Charlene Lew

Purpose: The study aims to develop a distinct and parsimonious scale of affordable loss. The affordable loss heuristic explains a way of reasoning in entrepreneurial investment decision-making in uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach: The scale development process spans several phases including conceptualization, qualitative interviews and expert item review in the item development phase. In the exploratory phase, two studies are used to refine the instrument. In the validation phase, the scale is validated through confirmatory factor analysis and assessment of the invariance thereof. Findings: The study produces a two-dimensional reflective scale of affordable loss, including dimensions of a loss heuristic in uncertainty and experimental mindset. The scale is validated and invariant across different geographical contexts. Research limitations/implications: The scale builds on the theory of affordable loss, presenting clearer insights into the nature and dimensions of this heuristic. It offers an empirical contribution by enabling the measurement of affordable loss as a construct in entrepreneurial decision-making. Practical implications: An understanding of affordable loss gives practitioners the means to assess and develop entrepreneurial reasoning. Originality/value: The study presents a novel measure of the affordable loss investment heuristic, paving the way for future studies into its antecedents and outcomes.

Purpose: Following identity theory from a symbolic-interactionist perspective, we explore the post-retirement role identity reformation of public company CEOs to uncover the process elements through which role identities reform after retirement from highly salient roles.Design/methodology/approach: We applied a self-relevant qualitative exploration based on 30 in-depth interviews and employed an interpretative phenomenological analysis.Findings: The findings reveal six interrelated, contemporaneous and contiguous underlying process elements within post-retirement liminality and emergence clusters, which shape work and nonwork role identities that contribute to retirement stability and well-being.Practical implications: The research provides a basis for organizations and human resource specialists to guide retiring senior executives on the psychological effects, cognitive processes and practical considerations of the retirement transition.Originality/value: The study provides a framework for understanding how the post-retirement void evokes novel appraisals of self, others and context. These appraisals act as stimuli of an integrated cognitive, social and behavioral work role identity reformation process.

Purpose: The research explores indecision of strategic leaders in a complex case organization. This research offers new insights into the drivers of indecision of upper echelons decision-makers and explores the perceived consequences of the decision-makers' indecision.Design/methodology/approach: Following a review of literature on upper echelons theory and strategic decision-making, indecision and the antecedents and consequences of indecision, the research follows a qualitative exploratory design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 20 upper echelons decision-makers with responsibility across 19 Sub-Saharan African countries in a case company. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.Findings: The findings reveal that specific organizational, interpersonal and personal factors work together to drive strategic leader indecision in a complex organization. Strategic leader indecision brings about several negative organizational consequences and demotivates team members.Research limitations/implications: The findings are based on a single-case exploratory design but represent geographical diversity.Practical implications: The research cautions organizations to deal with the drivers of strategic leader indecision to help avoid potential negative consequences of stifled organizational performance and team demotivation.Originality/value: The study offers previously unknown insights into strategic leader indecision. This study builds on current literature on the antecedents and consequences of indecision and has a new research setting of strategic leader indecision in a complex organization.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether organizational support for innovation and informational extrinsic rewards moderate the relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behavior.Design/methodology/approach: Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses based on data from 150 knowledge workers tested the hypotheses for a South African sample.Findings: The results confirmed a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behavior, and found positive relationships between both organizational support for innovation and informational extrinsic rewards and innovative work behavior. While organizational support positively moderated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behavior, acting in synergy with intrinsic motivation, informational extrinsic rewards had a negative moderating effect.Practical implications: When organizations want to encourage knowledge workers to generate, promote and realize innovative ideas, they should create an environment that encourages autonomy, competence and relatedness, with support for creativity and differences of ideas.Originality/value: The study provides new indications of the interactions of synergistic extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation to affect innovative work behavior.

