Management attempts to transform organizations seldom succeed. This paper aims to describe seven common communication behaviors accompanying those failures.
Abstract
Purpose
Management attempts to transform organizations seldom succeed. This paper aims to describe seven common communication behaviors accompanying those failures.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper integrates material from three recent communication and organizational change studies, recent change theory, and complexity theory to model communication and change processes. All the studies employed traditional ethnographic methods, but one study employed quantitative methods as well as part of a mixed methods design.
Findings
Data describe six common communication behaviors during failed organizational change efforts. The combination of these behaviors suggests a seventh pattern. Communication during failed efforts seldom involves enough communication opportunities, lacks any sense of emerging identification, engenders distrust, and lacks productive humor. These problems are compounded by conflict avoidance and a lack of interpersonal communication skills. Members decouple the system, sheltering the existing culture until it is safe for it to reemerge later.
Research limitations/implications
The integration of data from three studies with theory improves transferability, but more studies would improve the veracity of the results. Only one study employed quantitative data along with qualitative data. Organizational change research may need to employ mixed methods and augment results through simulations to understand time‐dependent processes.
Practical implications
Results point to the limitations of management and impersonal communication. Change is a messy business, and transformational change will not happen unless management is willing to tolerate the ambiguity and the sense that emerges in communication. Results also point to the importance of communication skills in hiring practices.
Originality/value
Few essays integrate results from several studies. This paper challenges accepted management practices and extends the growing understanding of the limits of individuals to control social change; it also adds to the literature on and application of complexity theory.
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Kent Library of Southeast Missouri State University received an historic document in 1979. This document appeared to be a death warrant for Sarah Good from 1692. Sarah Good was…
Abstract
Kent Library of Southeast Missouri State University received an historic document in 1979. This document appeared to be a death warrant for Sarah Good from 1692. Sarah Good was executed for practicing witchcraft in Salem. After closer examination, the document was declared to be a forgery, with similar documents distributed during the 1930s. This article examines the history of this document, explains why the document was declared a forgery, further examines features that are often found in forgeries, and gives suggestions that libraries can use to identify forgeries.
Daniel Diermeier and Shail Thaker
Describes the history of the tobacco industry and its emergence as an extremely effective marketer and non-market strategist. After years of success, both publicly and…
Abstract
Describes the history of the tobacco industry and its emergence as an extremely effective marketer and non-market strategist. After years of success, both publicly and politically, the leaders of the tobacco industry are faced with mounting political pressure and the financial threat of litigation from class-action lawsuits. The leaders face an industry-wide strategic decision of whether to acquiesce to government demands in exchange for immunity, focus on judicial success, or develop a new course of action.
To evaluate the formulation and implementation of non-market strategies in the context of regulatory, legislative, and legal institutions. To understand how various aspects of the non-market environment interact and how these environments not only change over time, but change market competition within an industry. Further, to formulate and decide between firm-specific and industry-wide strategies. Finally, to appreciate and reflect upon the potential conflict between non-market strategies and ethical concerns.
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Mohamed H. Sharaf, Adham M. Nagiub, Salem S. Salem, Mohamed H. Kalaba, Esmail M. El Fakharany and Hamada Abd El-Wahab
This study aims to focus on the preparation and characterization of the silver nanowire (AgNWs), as well as their application as antimicrobial and antivirus activities either with…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on the preparation and characterization of the silver nanowire (AgNWs), as well as their application as antimicrobial and antivirus activities either with incorporation on the waterborne coating formulation or on their own.
Design/methodology/approach
Prepared AgNWs are characterized by different analytical instruments, such as ultraviolet-visible spectroscope, scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction spectrometer. All the paint formulation's physical and mechanical qualities were tested using American Society for Testing and Materials, a worldwide standard test procedure. The biological activities of the prepared AgNWs and the waterborne coating based on AgNWs were investigated. And, their effects on pathogenic bacteria, antioxidants, antiviral activity and cytotoxicity were also investigated.
Findings
The obtained results of the physical and mechanical characteristics of the paint formulation demonstrated the formulations' greatest performance, as well as giving good scrub resistance and film durability. In the antimicrobial activity, the paint did not have any activity against bacterial pathogen, whereas the AgNWs and AgNWs with paint have similar activity against bacterial pathogen with inhibition zone range from 10 to 14 mm. The development of antioxidant and cytotoxicity activity of the paint incorporated with AgNWs were also observed. The cytopathic effects of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) were reduced in all three investigated modes of action when compared to the positive control group (HSV-1-infected cells), suggesting that these compounds have promising antiviral activity against a wide range of viruses, including DNA and RNA viruses.
Originality/value
The new waterborne coating based on nanoparticles has the potential to be promising in the manufacturing and development of paints, allowing them to function to prevent the spread of microbial infection, which is exactly what the world requires at this time.
