This paper offers a refined conceptualization of consensus formation and demonstrates in three organizations how this conceptualization enables us to uncover new patterns of consensus building. It describes a longitudinal study which investigated consensus formation in three organizations undergoing major strategic change. The study explored whether consensus building occurred during the strategic change, and if so, how. Initial participants of consensus were also investigated as well as changes in the scope of participants in consensus. Consensus building did occur, but contrary to some views, less through an increase in the strength of consensus and more through an increase in the scope of consensus. Additionally, initial consensus was not located among members of the top management team, but more within an interest group whose members benefited from the given direction of the change.

NON-CEO EXECUTIVE PAY We develop a theory wherein the pay of non-CEO executives can be explained by micro-level opportunity structures-- the intersection of executives ' particular functional positions, CEO background, human capital, and the strategic resource allocation decisions made by the focal firm. Specifically, our framework suggests that executives will be paid more when they occupy positions made visible and important by the actions and resource allocation decisions arising from a firm's strategy, or have a functional background similar to that of the CEO. Moreover, we further suggest that executives ' human capital will benefit them most, in terms of pay, when their position helps the firm manage such strategic resource allocations. Support for this multilevel framework is provided using a unique, longitudinal data set that combines survey and archival data on the four highest echelons of senior executives in large U.S. firms. 2 Executive compensation is an integral component of corporate governance. Indeed, "few such topics on strategic leadership generate the same degree of controversy " (Finkelstein & Hambrick, 1996: 263). The tremendous attention paid to compensation often can be attributed to

1 There is a renewed focus on top managers ’ impact on organizational outcomes.

grant from the Russell Sage Foundation for a project

Increasingly nonprofit boards of directors are becoming more racially diverse or face pressures to increase their diversity. This research used survey data from 121 executive directors in nonprofit organizations in two metropolitan areas to investigate the affect of board member diversity, attitudes, and recruitment practices on board performance. Analysis revealed that boards with a higher percentage of racial minorities reportedly performed better on the political aspect of board performance. Increased diversity awareness was associated to all aspects of board performance, and the use of recommended recruitment practices was associated to four dimensions (analytical, educational, political, and strategic). A regression analysis revealed that diversity attitudes consistently accounted for variance in board performance. Racial diversity and performance 3 The boards of directors of nonprofit organizations are a powerful resource to negotiate a turbulent environment, to develop long range plans, and to improve performance (Bradshaw,

I welcome any and all comments. I thank Atul Nerkar, Don Hambrick, and participants in Heather Haveman’s Fall 2002 Organizational Theory workshop for their valuable suggestions and feedback. Leading Innovation: Assessing the Impact of Organizational Leadership on R&D Effectiveness This paper considers the relationship between demographic attributes of organizational leaders and the quality of research and development (R&D) that their organizations generate. While past research has linked demographic attributes of organizational leaders to R&D inputs such as budget allocations or visible project commitment, the present research focuses on the resultant R&D output. Since a greater level of R&D funding, for example, may not necessarily yield innovations of greater strategic impact, the question of what enables organizations to generate effective, high-impact research and development becomes critical. Further, I argue that the nature of the demographic profile of the organizational leadership team determines the foundation from which innovative R&D is drawn. These predictions are supported in an analysis of organizational leadership teams and patent citation patterns of fifty-two companies holding pharmaceutical patents over a six-year period. Ariel Fishman, Leading Innovation 3

reviewers for helpful comments on this paper and Mike Ferdinandi and David Hatch for help with data collection. COMPARING ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY

This research reexamines the link between top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and firm performance. Specifically, I theorize that the effects of education, work experience, and tenure on performance will depend upon the top management team's strategic and social context. In a test of such theorizing, I find that (1) the positive relationships between TMT educational, functional, and tenure heterogeneity and performance are contingent on complexity, as indicated by a firm's international strategy and, (2) such relationships are clearly stronger in short-tenured top management teams. The theory and results presented here provide impetus for future studies, as well as suggest to upper echelons researchers that they think more critically about the conditions under which demographic characteristics are most likely to influence organizational outcomes like performance. 2 Since Hambrick and Mason's (1984) watershed essay on top management team (TMT) demographic characteristics, organizations and strategy researchers have extended ''upper echelons'' theorizing to predict that TMT characteristics will be reflected in firm performance (Haleblian &

When trying to understand people’s actions in an organization or trying to fathom what lay behind strategic decisions we want to know what is going on in people’s minds. Not everybody makes the same decisions and not everyone acts the same way in similar circumstances. So we want to have, at least a guess of, some idea of what is going on in an individual’s mind when making a decision. There was a time when I accepted the argument that was presented by Hambrick and Mason (1984) that demographic characteristics are acceptable proxies to capture differences in the thinking of individuals. Looking at individual characteristics, such as age, sex, level of education, country etc seemed like faulty but plausible and reasonable proxies for what kinds of values, beliefs attitudes, etc people had. After all, since the minds of individuals are shaped by their experiences and since these in turn are reflected in demographic characteristics, those external characteristics appeared to be acceptable proxies for individual cognition.

helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscriptTOP MANAGEMENT TEAMS, GLOBAL STRATEGIC POSTURE,