Are Articles in “Top” Management Journals Necessarily of Higher Quality?

Abstract: This study investigates the appropriateness of using publication of an article in a top (specifically, top five) management journal as a proxy for its quality. Social Science Citation Index citatio...

Method or Madness: Phenomenology as Knowledge Creator

Abstract: This article reviews the research method of phenomenology and its use in understanding human experience. This is conceptualized in the context of a research study performed with nine participants and their experience of finding their “calling.” Their experiences are used as the medium through which Husserl's method is explored. Questions and concerns about this alternative and nontraditional approach to creating and understanding new social knowledge are considered. Reflexivity and the researcher's psychological integrity in application of the method are explored.

Searching for the Legitimacy Threshold

Abstract: In this article, the authors lay the groundwork for a concept known as the legitimacy threshold. The legitimacy threshold is defined as the point at which, from the entrepreneur’s perception, the organization moves from an untenable collection of resources to a potentially sustainable enterprise. Entrepreneurs generally describe it as a “made it” feeling. The authors’ focus was twofold: (a) to develop a theory base for such a concept and (b) to conduct multiple case studies to verify such a theory base. They make a case for the existence of thresholds and then more fully define the legitimacy threshold before providing support for universal components of the construct. They conclude by presenting 11 case studies that lend support to the idea of a universal legitimacy threshold.

Spirituality and the Management Teacher: Reflections of Three Buddhists on Compassion, Mindfulness, and Selflessness in the Classroom

Abstract: Despite the growing importance of spirituality in management, the management education literature says little concerning the teacher's self and even less concerning a teacher's spiritual self. This article addresses the issue of integrating spiritual values and teaching by reflecting on the experiences of three management teachers. To explore individual aspects of their Buddhist practices, one author examines how the spiritual value of compassion has changed the experience of teaching, a second discusses mindfulness, and a third the no-self. They then reflect collectively on those experiences, indicate opportunities for research, and call for further discussion with management professors from diverse spiritual traditions. Their experience suggests that integrating spiritual values into the teaching workplace is highly rewarding and also less problematic than might be expected.

On the Relationship Between Research and Practice Debate and Reflections

Abstract: This article offers a lively and spirited debate on the pros and cons of relating research to practice. The authors' goal is to illuminate fundamental issues in the debate in detail, consider a variety of prescriptions, and then come to a mindful conclusion about a course of action. The article begins with a point—counterpoint debate to make sure that scholars fully understand the issues in play. Mike Tushman starts off by arguing for an emic approach. He believes that scholars are most effective when they closely work with management and organizations. John Kimberly counters with an etic perspective. He argues that scholars need to keep their distance. Two attempts to make sense of the many issues raised in the debate close the article. First, Bill Starbuck steps back and offers his ideas about what the debate means for continuing scholarship. And then Sue Ashford brings the exchange to a conclusion. She draws on her many years in the dean's office to offer her wisdom about how to best organize business ...

Management as a Regulated Profession An Essay

Abstract: The history of management education shows the rigor and relevance gap has been around for centuries, well before its appearance in the United States. Nor is it peculiar to management. It is neither germane to our discipline's present difficulties nor an appropriate focus for our critics. Rather, history suggests we finally parted company with managers after the 1959 Ford and Carnegie reports, as we presumed rationality alone was the sufficient basis for understanding them and their doings. These reports helped us turn management education into a profession even as management itself has yet to become one. To return closer to managers, the author suggests rationality captures one dimension of their practice, whereas the notion of business as an art form might capture its complement. Reformed art education, covering art's history, aesthetics, criticism, and production, provides a framework for studying the managerial art, and leads us to a rich, dynamic theory of the firm.

Technical Spirituality at Work: Jacques Ellul on Workplace Spirituality

Abstract: The authors assess the current state of workplace spirituality from the philosophical perspective of Jacques Ellul and show how the workplace spirituality movement has not escaped the infiltration and pervasiveness of technique. First, they describe Ellul's notion of technique. They then demonstrate how the workplace spirituality movement presently displays the hallmarks of technique in its quest for results and facts, in its use of experts, and in the broadening and hence dissolution of the notion of spirituality. The authors highlight several scholars who have raised concerns and critiques of the movement in its technical form. They suggest some possibilities for moving toward an authentic spirituality at work followed by some implications for undertaking scholarly research on workplace spirituality that explicitly recognizes technical dominance in spirituality. It is incumbent on those of us involved in workplace spirituality to resist its domination and find ways of fostering authenticity in spiritual...

