Reinventing Leadership: Blended Dualism

Leadership needs to be redefined and explained differently in terms of what we have learned about organizational directorship during the last few decades. In addition to a new definition, a post twentieth century model of leadership needs created with steps and parameters opposite from pre-2000 thinking and philosophy. This article presents a new leadership definition and model, plus it identifies leadership parameters, steps, and lessons. Furthermore, it introduces a new concept into management/leadership/organization literature called Blended Dualism which incorporates the very latest supervisory thinking into a holistic, integrated amalgam of what initially appears to be contradictory or at least paradoxical ideas

The Characteristics of “Necessity” in a Work Place: A Replication Study

As defined in our previous paper (Kim and Sikula, 2003), there could be three types of person and roles they play in the workplace: Necessity, Common and Parasite. A Necessity is the one who is an irreplaceable person. A Common is a worker of average ability and talent, and a Parasite is an employee free-loader who is a moocher more than a contributor. The purpose of this paper is to replicate the first paper, and compare the results of two data sets. The data for the first paper collected from 34 undergraduate senior students in an Organizational Behavior (OB) class, and the second set of data was collected from 38 working MBA students in an OBclass and managers in a company. The identified five important traits and behaviors for Necessity and Parasite from both data sets were very similar. However, the five important traits and behaviors for Common were quite different between the first survey and the second. The potential explanations for the similarities and the differences are suggested, and future research directions are suggested

Employee Relations Ethics and the Changing Nature of the American Workforce

Much is being written today about the changing nature of the American workforce. This article summarizes 10 of these changes: (a) global competition; (b) the changing skills of work; (c) the declining impact of unions; (d) the altered human composition of the workforce; (e) the effects of continuous improvement, downsizing, and reengineering; (f) the growing use of part-time employees; (g) the widening income gap; (h) lessened employer and employee loyalty and commitment; (i) early retirement programs; and (j) telecommunications and virtual employees. Rather than just identifying and documenting these trends, this article discusses the ethical implications of such movements. In this article, employee relations ethics is defined as treating employees properly, with respect and dignity. The term employee relations ethics is used both individually and collectively to analyze the negative human results from a moral rather than an economic perspective. The age-old clash between bottom-line mentality (economics) versus higher order thinking (ethics) is revisited with a focus on employees, not owners (old theory) or customers (new theory)

Cultural Implications of Excellent Employees : Comparing American and Korean Workers

As noted in Kim & Sikula (2003, 2005), there are three types of people in the workplace: Necessities , Commoners, and Parasites . A necessity (excellent employee) is irreplaceable and crucial to the functioning of an organization. A Commoner (average laborer) is a person of normal ability and talent who has no significant impact on organizational success. Lastly, Parasites (problem workers) are detrimental freeloaders who damage the functioning of an organization. In the 2005 paper, we analyzed the survey responses of 25 students in an MBA Organizational Behavior class and 13 working managers, all in the United States. In this paper, we replicate our 2005 study in a different cultural setting: an MBA Organizational class in Suwon, Korea. We then compare the results. The leading traits and behaviors that characterize the Necessity and Parasite categories in both data sets are very similar. Significant differences exist, however, between the data sets identifying the leading traits and behaviors that define a Commoner. We conclude by exploring potential explanations for the similarities and differences, primarily based on the respondents\u27 cultural backgrounds

A New Theory of Management

This article presents a new theory of management for the new millennium: new not because singularly the ideas are recent, but because the combination of these older ideas collectively is novel. To some extent, this article represents the reestablishment of previously existing employment ethics that for various and sundry reasons lapsed into disuse in the past several decades. This article discusses employee relations ethics (ERE) in terms of an ERE credo and a set of assumptions. The modern millennium mission states that all organizations (public and private) should primarily be employee centered, not owner or administrator controlled, customer or client driven, or both

Perceptions of the Characteristics of Good, Bad and Ordinary Workers on the Job: The Influence of Work Experience and Culture

