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Objective: Scholars have conducted in‐depth research on social change agents, but there are few collaborative studies in this realm between sociology and psychology. From the perspective of psychobiography, this before study uses Jung's Analytical Psychology as a theoretical framework to explore Jack Ma's influence on business change, thereby revealing the deep motivation behind Jack Ma's sudden retirement and choice to be a teacher. Method: This study has collected primary and secondary data about Jack Ma. QSR Nvivo 11.0 was used to encode the text based on video transcription, and then the data were analyzed. This study refers to the key factors of growth and follows the primary indicators of psychological saliency to sort out the data and find out what has special psychological significance, and then conducts three coding processes. Results: This study found that the teacher complex and the martial arts complex are the breakthrough points to understand the business innovator Jack Ma. Conclusion: Jack Ma shapes the image of ordinary teachers through his image management strategy, conceals his deep internal martial arts complex, and balances the displayed martial arts personality mask. He has achieved great success in business innovator, while drawing on his internal personality conflicts to his advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether acquirers support targets' superior corporate social responsibility (CSR) and/or remedy targets' greater CSR problems during the post‐merger integration process using multinomial logit and panel regression models. Furthermore, the study examines the subsequent impact of the acquirers' decision regarding target stakeholder welfare on acquisition performance based on the post‐announcement performance of stock returns. Consequently, we find that acquirers generally do not adopt the superior CSR performance of target firms but instead support their better environmental and product CSR. However, the acquirers do not remedy any of the target's greater CSR problems. This study also reveals that the acquirers supporting targets' superior overall CSR have higher post‐announcement stock returns than others. Meanwhile, post‐announcement stock returns are lower when acquirers fail to fix the targets' greater CSR problems. As this study extends findings from recent scholarship reporting a positive association between CSR and acquisition performance, it sheds light on the importance of stakeholders' welfare in mergers and acquisitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author attempts to provide human resource managers with a model of best human asset management practices. Today's more effective human resource (HR) managers are looked to for information and ideas on best practices in human asset management. The author notes that this is a growing expectation which, in the future, will further separate the professional from the administrator. He adds that a best practice is not a process but the result of action within an organization that promotes success.

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of foreign ownership on gender‐related employment outcomes and work practices in Japan. The data indicate that the proportion of females among workers, managers, directors and board members is higher in foreign affiliates than in domestic firms of comparable size operating in the same industry. Foreign affiliates are also more likely to offer flexible working arrangements, telecommuting and childcare subsidies as well as employ foreign workers. These effects are visible almost exclusively in older affiliates. The analysis of foreign acquisitions combining propensity score matching with a difference in differences suggests that increase in the female labour share takes place a few years after the ownership change. All these patterns are in line with the view that it takes time to transplant corporate culture to an overseas affiliate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationships between the scores of 109 Japanese corporations found in the NIKKEI environmental management ranking survey and the corporate culture of each firm. Corporate culture is measured with the instrument developed by Cameron and Quinn (2006). The instrument measures corporate culture in terms of four categories: clan culture, adhocracy culture, hierarchy culture, and market culture. The results indicate that adhocracy culture has statistically significant positive relationships with the management system, product development, and climate change mitigation aspects of environmental management or sustainability management. Excessive hierarchy culture has a negative relationship with the overall score of environmental management. An appropriate combination of hierarchy culture and adhocracy culture enhances the overall score. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traceability practices and systems of 48 separate seafood businesses were assessed as part of an evaluation of 9 global seafood value chains (from catch to point of sale to the consumer). The purpose was to gain insights and provide knowledge about the impact of traceability on improving seafood industry business performance, including reducing waste, and enhancing consumer trust. In addition, the project developed and delivered a tool that can be used by stakeholders that are seeking to better understand the return on investment of implementation of traceability practices and solutions. Using structured and semistructured interviews of over 80 individuals, the research revealed that traceability is more highly valued by businesses, regardless of their size, if they engage more often in highly collaborative activities with their suppliers and customers. A survey in 5 nations about consumer perceptions with regards to seafood and the key factors influencing their purchasing decisions delivered insights into the discrete choices that consumers make when buying seafood products. The consumer survey data were incorporated into a 