Julia Brandl

Reflections on the Societal Conditions for the Pervasiveness of Entrepreneurial Behavior in Western Societies

Entrepreneurship has become an important issue in contemporary management practice and research. While there is much debate about the benefits of entrepreneurial behavior, its obvious pervasion in many areas of life remains largely unexplored. It is this persuasive power that inspired us to conceptualize entrepreneurship as a dominant institution in modern Western societies. In contrast to most institutional approaches which draw on entrepreneurial behavior for studying institutional change, our approach focuses on the societal preconditions for the dominance of entrepreneurship. We outline how entrepreneurship is manifested in ideals of modern Western societies, discourse and techniques of control and how individuals who are socialized into an entrepreneurial society, contribute to legitimize entrepreneurship and further its pervasiveness. Our analysis provides a framework for research on differences in the valuation of entrepreneurial behavior across societal settings, as well as for the study of mechanisms for the deepening of taken for-grantedness of entrepreneurship.

Equal, but different?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the status and functional responsibilities of female human resource (HR) directors vary cross‐nationally and how gender egalitarian cultural values affect role differences between female and male HR directors.Design/methodology/approach – A cross‐country comparison of HR directors involving 22 countries based on the 2004 Cranet survey.Findings – Consistent with the hypotheses, gender egalitarian values reduce sex‐role differences for strategic integration and for traditionally female‐stereotyped HR functions. However, there is no support for the notion that egalitarian values influence sex differences for male‐stereotyped HR functions. Since, the data indicate higher levels of involvement of female HR directors in male‐stereotyped HR functions in 12 out of 22 countries, unequal distribution of functional responsibility is interpreted as an indicator for sex differences in administrative workload.Originality/value – Macro cultural factors matter for sex...

Why French Pragmatism Matters to Organizational Institutionalism

In this dialogue, we explore the potential of bridging different approaches for furthering the field of organizational institutionalism. The two particular approaches that have received considerable attention include the institutional logics perspective and French pragmatism. While both present new opportunities, we briefly consider the implications of the treatment of action by proponents of French pragmatism for analyzing the importance of institutionalized rules in organizations. Our brief overview sets the tone for a more constructive conversation among scholars, which is exemplified in the various contributions to this dialogue that consider points of cross-fertilization and the consequences of such work for the field of organizational institutionalism.

The influence of social policy practices and gender egalitarianism on strategic integration of female HR directors

The integration of the HR director into the strategic planning process is important if the HR function is to play a strategic role. A considerable number of women hold HR director positions with varying strategic integration across countries. This article deals with the impact of societal factors on the strategic integration of female HR directors. It analyses the consequences of social policy practices facilitating womens participation in work for the strategic integration of female HR directors and additional effects resulting from the interplay between these practices and gender-egalitarian attitudes at the societal level. A study of 984 companies with female HR directors in 16 countries shows that while enabling social policy practices are positively associated with strategic integration of female HR directors, related gender-egalitarian attitudes do not have a supporting effect.

Variations in evaluative repertoires

Purpose – While it is acknowledged that societal context matters for employee expectations on training and development, the complexity of this relationship is still little explored. This paper aims to study which higher‐order principles employees of a German and Russian company use to justify their views on beneficial training and development in order to identify how evaluative repertoires differ between the two settings.Design/methodology/approach – Building on interviews conducted in two professional services firms in Germany and Russia, the paper identifies patterns in the repertoire that employees use for evaluating training and development activities at each research site.Findings – The findings reveal that employees working for the German company predominantly use the industrial principle for justifying their views on training and development. In contrast, employees in the Russian company apply market, industrial and domestic principles with a tendency for long‐term employees more often to justify t...

They're Natural and Everywhere: How Evaluative Practices Permeate the Organization

How do evaluative practices become natural and ubiquitous in an organization? In this paper we integrate findings from previous empirical work on the adoption of evaluative practices in organizations with insights from institutional theory and social psychology research for advancing the understanding of possible states of evaluative practices within organizations and the processes through which organizations become permeated by evaluative practices. Our conceptual model suggests that once evaluative practices have gained a foothold in an organization, they tend to be applied to an increasing number of organizational problems and become taken for granted.

