Jennifer D. Oyler

Historical, practical, and theoretical perspectives on green management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive definition of green management. In the quest to systematically develop an inclusive definition, it seeks to take an exploratory approach to investigate the existing literature on green management from three different perspectives: first, tracing the history of how this concept emerged over time; second, considering the practices in which green organizations actually engage, focusing specifically on one company that has been recognized and honored for its extraordinary efforts toward sustainability; and third, reviewing the current developments in critical theory related to environmental issues and business.Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory review of the literature uses a tripartite approach to forge a sound definition and conceptualization of the term green management. Exploration of green management from the three angles mentioned revealed some commonalities and consistencies in the terminology and concepts. Factors common to ...

The collective endorsement of James Meredith: Initiating a leader identity construction process

DeRue and Ashford (2010) proposed a social process of leadership identity construction, asserting that leadership identity is co-constructed by way of claims and grants of leader and follower identities. In addition, these authors suggested that the collective endorsement of the broader social context might serve as a catalyst to initiate the leader identity construction process. As a result, they called for qualitative studies to further develop this idea. During archival research of James Meredith’s historic integration of the University of Mississippi, we discovered evidence to support and extend their theoretical arguments. Accordingly, we interpret the archival evidence of support and opposition of Meredith’s defiant integration to contrast the leader identity construction processes of Meredith with his contemporary antagonist, former Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. We use this analysis to illustrate how the distinctive social context broadly recognized the key element of defiance and collectively endorsed Meredith as a leader, thereby initiating his leader identity construction process.

Transcending the power of hierarchy to facilitate shared leadership

Purpose – Although communal forms of leadership are being called for to provide contemporary organizations with more responsive leadership platforms, the paper can find no compelling description as to how such leadership might develop in a world of hierarchy. The purpose of this paper is to fill this void. Design/methodology/approach – Attempting to comprehend the sharing of leadership will require contemplation of unconventional approaches in opposition to the dominant logic associated with conventional organizational leadership. One current example of such unorthodox deliberation is the emerging awareness of the Grateful Deads influence on business management and leadership. Accordingly, the paper examined and interpreted the experiences and expressed beliefs of Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead to offer a conceptualization of how shared leadership could emerge in traditional organizational settings. Findings – The analysis indicates that Jerry Garcia exhibited aspects of transformational leadership, s...

Exploring the Content and Factorial Validity of Job Embeddedness Through the Lens of a Multigroup Sample

The purpose of the present research was to provide additional evidence for the construct validity of Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, and Erez’s Job Embeddedness Questionnaire (JEQ). While most studies have focused on building the nomological network of job embeddedness with organizationally relevant outcomes, scant research has focused attention on the psychometric properties of the JEQ. To this end, this study explores the meta-analytic relationships of the JEQ with job satisfaction and organizational commitment measures to help build additional evidence for the discriminant validity of the job embeddedness construct. Results revealed that the organizational dimensions of links, fit, and sacrifice and job satisfaction measures have differential relationships with perceived desirability and ease of movement variables thereby lending support to the construct validity of the JEQ. In addition, the content and factorial validity of the JEQ was examined using a cross-industry, multioccupational sample from 542 respondents. Results indicated that while the three-factor model for both organizational and community embeddedness had the best fit to the data, other psychometric properties were somewhat questionable. Recommendations were provided to refine the current operationalization of the JEQ and to expand the nomological network of job embeddedness by exploring predictors and outcomes of individual dimensions of organizational embeddedness and community embeddedness.

Upward defiance in organizations: management lessons from the Battle of Blair Mountain

Purpose – Based upon an analysis of 30 historic narrative accounts of mutinies, Coye, Murphy, and Spencer recently extended voice theory to clarify the ontological status of the concept of upward defiance. The purpose of this article is to extend the framework of Coye et al. and illustrate the process of escalation towards hostility to offer practicing managers guidance on appropriate steps to interrupt the extreme escalation of member resistance.Design/methodology/approach – The authors examined the significant historical insurrection within the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. With the case of the Blair Mountain War, the historical record provides ample narrative data for a textual, interpretive, pseudo‐ethnographical analysis.Findings – The examination of the Battle of Blair Mountain provides additional support for the upward organizational defiance framework proposed by Coye, Murphy, and Spencer. In addition, the authors have extended the theoretical upward defiance framework to account for the escalati...

Lost in translation: from B‐school to business

Purpose – The purpose of this brief article is to describe the chasm between academic research and management practitioners and to call for assistance in closing the divide.Design/methodology/approach – Using journal literature and inductive observation from our experiences we offer our conceptual understanding by way of an opinion/viewpoint piece.Findings – If we are to truly lessen the gulf between organizational researchers and practitioners, movement must occur from both directions. Not doing so will result in a continuing myopic focus on the divide itself instead of fundamental discussions of the more crucial elements that influence organizational performance and productivity.Practical implications – We outline the relevant implications of our thinking for academics and practicing managers and offer recommendations that, if implemented by all involved, could narrow this gap and enhance the effectiveness of researchers and managers.Originality/value – The distinctive contribution of this article is th...