Popular Management Literature Research Articles

The Blurry Line Between Corporation and Cult: A Retrospective Autoethnographic Study

In popular management literature corporations are sometimes loosely compared to cults. The comparison is a severe allegation as it implies the transgression of subordinate employees’ integrity. This paper explores to what extent such comparisons with cults are warranted as well as the implications this has for the practice of corporate culture management. On grounds of the author’s unique, first-hand experience in both corporate and cultic environments a retrospective autoethnographic (RAE) approach was chosen to further explore the supposed resemblance. The comparison is structured along Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform and reveals that although akin to cults in all aspects corporations also fundamentally differ due to the infeasibility, at least for now, of controlling the corporate environment in totalist fashion. This might explain why so many attempts to change corporate cultures fail as these initiatives are based on the anachronistic idea that culture change can be “implemented” by somehow “inculcating” employees with “company values.” A sanitized form of brainwashing that fails in the corporate environment.

What leaders tell and employees hear – an intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership

Purpose Storytelling is considered an effective leadership behavior. However, research on storytelling’s effects on followers is scarce and disconnected from leadership theory. This paper aims to explore the perspectives of both leaders and followers with a focus on interaction-based moderators and affective mediators of storytelling effects, building on transformational leadership and leader-member exchange theory. Design/methodology/approach Data from semi-structured interviews (N = 27 independent leaders and followers) were analyzed with a combined content-analytic and grounded theory approach. Findings Leaders’ intended effects of storytelling (transformation, relationship and information) evoked either positive or negative affective reactions in followers depending on how well the story met followers’ needs (need-supply fit), the adequacy of the input load transported by the story (story load) and how followers interpreted their leaders’ story (story appraisal). Followers’ positive or negative affective reactions translated into positive effects (corresponding to leaders’ intended effects) or negative effects (contradicting leaders’ intended effects), respectively. Results were integrated into an intention-perception model of storytelling. Originality/value Proposing an intention-perception model of storytelling, this paper explains when and why unintended effects of storytelling happen, and thus provides an alternative view to the one-fits-all approach on leaders’ storytelling advocated by popular management literature.

La difusión del lenguaje terapéutico a través de la literatura gerencial y de autoayuda

La sociedad del “nuevo espíritu del capitalismo” se caracteriza por la profusión del lenguaje terapéutico entre la población, un tipo de lenguaje que responde al desarrollo del malestar que la posmodernidad y el capitalismo feroz causan en los individuos. En dicho contexto, valores como la autonomía, el éxito, la creatividad y el empoderamiento pierden su poder de transformación social para convertirse en herramientas disciplinarias al servicio del sistema neoliberal. En el presente artículo abordaremos dos herramientas que consideramos, contribuyen a la difusión de este tipo de lenguaje: la literatura gerencial dirigida a la clase directiva y la literatura de autoayuda dirigida al público general. Sostendremos que ambos tipos de literatura se caracterizan por un fuerte componente disciplinario y ponen en juego las mismas lógicas discursivas y valores, buscando la mercantilización de las capacidades de los individuos.
 Palabras clave: autoayuda, lenguaje terapéutico, régimen disciplinario, neoliberalismo.

ÇAĞDAŞ BİR YÖNETİM YAKLAŞIMI: PERSONEL GÜÇLENDİRME

Empowerment begins to be an important strategy in popular management literature. It is employed by organizations in response to current unstable market conditions. Business pressures in organizations are characterized by competition, globalization and environmentally sustainable production. In order to meet these pressures human resource professionals benefit from empowerment. In this article, empowerment analyses theoretical framework.

