Rob Goffee

Reluctant managers : their work and lifestyles

The changing context of work, careers and lifestyles the costs and benefits of work organizational change and management style personal ambitions and careers women, work and careers homw lives and personal lifestyles man and women managers and their partners.

Organizational Change and the Corporate Career: The Restructuring of Managers' Job Aspirations

For managers in large-scale organizations, careers have traditionally provided a set of organizing principles around which they have been able to structure both their private and professional lives. Through them, they have been able to experience a sense of security, stability, and order. Personal feelings of growth and advancement have been achieved through jobs which provide not only the opportunities for the completion of specific tasks but also a mean whereby longer-term personal goals can be achieved. Indeed, the combined promise of job security and advancement within corporate hierarchies-as linked with incremetal increases in authority, status, and pay-have constituted the major rewards of the modern managerial career. It has been largely through these mechanisms that large-scale organizations have been able to obtain the motivation and commitment of their managerial staff. During the 1980s, however, a variety of technological, organizational, and broader social changes have led many observers to suggest that the nature of corporate careers has fundamentally changed. In this paper we explore the attitudes of managers toward their careers in the context of restructuring processes which limit opportunities for hierarchical advancement and which also reduce job security. In particular, we discuss the ways in which those whose career expectations have been frustrated develop coping strategies. These can have important implications for their attitudes and behavior both within and beyond their employing organizations.

Understanding family businesses: issues for further research

Despite their persistence as an important form of work organization, family businesses remain under‐researched. Identifies four areas for further research: relationships between proprietorship and control; family structures, cultures and life cycles; succession processes; and cross‐national differences. Recommends ethnographic and longitudinal case study methods.

Women in management: towards a research agenda

(1990). Women in management: towards a research agenda. The International Journal of Human Resource Management: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 107-125.

Developing managers for Europe: A re-examination of cross-cultural differences

The emergence of a single European market reflects a wider process of social and economic change. In this context, international businesses face a range of key issues relating to human resources in general and management development in particular. This paper by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones critically reviews the research on cultural difference and suggests an alternative perspective for understanding diversity among managers. The implications of this approach for contemporary management development processes are then assessed.

Class, Entrepreneurship and the Service Sector: Towards a Conceptual Clarification

Opportunities for entrepreneurship within modern economies are concentrated primarily within the service sector. On the basis of recent empirical research this paper develops a conceptual framework which differentiates entrepreneurs according to the relative mix of capital and labour utilised. Four sub-categories within the entrepreneurial middle class are identified and the implications for social mobility on the basis of capital accumulation are explored. In particular, attention is drawn to the significance of employment relationships as a factor which limits the growth of labour-intensive businesses. Despite its neglect within sociological theory the entrepreneurial middle class continues as a significant force within contemporary economies, and several areas for future research are suggested.

Proprietorial Control in Family Firms: Some Functions of “Quasi-Organic” Management System

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategies of managerial control which are used by the proprietors of family-owned business enterprises. Interviews with the proprietors and senior managers of businesses in the building industry illustrate the “quasi-organic” nature of management structures. These grant some autonomy to senior managers without threatening proprietorial decision-making prerogatives. Although the family firm has certain distinctive features, similar control strategies designed to ensure that delegated decisions are “reliable” and “responsible” are evident in various types of business enterprise. There is, then, scope for further comparative research within a conceptual framework which does not entirely divorce the family firm from other business organizations.

Managerial capability in the professional firm ‐ assessing competences in the City

Discusses how firms and, indeed, entire industries are likely to attract and reinforce particular skill profiles among their employees. Such biases are an inevitable consequence of distinctive business environments, technologies, market conditions and labour markets. The City has traditionally excelled in its range and depth of technical expertise; but as conditions change so do skill requirements. Given increases in scale, cross‐functional dependence and product complexity, the effective exploitation of technical skills at the level of the firm is increasingly reliant on well‐developed “managerial” capabilities among large numbers of “professional” staff. Drawing on case study and interview data, provides evidence of a serious shortage of such managerial skills among City firms. Further suggests that firms engaged in international wholesale financial services lag behind those in other sectors in their analysis, assessment and development of high performance management competences. Very strong “entrepreneurial” and “professional” traditions, driven largely by US and UK firms, have contributed to the City’s pre‐eminence. However, these may also limit the ability of firms to exploit expertise within and between professional teams fully.

Getting personal on the topic of leadership

Purpose – This article describes how effective leaders become aware of what is different about them that makes them attractive to others, and learn to use these differences to their advantage in a leadership role.Design/methodology/approach – Presents examples of the use of this technique, including Microsofts Bill Gates, ICIs John Harvey‐Jones, Sonys Akio Morita, Kimberly‐Clarks Darwin E. Smith, and London mayor Ken Livingstone.Findings – Shows that there is an almost endless list of differences that individuals might communicate, but the differences must be authentic to the individual as a leader, and must be significant, real and perceived.Practical implications – Argues that, in all the examples, leaders are using personal differences that work for them appropriately in context. They convey the right message – and they are real. Ultimately, it is this sense of authentic self‐expression that makes them so convincing.Originality/value – Demonstrates how John Harvey‐Jones built upon his entrepreneuri...

From Wood Panels to Mobile Phones: Strategic Diversification at Sonae Group

This article tells the story of growth and diversification at Sonae, now Portugal’s largest company. Publicly quoted but still majority-controlled by its long-standing Chairman and CEO, Belmiro de Azevedo, it was founded in 1959 in the wood products business. It expanded from the 1980s to become the largest retail group in Portugal and has recently taken on the two incumbents in Portugal’s mobile telephony market. It won the third license auction in 1997 and achieved a 22% market share within three years. As the biggest part of Sonae’s technology investments, the move into mobile telephony played a big part in launching the Sonae share price on a roller-coaster path that has only recently steadied. The Sonae story illustrates the potential importance of long-term charismatic leadership and strategic vision by one person. It also provides insights into the factors that can help diversification to work.