Management Scholars Research Articles

Edith penrose’s influence on economic analysis, strategic management and political economy

ABSTRACT Edith Penrose is best known for her classic book The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, originally published in 1959, but she also made major contributions in other fields, including patents, the oil industry, and development economics. This special double issue of the International Review of Applied Economics publishes recent research from a range of leading economists and management scholars from across the world, either explicitly analysing Penrose’s contribution, or else analysing topics from firms’ collaborations with universities through to the practice and consequences of share buy-backs, which demonstrate that a Penrosian perspective helps to illuminate the reality of such processes.

Taking the Road Less Travelled: How Corpus‐Assisted Discourse Studies Can Enrich Qualitative Explorations of Large Textual Datasets

AbstractHow might interpretivist qualitative researchers tackle large data sets consisting of millions or even billions of words? Corpus‐assisted discourse studies (CADS) is the approach we explore here. Specifically designed for the analysis of voluminous textual data, it offers a recognized empirical approach for making sense of such data. But it does so within an epistemology that understands language to be central in shaping our understanding of the world around us, so that CADS can assist researchers in revealing the social dynamics of the text – including the ideology and power that is latent in many such corpora. Bringing together the training of applied linguists and a management scholar, we discuss the background to CADS and its differences from text‐mining approaches such as topic modelling, which have been more widely used in management studies to date. Focusing on the needs of people who are new to the approach, we then offer a worked example to show CADS’ potential in exploring a management‐related corpus. Our paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach and its potential for future discursively orientated management research – especially in the context of the rise of ‘big data’.

French and language ideologies in a multilingual European Union institution: Re-constructing the meaning of language choice at work

This qualitative study investigates stances in reflective interviews to identify cultural patterns that shape the meaning of language choice within an international unit of an EU institution in Luxembourg. We employ the analytical concept of “language cringe” and propose a complementary concept, “language push,” to showcase the effects and reproduction of language ideologies in day-to-day talk about languages at work. Our analysis reveals that, within a workplace culture that encourages flexible and convivial use of multiple languages, French speakers have to deal with the effects of the “logic of honour,” which is culturally associated with the use of French in France. Based on our findings, we suggest that language choice should be considered a cross cultural dimension in multilingual environments, and that language-sensitive management scholarship should broaden its considerations beyond the traditional issues of language proficiency, namely by inspecting relational and affective factors that shape language use in multilingual workplaces.

The impact of presidential elections on workplace satisfaction in the U.S. federal agencies: A longitudinal study (2004–2019)

While job satisfaction has been widely studied by public management scholars, little research has examined the impact of external political events on the federal workforce, and specifically how presidential elections might affect satisfaction over time. Using Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data spanning sixteen years (2004–2019) and three U.S. presidential administrations (Bush, Obama, and Trump), we employ hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to investigate how presidential elections affect workplace satisfaction at the agency level. We find that workplace satisfaction does shift in response to presidential elections, decreasing during the first terms while increasing in the second terms. We further find workplace satisfaction is largely unaffected by federal agency’s ideological alignment with the President’s party. These findings suggest that neutral competence endures among civil servants over time and points to the federal bureaucracy’s resilience in the face of ongoing political change.

Organizations, Institutions, and Symbols: Introduction to a Point‐Counterpoint Conversation

AbstractThe symbol is one of the key concepts in organization and management scholarship. Yet as indicated by the authors in this debate, it has not been adequately conceptualized and as such it remains rather blunt and opaque. In what is the first systematic conceptual debate on this topic, the authors of this Point‐Counterpoint debate seek to address this issue. The respective essays, despite marked differences in their approaches, offer novel and thought‐provoking accounts of what the symbol is and how it works. Taken together, these contributions offer a series of exciting new avenues to guide and redirect future research in this area.

Migration, ethnic otherness and the ‘refugee crisis’ in Germany: Why more conflict is better integration, and how this reconfigures positive cross-cultural management scholarship

Otherness in contemporary cross-cultural management (CCM) studies often emerges from migration and refugee movements, with ensuing integration challenges. In this context, ‘difference’ is perceived as being more problematic than enriching, and this makes it difficult to contribute to integration via a Positive Organizational Scholarship. Introducing the sociology of conflict, I propose that the success of a positive cross-cultural management engagement with Otherness should not be measured in terms of the degree to which difference is overcome and integrated, but in terms of the degree to which more parties engage more deeply with relevant conflict and friction. Investigating Otherness by means of a sociology of conflict approach thus radically changes the assumptions, research agendas, practices, presumed goals and potential responsibilities of a contemporary cross-cultural management theory and practice: deeper conflict signifies better integration, and assuming otherwise is both unrealistic and mis-fitting. I exemplify this reverse logic, and how to employ it, with a discussion of the ‘refugee crisis’ and the dynamics of ‘migration background’ in Germany. Thus reconfigured, integration in Germany emerges as more successful than is commonly believed.

