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Agility is a major concern for enterprises across manufacturing and service sectors. This paper supports the claim that process-oriented approaches are useful for agility improvement projects. It builds on an existing process-oriented framework for agility improvement projects to identify agility enabling principles and tools in manufacturing. Collectively, the framework processes, enabling principles and tools contribute the operationalization of agility improvement initiatives. Surveyed practitioners' confirm this general finding as well as the relevance of the framework to middle management, in particular in Small-and-Medium Sized enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Finland, there have been several mergers among Higher Education Institutes (HEI's) during last decades. This article focuses to analyse the development path of the latest, where two former HEI's were merged into one since beginning of 2020. This study investigates how the HEI is currently building a culture that supports innovation. Data for the study consists of 18 theme-based interviews among top and middle management, and leading specialists. There has also been plenty of researchers' field notes available for inner validation of the data. The interview data was analyzed with grounded theory method. Results show that the importance of cooperation between the HEI's Focus areas and Units has been widely recognised and it is supported. Some examples of the cooperation also exist. There exist also structures that currently hinder cooperation. Definitions of what structures supporting innovations requires would need more discussion between management and employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology-enabled innovation has increasingly puzzled and attracted strategists, since it offers opportunities to create new sources of value by challenging traditional approaches. To address this topic, research efforts have focused on the emerging construct of Business Model (BM), that describes how an enterprise creates and delivers value to customers, enticing them to pay and converting payments into profits. However, the relationship between Business Model Innovation (BMI) and Strategic Innovation (SI) is still unclear. This study investigates this relationship by examining the role of technological change in it. To this end, we propose a conceptual framework that classifies technological change according to three dimensions: trajectory, intent, and effect. Second, based on this framework, we conduct a multiple-case study with 16 companies to identify different innovation paths that arise from the interplay between SI, BMI, and technological change. Our findings reveal eight types of innovation paths that depend on the mediating or triggering role of the technological change faced. This result suggests a transitivity in the BM-Strategy and BMI-SI relationships. Change is the essence of BMI and SI, both their origin and outcome, and acts as the fil rouge that connects SI with its execution through BMI. Additionally, we shed light on the role of different actors (top, middle and low management and key employees) in SI and BMI, depending on their level of technological change empowerment. The study shows that BMI can survive without supervision and strategic commitment from top management, being primarily led by line managers and employees invested in experimentation at an operational level. This claim reveals the need to focus on the "technological change empowerment" given to line management and employees, balancing it with an ability to supervise and consolidate BMI. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between SI and BMI and the role of technological change in it. Our findings provide insights for firms to strategically operate and govern technological change and leverage it to innovate their business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers an expanded interpretation of the concepts of blockchain and cryptocurrency in view of their possible application in the management practice of economic entities of different levels, primarily united territorial communities (UTC). The experience of introduction of blockchain technologies in the international financial sector and the sphere of public administration in Ukraine is systematized. Global and national factors that shape the demand for the use of blockchain technology at the UTC level have been identified. It is determined that their implementation will increase the level of international attractiveness of UTC both for non-resident investors and local businesses from other regions. The advantages and risks that will accompany the introduction of these technologies in modern Ukraine have been identified. The first microsimulation model «e-Community» was developed and substantiated. It is hypothesized to minimize financial, informational and social losses through the active use of blockchain in the management of united territorial communities. This article will be useful for community leaders and middle managers of the state apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine how motivation-enhancing HR practices lead to business process innovation from the perspective of the microfoundation. Two surveys were conducted: the macro survey of Japanese organizations and the micro survey of individuals working in those organizations. The results of Multilevel analysis show a relationship in which motivation-enhancing HR practices are mediated to business process innovation by the middle managers' cognition and behavior. In addition, it is found that the relationship between micro and macro levels was partially mediated in the group of companies with high horizontal integration, while the group of companies with low horizontal integration did not show any significant impact on business process innovations. Therefore, it is important to consider the micro-foundations in significantly influencing business process innovation through motivation-enhancing HR practices, and it is assumed that a high level of horizontal integration is a prerequisite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in organizational design identifies middle managers as integral contributors to the successes or failures of organizations. This is because middle managers 1) are often found at the junction of bottom-up and outside-in communication channels, 2) have the potential to develop and maintain many spheres of influence throughout an organization, 3) can be mentors to, and drivers of change for ideas from, junior employees, and 4) often serve as liaisons between upper management and subject matter experts. With these many potential roles and responsibilities, middle managers must find ways to best balance all requirements, often resulting in insurmountable challenges. The current