Article

Evaluating espoused values: Does articulating values pay off?

April 2015
European Management Journal 33(5)

DOI:10.1016/j.emj.2015.03.005

Authors:

Karsten Jonsen

Charles Galunic

INSEAD

John Weeks

Many corporations these days publish and talk about their values, believing these values, and their culture more generally, to be critical to their success. This study illuminates the phenomenon of values articulation and examines the link between these espoused values and financial performance. By examining the values posted by Fortune 100 companies on their websites, we analyse the performance implications associated with the espousal of (certain) values, number of values and their stability or change over time. Drawing on this analysis and previous studies on values, espoused values, and underpinning theoretical frameworks, we test hypothesis related to number of espoused values, differentiation and stability over time. We provide interpretations about why it matters not just what companies do but also what they say.

CSR signaling in controversial and noncontroversial industries: CSR policies, governance structures, and transparency tools

Article

Jan 2022
Eur Manag J

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are signals used by organizations to reduce information asymmetries within the market and to make their commitment to sustainability observable. The present study aims at investigating the hypothesis that responsible companies operating in controversial industries (i.e., companies whose core business or production processes are perceived as questionable by society given current environmental, social, or/and ethical issues) are likely to be more active in using different types of CSR signals. Through ANCOVA, we assess how firms belonging to both controversial and non-controversial industries differ in the way they manage CSR signals. The empirical results show that companies in controversial sectors are significantly more focused on developing CSR policies and transparency tools since they expect these signals to be really visible and distinctive to stakeholders. However, companies in controversial industries seem to be similar to non-controversial companies in signaling CSR governance, suggesting that organizations expect receivers to attribute little relevance to the least visible signals. Therefore, these signals do not grant a sufficiently large reputational payoff, discouraging firms from taking advantage of the implementation of CSR governance structures. The study supports the idea that firms, in designing different types of CSR signals, take into account the peculiarities of different receivers. At the same time though, this could make firms underestimate the receivers’ ability to decode the signals and to generate countersignals, thus failing in assessing properly the expected return from their CSR signaling.

Barcelona Vision 2020: Illustrating the Values Change in the Barcelona’s Business Environment.

Presentation

Oct 2019

Lizbeth Arroyo

It was attempted to illustrate how Barcelona's firms address the values change upheave by the agency of the 2nd Strategic Metropolitan Barcelona Plan released in 2010 and examines the influence of Firms' organisational factors and value orientation on the degree of business internalizing of new normative values, considering the differences among firms created before and after of the strategic plan releases. Methodologically, it develops a statistical descriptive analysis and multiple linear regressions for each period. The main findings evidence the values change through the coexistence of two different values priorities in Barcelona's business context, namely "materialist-driven values" and "postmaterialist-driven values". The materialist-driven values in this context are compliance, innovation, agility, service, effectiveness, being global and professionalism. In contrast, the postmaterialist-driven values are inclusion, passion, simplicity, individuality, growth, diversity and fun. In consonance, it reveals that firms created before 2010 are closer to Barcelona's normative values than those created after. Finally, it found for firms in both creation periods that organisational factors and value orientation significantly predicted the degree of internalizing of normative values. However, it highlights the presences of significant differences in value orientation impact between organisations. This research contributes to understanding the changes in business contexts and organisations, triggered by new normative frameworks promoted by policymakers. It offers relevant implications for firms’ legitimacy actions management and visualization of the contextual concerns.

Mapping Espoused Organizational Values

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2019
J BUS ETHICS

This paper develops an inventory and conceptual map of espoused organizational values. We suggest that espoused values are fundamentally different to other value forms as they are collective value statements that need to coexist as a basis for organizational activity and performance. The inventory is built from an analysis of 3112 value items espoused by 554 organizations in the UK and USA in both profit and not-for-profit sectors. We distil these value items into 85 espoused value labels, and these are assessed in terms of their similarity and difference through judgements made by 53 experienced individuals. The resulting conceptual map facilitates the evaluation of values which are espoused at the organizational level, as opposed to aggregations of personal values, an important distinction that is often ignored in the literature. This analysis identifies a number of distinct areas of emphasis occupied by espoused values. In particular, the richness of value labels that relates to broader ethical issues may be aimed at external stakeholder management, but also may have an increasing influence on organizational behaviour as they are embedded into organizational practices. By advancing our understanding of espoused values, through an analysis of those being used in practice, we provide a means by which future research into organizational values and ethical issues can progress.

Leveraging Values in Global Organizations: Premises, Paradoxes and Progress

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2016

In this focused issue on the theme of “Leveraging Values in Global Organizations”, we highlight several prevalent themes on national, organizational and individual values in the literature. We argue that many premises in the literature have been accepted as fact; yet there are still many avenues open to exploration. We present several paradoxes that are often overlooked or lead to inconsistencies in the literature on values. The five articles in this focused issue address these premises and paradoxes, presenting new challenges and opportunities, providing progress and paving the way for future research on leveraging values in global organizations. The selected articles explore values with respect to international alliances and subsidiaries of multinational organizations at the organizational level, among global managers at the group level, and among employees and inpatriates at the individual level of analysis. We trust that readers of this issue will agree that the articles provide novel insights into key issues in the established, yet dynamic, field of research on values in the context of global organizations.

Environmental-effectiveness for the beyond compliance practices

Preprint

Full-text available

Feb 2021

Boris Matijas

This article analyses the core values of the largest European family-owned companies and cross-references them to their CO2 emissions and energy consumption reports. It does so by following the findings from environmental psychology, which indicate that self-transcending values lead to better pro-environmental behavior. Additionally, it expands the premises from earlier studies of environmentalism in family business research, which point out family-owned companies' higher tendency to go beyond environmental compliance practices. Following the results, gathered from various indicators associated with pro-environmental behavior, the analysis of different positions within the environmentalities framework is conducted. It determines the companies' stance regarding the Green Deal for Europe's governance and introduces the discussion of the benefits of incentivizing competition over compliance and promoting environmental over sustainability strategy.

Understanding the Moral Space of Digital Entrepreneurship: The Where, The Who and The How of Digital Legitimation

Conference Paper

Oct 2020

This paper examines how digital entrepreneurs pursue legitimacy in the digital world. We argue that digital legitimation is a process based on the interplay between moral space and entrepreneurial identity production and the trust of digital network. We use the espoused values as declarations of what entrepreneurs deem to be important; values underpin ethics and shape morality. From an inductive approach, we conducted a content analysis, examining the values that digital entrepreneurs espouse of 800 digital start-ups’ websites in four European cities (London, Berlin, Paris and Barcelona). Our findings show a portrait of digital moral space defined by the romanticism about change and future caused by technology and the hyper typification of the heroic entrepreneur as a the legitim identity of this context

Governing and Managing Higher Education Institutions: The quality audit contributions

Article

Sep 2019
EVAL PROGRAM PLANN

Chokri Kooli

This paper aims to evaluate the role and effects of national accreditation practices in the improvement and development of the Omani private higher educational institutions in term of Governance and Management. A documental collection, revision and analysis was performed in order to enhance our understandings of the impact of quality audit in terms of Governance and Management. The study focused on analysing the quality audit reports of 25 assessed Omani HEIs. It covered published reports of all private institutions who already completed the first stage of national accreditation process. From one side, the data analysis showed us that the majority of the Omani private higher education institutions operate their activities without having a clear strategic direction. Also, they don't have performant governance and management systems. From another side, a progress was observed in terms of institutional Affiliations for Programs and Quality Assurance, Student's grievance processes and Health and Safety management. Among other things, the findings revealed that the Omani HEIs perceive quality assessment programs as strategical imposed tool made under the constraint of accountability, rather than an effective mechanism of development.

