In 1985, the researcher took up employment in what he regarded as a senior management position as Assistant General Secretary (Administration) of NALGO, the public service union. The objective was to gain management experience alongside continuing management education. Whilst there were others seeking to manage to the best of their ability, the idea was not universally accepted. However, the union, by the end of the decade, had embarked on management development courses for senior managers and by the time it merged and became part of UNISON, managerial activities were visible in many areas. It was not, however, clear the extent to which – if at all – such phenomena were observable in other trade unions. The literature did not help in this respect. Research to establish whether trade union managers existed and, if so, what their roles were appeared to offer the prospect of examining a new area of trade union life. This research is based on interviews with 56 senior trade union staff in four trade unions formed by merger – CWU, PCS, UNiFI and UNISON. Only one of those individuals professed not to accept a managerial role and that person accepted that he had a responsibility to ensure that the union was managed. Original findings include the following:- • There is a category of employee in trade unions known as a ‘trade union manager’, a role not previously identified by empirical research and discussed in the literature. • Trade union management develops depending on the level of institutional support. In the case study unions, there were links between this and the stage of merger that the unions had reached. Prior to institutional acceptance, there are managers who do their best to manage, operating in something of a cocoon. • Trade union managers espouse trade union principles which include the notion of fairness, imputing a concern for the way people are treated, including the staff for whom they are responsible. • Management remains in many ways a problematic concept in trade unions, leading often to its undervaluation. Trade union managers may perceive that it involves the exercise of power of the powerless, judgment on the weak. Trade union managers may as a result be ambivalent at being judgmental and, consequently, at managing conduct or performance. • Trade union managers manage stakeholders in polyarchal organisations but boundaries with lay activists are unclear; they engage in contests to define those boundaries and to manage what they regard as their own responsibilities. • Boundaries may include those relating to conflictual relations, constitutional boundaries, moveable boundaries, staff boundaries and policy/political boundaries.

This thesis has examined how expatriate managers in Russia create and use social networks with other individuals, in order to be successful in their assignment on an international unit. The study has also focused on how corporations can benefit from these networking activities conducted by the expatriates. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with expatriate managers on location in Russia in order to answer the research question. The interviews have later been analyzed by using a theoretical framework mainly based on the social capital theory and the main findings are as follows. Expatriate managers in Russia create networks with other individuals in order to both receive new business opportunities but also for adjusting to life in Russia. Corporations themselves do also benefit from these social networks, since they can create foundations for new business opportunities and increase corporations general image. The limitations of this study are that only Swedish expatriates have been included in the presented empirical material.

For the past decade or two, the industrial structure in Taiwan have been changed from production oriented to service type causing some industries to relocate abroad or to close their business. In the 90¡¦s, the structure of companies changed in the direction of flat organization in order to survive in the highly competitive market. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main functions of the middle managers in the flat organizations. Due to limited number of papers in discussing of the middle managers, the questionnaire is structured from the information of papers related in the area of the duties, abilities and strategic role of the middle managers. By applying structural questionnaire through qualitative research interview, came out the quotation script. Then, using narative inquiry concludes that middle managers should hold the following five main functions: 1. Function of communication 2. Function of problem solving 3. Function of implementation 4. Function of synthesis 5. Function of assisting development

For the past decade or two, the industrial structure in Taiwan have been changed from production oriented to service type causing some industries to relocate abroad or to close their business. In the 90¡¦s, the structure of companies changed in the direction of flat organization in order to survive in the highly competitive market. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main functions of the middle managers in the flat organizations. Due to limited number of papers in discussing of the middle managers, the questionnaire is structured from the information of papers related in the area of the duties, abilities and strategic role of the middle managers. By applying structural questionnaire through qualitative research interview, came out the quotation script. Then, using narative inquiry concludes that middle managers should hold the following five main functions: 1. Function of communication 2. Function of problem solving 3. Function of implementation 4. Function of synthesis 5. Function of assisting development

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (Psy.D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Organizational Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-94).

Hotels are an essential and critical component of Thailand's tourist industry and one of the major contributors to Thai tourism revenue. However, the industry is considered to be in an infant stage. Since a general manager is considered to be the key person who directs the business in the hotel in every situation, this research aims to investigate the emphasis of time spent on various work activities of hotel general managers (i. e. marketing, human resource, training, etc.). In order to identify the significance of the general manager's roles, the research was conducted as an empirical investigation focusing on the leading Thai luxury hotels which were of international standard. The research defines the emphasis of the amount of time spent on the various work activities by investigating how managers perceive their work roles and how they actually spend their time. The core study of this research derived from Mintzberg's study of managerial work (1973), an observational study of five top executives in the United States and Ley's study of the managerial activities of seven managers in a major US hotel chain (1978). The methodology in this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. According to an appropriateness of access to data, there were three methods utilised which comprised a questionnaire, an interview and a period of observation. These three methods were used in sequence. The questionnaire was used to study biographical data and perceptions of Mintzberg's managerial work roles. The interview, which was semi-structured, was used to provide the interviewer with additional questions to make sure the desired information has been obtained, while the observation aimed to study the work roles which emerged from general managers' work behaviour and to provide the insights of general managers' behaviour into specific work roles from recording and classification. It is intended that the results of the research will enhance the understanding of different approaches to managerial roles and time usage thereof. With this understanding, there will be an increase in the number of qualified Thai general managers employed in international hotels and a responsibility for development of Thai general managers. In addition, individual general managers themselves, may be able thereby to increase the effective use of their time.

