Perceptions Of Top Management Research Articles

The impact of union elections on human resources management practices in hospitals.

The purpose of this article is to explore top management's perceptions of how various human resources management (HRM) practices changed in hospitals (n = 101) after union elections. Significant increases in many HRM practices that are believed to lead to competitive advantage through human resources were reported in firms in which unions lost elections but not in firms where unions were certified.

Organizational Quality Management in Emerging Economies

This study conducts an exploratory analysis of quality management practices in India. First, the authors develop an instrument with high validity and reliability to assess quality management initiatives in organizations in India. Subsequently, the authors study the relationships between managerial hierarchy, organizational form, quality performance, and managerial perceptions of quality practices. The results indicate that 1) perceptions of top managers and private sector managers on quality initiatives are more favorable than middle or junior managers and public sector managers, respectively, and 2) the relationship between quality perceptions and performance varies by organizational form and managerial level. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Emulation in Academia: Balancing Structure and Identity

This study seeks to expand our understanding of interorganizational emulation decisions made by top administrators in a broad sample of American colleges and universities. We analyze their emulation choices and show that these decision makers tend to emulate universities similar to their own. Our findings suggest, however, that the choice of emulation target within one's industry is not simply a matter of choosing the most structurally similar organization, but rather that identity-related attributes, such as reputation, organizational image, and organizational identity, also play a significant role in the emulation decision. The data also show that industry subgroups based on emulation decisions (strategic reference groups) differ in both structural and identity-related attributes. Further, interorganizational emulation decisions based on tactics of upward comparison (e.g., emulating universities with better reputations) are associated with greater strategic change, while downward comparisons are associated with greater perceived external threat. Finally, the data show that top management's perceptions of the university's level of environmental threat are related to their choice of a more coarse-grained or fine-grained set of attributes when determining the emulation target. We discuss some of these findings’implications for theory and practice.

The Use of a Neural Factory to Investigate the Effect of Product Line Width on Manufacturing Performance

The dual goals of this study are: (1) to develop an empirically valid neural model of U.S. factories in a range of industries producing discrete products, and (2) to use the model to test the effect of changes in product line width on plant performance variables. Accordingly, a neural factory was developed using 59 input and 5 output/performance variables, and was trained using field data collected from 385 U.S. manufacturing plants. The model was validated using a holdout sample before conducting sensitivity tests. The study demonstrates that, through the use of parametric sensitivity analysis, the neural factory could be used to investigate the relationship between inputs and performance of a factory. While the focused factory principle would favor a smaller product line, economies of scope theory would favor a larger product line for the good of the factory; this implies a rather complex relationship between product line width (PLW) and plant performance. The neural factory was used to study the sensitivity of output/performance variables when product line width was varied over a range extending from 10% to 200% of the average values. The sensitivity analysis of the neural factory shows that, as the product line increases, it (1) does not affect cost-of-goods-sold (COGS), (2) decreases return on investment, (3) has a negative effect on the top management's perception of manufacturing performance, (4) increases inventory turns, and (5) increases sales per employee. The explanations for these findings show how complex and intertwined the relationships between PLW and performance variables are. They enhance our understanding of PLW and provide some new directions for future empirical research.

PRACTITIONER APPLICATION: New Factors in the Antitrust Regulation of Hospital Mergers

PRACTITIONER APPLICATION: New Factors in the Antitrust Regulation of Hospital Mergers

Top management perception of strategic information processing in a turbulent environment

Extant strategic management literature provides only partial answers to the important question: what variables affect top managers′ ability to process complicated, novel, ambiguous, or dynamic strategic information in a turbulent environment? Drawing on cognitive psychology, personality theory, management theory, organizational theory, and management information systems literature, proposes that nine personal attributes and four contextual attributes affect top managers′ information‐processing capability. The nine personal attributes are: cognitive complexity, knowledge, mental model of success, openmindedness, time orientation, personal values, tolerance for ambiguity, locus of control, and time devoted to environmental scanning. The four contextual attributes are: rewards and incentives, culture, structure of strategic planning process, and executive support systems. Thirteen propositions are postulated regarding the types of attributes that are conducive for top managers′ ability in processing complicated, novel, ambiguous, or dynamic information.

