William J. Bratton, Robert J. Bennett and Paul J.A. Robson
Uses a large sample survey of businesses to demonstrate that a critical mass threshold exists for their use of business support organization services. This critical mass threshold…
Abstract
Uses a large sample survey of businesses to demonstrate that a critical mass threshold exists for their use of business support organization services. This critical mass threshold is very marked for the two organizations examined: British case studies of chambers of commerce and government‐supported business training and advice bodies. Beyond this threshold, managers of chambers of commerce can achieve nonlinear returns to scale, while returns to scale for government‐supported bodies are almost exactly linear. Infers that this results from the very different motives of commercially based chambers and their members, compared to government‐supported bodies, which allow the benefits of service bundling for chambers while managers of government bodies have to deal with multiple discrete programmes offering few synergies. Also examines the effects of external economies of agglomeration and shows that these increase market penetration and hence reduce the catchment sizes necessary to reach critical mass only in the case of the most agglomerated urban and industrial centres.
Details
Keywords
Robert J. Bennett and Paul J.A. Robson
This paper is aimed at association managers and market advisors. It explores how associations balance their provision of different services, the potential for associations to…
Abstract
This paper is aimed at association managers and market advisors. It explores how associations balance their provision of different services, the potential for associations to provide new services, and the relevance of service “bundling”. A new survey of small firm use of associations in Britain shows that there are few differences between businesses by sector in their use of association services, but membership does significantly increase with firm size, and there is a pattern of “joiners” who belong to many associations, and “non‐joiners”. There is considerable evidence of the benefits of bundling a range of low‐cost, low‐intensity services. But actual use levels of services are low. Even joiners of many associations seem to use association membership chiefly as an insurance principle: to gain ready access to a range of services “just in case”. Analysis of the potential for new services suggests a few potential new specific niches that are related chiefly to strengthening existing service bundles emphasising the insurance principle.
Details
Keywords
Paul J.A. Robson and Dennis Tourish
The primary objective of this article is to explore what senior managers think they should be doing to improve communication in their organization, what they actually do in…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary objective of this article is to explore what senior managers think they should be doing to improve communication in their organization, what they actually do in communication terms, and the high work load which senior managers undertake.
Design/methodology/approach
This understanding is advanced by using the results of a communication audit which was conducted in a major European health‐care organization (HCO) undergoing significant internal re‐organization. A communication audit can be defined as: “a comprehensive and thorough study of communication philosophy, concepts, structure, flow and practice within an organisation”. It assists managers by “providing an objective picture of what is happening compared with what senior executives think (or have been told) is happening”.
Findings
First, senior managers who over‐work are even less likely to have the time for reflection, followed by behaviour change. Second, the absence of adequate upward communication may blind managers to the full nature of their problems, which in turn guides the search for solutions.
Research limitations/implications
Clearly there is a need to examine other types of organizations to establish the universality of the communication issues and problems that were found in a large HCO in Europe, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
Practical implications
The data suggest that attempting to cover up communication weaknesses by managers working even longer hours only has the effect of further disempowering people, and so accentuating rather than alleviating the underlying difficulty.
Originality/value
The article has value to fellow academics and managers in practice and contributes to the debate on upward communication and the workload of managers.
Details
Keywords
Fatemeh Yaftiyan, Marziyeh Rassaf, Mohammadjafar Nikimaleki Borchalouei and Hamide Ghahremani
This chapter assists in Iran’s start-ups swift internationalisation from the onset. Indeed, it sheds in-depth qualitative and quantitative insights into analysing the propelling…
Abstract
This chapter assists in Iran’s start-ups swift internationalisation from the onset. Indeed, it sheds in-depth qualitative and quantitative insights into analysing the propelling factors towards entrepreneurial internationalisation. To accomplish this feat, a mixed method of Systematic Literature Review (SLR), Fuzzy-Delphi (FD) and Fuzzy-DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) – ISM (Interpretive Structural Modelling) – MICMAC (Matrix-based Multiplication Applied to a Classification) (FDIM), along with a multi-scenario analysis have innovatively been applied. As a result, entrepreneur characteristics and an accessible qualified workforce, even in foreign countries, are the most prominent drivers. Most probably, the institutional voids, interconnected benchmarking and the advent of new disruptive technologies form the independent factors which can sharply influence the whole system, particularly the entrepreneur characteristics as a dependent one. Moreover, social media, customer orientation and the domestic market cover autonomous drivers, which can moderately be affected or influence the abovementioned factors.