As noted in Kim & Sikula (2003; 2004), there are three types of people in the workplace: people of Necessity, Common people, and Parasites. A person of Necessity is irreplaceable, crucial to the functioning of an organization. The Common person is a worker of average ability and talent who makes no significant difference to the success of an organization. Parasites are detrimental freeloaders, harmful to the functioning of an organization. In the 2004 paper we analyzed the survey responses of 25 students in an MBA Organizational Behavior class, and of 13 working managers, all in the United States. In this paper we replicate our 2004 study in a different cultural setting an MBA Organizational Behavior class in Bangalore, India--and then compare the results. The leading traits and behaviors that characterize the Necessity and Parasite categories, in both data sets, are very similar. Significant differences exist, however, between the data sets when it comes to identifying the leading traits and behaviors that define a Common worker. We conclude by exploring potential explanations for the similarities and differences, based on the respondents’ work experience and cultural background

Insourcing: Reversing American Outsourcing in the New World Economy

The article discusses the need to understand the pendulum swing of human resource between insourcing and outsourcing work effort and accomplishment. The strengths of insourcing, or the use of labor within national boundaries to sustain the functions of an organization, is said to include efficient communication within the organization, enhanced employee morale and loyalty, and a high degree of control over people and resources. It is believed that there would be a resurgence of insourcing in the U.S., mainly within the government sector

The Key Characteristics of Different Types of Employees: A Summary of Six Studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is, first, to summarize six studies which analyze the key characteristics of different types of employees. Three types of employees found in workplaces all over the world are identified as “Necessities,” “Commoners,” and “Parasites” and, second, to combine the results of these studies in order to identify the key traits and behaviors that characterize each type of worker across a variety of social and cultural settings. Design/methodology/approach – For starters, three types of employees are defined. First, a person is a Necessity if s/he is irreplaceable and critical to the functioning of an organization. Second, a Commoner is a person of normal ability and talent who has no significant impact on organizational processes. Last, Parasites are detrimental freeloaders who damage the functioning of an organization. To identify the principal characteristics of these three types of workers, a group of researchers led by the first author conducted six studies in which they collected survey data from undergraduate and graduate business students in the USA, India, Korea, Chile, and Japan. Findings – The authors note the points of commonality and difference across the data sets, and offer their thoughts on future research in the area. The perceptions of what characterizes really good workers (people of Necessity) and very bad workers (Parasites) appear to be the same in all five countries. The picture painted for the Commoner across all data sets, however, is not as clear-cut. Originality/value – The study described in this paper helps to explain both similarities and differences in employee characteristics between and among workers in different countries and cultures

Ultrafast phase-change logic device driven by melting processes.

The ultrahigh demand for faster computers is currently tackled by traditional methods such as size scaling (for increasing the number of devices), but this is rapidly becoming almost impossible, due to physical and lithographic limitations. To boost the speed of computers without increasing the number of logic devices, one of the most feasible solutions is to increase the number of operations performed by a device, which is largely impossible to achieve using current silicon-based logic devices. Multiple operations in phase-change-based logic devices have been achieved using crystallization; however, they can achieve mostly speeds of several hundreds of nanoseconds. A difficulty also arises from the trade-off between the speed of crystallization and long-term stability of the amorphous phase. We here instead control the process of melting through premelting disordering effects, while maintaining the superior advantage of phase-change-based logic devices over silicon-based logic devices. A melting speed of just 900 ps was achieved to perform multiple Boolean algebraic operations (e.g., NOR and NOT). Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulations and in situ electrical characterization revealed the origin (i.e., bond buckling of atoms) and kinetics (e.g., discontinuouslike behavior) of melting through premelting disordering, which were key to increasing the melting speeds. By a subtle investigation of the well-characterized phase-transition behavior, this simple method provides an elegant solution to boost significantly the speed of phase-change-based in-memory logic devices, thus paving the way for achieving computers that can perform computations approaching terahertz processing rates.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version is published by PNAS here: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/08/27/1407633111.full.pdf+html?with-ds=yes