Construction productivity: Issues encountered by contractors in Singapore

The construction industry in Singapore is greatly concerned about its low level of productivity. A survey of top civil-engineering and building contractors was conducted in late 1992 to identify the perceptions of top management in relation to construction productivity. The paper describes one part of the survey that related to productivity issues encountered by contractors at construction sites. Respondents were asked to rank a list of 17 problems that could affect construction productivity. The three items of greatest concern were identified as (a) difficulty in the recruitment of supervisors, (b) difficulty in the recruitment of workers, and (c) a high rate of labour turnover. The problems encountered least often included stop-work orders issued because of infringement of government regulations, and work stoppage resulting from disputes with owners/consultants. All the 67 survey returns from contractors are discussed with relevance to existing conditions in Singapore.

The Internationalization Process of Franchise Systems: A Conceptual Model

Presents a conceptual model that examines the determinants of the internationalization process of franchise systems. The basic assumption of the model is that the internationalization decision is essentially a cost/benefit assessment that is filtered through the perceptions of top management. Consequently, the central constructs of the model are perceived risk and perceived benefits which are shaped by a set of organizational and environmental factors, and which, in turn, determine the strengths of intentions to internationalize.

Dependent care and the workplace: An analysis of management and employee perceptions

This study attempts to identify differences in the perceptions of top management (defined as CEOs, directors, and presidents) and employees (defined as middle and supervisory management) regarding (a) the effects of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and (b) the extent of a firm's responsibility in providing support for those faced with caring needs concerning eldercare, childcare, substance abuse, and mental/physical handicaps. The results indicate that these two groups have significantly different perceptions of the effect of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and on the firm's responsibility in providing support for three types of dependent care.

A administração estratégica de programas de responsabilidade social em empresas multinacionais: percepções da alta diretoria

This research presents an analysis of top management's perception in U.S. MNCs of corporate social responsibility programs, from a general survey of 18 home offices (29 respondents) and a focus survey of four selected firms (33 respondents, 17 from home and 16 from overseas). The firms figure among FORTUNE 500, each with annual sales exceeâing US$ one billion, in manufacturing, processing, and extractive sectors. The material focuses on MNCs decision- making process. Data were collected during 1982-1983. Some major findings are: strategic management of social responsibility programs for MNCs internaI publics is found, although models are not very systematic; resources are committed, although somewhat constrained due to costs considerations; such programs lay behind those in marketing and pro duction; threats from externaI and internaI environ ments exert changes on strategic management processes, the biggest coming from employees and labor groups; among others.

Top Management's View of the Purchasing Function

Top Management's View of the Purchasing Function Every executive tries to please his boss. In at least a few cases, apple polishing (sometimes subtle, occasionally very direct) works effectively. In most cases, boss-pleasing behavior is possible only if the subordinate identifies what the boss really wants (which is often different from what he says he wants), and then proceeds to do whatever is necessary. Successful boss-pleasers inevitably move up in the organization; the less successful either stay where they are or move out. If upward mobility in the organization is a measure of proficiency in the art and science of boss-pleasing, then purchasing managers collectively do not do very well at it. Relatively few move on to general management. Furthermore, many, if not most, purchasing managers apparently have long believed that their function is not by top management. One reason purchasing managers may not be understood and also fail to do as good a boss-pleasing job as other executives is because top management's perception of the purchasing function is different from that of the purchasing managers themselves. In an N.A.P.M. sponsored study, we try to test and evaluate this hypothesis in a reasonably scientific and objective fashion. There is, of course, no stereotype general manager or purchasing manager. The backgrounds, abilities, interests, and other characteristics of executives within each group vary widely. Nevertheless, within the narrow framework of our study, the pattern of responses of each group differs markedly from the other. The general manager's attitude toward purchasing and purchasing managers is quite different from that of the purchasing manager himself. Therefore, the purchasing manager who wants to be a successful boss-pleaser may find this article helpful in identifying how top management thinks. In many cases, he should try to educate the boss. But if he fails to do this, he had best behave in a way that fulfills the boss's goals even though he perceives a different set of organizational objectives. THE CASE STUDIES Attitudes of purchasing managers and general managers were measured with a group of cases involving various purchasing problems. These had to be made easy enough so that non-purchasing managers could identify the problem but sufficiently subtle so that differences in viewpoint between purchasing and general management would be brought out. Case 1: Reciprocity A purchasing manager does not buy a customer's product and the customer complains. Since reciprocity is no longer fashionable, and may even be illegal, everyone is against it or at least says he is. Nevertheless, 15 percent of the company presidents (but only 4 percent of the purchasing managers) participating in the survey said they would reprimand the purchasing manager for offending an important customer, even after agreeing that the competing product is superior on its own merits. Another 7 percent (but only 2 percent of the purchasing managers) said they would react by alerting their sales manager to the obvious reciprocal opportunity that is created by taking on the new supplier. The wide differences between responses by general managers and purchasing managers can be explained in two ways, depending on one's point of view. First, a surprisingly high minority of general managers looks upon purchasing simply as an activity that might have some effect on sales and is presumably otherwise indifferent to it. Second, the salesconscious general manager might argue that the purchasing managers take too parochial a view of their jobs and overlook the inter-relationship between purchasing and marketing. Either conclusion supports the hypothesis that purchasing and general management don't think alike. Case 2: Price Buying Respondents are asked to react to a statement that the purchasing manager is a price chiseler who thinks he saves money by buying shoddy merchandise. …

