Finnish Managers Research Articles

Enacted or idealistic co-operative values?

Co-operatives differ from other forms of business due to their strong values-based nature, but it is nevertheless recognized that there is a significant gap between international co-operative values and the practical management of co-operatives. According to the values base, management naturally requires that co-operatives as organizations have a common sensemaking of co-operative values. With this present research, we create a deep understanding of how the managers of large co-operatives make sense of the values related to the co-operative ideology. As a result of our qualitative empirical research, we present how Finnish managers of large co-operatives understand the values-based nature of co-operatives in two ways – enacted and idealistic – and construct an ideology of co-operatives around four values: equality, financial responsibility, democracy, and regional responsibility. At the co-operative level, the understanding of values is constructed as a shared, incongruous, partially shared, and contradictory sensemakings. The findings reveal that the values-based nature of co-operatives is recognized but that it is tense and fragmented, and we suggest strengthening management training and information to members to strengthen the unique identity of co-operatives.

The creation of desirable futures: A call for supererogatory management to foster sustainability transitions

Accelerating the sustainability transition demands managers to more intensively and more frequently envisage in supererogatory acts. Supererogatory action is not legally or morally required but consist of praiseworthy acts beyond duty that have the capacity to build a better future. This perspective paper argues that strategic decision-making during sustainability transitions should be more supererogatory, and research should pay more explicit attention to the supererogatory acts of managers and business organizations. Supererogation is especially important in any transition, where the business environment is changing rapidly and fundamentally, where stakeholder preferences conflict and first-mover advantages are significant. Our argument is that perceived rightness and confidence are prerequisites for managers to envisage desirable futures and act in ways that transcend duty. We also critically reflect on the threats implied by supererogatory management. Our arguments are illustrated by interview data collected from Finnish managers with first-hand experience with supererogatory acts in the current sustainability transitions of the food packaging industry. We call for empirical research explaining the role of supererogatory management in driving sustainability transitions in different settings and hope that this perspective paper can spur the awareness of managers and policy makers regarding the power of supererogatory acts in management.

A person-centered investigation of two dominant job crafting theoretical frameworks and their work-related implications

There are currently two main theoretical perspectives that explain how employees engage in job crafting, namely Wrzesniewski and Dutton's (2001) original theory and the Job Demands-Resources model framework by Tims et al. (2012). The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare these two perspectives on job crafting and operationalizations based thereon using a person-centered methodology. We also examined whether the use of different job crafting strategy combinations manifests in differences in work engagement and person-job fit. Study participants were Finnish managers (n = 419) who completed both the Job Crafting Questionnaire (Slemp & Vella-Brodrick, 2013) and the Job Crafting Scale (Tims, Bakker, & Derks, 2012). Latent Profile Analysis yielded four job crafting profiles: 1) Average crafters (47%), 2) Avoidance-oriented crafters (30%), 3) Approach-oriented crafters (19%) and 4) Self-oriented task crafters (4%). Approach-oriented crafters were significantly more engaged and fitted better to their job than those in the other profiles. Furthermore, those in the Average crafters profile were more engaged and had higher person-job fit than Avoidance-oriented crafters or Self-oriented task crafters. Overall, our findings provide new implications for the theoretical categorization of job crafting and knowledge on how the use of different combinations of job crafting strategies is related to work engagement and person-job fit.

The influence of cultural context in managerial decision-making: legitimacy views of Finnish and Italian managers

This study examines the influence of cultural context in managerial decision-making by comparing the legitimacy views of Finnish and Italian business managers. In the business context, managers often make decisions based on economic interests only; but for moral decisions, other means of legitimacy are required. Although both Finland and Italy are members of the European Union (EU), they differ in terms of cultural dimensions. The study contributes to previous research on managerial decision-making by showing, with a qualitative approach, that the differences between Finnish and Italian managers decision-making relate to the different ways of using legitimacy combined with the short-term vs. long-term orientation of the culture. Finnish managers use the property and perception views of legitimacy that reflect the short-term orientation and normative dimension of the culture, while Italian managers rely on a process view of legitimacy reflecting the long-term orientation.

Is Autonomy Always Beneficial for Work Engagement? A Six-year Four-Wave Follow-Up Study.