Diversity and inclusion branding: a five-country comparison of corporate websites

Article

Feb 2019

In their quest to attract talent and appear as an employer of choice, organizations must articulate the benefits of having a diverse and inclusive workforce. By communicating the attractiveness of the workplace, a company increases its exposure to the environment as an employer of choice. Within the context of employer branding, we highlight two emerging concepts that encompass corporate communication in the form of diversity and inclusion statements: diversity branding and inclusion branding. We examine the websites of 75 major companies in five different countries (France, Germany, Spain, the UK and the US). The article highlights that organizations use diversity and inclusion branding to attract talent, become employers of choice and dimensionalize diversity to signal that specific dimensions of diversity are relevant to the organization. We show that diversity and inclusion branding has become ‘mainstream’ and how a focus on diversity is particularly useful to attract talent while to appear as an employer of choice a focus on inclusion seems particularly beneficial.

Developing and testing a maturity model of managerial values.

Conference Paper

Oct 2018

Alain Neher

It is crucial for organizational success that managerial values are both stated and enacted by all employees and at all levels of the organization. Only then can employees’ behavior be aligned with senior management’s strategic vision and mission to which values are fundamental and core. This paper develops a conceptual Maturity Model of Managerial Values (MM-MV) which articulates the extent of value enactment within organizations. The sequential six-step model (from Indifferent/Non-existent to Optimized/Mastered) proposes that an organization’s employees first become aware of senior management’s values, then they begin to implement these managerial values throughout the organization, and ultimately the organization can leverage the values into enhanced performance. Each maturity level contains detailed criteria against which an organization can be assessed and rated with specific examples that demonstrate the application. The MM-MV is developed and tested using a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper contributes to practice by offering a model of organizational values adoption that senior managers can employ to analyze and possibly adapt their values and organizational values integration process.

Through the Decreased Values Gap to Increased Organizational Effectiveness: The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment

Article

Mar 2018
J Hum Val

The purpose of this article is to clarify whether congruence between espoused and attributed organizational values (CEAOV) in contemporary business circumstances is a necessity or just ‘nice to have’. Accordingly, two objectives are formulated: (a) to investigate whether CEAOV has a direct impact on organizational effectiveness and (b) to assess the mediating effect of organizational commitment between CEAOV and organizational effectiveness. The research was conducted within 15 Croatian companies (n = 523). Data were collected through content analysis of the official websites of the companies, surveys of employees, semi-structured interviews with the members of top management and analysis of publicly available financial reports. A conceptual model is proposed regarding the mediating effect of organizational commitment on the impact of the espoused–attributed value fit on effectiveness. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for the analysis. The results show that CEAOV positively affects organizational effectiveness through the mediation of organizational commitment. The only path to attaining effectiveness is through commitment. No direct effect is found. Our research sheds light on the relevant role of authenticity, in the light of value congruence, in every organization. When employees and organizations live their values to the same degree, there is an impact on organizational commitment and hence on organizational effectiveness.

Diversity Branding: A Five-Country Comparison Of Corporate Websites

Article

Jan 2016

How to infuse an organizational culture with humility: A study of humble behaviors and practices

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2022

In order to analyze the role of humility in organizational culture, in this work, companies that formally declared humility as a value on their home pages were chosen, as to understand the internalization of this value in their practices and behaviors. The research adopted a descriptive‐analytical design with a qualitative approach, and in addition to secondary data referring to the organizational profile, fourteen semi‐structured interviews were analyzed with the decision‐making elite of the seven chosen organizations, based on theoretical‐deductive categories of the construct identified in the organizational literature. The study identified that the value of humility is effectively present in behaviors and practices of these organizations, which develop a culture of humility in their daily lives. The main results indicate that the internalized value of humility is associated with (i) shared behaviors; (ii) clear self‐assessment of strengths and weaknesses; (iii) culture of innovation; (iv) awareness of their own limitations; (v) support for third‐party contributions and feedback practices (vi) employee learning; (vii) culture of praise. The results reinforced the main categories and constructs for a Humble Organizational Culture (HOC) Model, opening opportunities for future research that explore the elaboration of cultural maturity diagnoses and humility measurement instruments in the organizational field.

Circular Business Models and driving factors for organizational resilience: A Systematic Literature Review

Preprint

Full-text available

Oct 2022

The role of recontextualization and socialization practices in transferring corporate values from a small Norwegian IT company to an Indian subsidiary

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022
INT J HUM RESOUR MAN

Companies that nurture a shared corporate culture based on specific corporate values can improve their performance. However, when companies expand globally, communicating and transferring these values can be challenging, particularly when there are significant linguistic and cultural differences. This qualitative study examined the case of a small Norwegian IT company that has put its two corporate values at the core of its activity, and how these values were transferred to a subsidiary in India. Drawing on the concept of recontextualization and socialization theory, the study investigates the following: (1) how the corporate values were transferred, recontextualized and renegotiated in the Indian subsidiary; (2) how those values were implemented through a set of socialization mechanisms. Our main findings reveal how the Indian leaders actively recontextualized the values into prevailing cultural practices in India, and how senior employees were engaged in the value transfer process. Moreover, this article outlines how a small company without a formal HR department and with no expatriates to guide the process can use soft control mechanisms related to more formalized and structured HR practices to implement the headquarters’ values. Additionally, the article discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

The (Bounded) Role of Stated-Lived Value Congruence and Authenticity in Employee Evaluations of Organizations

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022
ORGAN SCI

A growing body of research documents that audiences reward organizations perceived to be authentic with positive evaluations. In the current work, we adopt a mixed-methods approach-using data collected from Glassdoor.com and two experiments-to establish that perceptions of authenticity are elicited by perceived congruence between an organization's stated values (i.e., the values it claims to hold) and its lived values (i.e., values members perceive as embodied by the organization), which in turn lead to more positive organizational evaluations. We then explore the conditions under which audiences are less likely to respond favorably to organizational authenticity, finding that the positive effects of stated-lived value congruence on evaluations are attenuated when audiences have a lower preference for stated values. Although scholars have often explored whether and how organizations can successfully make themselves appear authentic to reap rewards, our findings suggest that the perceived authenticity that results from stated-lived value congruence may not prove fruitful unless the audience holds a higher preference for an organization's stated values.

Measuring and evaluating CSR information and involvement strategies on corporate Facebook pages

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022

Organizations are increasingly involving stakeholders in their CSR activities through social networks. Despite the growing interest by academics and practitioners in this field of research, empirical studies are still limited, highlighting a gap in the identification and the use of effective measurement tools for evaluating sustainable marketing performances on social networks. The study aims to develop a framework to measure and assess stakeholder engagement strategies, in terms of CSR information and involvement, on Facebook pages of sustainable organizations. The framework is based on a set of dimensions (macro-item, item and micro-item) and adopts different types of variables (dichotomous and indices) and techniques (manual detection, Facebook developers tools, content analysis through the NooJ, and Likealyzer). A pilot study on firms classified by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (2015) confirms the applicability of the framework, showing that organizations prefer a “one-way” communication approach (CSR information strategies), rather than a “two-way” communication approach (CSR involvement strategies). The framework constitutes a tool aimed at analyzing and measuring the CSR communication strategies on corporate Facebook pages. It provides managers and consultants of digital communication useful indications to improve sustainable marketing activities and stakeholder engagement strategies on Facebook.

Virtue Rhetoric in Investor Communications: Setting Up for a Letdown?

Article

Apr 2021

Many companies prominently espouse their virtuous character in communications with investors, with a view toward influencing investor perceptions about the firm’s standards of behavior. While there are benefits to investors perceiving an organization to be virtuous, what happens if the firm violates those standards by engaging in unethical behavior? In this study, we use expectancy violations theory to argue that virtue rhetoric sets investors up for disappointment. When an organization claims to be virtuous but then acts unethically, investors respond to the ethics violation more negatively than they would otherwise. We also theorize about scenarios where investors may overlook unethical behavior or intensify their disapproval of it. To test our ideas, we assemble a unique sample of unethical events committed by S&P 500 companies over a 12-year period, combined with analysis of the virtue rhetoric found in their annual letters to shareholders. Our main finding is that investor reaction to unethical behavior is more negative for companies that claimed to be virtuous prior to the violation than for those that did not make such claims. This relationship is less strong when the company has high expected future value.

