Search

A new instrument for measuring the beliefs, attitudes, or values held by the management of a firm with respect to its various publics is used in a field study of managers in 19 firms. This instrument is effective in differentiating between the management teams in different kinds of business organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive review of the literature on control theory, this paper examines the state of the art and provides a basis for rejecting the view that the executive can find very little knowledge to assist him in performing the control function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five samples, ranging from business executives to students, and two measures of cognitive complexity were used to replicate Mitchell's finding of a positive relationship between Fiedier's LPC and an individual's cognitive complexity and to test two related hypotheses. The results did not support Mitchell's findings or the two additional hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals, with business philosophy and the perception of executives of their responsibility towards owners, employees, customers and the public. The study indicates a changing trend in belief patterns in that more executives believe that business should be responsible to customers, employees, and the public, in addition to stockholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selected variables related to a Management by Objectives system were examined to determine their relationship to manager attitudes toward the system. Two variables, ability of MBO to contribute positively to intraorganizational communication and the perceived attitude of one's superior toward MBO, were found to be strong predictors of manager attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a viewpoint for analyzing human performance problems. It provides managers with a framework for examining performance problems, a framework that cuts through the level of generalities and does specific, workable solution to problems. The general problems faced by manages can be that they bring their biases while dealing with people. All the training courses and programs available often lead managers to separate human-performance problem from the job and from the complex environment in which they occur. The framework can be used to analyze these problems and to predict problems that might occur if changes in procedures or changes in emphasis on some performance variable are being considered. The value of this framework or template for viewing people-related performance problems is that it makes possible a closer look at the problem. It forces managers to get off the "communication" and "doesn't care" level of abstraction and to get down to specifying what exactly is desired. Moreover, it examines systematically the variables that influence performance including the consequences, the feedback and the barriers to performance.

The authors of this article conducted extensive interviews in four large consumer goods firms, to study horizontal communication patterns among executives with marketing responsibilities. Their study gives factual information. Especially about the "informal communication network" in such organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant improvements in methodology, many corporate executives are skeptical about the profit contribution being made by marketing research. Does management fail to appreciate the true value of research? Or have some research practitioners neglected a key part of their responsibilities? This article identifies a gap between marketing research practice and its profitable application to day-to-day business problems. The author goes on to suggest an approach for narrowing the gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All business executives agree that pricing decisions are important. But far too many do not fully associate THE pricing decision and absolute dollar profitability. Here is a description of a special technique for measuring relationships between alternative prices and demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with some of the often neglected behavioral problems associated with the practice of management by objectives. These include problems relating to managerial style, adapting to change, interpersonal skills, setting objectives, measurement, and management by objectives quality control. The paper concludes with some criticisms of the current state of management by objectives research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mach V Machiavellianism scale was administered to 73 MBA students, 36 managers, and 13 faculty colleagues. In addition the MBA and Management groups completed a "Theory x--Theory y" leadership scale. Managers were less, and MBA students more Machiavellian than the norms; faculty were most Machiavellian of all. Managers were more participative than MBA students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between company orientation toward managers' wives and conformity behavior of managers and wives. The findings indicate that managers and their wives are relatively more conforming than the general population. The significantly higher conformity scores of managers may well be due to organizational pressures for conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines the role of the native enterprise manager in Alaska. Twenty seven village businesses were created in remote Alaskan villages with the help of the Community Enterprise Development Corp. Native villagers own and manage the enterprises in their areas. The author says that the biggest challenge for these businesses is the managers' lack of expertise, while attempting to expand the customer-base among minority groups. The author believes the best strategy for successfully managing these enterprises is to develop a participative, non-direct, relationship with customers.