Orientation: Similarity of leaders and members encourage positive relational exchanges. However, the role of different time-use preferences, and how leaders and members adapt to the preferences of others in relational exchanges have not yet been studied. Research Purpose: This research explores how time-use preference plays a role in the dyadic relationships between leaders and members within leader–member exchange (LMX) theory. Motivation for the study: We argue that differences between the time-use preferences of leaders and team members result in relational adaptations. Research approach/design and method: The qualitative research design employed semi-structured interviews with nine leaders and 11 employees in a major retail bank in South Africa and data were analysed through thematic analysis. Main findings: The research shows the nature of time-use preference in varying relational exchanges, discover how time-use preferences manifest and how leaders and members adapt to one another’s preferences. Contribution/value add: The study contributes to time-use preference literature by illustrating how polychronic and monochronic preferences may manifest in the workplace. Furthermore, we contribute to an understanding of the nature of relational exchanges in LMX theory by illustrating the influence of polychronicity on dyadic relationships and discuss how leaders and members adapt their preferences. Practical/managerial implications: We propose a framework of the dynamics of time-use preference-based relational entrainment and provide practical considerations to help mitigate the negative impacts that differing preferences can have.

Orientation: Values influence decision-making in organisations; however, it is not yet clear how values of openness to change and conservation determine decision quality when managers are faced by competing values.Research purpose: The research examines the relationships between managerial values of openness to change and conservation and cognitive decision quality.Motivation for research: We argue that values influence cognitive decision-making quality.Research approach/design and method: The quantitative research design made use of the portrait value questionnaire–based values of openness to change and conservation in relation to a measure of decision-making quality based on two value clashing decision scenarios.Main findings: The results revealed that the managers’ cognitive decision-making quality was lower for those who valued tradition within the conservation value block, with some indication that self-directed thought related to better cognitive processing of decision alternatives.Contribution/value-add: The research demonstrates how the operationalised integrative complexity measure may be used as a novel decision-making quality metric. In addition, it introduces new value-sensitive decision-making scenarios. It also demonstrates that decision quality considerations in the value-driven decision-making dialogue are as important as ethical considerations. A values and quality decision-making framework gives managers an approach to higher quality decisions.Practical/managerial implications: As values are stable rules of behaviour, the results support the development of decision-making quality and values awareness for managers.

Although practitioners have long sought to define risk culture, its role in strategic decision-making is not yet well understood. This paper addresses this gap from an institutional theory and organisational culture perspective. Findings from a qualitative study in the automotive industry provide insights into the importance of risk culture in strategic decision-making. Based on the findings, we propose a framework for understanding the different factors of risk culture that affect strategic decision-making. This yields insights into the facets of risk culture and highlights the role that both the board as well as management play in driving a risk culture and fostering the values and behaviours required for enabling risk appropriate strategic decisions. Management may use the findings to define a culture that will drive risk-appropriate behaviour, create alignment for the organisation, allow for transparency and accountability and foster improved strategic decision-making.

In this study we investigate whether investors are prone to take risks, both in terms of how they rate their risk propensity and their behavior in choosing between options with different risk levels, and whether they display overconfidence and underdog bias. We also investigate the relationships among underdog bias, overconfidence and risk propensity. The results indicate overconfidence levels similar to that in other populations and do not reveal underdog bias or high levels of risk propensity. We found support for a negative predictive relationship between underdog bias and overconfidence.

Purpose: The theoretical value of scenario-planning as a strategic tool is well recognized in literature. The purpose of this study is to explore the corporate reasoning of formal and informal usage (or non-usage) of scenario-planning in strategic decision-making.Design/methodology/approach: An overview of the relevant literature on scenario-planning as a strategic decision-making tool in the context of complexity and uncertainty is presented, in combination with 15 case studies on executives in the South African context.Findings: The findings are based on a study in the emerging market context. From the case studies reported, it is evident that industry, organizational and leadership-related factors influence the effective use or non-use of scenario-planning.Research limitations/implications: Empirical findings are reported, contributing to an assessment framework to revisit the usage of formal and informal scenario-planning in strategic decision-making. Further research to determine which supportive tools and technologies should be used for scenario-planning across multiple contexts is needed.Practical implications: The study expands upon previous insights into the formal and informal usage (or non-usage) of scenario-planning in strategic decision-making based on an emerging market context.Originality/value: This study contributes to understanding the value of scenario-planning in complex contexts that require strategic adaptability and offers a hands-on toolkit and shortlist of assessment criteria to conceptualize the organizational reasoning and scholarly framing of formal, informal or non-scenario-planning in strategic decision-making.