Johannes M. Lehner

Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …

Effekte zielorientierter Führungssysteme - Entwicklung und Validierung des Zielvereinbarungsbogens (ZVB)

Zusammenfassung. In Organisationen als zielgerichtete Systeme haben zielorientierte Fuhrungssysteme und Interventionen zu deren Einfuhrung grose und zunehmende Bedeutung. Derartige Systeme firmieren als Management by Objectives (MbO), Mitarbeitergesprache oder einfach als Zielfestlegungen. Trotz der grosen Zahl an empirischen Belegen zur Wirkungsweise einzelner Aspekte von Zielfestlegungen schliest dieser Beitrag eine Lucke in diesem Forschungsstrang, indem er ein Messinstrument zur Abbildung der Vieldimensionalitat der Effekte von zielorientierten Fuhrungssystemen anbietet. Basierend auf Daten aus einer Sozialversicherungsanstalt und einem Industrieunternehmen der Stahlbranche werden Reliabilitat und Validitat in Bezug auf 10 Dimensionen gepruft. Eine LISREL-Schatzung zeigt akzeptable Reliabilitaten. Die kriteriumsbezogene Validitat, beurteilt durch die Vorhersagekraft in Bezug auf die Effekte von Interventionen, kann als sehr gut eingeschatzt werden. Einsatzbereiche des Zielvereinbarungsbogens fur Forsc...

Risikosuchendes Verhalten als Folge erfolgsbezogener Anreizsysteme. Effekte von Optionsprogrammen

Aktienoptionsprogramme (Stock Options) für das Top Management erfreuen sich auch im deutschsprachigen Raum zunehmender Beliebtheit. Ihre Einführung wird, fußend auf der Prinzipal-Agenten-Theorie, mit ihrer positiven Anreizwirkung im Sinne des Shareholder-Values begründet. Insbesondere sollen Führungskräfte angeregt werden, riskantere und damit profitablere Kurse für ihre Unternehmen einzuschlagen. Nach einer Replik bisheriger Kritik an solchen Anreizsystemen wird gezeigt, dass bei einer Verletzung zentraler Annahmen neo-klassischer Ansätze, wie der Normalverteilungsannahme, Aktienoptionen Anreize zur Schädigung des Shareholder-Value bieten können. Zwar wird riskanteres Verhalten in der Regel wahrscheinlicher, dieses ist jedoch nicht unbedingt mit höheren zu erwartenden Erträgen für das Unternehmen verbunden. Weiters wird argumentiert, dass das solcherart motivierte Management Maßnahmen ergreifen wird, welche zu rechts-schiefen Verteilungen der Erträge führen. Organisationale und personalpolitische Implikationen solcher Anreizsysteme in Bezug auf Wahlverhalten, Implementierung und Motivation werden formuliert.

International briefing 15: Training and development in Austria

The system of primary, secondary, and tertiary education in Austria is largely regulated through federal laws. Especially on the tertiary level major reforms have been initiated during the last decade. Beyond that, vocational training, especially as part of apprenticeships, is shaped by and adapted to the structure of the Austrian economy, consisting mostly of small and medium sized enterprises. This type of job oriented training and development is strongly, although decreasingly, influenced by the system of social and economic partnership in Austria. In contrast, management training and post tertiary education is much more diverse and less regulated. Beside already ongoing educational reforms, pressures due to global competition will increasingly impact vocational training and development in the future.

Making sense in asset markets: Strategies for Implicit Organizations

Abstract While asset markets are traditionally left to economic inquiry, the paper shows that there is both a legal possibility and an incentive for organizing within such markets and for exercising market share-based strategic maneuvering. It proposes, based on sensemaking theory, Implicit Organizations in asset markets to exploit equivocality for momentum trading strategies. An Implicit Organization fulfills the criteria of an organization, while maintaining the image of a perfect market. Its members coordinate via market signals and fixed investment time windows to ensure positive returns to strategic maneuvering in asset markets. In support of hypotheses derived from sensemaking theory, results of empirical studies from two different investment contexts (Xetra and NYSE) provide evidence that equivocal analysts’ recommendations predict investment returns after a fixed time period.

Interpersonal Mistreatment to Interpersonal Deviance: Victim’s Reaction Against Instigator

Researchers have intensively examined the nature and consequences of mistreatment indicating that such acts have deleterious effects on the victims. However, relatively little has been focused on the reaction mechanism. Current study investigated the relationship between interpersonal mistreatment and interpersonal deviance by arguing that victims of interpersonal mistreatment are more likely to involve in deviance against the instigators. Participants included 200 employees from 19 different organizations of Pakistan. Results through structural equation modeling revealed that experience of interpersonal mistreatment potentially trigger victim’s deviant behavior against instigators. Additionally, partial mediation of job stress has also been proved in interpersonal mistreatment-interpersonal deviance relationship. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and workplace implications.

Statusverhalten in der Organisation im Spannungsverhältnis von formaler und informaler Hierarchie

Die Organisationsforschung setzte Status bisher weitgehend mit der durch die Hierarchie vorgegebenen Position gleich. Entsprechend wurde das mit Status verbundene Verhalten kaum erforscht. Der Beitrag fuhrt Statusverhalten als eigenstandiges Organisationales Verhaltenskonstrukt ein und grenzt es von verwandten Konzepten ab. Statusverhalten wird als Erklarung fur die Entstehung informaler, sozialer Hierarchien und fur die Besetzung von Positionen in formalen Organisationshierarchien postuliert. Dieser Zusammenhang wird moderiert durch den Grad der Formatierung der Hierarchie, durch deren Veranderlichkeit („Liminalitat”) und durch die Tiefe der Hierarchie. Vermittelt uber die Hierarchie beeinflusst Statusverhalten auch den Gebrauch von Machtbasen in der Organisation. Weiters werden mogliche personale Dispositionen als Vorbedingungen fur Statusverhalten argumentiert. Der Beitrag schliest mit einer Diskussion der empirischen Uberprufung und der weiteren Implikationen des Statusverhaltens fur die Organisation.