Allen Amason to speak at Center research seminar
Georgia Southern University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Learning and Leadership is hosting a research seminar on management and decision making. Allen Amason, professor of the Strategic Management and Chair of the Management Department in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, will speak on “From Top Managers to Strategic Decision Makers.” The seminar is free and open to the public. It will be held Feb. 22 from 10a.m.-11:30a.m. in the College of Business Administration Building Room 3311.
Abstract:
The upper echelon perspective suggests that decisions are best understood as products of groups of managers known as top management teams or TMTs (Hambrick & Mason, 1984). However, a clear and practical definition of the TMT has been elusive. So, various researchers have defined and operationalized the TMT in a variety of ways. Examples include all of the managers at or above the level of VP (Hambrick & D’Aveni, 1992; Keck & Tushman, 1993), all of the inside board members (Haleblian & Finkelstein, 1993), the two highest levels of executives (Weirsema & Bantel, 1992) and the five highest paid top managers (Carpenter, Sanders & Gregersen, 2001). In 21 TMT studies published in AMJ and SMJ during the last five years, 12 unique conceptualizations of the TMT were presented. A clear and practical definition of the TMT may be elusive for good reason.
Specifically, Finkelstein, Hambrick, and Cannella (2009) explain that TMT definitions vary because they all attempt to approximate the actual strategic decision- aking group, and membership in this group may vary from decision to decision. Roberto (2003) found evidence of this and described how strategic decision-making groups changed over time and context. This suggests an interesting question; what is the relationship between the TMT and the specific groups of top managers who actually make strategic decisions? Put differently, how is it that managers, from among the TMT, actually come to participate in specific strategic decisions? To address this, we develop a model explaining the factors that determine which managers will be included in strategic decision-making. Such a model is important and should improve understanding of strategic decision-making, as well provide insights into the mixed findings from past research.
About Allen Amason:
Allen C. Amason is a professor of Strategic Management and Chair of the Management Department in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He earned his Ph.D. in International Strategic Management from the University of South Carolina and has been on the faculty of the University of Georgia since 1996. He earned his undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern in 1984. Professor Amason’s research focuses on strategic decision making and top management team processes. He is the author of the book, Strategic Management: From Theory to Practice, and he has published more than two-dozen articles and chapters in outlets like the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, the Journal of Management Studies and the Journal of Business Venturing. He is AssociateEditor of the Journal of Management Studies and was previously Sr. Associate Editor of the Journal of Management.
He has also served on the Editorial Boards of the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and Entrepreneurship, Theory & Practice. Professor Amason’s teaching and consulting work focuses on strategic management, strategic decision-making, and top management processes. He is on the boards of Georgia Oak Partners, a private equity firm, and the Russian Foundation for Population Health & Recovery, an international NGO. He is an award winning executive educator, and was named Terry College Teacher of the Year in 2006 and Terry College MBA Teacher of the Year in 2005. He has done C-level consulting with firms like Exide Technologies, Primewest Energy, Rosetta Marketing, Johnson & Johnson, Computer Associates, Novartis, Tenet Healthcare, Nortel, and Advanced Micro Devices.
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