Boon or curse? A contingent view on the relationship between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity

Numerous scholars have attempted to explain which factors allow for organizational ambidexterity. Strategic planning, as a possible antecedent, has not been considered so far. This is surprising because strategic planning is among the most widely used strategic decision-making tools in management practice and one of the most extensively studied concepts in management research. In addition, prior research has demonstrated the potential of strategic planning to impact innovation-related outcomes—both positively and negatively. Here, we investigate the association between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity using a survey of 217 senior executives. We highlight the importance of considering how executives use strategic planning. Our results support the hypothesis that strategic planning's positive or negative association with organizational ambidexterity is contingent on other organizational factors. Our findings reveal that strategic planning is only positively associated with organizational ambidexterity when leaders' innovation orientation is extraordinarily high. We further contextualize this interaction effect by considering the environmental uncertainty perceived by the top management. This work contributes to the literature by examining the antecedents of organizational ambidexterity

Tone from the Top in Risk Management: A Complementarity Perspective on How Control Systems Influence Risk Awareness

Prompted by the weaknesses of standardized risk management approaches in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, scholars, regulators, and practitioners alike emphasize the importance of creating a risk-aware culture in organizations. Recent insights highlight the special role of tone from the top as crucial driver of risk awareness. In this study, we take a systems-perspective on control system design to investigate the role of tone from the top in creating risk awareness. In particular, we argue that both interactive and diagnostic use of budgets and performance measures interact with tone from the top in managing risk awareness. Our results show that interactive control strengthens the effect of tone from the top on risk awareness, while tone from the top and diagnostic control are, on average, not interrelated with regard to creating risk awareness. To shed light on the boundary conditions of the proposed interdependencies, we further investigate whether the predicted interdependencies are sensitive to the level of perceived environmental uncertainty. We find that the effect of tone from the top and interactive control becomes significantly stronger in a situation of high perceived environmental uncertainty. Most interestingly, tone from the top and diagnostic control are complements with regard to risk awareness in settings of low perceived environmental uncertainty and substitutes at high levels of perceived environmental uncertainty.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie

Do “one-size” employment policies fit all young workers? Heterogeneity in work attribute preferences among the Millennial generation

There has been a stream of research that explores how the present generation of workers (i.e., Millennials) may be different from previous generations (e.g., Baby Boomers and Gen Xers). This line of research often considers Millennials as homogeneous and concludes any differences to be “generational effects.” However, it is unlikely for a generation, which spans almost 20 years, to be uniformly homogeneous with respect to their work values and attitudes. Findings on generational differences conducted in the United States are also often generalized to other countries, ignoring the potential for national influences. In this regard, we apply a multi-method approach using three samples to demonstrate that there are differences within the Millennial generation that affect work values, preferences for work/life balance, and attraction to employer attributes. Specifically, we focus on the heterogeneity resulting from differences in age, gender, relationship status, and nationality. Our results suggest that Millennials are not as homogeneous as we assumed, and this can limit the effectiveness of managerial policies designed to improve individual and work outcomes for an entire generation of workers. Our study demonstrates that it is important for us to understand how individual, relational, and contextual factors may contribute to the heterogeneity within a generation

Ultralow-frequency modulation of whistler-mode wave growth

Measurements from ground-based magnetometers and riometers at auroral latitudes have demonstrated that energetic (~30-300keV) electron precipitation can be modulated in the presence of magnetic field oscillations at ultra-low frequencies. It has previously been proposed that an ultra-low frequency (ULF) wave would modulate field and plasma properties near the equatorial plane, thus modifying the growth rates of whistler-mode waves. In turn, the resulting whistler-mode waves would mediate the pitch-angle scattering of electrons resulting in ionospheric precipitation. In this paper, we investigate this hypothesis by quantifying the changes to the linear growth rate expected due to a slow change in the local magnetic field strength for parameters typical of the equatorial region around 6.6RE radial distance. To constrain our study, we determine the largest possible ULF wave amplitudes from measurements of the magnetic field at geosynchronous orbit. Using nearly ten years of observations from two satellites, we demonstrate that the variation in magnetic field strength due to oscillations at 2mHz does not exceed ±10% of the background field. Modifications to the plasma density and temperature anisotropy are estimated using idealised models. For low temperature anisotropy, there is little change in the whistler-mode growth rates even for the largest ULF wave amplitude. Only for large temperature anisotropies can whistler-mode growth rates be modulated sufficiently to account for the changes in electron precipitation measured by riometers at auroral latitudes

Evolutionary games on graphs

Game theory is one of the key paradigms behind many scientific disciplines from biology to behavioral sciences to economics. In its evolutionary form and especially when the interacting agents are linked in a specific social network the underlying solution concepts and methods are very similar to those applied in non-equilibrium statistical physics. This review gives a tutorial-type overview of the field for physicists. The first three sections introduce the necessary background in classical and evolutionary game theory from the basic definitions to the most important results. The fourth section surveys the topological complications implied by non-mean-field-type social network structures in general. The last three sections discuss in detail the dynamic behavior of three prominent classes of models: the Prisoner's Dilemma, the Rock-Scissors-Paper game, and Competing Associations. The major theme of the review is in what sense and how the graph structure of interactions can modify and enrich the picture of long term behavioral patterns emerging in evolutionary games.Comment: Review, final version, 133 pages, 65 figure

A Management-Control Perspective on Risk Management: The Complementarity between Risk-Focused Results Controls and Risk-Focused Information Sharing

In this study, I investigate how companies design risk-focused control systems in a way that aligns employee risk-taking behavior with overall organizational goals. To investigate how firms go about this control problem, I consider risk-focused results controls (i.e. expanding results controls by risk aspects) and risk-focused information sharing (i.e. fostering risk dialogue). When companies design risk-focused control systems, they face a dilemma. Firms on the one hand need to keep employees in line by monitoring goal attainment and risks taken, but on the other hand they also need to make sure that employees still have leeway to search for novel solutions and emerging opportunities. The difficulty to balance control and empowerment is reflected in the use of risk-focused results controls. While overly emphasizing the use of risk-focused results controls might lead to a loss of flexibility among employees, no use of risk-focused results controls might cause excessive employee risk-taking at the firm’s expense. I argue theoretically and show empirically that companies go about solving this control problem by jointly using risk-focused results controls and risk-focused information sharing. Moreover, drawing on complementarity theory I predict and empirically show that risk-focused results controls, risk-focused information sharing, and an active growth orientation form a set of complementary firm choices. This implies that two choices together reinforce each other stronger with an increasing use of the third choice variable. Using data from a survey of 202 companies, I find empirical support for my hypotheses