The shift of paradigm in the organizations like foundation of the style of ethical leadership

La presente investigación tiene por objeto analizar el cambio de paradigma en las organizaciones como fundamento del liderazgo ético desde una realidad postmoderna a fin de detectar la necesidad de un liderazgo ético en las organizaciones donde los líderes sean formadores de valores a través del modelaje directivo; es un estilo de liderazgo en el que la visión ética, sistémica e integradora son unas de las principales aptitudes que el líder ético ha de poner en la práctica. Se han desarrollado teorías de liderazgo centradas no tanto en los rasgos o comportamientos de los líderes, sino en la relación entre líder y sus seguidores

Comparative evaluation of microscopic car-following behavior

Microscopic traffic-simulation tools are increasingly being applied to evaluate the impacts of a wide variety of intelligent transport, systems (ITS) applications and other dynamic problems that are difficult to solve using traditional analytical models. The accuracy of a traffic-simulation system depends highly on the quality of the traffic-flow model at its core, with the two main critical components being the car-following and lane-changing models. This paper presents findings from a comparative evaluation of car-following behavior in a number of traffic simulators [advanced interactive microscopic simulator for urban and nonurban networks (AIMSUN), parallel microscopic simulation (PARAMICS), and Verkehr in Statiten-simulation (VISSIM)]. The car-following algorithms used in these simulators have been developed from a variety of theoretical backgrounds and are reported to have been calibrated on a number of different data sets. Very few independent studies have attempted to evaluate the performance of the underlying algorithms based on the same data set. The results reported in this study are based on a car-following experiment that used instrumented vehicles to record the speed and relative distance between follower and leader vehicles on a one-lane road. The experiment was replicated in each tool and the simulated car-following behavior was compared to the field data using a number of error tests. The results showed lower error values for the Gipps-based models implemented in AIMSUN and similar error values for the psychophysical spacing models used in VISSIM and PARAMICS. A qualitative drift and goal-seeking behavior test, which essentially shows how the distance headway between leader and follower vehicles should oscillate around a stable distance, also confirmed the findings.

A INFLUÊNCIA DA LIDERANÇA COMO ESTÍMULO À MOTIVAÇÃO DE EQUIPES VIRTUAIS

No mundo contemporâneo as formas de atingir desempenho máximo são cruciais, resulta em altos investimentos em tecnologia com o intuito de melhorar, entre outros, o desempenho dos trabalhadores, por serem esses os responsáveis pela produção eficiente ou não de bens e serviços. A tecnologia tem sido essencial neste processo, tais recursos estão à disposição de toda e qualquer empresa. Resta então, otimizar o desempenho dos trabalhadores frente a tal cenário. Neste, a liderança que sempre foi marcante nos processos administrativos, precisa ser reavaliada com o objetivo de conhecer como ela se dá nas equipes virtuais. O trabalho em equipe num mesmo local ganhou força desde a última década e continua sendo propulsora de desempenho na década atual. Contudo, tais equipes ganharam novo papel: o de compartilhar o desenvolvimento de um bem ou serviço em locais distintos. Nasceram, então, as equipes virtuais. Este trabalho objetiva compreender como a liderança estimula a motivação dos integrantes de equipes virtuais. Com intuito de responder ao objetivo do trabalho foi realizado um estudo de caso exploratório em uma empresa multinacional francesa instalada na região metropolitana de São Paulo. O caso é composto por 10 sujeitos que cobrem todo território nacional, para a qual foi realizada entrevista pelos mesmos meios de comunicação utilizado pelos sujeitos. Como resultado obteve-se a idéia de que a liderança é de alta relevância para o caso estudado. Identificou-se que nas equipes virtuais há elementos facilitadores e dificultadores, de ordem pessoal, organizacional e de infra-estrutura.(AU)