Details
Keywords
During the last three decades, thanks to the efforts of J. Schumpeter, G. Stigler, M. Blaug, P. Schwartz, T.W. Hutchison and others, a revaluation of the contribution of John…
Abstract
During the last three decades, thanks to the efforts of J. Schumpeter, G. Stigler, M. Blaug, P. Schwartz, T.W. Hutchison and others, a revaluation of the contribution of John Stuart Mill to the history of economic doctrines in general and to that of economic analysis in particular has taken place on a quite significant scale. The basic portrayal of J.S. Mill as an unoriginal and incoherent writer which prevailed from about the time of his death till around the middle of the present century came to be seriously and, one may say, successfully challenged. While the “eclecticism” of Mill was traditionally emphasised with a pejorative tone, no less than M. Blaug concluded that in the final analysis, it “worked to Mill's advantage” and that “the multiplicity of analytical ideas, often running in opposite directions, opened the way to subsequent refinement and development” (Blaug, 1968, p. 220). The theoretical inventiveness of J.S. Mill was stressed in still louder terms by G. Stigler when he wrote that “he was one of the most original economists in the history of the science” (Stigler, 1955, p. 7).
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
Details
Keywords
Hannes Zacher and Cort W. Rudolph
As the workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age diverse, successful aging at work has been proclaimed to be a desirable process and outcome, as well as a responsibility of…
Abstract
As the workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age diverse, successful aging at work has been proclaimed to be a desirable process and outcome, as well as a responsibility of both workers and their organizations. In this chapter, we first review, compare, and critique theoretical frameworks of successful aging developed in the gerontology and lifespan developmental literatures, including activity, disengagement, and continuity theories; Rowe and Kahn’s model; the resource approach; the model of selective optimization with compensation; the model of assimilative and accommodative coping; the motivational theory of lifespan development; socioemotional selectivity theory; and the strength and vulnerability integration model. Subsequently, we review and critically compare three conceptualizations of successful aging at work developed in the organizational literature. We conclude the chapter by outlining implications for future research on successful aging at work.
Details
Keywords
Bob Gates, Colin Griffiths, Paul Keenan, Sandra Fleming, Carmel Doyle, Helen L. Atherton, Su McAnelly, Michelle Cleary and Paul Sutton
FINANCIAL fears are only less cruel than those of war, and lead men into extravagances which they would repudiate indignantly in their cooler moments. If the doings of the Economy…
Abstract
FINANCIAL fears are only less cruel than those of war, and lead men into extravagances which they would repudiate indignantly in their cooler moments. If the doings of the Economy Committee at Manchester in relation to children's libraries, as described in the article by Mr. Lamb in our last issue, are true, we have in them an example of a kind of retrenchment at the expense of the young which we hope is without parallel and will have no imitators. Some reduc‐tion of estimates we hear of from this or that place, but in few has the stupid policy which urges that if we spend nothing we shall all become rich been carried into full effect. Libraries always have suffered in times of crisis, whatever they are; we accept that, though doubtfully; but we do know that the people need libraries.
Dennis Tourish and Paul Robson
Given that staff‐management relationships are a core concern for communication management, upward feedback is emerging as a key theme in the literature. It is, however, most often…
Abstract
Given that staff‐management relationships are a core concern for communication management, upward feedback is emerging as a key theme in the literature. It is, however, most often associated with upward appraisal. This study looks at upward feedback in a more general sense, and in particular at whether such feedback is critical or positive in its response to senior management decisions. One hundred and forty‐six staff within a health care organisation (HCO) were surveyed, using a depth communication audit instrument. Fifteen staff were also interviewed in detail, and six focus groups each composed of six people were also convened. The results indicated that informal upward feedback was mostly absent; that where it occurred the feedback was inaccurately positive; that senior managers were unaware of such distortions and unwilling to contemplate the possibility that they did indeed exist; that they had an exaggerated impression of how much upward feedback they received; and that they discouraged the transmission of critical feedback. The implications for the practice of communication management, the development of upward influence within organisations and general theoretical reasons for distortions in feedback processes are considered.