Multiple roles of worker and caregiver are a current reality for American men and women. In response to the need to employ more women and reduce work/family conflict, many companies have adopted work/family initiatives such as flextime and telecommuting. Despite the benefits associated with the use of work/family programs, many companies are hesitant to encourage employees’ use of such initiatives. This study focused on private sector managers’ views of work/family programs and addressed how much they encourage the use of and provide information to employees about flextime and telecommuting. Using a snowball sampling method, 63 managers from private sector companies offering flextime and/or telecommuting participated in an on-line study. These participants answered questionnaires and gave open-ended responses regarding attitudes toward women, men, work, and family, and employees’ usage of work/family programs. The results of the quantitative portion of this study showed a significant correlation between managers’ and employees’ use of flextime or telecommuting policies. Women under the age of 50 (younger) were less likely than their over 50 (older) female, over 50 (older) male, and under 50 (younger) male counterparts to have employees who use flextime or telecommuting programs. Results also showed that women over 50 were more likely to have employees who use flextime or telecommute when compared with men both over and under 50 and women under 50. Measures utilized in these findings were single-item scales developed by the author. Findings from the qualitative portion of this study showed that much of how managers view work/family programs depends on how responsible they believe their employees to be. Further research is necessary to operationalize managers’ view of responsible employees and to understand if this is code for workers who put the job before all else. This study examined private sector managers with a sample comprised of primarily young (Median age for men and women of 37 years), White Americans working as managers in the private sector and therefore caution should be taken when generalizing findings. It is hoped that these findings may be an entry point for interventions aimed at increasing the use and encouragement of work/family policies. / text

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the supervisor's sex and leadership style on male subjects' cooperative behavioral responses and leader behavior descriptions. The study was designed to determine if male and female supervisors, demonstrating either high structure/high consideration or high structure/low consideration leadership styles, were evaluated equivalently by male subordinates. Power was investigated as an intervening variable.The subjects were 64 staff, technical, and master sergeants attending the United States Air Forces in Europe Noncommissioned Officers Academy. The volunteers were randomly assigned to experimental conditions and testing times, respectively.Four trained male and female experimenters portrayed the role of supervisor in the completion of two experimental tasks. Each supervisor portrayed both leadership styles. The first task required subjects to identify eight color-coded resistors and position them on a small electrical circuit board. The second task was introduced as a decision-making problem within time constraints. This task was actually the Prisoner's Dilemma game and provided a measure of subjects' cooperative behavioral responses toward the supervisor. Additional outcome measures were provided by use of a modified Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire--Form XII (LBDQ). This instrument produced two subscale scores--one representing subjects' assessments of their supervisor's consideration behavior and another assessing the supervisor's initiation of structure behavior.Multivariate analysis was used to test the main effects and interaction hypotheses, with significance set at the .05 level. The first hypothesis, which stated there would be no significant difference in subjects' responses due to the task supervisor's sex, was accepted. Responses of subjects on the Prisoner's Dilemma game and the LBDQ reflected no difference due to the supervisor's sex.The second hypothesis, which stated there would be no significant difference in subjects' responses due to the task supervisor's leadership style, was rejected. Further univariate analyses found that the LBDQ consideration score contributed to the significant difference. Thus, the two treatment groups experiencing high consideration together with high structure, regardless of supervisor sex, subsequently rated the supervisor significantly higher on the LBDQ consideration subscale than did the two groups experiencing low consideration and high structure.The third hypothesis, which stated there would be no interaction between leadership style and the sex of the supervisor in subjects' responses, was also accepted.Finally, statistical analyses showed there was no difference in subjects' mean scores on the three outcome measures as a result of prior supervision by a woman in their Air Force careers or lack of such exposure to women in leadership roles. Data also showed the LBDQ to be a more valid measure of subjects' responses than the Prisoner's Dilemma game.Results indicated that male and female supervisors were rated equivalently when demonstrating two distinct leadership styles. Subjects experiencing the high structure/high consideration style rated their supervisors similarly, as did subjects in the high structure/low consideration style. In other words, the considerate style was not rated more favorably for females and the structured style more favorably for males as has often occurred in past research. This finding was particularly important given the traditional, military environment in which the study was conducted and the masculine nature of the task. The study lent support to the idea that both women and men can introduce characteristics into their leadership styles which are contrary to expected, stereotyped behavior. Women are able to incorporate structure or task-orientation without negative perceptions by male subordinates, and men are similarly able to introduce consideration or people-orientation without negative evaluations. The results are positive in terms of the advancement of both sexes, particularly women, in the management field.