Journal of Strategy and Management

Erkutlu, Hakan; Chafra, Jamel

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-04-2017-0029

PurposeDrawing on the social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between despotic leadership and employee’s organizational deviance. Specifically, the authors take a relational approach by introducing employee’s organizational identification as the mediator. The moderating role of value congruence in the relationship between despotic leadership and organizational deviance is also considered.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 15 universities in Turkey. The sample included 1,219 randomly chosen faculty members along with their department chairs. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the proposed model.FindingsThe results of this study supported the positive effect of despotic leadership on employee’s organizational deviance as well as the mediating effect of employee’s organizational identification. Moreover, when the level of value congruence is high, the relationship between organizational identification and organizational deviance is strong, whereas the effect is weak when the level of value congruence is low.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study suggest that educational administrators in the higher education should be sensitive in treating their subordinates, as it will lead to positive interpersonal relationship, which, in turn, will reduce organizational deviance. Moreover, they should pay more attention to the buffering role of value congruence for those subordinates with high distrust and showing organizational deviance.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on workplace deviance by revealing the relational mechanism between despotic leadership and employee organizational deviance. The paper also offers a practical assistance to employees in the higher education and their leaders interested in building trust, increasing leader-employee relationship and reducing organizational deviance.

Kryger, Anders

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-07-2017-0051

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a strategy implementation workshop design can be developed and tested while minimizing the time spent on developing the design.Design/methodology/approachThis multiple case study at a diesel engine company shows how iterative prototyping can be used to structure the design process of a strategy implementation workshop.FindingsStrategy implementation workshop design can be developed in resource-constrained environments through iterative prototyping of the workshop design. Each workshop iteration can generate value in its own right and at the same time the workshop design can be optimized until the final, most effective, design is found which can then be rolled out.Research limitations/implicationsIn a strategy-as-practice perspective, this study shows how scholarly attention to micro-level strategy praxis at a company can be enlightening to strategy consultants who need to conduct strategy implementation workshops.Practical implicationsBy selecting an iterative modular workshop design, the strategy consultant has at his/her disposal a strategy tool that is easily adaptable to organizational practice and one for which s/he can draw on his/her experience as well as add to his/her knowledge base.Originality/valueIntroducing iterative prototyping in an organizational context can facilitate fast yet structured development of a rigorous workshop design. Strategy consultants are provided with empirical examples of how an iterative prototyping process can be structured across multiple workshops.

Swift, Tim

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-06-2017-0040

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact that PhD scientists serving on the board of directors of firms conducting hard science have on the R&D-based innovative performance of the firm.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses are built upon extant theory, and they are tested using two-stage least squared regression that control for the endogenous nature of board composition. Results are robust to alternative specifications.FindingsThis analysis shows that firms with higher numbers of PhD scientists on the board generate superior innovative output and more efficient monitoring; PhD board members with denser professional networks are more valuable as board members.Practical implicationsThis paper provides practical advice to innovative firms on how to create a governance process that simultaneously improves monitoring and boosts the innovative performance.Originality/valueThis study is the first one to suggest that innovative firms can improve R&D monitoring and boost innovative output at the same time, and the first to investigate the role that PhD scientists can serve on the board of firms engaging in hard science.

Schweizer, Lars; Nienhaus, Andreas

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-03-2017-0022

PurposeSensemaking models generally lack an objective determinant to distinguish between CEO fault and changes in systematic risk caused by exogenous negative shocks like a banking crisis. The interdisciplinary approach of this paper combines attribution theory with econometric time series analyses to provide an objective measure of exogeneity and persistence of a negative shock to an organization. The purpose of this paper is to address the exploratory research question, of how scapegoating by managers can be avoided by the use of an objective and empirical measurement and if the recent financial crisis can be seen as an exogenous shock to manufacturing firms.Design/methodology/approachBy testing for stationarity with a structural break with an econometric time series analysis, the model helps to reduce agency costs during organizational crisis by effectively determining crisis causation and avoid scapegoating by managers.FindingsBy combining the sensemaking models of Haleblian and Rajagopalan (2006), Staw (1980), and Weick (1988), an integrated model of sensemaking in performance crises under the specific context of simultaneously occurring external crises is provided. By applying the authors approach the results suggest that the financial crisis of 2008/2009 has true exogenous adverse effects on US manufacturing firms.Originality/valueThe interdisciplinary approach encourages the integration of econometric time series analysis as an objective determinant in sense making models.