It’s More Than Complicated! Using Organizational Memetics to Capture the Complexity of Organizational Culture

Chapter

Jan 2021

While organizational and business researchers have fruitfully applied evolutionary theory at various levels of analysis, few utilize organizational memetics to capture the complexity of organizational culture. This article contributes to bridging the gap between theorizing and empirical research on organizational memetics by raising and addressing the question if and how the diversity and interdependence of organizational memes can be captured. To tackle this exploratory question, the authors present a comprehensive literature review on organizational memetics and demonstrate how meme mapping can be used to highlight interdependencies among organizational memes based on the case of a German consulting firm. Besides revealing the most prominent memes in the complex memetic system of the organization, the meme map illustrates connections of varying strength among the organizational memes, thereby supporting the argument that organizational memetics can help to expose attractive memes that are important for both the stability and change of organizational cultures.

Human Values as Added Value(s) in Consumer Brand Congruence: A Comparison with Traits and Functional Requirements https://rdcu.be/b8KiZ

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Human values-life goals-guide our attitudes and actions. Brands such as Patagonia, TOMS, Warby Parker, Chobani, and Nike successfully position their marketing around human values such as safety, harmony, seeking pleasure, or social welfare. Evidently, consumers attach importance to brands whose values align with their own values. However, the alignment of values (value congruence) and the resulting effects on (re)purchasing behavior are scarcely discussed in the marketing literature. The effects of "traits" and "functional congruence" on purchasing behavior receive considerably more attention. Since human values are conceptually distinct from personality traits, the following question is posed: What is the role of value congruence in the process of consumer brand selection compared with that of trait and functional congruence. An online survey (N=1,182) is conducted to study the effects of these different types of congruence on re-purchase intentions for a range of product categories. Multiple regression and mediation analyses reveal that value congruence is a significant predictor of re-purchase intentions and that it is more important than trait congruence for the categories of services and durables, but not for consumables. This study offers insights into when brand marketing should be aligned with personality traits and human values, respectively.

Memetics and Evolutionary Economics: To Boldly Go Where no Meme has Gone Before

Book

Dec 2020

Michael P. Schlaile

This book explores the question of whether and how meme theory or “memetics” can be fruitfully utilized in evolutionary economics and proposes an approach known as “economemetics” which is a combination of meme theory and complexity theory that has the potential to combat the fragmentation of evolutionary economics while re-connecting the field with cultural evolutionary theory. By studying the intersection of cultural and economic evolution, complexity economics, computational economics, and network science, the authors establish a connection between memetics and evolutionary economics at different levels of investigation. The book first demonstrates how a memetic approach to economic evolution can help to reveal links and build bridges between different but complementary concepts in evolutionary economics. Secondly, it shows how organizational memetics can help to capture the complexity of organizational culture using meme mapping. Thirdly, it presents an agent-based simulation model of knowledge diffusion and assimilation in innovation networks from a memetic perspective. The authors then use agent-based modeling and social network analysis to evaluate the diffusion pattern of the Ice Bucket Challenge as an example of a “viral meme.” Lastly, the book discusses the central issues of agency, creativity, and normativity in the context of economemetics and suggests promising avenues for further research.

Espoused Values of the “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For”: Essential Themes and Implementation Practices

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021
J BUS ETHICS

This study identifies and describes the values espoused by the 62 companies that have consistently (2014–2018) appeared on the “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For” (FBCWF) list. We identify 24 separate values and offer an analysis of the keywords and phrases used to promote them. We confirm that these values fall within the categories of four well-accepted theoretical frameworks of corporate values and culture. We then provide evidence for three underlying dimensions transcending all four models. They are values that guide relationships and self-regulation; values that describe desired outcomes and performance; and values that inform learning and change. Next, we present the results of a qualitative study describing how these companies put their values into practice. Finally, using publicly available information from the Great Place to Work® Institute, we show how the espoused values we identified relate to: (1) what employees report about their experiences and (2) company self-descriptions. Our findings highlight connections between leadership and values and they offer guidance to those seeking to understand keys to values-based cultures.

You Say You Want a Revolution: A Multiple Case Study of Diversity and Inclusion Messages to Transform Engineering Culture

Thesis

Mar 2020

Stephanie Lezotte

Lack of diversity in engineering programs has drawn recent national attention (National Science Foundation, 2017). Scholars have suggested the normative engineering culture perpetuates the marginalization of students and faculty with excluded identities (Leydens & Lucena, 2017; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997; Walden, Trytten, Shehab, & Foor, 2018). This multiple case study examined three engineering units committed to creating an inclusive engineering culture that values social justice in order to redefine the "ideal" engineer. The overarching research question was: How do engineering diversity champions produce and circulate institutional messages about diversity and inclusion? Drawing from communications studies, cultural studies, and organizational theory, I systematically analyzed data from 11 interviews and 209 pages of documents to better understand if gaps existed between engineering diversity champions' espoused beliefs and the institutional messages they circulated, and whether university resources shaped those messages. Findings indicate that engineering diversity champions make sense of diversity and inclusion in ways that reflect their internal commitments to social justice, but institutional resources shaped what messages were actually circulated. The theory of neoinstitutionalism is offered as a lens for understanding the isomorphic and divergent organizational behaviors evident among the cases.

It's more than complicated! Using organizational memetics to capture the complexity of organizational culture

Article

Nov 2019
J BUS RES

Don’t Pass Them By: Figuring the Sacred in Organizational Values Work

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2021
J BUS ETHICS

How and why could some stories be construed as sacred in organizations, and what functions does the sacred have in organizational values work? Research has shown how values can be made formative of a range of organizational purposes and forms but has underscored their performative, situated, and agentic nature. We address that void by studying the sacred as a potentially salient yet under-researched realm of values work. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a faith-based health care organization and the ethical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, we describe how the sacred is figured in two sets of tales that were lived and told with surprising intensity and consistency: the parable of the Good Samaritan and the tale of the legacy bestowed by the organization’s founder. We theorize how this figuring of the sacred in story and in action recasts values work from a centralized and unitary process to a two-way learning dialectic between the ongoing creative imitation of action and narrative. Values in the shape of stories of the sacred do not achieve their meaning as unchangeable cores or sanctioned beliefs. Rather, they come to life in a process of ongoing moral inquiry that co-evolves with moral agencies. In the latter regard, the sacred primarily becomes manifest in everyday work in the form of questioning and creative acts of care. People become moral agents when they feel and respond to the sacred in the call of the other.

Greenwashing: dos conceitos à tendência da literatura científica global

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2019

Objetivou -se com a elaboração dessa pesquisa criar um alerta sobre as empresas greenwashing levantando conceitos do termo, o papel do sujeito ecológico frente esta prática, como surgem as empresas que o praticam e seus diagnósticos, além de trazer uma possível alternativa de inibi-las em nível nacional. Também, com intuito de provar a relação estreita entre ciência, tecnologia, sociedade e ambiente realizou-se uma análise cienciométrica do tema greenwashing. No geral, consolidou-se a hipótese da estreita relação entre ciência, tecnologia, sociedade e ambiente, evidenciando a importância deste estudo para a mudança dos hábitos de consumo da sociedade.

Top employer awards: A double-edged sword?

