Prompted by the internationalization of communications and business, cross‐cultural management has emerged as a strategic research and marketplace priority of the late twentieth…
Abstract
Prompted by the internationalization of communications and business, cross‐cultural management has emerged as a strategic research and marketplace priority of the late twentieth century (Goldman, 1994b; Hofstede, 1984). Crucial to the study and the operationalizing of this subject matter is the placement of “culture” at the core of both management and international business. No longer an afterthought or footnote, culture(s) must be carefully scrutinized in the process of forging managerial systems and policies. A thorough understanding of indigenous cultures is a precursor to managerial decision making and innovations, especially in cross‐cultural, international ventures. Native culture is particularly relevant in the case of the movement of total quality management (TQM) within the global business community.
Advances the argument that Western management must increasinglydecode the organizational and cultural features of Japanese‐stylemanagement – if managerial conflict is to be…
Abstract
Advances the argument that Western management must increasingly decode the organizational and cultural features of Japanese‐style management – if managerial conflict is to be reduced in joint ventures, subsidiaries, mergers, and relocations – and if Western management is to consider alternatives to its current approaches to quality production. Analyses total quality control (TQC) management as representative of the successful approach to Japanese management. TQC, built around culturally indigenous views of amal (interdependency), muri (excess), muda (waste), and mura (unevenness), contrasts with partial quality measures utilized in Western organizations. Key Japanese features are elimination and/or restructuring of quality control departments and specialists, designation of quality control to the production line, reduction of lot size, utilization of “U‐shaped lines” and a “just‐in‐time” modus operandi.
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This paper aims to assess highly toxic personality disorders in leaders, implications for organizations, and methods for assessment and intervention.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess highly toxic personality disorders in leaders, implications for organizations, and methods for assessment and intervention.
Design/methodology/approach
Action research was used, including a thick description case study narrative and application of the DSM IV‐TR.
Findings
Personality disorders are a source of a highly toxic and dysfunctional organizational behavior; borderline personality disorder in a leader may serve as a systemic contaminant for an organization.
Research limitations/implications
A qualitative, case study approach may not lend itself to replication or quantification; usage of the DSM IV‐TR requires clinical training in counseling psychology; the growing incidence of personality disorders in leadership warrants cognizance, ability to assess, the creation of early detection systems and methods of intervention.
Practical implications
Through the narrative of a case study researchers and practitioners can obtain a glimpse into the day‐to‐day operations and nuances of a highly toxic leader and how it impacts an organization; interventions and solutions are provided.
Originality/value
This paper calls attention to highly toxic leadership and organizational dysfunction by investigating borderline personality disorder as a prototype.
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Offers Western managerial psychology a synthesis of cross‐culturalperspectives on Western‐Japanese inter‐organizational conflict. Arguesthat Graeco‐Roman and…
Abstract
Offers Western managerial psychology a synthesis of cross‐cultural perspectives on Western‐Japanese inter‐organizational conflict. Argues that Graeco‐Roman and Confucian‐Buddhist‐based cultural and communicative codes are fundamentally antagonistic, contributing to misperceptions and conflict between Western and Japanese management. Presents the briefing as a blueprint or prototype for (a) identifying roots of Western‐Japanese conflict, (b) utilizing cross‐cultural data as a means for conceptualizing a broader based Western managerial psychology cognizant of East Asian protocol, (c) developing predeparture training for Western managers anticipating long– or short‐term assignments with Japanese associates. Recommends a Z‐Communication hybrid as a means whereby seemingly dichotomous Western and Japanese communication codes presented in the briefing may be converged and negotiated, and culturally based organizational and managerial conflict reduced.
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This chapter presents a case which illustrates how the external management consultant may function as an organizational anthropologist and provide insights and alternative…
Abstract
This chapter presents a case which illustrates how the external management consultant may function as an organizational anthropologist and provide insights and alternative strategies for human resource professionals and leadership faced with high toxicity levels. The long-term failure to timely detect toxins and intervene in a destructive conflict results in the spread of dysfunctional behavior in the case company, pointing to leadership negligence and malpractice. The deeply entrenched “no emotions allowed” culture evokes massive turnover and plunging motivation and productivity. The case concludes with specific recommendations for avoiding or repairing a toxic workplace culture.