Work engagement is expected to result from job resources such as autonomy. However, previous results have yielded that the autonomy–work engagement relationship is not always particularly strong. Whereas previous longitudinal studies have examined this relationship as an average at a specific point in time, this study examined whether this relationship is different within individuals from one time to another over the years. Furthermore, experiences of work engagement are expected to affect how employees benefit from autonomy, but no studies have so far investigated whether the initial level of work engagement affects the autonomy–work engagement relationship. This study aimed to first identify the different kinds of longitudinal relationship patterns between autonomy and work engagement, and then to investigate whether the identified relationship patterns differ in terms of the initial mean level of work engagement. The four-wave study was conducted among Finnish managers (n = 329) over a period of six years. Multilevel regression mixture analysis identified five relationship patterns. Four of the patterns showed a positive predictive relationship between autonomy and work engagement. However, the relationship was statistically significant in only one of these patterns. Furthermore, when the initial mean level of work engagement was high, autonomy related more strongly to work engagement. However, an atypical pattern was identified that showed a negative association between autonomy and work engagement. In this pattern, the mean level of work engagement was low. Consequently, autonomy may not always enhance work engagement; sometimes this relationship may even be negative.

The Influence of Cultural Context in Managerial Decision-making: Legitimacy Views of Finnish and Italian Managers

This study examines the influence of cultural context in managerial decision-making by comparing the legitimacy views of Finnish and Italian business managers. In the business context, managers often make decisions based on economic interests only; but for moral decisions, other means of legitimacy are required. Although both Finland and Italy are members of the European Union (EU), they differ in terms of cultural dimensions. The study contributes to previous research on managerial decision-making by showing, with a qualitative approach, that the differences between Finnish and Italian managers decision-making relate to the different ways of using legitimacy combined with the short-term vs. long-term orientation of the culture. Finnish managers use the property and perception views of legitimacy that reflect the short-term orientation and normative dimension of the culture, while Italian managers rely on a process view of legitimacy reflecting the long-term orientation.

Identifying Cultural and Cognitive Proximity Between Managers and Customers in Tornio and Haparanda Cross-Border Region

ABSTRACT Daily intercultural interactions in cross-border regions such as those between customers and managers can be a source of knowledge and ideas. However, such interactions can pose distinctive constraints and opportunities for learning and exchange of ideas. This study adopts a relatively fine–grained quantitative approach to study elements of cognitive and cultural proximity which have a major impact on these interactions. It is based on a survey of 91 managers of small service firms and 312 customers in the twin city of Tornio and Haparanda on the border between Finland and Sweden. Seven elements of proximity were identified and measured. Six elements of perceived cognitive and cultural proximity including values, conservative values towards new ideas, knowledge and use of technology, use of a foreign language, sufficiently focusing or providing specific details and ways of solving problems were found significant in terms of shaping perceptions of Swedish and Finnish managers and customers, which shape these interactions. The results enhance our understanding of how daily cross-border intercultural can be examined in the context of cross-border regional knowledge transfer.

No manager is an island: culture in sensemaking of business networking

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the role of culture in managerial sensemaking and conceptualization of business networking.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply qualitative methodology through the sensemaking approach on three Finnish and three Russian managers in mutual buyer–supplier business relationship dyads.FindingsThe results imply that the cultural background of the manager determines his perception of the level at which business networking occurs. Finnish managers conceptualize business networking as an organizational strategy, whereas their Russian counterparts conceptualize the phenomenon squarely at the individual level.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors suggest that the underlying cause of the differences in the conceptualization of networking may be that Finnish business networking relies more on concepts derived from Western European business culture, whereas Russian networking relies more on the traditional culture. Consequently, they suggest that the concept of business networking in extant research may suffer from ethnocentricity. Limitations of the study include the limited extent of generalizations from its qualitative nature.Practical implicationsThe results imply that business network relationships should be managed differently in different cultures, and that depending on the cultural background of the business partner, managing both the organizational and the individual levels of business networking is needed.Originality/valueThe study contributes to limited literature on culture and the role of individuals in managerial conceptualization of business networking. This is one of the rare studies to illustrate differences through individual sensemaking on both sides of the relationship dyad and account for both Western European and Russian market environments.

