Taylorism, targets, technology and teams - compatible concepts? Evidence from a US call centre

Taylorism, targets and technology form a potent mix in call centres where groups of individuals are asked to perform as “teams”. In this paper we explore how ‘task’ oriented concepts interact with the ‘interpersonal relationship’ realm in an environment where group life dominates the notional foundation of a call centre’s organisational structure. Tuckman’s four stage model of sequential group development serves as the theoretical lens through which the role ‘teams’ play in the working environment of a large call centre is examined.Our analysis of structured interviews conducted in an outbound, financial services call centre in the southern United States reveals the mechanisms by which agents have interpreted their ‘team charter’ to focus on individual achievement of increased remuneration levels. The interplay between these variables indicate that reward mechanisms associated with simple Taylorist targets, imposed on the entry level call centre agents, mitigate against meaningful group development. The advancement through promotion based on individual performance to more challenging, less target based work, is in sharp contrast to their initial training period where ‘team building’ is an essential ingredient of skills acquisition

New Analysis Indicates No Thermal Inversion in the Atmosphere of HD 209458b

An important focus of exoplanet research is the determination of the atmospheric temperature structure of strongly irradiated gas giant planets, or hot Jupiters. HD 209458b is the prototypical exoplanet for atmospheric thermal inversions, but this assertion does not take into account recently obtained data or newer data reduction techniques. We re-examine this claim by investigating all publicly available Spitzer Space Telescope secondary-eclipse photometric data of HD 209458b and performing a self-consistent analysis. We employ data reduction techniques that minimize stellar centroid variations, apply sophisticated models to known Spitzer systematics, and account for time-correlated noise in the data. We derive new secondary-eclipse depths of 0.119 +/- 0.007%, 0.123 +/- 0.006%, 0.134 +/- 0.035%, and 0.215 +/- 0.008% in the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 micron bandpasses, respectively. We feed these results into a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval analysis and determine that it is unnecessary to invoke a thermal inversion to explain our secondary-eclipse depths. The data are well-fitted by a temperature model that decreases monotonically between pressure levels of 1 and 0.01 bars. We conclude that there is no evidence for a thermal inversion in the atmosphere of HD 209458b.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

The Impact of Gender and Location on the Willingness to Accept Overseas Assignments

Abstract: Business students in two universities were queried regarding their willingness to accept international postings. In contrast to Adler's (1984a, 19 86) findings, gender was a significant predictor when specific referent countries were identified. Country characteristics considered here included cultural distance (or the difference between the cultures of the respondent's home country and that of the referent location) and the levels of development and political risk in the referent country. Differences among countries on indices of cultural distance and human development explained substantial variance among males and females in their willingness to accept international assignments. Political risk, however, was not significant in explaining these gender differences

Leadership across the Pacific ocean: A tri-national comparison

In spite of years of international management research that recognizes the crucial role played by culture, few researchers have studied how specific cultural characteristics may affect the ideal leadership styles as perceived by managers in different countries. This paper explores potential impacts of culture by examining the prevalent views of leadership in three countries that have intertwined economic interests across the Pacific Ocean: the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. These nations are similar enough in their economic systems yet differ significantly in many cultural dimensions. After identifying major attributes of desirable leadership styles in these three nations, we move ahead to trace their historical and cultural roots. Following an idiographic approach suggested by Teagarden and her colleagues, we have developed some propositions on the basis of both a literature review of the past cross-cultural research and a comparison of prevalent conceptions about leadership in three specific cultures. We argue that, although a multinational firm ought to maintain a certain degree of system-wide consistency in terms of its leadership style, the operational rules used overseas should be carefully blended into the local cultural context. Some feasible strategies that may help create a balance between globalization and localization are also discussed

Unlocking Foreclosed Beliefs: An Autoethnographic Story about a Family Business Leadership Dilemma

Autoethnographers research how self interacts with culture. In what ways do a person and culture intersect and at what consequence? Autoethnographers explore these questions using their own experience to reflect on self-other interactions and the greater cultural meaning. In this autoethnographic story, the first author reflects on dilemmas he experienced when considering whether or not to succeed his father as president of his family‘s business. He reports his journey through this process in the context of a professional helping relationship. An =executive counselor‘ was engaged to explore issues of career foreclosure, motivation, and leadership dilemmas as they came into conflict with self-expectations and =overriding goals‘. This story provides insight into some dimensions of an executive counseling relationship, explores themes relevant to family business succession, and addresses some consequences of career foreclosure and ways an executive counselor might help a client break out of the foreclosed state

The effects of crisis, cynicism about change, and value congruence on perceptions of leadership in the 2008 Presidential election: The role of authentic leadership and attributed charisma in the national vote.

The current study examines leadership in the context of the 2008 presidential election. Longitudinal data were collected across three regions of the United States to yield 414 responses. Perceptions of crisis were positively related to attributed charisma but not perceptions of authentic leadership. Value congruence moderated the relationship between cynicism and attributed charisma for Obama (but not for McCain) and between cynicism and perceptions of authentic leadership for McCain (but not for Obama). Attributed charisma was found to have augmenting effects over authenticity in predicting voting behavior. The contributions made to the charismatic, authentic, and crisis leadership literatures are discussed and directions for future research presented

Scholarly leadership of the study of leadership: A review of The Leadership Quarterly's second decade, 2000-2009.

In a reprise of Lowe and Gardner's (2000) review of The Leadership Quarterly's (LQ) first decade as a premier outlet for scholarly leadership research, we review 353 articles published in LQ during its second decade. Multiple methods were employed to prepare this review, including: interviews with the journal's current Senior Editor and Associate Editors; an assessment of LQ's impact, reputation, and most cited articles through citation analyses; a content analysis of article type (theory, empirical, and methods), contributors (e.g., discipline, nationality, and institutional affiliation), theoretical foundations, research strategies, sample location/type, data collection methods, and analytical procedures; survey and follow-up focus groups conducted with LQ Editorial Review Board members; and qualitative analyses to assess the prevalent themes, contributions, and trends reflected in LQ during its second decade. Drawing from these sources, we describe anticipated directions for future research

Personality, transformational leadership, trust, and the 2000 U.S. presidential election

This study of the 2000 U.S. presidential election replicates and extends Pillai and Williams‘ [Leadersh. Q. 9 (1998) 397] study of the 1996 presidential election. Data were collected at two periods from respondents across three regions of the United States to yield 342 matched sets of preelection variables and postelection measures. Transformational leadership and attributed charisma were strongly associated with reported voting behavior for candidates Bush and Gore beyond party affiliation. Important extensions to earlier findings are that perceptions of candidate proactive behavior, empathy, and need for achievement were shown to be related to transformational leadership and attributed charisma, with trust in the leader an important mediating variable between leadership perceptions and voting behavior. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed

Ten years of Leadership Quarterly: Contributions and challenges for the future

This article reviews the founding of The Leadership Quarterly (LQ) and the 188 articles published in its first decade. Multiple methods were used to prepare this review including interviews with former and current LQ editors; quantitative techniques; and qualitative analysis to examine the themes, methods, and contributions of the journal during its first decade. Directions for future research are provided, which integrate a decade of LQ author directives with interviews of prominent leadership scholars and the current authors’ opinions grounded in the literature review