literature offers insights on how to handle individual challenges but does not provide effective ways for middlemanagers to handle all challenges in a systemic way. Thus, a holistic perspective that includes middle managers, and their interactions with the organization and its culture can increase understanding of their pressures and roles and further how to successfully design a management system. This research seeks to yield insight into the nature and categories that contribute to this knowledge gap through the development of a conceptual model that 1) recognizes an organization as a Purposeful Human Activity System and 2) identifies common behavior patterns within and throughout managerial levels. It is posited that this research will provide foundations for future work regarding the measurement and dissemination of culture throughout the organization, which has the potential to assist Engineering Managers in understanding the complex interactions of the organizations that they manage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One factor that can increase employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) is knowledge sharing (KS) behavior. KS behavior is very dependent on individual employees. This research aims to explore the relationship between KS behavior and IWB. The proposed research model was constructed based on social cognitive theory and planned behavior theory consisting of perceived social pressure and personal factors, KS attitude, KS intention, KS behavior, and IWB. This research utilized 604 data from middle management and frontline employees of textile companies. The data processing was performed by structuring both Structural Equation Modeling and Multiple Indicator Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model. The results showed that KS behavior could increase employee IWB and psychological ownership of knowledge could positively affect employees' KS behavior. In addition, education level and work experience also have a positive effect on employees' KS attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a Russian transportation company decided to convert into a platform business to increase its efficiency and to win back market share, it was confronted with high levels of middle management resistance. This paper studies the reasons for this resistance and how the company succeeded in overcoming it by using the work of the French sociologist Bourdieu. Based on interviews and the study of internal documents, this paper presents eight cases of middle management resistance and draws conclusions on what other organizations can do to alleviate similar situations. Social capital was originally built through strong ties in intra-group cohesion. The new platform business though required weak ties throughout the firm became of interest. The paper shows that most resistance is attributable to an immediate loss in social capital that the company failed to rebuild. Still, the decisions taken by the change management team or their decision to accommodate resistance behaviour rather than confront it, led to the creation of a new form of social or cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Digital technologies are omnipresent in our professional and personal lives. While they provide manifold potentials, digital technologies also cause tensions. Many of these tensions are of paradox nature – they confront individuals with conflicting, yet synergetic and interdependent, alternatives that persist over time. Coping with tensions by unlocking their potential through a paradox mindset has become an increasingly valuable capability. By using a qualitative research design and applying a paradox lens to the interview data from middle managers, this study explores the tensions that managers perceive in the increasingly digital workplace. We find empirical support for a previously identified paradox (the autonomy paradox) and we identify additional paradoxical tensions, which increase with rising exposure to digital technologies – the information, interaction, opportunity, and engagement paradoxes. Furthermore, our results indicate a nested, meta-paradoxical nature of the engagement and opportunity paradoxes that combine a wide variety of tensions in an overarching theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of middle managers during the change process of implementing a corporate incubator. Thereby, significant challenges, as well as key success factors have been identified from the perspective of middle managers on an individual and organizational level. Especially their ability to influence employees and top-management has been considered with the aim to avoid resistance and failure. Findings from this study are particularly relevant for managers of large corporations, who are facing the current urge of transforming their organization due to digitalization and unpredictable developments on the market. The presented research is based on a comprehensive literature review of existing change models and approaches that have been aligned with qualitative data from 13 expert interviews within the case of a German multinational corporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of middle managers in the strategic change implementation in Northern Territory Public sector organisations. Under a case study approach, the managers' roles were assessed through documentary evidence, semi-structured interviews and on-line surveys. This paper is part of a larger research program and the findings are based in one of the participating organisations via a quantitative approach. The on-line surveys assessed the roles undertaken by middle managers identified as contributing to the effectiveness of the strategic process and its impact on long-term effect and improvements for future change. The findings suggest that the middle managers in the public sector who performed these roles do not support long-term strategic change implementation. It is implied in these findings that the implementation of any strategic change should be given adequate time to mature, and that efforts should be made to have a post-implementation strategy to maintain the momentum of any achievements gained, noting that in the public sector this cannot be achieved without top management ongoing commitment. The limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this conceptual explanatory research is to highlight the importance of training of Middle Managers or Heads of Department (HoDs) in leadership and management in South African public schools. Leadership responsibilities in schools are becoming more complex to the extent that principals can no longer be sole leaders in schools. The achievement of effective teaching and learning through leadership and management generally requires middle-level leaders such as heads of departments or subject leaders, to