Sebastian Desmidt

Looking for the value of mission statements: a meta‐analysis of 20 years of research

– After two decades of research, the effect of a mission statement on an organizations performance is still unclear. In order to address these shortcomings, a research project via the setting‐up of this paper seeks to identify all empirical studies addressing the mission statement‐financial performance relation, analyze how the mission statement‐financial performance relation is operationalized, and aggregate the findings of the identified studies by means of a meta‐analysis., – A systematic literature review procedure was developed to identify all relevant articles and meta‐analytic procedures were used to calculate the effect size of the selected studies., – The study results indicate a small positive relation between mission statements and measures of financial organizational performance. However, additional analyses indicated that interstudy differences in measures significantly influenced the estimates (population effect sizes of the created subsamples ranged from 0.0808 to 0.4100)., – These contradictive findings stress the importance and impact of operationalization decisions in mission statement‐performance research, and provide paths for future practice‐oriented research., – This study is the first to assess the performance impact of one of the most popular management instruments, namely mission statements, by means of meta‐analytical techniques and, to evaluate the moderation effect of operationalization decisions on the cited relationship. Furthermore, by aggregating research on the mission statement‐performance relationship, a knowledge base was devised which provides normative advice on the characteristics of a “good” mission statement.

ANALYZING FIRM PERFORMANCE HETEROGENEITY: THE RELATIVE EFFECT OF BUSINESS DEFINITION

An ongoing discussion in strategic management concerns the relative impact of specific strategic decisions on firm performance. In this tradition, this research analyzes the relative impact of business domain choices on firm performance. More specific, the paper at hand (a) discusses a method to assess the relative impact of firm and business definition effects on firm performance within a specific industry, and (b) demonstrates the value of this method by measuring the effect of business definition on performance within the context of a specific SME-dominated industry, namely the Belgian electrical whole sale sector. The results indicate that firm effects explain most of the variance in four performance variables but that the impact of business definition on performance could be underestimated. It turns out, according to our findings, that business membership (and thus differences in business definition) explains about 8 percent of the variance in performance between firms within the examined industry. Consequently, managers should carefully monitor and examine the business domain they are in as it directly related with the firm’s level of performance.

External pressures affecting the adoption of employee performance management in higher education institutions

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between external pressures and the adoption of employee performance management systems within academic units of Flemish higher education institutions. The literature on contextually based HRM and institutionalism is used to underpin the theoretical propositions.Design/methodology/approach – A comparative case study is described to provide evidence for the theoretical arguments.Findings – It has been suggested that academic units face a set of external pressures, which leads to different employee performance management systems. This study finds that academic units imitate their legitimacy‐based reference group and legitimacy‐driven imitation and the adoption of external employee performance management requirements distort the alignment of employee performance management systems.Research limitations/implications – Future research could formally test the relationship between external drivers and the adoption of strategic and integrated employee performanc...

Employee Strategic Alignment: Aligning Newcomers with the Organizational Strategic Priorities

Over the last years, it has become increasingly important for organizations to align their employees with their organizational strategic priorities. This study extends existing research about employee strategic alignment by examining how newcomers, during organizational entry, get aligned with these organizational strategic priorities. We investigate the relationship between organizational socialization, and more specifically the perceived usefulness of different information sources (i.e., formal orientation and training, colleagues, the direct supervisor and information-seeking behavior), and employee strategic alignment. Furthermore, we examine (a) the relationship between employee strategic alignment and role clarity and (b) the mediating role of employee strategic alignment. Using data from 253 Flemish newcomers about their socialization process and their perceived alignment with the organizational strategic priorities, structural equation modeling shows that only the direct supervisor and information...