Article

Jun 2019
Eur Manag J

Organizations often use top employer awards to confirm their quality as employers via an independent third party. At first, the advantages of using awards seem apparent, such as giving the organization an edge in recruitment by increasing the organizational attractiveness for jobseekers. Possible disadvantages accompanying the use of awards have received little attention. We argue that awards can cause potential applicants to pay less attention to information provided in recruitment materials that allow them to assess their organizational fit. Therefore, we investigated the influence of awards on the relationship between person–organization fit and attraction to organization as well as application decision. We include the corporate brand awareness (unknown vs. well-known) as a boundary condition. The results of our experiment show that, while awards increase organizational attractiveness, they also reduce the effect of person–organization fit on organizational attractiveness in the case of well-known organizations. Moreover, we found that awards indirectly affect application decision in the same way. Hence, successful self-selection based on fit is disturbed in this situation. Consequently, the quality of the applicant pool is reduced, resulting in a disadvantage for the well-known recruiting organization. Contrary to expectations, unknown organizations do not appear to be affected by this downside and instead benefit from awards. Our study contributes to the literature in recruiting by focusing on how awards change the impact of other information, while also highlighting potential disadvantages of employer awards.

Greenwash and Green Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Green Skepticism

Article

Full-text available

May 2019

Along with the acceleration of green marketing in recent years, greenwash has been utilized by firms to get ahead of their rivals. Underpinned by the cognition–affect–behavior (C-A-B) paradigm, this study examines a model linking greenwash and green skepticism with green purchase intentions. It also investigates the moderating role of information and knowledge on the relationship between greenwash and green purchase intentions. Data were obtained from 419 Vietnamese consumers who had been involved in purchasing green vegetables using an online survey. Multivariate data analysis demonstrated that greenwash was negatively associated with green purchase intentions and that green skepticism mediated this negative association. In addition, the moderating effect of information and knowledge was confirmed. These findings enrich the extant knowledge on the relationship between greenwash and green purchase intentions. They also have important implications for firms that aim to reduce consumers’ skepticism and increase their intentions to purchase green food.

It takes time to tango: The relative importance of values versus traits in consumer brand relationships

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2018

Brand managers have several options in their quest to connect their brands with consumers.They may stress functional brand attributes and benefits, their brand's personalitytraits, or their brand's values (the human values attached to the brand). Which of these is most important to consumers is an open question, however. This article proposes that values may take on increased importance over time, as long‐term relationships (in general) require more than just getting the job done (functional aspect) or a sense of recognition (trait correspondence). What is required most of all is a correspondence between long‐term objectives and goals in life. Values are arguably the most relevant factor in longer relationships. An experiment was put together to determine if this is indeed the case. The results of our study suggest that values are indeed considered more important than traits in the case of longer relationships and that this is particularly true with decisions regarding prospective relationships and in the case of services.

The Importance of Values for Brand Purchase: A Managerial Contribution: An Abstract

Conference Paper

Jun 2017

Consumers currently place increasing importance on the values that companies represent. Modern values such as transparency, benevolence to society, sustainability and fairness are becoming more relevant, as noted by many major consulting firms among which are Nielsen (2013), the World Federation of Advertisers (2013) and the Boston Consultancy Group (2013). Modern values are grounded in social, political and economic developments and represent the new values of this era. As a consequence, a company’s value to consumers no longer has to lie solely in its products and services. This new, broader scope of value may include the entire business process and organizational culture, ranging from the management’s integrity to values being found in the company’s contributions to society. Although the role of values in human behaviour has been extensively discussed in the psychology literature since the beginning of the 1900s (e.g. Feather 1995; Hofstede 1980; Olson and Maio 2003; Rokeach 1973; Schwartz 2012), limited attention has been dedicated to values in marketing literature. This was the conclusion of a systematic literature review that we conducted on this subject (Voorn et al. 2016). As a follow-up, we organized an online survey (n = 1109) to empirically investigate the role of values in the brand selection process. In this paper, we report on the relationship between values and brand purchase intentions through the concept of value congruence and in relation to several product categories representing services, durables and consumables. Overall, the results confirm the relevance of value congruence as a predictor of brand purchase, in particular in services and durables. Our study shows that companies can benefit from incorporating values into their marketing strategies, especially those values that are congruent with (higher-order) personal goals, rather than more (instrumental) category-specific values. This offers new marketing perspectives, especially for brands. Brands are – by definition – more than just one product or service, which means they can serve as an umbrella for the incorporation and propagation of new values. However, an important question remains for the brand manager: the extent to which values have an advantage over brand personality traits and functional attributes, since investing in values is not only about communication – it means that an organization needs to embody them in the very fibre of its being; otherwise it may be perceived as ‘green washing’, which can undermine brand trust.

“More than words”: Expanding the taxonomy of greenwashing after the Volkswagen scandal

Article

Feb 2017
J BUS RES

This study explores a new type of greenwashing behaviour, through the lenses of the “communicative constitution of organizations” (CCO), which challenges the dominant view in corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies. A theory-building case study was carried out by analysing the Volkswagen scandal. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained via a content analysis of both 2012–2014 CSR reports of the Volkswagen Group and a sample of 1151 U.S. newspaper headlines concerning Dieselgate, together with semi-structured interviews with former managers from Volkswagen. From a theoretical perspective, the study extends the greenwashing taxonomy by identifying a new type of irresponsible behaviour, namely “deceptive manipulation”. This reinforces the CCO perspective according to which sustainability communication acts as a constitutive force. In terms of managerial implications, the study suggests some approaches to prevent this specific type of greenwashing.

Managing Organizational Gender Diversity Images: A Content Analysis of German Corporate Websites

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2018
J BUS ETHICS

Although establishing gender equality in board and managerial positions has recently become more important for organizations, companies with low levels of gender diversity seem to perceive an ethical dilemma regarding the ways, in which they attempt to attain it. One way that organizations try to move toward gender equality is through the use of their corporate websites to manage potential applicants’ impressions of their current levels of, and actions to improve, gender diversity. The dilemma is whether to truthfully communicate their low level of gender diversity, conceal it, or exaggerate it. On the one hand, organizations that are truthful may find it difficult to achieve equality because women are less attracted to companies that lack diversity. On the other hand, organizations that are untruthful risk their moral legitimacy. The present work investigates gender diversity-related communication on the corporate websites of 99 major German companies. Based on theoretical work on minority attraction, we apply an organizational impression management taxonomy to guide our in-depth content analysis. With this approach, we hope to advance the understanding of how the issue of gender diversity is presented on corporate websites, which is useful for both organizational decision makers as well as diversity researchers. We found that although gender diversity-related communications on corporate websites contain both assertive and defensive organizational impression management tactics, as well as a third type of tactic we refer to as “acknowledgement,” assertive tactics were used more frequently. We argue the existence of a paradox whereby organizations use assertive impression management tactics to maintain pragmatic legitimacy but compromise their moral legitimacy by doing so. Furthermore, we argue that moral legitimacy can be maintained or restored through the sincere use of defensive impression management tactics and acknowledgement.

Values and behaviors of effective lean managers: Mixed-methods exploratory research

Article

Apr 2017
Eur Manag J

Lean Management is a managerial approach focused on enhancing customer value through the elimination of non-value adding steps from work processes. Lean Management is also enjoying a resurgence, largely because its ‘do more with less’ philosophy is particularly well-suited for the austere conditions of a 'Great Recession' recovery. Despite this resurgence with practitioners, however, academic research of Lean Management, in particular research on the leadership of lean initiatives, remains limited. In this study, we identify a constellation of lean values and behaviors of effective lean managers, based on extant research and the views of expert practitioners, and a field study of lean managers. In the first of two empirical studies, we produce an initial list of values and behaviors, derived from both the lean and leadership literature, and from three Delphi rounds with 19 expert lean practitioners. In study 2, we corroborate and refine the list with a sample of effective lean middle managers, through 18 interviews; a survey (N = 43); and fine-grained video-analyses of their in situ behaviors during meetings with subordinates. The values identified include: honesty, candor, participation and teamwork, and continuous improvement—all indicative of self-transcendence and openness to change. Regarding behaviors, we find that the effective lean middle managers of our sample, compared to other middle managers, engage significantly more in positive relations-oriented “active listening” and “agreeing” behaviors, and significantly less in “task monitoring” and counterproductive work behaviors (such as “providing negative feedback” and “defending one's own position”). To conclude, we put forward five new propositions intended to guide future research and a more successful practice of ‘lean leadership.’

