Jan P. Muczyk

Toward a Cultural Contingency Model of Leadership

To succeed in todays economy, multinational and transnational organizations must have strong leaders who are versed in global leadership principles. Unfortunately, 85% of Fortune 500 executives report that their firms lack enough competent global leaders. Relying on leadership theories based solely on North American experiences will unlikely ameliorate this shortfall. Accordingly, the authors integrate the Project GLOBE cultural imperatives with mainstream leadership dimensions to produce global leadership prescriptions. Examples of regional leadership styles based on regional cultural determinants are also provided. This prospective framework serves as a springboard to help guide and develop leaders who wish to transcend geographical boundaries and effectively lead in a culturally diverse, global context.

Relationships between Work Commitments and Experience of Personal Well-Being

It was hypothesized that work commitment is positively related to personal well-being along most of the commitment range. At the top end of the range, however, where “overcommitment” is indicated, a deterioration of well-being was expected. The sample consisted of 257 young, primarily men, retail managers. Analysis indicated a linear relationship between commitment and well-being across the whole range. The findings support the traditional position that personal commitment to central domains of life contributes to well-being. They do not support the hypothesis concerning detrimental effects of “overcommitment.”

The Strategic Role of Compensation

Many social scientists and observers of the American scene have recognized for some time that the U.S. has become an “instrumental” culture. It is crucial in such a culture for employees to be convinced that their effort leads to performance and performance leads to valued rewards. Therefore, instituting performance-based pay systems in U.S. organizations is imperative. However, the relationship between performance and rewards is quite complex. Different competitive strategies supported by appropriate organizational cultures intervene between organizational goal attainment and the compensation mix that the organization selects. In other words, there needs to be congruence between goals that organizations seek, strategies that are most likely to attain these goals, cultures that support these strategies, and reward systems that elicit and maintain behaviors that are consonant with the appropriate competitive strategy and its supporting culture. In this manuscript, the author attempts to create just such a congruence.

Antecedents of Employees' Mental Health: The Role of Career and Work Satisfaction.

Abstract It was hypothesized that individual and situational variables, as a whole, will show stronger relationships with work-related attitudes than with mental health indices. Work-related attitudes, on the other hand, were expected to contribute more strongly to mental health than the individual and situational variables. Results obtained from two groups of staff professionals and retail store managers, using primarily questionnaire data, supported these hypotheses. Career and work satisfaction emerged as the strongest contributors to mental health. Situational variables such as job characteristics, supervisory style, and pay related more strongly to the attitudinal variables than to mental health. This pattern suggests that career and work satisfaction may serve as intervening variables in the relationship between situational variables and mental health.

An Attempt At A Consentience Regarding Formal Leadership

Given the importance of leadership in organizations, an attempt to integrate the many disparate concepts and constructs related to this topic is long overdue. With that goal in mind, an integrative framework was created that focuses on three distinct levels of abstraction- big leadership, mid-range leadership, and small leadership. Within this tripartite taxonomy, an attempt was made to reconcile some vexing issues that have been frustrating academics and practitioners alike. Big leadership is viewed as transformational in nature, requiring a charismatic visionary being in the right place at the right time. Both mid-range and small leadership, however, are transactional in nature, but small leadership is so to a fault. Our approach to mid-range leadership theory attempts to identify the important dimensions of transactional leadership, differentiate the normative from the situational ones, and specify the conditions under which the situational leadership factors apply. In our framework, small leadership consists of the myriad of quotidian interactions between the leader and subordinates that are easy to overlook but have an important cumulative effect on the social compact between leader and subordinates that is so essential to gaining subordinate compliance. Lastly, whenever appropriate, contingencies are specified at all three levels, and substitutes for leadership identified. While not a mega-theory, our leadership framework is integrative and, thus, useful to managers who lead organizations, teams, and individuals.

Mandatory drug testing: managing the latest pandora's box

Abstract Mandatory drug testing has become fashionable, especially in large organizations. The authors discuss the legal risks associated with drug testing, identify the reliability problems inherent in drug tests, and present a comprehensive strategy for managing in an era of controlled-substance abuse.

In defense of enlightened hardball management

Abstract What can we learn from bygone successes? How can we get moving again? The authors offer an action agenda that managers can start on immediately.

The effect of interstate highway on driving times and regional shopping center drawing power

Previous studies of the driving times of shopping center patrons have not examined the effect of limited access highways. This study analyzed the impact of interstate highways on the driving times of 204 shoppers at three medium-sized regional shopping centers. Those shoppers indicating usage of interstate highways to reach their shopping destinations were significantly more likely to incur travel times greater than fifteen and twenty minutes than those not using the available interstate roads. In predicting the drawing power of these shopping centers, factors besides mass were found to be useful. These include square footage of shopping goods, stores, and number of parking places.