Adoption of management innovations like the balanced scorecard is generally a complex process. Many subdecisions are involved and customization is often required before firms can enjoy the benefits of these innovations. Consequently, firms tend to experiment before finally implementing such complex innovations. We develop a framework differentiating between antecedents of experimentation with and actual implementation of the balanced scorecard, a distinction that has largely been neglected in the literature. Focusing on a small set of firms that experimented with the balanced scorecard, we provide initial empirical evidence. The results support the framework showing that top management involvement, innovation-contingent departments and organizational-context factors play a significant positive role in the experimentation stage, while interdepartmental communication and formalization are important variables with positive and negative influences in the implementation stage. We discuss the findings and their managerial implications.

This panel study, conducted in a large Venezuelan organization, took advantage of a serendipitous opportunity to examine the organizational commitment profiles of employees before and after a series of dramatic, and unexpected, political events directed specifically at the organization. Two waves of organizational commitment data were collected, 6 months apart, from a sample of 152 employees. No evidence was found that employees’ continuance commitment to the organization was altered by the events described here. Interestingly, however, both affective and normative commitment increased significantly during the period of the study. Further, employee’s commitment profiles at Wave 2 were more differentiated than they were at Wave 1.

Re-visiting the ideas of some key educational thinkers and critical management theorists, this paper re-affirms the need for a critical pedagogy of organizational power and politics to foster deeper levels of reflection and ethical attitudes among undergraduate management students. While prescriptive pedagogical approaches can impart knowledge that may be useful to future managers, they often encourage a shallow and instrumental view of power in which profits are placed above ethics, and expediency above morality. As argued here, a critical pedagogy will encourage a more productive analysis of power-related phenomena in organizations, and will nurture attitudes and behaviours that can humanize management practice. The first part of the paper examines the key theoretical concepts of the proposed approach, the second discusses a set of themes emerging from a critical analysis of organizational power and politics in a management subject, and the third discusses common challenges encountered by academics committed to critical approaches.

The purpose of this research is to examine configurations of proactive personality and ICT-enabled technostress creators as drivers of job crafting for Gen Z, Gen Y, and Gen X+ workers. Adhering to configurational theorizing, the study was conducted using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Survey responses collected from 335 full-time workers revealed that the presence of a proactive personality was a necessary condition for job crafting to occur within the context of ICT demands for these generations. Four configurations for Gen Z, five configurations for Gen Y, and four configurations for Gen X+ workers revealed sufficient conditions for job crafting. The present research contemporizes Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory by incorporating ICT as a modern-day job demand. In using fsQCA as a novel qualitative methodological tool, this research offers new meaning to the prior regression-based findings regarding proactive personality trait's relationship with job crafting.

The spread and application of enterprise information systems (EISs) has provided scholars and managers with a new perspective to enhance the work–family enrichment. Based on the work–family enrichment theory, this research aims to examine the ability of female employees to enhance their work–family enrichment by applying the resources accumulated through the use of EISs by combining the technology acceptance model with the DeLone & McLean Information Systems Success Model. The findings based on a survey of 823 full-time female employees in China indicated that the information systems quality factors (including information quality, system quality, and service quality) were positively associated with female employees’ work–family enrichment. In addition, the chained mediating effect of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness was examined. The results can help female employees to perform positively in both work and family spheres and provide positive support for the promotion of the social fertility policies.

During the 1970's there was considerable research interest in environmentally concerned consumers. Mirroring societal interest levels, such research waned in the 1980's. Today, this topic has regained its relevance, however. Marketers actively target these consumers and public policy makers strive to increase their numbers. In addition, research activity pertaining to these consumers has increased noticeably in recent years. Despite the increased attention to environmental concern, a viable conceptual framework for its study is still lacking. A review of past work indicates that environmental concern has been variously treated as a group of behaviours, attitudes, affect, and intentions. In order to clarify the construct and provide needed theory for its study, a framework of environmental concern is provided here. This framework is drawn from existing work on environmental concern and research pertaining to consumer involvement. The nature, outcomes, and sources for environmental concern are discussed along with marketing and public policy implications.

Although most managers and researchers believe planning is beneficial for organizations, many research studies have failed to prove these benefits are significant. Methodological problems have certainly detracted from researchers' abilities to show a planning-performance linkage.

The article deals with definitional issues about planning and five planning modes. Contingency propositions are developed to link the planning modes with several strategic and contextual situations. For example, it is argued that, while (1) prospector-type strategies are best implemented with externally oriented planning systems like longer-range planning or strategic planning, (2) defender-type strategies are better with internal orientations, like comprehensive planning or implementation-oriented planning. In addition to strategy, other contingency variables examined are user sector, purchase frequency and the stage of product life cycle in which the planning is undertaken.