Organisational learning - a critical systems thinking discipline

Original Paper European Journal of Information Systems (2001) 10, 135–146; doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000394 Organisational learning—a critical systems thinking discipline P Panagiotidis1,3 and J S Edwards2,4 1Deloitte and Touche, Athens, Greece 2Aston Business School, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK Correspondence: Dr J S Edwards, Aston Business School, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK. E-mail: j.s.edwards@aston.ac.uk 3Petros Panagiotidis is Manager responsible for the Process and Systems Integrity Services of Deloitte and Touche in Athens, Greece. He has a BSc in Business Administration and an MSc in Management Information Systems from Western International University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA; an MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design from City University, London, UK; and a PhD degree from Aston University, Birmingham, UK. His doctorate was in Business Systems Analysis and Design. His principal interests now are in the ERP/DSS field, where he serves as project leader and project risk managment leader in the implementation of SAP and JD Edwards/Cognos in various major clients in the telecommunications and manufacturing sectors. In addition, he is responsible for the development and application of knowledge management systems and activity-based costing systems. 4John S Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Operational Research and Systems at Aston Business School, Birmingham, UK. He holds MA and PhD degrees (in mathematics and operational research respectively) from Cambridge University. His principal research interests are in knowledge management and decision support, especially methods and processes for system development. He has written more than 30 research papers on these topics, and two books, Building Knowledge-based Systems and Decision Making with Computers, both published by Pitman. Current research work includes the effect of scale of operations on knowledge management, interfacing expert systems with simulation models, process modelling in law and legal services, and a study of the use of artifical intelligence techniques in management accounting. Top of pageAbstract This paper deals with the application of critical systems thinking in the domain of organisational learning and knowledge management. Its viewpoint is that deep organisational learning only takes place when the business systems' stakeholders reflect on their actions and thus inquire about their purpose(s) in relation to the business system and the other stakeholders they perceive to exist. This is done by reflecting both on the sources of motivation and/or deception that are contained in their purpose, and also on the sources of collective motivation and/or deception that are contained in the business system's purpose. The development of an organisational information system that captures, manages and institutionalises meaningful information—a knowledge management system—cannot be separated from organisational learning practices, since it should be the result of these very practices. Although Senge's five disciplines provide a useful starting-point in looking at organisational learning, we argue for a critical systems approach, instead of an uncritical Systems Dynamics one that concentrates only on the organisational learning practices. We proceed to outline a methodology called Business Systems Purpose Analysis (BSPA) that offers a participatory structure for team and organisational learning, upon which the stakeholders can take legitimate action that is based on the force of the better argument. In addition, the organisational learning process in BSPA leads to the development of an intrinsically motivated information organisational system that allows for the institutionalisation of the learning process itself in the form of an organisational knowledge management system. This could be a specific application, or something as wide-ranging as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Examples of the use of BSPA in two ERP implementations are presented.

The role of self-regulation as a meta-competency in developing leaders: a longitudinal field experimental study

The question of how to develop leaders so that they are more effective in a variety of situations, roles and levels has inspired a voluminous amount of research. While leader development programs such as executive coaching and 360-degree feedback have been widely practiced to meet this demand within organisations, the research in this area has only scratched the surface. Drawing from the past literature and leadership practices, the current research conceptualised self-regulation, as a metacompetency that would assist leaders to further develop the specific competencies needed to perform effectively in their leadership role, leading to an increased rating of leader effectiveness and to enhanced group performance. To test this conceptualisation, a longitudinal field experimental study was conducted across ten months with a pre- and two post-test intervention designs with a matched control group. This longitudinal field experimental compared the difference in leader and team performance after receiving self-regulation intervention that was delivered by an executive coach. Leaders in experimental group also received feedback reports from 360-degree feedback at each stage. Participants were 40 leaders, 155 followers and 8 supervisors. Leaders’ performance was measured using a multi-source perceptual measure of leader performance and objective measures of team financial and assessment performance. Analyses using repeated measure of ANCOVA on pre-test and two post-tests responses showed a significant difference between leader and team performance between experimental and control group. Furthermore, leader competencies mediated the relationship between self-regulation and performance. The implications of these findings for the theory and practice of leadership development training programs and the impact on organisational performance are discussed.

