Suchergebnisse

Determining factors in plant closings; uses new data on factory closings recorded from 1977-79.

Brings together the different strands of the divestment literature
– industrial organization, finance, and corporate strategy –
which have been developing over the last 20 years. Points to be
increased resort to divestment by corporate managers and suggests that
this adaptive activity should now be accepted as a normal phase of
company development. However, such acceptance is made difficult by
factors which fall within the domain of managerial psychology. Provides
an overview which should be useful to practitioners confronting
divestment decisions and to academics embarking on new research in the
area.

PurposeTo explore the relationship between managers' cognitive maps and their performance as managers at the same level in the same organisation.Design/methodology/approach – Field study involving 30 branch managers in a financial services organisation operating in New Zealand. A nomthetic approach was used to develop their cognitive maps. Features of these maps were then related to business‐unit performance.Findings – The managers who were higher performing have maps that were considerably simpler, using fewer concepts and fewer linkages.Research limitations/implications/future research – While limited to one organisation and to one level of management, there is evidence that cognition is related to managers' performance. Future research should explore how cognitive structures differ between managerial levels, and how these are related to appropriate measures of performance.Originality/value – One of few studies that have sought to map managers' cognition and organisation performance.

AbstractThe scope and pace of economic liberalization in New Zealand have been judged by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as the most extensive of any undertaken in a developed economy during the past decade. This paper reports on a project aimed at determining how and at what rate New Zealand businesses have adapted to this major deregulation of their commercial environment. We first describe the nature of reform in New Zealand, and then we develop a qualitative model of the adjustment processes set in motion by deregulation. The process of strategic adaptation is represented as a continuum comprising four stages: stability, survival, sharpbending and sustained adaptation. This model is embellished with evidence on actual changes that have been observed in New Zealand business since deregulation. We conclude that, after 8 years of substantial economic reform, the majority of businesses have not fully adapted to the new environment.