The author explores leadership ‘through the lens of mimetic desire’ suggesting that humans copy the behaviour of others and this is how we learn and progress. It is suggested that…
Abstract
The author explores leadership ‘through the lens of mimetic desire’ suggesting that humans copy the behaviour of others and this is how we learn and progress. It is suggested that an effective leader is one who is able to channel this mimetic desire into shared goals, values and outcomes that can be perceived as having a wide benefit.
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Nathalie Del Vecchio and Carine Girard
Purpose – This chapter presents the results of an exploratory study carried out on activist institutional investor strategies. It aims to identify the way in…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter presents the results of an exploratory study carried out on activist institutional investor strategies. It aims to identify the way in which different types of institutional investors are reacting to new institutional pressures in the French context.
Design/methodology/approach – Our methodology is based on a series of semi-directive interviews, combined with additional relevant data.
Findings – The interpretation of results makes use of institutional theory, more specifically the work of Oliver (1991). Our study shows that active institutional investors may opt for different responses when confronted with new institutional pressures, and that these responses would seem to depend on antecedents underlined by Ryan and Schneider (2002), which in turn depend on the nature of their business relationships with the firm in which they invest. Whereas pressure-sensitive investors (such as banks and insurance companies) generally adopt acquiescence responses, pressure-resistant investors (such as pension funds and investment funds) pursue joint strategies of co-optation, influence or control with key actors such as local and international proxy advisors and French investor associations. Acting conjointly, certain pressure-resistant investors are often considered as institutional entrepreneurs in that they initiate changes and actively participate in the implementation of new norms in the field of shareholder activism in the French context. In parallel to this ongoing professionalization, other pressure-resistant investors such as activist hedge funds seem to lack sufficient legitimate power to be effective.
Originality/value – This chapter illustrates that the level of institutional investor activism depends largely on the relevant national legal framework. It also shows how institutional investor coalitions take advantage of new institutional pressures to enhance their legitimacy or increase the effectiveness of their action.
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Rockwell Schulz, Chris Girard, Iskander Enikeev, Stephen Harrison and Ma Xiemin
Begins from the premiss that job satisfaction among caring professionals is important not only for its own sake, but also for its effect on service outcomes. Presents empirical…
Abstract
Begins from the premiss that job satisfaction among caring professionals is important not only for its own sake, but also for its effect on service outcomes. Presents empirical results, from four very different countries, which suggest that management‐influenced variables can help to ameliorate job dissatisfaction arising from factors such as resource constraints. Develops the thesis that cross‐cultural comparisons are a valid instrument for assessing the effect of management efforts which contribute to psychiatric satisfaction and feelings of autonomy. Establishes the need for more cross‐national investigation of the relationship of management to worker job satisfaction.
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The U.S. Congress has been struggling to create a comprehensive energy program. A key component of the present attempt, recommended by President Carter, is a synthetic fuel…
Abstract
The U.S. Congress has been struggling to create a comprehensive energy program. A key component of the present attempt, recommended by President Carter, is a synthetic fuel program. In July of 1979, the President asked for an $88 billion “crash program” to encourage development of synthetic fuels. To date, a three month struggle to reach a consensus between House and Senate conferees has brought only limited results. Compromise is emerging in the form of a proposal for a “synthetic fuels corporation.” The body would have the authority to disperse $20 billion in the form of federal loan guarantees and purchase agreements with more money to become available later.
R. Schulz, C. Girard, S.R. Harrison and A.C.P. Sims
Findings from a 1987 survey of work satisfaction among 193consultants and junior doctors in psychiatry in Yorkshire are reported.While nearly two‐thirds of doctors report they are…
Abstract
Findings from a 1987 survey of work satisfaction among 193 consultants and junior doctors in psychiatry in Yorkshire are reported. While nearly two‐thirds of doctors report they are generally satisfied, a substantial number of consultants and junior doctors are dissatisfied with their resources, status and autonomy, and professional relationships. Regression analysis suggests that controlling for psychiatrists′ personal and professional characteristics and variables related to district management are important in explaining differences in perceived clinical autonomy and work satisfaction among psychiatrists. Opportunities for district management to help improve psychiatrist satisfaction are proposed, and the relevance of the recent White Paper Working for Patients is examined.