Planning has adherents as well as detractors among managers and academics. Both sides of the debate can be seen in Mintzberg's (1994a & 1994b) recent publications on the “rise and fall” and “fall and rise” of strategic planning. Many have pointed to planning's benefits to organisations (eg Ansoff, 1977; Bryson, 1988; Langley, 1988). Yet research studies have failed to prove that these benefits are significant (eg Fredrickson & Mitchell, 1984; Fulmer & Rue, 1974; Grinyer & Norburn, 1975; Powell, 1992; Robinson & Pearce, 1983; Pearce, Freeman, & Robinson, 1987). Pearce, et al. (1987) noted a lack of attention to contextual influences; inconsistencies in operationalisation of planning; measurement validity problems; ignoring implementation factors, time frames, and size effects as the methodological problems in this area of research that may have affected researchers' chances of finding the expected link. Rhyne (1986: 423) also argued that some ambiguous findings were attributable to “the manner in which planning was actually carried out, rather than to planning itself”.

Another possible weakness in the “planning” research is that it has not discriminated between modes or approaches to planning. The assumption seems to have been that “more planning is better,” or that longer-term, strategic planning should work in all or most contexts (Bryson, 1988; Eadie, 1983; James, 1984). The present article questions this view and suggests that less sophisticated planning may be better suited to some contexts and more elaborate approaches to others. Robinson and Pearce (1983) support such an approach, suggesting that less formalised planning may be preferable in certain situations.

The article builds on Hofer's (1975) “contingency theory of business strategy,” as well as on Hambrick and Lei's (1985) “prioritization of contingency variables.” From a theoretical standpoint, a contingency approach is particularly well suited to strategy-related research (Galbraith & Kazanjian, 1986; Hofer, 1975) and this approach could hold the solution to an understanding of the elusive planning-performance link. Although past planning research has failed to provide conclusive evidence that a given planning system helps performance in all situations, certain planning systems may work well in some contexts but not in others.

This article begins with a brief discussion of planning and some definitions of different planning modes. A number of contingency propositions are then developed to link these planning modes with variables that are of interest to contemporary management researchers and practitioners.

The paper reports on a study into the usefulness of autopoiesis as a metaphor for reflective thinking about organisations contemplating change. Autopoietic systems display qualities of evolutionary invariance, self organisation to perpetuate the system's status quo, self referential activities and attempts to organise aspects of the environment to suit the system's needs. Systemic characteristics include a desire to return to equilibrium and to be resistant to evolutionary change. Autopoiesis can be used as a metaphor for gaining insights and seeing with fresh eyes some of the perhaps hidden, institutionalised concepts that inform contemporary management strategies. The need for a metaphorical image emerges from the difficulty in reflecting on organisational activities while using historically derived language and symbols. The autopoiesis metaphor was integrated into an exploratory research project with human resource managers as respondents. Tentative findings were that this is a useful metaphor for use in organisational diagnosis. Given this, a more comprehensive study would seem to be worthwhile.

This case analysis traces the establishment and subsequent operation of Natural Waters of Viti Limited, the first company in Fiji extracting, bottling and marketing, both domestically and internationally, Artesian water coming from a virgin ecosystem found on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu. The authors first discuss the product concept, the company and its expansion, and the role of Fiji Government in providing a legal framework and the necessary infrastructure for a new industry pioneered by Natural Waters of Viti. These are followed by an analysis of the US market, from which the company derives more than 90% of its revenues, and the marketing strategy employed in that market. The subsequent sections deal with export earnings, expected expansion into new markets, and the company's relations with the local community. The case concludes by summarising major achievements by the company and major challenges it faces now.

In September 2010 and again in February 2011, the city of Christchurch was rocked by earthquakes of magnitude 7.1 and 6.3 respectively. The second earthquake was shallow and caused extensive damage and loss of life, destroying most of the Central Business District. This paper focuses on recovery management at the University of Canterbury, exploring the extent to which the senior management team learned lessons from the September event which informed the way that the recovery was managed after the February earthquake. It examines the counter-intuitive possibility that successfully dealing with a prior, lesser event, may not necessarily better equip managers to deal with a subsequent, more extreme event.