Sundström, Mikael; Holmberg, Robert

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-04-2017-0027

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study a class of issues that in spite of recognised needs and explicit managerial demands have proven hard to have “stick” in organisations (information security is used as an example). It offers a theory-driven rationale why superficially different issue areas can indeed be considered as instances of the identified class, and builds on complexity leadership theory (CLT) to explain how the related strategic challenges can be explained and possibly alleviated.Design/methodology/approachA. Kenneth Rice’s notion of organisations’ “primary task” is used to home in on its opposite that is here labelled “peripherality”. Existing strands of organisation research that can be related to this notion are then revisited to ground the fundamental concept theoretically. The CLT is finally used to provide a detailed understanding of the underlying dynamics.FindingsThe paper explains how and why certain issue areas seem resistant to common managerial intervention methods even though it would seem that organisational members are in fact favouring proposed changes (a state that would normally increase the chances of success). It also offers ideas how these challenges may fruitfully be approached.Originality/valueProblems related to the suggested “peripherality” class of issues have thus far been approached as wholly unrelated (and for that reason as idiosyncratic). The proposed framework offers a hitherto never attempted way systematically to link these challenges – and so structure and concentrate discussion about possibly common remedies.

Palumbo, Rocco; Manna, Rosalba

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-10-2016-0072

PurposeDrawing on the “Giffoni Experience” case study, the purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual link between requisite variety and organizational life cycle. The law of requisite variety states that – to be viable – a system should be able to achieve the minimum number of states which are required to deal with environmental uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive case study approach was taken, which allowed a holistic analysis of the subject being investigated. Multiple sources and different techniques were used to collect relevant data, including: document analysis, unstructured interviews with key informants, and participant observation.FindingsThe development of requisite variety is intended to fill the gap between organizational adaptability and increased environmental complexity. The process of requisite variety generation is influenced by the organizational life cycle stages, turning out to be reactive in the early phases of life and proactive in the maturity ones. Ultimately, the development of requisite variety makes the organization able to establish a co-evolving relationship with the environment, which paves the way for greater organizational adaptability and effectiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings are not generalizable; besides, the exploratory nature of this study did not allow to point out a consistent relationship between requisite variety and the organizational life cycle.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first attempts to examine requisite variety adopting the conceptual lenses of organizational life cycle. Empirical research works dealing with requisite variety are uncommon and generally overlooked by management scholars and practitioners.

Konduk, Burak Cem

2018 Journal of Strategy and Management

doi: 10.1108/JSMA-05-2017-0037

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain how a multi-market firm develops the motivation to forbear from competition.Design/methodology/approachA two-way fixed effects model with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors investigates the research question with panel data collected from the US scheduled passenger airline industry.FindingsThe results demonstrate that although the interaction of multi-market contact with strategic similarity impairs a firm’s forbearance from competition, the same interaction promotes it as firm performance deteriorates, supporting the hypotheses.Research limitations/implicationsPerformance explains not only how forbearance emerges out of coincidental multi-market contact but also reconciles the mixed evidence for the impact of the two-way interaction between multi-market contact and strategic similarity on forbearance.Practical implicationsAntitrust authorities should pay more attention to low performing firms than to high performing firms in their investigations. Also, managers of multi-market firms should identify multi-market rivals with low performance as targets for the initiation of forbearance.Originality/valueThis study revises the mutual forbearance theory to align it with the accumulating empirical evidence that otherwise refutes its assumption and thereby improves theory’s descriptive and predictive power.