Woman, manage your life! The Life-Work Balance Discourse in Popular Management Literature Aimed at Women*

Management posts have traditionally been held by men. Consequently, the business management normative model has dictated the rules women should follow. Among other reasons, this is why the issue of work-life balance has been sidelined in popular management literature. In keeping with these male-dictated rules, it was always blithely assumed that the manager's role was exclusively linked with his public presence — in other words, family and care issues were left out of the equation. However, as more and more women have become managers, new issues have shaped the management agenda. In this paper, we study how the issue of work-life balance has been incorporated in popular management literature for women. We are particularly interested in identifying whether the discourse on women’s presence in management enshrines: (1) a transformative, egalitarian vision (requiring policies fostering work-life balance), or (2) a view that sees women’s traditional household roles as something belonging to the private sphere, leaving them disadvantagedand bereft of support as they pursue their management careers.

Feminism vs Neoliberalism: A Critical Reflection on Women's Business Leadership

In the present article a review of the doctoral thesis Gender and management within the neoliberal framework. A critical analysis for feminist leaderships to emerge is presented. This thesis builds a dialectic space among business ethics, feminist philosophy, sociology, critical management studies and leadership studies to reflect on the possibilities of articulating a feminist leadership in a framework of accused neoliberalism. The objective is to identify this model and to reflect on the possibility of configuring principles of action which, based on the gender perspective, allow us to rethink the space of organizations to achieve equality. The hypothesis is that the women leader model, divulged through the popular management literature, contains an essentialist character that reproduces the gender dichotomies and the homo oeconomicus rationality. The results reveal that a neoliberal drift prevails in the women’s leadership model disclosed in popular management literature.

Does Popular Management Literature Lead Managers Up the Linguistic Garden Path? A Comparison of Popular Prescriptive ‘How-to’ Management Texts and a Descriptive Analysis of Workplace Interaction

Popular management literature promotes the idea that certain management styles have a reflexive relationship with certain ways of talking. Consequently, by using prescribed ways of talking, certain management styles will be achieved and that, reflexively, certain management styles favor certain ways of talking. Using conversation analysis (CA) as a research methodology, this paper compares the prescriptive language advice of popular management literature as regards facilitation with video-taped data of naturally-occurring talk in a business meeting. Findings indicate that the intuitive insights on language use offered by popular management literature ignore the indexical nature of language use whereby the ‘meaning’ of any utterance and what that utterance does depends on its context of use. In short, such popular literature may lead managers up the (linguistic) garden path and may in fact be of little help in practice. The paper ends with a call for language advice in such literature to be more descriptive and less prescriptive.

More Similar than Different: Millennials in the U. S. Building Trades

Purpose The objective of this study is to investigate the extent to which generational differences exist among skilled workers within a single construction trade. Although Millennials have been the focus of attention in media reports and popular management literature, little attention has been paid to empirical examinations of skilled trade workers.

Pop-management: tales of passion, power and profit

This paper analyzes the phenomenon of popular management literature, proposing a reflection about its role in the managers’ subjectivity. Pop-management literature comprises books and magazines produced by the business media for fast consumption. Adopting the psychoanalytical approach to fairy tales as a perspective, we conducted a content analysis of two success stories published in the business media. We observed that the structure and key elements of fairy tales are present in these stories. We argue that the success stories help to reduce tensions and mitigate frustrations, supposedly offering answers for anxieties and professional problems. We also argue that continued access to these texts might keep individuals linked to their power fantasies and therefore might affect their development and maturing processes.

Generational differences in personality and motivation

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to examine whether personality and motivational driver differences exist across three generations of working Australians: Baby Boomers, Gen Xs, and Gen Ys.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Occupational Personality Questionnaire and the Motivation Questionnaire, the study examined cross‐sectional differences in personality and motivational drivers across three generations.FindingsThe results are not supportive of the generational stereotypes that have been pervasive in the management literature and the media. Specifically, few meaningful differences were found between the three generations. Moreover, even when differences have been observed, these have related more to age than generation.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the key limitations is the use of cross‐sectional data. To further explore this issue, it would be interesting to undertake a longitudinal study to assess personality preferences and motivational drivers of the different generations, when the participants are at the same age or the same point in their career.Practical implicationsThe research emphasizes the importance of managing individuals by focusing on individual differences rather than relying on generational stereotypes, which may not be as prevalent as the existing literature suggests.Originality/valueManagers and HR professionals may find the lack of differences across generations interesting and refreshing, in contrast with the popular management literature.

