Karlien Vanderheyden

Cognitive Motivation Correlates of Coping Style in Decisional Conflict

Can personality traits account for the handling of internal conflicts? The authors explored how individual differences in information-processing style affect coping patterns displayed before making important decisions. Need for cognition and need for cognitive closure were linked to the major tendencies identified in the conflict theory of decision making: vigilance, hypervigilance, and defensive avoidance (buck passing and procrastination). A sample of 1,119 Belgian human resource professionals completed the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (L. Mann, P. Burnett, M. Radford, & S. Ford, 1997), the 18-item short-form Need for Cognition Scale (J. T. Cacioppo, R. E. Petty, & C. F. Kao, 1984), and the Need for Closure Inventory (D. M. Webster & A. W. Kruglanski, 1994). Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated that significant relationships existed between need for cognition, need for closure, and conflict decision-making styles. The authors also found significant effects of gender and age.

The Prediction of Stress by Values and Value Conflict

The authors investigated the relationships among stress, values, and value conflict. Data collected from 400 people working in a variety of companies in Flanders indicated that the values of openness to change, conservation, self-transcendence, and self-enhancement were important predictors of stress. Participants open to change reported less stress, whereas participants who had high scores on conservation, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence perceived more stress. People who reported high value conflict also experienced more stress. Separate analyses for men and women showed that there were gender differences in the relationships observed between the 4 value types and stress. These data have noteworthy theoretical and practical implications.

The Concept and Practice of a School-Based Management Contest: Integration of Leadership Development and Organizational Learning

Since 1993, he Vlerick School of Management at the University of Ghent (Belgium) has developed and tested the concept of a school-based management contest that facilitates individual and organizational learning in schools. The management contest introduces a comprehensive approach of the professional development of principals and the organizational learning of schools. This article describes the conceptual framework, the development process and the evaluation of the program.

Cognitive Styles in an International Perspective: Cross-Validation of the Cognitive Style Indicator (CoSI)

This study examines the cross-cultural validity of the Cognitive Style Indicator (CoSI). Measurement equivalence tests were performed on data collected from a Belgian (n = 300) and a South African (n = 246) sample of students and employees. Confirmatory factor analyses within each sample showed the best fit to the data for a three-factor model underlying the CoSI. Measurement invariance tests, using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, indicated that the relationships among the scales showed equivalence across cultures. Although the study is an important first step toward the cross-validation of the CoSI, further research in other international samples is particularly needed to strengthen these results.

Mind the gap – Assessing maturity of demand planning, a cornerstone of S&OP

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically validate a model for assessing demand planning maturity in organisations.,The authors developed a maturity assessment model for demand planning through iterations of theoretical and empirical work, combining insights from literature and practitioners. An online survey is developed to validate the model using data from different industries.,The authors identify six dimensions of demand planning maturity: data management, the use of forecasting methods, the forecasting system, performance management, the organisation and people management. The empirical study indicates that demand data are well managed and organisation readiness is high, yet improvements in the forecasting system and the management of forecast performance are needed. The results show a positive relationship between the size of an organisation and its demand planning maturity.,The contribution of this work is to propose an assessment model and survey instrument for demand planning maturity. This will help the practitioner to understand the current level of maturity of the demand planning process, reflect on the desired level and develop action plans to close the gap.,There is broad literature on process maturity assessment in general and on sales and operations planning (S&OP) maturity in particular. However, there is no comprehensive model for assessing the maturity of demand planning, which is a specific and critical process within the overall S&OP process. The authors fill this gap by offering a demand planning maturity model.