be trained. It focuses on "why" or "what caused" HoDs in schools to be trained in leadership and management. HoDs are former class teachers promoted to the role of supervising other teachers so their training and guidance about leadership and management skills by more experienced facilitators, may equip them with updated abilities, interests and knowledge for teacher leadership. Training facilitators guide HoDs who may not possess such skills, through formal training. The identified topics, aims and objectives, content regarding theoretical knowledge, practical skills to be acquired, attitude towards work and the necessary support materials were used in the presentation and these encouraged an interactive participation and engagement throughout the training process. The leadership and management programme was helpful in identifying what should be taken into consideration for leading and managing teachers and learning tasks. The skills developed by HoDs would assist them in producing a pool of highly qualified and committed teaching workforce in the field of education. A number of approaches were suggested for HoDs to increase their ability to act effectively and authoritatively based on ability and competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a knowledge-intensive economy, the ability of the individual knowledge worker to produce high quality decisions is perhaps one of the most valuable assets organisations today has and organisations are increasingly concerned with ways of making better decisions, because an organisation's ability to make high quality decisions is of utmost importance for its success. Consequently, a knowledge worker's primary deliverable is a good decision, which emphasises their essential role in producing high quality decisions at all levels of organisations. Given the importance of decision quality especially for organisations employing knowledge workers, the purpose of our study is to find out what contributes to the high level of decision quality perceived by knowledge workers. In order to address the research objective and fill in a gap in current research, two research questions were set: 1) Which decision quality building blocks are considered of high quality by knowledge workers? 2) Does the perception on decision quality by knowledge workers at high managerial level differ from perceptions of those working as experts or middle-level managers? The research subject was structured and the collected research data was analysed against three main elements that define organisational decision quality, the ethics and values, decision-making process and outcome, and organisational culture, labeled as building blocks of decision quality. The research data was collected in cooperation with a decision technology company Fingertip via an online questionnaire amongst knowledge workers representing different types of organisations operating in Finland. Altogether 98 valid responses were received and analysed with the help descriptive statistics, cross- tabulations and nonparametric (significance) testing. The results showed that knowledge workers perceive the quality of decisions in their organisations generally being quite high on all three observed building blocks of decision quality. There are however differences between perceptions of knowledge workers belonging to higher management in their organisations and those belonging to middle management or working at expert level: it seems according to the results that the perception of organisational decision quality is dependent (biased) on the respondent's level in his/her organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the issue of employee training and development for sales managers. Training and development of sales managers is from the point of view of human resource management very important as it can directly affect the company's business results. Managing a team of salespersons is difficult and it requires a wide range of knowledge and competences such as team motivation, goal setting, evaluation of team's success, effective communication, and more. In order to determine the current situation in the field of education of sales managers in organizations operating on the Slovak market, we have carried out the research which results are presented in the paper. The aim of the research was to compare organizations which use the selected methods of training, the duration and frequency of the education. Statistically significant differences were investigated in terms of the size of the organization, operation years and the type of ownership. Three major statistical hypotheses were tested using the MANOVA method and Spearman statistical method. Based on the results, the size of the organization has proven to be a factor influencing several aspects of sales manager education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory study the challenges (and resolution tactics to these) are explored using a sample of women middle managers working in the South African corporate sector. The backdrop of this is the encouragement of organisations to propel women to positions of leadership in a South African corporate sector viewed as needing transformation. Further, the theorising, especially using sample groups such as women middle managers in South Africa, remains scant despite the noticeable increase in the number of women in management positions. A sample of 20 participating women middle managers took part in the study which ran over a two year period from 2014 to 2016. A snowball sampling approach was adopted with the participants with data mostly collected from East London, King Williams Town and Port Elizabeth - all located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Thematic analysis was used as a technique to analyse the transcribed interview data. Three main findings emerged from the analysis. First, women narrated the challenge of "corporate sabotage" from other members of the companies they worked in, especially from fellow women. Second, women also espoused their disgruntlement with a sexist, male dominated corporate sector. Finally, in navigating these challenges, women opted for indirect approaches in a) avoidance and b) conforming. Implications were made based on the findings of this study that inform practice and theory within organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of business leaders' achievement goals and their relative position power on integration of creative ideas in the organization. The topics discussed include the difference between performance goals and mastery goals, theory of planned behavior which states that intentions are the primary driver of specific behaviors, and the interaction between leaders' achievement goals and position power. Also discussed is the role of leaders in middle management positions in fostering organizational innovation.

