Lеadеrs and Managеrs

R guidance has bcom on of th major st bring outgis pursud by larg organizations in th 1990s. Prior rs sheer in th ara of uppr chlons (top managmnt tam) ladrship has rvald that thr is a strong rlationship btwn top managmnt tam charactristics and organizational stratgis and outcoms.Howvr, rsarchrs hav confind thir studis to xploring th impact of obsrvabl uppr chlon charactristics, namly th dmographic traits on corporat stratgis and prformanc. In this teatr I will try to intgrat main sts of uppr chlon ladrship charactristics.During th past d dog thr has bn considrabl rsarch invstigating th rlationship btwn uppr chlons (top managmnt tam) ladrship charactristics and organizational stratgis and outcoms. Th ladrship of uppr chlons is critical to succss in companis.To a vry larg xtnt, such bhavior on th part of top managrs can b xplaind using th principl of boundd rationality (Rgr, Mullan, Gustafson and Dmari, 1994).According to this principl, managrs ar not compltly rational in th dcision s thy tak. Managrs ar oftn forced by th limitd information thy rciv from th xtrnal and intrnal nvironmnts and thrfor, tak dcisions which can b dscribd as rational only within crtain bounds.Thrfor, it is important to dv fit out a thortical framwork in th ara of uppr chlons ladrship for undrstanding how th psychological charactristics of top managrs influnc th rlationship btwn thir dmographic charactristics and organizational stratgis and outcoms.Th businss nvironmnt during th past two dcads has bn xtrmly dynamic. Whil corporat divrsification smd to b th average in most industris till th 1990s, it is important to not that corporat r localizeing (i.., rducing th lvl of divrsification within a firm in ordr to focus on th cor businss), has bn mor popular sinc th lat 1990s (Markids, 1992 Donaldson, 1994).Rfocusing rprsnts an important aspct of corporat stratgic chang and rquirs dynamic ladrship on th part of th top managrs (Amburgy, Klly & Barntt, 1990 Hoskisson and Hitt, 1994).Th top m anagmnt of a firm rprsnts th dominant coalition of th firm and has considrabl influnc on whthr and how th firm should rfocus to maintain a comptitiv position in th industry (Hambrick & mason, 1984). Th succss of th rfocusing stratgy dpnds on how th top managrs ar abl to lad th initiation and th implmntation of this stratgy.Th dmographic charactristics of uppr chlons hav a considrabl impact on th organizations propnsity to rfocus and that this rlationship is modratd by th psychological charactristics of its managrs.Th impact of dmographic charactristics Hambrick and Mason (1984) stat organizational outcoms some(prenominal) stratgis and ffctivnss ar viwd as rflctions of th valus and cognitiv bass of powrful actors in th organization. p.193.Drawing on Hambrick (1984) modl of stratgic dcision making, Hambrick and Mason (1984) thoriz that a managrs background charactristics can partially prdict stratgic choics and prformanc in organizations.Thy propos that obsrvabl managrial dmographi c traits such as ag, tnur, ducation and operational backgrounds ar important aspcts of managrial ladrship and that thy can influnc organizational stratgis and prformanc.Following Hambrick and Masons (1984) concptual modl on uppr chlons ladrship, svral rsarchrs hav tstd thir propositions in ordr to stablish th linkag btwn dmographic charactristics of top managrs and thir ability to lad th organization to dsird outcoms.Th studis conductd by Murray (1989), Norburn and Birly (1988), Bantl and Jackson (1989), Cho, Hambrick and Chn (1994), rval that top managmnt dmographic charactristics such as ag, ducation, functional backgrounds, top managmnt tam tnur and organizational tnur wr profound prdictors of organizational prformanc thus providing support for Hambrick and Masons (1984) propositions.