Values-Based Leadership Effectiveness in Culturally Diverse Workplaces

Article

Apr 2016

Purpose – The extant literature is replete with suggestions, findings, etc., about how best to manage or lead a culturally diverse workforce. However, very few studies have focussed explicitly on leading with values in a workplace that may be fraught with disparate cultural value systems. The purpose of this paper is to assess, conceptually, the relative effectiveness of values-based leadership (VBL) in culturally diverse workplaces and attempt to provide an answer to the questions: what factors determine the effectiveness of VBL in culturally diverse workplaces and what is the probability that VBL will be effective in a culturally diverse workplace? Design/methodology/approach – The authors explore VBL within the context of two models. The first model assesses the relative effectiveness of VBL in culturally diverse workplaces from a deterministic perspective. The second model assesses VBL effectiveness from a probabilistic perspective. At the core of the deterministic model is the notion that the relative effectiveness of VBL can be determined by the cultural recompositioning of a firm’s workforce. At the core of the second model is the notion that the likelihood of VBL effectiveness can be derived when conditions are created by the interface of the ethnic identity salience of culturally diverse workers and the organizational culture of the firm. Findings – A conceptual finding from the deterministic model is that the relative effectiveness of VBL is determined by the historical level of cultural diversity in a firm’s workforce and the rate at which cultural recompositioning takes place in its workforce. A question addressed by the probabilistic model is: what factors create conditions for assessing the likelihood of VBL effectiveness? A conceptual finding from the probabilistic model is that the strength of a firm’s organizational culture and the ethnic identity salience of culturally diverse workers are two major factors that create these conditions. Research limitations/implications – One of the major theoretical implications/contributions is the deterministic and probabilistic models introduce new variables (i.e. historically level of cultural diversity in the workforce, rate of cultural recomposition, strength of workers’ ethnic identity salience, and strength of organizational culture) that have the potential to enhance our understanding of VBL by adding to the list of possible determinants of its effectiveness as well as the conditions under which it is likely to be effective. One limitation is the conceptual nature of the models. Empirical validation of the models will be required to test the veracity of the propositions derived from them. Practical implications – A major implication for practice is the need for leaders to develop a values management strategy. Such a strategy entails developing or having a strong set of core values for the organization, clearly communicating those values, and having reward and management systems to reinforce those values. This strategy implies that once implemented the tendency for culturally distinct workers (incoming and existing) to identify with their own values will decrease and the tendency for them to identify with the values of the organization will increase. Social implications – Because of the growing gap between the world’s supplies of labor and the demands for it, industrialized nations will have to rely on and compete for foreign-born workers. The result will be the creation of a global workforce composed of individuals from different cultures with different value systems. In terms of economic benefits, success in reconciling these differences will have positive implications for organizations, workers, and the societies in which they exist. Originality/value – Prior studies have not fully explored the conditions under which VBL is likely to be effective in culturally diverse workplaces. Since diversity in the workplace is considered one of the main challenges for human resource management, the models we discuss address a very timely issue and provide a framework that leaders in organizations around the globe might use to better understand and manage the relationships described in the models. This under-explored topic represents a major gap in the literature. Helping to narrow this gap is an important contribution that the conceptual study makes to the literature related to this topic.

Organizational Values

Chapter

Nov 2021

Alignment of employees’ competencies with espoused organizational values

Article

Nov 2022
Int Stud Manag Organ

Building on previous values- and competencies-related scholarly research, in this paper we aimed to explore the relationship between espoused organizational values and competencies. We drew on LinkedIn data and focused on the top ten companies with “the best LinkedIn company pages” according to the annual #BestofPages contest launched by LinkedIn. The analysis revealed that values emphasis varied between individual companies and that only one company, the winner of the best LinkedIn company page context, had employees’ competencies fully aligned with the espoused organizational values. From the scholarly perspective, this research offers a piece of empirical evidence on the emphasis placed on espoused values in international organizations and provides a nontraditional approach for understanding competencies almost in real-time, which was labeled by previous scholars as a difficult problem. The analysis also helps to shed light not only on the existing versus needed/wanted competencies or their gaps but also provides an alternative approach to understanding how the competencies can mirror organizational values, evolve with them over time, and be better aligned to help organizations achieve their strategic aims. This is the practical contribution of this study.

أثر الخداع الأخضر في بناء الثقة الخضراء لعملاء ستاربکس بمصر: الدور الوسيط للشک الأخضر والمعدل للإهتمام البيئي والنوع

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

Ali Ahmed Abdelkader

أثر الخداع الأخضر فی بناء الثقة الخضراء لعملاء ستاربکس بمصر: الدور الوسیط للشک الأخضر والمعدل للإهتمام البیئی والنوع

Article

Dec 2021

As empresas e seus valores: análise das declarações de valores das maiores empresas brasileiras

Article

Aug 2020

p class="Default">O objetivo da pesquisa é traçar um perfil identitário das maiores empresas brasileiras com base na análise de suas declarações de valores. A estratégia foi qualitativa, com uso de técnicas de análise de conteúdo e de discurso, bem como software específico (Iramuteq). Os resultados indicaram que a maioria das empresas ostenta uma declaração de visão em seus sites (62,2%). Há uma média de 5,82 valores por empresa, similar à internacional. Os elementos semânticos mais predominantes sinalizam para uma dupla preocupação: ética e inovação. Os resultados demonstram que a técnica de elaboração e o uso de declarações de valores estão bem difundidos e aceitos no Brasil, inclusive apontando para declarações mais extensas de valores das empresas nacionais. O artigo identifica lacunas que sugerem estudos futuros, como a análise da aderência das pessoas aos valores organizacionais e a especificidade das empresas brasileiras em relação às internacionais.</p

From the captains of industry to the trustees of sustainability

Thesis

Full-text available

Jun 2020

Boris Matijas

Significant behavioral changes will need to be implemented to prevent the energy supply sector from tripling CO2 emissions by the midcentury. However, within the academic research, behavior changes remain primarily focused on the individual level, while the behavior of companies that are responsible for elevated greenhouse gas emissions falls behind. This master’s thesis analyses the core values of large European family-owned companies and cross-references them to their CO2 emissions and energy consumption reports. It does so by following the findings from environmental psychology, which indicate that on the individual level, the self-transcending values lead to better pro-environmental behavior. Additionally, the research analyses the corporate mission statements, the UN Paris Agreement pledge, and the companies' highest rankings officials' statements as the indicators of their corporate environmental beliefs. This is done within the frame of the Green Deal for Europe's aspiration to decarbonize the economy, and following the intention to define the large family-owned companies' initial stance regarding the governance that is required for achieving it. The results obtained indicate that, when compared to self-enhancing values, the self-transcending family-owned companies' core values lead to a greater tendency to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption. At the same time, these tend to a greater use of renewable energies. This indicates that the internalization of self-transcending values facilitates environmental governance and has the potential to steer the business strategy towards a shift in behavior that is needed to accomplish the decarbonization goals defined by the Green Deal for Europe. Additionally, the research shows differences in behavior among different combinations of self-transcending and self-enhancing values and indicates that different combinations provide elements for sustainability to be considered a competitive advantage. Family-owned companies are here considered decision-making units, which, like individuals, require incentives to behave pro-environmentally. The analysis of different positions within the environmentalities framework (political ecology) allows business and policy decision-makers to reflect on additional incentives to stimulate companies' environmental behavior and to expand the scope of incentives beyond the strictly economic ones. Understanding mutual initial stands and motivation is fundamental. Values, understood as desirable goals that motivate action, are the first step in the process of mapping out future relations to manage change towards a higher pro-environmental behavior among family-owned companies.

