Search results

The purpose of this case study is to examine a new entrepreneurial business in Kiev, Ukraine. The focus is the difference between employees' espoused values and their deep beliefs, which leads to conflict among and within employees.

A theory is proposed about the interaction of espoused values, theory‐in‐use and cultural beliefs. Observation and interviews with staff demonstrated that there was great effort to live out the new espoused values, and also that cultural beliefs hindered this effort.

The proposed theory was supported. The role of the leader in modeling the espoused values was seen to be important for the employees' ability to live up to the new espoused values, and deserves further research.

Limitations include: replication of the study is needed before findings can safely be generalized. The capital city effect means the findings may apply to organizations in Kiev and not other Ukrainian cities.

The implication of the study is that employees' theories‐in‐use may undermine change, even when employees affirm the change, and the modeling of the leader might be essential in order for employees to change their theories‐in‐use. This may apply in organizations beyond Ukraine.

Understanding the impact of theory‐in‐use shaped by Ukrainian culture might be valuable for non‐Ukrainians doing business in Ukraine.

This chapter addresses the “Taylorism–Fayolism–Weberism (TFW) virus,” a metaphor developed to highlight how organizational features recommended by each of these three management theorists produce dysfunctions that create unintended hidden costs that adversely impact organizations and their employees. The virus leads to an ideology where cost cutting is seen as the best means to improve an organization’s performance. We explore the problematic features of the TFW virus: hyperspecialization, separation of work design from work execution, and depersonalized job descriptions designed for workers who are falsely assumed to be lazy. We then address how these organizational features are related to micro dysfunctions and hidden costs (e.g., poor work organization) that accumulate into macro-level dysfunctions and costs that form the features of the risk society envisioned by Ullrich Beck (1992). These dysfunctions collectively threaten human and planetary existence. Next, we describe how the socioeconomic approach to management (SEAM) can address the TFW virus in ways that manage and remediate micro, macro, and planetary risks that emerge from a globalized enterprise. We conclude by offering a hopeful agenda for research on how to use SEAM to more effectively manage the emerging micro and macro dysfunctions and impacts of the world risk society.

The environment in which businesses operate today is uncertain, chaotic, and changing at a more rapid pace than ever before. In this new dynamic world, current approaches to organizational design and processes are not as effective as they have been. Recent research has provided insight into organizational agility as a method to help organizations survive and thrive in these environments. A divergent body of literature is presented that explores agility, learning, and thriving. An exploratory mixed-methods study was conducted at the team level to examine the relationship between these constructs as well as their relationship to performance. Based on the results, we present a series of propositions for future research and provide an illustration of the Components of Agile and Thriving teams to be used as its foundation. The discussion serves to synthesize these initial findings and provide both implications for practice as well as theory.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the particular competencies demonstrated by effective physician leaders. Changing organizational and environmental dynamics present unique challenges to leaders in the field of healthcare. An accelerated emphasis on increasing the quality of health care delivery, containing costs, and restructuring the delivery of health care itself are redefining the very nature of healthcare and the roles of physicians as leaders. Given this context, the authors propose to identify the essential competencies for twenty-first century physician leadership.

In all, 53 critical incident interviews from 28 physicians identified as emerging leaders at the Cleveland Clinic, a top-rated US academic healthcare institution, were examined in two ways: an existing leadership competency model was applied to each critical incident and inductively derived themes were identified through thematic analysis of the incidents.

The predominant distinguishing leadership competencies demonstrated by the physician leaders included: Empathy, Initiative, Emotional Self-Awareness and Organizational Awareness. Communicating deliberately, getting buy-in from colleagues, focussing on the mission of the organization and showing respect for others were also discovered through thematic analysis to be essential practices of these effective physician leaders. Over 90 percent of the critical incident stories dealt with colleague-to-colleague interactions.

The research was conducted in one academic healthcare organization, thus limiting the generalizability of the results. Additional research testing these results in a variety of healthcare institutions is warranted.

This study identified specific competencies that distinguish effective physician leaders. These leaders actively sought to work with colleagues to obtain their input and consensus in order to enact organizational change and improve health care delivery in their institution. Importantly, their intentions were neither self-focussed nor self-promoting but strongly mission driven. The identification of physician leader competencies will assist incumbent and emerging physician leaders in their ability to be effective leaders, as well as inform the design of training and development programs for physicians.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between conflict handling styles (CHS) of business managers in their entrepreneurial intentions (EI). The business manager’s propensity to become entrepreneurs is a relatively unexplored area of research. The relationship between conflict handling style and entrepreneurial intention is under-researched, particularly in a developing country like Kosovo.

A self-report questionnaire containing measures of conflict handing style, entrepreneurial intention and demographics was delivered to business managers in Kosovo.

Forcing style has a positive and statistically significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention. Yielding, compromising, problem solving and avoiding have weak and insignificant effects on EI.

The relationship between conflict handling styles of managers and their entrepreneurial intention is investigated. No situational, organizational or environmental factor was considered influencing this relationship.

Conflict management is important in predicting the entrepreneurial intention of managers. Organizations should design human resource interventions aimed at effective team composition and employee retention to ensure performance.

This is the first study to investigate the relationship between conflict handling style and entrepreneurial intention using a manager sample. Furthermore, it is the first study of conflict handling styles and entrepreneurial intention of managers in Kosovo.