Handbook of Management Scales/Management style

Management style (alpha = 0.71; 0.70)

Description

To measure the construct, the authors relied on scale items previously used by Cameron & Quinn (1999), Chatterjee et al. (1992), Datta (1991), Hofstede et al. (1990), Kanter & Corn (1994), and Pothukuchi et al. (2002).

Definition

A firm’s management style is defined by its unique managerial approach, control systems, decision-making style, and communication modes (Covin & Slevin, 1988; Datta, 1991)..

Items

• The firm/partner relies on an informal organization (e.g., has few managerial layers, loose control and monitoring; would settle for a handshake instead of sticking to bureaucratic procedures, contracts and legal documentation). (0.76; 0.81)
• The firm/partner uses consensus seeking rather than authoritarian decision making (e.g., many people are democratically involved in decisions instead of one senior person making all the calls). (0.81; 0.58)
• The firm/partner prefers informal over formal communication (e.g., bullet-point presentations or verbal communication instead of lengthy written reports). (0.77; 0.80)
• The firm/partner has an apolitical organization (e.g., decisions are guided by concrete considerations and planned processes rather than by personalities and hidden agendas). (0.56; 0.70)

Source

• Lavie et al. (2012): Organizational Differences, Relational Mechanisms, and Alliance Performance. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 33, No. 13, pp. 1453–1479

Comments

The items might be a bit long. They mainly help to distinguish between formal and informal management styles.