Trust-distrust balance: trust ambivalence in Sino-Western B2B relationships

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how Chinese and Finnish managers in cross-cultural supply-chain relationships evaluate their business partners’ trustworthiness and distrustworthiness.Design/methodology/approachRepresentatives of two Finnish companies and their Chinese and Finnish suppliers were interviewed to collect qualitative data from 23 managers.FindingsThe Chinese managers emphasized relationship-specific, personalized trustworthiness. They highlighted personalized communication and benevolence, which manifested in respect and reciprocity, rooted in the Chinese notion of “guanxi” as personal ties. In contrast, the Finnish managers’ view of trustworthiness was more associated with depersonalized organizational attributes. They emphasized the dimension of integrity, especially promise-keeping. In addition, tentative signs of trust ambivalence, as a balance between trust- and distrust-related factors, were identified for both the Chinese and the Finns.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the exploratory nature of this study the validity of the findings is limited to these data and context. Future studies could explore other national contexts as well as the effects of industry, market position, and position in the supply chain.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study bring a valuable understanding of the potential pitfalls and unique challenges in cross-border inter-firm transactions. These can enhance inter-firm trust building in a cross-cultural context.Originality/valueThis study enriches the view of trust as a holistic process of simultaneous evaluation of both trustworthiness and distrustworthiness. In this process, trust ambivalence could serve as the intermediate construct between trust and distrust. These two contrary yet complementary opposites constitute a duality to be managed from the perspective of yin-yang balancing.

A cross-cultural perspective on relational exchange

PurposeThis study aims to examine relational norms in cross-cultural business settings. Cross-cultural business partners may differ in their normative orientations toward relational exchange. Owing to the high extent of international trade, there is a need for developing a more nuanced understanding of cross-cultural relational exchange.Design/methodology/approachThe repertory grid method was used to elicit the personal constructs characterizing the perceptions of business-to-business (B2B) relational exchange for 22 Russian and Finnish managers. These items were further categorized into categories of relational elements drawn from relational exchange literature using a content analysis. Then, the category means of scored importance and scored evaluations of domestic and foreign business partners were tested statistically.FindingsRelational norms of flexibility, information exchange, long-term orientation, mutuality and solidarity were equally important to both Russian and Finnish managers. The importance of a business partner’s ability seems to be culturally dependent. Sharing the same cultural background might have an adverse effect when evaluating poorly functioning business relations.Research limitations/implicationsThe validity of these findings is limited to this context and material. Future research should repeat cross-cultural comparisons of the relational norms with more data and other nationalities.Practical implicationsFirms should focus on long-term orientation and mutual targets to form well-functioning cross-cultural business relationships.Originality/valueThis study provides new knowledge into B2B marketing literature by revealing the role of relational norms, business partner’s ability and shared cultural background on functionality of cross-cultural business relations. It also demonstrates the use of the repertory grid method in studying perceptions of relational norms.

Cognitive and cultural proximity between service managers and customers in cross-border regions: knowledge transfer implications

ABSTRACTKnowledge transfer between customers and managers is an important source of new ideas for innovation in the service industries. In cross-border regions, inter-cultural interactions engender but also constrain knowledge transfers between actors even when actors share similar economic and technological knowledge bases. This theme is explored through an analysis of cognitive and cultural proximity between service managers and customers from “the other side” in a European cross-border region where the constituent regions have broadly similar national cultures: Tornio-Haparanda on the border between Finland and Sweden. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 19 Swedish and Finnish managers of small and micro businesses serving customers from both sides were undertaken to gauge their perceptions of the impact of cultural and cognitive proximity to customers on learning interactions. The study adds to the emerging literature in this field by identifying seven elements of cognitive and cultural proximity including mentality, ways of solving problems, conservatism, shared language, focus on contextualised details, mentality, and use of similar technologies. It is also original for suggesting some the implications for the possible impacts of perceived cultural and cognitive proximity on cross-border knowledge transfer between customers and managers.

Why Do Managers Leave Their Organization? Investigating the Role of Ethical Organizational Culture in Managerial Turnover

The aim of the present longitudinal study was to quantitatively examine whether an ethical organizational culture predicts turnover among managers. To complement the quantitative results, a further important aim was to examine the self-reported reasons behind manager turnover, and the associations of ethical organizational culture with these reasons. The participants were Finnish managers working in technical and commercial fields. Logistic regression analyses indicated that, of the eight virtues investigated, congruency of supervisors, congruency of senior management, discussability, and sanctionability were negatively related to manager turnover. The results also revealed that the turnover group is not homogeneous, and that there are several different reasons for leaving. The reasons given for turnover were grouped into five different categories: (1) lay-off, (2) career challenges, (3) dissatisfaction with the job or organization, (4) organizational change, and (5) decreased well-being/motivation. ANCOVA analyses showed that those managers who stayed in their organization perceived their ethical culture to be stronger than those in turnover groups, and especially compared to groups 3 and 5. The results acquired through different methods complemented and confirmed each other, showing that by nurturing ethical virtues an organization can decrease job changes and encourage managers and supervisors to want to remain in their organization.