Epistemes and Structures of Sensemaking in Organizational Life

Abstract: The issue of organizational sense-making has been much researched and written about in recent years. Yet, how structurally such sense-making attempts are facilitated remains relatively unexamined. In this article, the authors explore the underlying processes to be accomplished, sustained, and extended. `Episteme,' the underlying code of a culture or epoch that governs its language, its logic, its schemas of perception, its values and its techniques, etc., is what makes individual and collective meaning and sense-making possible. In this article, the authors identify three epistemes of organizational sense-making for legitimizing and justifying managerial actions and decision-making within the context of a family-owned newspaper called the Courier. This is done through a study of the justifying narratives employed in the collective sense-making process.

Friendship and Organizational Analysis: Toward a Research Agenda

Abstract: Recent developments in organizational analysis have done much to fill out the dry, textbook image of rational, formal structures. Yet on one of the commonest kinds of organizational experience—friendship—organizational analysis has remained virtually silent. By contrast, within the wider social science literature some writers have recently accorded greater importance to friendship as a social phenomenon. This article suggests that organizational analysis would be well served by doing the same. To this end, the article explores what this might entail and identifies some of the issues that it could illuminate, both empirically and theoretically. In particular, it presents friendship as a folk concept, which recognizes the situational variability of its form, experience, and connectedness with other forms of relationship. In doing so, the article will help define and open up a focus for future research into friendship and organizational analysis.

The Board of Directors as a Social Network: A New Perspective

Abstract: Decisions by boards of directors can have a critical impact on the success or failure of a firm. These decisions range from the hiring and firing of a CEO to market entry and exit to the way in whi...

Kicking the Habit: Broadening Our Horizons by Studying Family Businesses

Abstract: Our collective bias has been to study large, publicly traded companies. Not only do these behemoths represent a tiny fraction of organizations, but they have also served as uninspiring role models driven by the short-run objectives of managers and owners alike. By contrast, outstanding family-owned or family-controlled businesses, to which we have devoted relatively little attention, often outperform by marching to the beat of a different drum. They are managed for the long run. Among the most durable and best performing family businesses, this long-run approach shows up as four priorities: continuity and persistence in pursuing a substantive rather than a financial mission, exceptional attention to the internal community of employees, unusually close connection to key external stakeholders, and courageous commanding leadership that resists pressures from shortsighted owners. We would do well to learn more about these types of organizations.

Reviewer Feedback as Discourse of the Other A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Manuscript Review Process

Abstract: This article contributes to dialog in the field about the nature of the manuscript review process. It develops a psychoanalytic framework for understanding how participants in the review process construct each other as subjects in discourse and why the experience of alienation inevitably marks this process. The framework suggests that participants can draw on different subject positions with regard to this alienation. One is imaginary and entails the failed fantasy that lack and alienation can be overcome. The other is symbolic and entails a mutual engagement with this failure. The article suggests imaginary positions are less constructive, resulting in struggles between participants as others. By contrast, it suggests symbolic positions are more constructive, resulting in struggles with otherness and opportunities for more creative outcomes. The article explores reviewer reflexivity as an important element of symbolic interactions in which participants have responsibility for the production of relationsh...

Truth or Consequences: An Improvised Collective Story Construction

Abstract: What follows is a collectively improvised story that emerged as four authors set out to explore their experiences and thoughts concerning organizational stories. The story is a reflection of their ...

We See Dead People?: The State of Organization Science

Abstract: This essay responds to John Miner's (1984) assessment of the state of organizational science. Slightly more than two decades ago, Miner found little evidence of a correlation between organizational scholars' ratings of the importance of a theory, its use, and its estimated validity. In response, he suggested the need for organizational science to readjust its goals, paradigms, and basic processes so that it develops as a discipline. Despite this challenge, the intervening years have seen the field become seemingly more paradigmatically fragmented, promoting discussion on its place in the social sciences. The essay presents four reviews in response to what has followed since Miner's original study. It offers a judgment on Miner's evaluation, a suggestion for the field's development, a position paper, and a response from Miner. Combined, the ensuing dialog offers practical suggestions to the problem of a seemingly perennially emerging organizational science.

