Popular Management Literature Research Articles

Enablement, Constraint, and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Popular management writing and discourse fascinates me for two reasons. First, it makes me ask the questions, “Why did this writing and discourse ever become „popular??” and “Why would someone ever want to read popular management literature?” Second, popular management writing and discourse fascinates me because so much of it professes new forms of organizing and methods of managing when in fact quite a bit looks suspiciously familiar. In fact, the question of popularity may be linked to the content of the genre.

Management Tools and Techniques: A Survey

Management tools such as strategic planning, benchmarking, pay-for-performance, outsourcing, customer segmentation, reengineering, balanced scorecard, and total quality management garner considerable attention in the popular management literature. Companies throughout the world spend millions of dollars each year implementing a dozen or so of these tools. This survey examines the usage of these tools over a seven-year period, assesses user satisfaction with the tools, and attempts to correlate tool usage with company performance. It identifies tools that have been consistently used over time as well as those that seem to have been passing fads.

Benchmarking manufacturing performance in Australia and New Zealand

This paper reports on the levels of performance and improvement rates in a number of manufacturing performance indicators being achieved by typical manufacturers around the world and then discusses how well Australian and New Zealand companies are doing in the light of the competition. That competition being a sample of companies which is perhaps more typical than some of the exemplars who are so widely quoted in the popular management literature. The findings are based on the results from the 1996 Global Manufacturing Futures Survey. The results are presented in two ways ‐ by country or region and by industry. Australian and New Zealand manufacturers still have room for improvement in a number of areas, particularly quality, inventory and delivery performance. For the industry comparisons, what is striking is the range between best and worst.

The Use of Teams in an Undergraduate Management Program

The popular management literature reports an increasing emphasis on the use of teams by business firms. Moreover, corporate recruiters often remark that they are looking for college graduates who can work effectively in teams and understand management processes. This article describes the operation of a two-course undergraduate management program in which students gain experience working as managers, subordinates, and peers in team settings. The program has been in existence for more than 25 years and has been well received by both students and employers.

The Empowerment Construct in Manager-Executive Relationships

Empowerment is common to both the scholarly and the popular management literature. However, empowerment’s many interpretations have dulled the concept as a research tool. Here, empowerment is separated into perceived environment and individual behavior components. The linkage between organization environment and managerial behavior is tested with a population of 23 effective managers. It is found that an accepting or empowering environment increases the probability that the effective manager will undertake activities outside the job description, but that an empowering environment is not necessary for effective middle-manager behavior.

Some Ideological Foundations of Organizational Downsizing

This article explores the ideological foundations of organizational downsizing in the 1990s and focuses on the ideology of employee self-reliance and the ideology of debureaucratization. We document these two managerial ideologies by examining business press articles and popular management literature in which they are being promulgated. Based on past organizational research that has traced the effects of ideologies on organizations, we argue that these two ideologies increase the likelihood of downsizing. This theoretical framework is developed, and its implications for future research, management practice, and government policy are discussed.

TQM and BPR: Beyond the Beyond Myth

It is generally assumed in the popular management literature that the TQM (total quality management) and BPR (business process re‐engineering) movements are the two latest expressions of an increasing sophistication in management techniques and principles. Following this logic it only is a matter of time before they will be superseded by yet another management innovation. This paper aims to explode this ‘beyond’ myth by exposing the underlying logic of TQM and BPR implementation patterns in two case companies. Empirical findings will be related back to critical approaches to the study of TQM and BPR. Concrete suggestions as to how to move beyond the quick fix managerial mode will be proposed. Our approach is intended to provide a counterweight to the unreflective discourse surrounding TQM and BPR by breaking open the naturalness of this discourse. It supplies a few landmarks for managers and researchers to take a step back, hesitate, and reflect on the phenomenon of planned organizational change.

Reengineering: Business Change of Mythic Proportions?

Reengineering is a powerful change approach that can bring about radical improvement sin business processes. However, the popular management literature has created more myth than practical methodology regarding reengineering. It has relied more heavily on hype than on research, common sense, or lessons of the past. In this paper, we attempt to demythologize some key aspects of reengineering by describing what we have observed in our research and practice. Seven reengineering myths are identified, discussed, and dispelled. By separating rhetoric from reality, we hope to help others to have reasonable expectations for success with their reengineering initiatives.

Crisis Management in a Small Business

Explains why, of all organizations at risk in the current economic recession, small businesses are the most vulnerable. Confirms that downturns are typically rapid and the prognosis poor, and that the emotional and financial hardships of personal bankruptcy are often severe. Challenges the popular management literature which urges decision makers to follow their intuition, on the ground that intuition is frequently biased and therefore likely to result in the wrong choices. In contrast to the intuitive response to crisis, which is contraction, seeks to demonstrate, through two case studies of small solicitors′ firms, why expansion, although it is apparently the more risky option, may be the best means of survival.

Adopt a new philosophy: the TQM challenge

The popular management literature extols the benefits of total quality management (TQM) as a panacea for the productivity problems associated with traditional management. Powerful statements on the value of quality as a competitive weapon have been advanced, attributing a multitude of benefits to the approach, including increased efficiency and productivity, increased worker commitment and performance, and improved customer satisfaction. However, barriers to the success of TQM have been less frequently addressed. Implicit assumptions about the efficacy of worker participation in facilitating the total quality agenda are evident in the promotion of employee participation as the ‘management’ dimension of TQM. A body of literature in the behavioural science field has contributed empirical evidence that suggests that the consequences of employee participation in decision-making may vary. In fact, under certain circumstances, worker participation may actually be dysfunctional to the organization that uses it. ...

The ethics of charismatic leadership: submission or liberation?

