Crisis and the Content of Managerial Communications: A Study of the Focus of Attention of Top Managers in Surviving and Failing Firms

Corporate Philanthropic Responses to Emergent Human Needs: The Role of Organizational Attention Focus

“…This content-based approach is in line with extant research showing that management communications reflect the perception and input of senior management and encompass the topics and issues that the company attends to (D'Aveni and MacMillan 1990;Levy 2005;Maula et al 2013). Although such communications can have multiple purposes, they have been shown to capture concepts that are central to attention in the organization, and are indicative of managers' strategies for sensemaking (Cho and Hambrick 2006;Kaplan 2008).…”

The Paradox of Stretch Goals: Organizations in Pursuit of the Seemingly Impossible.

“…Because they are extreme, stretch goals have been argued to serve as jolting events that disrupt complacency and promote new ways of thinking and acting (e.g., Hamel & Prahalad, 1993;Rousseau, 1997). In effect, the imposition of such extreme goals can be similar to an autogenic (i.e., intentional, internally generated) crisis meant to spur change (e.g., Barnett & Pratt, 2000;D'Aveni & MacMillan, 1990). By forcing a substantial elevation in collective aspirations, stretch goals can shift attention to possible new futures and perhaps spark increased energy in the organization.…”

“…We suggest that as goals become extreme, there are complex yet predictable organizational effects that are likely to be negative except under a limited set of specifiable circumstances. Moreover, we contribute to scholarly thinking on organizational change and adaptation by examining why organizations would be drawn to using stretch goals as intentional, internally generated jolts or crises (e.g., Barnett & Pratt, 2000;D'Aveni & MacMillan, 1990), as well as the conditions under which such jolts might successfully or unsuccessfully trigger discontinuous advances in learning (e.g., Beer et al, 1990;Meyer, 1982;Romanelli & Tushman, 1994). Our theoretical analysis also advances the understanding of the little-known effects of unattainable goals (e.g., Garland, 1982Garland, , 1983Locke, 1982Locke, , 2004Rousseau, 1997) by examining the underlying mechanisms through which such goals can lead to collective outcomes.…”

Eliciting Managerial Cognitions - The Role of Cognition in Management Research

“…There is plenty of research focusing on the managerial cognitions and their outcomes which has created path for the present studies [19], [20], [2]. The research interests have been, for example, on following questions: how managers" attention guides action in organization [21], [22], how managers" cognition affects the strategy process [2], and how different strategic thinking effect the strategy development and implementation (see Walsh [11] for a review). Managerial cognitions have been analyzed most in the area of strategic management (e.g.…”