The effects of transformational leadership behaviours on follower outcomes:an identity-based analysis

The aim of this study was to explore two of the mechanisms by which transformational leaders have a positive influence on followers. It examined the mediating role of follower's leader and group identification on the associations among different transformational leader behaviours and follower job satisfaction and supervisor-rated job performance. One hundred and seventy-nine healthcare employees and 44 supervisors participated in the study. The results from multilevel structural equation modelling provided results that partially supported the predicted model. Identification with the leader significantly mediated the positive associations between supportive leadership, intellectual stimulation, personal recognition, in the prediction of job satisfaction and job performance. Leader identification also mediated the relationship between supportive leadership, intellectual stimulation, personal recognition, and group identification. However, group identification did not mediate the associations between vision leadership and inspirational communication, in the prediction of job satisfaction and job performance. The results highlight the role of individualized forms of leadership and leader identification in enhancing follower outcomes.

Social cognition in leader–follower relationship:applying insights from relationship science to understanding relationship-based approaches to leadership

Relationship-based approaches to leadership (e.g., Leader–Member Exchange theory) currently represent one of the most popular approaches to understanding workplace leadership. Although the concept of “relationship” is central to these approaches, generally this has not been well articulated and is often conceptualized simply in terms of relationship quality between the leader and the follower. In contrast, research in the wider relationship science domain provides a more detailed exposition of relationships and how they form and develop. We propose that research and methodology developed in relationship science (i.e., close relationships) can enhance understanding of the leader–follower relationship and therefore advance theory in this area. To address this issue, we organize our review in two areas. First, we examine how a social cognitive approach to close relationships can benefit an understanding of the leader–follower relationship (in terms of structure, content, and processes). Second, we show how the research designs and methodologies that have been developed in relationship science can be applied to understand better the leader–follower relationship. The cross-fertilization of research from the close relationships literature to understanding the leader–follower relationship provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aligning employee service recovery performance with brand values:the role of brand-specific leadership

This study investigates the effects of brand-specific leadership on employees' brand-aligned service recovery performance (SRP). In order to do so, we empirically test a conceptual model of relationships between brand-specific transformational leadership (TFL) and transactional leadership (TRL), trust in leader and in corporate brand, brand identification, and SRP from employees' perspectives. It is the first study to incorporate trust in corporate brand into the framework. Results from a study of 246 customer-contact employees show that brand-specific TFL has a positive impact on all variables studied, while brand-specific TRL is ineffective in fostering brand-building behaviours. More specifically, brand-specific TFL's effects on employee SRP are mediated by trust in the leader, trust in the corporate brand, and brand identification. Implications and future research directions are discussed. © 2013 Copyright Taylor & Francis.

A model of macadamia with application to pruning in orchards

A self-organising model of macadamia, expressed using L-Systems, was used to explore aspects of canopy management. A small set of parameters control the basic architecture of the model, with a high degree of self-organisation occurring to determine the fate and growth of buds. Light was sensed at the leaf level and used to represent vigour and accumulated basipetally. Buds also sensed light so as to provide demand in the subsequent redistribution of the vigour. Empirical relationships were derived from a set of 24 completely digitised trees after conversion to multiscale tree graphs (MTG) and analysis with the OpenAlea software library. The ability to write MTG files was embedded within the model so that various tree statistics could be exported for each run of the model. To explore the parameter space a series of runs was completed using a high-throughput computing platform. When combined with MTG generation and analysis with OpenAlea it provided a convenient way in which thousands of simulations could be explored. We allowed the model trees to develop using self-organisation and simulated cultural practices such as hedging, topping, removal of the leader and limb removal within a small representation of an orchard. The model provides insight into the impact of these practices on potential for growth and the light distribution within the canopy and to the orchard floor by coupling the model with a path-tracing program to simulate the light environment. The lessons learnt from this will be applied to other evergreen, tropical fruit and nut trees.