Deconstruction Revisited: Implications of Theory Over Methodology

Abstract: Throughout the early 1990s, theoretical works in management studies citing the influence of the philosophy of Jacques Derrida were finding publication in some of the major North American academic b...

Sitting in Your Reader's Chair: Attending to Your Academic Sensemakers

Abstract: This article describes to authors what journal reviewers expect of the scholarly publications they review and how authors can anticipate reviewers' sensemaking processes to increase their chances of being understood and making their contribution clear. Authors are urged to (a) clarify their research question and intended contribution early in the paper; (b) guide readers' understanding of literature relevant to the paper; (c) understand readers' perspective and anticipate their questions; (d) be aware of and explain how terms and figures are used; (e) obtain collegial feedback on a paper before submitting it; (f) use editors' and reviewers' feedback to understand how they made sense of the paper; (g) use feedback to improve the paper in revising; and (h) manage the flow of papers from a project to incorporate sensemaking feedback.

Gurus and Indian Epistemologies: Parables of Labor-Intensive Organizations

Abstract: This article intertwines pedagogy and Indian epistemologies by offering the use of parables in the education of management consultants, particularly those seeking to work in India. Through the presentation of a field report in the form of parables constructed from lived-in and lived-through consultancy assignments, this article highlights the labor-intensive textile sector of India that employs approximately 35 million people. The parables are presented in a format that can be utilized to understand and unpack the complexity of India that is a far cry from the glossy images of India's expanding IT prowess. The article argues for the need to develop consultants who, in grappling with knowledge and action, can move beyond Western templates in management consulting.

On-Site or Out-of-Sight?: Family-Friendly Child Care Provisions and the Status of Working Mothers

Abstract: “Family-friendly” initiatives are gaining in popularity as employers attempt to ease the fit between work and family. A number of organizations offer on- or near-site child care facilities to emplo...

We Are Who We Teach: How Teaching Experienced Managers Fractures Our Scholarship

Abstract: Author(s): Pearce, JL | Abstract: It is argued that teaching is more important to shared understanding of management and organizations than scholars acknowledge. Teaching has been ignored in discussions of scholars' intellectual enterprise, in part, because of a practicality that violates Romantic Era ideals of intellectuals as otherworldly and pure. Yet teachers in conversation with their students have always been central to how students learn and develop their ideas. In the case of management professors, who they teach (students with management experience), the institutional context in which they teach them (tuition-dependent and rankings-focused university business schools), and the publishing industry (increasingly focused on lower-division books for teenagers) are as much causes of the fractured visage of management scholarship as are any actions of the field's elites. Implications for action include more open conversations about how MBA teaching influences our intellectual work and the development of coherent books for experienced adult students. © 2007 Sage Publications.

Why Don't More Senior Leaders Mentor?: And How They Are Mortgaging Their Company's Future in the Process

Abstract: Large organizations are facing a pending talent drain when baby boomer generation senior leaders begin retiring over the next 3 to 5 years. As companies scramble to develop and retain their next generation of leaders, many overlook a cost-effective, tried-and-true method for engagement and leadership development—mentoring. According to the authors' 2-year in-depth research study with senior American business leaders across 20 different industries, mentoring engages high potentials, helps develop essential “soft” skills (e.g., “navigating the culture”), and sends the message that they are valued. It is unfortunate that many executives choose not to mentor, and they may, according to the authors, be mortgaging the future of their companies in the process. The authors have identified five of the most common excuses cited by senior executives who choose not to mentor (e.g., “It doesn't work”) and offer specific strategies to overcome the resistance that senior leaders have about mentoring.

Workplace Violence, Employer Liability, and Implications for Organizational Research:

Abstract: Organizations face potential liability whenever workplace violence occurs inside their boundaries. Focusing on violent behaviors between employees, the authors examine the major legal theories that apply most often in workplace violence scenarios—negligence (state law), sexual harassment law (federal law), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (federal law). The purpose is to highlight avenues for organizational research that arise because of the legal issues that employers face. For each source of liability, the authors identify major research questions that should be studied in organizational science, particularly by aggression and violence researchers.