This study is concerned with manager's behavior within the international personnel selection decision process. Managers play an active role in the process, and their behavior is influenced by their perception of the job environment, the candidate's qualifications, and the availability of persons qualified to fill the job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven levels of management from five electric utility companies rated eight cases involving infraction of rules by hourly workers on a disciplinary action scale. Higher level managers rated the cases more severely and cases involving safety violations were judged most severely by all managers. Among several demographic and structural variables examined, only number of managerial levels was associated with company differences in ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ninety days after a human relations training program, little change in attitudes and behavior of managers was observed. Eighteen months later, significant positive changes in attitudes existed in the experimental group; negative changes were observed in the control group. The manager's perception of the organization's climate moderated these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project management in functional organizations provides a fertile field for much-needed reexamination of the presumption of dysfunctional conflict when managers and employed professionals interact in organizations. Systematic analysis must indentify the foundations of human conflict and determine the extent to which the implications of such conflict for organizational behavior are functional or dysfunctional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A search of the literature led to the formulation of some hypotheses that Japanese-American managers in Hawaii may be influenced in their attitudes by their ancestral culture. Empirical research produced findings which suggested that there were some differences in the managerial sample studied that could be attributed to culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the attitudes of managerial students and managers toward the four introductory management course basics of planning, organization, motivation, and control. A semantic differential containing 49 bipolar scales was administered to business school juniors, seniors, graduate students, supermarket store managers, and government administrators. The students and managers shared the similar attitudes toward the different functions individually, but the managers express a more positive sentiment than the students. Several other aspects of the study are discussed.

This study attempts to determine whether differences exist in the perception of the first-level manager's authority as seen by the first-level manager and his immediate superior. It also attempts to relate the differences that are observed to some general factors which might suggest variables or obstacles that inhibit the communication process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managerial behavior in organizations probably is affected by influences from external organizations in the environment. It is hypothesized that the extent of external influence from specific organizations is related to the degree to which the focal organization is interdependent with the external organization. Data from 141 Israeli managers tend to support the principal hypothesis. Firms that sell relatively more to the government perceive themselves as influenced more by governmental demands; firms that are in relatively poorer financial conditions are influenced more by both the government and banks. Managers tend to report spending more time with external organizations to the extent that the firm is interdependent with them. Also, managers who tend to rank external, government-controlled factors as being more important to organizational success are more likely to rank the importance of having political connections as being more important for a manager. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study designed to examine the degree of congruence in management attitudes and socioeconomic background factors between executive superiors and executive subordinates, tested the hypothesis that the greater the correlation the greater the probability of promotion. Those subordinates being promoted did not necessarily share common background and attitudes with superiors but, perceptually, were significantly more aware of their superiors' views than were those not considered for promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of a study of the attitudes of international chief executives toward supervisory values and practices. As such, this paper is part of a larger study of the attitudes of international chief executives toward education and management education, business responsibility, and labor-management relations and supervision. Questionnaires were set to 571 top executives throughout the world to test the role of culture in explaining the attitudinal responses of the responding population. Usable replies were received from 177 top executives (or 31 percent of the sample chosen). Statistically significant differences were found for the five cultural groupings in five of the eight questions dealing with supervisory values and practices. Furthermore, the confidence level was greater than 0.001 in four of the five significant questions. The results were also tested with other demographic characteristics. Only in the cases of (a) ownership of firm by chief executive, and (b) size of company were there significant differences in at least one-half of the questions. The results of the analysis of variance tests supported the hypothesis that culture plays an important role in explaining the differences in attitudinal responses by the chief executives. The value of the findings rests with the need of international firms to recognize the limitations of any universal managerial philosophy at the present time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between Machiavellian orientation and several job-related correlates among 150 managers in a large manufacturing firm. The findings indicate that Machiavellian orientation is positively associated with job strain and perceived opportunity for formal control, and negatively associated with job satisfaction. Machiavellian orientation was not significantly associated with upward mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on communication channel use has shown that interpersonal channels are generally more efficient than written channels. However, using interpersonal channels involves a psychological cost, particularly for individuals who believe that free and open sharing of information is not the norm. This study explores channel use among a group of scientists and engineers. It suggests that channel use, both within and outside the organization, is influenced by the individuals' perceptions of organizational information-sharing norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, data are reported comparing the beliefs of managers from five regional clusters (Greece, Spain, Central Europe, Scandinavia, and U.S.A.) on four basic attitudes (risk, self-determination, conciliation, and trust). The relative standings of the clusters are attitude specific, and the findings are compared to those of an earlier study by Haire, Ghiselli, and Porter. Only about 5 percent (which is significantly different from zero) of the total attitudinal variance is accounted for by regional grouping. Three additional factors are, therefore. examined in relation to attitudinal differences: (1) functional identification within a firm, (2) location within a single region, and (3) employment sector (private vs public) within a single country. The findings are interpreted within the context of a broad framework of possible causes of attitudinal differences across national groupings. Suggested implications for organizational practice are explicated with caution throughout the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often stated that changing values have produced a severe "generation gap." In this empirical study, differences in the values of businessmen and college students are compared. It is found that the two groups share some types of values and differ markedly on others. At the same time, student perceptions of managerial values are found to be rather inaccurate. Possible implications of these value differences and perceptive inaccuracies are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports the authors' opinions regarding a criticism of their article "Some Personal and Situational Correlates of Reactions to Management Development Training." The authors' focus on comments made about the purpose and content of management development programs. Possible reasons that executives might have for supporting or opposing management training programs are also discussed.