How knowledge is shared by organizational members plays an essential and central role in the success of their organizations. We should remember that those taking part in the knowledge sharing process also benefit from it. Middle managers after playing a significant role in the vertical communication their organization influence the knowledge sharing process within their organization as well. Our paper makes an attempt to present those organizational characteristics of middle manager's organizations that result in differences in their maturity of knowledge sharing. The method and results of revealing these differences are introduced in this paper. Since 2007 an empirical survey has been conducted during which 400 middle managers working at medium- and large-sized enterprises in Hungary have been investigated by a questionnaire. The answers of this survey have been analysed first using decision tree than using analysis of variance or post hoc test. Our paper presents one of the elements of middle managers' maturity of knowledge sharing which is the availability among middle managers and their subordinates. According to our research availability is the time and willingness of a person to find the time to help other colleagues when they ask for help. The investigated organizational characteristics are the type, the activity and the customer claims fulfilled by the middle managers' organizations. Findings of the research have indicated that difference has be found in the availability among the middle managers and their subordinates who work at medium and large sized enterprises in Hungary on the basis of at least one of the organizational characteristics which are the type and the activity of the investigated organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elucidates the spectra of influences that impact the intra-organisational tacit and explicit knowledge sharing behaviour of the middle line. It addresses a deficiency in research that affords an eclectic approach across both knowledge types simultaneously and at an individual level of analysis. Ipe (2003) develops a conceptual model of knowledge sharing between individuals, opining that behaviour is influenced by Motivation to Share, the Nature of Knowledge, Opportunity to Share and most significantly, Culture. A critical analysis is presented to surface limitations and concludes the framework to be overly reductionist. This provides the catalyst for revision: a pluralistic consideration of the elements which impact volition and capacity to share. Adopting a multi-disciplinary perspective, significant augmentations to the original factors are proposed and the Nature of the Individual and Organisational Velocity are introduced as key impacting elements on knowledge sharing, the latter in a moderating capacity. The Nature of the Individual embraces the influence of human characteristics such as personality traits and demographics. Organisation Velocity is an original conceptualisation of the continual, episodic and ambiguous change which reflects the reality of many post-industrial settings. It is expressed as the tension between centrifugal and centripetal forces acting on the five other influence factors. Exploratory validation of the resultant Multidimensional Model of Individual Knowledge Sharing Influences is achieved through a robust, empirical study elucidating the sharing behaviour of middle management in four leading UK Communication Sector operators. All six factors are shown to impact individual knowledge sharing practice, with Organisational Velocity acting in a moderating and primarily centrifugal capacity on Motivation to Share, Opportunities to Share and the Nature of the Individual. It is demonstrated that a panoptic, interdisciplinary perspective combining human, social, technological and contextual factors must be considered to understand behaviour and optimise knowledge management interventions. A particular element may not be evaluated in isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way knowledge is shared by organizational members plays an essential and central role in the success of organizations. It should not be forgotten that those who take part in the knowledge sharing process also benefit from it. Middle managers after playing a significant role in the vertical communication their organization influence the knowledge sharing process within their organization as well. Our paper makes an attempt to present those components of middle manager's individual characteristics that result in differences in their maturity of knowledge sharing. The method and results of revealing these differences are introduced in this paper. Since 2007 an empirical survey has been conducted during which 400 middle managers working at medium- and large-sized enterprises in Hungary have been investigated by a questionnaire. The answers of this survey have been analysed first using decision tree than using analysis