Journal of Management Studies最新文献

Management practice is informed by fundamental assumptions about human motivation. We review two contrasting perspectives: agency theory – which assumes that humans are self-interested rational beings whose actions should be constrained to achieve organizational goals (which are opposing) – and self-determination theory – which assumes that individuals will thrive when they have autonomy to pursue activities and can internalize external goals when their needs are satisfied. We highlight how the assumptions of agency theory continue to dominate the design and implementation of management practices and management education, despite decades of evidence that individuals are not solely driven by economic rationality. We suggest that attempts to refine these assumptions have so far fallen short of adequately representing human motivation and highlight an important aspect of self-determination theory which is often neglected from these debates: how people come to internalize goals. Placing motivation internalization as more central to management thinking yields practices that more effectively align the interests of employees and organizations.

Empirical evidence shows that firms engaging in alliance re-evaluation are able to increase their alliances’ performance. However, extant literature largely treats alliance re-evaluation as a ‘black box’. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model of alliance re-evaluation to gain better insight on this important phase of the alliance lifecycle. Further, in a decision experiment, we study alliance managers’ heuristics applied to the decision of whether to pursue an outside partnering opportunity during the course of an alliance re-evaluation. Our results show that in their decision heuristics alliance managers rate value creation-related partner characteristics more highly than commitment-related partner characteristics. However, the importance of commitment-related characteristics is contingent on the level and dimension of uncertainty present in the managers’ environment. Thus, our findings call for a more nuanced perspective on environmental uncertainty in alliance re-evaluation decision making. Implications for research on alliances and managerial heuristics are discussed.

Research commonly assumes that performance gap relative to aspirations (manifested in the difference between a firm's actual ROA and its prior ROA as a referent) exerts a similar influence on organizational change as the performance gap relative to analysts’ earnings forecasts (reflected in the difference between a firm's actual earnings and earnings forecasts as a referent). However, these distinct types of referents from different sources are conceptually unique and operate differently, which could give rise to dissimilar behaviours. Because corporate performance information can emanate internally from agency-driven firms and externally from financial analysts, we examine both in a unified framework. To facilitate a deeper understanding of these relationships, we investigate how alternate income streams from business unit (BU) performance at a lower level in the organizational structure moderate the way corporate managers remedy corporate performance shortfalls at a higher level. Our study contributes to the behavioural theory by examining distinct influences of corporate performance goals derived from internally- versus externally imposed referents and their interactions with BU performance on new market entry activities. Empirical evidence from a sample of multiunit firms publicly listed in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector over the period 1998–2016 supported the hypotheses.

Self-determination theory (SDT) continues to be among the most popular need-based theories of motivation in psychology and the organizational sciences. In their interesting and wide-ranging work, Gagné and Hewett (2024, this issue) contrast the assumptions and presumed mechanisms of SDT with the restrictive assumptions of agency theory. They also offer several suggestions for implementing SDT principles in practice, business school curricula, and public policy. In this counterpoint, I highlight areas of agreement with the authors, but also offer thoughts on SDT limitations and blind spots. My conclusion is a large-scale adoption of SDT – to the exclusion or minimization of other views – would not be advisable. I base this conclusion on the logic that needs vary in importance across individuals and needs are broader than those encompassed by SDT. Moreover, scholars and practitioners should embrace the notion that factors beyond the needs in SDT (e.g., values, fairness, quasi-rational calculations, and rewards) also play important roles in determining motivation.

Agency theory and self-determination theory have contrasting assumptions about what motivates human beings and, accordingly, suggest differing methods of motivating others – from extrinsic rewards aimed at controlling agency to facilitating human agentic behaviour. These different assumptions are consequential – organizations and societies would look wildly different with the adoption of the one or other perspectives, with important implications for human welfare and wellbeing. The introduction to this Point and Counterpoint (PCP) calls on prominent scholars in both perspectives to clarify as well as question their assumptions about human motivation. An invitation to take a step back and clarify one's beliefs with precision, elucidating both the ideas and the data they are based on. At the same time, this PCP constitutes an invitation to explore how one's own personal preferences or values might be guiding their own (selection of) research and argumentation. We hope such internal reflection and external dialogue moves the conversation from us-versus-them to shared passion, from contradictory to paradoxical, and from stalemates to practical solutions that are sufficiently integrative to address today's complex societal challenges.