Team characteristics beneficial for Open Innovation projects

This study discusses the importance of creating Open Innovation (OI) teams for optimizing costs of Research and Development (R&D), dividing risks and maximizing profits. The purpose of this study is to determine team characteristics beneficial for successful OI project, with the emphasis on the fact that such teams are formed of professionals belonging to different organizations, both private and state-owned, with different educational and professional backgrounds and personal qualities. This purpose is supported by three sub-objectives: to observe the phenomenon of OI and its implementation in emerging economies, particularly in Russia; to specify professional and personal competencies of OI team members essential for the successful collaboration; and to identify the role of the leader in OI teams. The theoretical part of this study consists of knowledge from academic literature related to OI, cross-functional and innovation teams and leadership in innovation. The practical part of the study is presented in the form of multiple case study, and the empirical research is based on six semistructured interviews collected in October 2014 from the CEOs, Innovation Managers and Technical Directors of innovation companies participating actively in OI projects. The findings of the study demonstrate that many of the necessary competencies are equal for innovation or cross-functional teams and OI teams, such as professionalism and communication skills. However, due to the specific nature of OI, additional personal characteristics were recognized as beneficial for OI teams, such as flexibility, empathy and success-orientation. The role of the leader is also considered as a critical success factor for OI teams, with the emphasis on flexibility and autonomy. The findings of the study contribute to understanding the connection between notions of team member, team climate and team leader, and its influence on OI project success. Thus, the main purpose of the study is providing support for existing knowledge on OI teams and developing new insights into this newly emerged topic.

Topic extraction from microblog posts using conversation structures

Conventional topic models are ineffective for topic extraction from microblog messages since the lack of structure and context among the posts renders poor message-level word co-occurrence patterns. In this work, we organize microblog posts as conversation trees based on reposting and replying relations, which enrich context information to alleviate data sparseness. Our model generates words according to topic dependencies derived from the conversation structures. In specific, we differentiate messages as leader messages, which initiate key aspects of previously focused topics or shift the focus to different topics, and follower messages that do not introduce any new information but simply echo topics from the messages that they repost or reply. Our model captures the different extents that leader and follower messages may contain the key topical words, thus further enhances the quality of the induced topics. The results of thorough experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model.

Análisis financiero de la empresa Cementos Argos de Colombia S.A y el sector cementero en Colombia

A partir del 2010, el sector cementero en Colombia experimentó un crecimiento en sus ventas que lo ha posicionado como uno de los sectores más rentable en el país. Esta oportunidad de crecimiento ha permitido que Cementos Argos de Colombia se convirtiera en la empresa líder del sector. Expandiéndose así a mercados internacionales teniendo presencia en países de Centroamérica y Estados Unidos. Por lo tanto es necesario indagar las implicaciones que han tenido los cambios en el sector en las finanzas de la empresa. Para tal fin, se realiza el presente trabajo, que busca determinar de qué manera Cementos Argos de Colombia usa sus recursos para ser una de las empresas del sector mejor posicionada a pesar del crecimiento del mismo y la fuerte competencia que existente. Para esto, se estableció el análisis financiero de Cementos Argos de Colombia, diferentes herramientas e indicadores financieros que ayudaron a identificar, analizar, describir y evaluar los aspectos claves que garantizan el éxito de la empresa.

