Organizational Behavior

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Team Emotional Intelligence and Team Interpersonal Process Effectiveness Full Text
Vol. 21, No. 1, p. 49
Crissie M. Frye, Eastern Michigan University
Rebecca Bennett, Louisiana Tech University
Sheri Caldwell, Hickory Farms

In this exploratory study, the relationships between the emotional intelligence (EI) of self-directed teams and two dimensions of team interpersonal process—team task orientation and team maintenance function—were investigated using the five dimensional model of emotional intelligence measured by the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i®) in a sample of thirty-three work teams. Average team emotional intelligence scores were calculated by aggregating the individual emotional intelligence scores of each team member and dividing the sum by the number of team members. Regression analyses of team averaged emotional intelligence across all five sub-dimensions of the EQ-i® reveal significant predictive relationships between team averaged interpersonal EI and Team Task Orientation (r =.37) and team averaged interpersonal EI and Team Maintenance Functions (r =.31). Team averaged interpersonal EI predicted 10 percent of the variance in Team Maintenance Function while team averaged interpersonal EI and team averaged general mood EI combined to predict 16 percent of the variance in Team Task Orientation. Directions for future research are presented.

Building a Market-Oriented Organizational Environment: An Implementation Framework for Small Organizations Full Text
Vol. 20, No. 2, p. 44
Beth Ann Martin, John Carroll University
James H. Martin, John Carroll University

The strong link between a market orientation and per-formance in small organizations rests on the organization�fs ability to use its market-oriented culture to create a sustain-able competitive advantage. To do this requires the firm to build and maintain a strong market orientation. Using an internal customer-internal supplier perspective, this paper identifies a framework for implementation that an organiza-tion can undertake to create a market-oriented workforce. The foundation for the framework is the development of dyadic relationships between internal customers and suppli-ers. The implementation structure relies on a performance management system that rewards behaviors appropriate for the establishment of a market-oriented culture.

A Longitudinal Study of One Organization's Culture: Do Values Endure? Full Text
Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 41
Constance R. Campbell, Georgia Southern University

Organizational members responded to four open-ended questions about the organization's culture at two times, six years apart. Results of a content analysis of the responses indicated that organizational values remained stable, despite extensive changes in the top leadership of the organization coupled with environmental forces that were pushing for change in the organization's culture. The categories of responses that emerged from the survey were explored and discussed as depictions of the organization's culture.

The Meaning Behind the Message: Climate Perceptions and the Psychological Contract
Full Text
Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 23
Jill Kickul, Simmons School of Management
Matthew A. Liao-Troth, Western Washington University

It has been argued that the social and informational cues within the work environment need to be investigated to better understand and identify a nomological network underlying the psychological contract construct. This study is one of the first at investigating how employees may use social and informational messages and cues in the work environment to formulate and place meaning behind their employee-employer exchange relationship. We present a model that examines specific dimensions of employees’ psychological climate that may serve as a basis toward their understanding of their contract with their organization. Three hundred and seventy employees from a variety of organizational settings completed measures of their climate (role characteristics, job characteristics, workgroup and social environment, leader behaviors, and organizational and subsystem attributes) as well as their perceptions of their psychological contract. The model and proposed relationships were tested through a series of hierarchical regression analyses. Results revealed that role characteristics were associated with the workload and clarity components of the contract while job characteristics were related to the work variety, work importance, and autonomy contract factors. Workgroup and social environment dimensions were related to the contract components of social interaction and work conditions and leader behaviors were associated with the feedback contract factor. Finally, organizational and subsystem attributes were linked to the compensation, benefits, security, advancement, development opportunities, fairness, and interpersonal factors of an employee’s psychological contract. Study contributions and limitations as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Best Practice Customer Value and Satisfaction Cultures  Full Text
Vol. 16, No 1, p. 11  
Michael S. Garver, Central Michigan University
Robert L. Cook, Central Michigan University

To use customer value and satisfaction data effectively, the company culture must embrace, support, and encourage customer value and satisfaction initiatives. The purpose of this article is to discuss the nature of a customer value and satisfaction culture and to model how best practice companies transform their cultures. The research results make a contribution to the literature by revealing unique insights into the nature of a customer value and satisfaction culture and by offering practitioners a model of how to manage such a culture.