Special Issues as Vertical Integration A Rejoinder to Priem and Mowday

Abstract: In this rejoinder to Priem and Mowday, the author amplifies and critiques some of their ideas on the proliferation of special issues in management journals. The author interprets special issues as vertical integration moves by journal editors operating in a context of perceived resource scarcity. He also argues that the proliferation of special issues is contributing to the fragmentation of the organization studies discipline, thus contradicting Priem's notion of a command economy of ideas via special issue and Mowday's sanguine view of special issues. The author offers suggestions for future research on the causes and consequences of the proliferation of special issues in management journals.

Guru of Gurus Peter Drucker, Logology, and the Ultimate Leader

Abstract: Since management theorizing began, a trend that clearly separates managers into a hierarchy of leader-managers has emerged: “Leaders” are now perceived as higher order managers, and “bad” managers are now called “managers,” and “good managers” are called leaders. The authors suggest that management and leadership theory have already moved from the naming of managers to the designation of the select few as leaders of managers and that a leader of leaders or an ultimate leader will debut. Supported by Burke's theory of logology, the article suggests it is language itself that propels the drive toward hierarchy until it arrives at an ultimate position. The method of text analysis utilized is called scriptive reading, and the article is underscored by the larger methodology of new rhetoric.

The Multiple Logics of Conformity and Contrarianism: The Problem With Investment Banks and Bankers

Abstract: The pressures of conformity within a highly institutionalized organizational field such as corporate and investment banking in the United States are formidable. Coercive, cognitive, and normative pressures often move the herd in the same direction. Paradoxically, each firm believes it is unique and can manage future strategic actions, as it collectively runs off a cliff. This process is not bound in time or space, as researchers grounded in experience have suggested that costly financial bubbles have been common to banking organizational fields in both recent and ancient history. This override of learning may possibly be explained by mutually reinforcing institutional and organizational logics and processes. The author also argues that an awareness of the underlying conformist logics of financial mania, institutional, and configuration theory may explain why some organizations manage to be nonconformist or contrarian. These different firms observe this reliance on powerful multiple logics of conformity an...

Derridada A Response to Weitzner

Abstract: Acknowledging that deconstruction had failed to catch on as a research method among management scholars, Weitzner argues for reconsidering Derrida's potential contributions to management scholarshi...

Critical Moments in Learning A Teacher's Ultimate Reward and Glory

Abstract: This essays builds on the notion of “critical moments in learning” to suggest that teachers often teach without knowing it and that regardless of how much they publish, their greatest contribution is more likely to be in the lasting impact they have on their students' lives. In doing so, the author reflects on critical learning moments in his own education and, in turn, ponders how actions he had taken in and out of the classroom may have unwittingly influenced the thoughts, feelings, and, sometimes, even lives of the many students who had enrolled in his courses.

Let's Make Special Issues “Special” Once Again

Abstract: The author revisits the issue of possible unintended consequences from special issue proliferation, in light of Mowday's and McKinley's responses, and then comments on their suggestions concerning the driving forces that may have led to so many special issues. The author especially emphasizes how the effects of both consequences and antecedents might differ when special issues are commissioned by the most prestigious journals versus less prestigious or niche journals.

Academy Arts The Genesis, Birth, Short Life, and Death of an Innovation

Abstract: The term \"Academy Arts\" was used to describe the presentation of art and poetry atthe Academy of Management (AOM) meeting. Here I describe the evolution ofAcademy Arts from a suggestion for a \"village square\" made by a committee in 1995through its birth at the AOM meeting in 2000 and its death after the 2005 AOM meet-ing. I also describe several learnings from the experience that have implications for oth-ers interested in the implementation of novel ideas. These include how an initial ideaand the rationale for it evolve over time, exhilaration when one's idea becomes real, howeasy it is to be too attached to the idea, how ideas need appropriate structures to develop,and how the original impetus for an idea can be organizationally forgotten over time,and thus an innovation may be assessed based on criteria that are very different fromthe original purpose.