Consumption, especially high profile brand consumption, implicates our identities. More than that, brand consumption connects our lives to others through shared lifestyle expressions to the extent that subcultures of consumption emerge. However, as this work shows, the meaning of particular consumption objects or brands cannot be assumed. Using visual ethnography, this study describes the experiential meaning of the legendary Harley-Davidson to owners and riders in Australia. For more than three years, fieldwork was conducted primarily from within a chapter of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) and included participant observation, interviews, and visual documentation of the Harley-Davidson experience. The findings show the Australian Harley-Davidson experience to be a postmodern paradox. As an iconic American brand with a rebellious image, Harley-Davidson is readily embraced in this Australian subculture of consumption. Also, despite the widely assumed deviancy of those on a Harley-Davidson, the Australian HOG subculture is shown to uphold mainstream values in a family-friendly environment. Moreover, as an iconic symbol of freedom, this experience is achieved through regulation and organization. This work also shows the act of consuming Harley-Davidson creates the experiential meaning and postmodern spectacle that demands attention. In effect, consumers become producers in co-constructing the postmodern paradox of the (Australian) Harley-Davidson experience.

There are considerable differences in perception of one's behaviour as externally controlled or as the result of personal choice (ie external or internal locus of control). This study assesses the influence of the external/internal locus of control on subordinates' perceptions of their managers' technical and people skills. Internal subordinates were found to criticise external managers for their technical skills, while external subordinates criticised their internal managers' people skills. The implications of these outcomes for the assessment of work performance are also discussed.

Current recruitment and retention issues within the armed forces draw links with breach of the psychological contract – the dynamics of the employee–employer relationship. Compared with civilian contexts, a military position is unique, however, there is a dearth of conceptual investigation regarding the lived experiences of military personnel, particularly with respect to how such contracts form. This paper combined a phenomenological approach with the critical decision method to investigate the lived experiences informing contract formation and contract trajectory of ex-military personnel. Lived experiences pointed to the formulation of ‘fuzzy’ contracts, impressions from defence force recruitment, specific tipping points around organisational commitment, and large differences between the fidelity of the idealised and actualised self/job. Seven superordinate themes are elicited that trace the formation and trajectory of the contract. A schematised account of findings is developed to provide avenues to investigate how beliefs form in a military contract context and their outcomes.

The focus of the present paper is to examine the strategy use in Australian small and medium enterprises exporting to Asia. A selection of strategic issues is examined in order to identify their relative importance to a firm's exporting activities. No attempt is made to establish a causal linkage between strategy and export performance. Rather, the paper attempts to appraise the level of importance of various strategic factors that are often dealt with by an exporting firm. The study was conducted with an expectation of assisting future research endeavours into the relevance of strategies to export-performance. A set of impediments and the extent of their negativity on the exporting activities have also been considered, the understanding of which may help a firm in achieving appropriate strategic direction. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in an attempt to capture the intricacies and challenges of using strategies in a cross-cultural environment.

The present study examined women and men's ethical ideologies, as measured by a shorter version of Forsyth's (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire and individual beliefs about ethical behaviour in organisations using Froelich and Kottke's (1991) instrument. Froelich and Kottke's questions suggest actions that are inconsistent with societal moral values. The sample (N=662) consisted of tertiary students in two Western Australian universities. The data revealed that women are less likely to undertake ethically questionable activities to support and / or protect the organisation. Women are also found to have a more idealistic orientation than men, which partially explains the previous findings. In this study, women are less likely to emphasise organisational interests over societal ethical values.

By drawing on social exchange theory, we developed a theoretical model to explore the effect of political skill on unethical pro-supervisor behavior (UPSB) via leader–member exchange (LMX) and the way in which immediate supervisor empowering leadership moderates this mediated relationship. A three-wave study (n = 442) provided evidence suggesting that political skill is positively related to UPSB and that LMX partially mediates this relationship. Immediate supervisor empowering leadership moderates the effect of political skill on LMX, and political skill is positively and indirectly related to UPSB via LMX when the level of immediate supervisor empowering leadership is high. Although political skill is beneficial to both employees and organizations in many respects, our study provides empirical evidence that can improve our understanding of how political skills trigger UPSB. The practical and theoretical implications of our findings are discussed.

Yealands Wine Group Holdings Limited has an exciting future and Peter Yealands (founder) and Jason Judkins (CEO) were celebrating. They felt that Yealands was in a strong position going forward and the new partnership with Marlborough Lines offered exciting future possibilities. However, they knew that the company faced many strategic issues that needed to be addressed. They also wanted to ensure that they were able to achieve their growth plans by 2020: lifting sales from 1 to 2 million cases a year, wine processing capacity from 20,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes and turnover from $100 million to $150 million. To meet their intended projections, what direction should they grow in? And how?