When HRM meets politics: Interactive effects of high‐performance work systems, organizational politics, and political skill on job performance

AbstractRecently, scholars in strategic human resource management have attended to internal dynamics that give rise to variability within organizations. Given that workplace politics is an inherent and inevitable part of organizational life, this study investigates the interplay of organizational politics (OP) and an individual's political skill (PS) in shaping the relationship between high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and employees' performance behaviors. Utilizing multilevel, multisource data collected in two phases from 187 employees nested within 47 workgroups, we explore cross‐level three‐way interaction effects involving group‐level HPWS, OP, and individual‐level PS on task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. The results reveal that the positive impact of HPWS is more pronounced among individuals with strong PS when OP is low. Conversely, in high OP environments, the HPWS–performance relationship becomes negative for those with poor PS, while individuals with strong PS continue to exhibit positive outcomes. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the intricate and nuanced nature of the HPWS–performance relationship.

Theorising worker voice for supply chain justice – communication, representation and recognition

PurposeThe paper explores the notion of worker voice in terms of its implications for supply chain justice. The paper proposes the value of the recognition perspective on social justice for framing workers’ experiences in global supply chains and identifies opportunities for the advancement of the worker voice agenda with recognition justice in mind.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a conceptual approach to explore the notion of worker voice in supply chains in terms of the recognition perspective on social justice.FindingsSustainable supply chain management (SSCM) scholarship has considered worker voice in terms of two key paradigms, which we term communication and representation. To address recognition justice for workers in global supply chains, the worker voice agenda must consider designing worker voice mechanisms to close recognition gaps for workers with marginalised identities; the shared responsibilities of supply chain actors to listen alongside the expectation of workers to use their voice; and the expansion of the concept of worker voice to cut across home-work boundaries.Originality/valueThe paper offers conceptual clarity on the emerging notion of worker voice in SSCM and is the first to interrogate the implications of recognition justice for the emergent worker voice agenda. It articulates key opportunities for future research to further operationalise worker voice upon a recognition foundation.

Words of a Leader: The Importance of Intersectionality for Understanding Women Leaders’ Use of Dominant Language and How Others Receive It

Management scholars have long examined gender disparities in leaders’ communication and followers’ reactions. There is, however, a paucity of research that takes an intersectional perspective. This article takes that step, using an intersectional lens to examine women leaders’ use of dominant language and how others receive it. Leveraging advances in natural-language processing, I analyzed the stereotype content of more than 250,000 Congressional remarks (Study 1) and almost one million tweets (Study 2) by leaders. Women leaders referenced dominance more than men did (using more words like “powerful”), violating stereotypes that depict women as submissive. However, as theory on racialized gender stereotypes suggests, this effect was unique to White leaders. Two additional studies revealed backlash to women leaders’ use of dominant language. Analyzing almost 18,000 editorials revealed the more that women leaders referenced dominance, the more they were portrayed as dominant but also cold. Effects were strongest for Black and Latina women (Study 3). Finally, an experiment using simulated social media profiles found the more that Black women (but not men) leaders referenced dominance, the more voters rated them as less likeable, a result that was unique to Black leaders (Study 4). The article demonstrates the critical importance of intersectionality for understanding gender inequality in leaders’ communication and its reception by the media and the public.

Designing, executing, and publishing replication research: Best practices for successfully taking replication ideas from conceptualization to publication

Management scholars now recognize the important contribution that replication research can make to our field by examining the robustness of scientific findings and boundary conditions of previously tested relationships. Replications can also serve as an important tool for training doctoral students. Despite these strong arguments for conducting replication research, the field has been slow to respond to calls for increased use of replication. In part, this may be influenced by concerns that reviewers will discount the contribution of replication research. A less frequently discussed barrier to replication, however, is that due to a lack of replication training, engaging in this type of research constitutes embarking on unfamiliar territory. In this piece, I attempt to address the need for replication research training by providing researchers with a roadmap for taking replication ideas from conceptualization to publication, drawing on my own experience publishing replications and observations in the evolving replication literature.

Sport Management: Lessons From Yesterday, Applications for Today, Thoughts on Tomorrow

Sport management programs continue to expand and be a popular major in institutions of higher education. The aim of this article is to share the contributions made by National Academy of Kinesiology fellows to the growth of sport management. A brief background of sport management is presented followed by an overview of each fellow’s unique contributions. More specifically, lessons learned from our first three fellows in sport management and contributions made by current members are highlighted. Next, a discussion of the current status and critical issues facing sport management is presented. The concluding section includes scholars’ thoughts and directions for future scholarship in sport management.

