We investigated patterns of power within top management teams (TMTs) by addressing three research questions: What is the shape of TMT power distribution? Is TMT power distribution associated with firm performance? If so, are there distinguishing TMT characteristics between high and low performers? We evaluate these questions using survey data from top managers in 51 hospitals who identified power relationships among their team members. We find that while the CEO is almost always the most powerful TMT member, no teams in our sample have simply a dominant CEO surrounded by powerless team members. We find that the power inequality within a team is positively associated with firm performance. A TMT is more likely to be associated with strong performance when an executive pair garnered most of the power, and when that pair incorporated different world views, as indicated by differences in functional background and industry experience.

<p>The purpose of this thesis was to open up the black boxed TMT process by examining the interaction between TMT members using cognitive and demographic diversity variables, and to see how organisational performance could be affected by the process. By opening the process, a model of the process was developed, which can be tested in further research. The major findings are that there are some aspects that stand out; the CEO and the functional responsibilities that influence the process. Further, the integration within the TMT is not that high, so the upper echelon theory should not be used without considerations on studies where composition is related to organisational performance. These have shown to influence performance in different ways. The functional responsibility has shown to create subgroups that practice problem solving and decision making more frequent than the TMT hence also communicate more.</p>

Corporations nowadays are in a highly accelerated stage, facing an ever-changing environment. It is no longer accomplishable by a one-man team to survive and prosper in such competitive environment. Hambrick & Mason¡¦s upper echelons theory points out that the top management team (TMT) is an organization¡¦s main decision maker, not individuals. The follow-up researches mostly focus on the relationship between TMT and organizational performance, but lack info on the construction of a TMT and its associated operations. It is therefore this research directs its focus towards how, when today¡¦s corporations start to adopt the TMT theory into their strategy, the number of team members, the selection process, member criteria, and the roles and responsibilities, are decided, and what elements will affect the conflicting communication and decision making process. This research is composed by case studies, and the following is a qualitative analysis conclusion of interviews with six corporations and seven senior managers: 1. There is a close-bonding relationship between the construction of TMT and corporation structure, managerial cognition, and corporation size. Mid-level and small corporations usually base their TMT selection on subjective decisions of the owners, while large corporations base TMT selections on protocols, through set channels such as recruitment or promotion. 2. TMT operation is related to corporation structure and owner¡¦s control. The role of TMT on major decision making depends on the owner¡¦s degree of empowerment. Communication between team members tend to be face-to-face communication, and senior management usually see positive conflicts to be of beneficiary value to the organization, while negative conflicts would be controlled under rules and protocols. It is therefore positive conflicts are not avoided, and actually encouraged, to increase innovation in the organization.

The purpose of this thesis was to open up the black boxed TMT process by examining the interaction between TMT members using cognitive and demographic diversity variables, and to see how organisational performance could be affected by the process. By opening the process, a model of the process was developed, which can be tested in further research. The major findings are that there are some aspects that stand out; the CEO and the functional responsibilities that influence the process. Further, the integration within the TMT is not that high, so the upper echelon theory should not be used without considerations on studies where composition is related to organisational performance. These have shown to influence performance in different ways. The functional responsibility has shown to create subgroups that practice problem solving and decision making more frequent than the TMT hence also communicate more.

Although many businesses invest on e-commerce, some managers still have a mystery which setting up e-commerce website is almost the same as e-commerce. However, they do not spent extra time, money, and labors. The mistake is doomed to failure on e-commerce. The businesses operate e-commerce and a series of operational activities include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and services must be implemented. The operational activities must be linked together tightly and implement carefully. By value chain, the study measures the implementation of e-commerce companies whether integrates every series of operational activities to enhance the value of products and create competitive advantage. Many studies discuss about how top managers should play a key role as business enterprises import a new information system, but few of them focus on top management support. The attitude and support of top manager will result in the success or failure. The study also found that manager¡¦s attitude and internet industry are the important factors of profit, and these will affect the top management support. If the business enterprises spent sufficient resources and effort in e-business processes and top managers support in action, we believe that staffs will try their best to achieve organizational goals