Examples as persuasive argument in popular management literature

In this article we take the use of examples as a means to explore the processes of persuasion and consensus-construction involved in the legitimation of popular management knowledge. Examples, as concrete instances or events used to substantiate a wider argument, have been variedly regarded in different research traditions. Classical logic and rhetoric have considered them an inferior form of argument, useful for pedagogic or public debate but inadequate for higher forms of thought. This spirit still permeates much psychological research on communication, where the great persuasive import of examples has been contrasted with more scientific and formal resources for argumentation. Considered in this light, the contingent and episodic nature of examples seems to make them cognitively inferior to explicit statements of general rules. However, various strands of research on the nature of scientific knowledge have shown that implicit forms of knowledge are an integral part of scientific expertise. Examples may thus be more central to disciplinary thought than the conventional normative view seems to allow. In this spirit, we explore the use of examples in a hotly contested field, that of popular discourse on business and management. The profusion of examples in this kind of writing has been often noted, and almost as often criticized. We seek to explore more fully how these examples are deployed, examining the discursive devices that mark examples within the development of the text, their function as rhetorical moves, and their role in presenting arguments that are never otherwise made explicit.

Unfolding the Dance of Team Learning: A Metaphorical Investigation of Collective Learning

This article engages with the ongoing debate surrounding the validity of collective learning methodologies found in the popular management literature, such as team learning. It explores some of the alleged lacunae in these dialogic methodologies by exploring the metaphors invoked by their proponents. This exploration employs a metaphorical framework, which then takes one of these metaphors (dance) and unfolds it as a more substantive `model' metaphor—rather than apply it in a superficial way, as appears to be the case currently. This development, in turn, permits the integration of an alternative sociocultural view of collective learning. Consequently, dialogue in collective learning becomes represented as divergent and multifarious, rather than merely as convergent upon simplistic outcomes. The potentials of the dance metaphor are examined, alongside a brief discussion of the methodological approaches that could facilitate further exploration, making it possible to highlight aspects for consideration in further research.

Simple Models of Discrete Choice and Their Performance in Bandit Experiments

Recent operations management papers model customers as solving multiarmed bandit problems, positing that consumers use a particular heuristic when choosing among suppliers. These papers then analyze the resulting competition among suppliers and mathematically characterize the equilibrium actions. There remains a question, however, as to whether the original customer models on which the analyses are built are reasonable representations of actual consumer choice. In this paper, we empirically investigate how well these choice rules match actual performance as people solve two-armed Bernoulli bandit problems. We find that some of the most analytically tractable models perform best in tests of model fit. We also find that the expected number of consecutive trials of a given supplier is increasing in its expected quality level, with increasing differences, a result consistent with the models' predictions as well as with loyalty effects described in the popular management literature.

The characteristics of a high performance organization

PurposeSeeks to identify the characteristics of high performance organizations (HPO) so managers can start improving their organizations in such a way that these also become HPOs.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a meta‐analysis of the results of 91 HPO studies performed in the last and present decade.FindingsThe results of the analysis offer a first picture of what a modern HPO looks like and provides the characteristics managers need to focus on in order to turn their companies into HPOs.Research limitations/implicationsDespite an extensive literature search, potentially valuable studies might have been missed. Also, the studies look by definition at what organizations have done in the past, therefore not necessarily giving a guarantee that these characteristics will also be valid and of importance for the dynamic future. Further HPO research should focus on validating the characteristics found in this study so that managers can start improving their organizations with confidence. Also, additional research should aim to validate the link between the HPO characteristics and organizational performance, in order to make sure it is worthwhile for companies to improve themselves in the direction indicated in this article.Practical implicationsAs it is the task of every manager to realize the goals of the organization by achieving outstanding performance in the organizational unit for which he or she is responsible, managers are under great pressure to deal effectively with trends and developments. Therefore, the more that is known about the elements that make up sustainable organizational performance, the easier it becomes for managers to improve their organizations in a focused way.Originality/valueThe results of the search for HPO characteristics have been documented mainly in the popular management literature: until now, scientific research into HPOs has not been abundant. Therefore most evidence is anecdotal, consisting of surveys and case studies. The research described in this article forms the start of a thorough investigation of HPO characteristics, which is executed in a scientific way while at the same time yielding practical results with which managers can start improving their organizations.