Executive Overview Charismatic business leaders are often heralded as corporate heroes by orchestrating turnarounds, launching new enterprises, engaging in organizational renewal or change, and obtaining extraordinary performance from individuals. The effectiveness of these leaders may be interpreted by executives as an unqualified recommendation for such leadership in their organizations. However the risks involved in charismatic leadership are at least as large as the promises. What is missing from current discussions about charisma is consideration of its darker side. In this article we focus on a paradox that emerges whenever one discusses leaders such as Robert Campeau, Max DePree, Lee Iacocca, Ross Johnson, Ralph Larsen, and Michael Milken: why are some charismatic leaders destructive, while others are beneficial to followers, organizations, and even entire societies? Drawing on the results from an interview study as well as the popular management literature, we describe the qualities and values tha...

Why are small R&D organizations more productive?

Many R&D managers believe that small R&D organizations are more productive than large ones, a view that is reflected in the popular management literature of the 1980s. The author examines theoretical arguments for the possible advantages of smallness in R&D organizations, proposes an ideal product development organization using the techniques of control theory to simulate information flows, and compares the ideal model with survey data from five R&D organizations. Although direct contact with customers has been shown to be the best source of information about new product concepts, the majority of the product development engineers and engineering managers responding to a survey reported that they speak with customers either one or twice a year, or not at all. It is concluded that merely making R&D organizations small may prove disappointing unless careful attention is paid to organizational policies affecting communications flows, direct access to customers, opportunistic planning, and financial incentives for good performance. >

Peters and Waterman Revisited: The Unended Quest for Excellence

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman's In Search of Excellence' has sold more than five million copies. Rather quickly it has become one of most often quoted books in popular management literature. Many business firms reportedly are attempting to conform to eight principles of excellence book identifies. Daniel Carroll proposes that it is informal manner in which Peters and Waterman present what appears to be practical managerial advice that has appealed to business people.2 This style of presentation and relatively uncomplicated approach to practicality is carried a step further in Peters and Nancy Austin sequel, A Passion for Excellence.3 Here authors suggest that only four-not eight-attributes must be mastered for a firm to achieve Although this book has been criticized for failing to break much new ground, it has sold many copies. Peter Drucker proposes that it is reduction of complex business problems to a small number of seemingly practical actions that is attractive to American managers.4 But despite commercial success and general acceptance of In Search of Excellence, concerns about it have been expressed. Carroll, for example, criticized Peters and Waterman for their failure to specify precisely how companies were analyzed and how eight attributes of excellence were identified. He also suggested that authors' supporting evidence (an occasional reference to financial analysis, a series of anecdotes about companies, and quotes from executives) was incomplete and even wondered if companies were actually visited and how judgments and findings were synthesized and corraborated. Carroll concluded his review of book with suggestion that authors' dependence on secondary sources and potentially defective research design disallowed any contribution work may have made to management theory. Bruce Johnson, Ashok Natarajan, and Alfred Rappaport expressed concern regarding performance indices Peters and Waterman used.5 They argue that six items used (compound asset growth, compound equity growth, ratio of market value to book value, average return on total capital, average return on equity, and average return on sales) measure only a firm's financial performance. Further, they propose that the dominant economic goal of a firm is creation of shareholder wealth, and suggest that a firm's economic performance is outcome Peters and Waterman should have examined. They contend that judging corporate excellence solely on financial (accounting-based) measures can be misleading and that return to shareholders is true measure of a firm's excellence. Finally, an examination of excellent firms' performance since publication of In Search of Excellence, reported in November 5, 1984 issue of Business Week, revealed that many companies-such as Johnson & Johnson, Dana, and 3M-have encountered difficulties. One may question whether these companies were in fact excellent in first place. Another fundamental question is whether Peters and Waterman's eight attributes fully explain what is required for a firm to achieve Under close scrutiny, some of prescriptions for excellence are not completely consistent with contemporary management thought. Michael Porter emphasizes that firms operating in different competitive environments should formulate and implement strategies that are consistent with their unique situations and conditions. It may be necessary for firms in different environmental settings to develop more (or less) flexible structures. Alfred Chandler adds that a match should exist between a firm's strategy and structural form. In contrast to contingency management approach, Peters and Waterman propose same eight principles of excellence for all firms competing in all types of environments.' It is also possible that Peters and Waterman definition of excellence is too narrow. We've already noted that financial performance alone was examined by two researchers. Gordon Donaldson and Jay Lorsch found that strategists' decisions are intended at least minimally to satisfy demands of three constituencies: capital market-shareholders and major suppliers of debt capital; product market-primary customers, suppliers, and host communities; and organizational members-employees.7 Barry Baysinger, Gerry Keim, and Carl Zeithaml suggest importance of a fourth constituency-the political and regulatory one, made up of federal and state governmental agencies.8 Thus, accounting indices and a vague innovativeness rating may not adequately capture all factors associated with a firm's ability to achieve longterm Finally, while research design and execution procedures used by Peters and Waterman appear to be rigorous, data were not included in book for readers to examine. As a result, one cannot review their data analyses to verify results. It seems, then, that Peters and Waterman work may be one of advocacy rather than of science. When advocacy dominates

Shared values make a difference: An empirical test of corporate culture

AbstractIs the recent popular management literature on corporate culture and cultural values just a passing fad or is it highlighting some fundamental organizational realities? The results from a recent nationwide survey of American managers shows, we are convinced, that clearly articulated organizational values do make a significant difference in the lives of employees, as well as in their organization's performance. This article is an effort to integrate this broad‐based data on individual managers' values with the reported experience of successful organizations that pay careful attention to their culture. It also offers ideas on how human resource managers can facilitate the alignment of personal and organizational values.