The article reports the author's opinions regarding the article "A Model for Analyzing the Universality and Transferability of Management," by Harold Koontz, published in the December 1969 issue. The author focuses on critiquing Koontz's theories regarding the international transfer of management theory. Decentralization in management is also discussed.

A partial survey of the literature of comparative management reveals that there are four major types of explanation of managerial similarities and differences: cultural, economic, psychological, and sociological. Cultural types predominate, but they are generally imprecise regarding the nature and influence of culture; this reduces their credibility. Meanwhile, their popularity reflects the basic assumption that in cross-cultural research, culture is the independent variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses upon the perceived need satisfactions of United States business executives working in Europe and United States business executives working in the continental U.S. Comparisons of need satisfaction data were made on the basis of the managerial level of the respondents. A sample of 75 managers in Europe and 404 managers in the United States provide the empirical data base for the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marginality component of personality appears appropriate for men who hold integrative management positions. Research reveals an association between the Self-Other Orientation measure of marginality and two marginal occupations. Marginality suggests open-mindedness and other favorable attributes of integrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questionnaire responses were collected from nearly 400 managers in the six divisions of a manufacturing organization, along with company data on division performance. Analysis of aggregate scores for the divisions indicate a relationship among leadership behavior, satisfaction, and performance and a slight relationship between these variables and leadership attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty managers were interviewed regarding their reactions toward management by objectives. While there were generally positive values associated with it, problems were uncovered which should serve as a caution for those intending to install it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article elaborates on a number of long-range planning aspects previously implied in the author's September 1967 Journal article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, applying a business simulation technique finds that attitudes of participants and performance results are directly related to the frequency of feedback on performance. These findings are corroborated by a field study of 134 managers in 59 companies. In both instances participants who received fairly frequent reports tended to have better attitudes, better performance and higher levels of aspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The titles and authors of 33 well-known and widely cited articles and books related to behavioral scientists' contributions to business management were sent to 200 top executives. They were asked to indicate which they had heard of, actually read, and used in their management jobs. Results show a marked discontinuity between contributions regarded most highly by industrial psychologists and those viewed as significant and useful by the executives replying to the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary approaches to administration may foster prescientific biases influencing the concepts that theorists develop or judge to be legitimate. This article discusses some of these biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate departments of organization are growing in number and importance in American business. These departments can be involved in significant organization changes and perform useful organization analyses for their firms. Organization theory and organizational behavior are of more than theoretical interest to these men. The article reviews the characteristics of these men, and the departmental objectives. It analyzes the departmental activities and discusses two approaches to applied organization analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study complements the Journal March issue article by the author on "Personal Value Systems of American Managers." In the current analysis the author compares four levels of organizational goals with their assumed behavior importance and content. Organizational Efficiency, High Productivity and Profit Maximization form a subset of goals that are behaviorally very important and are viewed as maximization criteria and as alternative generators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The personal value systems of 1072 American managers are studied for their contribution to the understanding of managers and their behavior. A theoretical model for analyzing the impact of values on behavior is presented and utilized. Major results are explored with respect to the impact of personal values systems on the behavior of managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern organization theory tells us that an administrator's attitude toward the satisfaction of the needs of his subordinates is related to the administrator's personal characteristics. This article presents a statistical analysis of three administrator characteristics--age, education, and rank--as determinants of his attitude toward the satisfaction of his subordinates' need for economic security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management literature is just beginning to explore in depth the uncertain and amorphous relationships that exist in organizations among people who are not in a direct chain of command. Increasing stress is being placed on the "horizontal" or "diagonal" relationships where no one is clearly "superior" and no one is clearly "subordinate." While the literature manifests increasing interest and attention on these relations, empirical evidence is scarce. The authors have embarked on a long range investigation of several executive positions whose relationships are essentially non-linear. The overall purpose is to get a more accurate picture of the authority-influence status of each of these functional specialists. This initial portion of the study deals with the corporate personnel director. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to bring together a summary of research on motivation of scientists and engineers in combination with data from interviews with ten scientists and engineers in a large research and development laboratory. Those interviewed were managers, who functioned on various levels. In order to present this summary, the device of a hypothetical clinical study of one George Engineer was chosen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study testing the hypothesis that high rated subordinate managers have attitudes toward management concepts and theories more similar to those of their superiors than do their lower rated fellow managers. Twenty-seven groups of managers were selected from production departments in twelve coast electronic firms. The subordinate managers and their immediate superior expressed their attitudes toward various management concepts on the "What's Your Theory" questionnaire. The data in the study provide some support for the popular assumption that superiors prefer subordinates with attitudes and views similar to their own.