Chapter 10 The Effect of Embedded Managerial Values on Corporate Financial Outcomes

Chapter

Jul 2018

This paper explored the relationship between the embeddedness of a firm’s managerial values and corporate financial performance in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by developing a conceptual maturity model of managerial values (MM-MV). The MM-MV articulates the extent to which managerial values are embedded within organizations, allowing the analysis of the interrelationship between the degree of values-embeddedness and financial performance in SMEs. The findings suggested that as managerial values become more embedded, financial performance increases; therefore, SMEs exhibiting highly embedded managerial values such as customer-minded, team spirit, innovation-driven reliability, persis-tency, competency, and engagement tend to financially outperform SMEs that have not fully embedded managerial values throughout the firm.

Organizational Values

Chapter

Nov 2016

An Investigation of Value Claims in Academic and Corporate ‘About us’ Texts

Article

Apr 2016

Davide Simone Giannoni

The marketization of higher education in the UK and elsewhere has attracted a great deal of attention (and criticism) from applied linguists in recent years, but there is still little linguistic evidence of its impact on the actual value system of academic institutions. As a contribution to the ongoing debate, this study compares the lexis of self-evaluation in a sample of academic and corporate ‘About us’ texts, using a combination of corpus analysis and manual inspection. The procedure identified 50 value markers belonging to eight semantic categories (Globalism, Worth, Primacy, Qualities, Impact, Delivery, Emotion, and Rootedness) whose normalized frequency (relevant occurrences) was 25 per cent higher in the academic sample. Despite differences in the distribution of individual items, such categories showed a considerable degree of overlap (77 per cent) across the two samples. Thus, universities and multinational corporations appear to prioritize a similar axiological repertoire for self-evaluation—a finding that is consistent with encroaching promotionalism but, more significantly, suggests the existence of a set of organizational values common to both academia and the corporate world.

Social Identity Theory and the Organization

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1989

Corporate Social Performance and Organizational Attractiveness to Prospective Employees

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1997
ACAD MANAGE J

Drawing on propositions from social identity theory and signaling theory, we hypothesized that firms' corporate social performance (CSP) is related positively to their reputations and to their attractiveness as employers. Results indicate that independent ratings of CSP are related to firms' reputations and attractiveness as employers, suggesting that a firm's CSP may provide a competitive advantage in attracting applicants. Such results add to the growing literature suggesting that CSP map provide firms with competitive advantages.

Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1991
ACAD MANAGE REV

Organizational Values: A Dynamic Perspective

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2013
ORGAN STUD

We make the case that there are four distinct forms of organizational values – espoused, attributed, shared and aspirational. These partial, but related, forms encompass variation in temporal orientation and levels of analysis. We use these forms to reveal the dynamic nature of organizational values by delineating the evolution of gaps and overlaps between them. We set out a series of propositions, originating from institutional, organizational and managerial sources to explain the nature of movement between these distinct forms of values and the potential implications for organizational behaviour and performance. Finally, we consider the possibilities of this fine-grained analysis of the organizational values concept for future research.

Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2014

Significance We show, via a massive ( N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. We provide experimental evidence that emotional contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues.

Identity, Intended Image, Construed Image, and Reputation: An Interdisciplinary Framework and Suggested Terminology

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2006

Many scholars across various academic disciplines are investigating the following questions: What do individuals know or believe about an organization? How does a focal organization (and/or other interested entity) develop, use, and/or change this information? and How do individuals respond to what they know or believe about an organization? Cross-disciplinary research that centers on these questions is desirable and could be enhanced if researchers identify and develop consistent terminology for framing these questions. The authors work toward that end by identifying four central “viewpoints” of an organization and proposing labels to represent each of these viewpoints: identity, intended image, construed image, and reputation.

The Ethical Aftermath of a Values Revolution: Theoretical Bases of Change, Recalibration, and Principalization

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2012

Profound and wide-ranging values shifts among industrialized nations, first noted following World War II and measured on an ongoing basis since, have affected individual decision making in political, social, and institutional settings across the globe. Consequently, the adoption of this set of expansive values is having pronounced and measurable effects on organizational missions, standards, and activities. This change is particularly notable in terms of accountability practices, moral responsibility, and the distinction between ethical and unethical decision making. This article documents this change, the need for a recalibration of ethical standards, and the principalization of a new organizational values order. Future research on the implications of adopting expansive values in organizations is delineated.

Electronic window dressing: Impression management with Websites

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2003
EUR J INFORM SYST

Businesses have embraced the Internet to reap economic advantages through the use of Websites. Most Website design guidelines fail to address issues of branding and identity formation, focusing instead on concerns adapted from previous technologies. However, many firms are not getting their desired results from the Website investments they have made following design guidelines reflecting graphic layout and system usability issues. We suggest that Websites should be considered 'electronic storefronts' or public work areas providing frames of symbolic representations that create impressions of their sponsoring firms. Our exploratory study shows that Websites influence potential customers' impressions of firms' legitimacy, innovation and caring, and that these impressions vary significantly across firms and industries. Website visitors encounter symbols that are compared to mental models stored in memory and used to form impressions of the site and to draw inferences about the firm. These inferences have previously been found to influence purchasing behavior. Designers should be cognizant of these aspects of e-Business and executives should recognize the power of Web-based impression management. Identity management must take center stage in creating a Web presence.

Being Efficiently Fickle

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2002

A central proposition in organization theory is that discrete organizational forms are matched to environmental conditions, market strategies, or exchange conditions. This paper develops a contrary theoretical proposition. We argue that efficiency may dictate modulating between discrete governance modes (i.e., structural modulation) in response to a stable set of exchange conditions. If governance choices are discrete, as much of organization theory argues, then the consequent steady-state functionality delivered by these organizational forms is itself discrete. However, if the desired functionality lies in-between the steady-state functionality delivered by two discrete choices, then efficiency gains may be available by modulating between modes. We develop an analytical model of structural modulation and examine factors that influence when modulation is ef- ficiency enhancing, as well as the optimal rate of modulation. We conclude that under certain conditions structural modulation is efficiency enhancing. Further, contrary to theories that highlight the potentially destructive consequences of inertia on organizational survival, we identify important efficiencyyielding benefits of inertia.

Averting Expected Challenges Through Anticipatory Impression Management: A Study of Hospital Billing

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1998

Existing theory and research on organizational impression management focuses on how spokespersons use remedial tactics, following image-threatening events, to put their organization in the best possible light. By contrast, little theory or research has considered how organizations use impression management tactics to avert undesirable responses to upcoming events. This paper uses a qualitative and inductive study of billing procedures at three large hospitals to develop theory about how organization members use impression management tactics to fend off specific, expected challenges to organizational practices that are ambiguously negative. We found that hospitals use anticipatory impressio n management tactics to: (1) distract, diminish, or overwhelm patients' attention to hospital charges; and (2) to induce emotions that lead patients to simplify their information processing of those charges. Hospitals appear to use such anticipatory obfuscations both to fend off patients' initial challenges and to prevent their existing challenges from escalating. We discuss these findings in terms of their contributions to theories of symbolic management, social influence, and routine service encounters.

Does Isomorphism Legitimate?

Article

Aug 1996
ACAD MANAGE J

David L. Deephouse

This study tests a central proposition of institutional theory, that organizational isomorphism increases organizational legitimacy. Results show that isomorphism in the strategies of commercial banks is related to legitimacy conferred by bank regulators and the media, even in the presence of organizational age, size, and performance.

