Michael G. Goldsby

A Construct Validity Study of Commitment and Perceived Support Variables A Multifoci Approach across Different Team Environments

Social exchange theory suggests that employees feel commitment toward both their employing organizations and their work teams, while also experiencing varying levels of support from these same entities. Unfortunately, previous work has neither fully explored this possibility nor tested the capacity of currently available instruments to adequately measure the distinctiveness of the associated constructs. To address this need, we collected data from 902 employees in four diverse organizations. As predicted, respondents distinguished among organizational commitment, team commitment, organizational support, and team support. Furthermore, as predicted, perceived support from an entity predicted commitment to that same entity.

Self-Leadership: A Process for Entrepreneurial Success:

Our purpose in this paper is to provide a comprehensive examination of recent research into individual differences in order to better understand the future promise of self-leadership as a concept and a research subject for entrepreneurship. We briefly present a description of self-leadership research and then proceed to describe and contrast the self-leadership concept relative to other related motivational and self-influence constructs including: optimism, happiness, psychological flow, consciousness, personality models, self-monitoring, the need for autonomy, emotional intelligence, and diversity factors including age, gender, and cultural differences, and the worklife interface. We relate these concepts to entrepreneurship, and conclude with suggestions for future research on the relationships between self-leadership, individual differences, and entrepreneurship.

Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation, Goals, and Behavior A Study of Small Business Owners

Corporate social responsibility orientation (CSRO) remains an important topic of researchers. However, one aspect of CSRO that has not been well researched is how it relates to behaviors and goals of managers. In this article, the authors explore that relationship, testing whether emphasis on a particular domain of social responsibility affects time spent dealing with specific stakeholder groups and whether firm size affects that relationship. Results from a survey of small business owners indicate that the emphasis a manager places on a domain does affect behavior and that firm size has little impact on this relationship. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Sustaining Corporate Entrepreneurship Modelling Perceived Implementation and Outcome Comparisons at Organizational and Individual Levels

This paper seeks to develop an exploratory model illustrating the critical elements needed for a sustained corporate entrepreneurship. Specifically, the model integrates and extends previous models that have examined the organizational or individual components of entrepreneurial activity. The proposed model provides additional theoretical foundation emphasizing the importance of perceived implementation/output relationships at both the individual and organizational level. The perceived satisfaction of these relationships provides the basis for whether or not a corporate entrepreneurial activity will be sustained.

The Relationship of Stakeholder Salience, Organizational Posture, and Entrepreneurial Intensity to Corporate Entrepreneurship

There is a dearth of literature on stakeholder relationships and organizational posture as they affect entrepreneurial intensity inside established organizations. Corporate entrepreneurs are depicted as those managers or employees who do not follow the status quo and increase the entrepreneurial intensity of a firm. A stakeholder theory framework is presented as a guideline for exploring the relationship between stakeholder salience, organizational posture, and entrepreneurial intensity. This paper presents the view that if a company is to be more entrepreneurial, it must first consider its stakeholders as a source of opportunity and acceptance of new ideas.

Entrepreneurship and Fitness: An Examination of Rigorous Exercise and Goal Attainment among Small Business Owners*

In todays society, the benefits of exercise and fitness are given much publicity. However, the relationship between exercise and the attainment of personal and professional goals for entrepreneurs has not been examined. Our study addresses the issue by examining the exercise regimens of 366 small business owners and the relationship of exercise frequency with the companys sales and the entre‐ preneurs personal goals. Specifically, this study examines the relationship that two types of exercise—running and weightlifting—have with sales volume, extrinsic rewards, and intrinsic rewards. Results indicate that running is related positively to all three outcome variables while weightlifting is related positively to extrinsic and intrinsic rewards but not to sales. Suggestions then are provided for future research.

Teaching Business Ethics Through Literature

Americas economic ideology lacks a vocabulary of ethics. If, as we assume, an economic system requires a moral component for long-term survival, students in business schools must be exposed to a vocabulary of ethics that is consistent with the ideology of capitalism. We present a vocabulary of ethics and describe an approach to teaching business ethics based on business-related classic literature and moral philosophy.

Who goes? Who cares? Who stays? Who wants to?: The role of contingent workers and corporate layoff practices

Traditional employment practices since the Second World War had usually ensured job security for a company’s workforce. However, the increasingly competitive environment and the restructuring of companies in the 1980s and 1990s have made this practice impossible to continue; therefore, layoffs have become a fact of life for employees in an increasing number of industries. The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes in two employment environments, one in which temporary workers were used to shield permanent employees from layoffs and another in which layoff decisions were made without regard to permanent or temporary status. Specifically, examination was made of the relationships among perceived organizational support (POS), organizational commitment, and intention to quit, and the relative levels of these variables across two environments and the two classes of workers. It was found that, as expected, the relationships among the commitment variables and intention to quit were similar within both environments. Also, as expected, levels of commitment in the “shield” environment were higher than in the “layoff” environment; and POS was higher among temporary employees in the “shield” environment than among permanent workers in the “layoff” environment. A particularly interesting finding was that, in the “layoff” environment, POS among temporary workers was higher than among permanent workers.

Body Shop International: an exploration of corporate social responsibility

Attempts to examine the following question: is Body Shop International a socially responsible organization? This exploration includes a description of the concept of corporate social responsibility and an investigation of some specific actions by Body Shop International to ascertain whether or not these actions are in fact socially responsible in nature.

An examination of the financial challenges of entrepreneurship centers throughout the world

This article fills a need in the entrepreneurship literature by investigating the finances of entrepreneurship centers throughout the world. Entrepreneurship center directors were surveyed (249 US and 111 Global) about the various facets of their centers finances. We received 174 responses for a 49% response rate (US 49%, international 49%). We explore the financing of entrepreneurship centers and the relationship between US and international centers. The results of this research project can be used as a benchmark for entrepreneurship center directors in understanding the financial challenges confronting their centers.