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Management Scholars (management + scholar)
Selected AbstractsThe Concept of Modularity in Management Studies: A Literature ReviewINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3 2010Diego Campagnolo During the last decade, modularity has attracted the attention of numerous management scholars, and both theoretical and empirical studies on this topic have flourished. However, this broad-based appeal has generated some controversies and ambiguities on how modularity should be defined, measured and used in managerially meaningful ways. This paper reviews the concept of modularity as a design principle of complex systems in management studies. Applying this criterion, 125 studies were selected and classified, grouped according to their prevalent unit of analysis: products, production systems and organizations. Although all these studies are based on Simon's seminal work on the hierarchical and nearly decomposable nature of complex systems (Simon, H.A. (1962). The architecture of complexity. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, 467,482), this paper shows that they offer different definitions, measures and applications of the modularity concept. This review reveals the implicit structure of meanings underlying this literature and emphasizes that ambiguity in definitions and measures impedes rigorous empirical studies capable of understanding the relationship between modularity in product, in production and in organization design. Cautions and directions for future research are discussed. [source] Management, Theology and Moral Points of View: Towards an Alternative to the Conventional Materialist-Individualist Ideal-Type of Management*JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 4 2005Bruno Dyck abstract Weber's (1958) argument suggests that there are four ideal-types of management, and that conventional management is underpinned by a moral-point-of-view associated with a secularized Protestant Ethic, which can be characterized by its relatively high emphasis on materialism (e.g. productivity, efficiency and profitability) and individualism (e.g. competitiveness). Weber calls on management scholars and practitioners to become aware of their own moral-points-of-view, and to develop management theory and practice that de-emphasizes materialism and individualism. Our paper responds to this challenge, as we draw from an Anabaptist-Mennonite moral-point-of-view to develop a radical ideal-type of management that is characterized by its emphasis on servant leadership, stakeholding, job crafting and sustaincentrism. Implications for management theory and practice are discussed. [source] Knowing What You Don't Know?JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 4 2004Contradictions in Knowledge Management Research, Discourses ABSTRACT Even though knowledge management scholars generally advocate explicit management of knowledge, there is research that cautions against the unintended consequences of such efforts. Some researchers go as far as arguing that knowledge and management are contradictory concepts (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2001). This paper explores the apparent double-edged nature of knowledge management by developing a theory-based framework that highlights different fundamental assumptions about knowledge and its management. This framework, which is an adaptation of Burrell and Morgan's four paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, distinguishes among a neo-functionalist, a constructivist, a critical and a dialogic discourse. We use the contradiction of managing tacit knowledge, which has been highlighted in the knowledge management literature, as an analytical device to explore the four discourses in more detail. We show how notions of knowledge, and what it means to manage knowledge, vary across the four discourses. We conclude that all four discourses need to be appreciated, understood and represented in knowledge management research for this area of inquiry to deal with the rich and problematic nature of managing knowledge in practice. [source] Corporate political action in China and America: a comparative perspectiveJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2006Yongqiang Gao Corporate political action (CPA) is always an interesting topic for management scholars since 1980s. There are a large plenty of literatures from different disciplines focus on this topic. But till now, studies on this topic are almost conducted under the Western culture and taking the Western countries as objective, very few studies are conducted in non-Western countries, and specifically, the CPA in China is nearly untouched. Due to the differences of culture and political economy between China and the West, CPA in China may be very different from the West's. This article discusses the similarities and differences of CPA in China and America. The result shows that due to the differences in culture and political economical system between China and America, CPA in China is very different from America. This study will help to understand the CPA in China for outsiders, especially for Americans. It also helps multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China to take suitable political actions to support their interests. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A Social Network Analysis of the Journal of Supply Chain Management: Knowledge Generation, Knowledge Diffusion and Thought LeadershipJOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Craig R. Carter SUMMARY The authors conduct a citation analysis of the Journal of Supply Chain Management over its first 40 years of publication, with the objectives of better understanding the sources that supply management scholars have drawn upon to generate research appearing in the Journal. Social network analysis is introduced and used to better understand how research that has been published in the Journal has been diffused across universities, and to identify university thought leaders. The authors provide future research directions based on additional, potential applications of social network analysis. [source] A Resource-Process Framework of New Service DevelopmentPRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Craig M. Froehle Motivated by the increasing attention given to the operational importance of developing new services, this paper offers a theoretical framework that integrates both process- and resource-oriented perspectives of new service development (NSD) by defining and organizing 45 practice constructs for NSD-related practices and activities that occur in contemporary service firms. We employ a rigorous procedure whereby both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through multiple rounds of interviews and card-sorting exercises with senior service managers. This iterative refinement process helps ensure that the construct domains and definitions are consistent and that they are applicable across multiple service sectors. A primary contribution of this research is to provide precise operational definitions of theoretically important NSD practice constructs. Importantly, this study expands on the NSD literature by including both resource- and process-centric perspectives within a single framework. A second contribution is to illustrate a general methodology for developing clear, concise, and consistent construct definitions that may be generally useful for production and operations management scholars interested in new construct development for emerging areas. Empirical results suggest that the resource-process framework can help guide and organize future research on, and provide insight into, a more comprehensive view of new service development. [source] Bridging Scholarship in Management: Epistemological ReflectionsBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2003John D. Aram If the relevance gap in management research is to be narrowed, management scholars must identify and adopt processes of inquiry that simultaneously achieve high rigour and high relevance. Research approaches that strive for relevance emphasize the particular at the expense of the general and approaches that strive for rigour emphasize the general over the particular. Inquiry that attains both rigour and relevance can be found in approaches to knowledge that involve a reasoned relationship between the particular and the general. Prominent among these are the works of Ikujiro Nonaka and John Dewey. Their epistemological foundations indicate the potential for a philosophy of science and a process of inquiry that crosses epistemological lines by synthesizing the particular and the general and by utilizing experience and theory, the implicit and the explicit, and induction and deduction. These epistemologies point to characteristics of a bridging scholarship that is problem-initiated and rests on expanded standards of validity. The present epistemological reflections are in search of new communities of knowing toward the production of relevant and rigorous management knowledge. [source] A language perspective to environmental management and corporate responsibilityBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2009Maria Joutsenvirta Abstract Few environmental management scholars have applied a research approach that focuses on analysing the language use through which managers and other societal actors come to describe, explain or otherwise account for environmental and social problems. This article discusses some of the important benefits that treating linguistic materials as ,sites of language use' offers for studying corporate responsibilities in various societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty. Findings from a longitudinal discourse analysis of the debate between a leading global forest industry company (Stora Enso) and a global environmental organization (Greenpeace) demonstrate the utility of a research approach that focuses on the discussants' language use. The article shows how the application of a language perspective opens up new avenues for understanding how certain ways of talking about corporate responsibilities may hinder or facilitate our efforts to steer corporate actions into a more balanced relationship with nature and society. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | ||||||||||