Management Theory

2011 ◽  
pp. 2044-2059
Author(s):  
John Davies
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Decision Sciences ◽  
Reciprocal Determinism ◽  
Uncritical Acceptance ◽  
Systemic Nature ◽  
Interdependent Relationships

This paper develops a systems perspective on the interdependent relationships between management academics, management theory and management practice. The author re-examines issues raised by Ghoshal, not only about how the uncritical acceptance of an ideologically based gloomy vision of human nature has led to “bad management theories ... destroying good management practices”, but also how practice can impact the development of theory. The approach provides an opportunity to reinterpret and reveal the systemic nature of related feedback and learning processes labelled as the double hermeneutic by Giddens (1987) and as reciprocal determinism by Bandura (1978), to draw a parallel with the role of theory in the decision sciences. This paper provides a constructive illustration of the use of the systems representational tools of system dynamics to develop a systems perspective on these matters to identify the underpinning systemic structure that gives rise to Ghoshal’s views. Finally, the author identifies a means of addressing issues of concern to management theorists, analysts, and practitioners.

Management Theory

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Davies
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Decision Sciences ◽  
Reciprocal Determinism ◽  
Uncritical Acceptance ◽  
Systemic Nature ◽  
Interdependent Relationships

This paper develops a systems perspective on the interdependent relationships between management academics, management theory and management practice. The author re-examines issues raised by Ghoshal, not only about how the uncritical acceptance of an ideologically based gloomy vision of human nature has led to “bad management theories ... destroying good management practices”, but also how practice can impact the development of theory. The approach provides an opportunity to reinterpret and reveal the systemic nature of related feedback and learning processes labelled as the double hermeneutic by Giddens (1987) and as reciprocal determinism by Bandura (1978), to draw a parallel with the role of theory in the decision sciences. This paper provides a constructive illustration of the use of the systems representational tools of system dynamics to develop a systems perspective on these matters to identify the underpinning systemic structure that gives rise to Ghoshal’s views. Finally, the author identifies a means of addressing issues of concern to management theorists, analysts, and practitioners.

Management Theory

2012 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
John Davies
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Decision Sciences ◽  
Reciprocal Determinism ◽  
Uncritical Acceptance ◽  
Systemic Nature ◽  
Interdependent Relationships

This paper develops a systems perspective on the interdependent relationships between management academics, management theory and management practice. The author re-examines issues raised by Ghoshal, not only about how the uncritical acceptance of an ideologically based gloomy vision of human nature has led to “bad management theories ... destroying good management practices”, but also how practice can impact the development of theory. The approach provides an opportunity to reinterpret and reveal the systemic nature of related feedback and learning processes labelled as the double hermeneutic by Giddens (1987) and as reciprocal determinism by Bandura (1978), to draw a parallel with the role of theory in the decision sciences. This paper provides a constructive illustration of the use of the systems representational tools of system dynamics to develop a systems perspective on these matters to identify the underpinning systemic structure that gives rise to Ghoshal’s views. Finally, the author identifies a means of addressing issues of concern to management theorists, analysts, and practitioners.

Management Practice—and the Doing of Management

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Tengblad
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Managerial Work ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Integrated Theory

The chapter gives an overview of the most important studies about managerial work practices and the most important findings these studies shed on our general understanding of management as a societal phenomenon and as a field for scientific enquiry. These studies can be divided into major streams, one functionalistic and one ethnographic. Both streams identify work practices that are very different from mainstream management theory (reactive, fragmented, unsystematic, irrational, etc). While the first stream is oriented towards solutions to managers to act in a more rational manner, the second stream seeks to understand why normative management theory often is mere a rationalistic dream and a legitimizing ideology than a robust explanatory framework built on empirical results. Regardless of these limitations the chapter claims that it is possible to summarize both streams into an integrated theory about management practices that acknowledge the complexities and the multifaceted nature of management practice.

scholarly journals Organizational Climate and Job Performance: Investigating the Mediating Role of Harmonious Work Passion and the Moderating Role of Leader–Member Exchange and Coaching

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110084
Author(s):  
Anthony Frank Obeng ◽  
Yongyue Zhu ◽  
Samuel Awuni Azinga ◽  
Prince Ewudzie Quansah
Keyword(s):  
Job Performance ◽  
Organizational Climate ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Leader Member Exchange ◽  
Member Exchange ◽  
Work Passion

Organizational performance has made it imperative for rural and community bank management to employ the best organizational conditions that influence employee’s performance. Recent banking clean-up in Ghana has also emphasized the need for employees’ performance. This has become necessary to espouse management practices, employee behaviors, and attitudes that predict job performance. Drawing on social exchange theory and reciprocity norm, the study examines the effect of organizational climate on job performance. Valid responses received through a structured questionnaire were 431. Hierarchical multiple regression was employed to validate the hypotheses from the literature review. Relying on empirical data from Ghana, the findings revealed that, first, harmonious work passion partially mediated organizational climate and job performance relationship. Second, leader–member exchange negatively moderated the relationship between organizational climate and harmonious work passion. Finally, however, coaching as a management practice positively strengthened organizational climate and job performance relationship. The theoretical and practical contribution is also discussed.

