Articles

Fourth generation information technology opens up business opportunities that call for line management leadership in system conception and implementation. The role of information systems (IS) managers, too, must grow as a result of changing technology. This paper examines the reasons for and implications of these important role changes.

This paper offers ten commonsense principles that will help project managers define goals, establish checkpoints, schedules, and resource requirements, motivate and empower team members, facilitate communication, and manage conflict.

The author is one of a group of Japanese management scholars developing a frame of reference strikingly different from that of American scholars writing about business administration. Here Professor Nonaka introduces the concept of compressive management, which recognizes a key role for middle managers in information development. "The essential logic of compressive management is that top management creates a vision or dream, and middle management creates and implements concrete concepts to solve and transcend the contradictions arising from gaps between what exists at the moment and what management hopes to create." The development of the Honda "City" is used to illustrate "middle-up-down" management. In their wish to develop an entirely new car, Honda's top managers gave a group of young designers that task -- with virtually no direction. The designers first attempted to modify an existing model but were eventually forced into questioning and transcending universal assumptions about automobile design.

The authors have argued that limited organizational capability is the most critical constraint facing the international companies that attempt to respond to new strategic demands ("Managing Across Borders: New Strategic Requirements," SMR, Summer 1987, Reprint 2841). Here, they describe how companies have overcome this constraint by building a "transnational" organization able to cope with the increasing complexity of the international environment.

International businesses faced new strategic challenges in the 1980s. Corporations that had once succeeded with relatively one-dimensional strategies -- efficiency, responsiveness, or ability to exploit learning -- were forced to broaden their outlook. Successful "transnational" corporations integrated all three of those characteristics. They did so by building on the strengths -- but accepting the limitations -- of their administrative heritages. This is the first of two articles; the second will describe how actual companies made that transition.

Some acquisitions work; some don't. Even as the merger wave continues unabated, managers and commentators disagree about its value -- both to shareholders and to the long-term health of the acquiring firms. These authors explore several myths that now dominate the debate over what makes for a successful acquisition. They argue that the acquisition process itself is a critical factor in the deal's ultimate fate.

The role of leadership is a favorite theme among students of management, but most studies focus too narrowly on the individual "hero-leader," according to these authors. They argue that leadership typically does not rest with a single individual, but is both pluralistic and fluid. This pluralism is in part a function of two very different leadership structures: the formal management hierarchy, and the informal networks that cross and operate within hierarchical lines. The intelligent manager understands that these two structures are complementary. The most successful decision making -- and the most effective leadership -- occurs when they are encourage to coexist.

Given the competitive spirit of the service sector, the time has come for service businesses to recognize that they are really a part of a larger whole, and not merely unique, entrepreneurial entities unto themselves. In fact, the author of this article warns that of service businesses remain isolated from one another, their mortality rate will continue to rise. Through the use of a service matrix, the author shows how service businesses can broaden their professional relationships with other services that have similar operations and managerial challenges, and in so doing, gain the economic foothold needed to survive and prosper.

In an effort to discover the principles of "good management" of the professional service sector, this author examines the inner workings of a few outstanding companies whose philosophy and management orientation make them what they are today -- successful, profitable, and, above all, well-managed. In the course of identifying the many organizational characteristics common to these firms, he also discovers that these firms share a common management approach, which he labels the "one-firm firm" system. The critical elements of this approach are management's emphasis on loyalty to the firm and group cooperation. By exploring how these elements interact to form a successful management system, the author proposes a model of professional firm success that he believes can be adopted by a variety of professions.

As politics and business are becoming increasingly intertwined, many companies today conclude that a politically sensitive management is essential in furthering a company's political welfare. Consequently, a number of firms are initiating a range of programs to develop the political management skills of their managers. The goal is not to encourage managers to run for public office or to enter political life as individuals; rather, it is to make them better able to understand and communicate the company's political position as part of their regular management functions. The author holds that in time companies will stress the public affairs role of their managers to such an extent that a manager's public service performance will become a significant criterion for his or her advancement in the firm. Thus, he concludes that the time has come to cultivate a new breed -- the politically active manager.