Six Fairy Tale Futures for British Business Leaders
Though the title and some of the examples focus on the UK, this short article is really an identification of organizational trends and the associated leadership models needed to deal with them.
Content: Article | Author: Hay McBer | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior
Creating a Strategic Culture
Strategy and culture are arguably the most used and abused words in the business lexicon. So to discuss the creation and sustenance of a strategic culture as a source of competitive advantage is inviting trouble. Yet it is necessary to do so since this notion is a valuable one for strategists. Read on for Kepner-Tregoe’s 12 key drivers to ingrain this strategic culture.
Content: Article | Author: Mike Freedman | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy
Certainty and Uncertainty – An Imaginative Strategy
What are the organizational and environmental factors that precede the adoption of a certain strategy – and do environmental factors in particular, as perceived by managers, influence the formulation of strategies? In other words, are strategies limited only by the perception and imagination of a manager?
Content: Article | Authors: Donald L. Lester, John A. Parnell, Michael L. Menefee | Source: ManagementFirst | Subject: Strategy
Understanding Your Own Personality Preferences
Dennis Postle’s Hierarchy of Learning Modes
Hostile takeovers: the ins and outs
A basic (very basic) look at hostile takeovers.
Content: Article | Author: Alistair Craven | Source: ManagementFirst
Unkindest cuts of all – and not always a payoff in the layoff
Summary of main issues raised in a journal article about the consequences of corpporate layoffs.
Content: Article | Author: Peter Allan | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Human Resources, Management
Barriers to Implementing KM
Article takes a high-level look at the problems associated with identifying, codifying and using knowledge in knowledge management implementation efforts.
Content: Article | Author: Richard Dunford | Source: ManagementFirst | Subject: Knowledge Management
A brief history of the selection interview: may the next 100 years be more fruitful
Mildly scientific in its original conception, the selection interview first came into vogue around 100 years ago and remains the primary tool for hiring new employees. Researchers continue to debate how well this time-worn process works to find the best candidate for the job, and indeed if it works at all. M. Ronald Buckley and colleagues examine a century’s worth of theory and practice.
Content: Article | Authors: Amy Christine Norris, Danielle S. Wiese, M. Ronald Buckley | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior
Process improvement by poka-yoke
Shigeo Shingo is credited with creating the concept of zero defects and the techniques of poka-yoke (Japanese for mistake-proofing). The approach seeks to remove the causes of defects, or, where this is impossible, to inspect each item simply and inexpensively to determine that it passes the quality threshold – with no defects.
Content: Article | Author: Michael Fisher | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Best Practices, Operations
Understanding and adding value
Customer relationship marketing is one of the hottest concepts going these days, influenced in no small part by technological advances that allow companies to accurately profile and track individual purchasers. Though declining in popularity now, the loyalty card was an early attempt at consumer relationship building. Andrew Clemmet looks back at the key issues such schemes raised.
Content: Article | Author: Andrew Clemmet | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales
International Retailing
Why do some retailers expanding abroad perform better than others? This article looks at some of the reasons why and introduces the concept of psychic distance in explaining performance variations.
Content: Article | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Industry Specific, International | Industry: Retail
Trademark rights in gray markets
The legality of trademark protection in gray markets is determined by the principles of: universality, exhaustion and territoriality. Recent cases involving the Tariff, Lanham, and Copyright Acts have restricted the level of legal recourse where parallel imports jeopardize the trademark holder’s investment and/or create confusion amongst the consumers. The landmark 1998 L’Anza Supreme Court decision clearly sends a message to trademark owners that legislative protection … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Irvine Clarke III, Margaret Owens | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Legal, Trade | Industry: International Trade
Consumer preferences for foreign and domestic products
Increased understanding of consumer preferences for foreign versus domestic products and the linkage to price and quality attributes can facilitate more effective product positioning, more efficient strategy development, and overall knowledge of the dynamics of international markets. According to this study of American shoppers, consumers appear to prefer domestically manufactured goods and are often willing to pay a higher price for them. Read on for … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Gary A. Knight | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: International, Market Research
Women leaders and women managers in the global community
Global women leaders or global women managers? Women in leadership positions in the political arena around the world challenge not only leadership and management theories but also question the need to make a distinction between leaders and managers as well as the validity of such a distinction. Their paths to power are as varied as their socio-economic, educational, religious and family backgrounds as well as … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Karin Klenke | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Leadership, Women in Business
Embracing the F word
Management writers generally espouse the view that success is good, failure is bad and much time and effort is devoted to explaining how to achieve the former and avoid the latter. Not everyone agrees with this philosophy, though, and in embracing the ‘F’ word the author contends that failure and success are merely two sides of the same coin and that the one cannot exist … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: A L Donaldson-Briggs | Source: ManagementFirst | Subject: Organizational Behavior
Strategic alliances uncovered
Article looks at the questions of how and why alliances are formed and the ingredients for their success or failure.
Content: Article | Authors: Dennis C. Rogers, Niren M. Vyas, William L. Shelburn | Source: ManagementFirst | Subjects: Management, Strategy
Transcendental leadership
This paper takes the perspective of relational leadership. In this view, leadership is defined as an influence relationship, in which the leader and the collaborator mutually (although not symmetrically) influence each other in a dynamic way, forming partnerships with greater or lesser added value. Looking at these partnerships, three types of leadership can be distinguished: transactional, transformational and transcendental. Although partnerships are defined by the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Pablo Cardona | Source: ManagementFirst | Subject: Leadership
Could Merger Mix have helped DaimlerChrysler?
When Chrysler and Daimler-Benz announced their mega-merger in September 1998, it was heralded as a true partnership of equals. Today, Chrysler is struggling, and the head of Daimler, Jurgen Schrempp, has emerged as the man holding the reins of power; much to the distress of US investors. The authors ask, could the use of the “merger mix” model suggested by Balmer and Dinnie have avoided … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: ManagementFirst
Emotional intelligence – training people to be affective so they can be effective
EI, or emotional intelligence, is a fairly new management concept that involves self-awareness, self control, large amounts of empathy and the ability to motivate others. EI has rapidly become one of the essential managerial qualities, leading some to wonder if emotional intelligence is a skill that can be an acquired through training. Mike Bagshaw seems to think so and presents a framework for EI skills … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Mike Bagshaw | Source: ManagementFirst | Subject: Organizational Behavior