Scandinavian Journal of Management Studies最新文献

The concept of the social responsibility is discussed starting with a short review of the literature. New elements are introduced into the discussion about the concept and about the sources of norms from the theories of justice of v. Wright and Rawls. The possibilities of total evaluation of social responsibility of firms using scales developed in assessing the level of moral thought of individuals are explored.

A study of control and motivation processes taking place at the top levels of economic organizations in Poland was extended to analogous processes in American corporations. The psychologically based processes (appraisal, incentives) were shown to be similar in both systems. The control processes differed, revealing strong linkages to broader economic, political and cultural contexts. The findings demonstrate why borrowing the structural solutions fails, and indicate a need for comparative studies of organizations, which take into account the macro determinants of organizational activity.

In a book on The Politics of Mistrust, we sought to show how the scientific effort made to estimate oil and gas reserves and resources was overwhelmed by fundamental political differences among the major participants in energy policy. Part of the contribution we hoped to make concerned the relationship, both in analysis and in decision making, between policy and data. For the story lends itself well to a demonstration of the proposition that data do not and cannot determine policy; rather, it is the policy perspectives of the participants that determine what data are important. The real choice is among alternative policies with associated sets of data, not between sets of data considered on their inherent merit. The controversy over energy policy that has overwhelmed analytic considerations illustrates this generic condition that characterizes the relationship between data and policy.

Accounting, economics and management have an important role in business education but the theories have a poor standing in the business world.

Researchers often cannot test theories in real life. Instead, however, they can look at management at all levels as an experimenting change agent in urgent need of scientifically valid and reliable predictions and feedback. Accounting as the measurement technique for economic transactions has to adapt to that need.

Many conflicts on analytical techniques and evaluations for management purposes are still to be solved. The measurements must not only cover the consequences of decisions at large but also explain the consequences with regard to multi-goal attainment, survival risks, revenue effects, managerial incentives and responsibility etc.

Aristotle's writings are scrutinized from the viewpoint of management. The influence that Aristotle has had on research in general extends to management research as well. In his teleological thinking, in his emphasis on action, choice and responsibility and in his treatises on virtue and constitutions, Aristotle presents views that are relevant to management practice. His treatise on household-management comes nearest to what is today called management. Aristotle's conception of the tasks of management is not contradictory to modern formulations of management functions. Although there is not enough evidence to show that Aristotle wrote deliberately about it his writings are relevant to what we now call management.

Executive compensation schemes are lotteries with very favorable expected returns, thus incentives for the ambitious to enter managerial careers. In addition, such schemes generally seek to provide greater rewards for those managers whose presence has been associated with measured organizational success. Ambiguity makes discriminating reliably among managers on the basis of organizational outcomes quite problematic, particularly at the top. As a result, executive compensation schemes that emphasize discrimination among executives on the basis of performance are likely to stimulate the management of accounts and reputations, rather than organizations. At the same time, they help sustain myths of managerial importance.

The research on the strategic problems of the firm operates with concepts wich refer to markets, products, resources, and organization of the firm. This approach which concentrated on the economic aspects of the behaviour of the firm may in some cases ignore vital points especially with reference to the strategy of small firms.

This article analyses the strategy of the Lannevesi Cooperative Bank. This small bank has been able to survive in a world, where concentration in the banking industry has been rapid. The bank has survived due to its strategy. This strategy may be given a meaningful interpretation in the framework of the theories of Parsons and Smelser (1956). In the miniature society of the village the bank operates in the economy and polity sub-systems as banks do in a modern specialized society. The unique feature in the strategy of the bank, which cannot be analyzed just in economic terms is its operation as an active agent in the integrative and pattern maintenance sub-systems of the village society. Solidarity and cohesion in the village are essential to the survival of the bank.

Based on the assumption that the accounting policy formation process increasingly recognizes the legitimacy of several interest groups, this paper describes standard setting in Sweden. The accounting elite is identified and the development of new norms is described in three cases. It is concluded that the more institutionalized the process the greater the responsibility for influential people to initiate and maintain a public debate. A producer attitude towards the annual report is the dominating one in Sweden with academics and business journalists showing a consumer orientation.