Kerry D. Carson

Clearing a Path Through the Management Fashion Jungle: Some Preliminary Trailblazing

Sixteen management fashions that emerged over the past five decades were identified and evaluated on eight criteria, including radicalness, broadness, and fear induction. The authors examined relat...

Four Commitment Profiles and Their Relationships to Empowerment, Service Recovery, and Work Attitudes

Medical librarians were surveyed to determine the independent and interactive influence of career and organizational commitments on work-related outcomes. Employees dually committed to their organizations and careers reported the highest empowerment, willingness to engage in service recovery, and work satisfaction. This group was also more aware of the supervisory use of legitimate, reward, expert, and referent powers. All four commitment groups—dually committed, careerists, organizationists, and uncommitted—reported comparable avoidance of coercive power. As predicted, the ordering of reported job withdrawal intentions (ranging from highest to lowest) was uncommitted, careerists, organizationists, and dually committed; for career withdrawal intentions the ordering was uncommitted, organizationists, careerists, and dually committed.

Career Commitment, Competencies, and Citizenship.

Carson and Bedeians (1994) Career Commitment Measure was used to examine the relationships of career commitment with emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior, which were then examined for relationships with organizational commitment. As predicted, emotional intelligence was positively related to career commitment, but not related to organizational commitment. Both types of commitments were positively related to organizational citizenship behavior and its underlying factor of civic virtue. However, career commitment was related to the sportsmanship and altruism factors, whereas organizational commitment was related to the involvement factor of organizational citizenship behavior. Further insight into these relationships was gained by exploring the three dimensions of the Career Commitment Measure. A respecified model examining emotional intelligence as an antecedent to career commitment with organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior factors as outcomes displayed a good fit to the data.

A historical perspective on fad adoption and abandonment

While management is considered relatively immature compared to other social sciences, for over half the lifespan of the discipline, the field has been bombarded with “fads”. For the purposes of this manuscript, fads are defined as “managerial interventions which appear to be innovative, rational, and functional and are aimed at encouraging better organizational performance”. This definition draws on and integrates a number of theorists’ conceptualizations of fads. Notably, however, there is some point at which a fad sufficiently demonstrates its effectiveness in numerous and diverse settings to warrant an evolution from fad status to something which implies more permanence. This issue is addressed in a theoretical model which traces the process of fad adoption using historical bibliometric data. The model offers propositions concerning the precursors, moderators, and outcomes of adoption.

Promotion and employee turnover: Critique, meta-analysis, and implications

Qualitative reviews of the withdrawal literature have reached inconsistent conclusions regarding the strength of the relationship between promotion and turnover. Several issues were addressed in this study which may account for these inconsistencies. First, we differentiate among three distinct operationalizations of promotion: (1) promotion satisfaction; (2) perceptions of promotional opportunity; and (3) actual promotion. We then conduct quantitative reviews using meta-analytic procedures on turnover and the three operationalizations of promotion. We found no significant relationships between promotion satisfaction and turnoveror between perceived promotional opportunities and turnover. However, a significant negative relationship was found between actual promotion and turnover. Theoretical implication of these findings are presented.

The Effects of Organization-Based Self-Esteem on Workplace Outcomes: An Examination of Emergency Medical Technicians.

Forty-six technicians employed by an ambulance and life flight service were surveyed to examine the effects of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) on career outcomes and quality. Results show that those high in OBSE reported stronger career commitment and weaker career withdrawal intentions than those low in OBSE. Contrary to predictions, significant differences were not found for career satisfaction and career tenure. However, there was a significant difference between the high and low groups on the import of quality. Those low in OBSE tended to devalue quality as compared to those high in OBSE. A post hoc analysis was conducted to offer insight into which aspects of quality were important to the high OBSE group.

Intellectual capital disclosure by traditional US companies: a longitudinal assessment

Purpose – The paper aims to evaluate 141 publicly traded US firms in the traditional sectors of the economy to assess intellectual capital disclosure levels.Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was conducted using 10‐K annual reports.Findings – It was found that traditional sector companies had a mean disclosure of intellectual capital of 24.227 in fiscal year 2000 and 27.709 in fiscal year 2004 (t=3.68, df = 140, p=0.01). This supported the authors hypothesis that traditional sector companies would show an increase in the level of intellectual capital disclosure in 2004 as compared to 2000. Within the total sample, 78 companies increased their intellectual capital disclosure in fiscal year 2004 as compared to fiscal year 2000 (z=−3.4756, p=0.01).Research limitations/implications – While the authors generated 121 phrases to tap the intellectual capital construct, there may be other word combinations given the differences in vocabulary between academia and the corporate world.Practical implicatio...

Theoretically grounding management history as a relevant and valuable form of knowledge

Despite interest in management’s evolution, the discipline is devoid of systematic frameworks addressing historiography. Hence, Hirst’s (1965) theory of “forms of knowledge” is applied to demonstrate that management history satisfies his four criteria and qualifies as a valuable research domain. Hirst’s first criterion states that there must be certain central concepts that are distinctive to the subject. Management historians fulfill this criterion by investigating not only specific people, events and trends, but also topics such as motives and linguistics. Second, Hirst suggests that the discipline must offer distinctive ways of relating concepts. Management historians follow a unique investigatory process using three steps: investigation, synthesis, and interpretation. Third, there must be characteristic ways of adducing evidence in support of propositions. Historians define and refine by the available facts. The fourth criterion states that there be utilization of characteristic techniques for conducting investigations. Example methodologies include biographies and oral history. A fifth criterion, examining history’s pragmatic utility, is then advanced.

BALANCE THEORY APPLIED TO SERVICE QUALITY: A FOCUS ON THE ORGANIZATION, PROVIDER, AND CONSUMER TRIAD

As quality experts have focused primarily on manufacturing, theoretical frameworks for examining quality in the service sector are lacking. In order to fill this gap, Heiders (1958) balance theory is applied to explain how service organization, service provider, and consumer interrelationships influence service quality. Propositions are offered pertaining to: (a) how and why positive or negative relationships among the parties in this triad are developed, and (b) the consequences of these relationships on service quality, affective outcomes, and withdrawal behaviors. Examination of the “service triangle” within this framework can enhance understanding of quality service delivery and guide future research efforts in the continuous improvement domain.

Structured interview questions for selecting productive, emotionally mature, and helpful employees.

Behavioral description questions for a structured interview format are provided so that managers can probe an applicants intelligence, emotional intelligence, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Research suggests that the best performing employees are high on intelligence, and the most socially competent employees are high on emotional intelligence. A study was conducted with a nursing department, and results indicate that emotional intelligence is related to organizational citizenship behaviors. Those individuals high on organizational citizenship behaviors exceed formal role expectations and positively influence organization outcomes.