of variance or post hoc test. Our paper presents one of the elements of middle managers' maturity of knowledge which is the availability among middle managers and their subordinates. According to our research availability is the time and willingness of a person to find the time to help other colleagues when they ask for help. The investigated individual characteristics are the middle managers' age, their working years and their functional area at their organizations. Findings of the research have indicated that difference has be found in the availability among the middle managers and their subordinates who work at medium and large sized enterprises in Hungary on the basis of at least one of the individual characteristics which are functional area and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge is becoming is becoming an increasingly important factor of organizational competitiveness. The way knowledge is shared within the organization is essential and central not only to the success of the organization but also among those employee who share it, since those who take part in the knowledge sharing process also benefit from it. Since middle managers have an important position of within the organization and play a significant role in the process of knowledge sharing this paper has focused on the knowledge sharing of these middle managers in Hungary. A new method of how to measure middle managers' maturity of knowledge sharing is presented in this paper. Between 2007 and 2010 an empirical survey was conducted during which 400 middle managers working at medium- and large-sized enterprises in Hungary were investigated by a questionnaire. The answers of this survey have been analysed using Principal Component Analysis and four different components regarding the maturity of knowledge sharing have been identified. These four components are the availability among middle managers, the availability among the middle manager and subordinates, the usefulness of knowledge among middle managers and the usefulness of knowledge among the middle manager and subordinates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the impact of managing envy on the organizational innovation (OI) process. The researchers proposed a model of managing envy in a corporate setting which is premised on a clear division of roles among middle and top managers, although they recognize that in actual scenarios some overlap in these roles may exist. With this model, they perceived that the top management is responsible for diagnosing envy as a potentially energizing emotion in the organizational context.

Individual acceptance and use of new technologies has been studied extensively over the last two decades. And, as more and more organizations move from functional to process-based information technology (IT) infrastructure and that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are becoming one of today's most widespread IT solutions to this movement, the research literature on ERP systems has exponentially grown in recent years. Effectively, the importance of the ERP industry to the professional information systems (IS) community is further underscored by projections indicating that it will be a $47.7 billion industry by 2011 (Jacobson et al., 2007). To study acceptance and use of ERP systems by enterprises and their employees, several models of technology adoption are used, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989), its successor the TAM2 (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000), a combination of TAM2 and the model of determinants of perceived ease of use, that is TAM3 (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008), as well as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003). But, at our knowledge, acceptance and use of ERP systems has not been yet studied in medium- to largesized Canadian enterprises. The aim of this study is then to fill this gap. Using UTAUT model, we gathered the feelings of middle managers and end-users in six medium- to large-sized enterprises from three Canadian regions in order to identify the influencing factors on their use of ERP systems. Data analysis was performed using the structural equation modeling software Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results highlight the key role of three independent variables facilitating conditions, anxiety, and behavioral intention) and a moderator variable (age) of UTAUT model as influencing factors on the use of ERP systems in medium- to large-sized Canadian enterprises. The independent variable social influence can also play a less significant role (at p < 0.10) on the use of ERP systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on business policy and strategy topics which include the complexities of top management team (TMT) composition, insights about dynamic capabilities observed from simulated evolving competition, and venture capital syndication in China.