Long-Term Reward Patterns Contribute to Personal Goals at Work Among Finnish Managers

The research addresses the impact of long-term reward patterns on contents of personal work goals among young Finnish managers ( N = 747). Reward patterns were formed on the basis of perceived and objective career rewards (i.e., career stability and promotions) across four measurements (years 2006–2012). Goals were measured in 2012 and classified into categories of competence, progression, well-being, job change, job security, organization, and financial goals. The factor mixture analysis identified a three-class solution as the best model of reward patterns: high rewards (77%), increasing rewards (17%), and reducing rewards (7%). Participants with reducing rewards reported more progression, well-being, job change, and financial goals than participants with high rewards as well as fewer competence and organizational goals than participants with increasing rewards. Workplace resources can be a key role in facilitating goals toward building competence and organizational performance.

Long-Term Development of Employee Well-Being: A Latent Transition Approach

The long-term development of employee well-being is still poorly understood. Consequently, in this three-wave 10-year longitudinal study among Finnish managers (n = 402) the development of employee well-being was examined in in detail. Specifically, the long-term development of job-related affective well-being was investigated at the intra-individual level, simultaneously taking into account positive and negative indicators of well-being, the level of well-being, and the direction of change. Further, the issue how (changes in) job resources and employee well-being were related across time was examined. By applying a novel person-centered methodology, factor mixture modeling and latent transition analysis, the results revealed that the development of favorable job-related affective well-being was eight times more probable than that of unfavorable development across the 10-year study period. Job resources predicted a high level of job-related well-being and, also, job resources increased along with favorable changes in well-being. Overall, the findings contribute to knowledge in the area of positive occupational health psychology by offering a detailed picture of the level of job-related affective well-being and its development over time.

How perceived changes in the ethical culture of organizations influence the well-being of managers: a two-year longitudinal study

The first aim of this study was to identify long-term patterns of ethical organizational culture based on the perceptions of 368 Finnish managers over a period of two years. The second aim was to investigate whether there is a difference in the long-term occupational well-being (burnout and work engagement) of managers exhibiting different patterns of ethical culture. Based on latent profile analysis, five different patterns of the strength of ethical culture were identified: moderate, high, increasing, decreasing, and low. The results show that managers exhibiting either the low or decreasing pattern of ethical culture experienced significant changes in their well-being over time. Decreasing or permanently low ethical culture was related to increased cynical attitudes towards work, and to decreased work engagement. On the positive side, stably high ethical culture was associated with enduringly high levels of well-being over time. In sum, low or decreasing ethical culture poses a risk to occupational well-being, whereas an organization with a culture that is perceived as permanently strong represents a favourable work environment.

Cross-national and longitudinal investigation of a short measure of workaholism.

: The present study investigated the factor structure of the 10-item version of the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS). The DUWAS-10 is intended to measure workaholism with two correlated factors: working excessively (WE) and working compulsively (WC). The factor structure of the DUWAS-10 was examined among multi-occupational samples from the Netherlands (n=9,010) and Finland (n=4,567) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). CFAs revealed that the expected correlated two-factor solution showed satisfactory fit to the data. However, a second-order factor solution, where WE comprised the first-order factors “working frantically” and “working long hours”, and WC the first-order factors “obsessive work drive” and “unease if not working”, showed significantly better fit to the data. The expectation of factorial group invariance of the second-order factor structure between the Dutch and Finnish samples was also supported. Moreover, factorial time invariance was observed across a two-year time lag in a sub-sample of Finnish managers (n=459). In conclusion, the DUWAS-10 was found to be a comprehensive measure of workaholism, meeting the criteria of factorial validity in multiple settings, and can thus be recommended for use in both research and practice.

