Management by Objectives (MBO)

This study empirically identifies the dimensions and initiates the development of a measure of emotional labor. Phase 1 of this project generated items for an exploratory questionnaire to which a broad sample of service workers responded (N = 358). Analysis revealed two dimensions of emotional labor: emotive effort, a construct never before identified in the emotional labor literature; and emotive dissonance, an acknowledged dimension that is further validated by this study. Several viable antecedent constructs of emotional labor also were identified and incorporated into an emerging model of emotional labor. In Phase 2, revised scales were administered to a second sample of service workers (N = 427) for reliability and validity purposes. Structural equation modeling also was used to establish relationships among emotional labor’s dimensions and various antecedent variables, facilitating development of a model of emotional labor.

Management by objectives is intrinsic to the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Swedish environmental policy. We describe three approaches to formulating objectives via model-assisted dialogue with local stakeholders concerning eutrophication in a coastal drainage area in southeastern Sweden: a WFD eco-centred approach based on 'natural state'; Swedish environmental policy reformulated into quantified reduction goals; and a participatory approach based on local stakeholder definitions of desirable environmental status. Despite problems with representation, we conclude that local stakeholder participation in formulating local goals could increase goal functionality and robustness when adapting and implementing national and EU WFD goals at the local level.

In recent years many companies have introduced self-regulatory teamwork requiring changes in leadership behaviour and systems as well. Consequently a renewed interest has arisen in management by objectives (MBO) as a means for leading selfregulating teams. But how do MBO systems work and how effective are they.' The MBO system of a company in the construction supply industry was analysed. This company had implemented MBO at team level five years ago. In order to explore the mechanisms and effects of MBO at team level a model for group goal selling was tested. One hundred and sevenly-six employees in twenty-six teams participaled in ihe study, bul only twentyone groups having objective productivity data were included in the analyses at team level. Group goal commitment and group goals moderated hy task interdependence are supposed to influence group processes as a mediating variable for group effectiveness. Resulls do not consistently support this model. Group goals and goal commitment predict group productivity and job satisfaction but group processes mediale only the relationship to job satisfaction. The moderating effect of task interdependence could not be supporled. The consequences for developing a model for MBO at team level and implementing cffeclive MBO systems are discu,ssed.

This paper is written as part of the research project «Regulation Control and Auditing» funded by the Norwegian Research Council. An earlier version of the paper was presented the EGPA study group on productivity and quality in the public sector-Public sector performance measurements, EGPA conference, Bern, August 31-September 3 2005. We wish to thank Åge Johnsen the other participantes at the study group for valuable comments. Per Laegreid Project leader 1 Paper prepared for the EGPA study group on productivity and quality in the public sector-Public sector performance measurements, EGPA conference, Bern, August 31-September 3 2005.

This study extends Weill's (Do computers payow ? A study of information technology investments and manufacturing performance. Washington, DC: International Center for Information Technologies, Information Systems Research, 3(4), 307}333) work by categorizing IT investment into four types of management objectives: transactional, strategic, informational and threshold. The relationships between these management objectives and "rm's role (de"ned in terms of traditional, evolving and strategic) are investigated through a questionnaire survey of managers in the service sector. As expected, "rms adopting a traditional role seem to favor investment in transactional IT. However, there appears to be an increasing emphasis on strategic IT investment for all three types of "rms, regardless of the role of IT. Implications of the results are discussed.

Management by objectives (MBO) is a technique for integrating ecological concerns into national political and administrative structures. Politicians determine environmental objectives and interim targets to be implemented and assessed by civil servants in national, regional, and local contexts. Well-developed organizational communication is a prerequisite for MBO. However, communicationrelated obstacles can arise when using MBO in public environmental management. We examine communicative

Cognitive biases that may affect learning by college presidents and the effects of these biases on the presidency and higher education were studied. Based on a recent study of presidential judgment under uncertainty, data were obtained on the terceptions of 252 campus chief executive officers concerning institutional leadership and quality, and the soun,es of institutional improvement and change. Presidents indicated on a 100-point scale how effective they thought the average college president was as an institutional leader. They also rated themselves *

The successful installation of MBO requires the development of res(.m-or~ented, responsibility-sharing, and non-zero-sum attitudes rn all managers. And the creation of those attitudes may require a mmi-cultural revolution. ~1 1 organization development programs have a time lag between program initiation and achievement of While each OD program will have its own time lag, it appears that Management By Objectives, as OD program, has the longest time lag because of its comprehensiveness. OGen, top management Cannot understand why the time lag in MBO in-Jt&aon should be SO great; the top managers have he toughest jobs, and if MBO can be applied at the top levels in the organization, what is the holdup at the lower levels? It is too e a~y to dismiss the prob ]em with the response that lower-level managers resist change. Of c O U~, they resist change; almost everyone resists change (at least once) in his working lifetime. It is helpful, however, to know why lower-level managers resist or appear to resist MBO. In this article we will discuss some of the barriers to rapid and successful installation of Management By Objectives. We will also expand upon the popular concept of MBO a~ a system of managerial perfomance appraisal by outlining ways to install MBO efficiently and effectively. Robert Howell has presented one plausible explanation of why it takes SO long to install MBO in an organization.% He claims that organizations must evolve through three separate and distinct phases of development of an MBO system. In the first phase, objectives are used primarily €or performance appraisal. Also, an attempt is made to use MBO as a program for motivation by allowing subordinates an opportunity to participate in setting objectives for their jobs. Learning in this first phase is directed mainly to setting realistic, measurable objectives for each individual managerial position. Unfortunately, most managers interpret measurable to mean quantifiable, with the result that few objectives are set, and most of those are seen as being trivial. 1 Robert A. Howell, "Managing by Objectives-A Three