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Mohammad I. At‐Twaijri and Salem Matter Al‐Ghamdi
This study presents the results of a field research designed to assess the seven bases of supervisory influence over respondents in industrial organisations working in Saudi…
Abstract
This study presents the results of a field research designed to assess the seven bases of supervisory influence over respondents in industrial organisations working in Saudi Arabia. These seven bases of influence are: referent, experience, reward, coercive, legitimate, connection and information. The sample is composed of Saudi subjects as well as non‐Saudi subjects. The respondents ranked the seven methods of influence according to their importance. Results pertaining to factor analysis indicate that culture can decide the significance of an influence method over another. This points to the fact that Saudi participants and non‐Saudi participants have different sets of power bases.
Kyu-soo Chung, Dong Soo Ryu, B. Christine Green and Hyun Min Kang
This study measures the effect of each of the five senses on arousal, satisfaction and intention to revisit a live racing event. Spectators' arousal was significantly influenced…
Abstract
This study measures the effect of each of the five senses on arousal, satisfaction and intention to revisit a live racing event. Spectators' arousal was significantly influenced by sights, sounds and smells. Spectators' sense of smell, taste, and touch directly impacted satisfaction. Interestingly, olfactory stimuli had an effect on both arousal and satisfaction. Spectators' arousal had a significant indirect effect on their revisit intention. The study proposes that motorsports marketers make use of olfactory stimuli to provide racing spectators with memorable experiences.
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Martin McCracken and Mary Wallace
Revisits the literature on strategic human resource development (SHRD) in the context of Garavan’s work on the characteristics of SHRD. A conceptual framework is constructed that…
Abstract
Revisits the literature on strategic human resource development (SHRD) in the context of Garavan’s work on the characteristics of SHRD. A conceptual framework is constructed that redefines SHRD stressing a shaping rather than supporting role for HRD in relation to corporate strategy. The concept of strategic maturity in HRD is examined linking the work of Garavan; Lee and McCracken; and Wallace. The resulting model of strategic maturity is then analysed empirically using data from a major questionnaire and interview survey. A new model of strategic partnerships in HRD is then proposed.
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Bernard Frank Kinman and Gerald Vinten
Tobacco has exercised the interest of the nation since Elizabethan times, and the inhalation of its smoke for pleasure has become very widespread. It was not until the…
Abstract
Tobacco has exercised the interest of the nation since Elizabethan times, and the inhalation of its smoke for pleasure has become very widespread. It was not until the mid‐twentieth century, however, that its effects upon health were suspected. It is now widely accepted that tobacco smoke is implicated in a range of dangerous diseases, although the tobacco industry sometimes argues that the link is not proven. The arguments about the conflicting needs of a large, world‐wide industry and the health and prosperity of individuals and society are complex, and often influenced by conflicting vested interests. Government's involvement in the issues is further complicated by its reliance upon large tobacco revenues. The link between advertising and increased smoking, either by existing or new smokers, is not proved by research, although there are strong indications that it exists. The behaviour of most parties involved, including the tobacco companies, indicates that they share the belief of a link. Voluntary controls upon tobacco advertising have had some effect, in that, for example, advertising in the U.K. is no longer overtly directed at children, but various anti‐smoking lobbies believe voluntary control to be ineffective. The present British government has toyed wth the possibility of statutory control, but faces stiff opposition from back‐benchers and within the cabinet; it is also probably philosophically opposed to such measures. More research is needed into the link between advertising and smoking behaviour.
A dynamic oligopoly model of the cigarette industry is developed to study the responses of firms to various antismoking policies and to estimate the implications for the policy…
Abstract
A dynamic oligopoly model of the cigarette industry is developed to study the responses of firms to various antismoking policies and to estimate the implications for the policy efficacy. The structural parameters are estimated using a combination of micro and macro level data and firms’ optimal price and advertising strategies are solved as a Markov Perfect Nash Equilibrium. The simulation results show that tobacco tax increase reduces both the overall smoking rate and the youth smoking rate, while advertising restrictions may increase the youth smoking rate. Firm’s responses strengthen the impact of antismoking policies in the short run.
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This case describes what happened when three Boston area hotels, the Hyatt Regency Boston, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and the Hyatt Harborside, decided, during the 2009…
Abstract
Case description
This case describes what happened when three Boston area hotels, the Hyatt Regency Boston, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and the Hyatt Harborside, decided, during the 2009 recession, to layoff all their housekeepers and replace them with employees from an outsourcing company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The action created a public relations nightmare for the company. In 2009 many other organizations had implemented layoffs with little reaction from the public. Students are asked to think about why the Hyatt Hotels had been singled out. Was the main problem their decision, or the communication and implementation of their decision, and what could they have done differently?