329 research outputs found
Intergroup conflict management strategies from a nobel peace laureate: The case of Jose Ramos-Horta
We report on the case of Dr. JosƩ Ramos-Horta (JRH), a 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate, former President of East Timor, and current envoy of the United Nations to Guinea-Bissau. JRH agreed to an interview detailing the peace building strategies he has used to manage conflicts. The transcript of his Nobel Laureate acceptance speech was also analysed to strengthen the overall narrative. Our findings suggest two higher-order themes: (1) psycho-social skills, and (2) social networking. Specifically, JRH uses active listening, mindful breaks, and awareness of media trends to create personal and strategic networking contacts, which are critical elements in managing conflict
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How to Develop Strategic Management Competency: Reconsidering the Learning Goals and Knowledge Requirements of the Core Strategy Course
The dominance of theory-based approaches to strategy teaching has not displaced the need for core courses in strategic management to cultivate broader management skills. Yet, limited attention has been given to explicating, first, why we need to teach these skills, second, which skills we need to teach, and third how they can to be developed in the classroom. To help answer these three questions we need to understand the linkages between theory-based and skills-based approaches to strategy teaching. We begin with the proposition that the purpose of the core strategic management is to develop the strategic management competency of our students. We then adopt a systematic approach to identifying the why, what, and how components of strategic management competency. We show why analytical tools need to be complemented by judgment, insight, intuition, creativity, and social and communicative skills. We outline what these skills are and where they come from. Finally, we derive implications for how we should design and deliver of the core strategic management course
THE ROLE OF INTERDEPENDENCE IN THE MICRO-FOUNDATIONS OF ORGANIZATION DESIGN: TASK, GOAL, AND KNOWLEDGE INTERDEPENDENCE
Interdependence is a core concept in organization design, yet one that has remained consistently understudied. Current notions of interdependence remain rooted in seminal works, produced at a time when managersā near-perfect understanding of the task at hand drove the organization design process. In this context, task interdependence was rightly assumed to be exogenously determined by characteristics of the work and the technology. We no longer live in that world, yet our view of interdependence has remained exceedingly task-centric and our treatment of interdependence overly deterministic. As organizations face increasingly unpredictable workstreams and workers co-design the organization alongside managers, our field requires a more comprehensive toolbox that incorporates aspects of agent-based interdependence. In this paper, we synthesize research in organization design, organizational behavior, and other related literatures to examine three types of interdependence that characterize organizationsā workflows: task, goal, and knowledge interdependence. We offer clear definitions for each construct, analyze how each arises endogenously in the design process, explore their interrelations, and pose questions to guide future research
Losing Sight of the Forest for the Trees? Productive Capabilities and Gains From Trade as Drivers of Vertical Scope
Behavior in behavioral strategy : capturing, measuring, analyzing
Measuring behavior requires research methods that can capture observed outcomes and expose underlying processes and mechanisms. In this chapter, we present a toolbox of instruments and techniques we designed experimental tasks to simulate decision environments and capture behavior. We deployed protocol analysis and text analysis to examine the underlying cognitive processes. In combination, these can simultaneously grasp antecedents, outcomes, processes, and mechanisms. We applied them to collect rich behavioral data on two key topics in strategic management: the explorationāexploitation trade-off and strategic risk-taking. This mix of methods is particularly useful in describing actual behavior as it is, not as it should be, replacing assumptions with data and offering a finer-grained perspective of strategic decision-making
Ability-based view in action: a software corporation study
This research investigates antecedents, developments and consequences of dynamic capabilities in an organization. It contributes by searching theoretical and empirical answers to the questions: (a) What are the antecedents which can provide an organization with dynamic and ordinary capabilities?; (b) How do these antecedents contribute to create capabilities in an organization?; (c) How do they affect an organization's competitive advantage?; (d) Can we assess and measure the antecedents and consequences to an organization? From a first (theoretical) perspective, this paper searches answers to the first, second and third questions by reviewing concepts of an ability-based view of organizations that involves the abilities of cognition, intelligence, autonomy, learning and knowledge management, and which contributes to explain the dynamic behavior of the firm in the pursuit of competitive advantage. From a second (empirical) perspective, this paper reinforces and delivers findings to the second, third and fourth questions by presenting a case study that evidences the ability-based view in action in a software corporation, where it contributes by investigating: (a) the development of organizational capabilities; (b) the effects of the new capabilities on the organization; and (c) the assessment and measurement of the abilities and consequences
The interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences
__Abstract__
This working paper precedes our full article entitled āThe evolution of Wrightās (1932) adaptive field to contemporary interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciencesā as published in the journal Biology & Philosophy (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10539-014-9450-2). The working paper features an extended literature overview of the ways in which fitness landscapes have been interpreted and used in the social sciences, for which there was not enough space in the full article. The article features an in-depth philosophical discussion about the added value of the various ways in which fitness landscapes are used in the social sciences. This discussion is absent in the current working paper. Th
Explicitly searching for useful inventions: dynamic relatedness and the costs of connecting versus synthesizing
Inventions combine technological features. When features are barely related, burdensomely broad knowledge is required to identify the situations that they share. When features are overly related, burdensomely broad knowledge is required to identify the situations that distinguish them. Thus, according to my first hypothesis, when features are moderately related, the costs of connecting and costs of synthesizing are cumulatively minimized, and the most useful inventions emerge. I also hypothesize that continued experimentation with a specific set of features is likely to lead to the discovery of decreasingly useful inventions; the earlier-identified connections reflect the more common consumer situations. Covering data from all industries, the empirical analysis provides broad support for the first hypothesis. Regressions to test the second hypothesis are inconclusive when examining industry types individually. Yet, this study represents an exploratory investigation, and future research should test refined hypotheses with more sophisticated data, such as that found in literature-based discovery research
Risk propensity in the foreign direct investment location decision of emerging multinationals
A distinguishing feature of emerging economy multinationals is their apparent tolerance for host country institutional risk. Employing behavioral decision theory and quasi-experimental data, we find that managersā domestic experience satisfaction increases their relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk (legally protectable loss), but decreases their tendency to accept non-controllable risk (e.g., political instability). In contrast, firmsā potential slack reduces relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk, yet amplifies the tendency to take non-controllable risk. We suggest that these counterbalancing effects might help explain observation that risk-taking in FDI location decisions is influenced by firm experience and context. The study provides a new understanding of why firms exhibit heterogeneous responses to host country risks, and the varying effects of institutions
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