Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

The influence of organizational leaders on the evolution and maintenance of organizational culture has been accepted as a fact in organizational life. The roles and challenges of organizational leaders are contingent upon the way organizational culture is conceived. In the traditional rational perspective, organizational culture is treated as an “instrument” or “function” that can and should be manipulated by leaders to help organizations adapt to the external environmental realities. In the symbolic-interpretive perspective, organizational culture is viewed as a “social phenomenon.” Consequently, the roles and challenges of leaders become significantly different from the traditionalrational perspective. In this paper, the authors have discussed the symbolic-interpretive perspective, with a focus OB semiotic analysis, to understand organization and organizational culture. The authors have argued that organizational symbols, rituals, and stories are too critical to be marginalized or ignored. The authors have proposed three roles of organizational leaders from the symbolic-interpretive perspective: as symbols, as the central characters in organizational stories, and as managers of symbols and rituals.

Numerous empirical studies have suggested that the economic performance of international joint ventures (IJVs) is modest, at best. This suggestion may be inaccurate, however, since the studies' findings are based on ex post managerial perceptions of IJV performance that are found to be biased. Stated differently, there is a need to investigate IJV performance from ex ante “external* perspective—that of capital markets. Consequently, this study investigates the extent to which IJVformation announcements increase the shareholder value pf participating firms. Despite the merits of engaging a capital markets' perspective, it is necessary to investigate the extent to which capital markets are informationally ‘efflcient’- particularly given persistent doubts about whether capital markets really are as efficient as is widely accepted. Hence, this study compares IJV&' expected performance with their actual performance that is reported in other empirical studies. This study engages the event-study methodology to examine the impact of IJV formation announcements on the shareholder value of IJV parents, and tries to circumvent the methodology's principal limitations in doing so. Based on a sample of more than 500 IJVs, the study's findings indicate participation in IJVs increases parents' shareholder value by an average of approximately one per cent, albeit this figure varies across industry sectors (manufacturing; non-manufacturing) and firm size (large; small). Shareholder value is created for about 50 per cent Of firms in the sample. Moreover, the study's findings suggest that capital markets are informationally efficient

Between May 1992 and June 2001, 72 Indian companies tapped the international capital markets with their equity offerings in form of Depositary Receipts (DRs). Initially, most of these programmes were in the form of Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) and were traded on London and Luxembourg stock exchanges. Since 1999, many Indian companies have been listing their American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the US stock exchanges. Home market responses to issuance of DRs are of interest to the policy makers, investors, market intermediaries, CFOs, and finance scholars. Policy makers m emerging markets are increasingly concerned about the consequences for the domestic equity market when companies list stocks abroad. The present paper assesses the impact of listing of ADRs/GDRs on the liquidity of the firm's underlying domestic shares by using a sample of 30 Indian DR programmes that listed on the foreign markets between 1st January, 1996 and 30th June, 2001. Consistent with the theoretical assertions and results of Domowitz, Glen and Madhavan (1998), the authors record mixed results — while ADR listings in most cases reduce the liquidity of the domestic underlying shares, GDR listings in most cases increase the liquidity of the domestic underlying shares.

Issue connected with business ethic s have recently acquired prominence in the global scenario in general and in the Indian context in particular but there are hardly any studies that delve into the issues of ethical behaviour in Indian organizations. The situational approach in ethics places heavy emphasis on the role of external environment/culture of an organization in ethical behaviour of the individuals. In line with this argument, die present study focuses on ethical behaviour of managers in public and private Vector organizations. Responses of 319 managers reveal that there are some differences in the nature of decisions (ethical or unethical) that the managers make in these two types of organizations. Results are analysed for the design of control systems in these two types of organizations.

As proliferation of the media was taking Indian households in its stride, marketers were quick to grab the opportunities presented by this phenomenon. A significant transformation which became evident was the increased visibility of celebrities such as movie stars, sports persons, and others. In such a scenario, the impact of celebrity endorsers on consumers' attitudes to product evaluations and purchase is expected to change. This paper attempts to explore the influence of gender on consumers' perception about male and female celebrity endorsers' effectiveness on three dimensions, i.e., attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise. The findings, of the study are discussed to draw implications for berth practitioners as well as researchers.

The case featured in this issue presents the history and managerial initiatives of a rapidly growing organization in the consumer durable industry. The industry is characterized by the presence of several competing (national/multinational) players, changing consumer need and preferences, and MNC's access to national market. The Organization needs to take stock of what it has achieved so far, what needs to be done, and how?

In this review article, Sampat P Singh reviews two books on organizational leadership titled “Managing Dyadic Interactions in Organizational Leadership” and “Leadership and Power — Ethical Explorations.” Readers can link this review article with the earlier one by the same reviewer titled “Developing Organizational Leadership” which was published in the October-December 2000 (Vol 25, No 4) issue of Vikalpa.

This section features abstracts of articles covering empirical studies, experiences, ideas, and theories published in Indian and international journals. Sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, this service is intended to facilitate Indian management research.

Authors desirous of having their publications considered for inclusion in this feature may please send reprints of their articles to Vikalpa Editorial Office.