Academic literature on the topic 'TOP ECHELON STAFF'

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of top management team diversity on academic excellence in universities. Academic excellence is conceptualized as successfully gaining funds for inter-organizational research collaborations, interdisciplinary graduate schools and high-ranked scientific reputation. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies upper echelon theory to universities. Three hypotheses are developed: (overall) top management team heterogeneity is positively associated with successful funding of excellence clusters, (overall) top management team heterogeneity is positively associated with successful funding of graduate schools and (overall) top management team heterogeneity is positively associated with academic reputation. The empirical study is based on a cross-sectional dataset with a time lag, covering characteristics of 75 German public universities from 2008 to 2013. Multiple-regression analysis is applied to test the hypotheses. Findings – Our results indicate that disciplinary and educational diversity of upper echelons has a positive effect on the outcomes. Other top management team characteristics (age, gender, etc.) show no significant effects. Besides top management team composition, we find that a high number of faculties and a broad inclusion of internal status groups (students, tenured faculty, academic and administrative staff) and external stakeholders in decision making processes may enhance academic excellence of universities. Research limitations/implications – First, the study contributes to the body of literature concerned with higher education. It is situated at the crossroads of management studies and higher education research, unlocking strategic management theorizing for the public context. Furthermore, the study contributes to the body of literature on strategic leadership in pluralistic organizations. It highlights the importance of heterogeneous governance structures and modular organization designs for achieving academic excellence. Practical implications – The paper may inform practitioners in administrative or leading positions and policy-makers concerned with higher education. The more diverse a top management team is in terms of multiple disciplinary backgrounds, the more likely they succeed in driving the university toward academic excellence. Originality/value – The study is among the first to evaluate the influence of top management teams in universities with a quantitative research design.

This study examined the association of information systems and organizational performance behavior. The population of the study was 156 top echelon members of the selected organizations; whereas the sample size was 112 as determined using the Taro Yemen’s formula. Questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Data were presented using descriptive statistics and hypotheses were tested with the Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient and results showed that there is a significant association of three dimensions of information systems with the measures of organizational performance. The study concluded that adoption of information systems in the fast food outlets is capable of bringing about better performance because it allows the organizations to:(1) have hands- on information on virtually every bit of its operations, (2) promotes prudent and transparent resource application and (3) makes organizations to speedily and flexibly respond to service requests. The study recommended that: (1) Organizations should ensure that reasonable attention is accorded the application of information systems in the running of its operations by giving it a priority attention during resource allocations. (2) Staff should be periodically trained on the use of information systems’ supporting technologies so that everyone in the organization can use the systems effectively, and (3) Good systems development experts should be consulted periodically to analyze and design new systems or update existing ones to match with organizations’ current realities.

Purpose This study aims to draw upon research from strategic human resource management (HRM) and strategic management to examine how HRM demands influence the likelihood that chief executive officers (CEOs) will staff top management with a human resource (HR) executive. Design/methodology/approach The theory and hypotheses developed in this study are tested on a sample of US initial public offering firms from the calendar year 2007, using logistic regression. Findings The results of hypothesis tests suggest that HR executive presence in top management is positively related to the HRM demands faced by a CEO stemming from product/service innovation strategies, the number of HRs employed by the firm and CEO’s financial orientation. Research limitations/implications The results of this study may not generalize to other settings. This study does not simultaneously consider the role of other structural forms which may increase or reduce the degree of HRM demands faced by the CEO. This study extends prior research on executive job demands by expanding the understanding of factors which give rise to HRM sources of executive job demands. Study results suggest that CEOs with financial orientations are more likely to staff their top management teams with an HR executive, which suggests that in the face of executive job demands stemming from a particular functional area, CEOs delegate responsibility for that function to another member of top management. This finding suggests that CEOs can, and in fact do, recognize the limitations engendered by their experiences and that when confronted with a specific type of executive job demand that does not align with their expertise, they take steps to address their individual limitations by appointing others that are more capable of addressing the particular source of executive job demand. Practical implications Study results suggest that product/service innovation strategies, CEO’s financial background and the number of HRs employed by the firm increase the likelihood of HR functional representation in top management. Originality/value The theory and results of this study extend the focus of extant research on factors giving rise to HRM’s functional representation in top management. Although prior research has emphasized the role of ownership characteristics and risk preferences in the adoption of this structural form, this study examines the role of CEO HRM demands. This approach allows for the integration of the upper echelons theory with the strategic HRM literature and provides an empirical examination of CEO job demands arising from the HRM function.

As most correctional institutions have retained their paramilitary structure, the power differentials and communication lines continue to favor concentration in the top echelons of the organizations. Yet, power and communication are regulated and delimited informally by the actions of middle-level managers and lower level workers, and by subcultural influences within the organization. Because of these attributes, correctional work is characterized by discretionary decision making, particularly when the matter is minor, hidden from view, and sanctioned by the subculture. Acting in an ethical manner (i.e., doing the right thing) in such a closed, structured, but informally functional environment requires a recognition and appreciation of the complexity of the milieu along with a willingness to forge ahead. This article explores the ethical parameters of corrections work in a typical medium-security prison. In an effort to determine what the correctional staff regarded as ethical behavior, the authors administered a questionnaire to them using a newly developed ethics instrument. The authors endeavor to identify the major attributes of ethical work in prison and to establish the heuristic value of the instrument for future research.