Despite an abundance of executive turnover research in the context of large public firms, little has focused on top executive change in entrepreneurial settings. This study attempts to develop a foundation of theory and evidence on management team restructuring and executive exit in new venture firms, especially for ventures which eventually go public. Taking a political perspective, the study develops and empirically tests a power model of management team restructuring and executive exit in the pre- and post-IPO periods. A central thesis of this study is that the relative power of the executive cadre shifts as an entrepreneurial firm converts from a private venture to a public company, due to the drastic change in firm political coalition structure and the skill requirements for executives. The change of power distribution among the top executives affects the likelihood of management team restructuring and executive exit. Both firm level and individual level factors were examined. The study also investigates the performance implications of pre-IPO management team restructuring and post-IPO executive exit. Empirical results support the major propositions of the power model. VC prestige was found to have a positive impact on management team restructuring and new executive entry before the IPO. Technical skills are negatively associated with pre-IPO executive exit but positively associated with post-IPO executive exit. The addition of new senior executives in the post-IPO period increases the likelihood of executive exit. In addition, when firm performance is low, adding new outside directors tends to increase the probability of executive exit in the post-IPO stage. The study found that firms that had restructured management teams before the IPO tend to have lower likelihood of executive exit in the post-IPO period. In the post-IPO stage, executives with prior public company managerial experience have a significantly lower likelihood of exit than non-managerial executives. Further, the study found that pre-IPO management team restructuring improves the firm??s pre-money market valuation at the IPO. The exits of managerial executives in the post-IPO period have negative effects on subsequent average ROA. The exits of financial executives negatively affect average shareholder return in the years following the exit events.

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Problem – Lean is a concept used by organizations to become more efficient, thus more competitive. However, it has been documented that only a small portion of all implementations actually succeeds. Research has suggested critical success factors and pointed out top management commitment as being vital for a successful implementation. It is therefore confirmed that without top managers’ involvement, the venture cannot succeed. However, despite existing research on how to succeed, top managers are still lacking commitment which has caused many implementations to fail. Purpose – This study aims to use the side-bet theory of Becker (1960) to explore the phenomena to why top managers’ commitment is vacillating during the implementation of Lean. The research question is; Why is top managers’ commitment not consistent to Lean implementation when regarding their side-bets? Methodology – Data collecting has been qualitative where semi structured interviews have been executed with five top managers of different organizations. Some have succeeded to implement Lean and some have not. The side-bet theory has been used to create a framework for where the empirical data is constrained to. Conclusions – Before and during the implementation, top managers are only committed to a successful implementation if they find themselves having enough penalties associated with a failed implementation. Only when they realize that there exists side-bets and penalties of enough magnitude, their commitment will be consistent and the implementation successful. The side-bets which have shown to be decisive to determine a consistent or deviating commitment are the ones belonging to ‘Generalized cultural expectations’ and ‘Impersonal bureaucratic arrangements’. The penalties associated with these side-bets have been of socially form than economically. Furthermore, these side-bets and penalties have shown to arise when top managers and their organization have made it clear that the Lean venture is of highest priority and any sidestep from it is considered as wrong. Implications – This study has contributed with an understanding of why top manager’s commitment is consistent or deviating during the Lean implementation. Research so far has suggested how top managers’ commitment is deviating and consistent. This study provides the explanation of why. By exploring the answer to why top managers lack commitment, the possibility of ensuring consistent commitment is raised. Referring to Becker (1960) people operates only when they understand why and find value in a certain kind of activity.  Delimitations – The study is only focused on the dimension of continuance commitment. There is a possibility to study other dimensions of commitment in this field of research (i.e. affective and normative commitment).  The findings are based on Swedish top managers, thus using the findings outside Sweden should be proceeded with caution since culture has effect on commitment.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and understand the role played by top management towards aligning an organization’s culture to achieve effective internal controls, particularly for organizations operating in emerging economies prone to corruption. Methodology – The study applies both the empirical research approach and the theoretical research approach to examine and understand the major concepts of organisational culture, effectiveness of internal controls and the role played by top management to align the organisation’s culture to achieve effective internal controls. The empirical approach employs qualitative methods to collect data and the research findings are analysed using the deductive approach. A case study of URA is used to collect primary data through the use of a questionnaire.  Findings – The study considers the role of top management in the context of the organization’s culture orientation and based on a hierarchical organizational culture background illustrated by the case study, the study concludes that managers in such an organizational culture orientation, play an influential role towards aligning an organization’s culture to achieve the desired “internal control” objective. Research limitations – There was limited time within which to conduct the research which limited the sample size for data collection. It was a huge gamble to determine the effectiveness of internal controls based on an organisation operating in an emerging corrupt economy since there is a chance that internal controls in such organisations are superficial in nature and may not be implemented in practice. Little research has been done on the concepts of organisational culture and effectiveness of internal control systems in emerging economies which limited extensive review of relevant research literature on the research problem. Research contribution – The research contributes additional literature on organizational culture in emerging economies since very little has been done in this area. The research provides practical recommendations on how top management can positively influence an organizational culture to aid the achievement of successful internal controls particularly for organizations operating in East Africa.