'Discrete Choice Simulator' that others can use to compare and contrast the preferences of consumers in these countries and better understand what factors regarding traceability impact on their buying decisions. The research concluded with several recommendations for businesses, governments, and nongovernment organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is much emphasis on the importance of continuous improvement as a dynamic capability and business process orientation, little attention has been paid to their interactions and joint effects on a firm's innovation performance. In this paper, we empirically explore the interaction effect of continuous improvement as a dynamic capability and business process orientation on time-to-market speed. By employing a unique and hand-collected dataset of Austrian manufacturing companies, it is shown that firms increase their innovation performance when they implement both-a process-oriented organizational design and continuous improvement methodologies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews empirical international human resource management (IHRM) journal articles on foreign- and indigenous-owned multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Australia. More specifically, we explore the extent to which papers using Australian data in this area are being published in 53 of the world’s leading academic journals and identify the topics that have been researched. We then propose a number of research areas, of Australian and international interest, that researchers could pursue in the future. Our findings point to a picture of limited publications in the leading international journals. There is also support for recent arguments that substantial capacity exists for a greater theoretical contribution by researchers in the IHRM field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Unsuccessful quality initiatives often are attributed to an organizational culture that does not recognize the importance of the cooperative values that underlie “soft” quality management practices, like customer focus and empowerment. Yet, the literature remains unclear as to how quality management and cooperative values interrelate by failing to incorporate the multilevel influences on this relationship in organizations. This research analyzes a multilevel model based on sociotechnical systems and quality management theories. Secondary data are used to test an explanation of how organizational-level and workgroup-level quality management practices relate to cooperative cultural values and workgroup performance. A single-level model is also tested to demonstrate its inadequacies. Based upon the support for a multilevel model, managerial insights are provided that aid in deciding where resources should be allocated during a quality initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing formalization of disciplined management of UK universities over the last 30 years has been accompanied by moves to articulate universities' strategies, by attempts to connect organizations' plans and management of activity to those strategies and by a desire to measure how well outcomes are fitted to universities' goals. In this complex change in the orientation of universities' management, lessons have been drawn from the contemporary development of the analysis of strategy and strategic process in commercial and, latterly, in public sector settings. It is argued that there have been very significant errors and weaknesses in the importation of such models of strategy, especially in the stress on strategic planning rather than strategic process and in the insensitivity of universities' planning to the underlying strategy process of the typical university. Most universities, it is argued, mistake planning – and even budgeting – for strategy itself, having failed to make proper sense of their own organizations' processes of generating strategies and putting them into practice. They have typically missed the crucial context of strategy and change. It is argued that there are crucial lessons to be learned from recent advances in theorizing about strategy in the private or commercial sector, particularly in relation to the development of modelling complex and path-dependent systems; and it is argued strongly that universities' strategic process can fruitfully be analysed through the perspectives of real options analysis. This can also accommodate the richness of universities' traditions of strategy formation and implementation within ‘ loose-coupled’ organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used two variables, competing similarity and cooperating similarity, in developing a comprehensive model that forces a simultaneous treatment of partner characteristics and partner capabilities in global strategic alliances. An empirical test of this model on a sample of 70 global strategic alliances indicated mixed support for our hypotheses, and suggested that competing similarity has a negative effect and cooperating similarity has a positive effect on alliance outcomes. Findings also show that deliberate ‘relational efforts’ mitigate the frictional effects of differences in partner characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can differences in corporate codes of ethics arise from the specific situation of transformation in Slovakia in contrast to the stable context of the firms in Western Germany? This paper compares codes of ethics of large-scale enterprises in both countries in terms of ethical issues addressed. It demonstrates that codes of ethics of the Slovak companies mirror the specific transformational circumstances in the country. Compared with Western Germany the codes of these firms include multiple ethical issues, meaning that they experience a broader range of relevant ethical problems. Furthermore, their codes are internally oriented, in terms of the ethical issues raised most often; they put more emphasis on committing employees, managers and shareholders/owners to the firm. Based on the differences discovered, it is proposed