This article examines the role of middle managers in public, social control organizations as they affect the process by which organizations conceptualize and disseminate policy reform during periods of top-down organizational change. Using case study data collected during three years of ethnographic fieldwork with parole agents in California, I re-conceptualize Edelman's endogeneity of law argument to the realm of policy reform in a public bureaucracy. I extend Edelman's model to include two critical and often competing internal process: manageralization (Edelman 2004) and unionization. I also expand Grattet and Jenness' (2005) conception of mediators of law positioning middle managers as key policy mediators embodying both the interest of the organization and themselves. My analysis suggests that middle managers fill an often underestimated role between formal and street-level policy. As intermediate repositories of policy-related information they harness significant influence over how policies are understood and implemented by street-level workers. I argue that this distinct group of middle managers uses four social processes: normative, actuarial, coercive and materialist to interpret policy and four specific communication techniques: reinscription, regurgitation, reduction and omission as mechanisms for reconstituting and disseminating policy. This article challenges the long-held belief that street-level bureaucrats are key ground-level policy makers. Instead, the present analysis suggests that street-level bureaucrats are only as autonomous and influential as the information they receive from their superiors gives them license to be. Ultimately, middle managers may represent a critical, yet largely overlooked, barrier to (or potential facilitator of) successful change within organizations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a process model of the interface between top management team and middle managers to address current inconsistent findings regarding TMT impact on organizational performance. Information exchange and mutual influencing are proposed as key mechanisms at the interface, which are consequential for strategic decision quality and implementation commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several conference paper abstracts on public and nonprofit organization management. "Community Foundation, Organizational Strategy, and Public Policy," about the strategic plan of California community foundations. "The Influence of Top Executive Functional Experience on Nonprofit Organization Financial Performance," discusses the relationship between a chief executive officer and the organization. "Innovation and Organizational Performance: A Critical Review of the Evidence and a Research Agenda," focuses on how innovation helps performance in public agencies.

This article presents several abstracts of studies about organization development and change. In the paper titled "Towards a Holistic Theoretical Framework for the Unfolding of Planned Change," develops a framework for the unfolding of planned change efforts using as empirical field of investigation longitudinal case studies from Greek public organizations that currently are undergoing radical change. "A Construct Validation of a New Job Insecurity Measure (JIM): The Emerging Role of Management" explores the dimensionality of job insecurity. "Responding to a Changing Environment: Adapting Human and Social Capital to Impact Performance," that investigates how a firm responds to a changing environment using a resource-based perspective.

This section presents several abstracts of research about organizational communication. The progress of the past seven years of field study research on work group effectiveness was examined in the paper titled "Work Team Effectiveness Field Research: Progress and Prospects." An analysis of thirty-six empirical studies reveals that work team field research is proceeding primarily along dimensions of interdependence, autonomy, diversity and conflict. In the paper "Temporal Effects of Relational Stocks on Technology-Enabled Group Performance," the authors extend existing group development models by employing a complementary stock perspective. Results suggest more complex implications of utilizing technology than previously observed delays in relational development that accompanies technology use.

We report the results of a study that investigates the relationship between middle managers? divergent strategic influence activity, network centrality, and perceptual deviance. Using a social network approach in a medium-sized urban hospital, we found that boundary-spanning managers exhibit higher levels of divergent strategic influence and network centrality than non-boundary spanning managers. However, the study did not reveal an association between the extent to which the managers? perceptions of the strategic situation deviated from that of top management and their degree of divergent strategic influence. In an effort to advance current theory, we discussed our findings with top managers from four different organizations. These new insights illustrate the complexities linking middle managers? perceptual deviance and their level of divergent strategic influence activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents abstracts of studies on business policy and strategy including "The Contribution of Alliance Networks to Firm Performance: The Case of the U.S. Software Industry," by Dovev Lavie, "The Minimum Assumed Incentive Effect of Executive Share Options," by Brian G. Main, Trevor Buck, Alistair Bruce and Rodio Skovoroda and "Environmental Uncertainty and the Real Options Value of Korean Firms' International Investments," by Seung-Hyun Lee and Mona V. Makhija.

The article presents abstracts pertaining to business policy and strategy. They include "An Agent-Based Model of Investing in Capabilities: Processes, Decisions, and Performance," by Catherine Maritan and Corinne A. Coen, "CEO Tenure and Organizational Performance: Testing a Non-Linear Intervening Model," by Zeki Semsek, and "Competitive Institutional Strategies: A New Generic Typology," by Krishna Udayasankar.