Problematizing the role of lay‐workers: lessons from a clinical setting

2004 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 486-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nic Beech ◽  
Linda de Caestecker ◽  
Robert MacIntosh ◽  
Peter McInnes ◽  
Michael Ross
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Health Department ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Project Study ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Hierarchical Problems ◽  
Scottish Executive

This paper seeks to problematize the role(s) that lay‐workers can play and the nature of their relationship with other, well‐established professional groups. Views are extracted from the literature on how best to manage the introduction of lay‐workers into professional settings and the paper examines the experience of attempting this in national health demonstration project funded by the Scottish Executive Health Department. Whilst the literature argues that the use of lay‐workers will enhance flexibility and challenge some of the bureaucratic/hierarchical problems of traditional organizations, the empirical evidence presented here suggests that phenomena such as hierarchy are persistent and that individual and collective identities are constantly renegotiated in a complex and dynamic process which recreates hierarchy albeit in an unintentional way. This paper offers a series of observations from the project study then generalise in terms of implications for management practice and management theory.

scholarly journals Human Resource Management At The Crossroads

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narayan Krishna Prabhu
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Choice Making ◽  
Is Management ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
Work Done

Getting work done through other people is management; heterogeneities and complexities are managerial issues. Studies in management in 20th and 21st centuries focused on principles of management and management practices. The management theory jungle continues to be dense and impenetrable. Pessimism rules the roast with organizations perceived as insensitive. There is a divide between theory and practice. Epistemology of management practice and management theory building needs to be understood. HRM processes have to be evaluated along with choice making. Theories have to be self fulfilling by changing conditions under which they work. A number of failure stories have been analyzed, impacting several role holders. Searching for evidence for the various failures have provided live instances of actual situations which have caused trauma to the role holders. Financial scandals along with issues of corporate governance have generated conflict. Reviewing practices one perceives repeat errors perpetuated by managers; they are engaged in handling symptoms rather than curative aspects. Grand exits follow. Managers do not consider it safe and seem to work under such constraints. How long will they wait.

scholarly journals Management, productivity and firm heterogeneity in international trade

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (82) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Serrano ◽  
Rafael Myro
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Key Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Firm Heterogeneity ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Quality ◽  
Good Management Practice

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the relevance of management and productivity in the behaviour of firms in international trade. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey of Spanish manufacturing firms, the authors use a management quality index to serve as a proxy for the good management practice of the firm. Findings The results demonstrate that exporter and multinationals firms are more productive and better managed than domestic firms. Furthermore, in the periods in which switcher firms decide to export or to invest abroad, they are better managed but are not more productive than in the rest of the periods. Finally, results indicate that regardless of its positive relationship with productivity, management also has a direct impact on the firm’s probability of exporting and involving in foreign direct investment. Originality/value This paper aims to reconcile the recent international trade literature, which focusses on the role of productivity heterogeneity in international trade, with the international business literature, concentrated on depicting the key management practices that impact internationalization.

The effect of management practice on performance: The moderating role of ownership

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Rieg ◽  
Patrick Ulrich
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Different Levels

While scholars agree that ownership matters for firm performance in general, the detailed effects are still debated. We argue that ownership impacts firm performance not only directly but also through implementing different levels of management practice that impact firm performance too. We show that interactions between ownership and management practice have positive and negative effects on firm performance depending on how different owners can exploit the benefits of management practices or not. In that sense, ownership moderates the effect of management practices on performance

scholarly journals The Contingent Effect of Management Practices

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Blader ◽  
Claudine Gartenberg ◽  
Andrea Prat
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Natural Question ◽  
Value System ◽  
Managerial Practices ◽  
Driver Performance ◽  
Internal Operations ◽  
Optimal Set

Abstract This article investigates how the success of a management practice depends on the underlying values articulated by the management. A large U.S. transportation company is in the process of fitting its trucks with an electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) to provide drivers with information on their driving performance. The company also has commenced a multi-year initiative to remake its internal operations, the first phase of which focuses exclusively on changing values toward a greater emphasis on teamwork and empowerment. In this setting, a natural question is whether the optimal managerial practice consists of: (1) letting each driver know his or her individual performance only; or also (2) providing drivers with information about their performance with respect to other drivers. Using the EOBR-provided driver performance data, we randomize these practices across sites. The main result of our experiment is that (2) leads to better performance than (1) in a particular site if and only if the site has not yet received the values intervention, and worse performance if it has. The result is consistent with the presence of a conflict between competition-based managerial practices and a shift to a cooperation-based value system. More broadly, it highlights the role of intangible factors in determining the optimal set of managerial practices.

Business group persistence and institutional maturity: the role of management practices

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhixiang Liang ◽  
Michael Carney
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Business Group ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Corporate Form ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Practice Bundles

Abstract A widely accepted account of business group (BG) functioning suggests that this common corporate form will dismantle and restructure with the progressive maturity of market-supporting institutions. However, even in mature institutional settings, BGs appear to persists and thrive. We hypothesize that BG persistence arises from an evolving competitive advantage because their competitive advantages with certain types of management practices do not decay with institutional development. We test our hypothesis with data assembled in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES). Empirical results show that several bundles of management practice differentiate BG affiliates and independent firms in the early phase of development but become less prominent at later stages. However, some of the differences in management practice bundles disappear, but others continue to differentiate independent firms and group affiliates in mature institutional jurisdictions.

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