that negative experiences within the past process of transformation and in part the socialist heritage are the main reasons for differences between the two samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is packed with attempts to uncover the business case of CSR. However, the findings are often based on either case stories or overall analyses of the business case for CSR, thereby overlooking the heterogeneity of the business landscape and the wide variety of CSR initiatives. This article intentionally tries to fall between the two chairs. By focusing on a single aspect of the blurry CSR concept, the article examines how European organizations perceive the motives, costs and benefits associated with EMAS (Environmental Management and Audit Scheme) registration. The article is based on a case analysis of Copenhagen Zoo and a web survey of 162 EMAS-registered organizations. One of the main conclusions is that the respondents often perceive EMAS as a success even though they believe that the monetary costs from adopting the system outweigh the benefits. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how organizational paternalism, often considered a traditional and rather archaic management style, is evoked by a culture management programme in order to increase control. Most research assumes that paternalism does successfully capture the subjective commitments of employees because they appreciate the 'caring' and 'nurturing' environment it engenders. Lacking in this literature is a consideration of how and why employees might resist organizational paternalism. An empirical study is presented that suggests some workers resist paternalism because it casts them as irrational children and undermines their dignity. The structure of this resistance is explored in detail and the relationships between paternalism, culture management and HRM examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stunning betrayals of stakeholders underlying ethical scandals have resulted in the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and created an environment of heightened scrutiny of corporate behavior in general. In this environment, a company's ethics is perceived to affect its profitability. Corporations exhibiting unethical behavior face an increasing risk of declining market share, lower profits and government regulation. This article discusses the proposed framework of ethical analysis which can be applied to any modern organization. The framework enables organization to systematically examine the costs and benefits of ethics programs. The article also defines three challenges associated with creating an ethical business environment. The first challenge is to develop managers and employees as moral, ethical individuals. The second relates to the corporation's environment. And the third is the formulation and implementation of explicit ethical policies.

Despite considerable academic criticism, the role of management training and development (MTD) in organisational life has grown substantially over recent years. The criticism suggests that there is little real organisational value derived from such investments at a time when people development is increasingly viewed as a source of potential competitive advantage. Using a political game-playing perspective, this article examines how MTD is enacted within the workplace to explore the psychological and institutional barriers that result in the impotence of MTD. The wider social impact of this impotence is examined in considering alternative ways forward and concludes with observations on the potential role of business schools and MTD professionals in undermining the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with examining the development of interest in organizational interpretation (exemplified by a decade of analyses of culture and symbolism in organization) as a rhetorical and philosophical episode in Organization Studies. The presumed 'productivity' of this recently developed arena of Organization Studies, for both the theory and practice of organization, is carefully considered through the discussion of a broad range of work from the past decade. This body of work is examined as a 'genre' of Organization Studies that both manifests particular issues for interpretation and articulates particular styles of representation. The article argues that the rise of interest in organizational interpretation represents a late-modern phase in Organization Studies, whereby traditional priorities and subordinations in the theory and practice of organization have been rewritten and renewed. In this way, organizational interpretation has come to articulate the most recent form of avant-garde activity in the continuing modernization of Organization Studies. In contrast, the article concludes with the consideration of a theory and practice for such work which would contribute to the articulation of a postmodern Organization Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, which is based on Eric Fiamholtz's more than seventeen years of observations of organizations (from small entrepreneurships to Fortune 500 finns), molds a holistic framework from a synthesis of the organizational effectiveness model and the organizational life-cycle model. Of special interest to HRD professionals are the recommendations regarding the role of human resources in four of the six tasks of organizational development: in the acquisition of resources, in the development of operational systems, in the refining of management systems, and in the shaping of the corporation's culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stephen Fox is a Lecturer and Teaching Director in the Department of Management Learning at the University of Lancaster. He is also the Business Administration subject coordinator for the ERASMUS programme described in the article published here. Writing as an 'insider', he uses this particular programme to examine critically the prospects for the emergence of 'European Management'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]