The article provides information on a survey that explored certain aspects of executive behavior and ineffective supervision. The survey was made by use of a seven-item questionnaire given to a variety of small groups. Characteristics that were most frequently cited involve failure by superiors to recognize and make use of the full capabilities of others, as subordinates viewed these capabilities. Supervisory characteristics mentioned by respondents which, in their view, bred lack of confidence in others included indecisiveness, personal insecurity, emotional immaturity and extreme self-interest.

This article demonstrates how both marketing research executives and management executives can make efficient use of information about the marketplace by the use of the administrative process. Too many business executives are disappointed-even disenchanted-with the results of marketing research. Too frequently the point of view is expressed that marketing research is simply semi- scientific hindsight. But the opposite view is that the ability of marketing researchers to generate pertinent marketing information has outdistanced the likelihood that management will use such information effectively in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relative roles of cultural background and degree of industrialization in the managerial beliefs of a sample of Greek managers? Findings are compared with the previous results reported by Haire, Ghiselli, and Porter (1966) and Clark and McCabe (1970). The Greeks were as inconsistent as those in these two previous studies in displaying little belief in their subordinates' capacities for leadership and initiative while advocating the practice of participative management. On two beliefs (capacity for leadership and initiative and belief in internal control) the Greeks tended to cluster with a Latin-European cluster, thereby suggesting a cultural explanation. On the other hand, regarding beliefs in sharing information with subordinates and participative management the Greeks clustered with a developing countries cluster, thereby suggesting an industrialization explanation. Exclusive focus on either explanation of managerial attitudes and beliefs does not seem warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A greater variety of economic and noneconomic indicators makes it possible to test the validity of explanations provided by cross-national research, and to come up with additional or alternative explanations. In this study, four sets of data and the corresponding conclusions found in Haire et al. (1966) were correlated with 8 indicators obtained for 14 countries, through a multiple regression. This analysis generally supports their emphasis on cultural and economic explanations even though the best indicators used here--level of education, life expectancy, and percentage of Roman Catholics--are rather different from theirs--language, religion, and level of industrialization. Besides pointing to the usefulness of using indicators in cross-national research, this analysis also draws attention to the danger of hastily labeling various factors as economic, political, social, and cultural since most available indicators are hard to classify as being of one type or the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper throws doubt on the direct relationship between the difficulty of a decision problem and decision time. A formal theory is proposed, hypothesizing that decision makers take longer to choose from four alternatives when two of the alternatives are easily rejected than when all four alternatives are equal. The results of laboratory experiments support this hypothesis, and suggest that decision behavior is related to personality factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]