Toward zero management learning organizations

PurposeTo determine the percentage of organizations that have moved beyond best practice and lean manufacturing toward zero management learning organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe research utilized a structured undisguised survey by Weiers to generate the data. A quantitative survey was utilized to elicit information on the various issues identified from a comprehensive review of the literature. The second stage entailed four case study companies randomly selected from the learning organizations identified from the earlier quantitative research In the first stage dichotomous, multiple choice and open questions were utilized while the second qualitative research utilized semi‐structured interviews on a longitudinal basis.FindingsThe findings suggest that those companies pursuing active learning strategies are more likely to possess those attributes that constitute the bedrock of learning organizations. The findings also show the internal drivers to be the need to improve productivity, operational crises, cost reduction and corporate directives while external drivers centered on technology, capacity, customer pressure, new entrants and price sensitivity.Research limitations/implicationsOne limitation is that no definitive rules have been devised for managers to transform their firms into learning entities. The view of organizational learning presented here is less straightforward and more complex than those definitions typically offered in consultancy reports and the popular management literature. However, this perspective is more likely to strike a cord with practicing managers as it conforms more closely to their own tacit understanding of the concept. Other limitations result from practical and methodological constraints.Practical implicationsThis research has lead to a new learning model that facilitates individuals, groups or organizations to accurately locate themselves on their own unique learning curve cost effectively, the interactive model can be reviewed at the following web site www.thelearningmodel.com Originality/value – This paper will help focus company leaders on the more critical softer issues that drive organizational performance. It identifies the key learning parameters common to all high performing organizations. It should be of value to all management levels from the chief executive to front line staff. When utilized in conjunction with the interactive flash learning model sited earlier individuals or organizations will be able to identify training and development deficiencies cost effectively).

When knowledge management meets HR strategy: an exploration of personalization-retention and codification-recruitment configurations

The resource-based view and the knowledge-based view are important developments in strategic management theory, and ‘knowledge management’ has exploded in the popular management literature. There is, however, little empirical literature that explores the connections between firms' attempts at knowledge management and their HR strategies. In this paper, we focus particularly on links between knowledge management and staffing practices. High-technology manufacturing was selected as the site of our research, as high-technology firms rely on highly skilled employees to innovate and develop new products and are therefore an ideal environment for exploring the strategies employed for both managing knowledge, and recruiting and retaining employees. Drawing particularly on the work of Hansen et al. (1999), this paper identifies and explores two fits between knowledge management and HR strategy or what we call KM-HR configurations: ‘personalization-retention’ and ‘codification-recruitment’. We argue that there is no one way to manage knowledge and its links to HRM and build a simple framework of potential KM-HR configurations with propositions for future research.

Towards an integrated contingency framework for MAS sophistication: Case studies on the scope of accounting instruments in Dutch power and gas companies

On a regular basis, the popular management literature and business consultants try to convince organisations that they should introduce recently-developed, sophisticated management accounting techniques. Unfortunately, researchers who study the introduction of these techniques often find that success is not always guaranteed. This may imply that the appropriateness of using the resulting sophisticated accounting instruments depends on the circumstances in which these instruments are being used. This would give rise to the need to adopt a contingency theory perspective. Based on case studies in two power and gas companies, this paper identifies several contingency factors for the sophistication of accounting instruments. In addition, it makes a contribution to the development of an integrated framework that can be used to explain the sophistication of management accounting systems (MAS). The paper concentrates on a single dimension of MAS sophistication, namely scope.