This article expands the hypothesis proposed by Peter F. Drücker and Dirk Baecker, that is, how the evolution of computer communication manifests and presses ahead the detemporization and poly-contextuality of information and therefore is said to be the driver for an unmanageable complexity within modern organizations. In order to do so, the article uses an illustrative case of Management by Objectives as it appears within the governmental programmes in Denmark associated with New Public Management. This case shows how this technology enables the production of a diversity of antagonistic images of the organization relative to its environment (polycontextuality) and in particular how these effects emerge due to different timebindings within organizations (organized temporality). As such the hypothesis is expanded in three ways: first of all, the hypothesis is expanded as polycontextuality is comprehended within the temporal dimension, that is, as the differences between timebindings. Second of all, the article renders probable these identity-problems of modern organizations but due to another technology which mediates communication: Management by Objectives. Thus, identity problems should be associated with other media of communication too, than the one of the computer communication. Third of all, the implications of identity problems of modern organizations are often associated with the impossibility of management or with a need for more complex ways of managing. The article is an attempt to specify this approach suggesting 2. order management as a matter of observing the observations enabled by management technologies. To these ends the article draws upon Luhmann´s system theory in order to direct attention to these organizational identity problems. This contribution is not conclusive. It is an attempt to expand a strong hypothesis in the need of further investigation. 3.1 Systems theory Luhmann makes a sharp distinction between social systems and psychic systems: social systems reproduce themselves on the basis of communication while psychic systems refer to human beings and reproduce themselves on the basis of thoughts. This, however, does not exclude concepts such as 'mind', 'person' and 'action', but exactly allow these constructs to emerge as different ascriptions performed by the communication of systems. Luhmann also suggests that we speak of autopoiesis whenever the communication of a social system is reproduced by communication itself. This is done in either of two ways: on an operational level, communications obtain their relevance only through following communications that refer to them, or on the level of reflection, when communication according to the same logic addresses the communicative premises on which the communication rests. This construction forms the de-ontic basis of social systems theory: Communications does not represent facts, as if facts are something which exists outside the communication itself. Both time, objects and sociality becomes factual due to communication. The implication of this approach directs attention toward communication itself. Communication refers to communication. This is not to say that social systems are mysterious flows of communication detached anything else. As Luhmann put is, communication communicates but demands are put on individuals to communicate in ways that are guided by social expectations of structures (in terms of programs) and semantics (in terms of generalized differences). This is not to say, that system theory claims a deterministic relation between communication and action. Lots of organizational practices, as thematized within communication, do not

The paper contains a study of determinants in implementation of a tool supporting Management by Objectives process (MBO) in a universal bank environment. Solution described, based on "best practice", takes into account both the bank's business model and its management processes routine, which the Management Information System is derived from, as well as selected aspects of organizational culture, which determine the choice of the functional solutions supporting processes performed in financial institution.

The goal of presented contribution is to characterize position of objectives as a sequential function in the management system with emphasis on strategy aspects and their evaluation. Objectives p lay a dominant role in Engineering Pedagogy, where system approach is applied, too. Among other tasks, we are aimed at problems of analysis and further determination of common and different views

Educational accountability must be applied as diligently to school boards as it is to superintendents, administrators, and teachers. Effective appraisal can take place only when performance is compared to objectives. The successful board demonstrates a commitment to providing public accountability in all phases of its operation. It must have the means to evaluate itself critically in terms of the quality of education funded by the taxpayer, the financial commitment to the taxpayer, the existence of effective employee and community relationships, and the management leadership demonstrated. (Author)

This study investigated the effects of participation training, agreement, and decision importance on teachers* desires for participation in decision-making and their perceptions that participation would increase decision effectiveness. ResuYts indicated that teachers Who had received participation training preferred leas participation in decisicn-making when there was disagreement among them than when there was agreement, ard-tendeirto. believe that participaticn would be less effective when there was disagreement. On more important decisicns, untrained teachers preferred more participation when there was disagreement than when there was agreement, and rated*perticipaticn as more likely to achieve effective decisions when there.vas disagreement, leclications of-the results for contingency models Ci participation and ft:it* partIcipation. training are discussed.AAuthor)

The scheme briefly delineated here is an attempt to solve three important personnel problems in school district administration. How does one (1) evaluate administrators in a decentralized system: (2) clarify and reconcile personal and organizational goals to achieve accountability; and (3) provide detailed feedback on the consequences of administrative behavior in order to encourage change in ineffective behavior. The scheme depends on careful delineation of system goals, and on the annual development of written statements of personal goals by administrators. These are guided by agreement on major functions and by system goals. The statements must provide criteria for measuring achievement. They are discussed in planning sessions and refined and revised until acceptable both to the administrator concerned and the school district representative. The initial implementation revealed some practical difficulties, but more importantly suggested that theories that define organizations as goal-oriented systems are incomplete. Exchange cr cooperation-based theories seem to be essential adjuncts. The scheme seems to have some utility. At the very least, it may help administrators drowning in a sea of trivia to identify some high priority activities and allocate their time and effort more rationally than at present. (Author+ U S DE PANTMENT OF NEAL TH EOUCAT.ON Al WELFARE NATIONAL iNST ITU TE OF EDUCATION ,t .. r-fr rf, f' r 'rf .t r.r