Team reflexivity has gained popularity as a phenomenon of interest in team research, but mixed theorizing around the relationship between team reflexivity and team performance indicates that the relationship is not fully understood. In an effort to improve our understanding and explain why and when team reflexivity will be conducive to team performance, we examine the role of team diversity as a possible boundary condition and of team decision quality as an explanatory mechanism. Using survey data from 82 teams with 82 leaders and 194 team members, we find that team decision quality is a partial mediator of the relationship between team reflexivity and team performance and that team diversity strengthens this mediating relationship. We also find that team diversity moderates the relationship between team reflexivity and decision quality. Taken together, these findings suggest that reflexivity is most effective in conditions of informational richness, such as when teams have high diversity, as the reflective process allows team members to capitalize on their varied perspectives to improve the quality of their decisions and, thus, their performance.
PurposeThis interdisciplinary investigation examines the topics of organizational climate and subcultures, which have received scant attention in the supply chain literature, highlighting the potential importance of these social dynamics to supply chain management phenomena.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a single-organization revelatory case study design, qualitatively analyzing coded interviews and observations of participants.FindingsThe authors’ findings indicate that a firm's organizational climate can contribute to the formation and strengthening of a subculture and that the subculture may desire to insert their own values and norms concerning supply chain management which could run counter to those of the overall company.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors theorize about the conditions under which strong subcultures emerge and that they may exert outsized influence on the way a company approaches supply chain management activities. Accounting for such influence may unearth important social dynamics occurring within supply chain phenomena that will better help researchers understand behavior and outcomes within that phenomenon.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware of the potential for subgroups to form strong subcultures and that subcultures may influence the way supply chain activities are performed. Climate dynamics can also affect employee perceptions and behaviors, and managers should monitor these dynamics and adapt their policies and messaging accordingly.Originality/valueThis study examines a phenomenon that has previously been underexamined in the supply chain management literature–the influence of culture and climate on subcultures and their subcultures' subsequent impact on how companies perform supply chain management activities.
Managerial discretion is the latitude of action afforded to a manager. This literature, classically focused at the executive level, reconciles population ecology’s assertion that executives ultimately have little influence over firm-level outcomes and strategic choice theory’s assertion that executives make strategic decisions and thus have considerable influence over firm-level outcomes. Though generally viewed in the management literature as an opportunity for executives to positively affect performance and increase value, the literature in finance and economics argues that managerial discretion represents a cost to shareholders from potential opportunism or other self-serving behaviors. Within the management literature, scholars posit three categories (i.e., forces) that constrain or enable executives: (1) the task environment (i.e., industry-level factors), (2) the internal organization (i.e., firm-level factors), and (3) managerial characteristics (i.e., individual-level factors). Recently, a fourth category, national institutions (i.e., country-level factors), was added to the managerial discretion model. While the managerial discretion literature has typically focused on upper echelons, scholars are increasing their examination of mid-level managers’ discretion since many of the construct’s enabling and constraining factors are also relevant for managers who are subordinate to senior executives. The potential for issue selling and strategic planning activities by mid-level managers to influence executives’ perceived discretion is an example of phenomena studied by scholars attempting to improve our understanding of discretion afforded to mid-level managers.
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