Determinants of Operations Management Faculty Salary: Is Publishing in “A” Journals the “Bottom Line”?

This study investigates the determinants of salary for operations management scholars. Is it as some opine that the only thing that matters is the publication count in “A” journals? How do the full range of activities: research, teaching, service, and administration, affect salary? The present research seeks to shed light on these questions and is predicated on a data set that consists of the research, teaching, and service outcomes, along with salary, for a full census of operations management faculty at 22 public universities (227 faculty) for base, 9-month salary and a subset of 15 universities (150 faculty) for total annual compensation. The results demonstrate partial support for the hypotheses that only “A” publications are financially rewarded, with publications in Production and Operations Management having the highest correlation with salary. The salary reward for publishing in “A” journals is unaffected by number of coauthors. Publications in other academic journals, top-tier practitioner journals, and top journals in sister-fields, and measures of impact, such as citations, H-index, and research awards provide no additional explanatory value of salary. Likewise, service and teaching awards do not add explanatory value. Female Full Professors are paid roughly $23,000 less in base salary than their male counterparts. Non-publishing factors that significantly contribute to salary include changing university affiliations (only for Associate and Full Professors), taking on administrative duties, as well as certain qualitative measures such as achieving Fellow status at the Production and Operations Management Society.

Cultivating Communities of Practice: From Institutions to Practices

Abstract Where do communities of practice (CoPs) come from? What relationship do they entertain with institutions within or across which they develop? To what extent can institutions actually create CoPs? These questions are crucial, if only because of the benefits that CoPs are expected to bring, from innovation to learning to shared best practices. This article suggests that the most important relationship is between the CoP and its founding practice, which is ontologically prior to the CoP. The coming into existence of a CoP thus depends on the pre-existence of a founding practice and practical alignments. This argument counterbalances the two prevailing positions in the literature on CoPs, which focus on institutions instead of practices. In most IR literature on the topic, scholars have viewed CoPs as emerging “organically” and informally at the margins of institutions in a bottom-up fashion and from there often coming back to influence institutions bottom-up. Knowledge management scholars and institutional actors themselves have instead embraced a more agential and performative top-down approach by which CoPs can and should be cultivated to foster knowledge creation in business and international institutions alike. The article explores these positions with the help of examples drawn mainly from the European Union’s experience, including the Joint Research Centre’s attempt to cultivate CoPs from 2016 onwards.

Embracing non‐Western Contexts in Management Scholarship

AbstractManagement is a global phenomenon. Yet, the vast majority of empirical investigations and theoretical explanations of management, managers and those being managed that are published in leading management journals are based on research that predominantly originates from Western contexts, particularly the USA and the larger European countries. Non‐Western contexts, in turn, reside at the periphery of mainstream management scholarship. This is problematic for multiple reasons. It provides an inherently limited view on the contextual factors that may explain variation in management practices across the globe, and it leads to a reductionist view of non‐Western contexts to offer little more than a means for teasing out the boundary conditions of mainstream ‘Western’ theories. This exclusion of non‐Western contexts has resulted in a marginalization of non‐Western scholarly voices, who are often hesitant to submit their research to leading scholarly journals. To address these interrelated problems, we use this introduction to the Thematic Collection on ‘Embracing non‐Western contexts’ in the Journal of Management Studies to call on scholars to more fully embrace non‐Western contexts in their research, and in doing so, to unleash the explanatory potential of these contexts for our understanding of management.

Blinded by “algo economicus”: Reflecting on the assumptions of algorithmic management research to move forward

AbstractThis paper reflects on the paradigmatic assumptions and ideologies that have shaped algorithmic management research. We identify two sets of assumptions: one about the “ontology of algorithms” (which holds that human resource management [HRM] algorithms are non‐human entities with material agency) and one about the “ontology of management” that HRM algorithms afford (which understands algorithmic management as a form of control for maximizing economic/shareholder value). We explain how these core assumptions underpin existing research of HRM algorithms, causing blind spots that hinder new ways of understanding and studying algorithmic management. After identifying and unpacking the assumptions and blind spots, we offer avenues to overcome these blind spots, allowing for future research based on new ideological assumption grounds that will help move algorithmic management scholarship further in significant ways.