This section presents conference paper abstracts on entrepreneurship, including a study of how the individual trait of Entrepreneurial Orientation positively predicts how entrepreneurs evaluate business opportunities, an examination of the development of effective boards in venture capital-backed initial public offerings, and a discussion of how a cognitive perspective can provide important insights into the nature of opportunity recognition.

This section presents abstracts of several business policy and strategy conferences held in the U.S. as of August 2003. 'Complementary Resources and the Prediction of Post-Acquisition Performance,' by David R. King, Rebecca J. Slotegraaf, Idalene F. Kesner and Tom Lenz shows that acquisitions, on average, do not improve firm performance. 'Exploring Competing Motivations Behind the Acquisition of High-Technology Targets,' by David R. King represents a significant contribution by demonstrating conflicting findings in existing merger and acquisition research may result from alternate motivations behind merger and acquisition activity. 'Strategic Inertia Determinants: Analyzing the Size, Middle Manager, and Competitive Intensity Mix,' by Willie Edward Hopkins, Ajay Menon, Christian Homburg and Shirley Ann Hopkins, revisits firm size as a determinant of strategic inertia. 'Restructuring in Japanese Companies: Foreign Ownership, Strategic Investments, and Firm Performance' by Parthiban David, Toru Yoshikawa and Abdual A. Rasheed shows that foreign ownership leads to reduction in research and development and capital expenditures as well as improvement in performance, especially for firms with high free cash flow that are likely to have the most severe agency problems.

This article investigates how front line nurse practitioners (NPs) created changes in their work role, and how middle managers took actions to make these changes sustainable in the organizational context. In close-up investigations of work role changes, a number of researchers have found that identity figures prominently. Both NPs and middle managers wanted to develop and sustain the NP position as a key component of the health care team. NPs explained how they wanted to develop a new work role where they would enjoy ongoing intellectual challenges, learning, and professional growth. These individuals wanted to advance beyond the usual duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse, but maintain direct contact with patients. Middle managers, on the other hand, were focused more on the overall role of nurse practitioner than on a particular position for an individual NP. Although NPs were taking on tasks that had previously been provided only by physicians, they were adamant that they were not mini-doctors. Middle managers have generally been stepping back and allowing NPs to do the work that only they can do in developing this position in their own setting and in their own way.

The resource-based view of the firm, and particularly the dynamic capability theme, is paying increasing attention to the creation of new resources, and especially to specific motors of innovative, value creating activity by managers. One particular, yet seldom empirically investigated, theme is that value creating innovations are the product of novel combinations of existing elements drawn from a stock of knowledge resources, with heterogeneous pools of knowledge representing an asset to managers. Drawing on social network theory and theories of knowledge, innovation and conceptual integration, this study contributes a firmer micro-foundation to a central question in current RBV research--how are new value-creating capabilities developed within firms? Specifically, we investigate the link between the heterogeneity of knowledge in managers' social networks and their performance using a sample of 106 middle managers in a high technology company. We find that there is a robust, positive association between knowledge heterogeneity and individual managerial performance, even when controlling for numerous alternative sources of superior performance, including political advantages offered to managers through their social network structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a better understanding of how the socially constructed process of strategic renewal emerges from the middle layers in organizations. Using a social network analysis of 95 mid-level professionals, we found that middle managers' strategic knowledge is positively associated with those activities that develop and foster new capabilities. Also, we found that the relationship between knowledge and middle management strategic activities is mediated by the manager's position in the prevailing social structure. The results provide a strong rationale for the use of social network analysis as a means to study capability accumulation from the middle layers of an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study of mid-career managers compared the career progression of men and women over two periods of time. Unlike the subjects of many earlier studies, these men and women had similar education and experience profiles. There was evidence that women's careers unfold differently than men's, with income and promotion gaps widening over time. In addition, certain career determinants had differential effects on progression and perceived success across the sexes. The findings suggest that comparing women's and men's managerial careers in the late 1990's is a case of comparing apples and oranges, and support gender-specific models of managerial careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though it has become central in strategic renewal research, the concept of emergent strategic initiative has not received a great deal of theoretical scrutiny. Existing theory combines evolutionary, political and cognitive logics to characterize the renewal process, and this provides a useful framework for understanding the context in which emergent strategic initiatives develop. To date, however, theory has yet to offer a systematic explanation of (1) where strategic initiatives come from, (2) how they develop and (3) what they contribute to the