The Nature of Human Values

Article

Jun 1975

Culture as social control: Corporations, cults, and commitment

Article

Jan 1996
RES ORGAN BEHAV

“Come, Join Our Family”: Discipline and Integration in Corporate Organizational Culture

Article

Jan 1999

C. Casey

This article critically examines primary processes and effects of the so-called “new organizational culture” that is organized on the principles and practices of Total Quality Management (and its variations) and increasingly practiced in corporate organizations in the 1990s. The paper specifically analyzes the effects of the organizational cultural practices of “family” and “team” on the employee and discusses their role in corporate discipline, integration, and control. Data are drawn from field research conducted in a large multinational corporation and the analyses and interpretive propositions are informed by a critical social psychoanalytic perspective. The paper disputes the conventional view that the practices of the “new culture” and its purported reform of the hierarchical, specialized, conflict-ridden workplaces of traditional industrial organizations “empower” employees and provide “meaningful” relationships in the workplace. It is argued, on the contrary, that these new “designer” cultural practices serve as processes of regulation, discipline, and control of employee subject selves.

Organizational identity: linkages between internal and external communication

Article

Jan 2001

Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge

Article

Apr 1982
ACAD MANAGE REV

COMPRESSIBILITY AND SETTLEMENT OF PEAT LAYERS.

Article

Jan 2002
HARVARD BUS REV

K.V. Helenelund

This paper discusses the factors affecting compressibility of peat, and is based upon a large number of oedometer and field loading tests. Observations, with a time interval of about 15 years, show that the drainage of peat bogs causes a small preconsolidation pressure, after which the tangent modulus attains its minimum value. If the load is increased, the modulus rises linearly or slightly more than linearly, indicating that the stress exponent is equal to zero, or is slightly negative. An increase occurs in the dimensionless modulus number when the dry density is raised and is generally of the order of 4 to 8.

Corporate social performance, corporate financial performance, and firm size: A meta-analysis

Article

Jan 2006

M.L. Wu

Theory of Valuation

Article

Jan 1939

John Dewey

Attribution and language as a sociocognitive environment.

Chapter

Jan 1992

Matching People and Organizations: Selection and Socialization in Public Accounting Firms.

Article

Aug 1989

Jennifer A. Chatman

Understanding and predicting behavior in organizations requires a consideration of person and situation factors, and how these factors interact. This paper develops and longitudinally tests a model of person-organization fit (POF). POF is defined, and antecedents (selection and socialization) and consequences (commitment, performance, and tenure) are examined.

Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness.

Article

Dec 1991
ADMIN SCI QUART

The New Institutionalism In Organizational Analysis

Article

Jan 1992

The New Institutional in Organizational Analysis

Article

Jul 1992
ACAD MANAGE REV

The Role of Value Congruity in Intraorganizational Power

Article

Jun 1988
ADMIN SCI QUART

Cathy Enz

To understand better the differences in power between subunits, this paper examines the relationship between perceived departmental power and the extent to which departments appear to share important organizational values with top management. Critical contingency perspectives on intraorganizational power are used as a catalyst for exploring similarity of organizational values as an additional determinant of power. Interview and survey data from a quick-service restaurant chain and a robotics company are used to provide support for the role of perceived similarity in values for determining power. Perceived value congruity between department members and top managers, examined from the perspectives of both groups, was found to account for unique variance in departmental power when controlling for the effects of critical contingencies. An objective measure of the similarity of values between department members and top managers, however, was unrelated to departmental power.

The Presentation of Self in Every Day Life

Book

Jan 1971

Erving Goffman

Early Processes of Institutionalization: The Dramaturgy of Exchange in Interorganizational Relations

Article

Mar 1986
ADMIN SCI QUART

This paper explores the early life history of an innovative bureau within a state regulatory commission (The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission). Documentary data and participant observation from the Bureau of Consumer Services are used to describe and analyze the bureau's manipulation of symbols in myth building and the development of a ritual "dramaturgy of exchange" through which the bureau assured its growth and survival in its interorganizational environment. The bureau created "products" (information) for use by its friends and supporters to ensure continued resources to aid its acceptance as a legitimate innovation. Relationships with its presumed adversaries in industry were managed through ceremonial exchanges engineered to achieve predictable coalition solutions. This case suggests that certain features such as the development of a dramaturgy of exchange and a system of ritual classification occur early in the process of institutionalization in societal sectors that are technically underdeveloped.

Citizenship and Impression Management: Good Soldiers or Good Actors?

Article

Jan 1999
ACAD MANAGE REV

Mark C. Bolino

Previous research on organizational citizenship behavior suggests that employees who engage in such behavior are "good soldiers," acting selflessly on behalf of their organizations. However, such behaviors also may be impression enhancing and self-serving. In this article I provide a framework showing how impression-management concerns may motivate citizenship behavior and address the consequences of citizenship in this context, as well as the interaction of impression-management motives with motives identified in previous research on citizenship. Finally, I discuss the methodological issues associated with isolating self-serving from other-serving motivation and implications for future theory development.

Organisational Harmony as a Value in Family Businesses and Its Influence on Performance

Article

Jan 2013

The aims of this research were twofold: first, to compare the levels of organisational harmony between family and non-family firms and, second, to study the influence of organisational harmony on family firms’ performance (profitability, longevity and group cohesion). Starting from a definition of organisational harmony as a value and considering the importance of the management of organisational values, we use the main topics indicated by the general literature (organisational climate, trust and participation) to analyse organisational harmony, as well as three other topics for performance (profitability, survival and group cohesion). Results indicate that family firms have higher levels of these three qualities than non-family firms, and that the levels of trust, participation and organisational climate have a positive and significant influence on the performance of family firms. These results can be understood as a consequence of the influence of family social capital on organisational social capital and so on the performance of family businesses. From the perspective of institutionalism, the higher levels of harmony existing in family businesses are a reflection of the pressures that the owning family as an institution exercises on the organisational social capital in its companies.

Understanding Human Values: Individual and Societal

Article

Sep 1980

In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Book

AM J PHYS

Thomas S. Kuhn

Scitation is the online home of leading journals and conference proceedings from AIP Publishing and AIP Member Societies

Voluntarily leaving an organization: an empirical investigation of Steers and Mowday's Model of Turnover

Article

Dec 1987
ACAD MANAGE J

Walking the Talk: A Multistakeholder Exploration of Organizational Authenticity, Employee Productivity, and Post-Merger Performance

Article

Feb 2014
AMP

Does consistency between how a firm treats employees (what it does) and its espoused employee-oriented values (what it says) affect employee productivity? Furthermore, given that the stakeholder theory perspective holds that what happens to one stakeholder influences other stakeholders, does this sort of consistency vis-à-vis a firm’s customers also influence employee productivity? We empirically investigate the influence of organizational authenticity—defined as consistency between a firm’s espoused values and realized practices—in the context of a merger, and specifically during post-merger integration. Our findings show that a lack of organizational authenticity in terms of both under-promising and over-promising to both employees and customers is associated with lower productivity, which in turn is related to long-term merger performance, thus affecting outcomes for shareholders. These findings support the importance of authenticity and should therefore be of interest to executives responsible for ensuring the consistency between what a firm says and what it does, as well as those who participate in and study the merger integration process. In particular, we propose stakeholder theory as a helpful lens for examining the merger integration process as well as other joint actions such as strategic alliances.

In search of a soul of relevance for European management research

Article

Dec 2014
Eur Manag J

Tor Hernes

The argument is made that contemporary management research is driven by misplaced scientific ideals that keep research at a distance from managerial practice. Misplaced scientific ideals are institutionally reinforced, and therefore hard to change. To provide a viable alternative a different ‘soul of relevance’ needs to be constructed, which addresses the localized, embedded, fluid and contingent nature of managerial work. Four tenets are suggested that may tentatively form the basis of such work, which are as follows: practice as constitutive of organization, time as ontology, becoming as essence, and heterogeneity of factors. Narrative patterns that combine these tenets may help constitute a soul of relevance that further energizes European management research.

