Ruth C. May

Environmental Scanning Behavior in a Transitional Economy: Evidence from Russia

We examined the effects of perceived strategic uncertainty in seven environmental sectors on the scanning behavior of Russian executives. Strategic uncertainty was highest in sectors influenced by ...

A Test of the Measurement Validity of the Resistance to Change Scale in Russia and Ukraine

The authors developed a Russian-language version of Oreg’s (2003) Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale, a multidimensional dispositional measure of an individual’s tendency to avoid or resist change, and tested its generalizability to the post-Soviet context with data from Russia and Ukraine. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated a lack of configural consistency for the cognitive rigidity subscale, and post hoc examination suggested an unintended frame of reference for the cognitive rigidity items. The other three subdimensions of the scale—routine seeking, emotional reaction, and short-term thinking—were measurement-invariant in the two countries, providing a psychometrically acceptable measure of individual resistance to change. As a result, this respecification of the RTC Scale should be useful for much needed research devoted to individual resistors to change in the post-Soviet context, an effort essential for understanding obstacles to organizational change, and for generating prescriptive guidelines in a situation where most organizations are pressed by transition-induced need for systemic change and development.

Building theory with BRICs: Russia's contribution to knowledge sharing theory

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address theory development in the context of Russia, where insights holding potential to advance knowledge sharing theory are ubiquitous. Drawing on contextual evidence, the paper aims to advance a theoretical framework for the study of knowledge sharing, an activity essential for the organizational change and development required for building competitiveness. It also aims to outline research needs that might both provide insight in Russia and also enrich extant theory originally developed in the West.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a review of the theory of planned behavior, its application to knowledge sharing, and the cultural environment suggest modifications that contextualize the theory for studying knowledge sharing in Russia and in other contexts.Findings – Propositions based on contextual considerations in Russia are advanced as a means of modifying and augmenting the theory of planned behavior to better address knowledge sharing more com...

Institutional Erosion and Its Effects on Russia’s Corporate Leadership:

From 2000 to 2015, Vladimir Putin presided over Russia’s retreat from a nascent, market-based economy to a more familiar, yet problematic state-centered system. Grounded in statist ideology, Putin successfully leveraged the Russian people’s culturally embedded proclivity for personal networking in assembling his administrative coalition of former KGB, military, and government ministry connections known as the siloviki. This circle of trusted advisors would become instrumental in achieving Putin’s comprehensive agenda for the wholesale deinstitutionalization of Russia’s formal institutional context. In this article, we provide a dual-level perspective of the longitudinal erosion in Russia’s independent media, electoral process, judicial independence, and civil society, along with the corresponding effects on the attitudes and behaviors of Russia’s corporate leadership. Our insider view of organizational leadership comes from more than 20 years of interacting with Russian executives through research, training, and consulting, as well as the personal accounts provided by our Russian associate who worked closely with a single corporate leader in banking from 2000 to 2015. Russia’s institutional erosion presents significant challenges for conducting business as well as opportunities for research in the midst of a nearly unimaginable institutional reversal in one of the world’s most important transition economies.

Following the Paper Trail: Measuring the Economic and Environmental Impact of Digital Content Delivery

We provide an overview of a framework for measuring the economic and environmental impact of digital content delivery currently being pilot tested in the College of Business at the University of Dallas. This framework is based on Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model of sustainability which includes Economic (Profit), Environmental (Planet) and Social (People) dimensions [1]. We first describe the development of a rubric for quantifying online digital content followed by an overview of the process for assessing the environmental and economic effects of digital versus traditional paper delivery. Results are based on archival data generated with the rubric and survey data collected from 1,039 online students in the spring and summer semesters of 2009. We conclude with suggestions for establishing measurement models at other institutions where fostering partnerships between university administrators, faculty and students holds promise for increasing the sustainable impact of eLearning.