As my postdoctoral fellowship drew to a close, I found myself standing at a crossroads reminiscent of Frost's imagery. One path, worn and familiar, led down the conventional track toward tenure. The other, a less conspicuous, meandering trail, hinted at the possibilities beyond academia. Despite investing six years to prepare for an academic career, I opted for the road less travelled – a choice that I have come to realize has made all the difference. In this essay, I reflect upon my temporary journey outside academia and draw parallels between this experience and the concept of an academic sabbatical to advocate for sabbatical opportunities beyond academic boundaries. These sabbaticals, which prioritize engagement with new communities, can enrich an academic career while positively impacting others.

Since the late nineteenth century, sabbaticals have become a staple of academic life. Loosely defined, sabbaticals are an ‘extended period of time intentionally spent on something that's not your routine job’ for the purpose of becoming ‘more useful to the college as a teacher, as an investigator, or as an administrator’ (Dartmouth Committee on Sabbatical Leave, 1922, p. 701; Schabram et al., 2023, p. 456). These departures from academic duties, whether paid or unpaid, aim to enhance academics’ professional development and contributions to their field. The early sabbatical model was designed to achieve this by enabling academics to engage with and absorb the latest advancements in knowledge that were prevalent in other institutions and professional circles. Today, nearly 80 percent of business academics who take sabbaticals do so with the aim of enhancing their research outputs (Spencer et al., 2012), and most of this time is spent catching up on papers, writing books, submitting grants, and giving presentations and invited lectures. Given the pervasive ‘publish or perish’ pressures that many in our field contend with (Bothello and Roulet, 2019), the predominant use of the sabbatical to advance one's research agenda is unsurprising. However, this well-trodden road represents a limited view of the potential utility of these periods of absence. What if sabbaticals were used as an opportunity for impactful exploration, to drive a more holistic sense of one's academic pursuits?

My journey off the traditional academic path has illustrated that deep immersion in new and unfamiliar contexts can enrich an academic career in profound ways while offering service to others. Exploring the sabbatical as a means of engagement with diverse communities beyond the bounds of familiarity, I use my personal experience to extend an invitation to all management academics – from PhD students and full professors to adjunct faculty and administrators – to consider embarking on their own form of a sabbatical outside of the business school in for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, cultural and educati

We examine how firms can strategically respond to policy implementation uncertainty by screening communication exchanges between policy-implementing agencies and their policy-formulating political principals. These exchanges can be viewed as a signal of the agencies’ commitment to policy implementation. The costlier the agency's communication, the stronger the expected implementation and the likelier that firms will commit to long-term, irreversible investments prior to the actual implementation of the policy. We test these hypotheses empirically by examining the investments made by European electric power companies in new renewable energy facilities from 2004 to 2009 and associating these investments with the communication between country agencies and the European Union Commission upon the latter's resolution to establish a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme.

This article extends previous research on how compassion can be preserved in extreme contexts, highlighting the phenomenological experience of time in practices. Based on an ethnographic study of hospice care, we show how temporal work preserves compassion by enacting the end-of-life as a time of agency, a liminal time between the past (life) and an undesirable and certain future (death) that shifts focus to here and now actions. Taking a Heideggerian approach to the lived experience of compassion, we understand the hospice as a world where different ways of being are implicated in practices organized through existential spatiality (being with the guest and being by the guest). We show how exposure to people in end-of-life affects the experience of time in compassion practices, allowing them to be experienced as kairos, involving sacredness and spiritual connectedness with others, and as chronos, allowing compassion-givers to restore their capacity by focusing on compassion tasks.

We examine the assumption that making workforce differentiation practices more inclusive will cause employees to react more positively. We identify a fundamental ‘paradox of inclusion’, where practices designed to be more inclusive may in fact decrease employees' perceived inclusion. Drawing on social comparison theory and the ‘genius effect’ – using talent management practices as an empirical case – we found that both employees identified as ‘talents’ and ‘non-talents’ reacted more favourably to exclusive, secretive practices than to inclusive, transparent practices. Across four studies, we ran experiments testing managers' assumptions about employee reactions to talent practices (Study 1; N = 179); the reactions of ‘non-talents’ (Study 2; N = 576); the reactions of ‘talents’ (Study 3; N = 306); and conducted a field study (Study 4; N = 402). Managers' preferences for more inclusive practices were guided by their assumption that non-talents would react more positively to them. Non-talents, in fact, reacted more negatively to more inclusive practices in terms of envy, organization-based self-esteem, turnover intentions, and perceived inclusion. Keeping talent status a secret from employees buffered negative reactions. Based on these findings, we identify paradoxes inherent to workforce differentiation and extend theorizing on the tension between exclusive and inclusive practices within organizations.