Job Market Signalling

Article

Jan 1973

Michael Spence

True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership

Article

William W George

The Expression of Espoused Humanizing Values in Organizational Practice: A Conceptual Framework and Case Study

Article

Dec 2013

We provide a conceptual framework and a case study of how an organization links its mission and espoused values with its operating practices. Conceptually, we locate this mission integration theme within Simons’ (1995, Levers of control. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston) management accounting and control framework, and then adapt Schatzki’s (2002, The site of the social. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park) site ontology of social practice to develop general research expectations for case studies of espoused values/practice linkages. Empirically, we apply the conceptual framework to a case study of linkages among an actual company’s espoused values, human resource practices, and financial management during its 40-plus year history. The concluding section summarizes the study and discusses its implications, limitations, and opportunities for future research.

Organizational Isomorphism in East Asia

Chapter

Jan 1991

The Multi-Dimensional and Reconfigurable Organization

Article

Apr 2010
ORGAN DYN

JAY R. GALBRAITH

The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life

Book

Jan 1969
AM SOCIOL REV

Erving E. Goffman

Does Isomorphism Legitimate?

Article

Aug 1995
ACAD MANAGE J

David L. Deephouse

Organizations and Their Institutional Environments - Bringing Meaning, Values, and Culture Back In: Introduction to the Special Research Forum

Article

May 2010
ACAD MANAGE J

This special issue had it roots in a symposium organized by Tammar Zilber and Roy Suddaby for the Academy of Management 2003 annual meetings in Seattle. The symposium was titled "Reclaiming the Symbolic in Institutional Theory" and represented an effort to refocus research attention on the phenomenological aspects of institutions. At the time, we were aware of a growing interest in understanding institutions as, largely, cognitive-cultural constructions, or what Meyer, Boli, Thomas, and Ramirez termed "phenomenological macro-institutionalism" (1997:146). Institutions, in this view, involve collectively shared scripts, frames, and taken-for-granted assumptions (Boli & Thomas, 1999), and actors (individuals, organizations, or states) attain their agency substantially as a result of their embeddedness in culture (Meyer & Jepperson, 2000). Modern organizations themselves thus reflect the intensive cultural rationalization of the contemporary world in their constitutive structures.

“Come, Join Our Family”: Discipline and Integration in Corporate Organizational Culture

Article

Feb 1999

Catherine Casey

This article critically examines primaryprocesses and effects of the so-called neworganizational culture that is organized on theprinciples and practices of Total Quality Management(and its variations) and increasingly practiced incorporate organizations in the 1990s. The paperspecifically analyzes the effects of the organizationalcultural practices of family and"team" on the employee and discusses their role incorporate discipline, integration, and control. Data aredrawn from field research conducted in a largemultinational corporation and the analyses andinterpretive propositions are informed by a critical socialpsychoanalytic perspective. The paper disputes theconventional view that the practices of the "newculture" and its purported reform of thehierarchical, specialized, conflict-ridden workplaces oftraditional industrial organizationsempower employees and providemeaningful relationships in the workplace.It is argued, on the contrary, that these new designer culturalpractices serve as processes of regulation, discipline,and control of employee subject selves.

Having, Giving, and Getting: Slack Resources, Corporate Philanthropy, and Firm Financial Performance

Article

Jun 2004
Bus Soc

This study investigates financial correlates of corporate philanthropy in Fortune 1000 companies using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that cash flow (one of the most discretionary types of organizational slack) has a significant impact on a firm’s cash donations to charitable causes, but monetary donations do not affect firm financial performance. These findings support the accepted view of corporate philanthropy as a discretionary social responsibility and the traditional thinking about firm giving in the business and society literature—that doing well enables doing good. Contrary to some contemporary thinking, the findings imply no significant effect on profits from corporate generosity.

Signaling Positive Corporate Social PerformanceAn Event Study of Family-Friendly Firms

Article

Mar 2001
Bus Soc

A firm’s social performance can shape the impressions of key stakeholders, such as employees, customers, suppliers, and investors, that influence subsequent decision making and relationships to the firm. To test this notion, we examine how a firm’s public recognition for exemplary social performance can serve as a positive signal of the firm’s business performance to shareholders. We conduct an event study of firms named to Working Mothermagazine’s list of “Most Family- Friendly Companies” for the first time between 1989 and 1994. We find statistically significant, positive, abnormal returns for such firms, in particular for firms whose shares are traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications

Article

Jan 1995
ACAD MANAGE REV

The stakeholder theory has been advanced and justified in the man- agement literature on the basis of its descriptive accuracy, instrumen- tal power, and normative validity. These three aspects of the theory, although interrelated, are quite distinct; they involve different types of evidence and argument and have different implications. In this article, we examine these three aspects of the theory and critique and integrate important contributions to the literature related to each. We conclude that the three aspects of stakeholder theory are mutually supportive and that the normative base of the theory-which includes the modern theory of property rights-is fundamental. If the unity of the corporate body is real, then there is reality and not simply legal fiction in the proposition that the man- agers of the unit are fiduciaries for it and not merely for its individual members, that they are . . . trustees for an institu- tion (with multiple constituents) rather than attorneys for the stockholders.

From Issues to Actions: The Importance of Individual Concerns and Organizational Values in Responding to Natural Environmental Issues

Article

Oct 2003

Tima Bansal

In this research, we traced the development of natural environmental issues in two organizations in real time over the period of a year. Participant observations, discussions with organizational members, and corporate documents yielded insights used to develop a model describing issue flows in both organizations. With this model, we identified the factors that influenced the scope, scale, and speed of organizational response to issues. Our methods provided insights into why issues generated organizational responses and also why they did not. Two factors appeared to be critical in explaining organizational responses to issues: individual concerns and organizational values. Individual concerns gave rise to an issue champion or seller. An issue consistent with organizational values was perceived as strategic. These were necessary conditions; without either condition, the issue would not be resolved. It is argued further that individual discretion and excess resource slack will moderate the relationship between these direct effects and the scope, scale, and speed of organizational response. The framework that emerged from the data is conveyed through a set of four propositions.

The Analysis of Company Documentation

Article

Jan 1994

Nick Forster

An Exploration of Industry, Culture and Revenue Growth

Article

May 1999
ORGAN STUD

This study is an exploration of industry moderated relationships between organizational culture, as manifested in practices, and revenue-growth among seventy-seven firms in six industry types. Beginning with the premise that organizational practices are shaped by organizational culture and industry demands, it is proposed that the culture-performance link is industry contingent. The results corroborate the existence of cultural practices that are industry or ‘industry type’ specific, and that variations in revenue growth within industry types are associated with practices different than those that characterize the industry-type culture. The implications for both culture research and organizational management are discussed.

The Role of Culture as Driver of Quality Management and Performance: Infrastructure Versus Core Quality Practices

Article

Nov 2008

ABSTRACT Increasingly, scholars and practitioners recognize the importance of understanding organizational culture when implementing operations management practices. This study investigates the relationships among organizational culture, infrastructure and core quality management practices, and manufacturing performance using two alternative models. Understanding these relationships is important because culture can provide insight into the context dependence of quality management practices and shed light on the mixed results of past studies concerning the link between quality management and performance. Analysis of manufacturing plants from six countries indicates that organizational culture has a stronger influence on infrastructure quality management practices than on core quality management practices, regardless of whether the plants are located in Eastern or Western countries. In addition, infrastructure quality management practices have a significant effect on manufacturing performance. These results contribute to the quality management literature by emphasizing the importance of accounting for culture when making decisions to implement quality management practices to achieve a performance advantage. Finally, we also contribute to the literature on the culture–performance linkage by finding support for a direct link between culture and manufacturing performance.

Evaluating espoused values: Does articulating values pay off?

Abstract

No full-text available

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