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David Willer, Pamela Emanuelson, Michael J. Lovaglia, Brent Simpson, Shane R. Thye, Henry Walker, Mamadi Corra, Steven Gilham, Danielle Lewis, Travis Patton, Yamilette Chacon and Richard Chacon
This exposition explains how Elementary Theory works and how it has been developed over the last two-and-a-half decades. Both increased scope and heightened precision are covered.
Abstract
Purpose
This exposition explains how Elementary Theory works and how it has been developed over the last two-and-a-half decades. Both increased scope and heightened precision are covered.
Methodology/Approach
Theoretic methodology is explained. Using that method formal models are constructed analogous to empirical events. Those models predict events, design experiments, and guide applications in the field.
Findings
There is a widely held belief in sociology that theory becomes more vague and imprecise as its scope broadens. Whereas broader generalizations are more vague than narrower ones, this exposition shows that abstract theory becomes more precise as its scope broadens.
Research Limitations/Implications
Here implications and limitations are closely connected. Regarding implications, this exposition shows that scientific explanations and predictions are viable today in sociology but only when exact theory is employed. Regarding limitations, the theory and research included in this exposition make clear why the empiricist search for regularities that dominates sociological research is so very limited in its results.
Originality/Value of Chapter
This exposition demonstrates that theory is the method of all the sciences and in particular the science of sociology.
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Eric C. Girard and Hamid Rahman
This paper investigates the change in informational spillover between nine Asian capital markets and the United States as a result of the 1997–98 financial meltdown in Asia. Our…
Abstract
This paper investigates the change in informational spillover between nine Asian capital markets and the United States as a result of the 1997–98 financial meltdown in Asia. Our study period extends from about three years prior to the start of the crises on July 2, 1997 to one year after this date. We conduct spillover studies on daily stock market index prices and returns to determine the changes in market interdependence. Our results indicate a considerable increase in cross‐border cointegration during the crisis. Dramatic shifts in predictability and volatility spillovers are observed in most Asian countries as a result of the Asian financial crisis, providing evidence of an increase of interdependence between Asian countries, and thus suggesting contagion. We observe a strong interdependence with the US markets before the crisis, which persists during the crisis. We also show that Hong Kong and Korea have emerged as the most dominant influences in the region during the Asian financial crisis.
Raissa Pershina and Birthe Soppe
This study explores how organizations deal with divergent institutional logics when designing new products. Specifically, we investigate how organizations approach and embody…
Abstract
This study explores how organizations deal with divergent institutional logics when designing new products. Specifically, we investigate how organizations approach and embody institutional complexity in their product design. Through a multimodal study of serious games, we identify two design strategies, the proximity and the amplification strategies, which organizations employ to balance multiple institutional logics and design novel products that meet competing institutional expectations. Our study makes an important theoretical contribution by showing how institutional complexity can be a source of innovation. We also make a methodological contribution by developing a new, multimodal research design that allows for the in-depth study of organizational artifacts. Altogether, we complement our understanding of how institutional complexity is substantiated in organizational artifacts and highlight the role that multimodality plays in analyzing such situations.
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Carine Girard and Stephen Gates
This paper aims to demonstrate that state shareholders are confronted with contradictory logics leading to institutional contradictions that activist shareholders can exploit. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate that state shareholders are confronted with contradictory logics leading to institutional contradictions that activist shareholders can exploit. The competing logics of the state as shareholder and their impact on corporate governance and shareholder activism offer fertile grounds for research advances in Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
Through an extensive literature review of state ownership, institutional contradictions and shareholder activism, this paper analyzes two case studies involving the French State as shareholder.
Findings
In the French context, these two cases illustrate how institutional contradictions result in opportunities for shareholder activism. By focusing on the institutional contradictions of the state shareholder, this investigation suggests a need for experimental research to observe how shareholder activists adapt to each institutional change in CMEs. This experimentation can help policymakers to avoid creating additional conditions that shareholder activists can exploit.
Research limitations/implications
This focuses only on France and its state shareholdings. To generalize results, studies of other CMEs and state shareholders are needed.
Practical implications
Policymakers should consider all legislative proposals for their potential to deviate from corporate governance practice by experimenting with them in a laboratory setting. Shareholder activists can compare state shareholders’ actions against the state’s legislation to emphasize institutional contradictions that counter minority shareholders’ rights.
Originality/value
This research is the first to analyze how the state as shareholder can exploit its competing logics to resist against shareholder activism and support management or to become itself a shareholder activist.