Chief Executive Personality and Corporate Strategy and Structure in Small Firms

Abstract

An empirical investigation of 97 firms was conducted to determine the relationships that three aspects of the chief executive's (CEO's) personality have with the strategies, structures, decision making methods and performance of their firms. CEO flexibility was associated with niche strategies, simple, informal structures, and intuitive, risk-embracing decision making. CEO need for achievement was related to broadly focussed, marketing-oriented strategies, formal and sophisticated structures, and proactive, analytical decision making. Executives with an internal locus of control pursued more product innovation, were more future oriented, and tailored their approaches to the circumstances facing their firms. The relationships between personality and organizational characteristics were found to be by far the strongest in small firms and also somewhat more significant in dynamic environments. Flexibility and locus of control related to corporate performance under certain conditions; need for achievement did not.executive personality, corporate strategy, innovation

Values and judgment under uncertainty: evidence from venture capitalist assessments of founders

“…The strategic decision-making literature, and the judgment and decision-making literature more generally, recognize that personal characteristics (such as values) play an important role in decision processes (Guth and Tagiuri, 1965;Hambrick and Mason, 1984;Hitt and Tyler, 1991;Pant and Lachman, 1998), but the explicit role of human values has received relatively little attention (for some exceptions, see Miller et al, 1982;Miller and Toulouse, 1986). Research to date on the infl uence of values on judgment and decision making generally uses a value congruence perspective (Adkins et al, 1994;Cable and Judge, 1997;Judge and Bretz, 1992;Meglino et al, 1992;Ravlin and Meglino, 1987), whereby individuals make choices that are consistent with their value systems.…”

Assembling Frameworks for Strategic Innovation Enactment: Enhancing Transformational Agility through Situational Scanning

“…Furthermore, a strategy may be proactive, looking for measureable opportunities, or reactive, looking for multidimensional problems or threats (Ansoff 1975;Mintzberg 1973). Additionally, variable selection could also be influenced by the impact of risk-taking propensities, culture continuity, risk appetite and tolerance, tolerances for ambiguity, and the influence locus of control (Anderson and Frigo 2012;De Pree 2004;Miller and Toulouse 1986); regardless, continuous strategy innovation, including variable selection, is necessary in turbulent high-velocity markets (D'Aveni et al 2010). In sum, variables describe domain characteristics prior to and following transformation related initiatives.…”

Motivos de sucesso, afiliação e poder: evidência confirmatória do constructo

“…cional (McClelland & Burnham, 1976;McClelland & Boyatzis, 1982;Miller & Toulouse, 1986;Rego, 1995Rego, , 1998bRego, , 1999Winter, 1991), a liderança política (Hernann, 1980;Winter, 1987;House, Spangler & Woycke, 1991;Reto e cols., 1989/90;Schmitt & Winter, 1998;Winter, 1998), o desenvolvimento econômico das nações (McClelland, 1961(McClelland, , 1976Pereira, 1980), o empreendorismo e orientação empreendedora (Johnson, 1990;McClelland, 1961McClelland, , 1965Sagie & Elizur, 1999) e o estado de saúde/doença dos indivíduos (Jemmott, 1987;McClelland, 1982McClelland, , 1989McClelland, Davidson & Saron, 1985;Schultheiss, 1999).…”