This research considers the effect of pace on employee and firm performance. Population ecology and protection motivation theory suggest that to achieve success in a fast paced environment, companies should create an environment where employees feel they are valued. The theories emphasize that both fast pace and value are needed for higher performance. In the first study, I find that firms placing high value on employees and growing at a faster pace achieve higher stock price growth. In the second study, I find that employees working at a faster pace and who feel valued are higher performers.

practical model for managing knowledge work in social networks

No one doubts that the 21st century will continue to be characterized by chaotic, transformational, rapidfire change. In fact, almost no sane person is willing to predict what the world will be like 50, 25, or even 15 years

Second re-submission to the Academy of Management Journal

This manuscript is unpublished copyrighted work containing trade secret and other proprietary information of John W. Boudreau and

Thanks to Pat Wright for comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.

Despite much research, debate continues about the impact of risk taking on a firm’s future performance. Unlike prior studies, we propose that risk-return relationships evolve as firms age and learn, particularly in high-velocity settings where accumulated knowledge affects how firms respond to technological change. Discerning this requires three things absent from prior analyses: (1) studying an entire population; (2) modeling evolutionary processes; and (3) using separate models to capture how a firm’s gains and losses (i.e., its strong and weak performances) unfold across time. Using this framework, we found that (a) risk-return relationships generally evolved from positive to negative as firms aged; because (b) firms learned to avoid large losses at younger ages than they learned to sustain large gains; yet (c) the risk taking that followed below-aspiration performance moderated those effects such that major setbacks prompted large future gains and large future losses among older firms and downward spirals among younger ones. 1 Relationships between risk and return are central to our lives. In the hope of emotional or monetary rewards, some people take risks by climbing mountains, changing employers, or switching careers. Some executives take risks in pursuit of better pay and enhanced reputations, and some firms pursue risky strategies in a quest for higher sales and profits.

Sharpe, forthcoming 1 One would think that managing people in ways consistent with building and maintaining their spirit would be an uncontroversial idea. After all, there has been increasing interest in workplace spirituality and management practices that help develop people (e.g., Ashmos and Duchon, 2000; Mitroff and Denton, 1999; Mirvis, 1997). This interest derives in part from the importance of work organizations in people’s lives today—“people are spending more of their time working and number among closest friends their coworkers ” (Mirvis, 1997: 198). At the same time, waves of downsizing (Cappelli, 1999), increased turnover, more people working as temporaries and contractors (Pfeffer and Baron, 1988), and more frequent changes in ownership have created less loyal and committed and angrier and more disaffected employees working in places characterized by “fear, pressure, and impermanence ” (Mirvis, 1997: 198). Even as these changes in the workplace are occurring, writers have argued that organizations that are values-based and values-driven are “built to last ” (Collins and Porras,

ABSTRACT: This study examines determinants of professional HRM practices within a sample of approximately 700 small- to medium-sized firms. Predictions from agency theory and the resource based view of organizations lead to alternate hypotheses regarding the direct and indirect negative effects of family ownership and management on the usage of professional HRM practices. Results support predictions for both direct and indirect effects, thus lending partial support to both theories. Organization complexity variables that also predict professional HRM practices (and that may explain some of the indirect effects) include firm size, (presence of a) formal business plan, export strategy and HRM specialization.

The present paper outlines the philosophical background as well as a practical case of so-called decentralized management of knowledge work. It is argued that top-down perspectives on knowledge have dominated management initiatives in this area, at the expense of naturally occurring, or emergent work patterns of R&D organizations. A model of management based on semi-organized individual knowledge exchange or “brokerage ” is proposed as a solution. This alternative is exemplified in a case study from a software engineering firm. The paper proposes a number of principles that may be used to The recent upsurge in management writings on the management of knowledge in organizations has put many taken for granted doctrines on the spot. For one, human resource management has come under direct and indirect fire for its implicit top-down perspective on change and competence development (Welbourne & Andrews, 1996).