Gender‐egalitarian culture and differences in strategic integration among women and men in HR director positions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how differences in strategic integration between women and men in HR director positions vary in an international comparison and particularly how gender‐egalitarian cultural values influence the level of these differences.Design/methodology/approach – Cross‐country comparison of HR managers involving 22 countries based on the 2004 Cranet survey.Findings – Consistent with the hypothesis, findings show a negative relationship between gender‐egalitarian values and sex differences in strategic integration.Practical implications – Enhanced understanding of impact of cultural egalitarianism on cross‐national differences in segregation of women in the HR profession.Originality/value – Level of segregation of women in HR director positions varies with the prevalence of gender‐egalitarian cultural values.

Entwicklungsdynamik von Vergütungssystemen in Nonprofit-Organisationen **

Der Erforschung von Vergütungssystemen für Führungskräfte und gehobene Fachkräfte in Forprofit-Unternehmen wird in der Personalmanagementforschung hohe Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Hingegen wurde diese Thematik bislang für Nonprofit-Organisationen (NPO) kaum untersucht. In diesem Beitrag wird ein mit Hilfe der Grounded Theory entwickeltes Modell vorgestellt, welches drei Grundtypen von Vergütungssystemen für Führungskräfte und gehobene Fachkräfte in NPOs unterscheidet und deren Entwicklungsdynamik aufzeigt. Vergütungssysteme entwickeln sich demzufolge von Personen- über Funktions- hin zu Leistungsorientierung. Der Übergang von Personen- zu Funktionsorientierung ist durch organisationales Wachstum und Ausdifferenzierung gekennzeichnet. Obwohl die Transparenz funktionenzentrierter Vergütung in Verbindung mit individuellen Leistungsunterschieden in NPOs zunehmend Irritationen erzeugt, werden leistungsorientierte Vergütungssysteme, wie sie in Forprofit-Unternehmen zu finden sind, in NPOs abgelehnt. Es wird diskutiert, welche Ursachen der Ablehnung zu Grunde liegen und unter welchen Bedingungen NPOs dennoch leistungsorientierte Vergütungssysteme einführen könnten.

State-of-the-art and future directions for HRM from a paradox perspective: Introduction to the Special Issue **

Managing HRM related tensions is a matter of practical and theoretical significance. Despite increasing interest among HRM scholars in understanding the nature of tensions in managing the employment relationship, attempts to explore these tensions that go beyond the mapping of dualities or naming of the negative aspects of tensions are somewhat rare. Furthermore, discussions on managing HRM tensions tend to be of limited value for practitioners due to their overly abstract nature contributing to what several commentators lament is a growing theory-practice gap in HRM research. This Special Issue aims to advance the discussion on tensions in HRM by drawing on a recent paradox perspective from organization theory. Along with the contributors to the Special Issue, we explore how a paradox perspective can support HRM researchers in a more systematic analysis of types of HRM paradoxes and tensions and in deepening awareness of practical strategies for coping actively and constructively with tensions. In this introduction to the Special Issue, we first provide a synthesis of the features of a paradox perspective and contrast it with previous research on tensions in organization theory and HRM. Next, we illustrate how a paradox perspective can be applied to analyzing HRM tensions presenting key examples of such analysis. We then introduce the contributions to this Special Issue all of which draw, albeit in different ways, on a paradox perspective on HRM. Finally, we explore opportunities for future research. In particular, we focus on the need to move from a duality perspective to a paradox perspective on HRM, on opportunities to explore the links between HRM, paradox and organizational sustainability and on the skills and capabilities needed for coping with HRM paradoxes both at individual and organizational/HRM levels.

Departmental status in light of a growing proportion of female staff: the case of human resource management

Human Resource Management (HRM) has a history of striving for acceptance and legitimacy in relation to top and line management. The identification of factors influencing HRM status, therefore, is very important for the field. One of these relevant factors is gender. On the occupational level, there is evidence from various occupations that an increase in the proportion of women is associated with a status loss in these occupations. Besides one stream of literature that states that gender is an omni-relevant and -present category, there are also other approaches which hold that the category of gender has lost its relevance, and functional attributes are the dominant categories in the workplace today. Using a multilevel model of 1508 companies located in 17 countries, this study analyses the impact of gender composition and functional attributes on the organisational status of the HR department. It reveals that while gender still has a significant influence on status, education and experience are more important.