This paper by Sydney Finkelstein and Nandini Rajagopalan utilizes an agency theory perspective to study the effects of strategic orientation and environmental change on CEO compensation systems.
Working Papers
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Facing the Customer: Empowerment or Production Line?
D. Bowen and E. Lawler III explain that in recent years, there has been a rush to adopt an empowerment approach, in which employees face the customer “free of rulebooks,” encouraged to do whatever is necessary to satisfy the customer. The production-line approach is a very different management style.
Paying the Person: A Better Approach to Management
This article by Edward Lawler III reviews problems with job based management systems and focuses particularly on the impact of job evaluation systems.
Mexico’s Maquiladora Industry: Where Strategic Human Resource Management Makes a Difference
M. Teagarden, M. Butler, and M. Von Glinow argue that cost cutting is a challenge increasingly confronting managers. Chasing cheap labor, especially through use of offshore manufacturing in developing and newly industrialized Pacific Rim countries has become a popular response to this challenge.
Do Good, Do Well: The Business Enterprise Trust Awards
This piece by James O’Toole explores both the validity of the Business Enterprise Trust’s efforts to reward business “virtue,” and the arguments of those who claim that doing good is bad business.
Managing Employee Involvement
Edward Lawler III considers three types of involvement: suggestion, job and high. Points out how they differ in structure and impact. Identifies the organization conditions where each fits best.
The Performance Management of Teams
This paper by A. Mohrman, Jr., S. Mohrman, and E. Lawler III describes some of the forces that are heightening the importance of teamwork in organizations today, and the challenges they pose for the management of performance.
Teams and Teamwork: Future Directions
Will organizations expand their use of teams and teamwork mechanisms over the next ten years? This chapter by Susan G. Cohen examines the current use of teams and internal networked designs, and predicts that their use will grow.
When is a Joint Venture a Joint Venture? The Classification of Sino-Foreign Strategic Business Alliances
Mary B. Teagarden and Mary Ann Von Glinow argue that Sino-U.S. strategic business alliance research is impeded by several obstacles: (1) various alliance types are confounded; (2) alliance data are aggregated regardless of life cycle stage; and (3) there is a dearth of reliable data about these alliances.
Service Encounters as Rites of Integration: An Information Processing Model
David E. Bowen and Christine M. Pearson discuss how service encounters are conceptualized as rites of integration which can establish the appropriate level of psychological involvement between service providers and customers.
Japanese Transplants
Jay R. Galbraith discusses how in the 1980s the Japanese began a high level of direct investment in the United States. There was a great deal of interest in how successful their style of management would be outside of Japan.
Hiring for the Organization, Not the Job
This article by D. Bowen, G. Ledford, Jr. and B. Nathan examines a new approach to selection in which employee are hired to fit the characteristics of an organization, not just the requirements of a particular job.