Exploring the application of PLS-SEM in construction management research: a bibliometric and meta-analysis approach

PurposeThe partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach for construction management (CM) scholars has become the preferred approach for its capability of assessing the complex relationship and relaxed normality and sample size assumptions. This paper systematically maps the structure of knowledge about PLS-SEM in CM using bibliometric analysis. Also, the study employs meta-analysis to explore how data and model characteristics, model evaluation and advanced modeling techniques have been utilized in the CM domain.Design/methodology/approachThis study integrated two methods: bibliometric analysis on a sample of 211 articles identified using the PRISMA framework and meta-analysis on 163 articles identified based on the availability of full-length articles and relevant information.FindingsThe results revealed the leading knowledge formation entities (countries, institutions, authors, sources and documents). Also, the study employs full content analysis to identify six research themes, and meta-analysis is used to explore the use of PLS-SEM based on the following criteria: (1) reasons for using PLS-SEM in CM, (2) data characteristics, (3) model characteristics and evaluation and (4) use of advanced modeling and analysis techniques. Further, the study uses regression analysis and identifies “advanced modeling and analysis techniques” as the critical feature responsible for the publication in a journal with high scientific prestige. Finally, the study presented the comprehensive guidelines to be used by construction management scholars who wish to use PLS-SEM in their research work.Originality/valueTo the author’s knowledge, it is the first study of this kind to use PLS-SEM in CM research. This study provides an extensive analysis of the Scopus database and an in-depth review of the data characteristics, model characteristics and use of advanced modeling techniques in CM research.

Conflict Expression Types: Introducing a New Experiential Exercise

Conflict expression describes the way people convey opposition across six types (debate, argue, tease, dismiss, complain, and disguise). The concept has garnered increased attention among management scholars, but experiential exercises to guide instruction are needed. This paper presents an engaging activity that encourages participants to experience the six conflict expression types. We provide guidelines for implementing the exercise and assess its effectiveness for in-person and online courses.

Unveiling systemic oppression in business education: Freire’s contribution to our quest for social change

Management scholarship faces a challenge in maintaining relevance, as it struggles to influence and shape practices that address pressing societal problems such as social inequalities and environmental degradation. While critical management education has surfaced as a promising avenue for reshaping management practices, it has yet to realize its potential. This article aims to address this relevance crisis by examining the limits of critical management education, particularly through the lens of Freire’s contributions. By recognizing coloniality as a crucial institutional constraint that underlies various forms of oppression, we gain insights into the barriers hindering our relevance. Overseeing this constraint is troubling within business schools, often viewed as colonial endeavors. Consequently, these insights shed light on our circumstances and limitations in producing social change. In response, we suggest reframing critical management education as a form of critical performativity informed by Freire’s insights. In this light, knowledge serves as a catalyst for change, empowered by its relational, responsible, and provocative validity. By embracing Freire’s principles of thematic investigation, thematization, and problematization, we provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing academic oppressions as a fundamental step in the quest for social change, offering valuable insights for future research and interventions in critical management education and beyond.

Advancing Research Methodologies in Management: Revisiting Debates, Setting New Grounds for Pluralism

AbstractThe purpose of this introduction and Special Issue (SI) is to offer a unique and timely opportunity to explore, revisit and critically examine key methodological debates and tensions with the purpose of advancing diversity and novel theorizing in the field. We join voices with the authors of the five papers of this SI to problematize taken‐for‐granted assumptions and research traditions and pave the way for inclusive and novel theorizing in management scholarship. We revisit four long‐lasting debates that hinder methodological pluralism and diversity in management scholarship: (a) the quantitative‐qualitative research divide, (b) the legitimacy of mixed‐methods research, (c) the rigour versus relevance tension and (d) the lack of methodological innovation. We suggest that these debates are at least partly counterproductive because they create silos and opposing camps, thereby inhibiting an appreciation of different worldviews and collective learning. The dominance of functionalism and positivism in quantitative research and the inappropriate transfer of quantitative logics in qualitative research have led to a lack of diversity in empirical methodologies. The field's limited methodological diversity is further proliferated by a strict adherence to quality standards that have inadvertently promoted homogeneity. This introduction highlights the challenges and potential of mixed methods, which are gaining momentum owing to calls for methodological pluralism. We also call for a re‐evaluation of quality standards to encourage more innovative and diverse research methodologies.

Enablers of the successful implementation of the strategy of technological innovation in higher education

Technological innovation has emerged as a formidable challenge for higher education institutions in the contemporary landscape. The present study explores the enablers of the successful implementation of technological innovation in Saudi Arabian higher education. We based this study’s conceptual framework on a rigorous literature review like Wu et al. (2002), Kihn (2010), and Packendorff et al. (2014). The study applied quantitative methods and collected 220 valid samples from employees of higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia through personal visits and online questionnaires. Employing structural equation modeling (SEM), the results of the study found a negative effect of project leadership (PL) on the implementation effectiveness of technological innovation (IETE). Further, the results demonstrate a positive significant impact of financial resources (FR) and top management style (TMS) on IETE. The study findings would provide valuable insights and evidence-based recommendations to practitioners and scholars in innovation management and organizational leadership. This study can inform strategic decisions, resource allocation, and leadership development within organizations, ultimately enhancing their ability to adapt to technological changes and leverage innovation for sustainable success.