Job Resources and Work Engagement: Optimism as Moderator Among Finnish Managers

The aim of the present study was to investigate the moderating role of optimism in the relationship between job resources (organizational climate, job control) and work engagement among Finnish young managers (<em>N</em> = 747). Hierarchical regression analyses showed that both job resources and optimism exerted a positive effect on work engagement and its three dimensions of vigor, dedication, and absorption. The moderation results showed that optimism can diminish the negative impact of low job resources on work engagement. These findings provide evidence to the importance of including personal resources in future research conducted on motivational process. Additionally, these findings provide significant suggestions for the utilization of these resources in organizational practice too, i.e., in staff recruitment, retention and development.

Engaged managers are not workaholics: Evidence from a longitudinal personcentered analysis

The aims of this two-year follow-up study among Finnish managers (n=463) were twofold: first, to investigate the relation between work engagement and workaholism by utilizing both variable- and person-centered approaches and second, to explore whether and how experiences of work engagement and workaholism relate to job change during the study period. The variable-centered analysis based on Structural Equation Modelling revealed that the latent factors of work engagement and workaholism did not correlate with each other, thereby suggesting that they are independent constructs. The personcentered inspection with Growth Mixture Modelling indicated four work engagement-workaholism classes: 1) “high decreasing WE-low stable WH” (18%), 2) “low increasing WE-average decreasing WH” (7%), 3) “low decreasing WE-low stable WH” (6%), and 4) “high stable WE-average stable WH” (68%). Overall, these results suggest first that also at the intra-individual level work engagement and workaholism were largely independent psychological states (changes in work engagement and workaholism were related only in the class “low increasing WE-average decreasing WH”, 7%); second, job conditions had an impact on the levels of both work engagement and workaholism as, typically, the participants in the class “low increasing WE-average decreasing WH” had typically changed their job during the study period. The fact that work engagement and workaholism are sensitive to job changes suggests that both psychological conditions depend – at least partly – on the individual's work situation.

Constructing leadership by storytelling – the meaning of trust and narratives

PurposeThis paper approaches manager's storytelling as a means for promoting organizational aims and for constructing leadership, and examines the intentions of managers in this process. We focus on the context of storytelling and the content of the stories told by managers in order to identify areas of influence on subordinates. Storytelling in relation to building a narrative identity for the manager is also studied.Design/methodology/approachThis is an exploratory empirical study that draws on 13 thematic interviews with Finnish managers working in different fields. A qualitative thematic analysis is used in order to analyze the data.FindingsAs a result of the study we found that managers tell stories in order to evoke leadership characterized by six areas of influence: motivation, inspiration, defusing conflict, influencing superiors, discovering a focus and constructing trust. According to the findings, the managers see stories as an effective means of building trust between leaders and their subordinates. It was also found that managers can use stories self‐reflectively and as a means of self‐development.Practical implicationsStorytelling can empower leadership and support interaction with subordinates. One application of this study is informing elements of leadership development such as business education programmes for managers and future managers.Originality/valueNarrative leadership is a highly valued but still under‐researched approach to leadership. This study seeks to fill this gap in the research by providing an empirically based contribution to the field, emphasizing the intentional nature of storytelling.

Ethical managers in ethical organisations? The leadership‐culture connection among Finnish managers

PurposeThe main aim of the present study is to discover whether the managers’ self‐evaluations of their ethical leadership style are associated with their assessments of the ethical organisational culture (measured with an eight‐dimensional Corporate Ethical Virtues‐model). It aims to hypothesise that the more ethical the managers evaluate their own leadership style to be, the higher evaluations they give on the ethical culture of their organisation. The underlying assumption is that ethical managers can enhance the ethical culture by behaving in accordance with their own values.Design/methodology/approachThis quantitative research was based on a questionnaire study with 902 respondents throughout Finland. A linear regression analysis was conducted to examine how ethical leadership was related to ethical organisational culture.FindingsManagers who appraised their own leadership style as ethical also evaluated the ethical culture of their organisations more positively. The result implies that an ethically behaving leader can develop the culture of his/her organisation towards more ethical practices. The results also showed that differences in evaluating both ethical leadership and culture emerged concerning background variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe data collected were based only on self‐assessments from one data source, and therefore future studies, e.g. including employee ratings, are needed.Practical implicationsPromoting ethical virtues in organisations can lead to a virtuous circle, which supports both ethical culture and ethical leadership.Originality/valueThis empirical study contributes to the research on ethical leadership by examining it in relation to ethical organisational culture.