Why is management a cliché?

This article introduces the term demotics of management by asking why so much management literature reads like a cliche. Typically this question has been approached by seeing the cliche as strategic. This article instead views the cliche as symptomatic. It marks a growing problem—how can management track labor out of the workplace and into the realm of social reproduction, a realm that is increasingly, with the tendency of immaterial labor, directly productive. This problem has produced not only the explosion of popular management literature, particularly in the United States, in the last 20 years, but also what might be called a demotics of management. This term may be understood as the proliferation of places where labor-power might be found. But the term also names management’s growing limits when faced with the dispersion and intensification of what Marx called the social individual. Management cannot adequately measure the labor it finds, and therefore must resort to miraculating what it encounters, to use a concept from the collaboration of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The crisis of measurement brought on by the growing dominance of what Marx named the General Intellect is a profound challenge not only to management but specifically to its recording-machine, accounting. With the mounting crisis in recording, the very frenzy of popular management discourse reveals more than ever the threat that social reproductive labor already possesses the sociality to value itself differently and independently. The demotics of management thus marks both the proliferation of management in daily life, but also the prior, or what C.L.R. James might have called the completed, organization of immaterial labor that management encounters. Left to repeat what is already completed management can only utter the cliche, however, manically. At the same time, the cliche in management literature does mark the accomplishment of the circuit of exchange value, as it has since Taylor, even as it hints at the possibility of the separation from capital of a mass intellectuality where socialized labor may come to account for itself.

Confronting Strategic Inertia in a Top Management Team: Learning from Failure

Recently there has been a growing interest in the use of scenario-planning techniques and related procedures such as cognitive mapping as a basis for facilitating organizational learning and strategic renewal. The overwhelming impression conveyed within the popular management literature is that the application of these techniques invariably leads to successful outcomes. To the extent that this is not the case, the absence of documented accounts of instances where these techniques have failed may mislead would-be users into embarking on inappropriate courses of action, unaware of their fundamental limitations. In keeping with a number of recent calls to make organizational research and management theory more relevant to the world of practice, we present a reflective account of our own (largely unsuccessful) attempt to apply these potentially powerful methods of intervention in the context of a private sector organization. Drawing on the rich seam of qualitative data gathered over the course of our work with the senior management team of the organization concerned, we explore the reasons why our attempts to utilize these methods did not yield the benefits anticipated. The data are analyzed using Janis and Mann's (1977) Conflict Theory of Decision Making. It is argued that the primary reason why our process intervention failed is that the participants adopted a series of defensive avoidance strategies, amplified by a series of psychodynamic processes initiated by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We contend that these defensive avoidance strategies served as a means of coping with the unacceptably high levels of decisional stress, which arose as a result of having to confront a variety of alternatives, each with potentially threatening consequences for the longterm wellbeing of the organization.

Gender typing of the successful manager: A stereotype reconsidered

The feminization of management is a recurring theme in both popular and scientific management literature. However, several studies have shown that successful managers are generally attributed predominantly masculine characterics. In this study, gender typing of the manager role was studied in a sample of 143 management students (74 men, 69 women) in the Netherlands. As was hypothesized, on a checklist with masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral traits, masculine characteristics were rated as more applicable to successful managers than feminine characteristics, but gender-neutral characteristics were rated even more applicable. Analysis of the wording used to describe a successful manager on an open-ended question showed that participants used either gender-neutral words or (generic) “he.” This finding indicates that the successful manager is still imagined as a man, even though on a checklist this manager seems to possess predominantly gender-neutral traits. It is concluded that more methodological variety is needed in the study of gender typing of successful managers.