Andreas Nikolopoulos

Assessing subjective influences on managerial decisions

The application of managerial theories and techniques does not often lead to increased efficiency for company performance, so they raise doubts concerning their empirical credibility. The present study attempts to approach the role of subjectivity in the making of management decisions, by incorporating company characteristics, the gender of the decision maker, and the type of decision-making utilised in human resource management. My findings indicate that subjectivity plays a very important role in managerial decision making for both domestic and multinational companies. However, subjectivity differs in quantity and quality according to the characteristics of the company and the decision maker, and to the kind of decision to be taken. This paper should help the reader to clarify the role of subjectivity in managerial decisions, and removes a significant factor that causes inefficiencies in the implementation of company goals.

The role of political tactics on the organizational context–career success relationship

Drawing from the norm of reciprocity, signal theory, and psychological contracts, we argue that the use of different types of political tactics, based on their social desirability, can be reciprocal behavioral reactions to contextual cues (i.e. perceptions of organizational support and politics) that can predict career success. Using a sample of 117 middle managers, our findings suggest that the use of sanctioned political tactics partially mediates the relationship between perceptions of organizational support and career success, while non-sanctioned political tactics suppress the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and career success.

Conditions and efficiency

Our efficiency depends on whether our power reserves are sufficient and compatible, and on the potential reactions of the other parties. All of these are affected by financial, political, time, cultural, legal, technical, and complementary conditions. The identification of these conditions could confirm the efficiency of our plans, if there were only one predominant type of condition in each conflict. However, since this is not usually the case, we need to define the “mix of conditions.” In every possible mix there is one type of condition that prevails, while the other types co-exist with varying degrees of influence in that particular conflict. In order to improve our negotiating strategy, we need to adjust or influence the given mix of conditions. In this way, we enable the achievement of synergies (2 + 2 = 5), as well as the assessment and influence of the other party’s efficiency.

Current Situation and Future Trends of the Industrial Relations System and Trade Unions in Greece

The Greek industrial relations system for the past decades, mainly in the private sector, has been based on Law 1876 of 1990, which introduced free collective bargaining and independent dispute resolution. Due to the financial crisis, new legislation modified the existing legal framework and led to curtailing collective bargaining and almost eliminating arbitration. These amendments are affecting trade unionism, however only hypotheses of possible scenarios may be formulated, as the country is undergoing an unprecedented financial and political change.

The power budget

When reconsidering our behavior in a conflict situation, we take into account all the parallel conflicts we face in various arenas. This reconsideration allows us to safeguard and maximize our gains from the full range of our relationships, rather than from a single field. As such, this chapter focuses on: The different levels of significance between parallel conflict fields. The cost of conflict — which depends upon the significance of the particular conflict field Conflict ability — which refers to the availability of our power resources, considering their distribution to parallel conflicts. In this way, we can build our power budget, which further promotes the development of an overall strategy. This strategy prescribes the extent of our intervention in each of our parallel conflicts. This chapter also discusses the flexibility of transferring power resources from one field to another, the symbolic participation in a field, as well as the concept of achieving synergies (2 + 2 = 5).

Ways to handle a conflict

Traditional negotiation strategies, concerning types of direct negotiations, are further broadened to types of virtual negotiations and isolated actions. In complex negotiations, the parties tend to develop mixes of negotiating strategies to improve their effectiveness. In addition, the parties often use incongruent strategies. This chapter stresses the interpretative nature of the proposed concept, which enables both the development and evaluation of such advanced dealings, and the decoding of the other party’s negotiating behavior.

Forming initial behavior

Once a conflict is perceived, there are three initial behavior options: Depreciation. Action. Accumulation of the conflict. The behavior that is chosen will be selected depending on: The combination stemming from the relationship structure — extended or limited. The cost of the conflict — high or low. The conflict ability — high or low. In this context, we also deal with “incompatible behaviors”; these result in “lose” outcomes, especially for the party that induced them. Conflict depreciation is thoroughly examined to stress its significance, since it reinforces our conflict ability. This behavior leads to the avoidance of waste of our power reserves, enabling us to deal efficiently with our major conflicts.

Conflict, power and negotiation

Negotiations presuppose a conflict of interest, together with an attempt to alter the other side’s behavior through the use of power reserves: thus, conflict, negotiations and power are directly bound to each other. First, we discuss three basic negotiating strategies: Direct negotiations. Virtual negotiations. Isolated acts. We then go on to introduce a new way of thinking and handling conflicts, based on the principles that each party: Possesses limited power reserves, and thus considers how to use them in an effective way. Experiences parallel conflicts in multiple contexts, and thus their behavior in a given conflict field can be explained by their activities and their committed power reserves in the remaining fields. Plans before acting, so that their negotiating methods follow a strategic rationale.

Evaluation of consequences

An efficient negotiation strategy does not always ensure its effectiveness. For this reason, it is important to assess the consequences concerning the costs, profits, positive and negative influences and their duration that may follow our actions. This assessment is based on the definition of the consequences for each of the stages previously discussed (power reserves, formation of initial behavior, power budget and conditions). As yet, the picture is not complete until we consider the other party’s behavior: this leads to the development of the concept of “predictable behaviors”.