Union-Management Cooperation: Different Relationships, Different Forms  Full Text
Vol. 12, No. 2, p.39  
Robert H. Schappe, University of Michigan-Dearborn

A model is proposed that regards cooperative relationships between union and management as having three distinct forms. Problem-Solving is the most basic with employee problem-solving groups appended to existing union and management structures and processes. In the Team Concept the organization's work system is redesigned around work teams, more flexible work rules and significantly altered individual roles. The Partnership appears similar to the Team Concept but the fundamental, traditional roles of union and management are changed so that both organizations become jointly responsible for running the organization and attending to the welfare of employees. Each of the three forms reflects a more intimate level of relating with a more advanced form becoming possible only after the requisite knowledge and skills of the preceding form have been mastered. Viewing cooperation as having three distinct forms has important implications for understanding, implementing and maintaining cooperative efforts.

The Charon Response: A Needed Act in Dying Organizations Full Text
Vol. 10, No. 1, p.55 
V. V. Miller, University of Dayton
Daniel F. Jennings, Baylor University

The Charon Response looks at how business firms should deal with the human and emotional consequences of a major work force reduction. Such reductions are a regular feature of the corporate landscape and can be handled in a caring manner if management so chooses. Due to the intense emotions evoked from job loss, the authors argue that the Charon Response is an appropriate and humane act by management. However, it will not be implemented unless management is willing to confront the emotional aspects of this issue. To understand the centrality of emotions, selected lines of poetry have been included in the text.

Organizational Resource Allocation Decisions: The Role of Power  Full Text
Vol. 7, No. 2, p.39 
Seleshi Sasaye, Duquesne University

A power control framework of organizations predicted that the degree of control exercised by management in resource allocation decisions is affected by the basis of power and perceived availability of resources. Results from experimental cases support the prediction that the basis of power has a consistent effect on resource allocation decisions. However, the effect of the perceived availability of resources varied according to the professional background and positions held by subjects in their organizations.

Gender, Task Complexity and Risk Taking: Catch 22 for Women Full Text
Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 23
Kenneth J. Dunegan, Cleveland State University
Dennis Duchon, University of Texas at San Antonio

Willingness to take risks is considered a quality of most successful managers (MacCrimmon and Wehrung 1986). There continues to be a societal stereotype, however, that women are not as inclined to engage in risk taking as their male counterparts. Research on whether this stereotype is justified has produced equivocal results, at best. This paper reports on a series of experiments which show there is a relationship between risk taking and task complexity such that the differences between male and female decisions, present in simple tasks, disappear as the tasks become more complex. Possible explanations for this phenomenon are discussed along with implications for women and the practicing manager.

 

The Power Index: A Tool for Achieving Proper Representation on Key Management Committees Full Text
Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 53
Edward Blocher, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chee W. Chow, San Diego State University

This paper describes a technique called the power index which a manager can use to evaluate the distribution of influence on key management committees. The important evaluation issues are concerns about equity (is there balanced representation of contrasting interest groups?), concerns about effectiveness (is there a proper mix of representatives from each of the required areas of expertise - engineering, marketing, finance, etc.?), and concerns about the potential for one or more interest groups to dominate the decision process of the committee. The power index is explained in this paper, and it is illustrated with some examples of management uses.

 

Power and Industry Structure: Understanding the Acquisition and Use of Corporate Power in Competitive Relationships Full Text
Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 29
Inga S. Baird, Ball State University
Ray V. Montagno, Ball State University

A model of inter-corporate power is derived from previous work on social power. the model consists of two portions­one dealing with influences on the amount of power companies have and one dealing with influences on the use of that power. This model is used to analyze competition. Suggestions are made about ways companies may increase their own power or influence the power relationships in their environment.