Liderazgo como proceso transformador: Caso Lácteos el Pomar

Las organizaciones de hoy en día entienden más el valor de las personas dentro de estas, por ser el elemento dinamizador. Por esto es necesario transmitirles constantemente la visión, misión y objetivos de la empresa para que las personas contribuyan a este fin. Dado el reconocimiento por parte de las organizaciones hacia el recurso humano y su administración, se hace necesario la existencia de un liderazgo bastante eficiente que sea capaz de asegurar condiciones favorables de trabajo y que garanticen el cumplimiento de los objetivos de las empresas. Las organizaciones del Siglo XXI exigen líderes con cualidades, habilidades y actitudes para afrontar todos los factores externos con los que se pueden enfrentar. Es por eso que surge la necesidad de estudiar la empresa Lácteos El Pomar ya que es una empresa que resurgió de las cenizas después de haber entrado en liquidación y que tiene como referente de un líder al gerente de la compañía. El propósito de este estudio de caso será describir y analizar el liderazgo y la motivación como herramientas transformadoras en la nueva gerencia de Lácteos El Pomar, como también entender cómo estas se implementaron e influenciaron al grupo de trabajadores para salir de la crisis. Mediante este estudio de caso se espera comprender si el gerente de la empresa es percibido como líder e identificar su estilo de liderazgo. Por otro lado, mediante entrevistas al personal de la empresa, se esperará identificar los factores que influyeron de manera negativa para acentuar la crisis de la compañía. Finalmente se espera analizar aquellas estrategias de liderazgo realizadas por la dirección que conllevaron a la permanencia de la compañía a pesar de la crisis.

Análisis del concepto de liderazgo y sus aplicaciones en el contexto empresarial

El presente trabajo se realizó con el objetivo de tener una visión completa de las teorías del liderazgo, teniendo de este una concepción como proceso y poder examinar las diversas formas de aplicación en las organizaciones contemporáneas. El tema es enfocado desde la perspectiva organizacional, un mundo igualmente complejo, sin desconocer su importancia en otros ámbitos como la educación, la política o la dirección del estado. Su enfoque tiene que ver con el estudio académico del cual es la culminación y se enmarca dentro de la perspectiva constitucional de la Carta Política Colombiana que reconoce la importancia capital que tienen la actividad económica y la iniciativa privada en la constitución de empresas. Las diversas visiones del liderazgo han sido aplicadas de distintas maneras en las organizaciones contemporáneas y han generado diversos resultados. Hoy, no es posible pensar en una organización que no haya definido su forma de liderazgo y en consecuencia, confluyen en el campo empresarial multitud de teorías, sin que pueda afirmarse que una sola de ellas permita el manejo adecuado y el cumplimiento de los objetivos misionales. Por esta razón se ha llegado a concebir el liderazgo como una función compleja, en un mundo donde las organizaciones mismas se caracterizan no solo por la complejidad de sus acciones y de su conformación, sino también porque esta característica pertenece también al mundo de la globalización. Las organizaciones concebidas como máquinas que en sentido metafórico logran reconstituirse sus estructuras a medida que están en interacción con otras en el mundo globalizado. Adaptarse a las cambiantes circunstancias hace de las organizaciones conglomerados en permanente dinámica y evolución. En este ámbito puede decirse que el liderazgo es también complejo y que es el liderazgo transformacional el que más se acerca al sentido de la complejidad.

El liderazgo en Colombia : un análisis de la investigación empírica en contextos organizacionales

El objetivo de este estudio fue establecer las diferentes tendencias de la investigación sobre el Liderazgo en las organizaciones colombianas, mediante un estudio bibliométrico donde se analizaron 21 artículos publicados en revistas de Publindex, dentro de las categorías a1, a2, b y c. Para el análisis de los artículos se realizó una matriz en Excel que permitió registrar variables como estilos de liderazgo, resultados, años de publicación, revistas y autores. De acuerdo con los resultados se evidenció que el tema ha sido estudiado de forma significativa pero aún son pocas las conclusiones que permiten esclarecer el liderazgo como concepto en Colombia. Sin embargo, hay hallazgos importantes como los estilos de liderazgo predominantes: transformacional y transaccional; se encuentran variables psicológicas asociadas al estudio de liderazgo más comunes como inteligencia emocional, clima organizacional, cultura organizacional y los instrumentos más utilizados: entrevistas y cuestionarios. Se concluye que Colombia es un país que si investiga sobre esta temática, sin embargo, no hay acuerdos y hallazgos unificados. Se espera que en el futuro se continúe promoviendo una co-contrucción del concepto.