Market Share and Competitive Rivalry

This article is primarily concerned with top management perceptions towards competitive rivalry in differing UK fmcg market structures. Moving away from concentration measures, the author develops a new methodology measuring “market rivalry” based on management response criteria. In all, 21 markets are examined in which indices of competition are outlined. To some extent there are certain areas where gaps could be closed by emphasis on differing elements of the marketing mix.

Strategic Goals, Perceived Uncertainty, and Economic Performance in Volatile Environments

An untested proposition in the normative strategic management literature is that strategists should make decisions based on accurate assessments of their external environments. Empirical organization theory literature holds the assumption that high levels of perceived uncertainty are detrimental to performance. Both literatures assume goal consensus to be important to effectiveness. This study investigated the relationship between top management perceptions of uncertainty, corporate Goal structures, and industry volatility in explaining economic performance in 20 firms. Findings suggested that attempts to avoid true environmental uncertainty and to seek high levels of goal congruence may be dysfunctional.

TRW's balancing act

In many ways TRW is the prototypical modern U.S. multinational. The exceptional difference is that in recent years it has wrestled with the problems of managing scale and complexity more energetically and perhaps more imaginatively than most conglomerates. Building on the bedrock of classic decentralized management—the same stuff that General Electric pioneered in the Fifties, now the standard operating structure of most U.S. multinationals—TRW has tried desperately to modify some of the increasingly apparent shortcomings of decentralization. While acknowledging that most key decisions bearing on a particular business must be made by autonomous managers using their best judgment, TRW has sought not to be a holding company operation, where management is essentially passive, but rather to bestow broad direction and strategic vision from headquarters. The architect of this program is TRW chairman Ruben Mettler. One of his key lieutenants in this effort is Edward M. Foley, vice president of planning and development. When ex‐accountant Ted Foley arrived at TRW's Cleveland headquarters in the early Seventies, after a succession of operating roles within TRW, company planning was 100 percent decentralized. His mission: to improve the “balance” (perhaps Mettler's favorite word) between divisional independence and top management's perceptions of where future challenges and opportunities lay. TRW was seeking evolutionary change without tampering with their basically decentralized corporate culture. It was an ambitious program with many pitfalls and inherent contradictions. And the struggle for “balance” isn't over yet, as Ted Foley candidly reveals in the following interview with Planning Review.

Effects of an Organizational Control System on Managerial Satisfaction and Performance

Previous research on goal setting and feedback is placed in the context of an organizational control system model. Using a sample of 100 managers, the independent impacts of three components of a control system (goal setting, measurement, and corrective actions) on managerial satisfaction and performance are examined. Results show that aspects of each of the three model components are independently related to performance but not to satisfaction. Respondents' perceptions of top management's support for the performance-appraisal system, a factor not considered in most research on feedback and goal setting, emerges as an important correlate of high performance.

Strategy, Distinctive Competence, and Organizational Performance

June 1980, volume 25 This study examines relationships among strategy, distinctive competence, and organizational performance. The analysis focuses on the perceptions of top managers in four industries (plastics, semiconductors, automotives, and air transportation). Findings indicate that these managers perceive four strategy types, Defender, Prospector, Analyzer, and Reactor, to be present within their industry. Defenders, Prospectors, and Analyzers all show competence in general and financial management. Beyond these two functions, Defenders and Prospectors have identifiable but different configurations of distinctive competence, while Analyzers' special capabilities are considerably less apparent. Reactors, as expected, have no consistent pattern of distinctive competence. Finally, although the data are only suggestive, Defenders, Prospectors, and Analyzers consistently outperform Reactors in competitive industries, but not in an industry that is highly regulated.*