The aim of this paper is to assess highly toxic leaders and dysfunctional organizations as presented via management consulting and executive coaching assignments.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to assess highly toxic leaders and dysfunctional organizations as presented via management consulting and executive coaching assignments.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employs an action research approach via two participant observer case studies incorporating the DSM IV‐TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Findings
The paper finds that the nexus of dysfunctional organizational systems may be located in “pre‐existing” leadership pathologies.
Research limitations/implications
First, additional research will be needed to confirm and extend the findings of individual pathologies in leaders to dysfunctional organizational systems; second, a closer look is necessary at the applicability of the DSM IV‐TR to pathologies at the organizational level; third, due to the action research, case study approach utilized, there is somewhat limited generalizability; fourth, there are limitations re: the applicability of DSM IV‐TR as an assessment tool for management researchers due to the necessity of training in clinical psychology.
Practical implications
The importance of distinguishing personality disorders in leaders from toxic behaviors falling within a range of “normal pathology,” and the ability to assess individual leadership pathology within organizational systems via the clinically trained usage of the DSM IV‐TR; providing clinical assessment tools for reducing the number of misdiagnoses of leadership pathology in the workplace; encouraging collaboration between management and psychology researchers and practitioners.
Originality/value
This paper fills a gap in the toxic organizations research by identifying personality disorders in leaders and providing an action research agenda for incorporating the DSM IV‐TR as a means of extending the repertoire of assessment tools;
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David D. Van Fleet and Ella W. Van Fleet
The paper aims to expand and extend previous work on the role of employees who act in non‐violent ways to achieve their personal ends through inducing fear in others in…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to expand and extend previous work on the role of employees who act in non‐violent ways to achieve their personal ends through inducing fear in others in organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature surrounding internal terrorists is reviewed and preliminary survey results are presented to support the conclusions derived from that literature.
Findings
A model is developed that more carefully identifies how the role of internal terrorists comes about and why they are more likely to engage in non‐violent as opposed to violent behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Research is needed to identify those aspects of organizations that seem to foster or “bring out” violent and non‐violent internal terrorists. Given the differences between internal terrorists and other terrorists, more careful study of those two groups is clearly needed. Since most terrorists express feelings of injustice, stronger links should be attempted between the research on organizational justice and internal terrorism. Just as employee theft has been linked to perceived injustice, so, too, internal terrorism may be linked to higher levels of such perceived injustice.
Practical implications
Research is needed to indicate how terrorism evolves over time as well as what measures seem to be most effective in countering such developments within organizations. Of particular interest to practitioners would be determining the extent to which profit‐seeking versus non‐profit organizations accommodate internal terrorists and the extent to which gender matches between the internal terrorist and the target person are common.
Originality/value
This paper fills a gap in the literature about the role of internal terrorists by delineating more fully the dysfunctional role those individuals play in organizations.
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Pierre A. Balthazard, Robert A. Cooke and Richard E. Potter
This paper aims to describe how organizational culture is manifested in behavioral norms and expectations, focusing on 12 sets of behavioral norms associated with constructive…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe how organizational culture is manifested in behavioral norms and expectations, focusing on 12 sets of behavioral norms associated with constructive, passive/defensive, and aggressive/defensive cultural styles.
Design/methodology/approach
The organizational culture inventory, a normed and validated instrument designed to measure organizational culture in terms of behavioral norms and expectations, was used to test hypotheses regarding the impact of culture. Data are summarized from 60,900 respondents affiliated with various organizations that have used the instrument to assess their cultures. Also presented is a brief overview of a practitioner‐led assessment of four state government departments.
Findings
The results of correlational analyses illustrate the positive impact of constructive cultural styles, and the negative impact of dysfunctional defensive styles, on both the individual‐ and organizational‐level performance drivers. The results clearly link the dysfunctional cultural styles to deficits in operating efficiency and effectiveness.
Originality/value
The concept of organizational culture is derived from research in the field of organizational behavior characterized by use of qualitative methods. Yet, one of the most powerful strategies for organizational development is knowledge‐based change, an approach that generally relies on the use of quantitative measures. Although both methods share the potential for producing cumulative bodies of information for assessment and theory testing, quantitative approaches may be more practical for purposes of knowledge‐based approaches for organizational development generally, and assessing cultural prerequisites for organizational learning and knowledge management specifically.