Knowledge that Transforms

Previous studies have not adequately addressed the role of cognitive biases in strategic decision processes. In this article we suggest that cognitive biases are systematically associated with strategic decision processes. Different decision processes tend to accentuate particular types of cognitive bias. We develop an integrative framework to explore the presence of four basic types of cognitive bias under five different modes of decision making. The cognitive biases include prior hypotheses and focusing on limited targets, exposure to limited alternatives, insensitivity to outcome probabilities and illusion of manageability. The five modes of strategic decision making are rational, avoidance, logical incrementalist, political and garbage can. We suggest a number of key propositions to facilitate empirical testing of the various contingent relationships implicit in the framework. Lastly, we discuss the implications of this framework for research and managerial practice.

This paper studies a number of research topics derived from the basic question: do interfirm alliances change into mergers and acquisitions as companies that were previously co‐operating become integrated? The analysis is limited to the group of strategic technology alliances, i.e. those interfirm agreements for which joint technology development or technology sharing is part of the agreement.The paper first explores the literature that refers to the possible transition from strategic technology alliances to mergers and acquisitions. Based on this we formulate a number of hypotheses regarding the change in modes of governance and several dimensions of this process related to the international distribution of transformed alliances, their industry specificity, the size of firms, and the distribution of contractual and equity agreements. The major finding of our research is that the transformation from strategic technology alliance to merger and acquisition hardly ever takes place. This suggests that alliances and mergers and acquisitions are not part of a rather smooth continuum but they are first of all different modes of governance where one mode certainly does not lead to the other

This study proposes and tests a model that applies the concept of restorative justice to the enactment of revenge and forgiveness in organizations. The model draws from theories of cognitive attribution and consistency, as well as more recent theories of revenge in organizations, to describe the process by which a personal offense triggers revenge and forgiveness cognitions and behavior. Attributions of blame were predicted to directly influence the contemplation of revenge and forgiveness strategies. In turn, these cognitions were hypothesized to be the immediate precursors of behavior. It was also predicted that the likableness of the offender would be positively associated with both revenge and forgiveness cognitions. Finally, blame attribution was expected to be influenced by offense severity. To test these predictions, a survey was administered to one hundred and eighty employees of a government agency. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the significance of the pathways in the model and compare its fit to theoretically plausible rivals. Although the theoretical model fit the data well, a less constrained alternative showed a superior fit. In both the theoretical model and less constrained alternative, all but two of the predicted pathways in the model were upheld. The implications of the findings for organizations are discussed and future research directions are offered.

Health and well-being in the workplace have become common topics in the mainstream media, in practitioner-oriented magazines and journals and, increasingly, in scholarly research journals. In this article, we first review the literature that serves to define health and well-being. We then discuss the primary factors associated with health and well-being, the consequences of low levels of health and well-being, and common methods for improving health and well-being in the workplace. Finally, we highlight important future directions for future theory, research, and practice regarding health and well-being from an organizational perspective.

Many cross-cultural researchers are concerned with factorial invariance; that is, with whether or not members of different cultures associate survey items, or similar measures, with similar constructs. Researchers usually test items for factorial invariance using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). CFA, however, poses certain problems that must be dealt with. Primary among them is standardization, the process that assigns units of measurement to the constructs (latent variables). Two standardization procedures and several minor variants have been reported in the literature, but using these procedures when testing for factorial invariance can lead to inaccurate results. In this paper we review basic theory, and propose an extension of Byrne, Shavelson, and Muthgn’s (1989) procedure for identifying non-invariant items. The extended procedure solves the standardization problem by performing a systematic comparison of all pairs of factor loadings across groups. A numerical example based upon a large published data set is presented to illustrate the utility of the new procedure, particularly with regard to partial factorial invariance.

This review selectively examines the theoretical and empirical organizational change literature over the past nine years (1990–early 1998). Four research themes or issues common to all change efforts are discussed: (a) content issues, which largely focus on the substance of contemporary organizational changes; (b) contextual issues, which principally focus on forces or conditions existing in an organization’s external and internal environments; (c) process issues, which address actions undertaken during the enactment of an intended change, and (d) criterion issues, which deal with outcomes commonly assessed in organizational change efforts. Research dealing with monitoring affective and behavioral reactions to change is also reviewed. In closing, general observations and suggestions for future research are offered and it is concluded that the organizational change literature continues to be responsive to the dynamics of contemporary workplace demands.

We review research on organizations to highlight prevailing and emerging conceptions for embeddedness. An integrated framework that considers the sources, mechanisms, outcomes, and strategic implications of embeddedness is presented. Also, promising research directions for embeddedness approaches, including cross-level issues (such as collective cognition and nesting), as well as issues related to temporality, networks, and methodology are identified.