development of organizational capabilities. Building on prior research, this paper identifies four key processes associated with the development of strategic initiatives: interpretation, articulation, elaboration and ratification. Emergent strategic initiatives are born when a middle manager's interpretation of an idea links it to a strategic issue. Issues become initiatives when an informal social network forms around a central actor, who is also frequently a middle manager. As the middle manager articulates the idea, the tacit or subjective knowledge associated with it becomes more explicit. This reduces the initiatives reliance on a single actor and facilitates the elaboration of the emergent social network. Cooperation among sub-units triggers reconsideration of existing functional level knowledge and reconfiguration of patterns of coordination among sub-units. This leads to the development of new procedural knowledge in the form of emergent organizational routines. Finally, ratification involves both substantive links to official strategy and process links to the political dynamics within top management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of survey data suggest that there are significant differences between plateaued managers and their nonplateaued counterparts. Specifically, plateaued managers have lower levels of aspiration with regard to advancement and they are absent more frequently from work; they report poor relationships with supervisors and impaired health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The infrequent application of management research may not result from inappropriate research or organizational characteristics which frustrates such application, but from managers' lack of training in using our findings. This paper argues that some current themes in theorizing (and thus teaching) about organizations may reduce managers' abilities to apply research. The question of why practicing managers seem not to be making conspicuously frequent use of academic research on problems of organizational management has been the topic of much recent discussion. One view is that the problem lies in the nature of our research, while another claims to locate the problem in the characteristics of the organizations in which our potential research users are situated. This paper suggests a third alternative explanation: that research findings are not applied because few managers have the training to understand and appreciate our work. It argues that although we have the opportunity, in classroom and management development settings, to improve managers' abilities to understand our research, recent trends in academic theorizing may preclude the exposure of these managers/students to the type of research with the greater likelihood of applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management training often fails to transfer to the workplace because of deficits in vital but seemingly unrelated support skills. For example, inadequate time management skills may sabotage valid leadership strategies. The Relapse Prevention model describes a methodology for diagnosing such deficits during training and offers implications for management education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated if, in accord with the propositions made by both economists and students of the entrepreneur in the management literature, entrepreneurs (individuals who started their own firms) had a higher tolerance of ambiguity than either Top executives or middle managers. The findings did suggest that these propositions were not unfounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectiveness of managers is analyzed from the reputational viewpoint. It is proposed that focal managers gain the reputation of being effective by meeting the self-interested expectations of role set members. It is further suggested that organizations value the most reputationally effective managers. Five hypotheses were tested using a sample of 217 middle managers, 173 superiors, 387 subordinates and 303 peers. Results confirm all five hypotheses and provides the foundation for a new direction of research in managerial effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examines the Importance of Mintzberg's roles to a sample of middle and lower level managers. These roles, along with eight skill areas, were related to measures of managerial performance. Results indicated that several managerial roles and decision making skills were correlated with effectiveness. Implications for management education, training and development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of hospital middle managers yields insight into the ingredients of successful planned change. Planning guidelines are offered which encourage the hospital manager to make good decisions regarding planning, direction, participation, power and support when implementing change efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of 135 American expatriate upper middle management personnel were asked to make ratings regarding the importance of 12 variables they considered when they decided to accept their current overseas assignment. A factor analysis identified different dimensions underlying the choice processes between the experienced and inexperienced expatriate managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canonical correlation analysis was used to establish a significant, multivariate relationship between task design and affective response measures for a group of 784 middle-level executives from a national merchandising organization. Functional specialty within the organization was found to have a significant moderating effect on the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As employees reach plateaus earlier in their careers, it is important to understand "successful" plateauing (including effective job performance, high job and life satisfaction). Age, time plateaued, and career orientation are less helpful in distinguishing successfully plateaued managers than are organizational support variables, particularly supervisor support and work challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]