Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers
Academy of Management ReviewPublished 1 April 1984
Donald C. Hambrick, Phyllis A. Mason
Citations10,275
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score14.40
SNIP6.11
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
Abstract
Theorists in various fields have discussed characteristics of top managers. This paper attempts to synthesize these previously fragmented literatures around a more general “upper echelons perspective.” The theory states that organizational outcomes—strategic choices and performance levels—are partially predicted by managerial background characteristics. Propositions and methodological suggestions are included.
Keywords
Business, Management and Accounting
Columbia Law ReviewThe Modern Corporation and Private Property
7,589 Citations1933Joseph V. Kline, Adolph A. Berle +1 more
American Journal of SociologyThe Population Ecology of Organizations
7,405 Citations1977Michael T. Hannan, John H. Freeman
SSRN Electronic JournalA Behavioral Theory of the Firm
4,905 Citations1963Richard M. Cyert, James G. March
SociologyOrganizational Structure, Environment and Performance: The Role of Strategic Choice
4,770 Citations1972John Child
Academy of Management JournalOrganizational Innovation: The Influence of Individual, Organizational, and Contextual Factors on Hospital Adoption of Technological and Administrative Innovations.
2,335 Citations1981John R. Kimberly, Michael J. Evanisko
Individual, organizational, and contextual variables were found to be much better predictors of hospital adoption of technological innovations than of administrative innovations.
Scanning the business environment
1,160 Citations2008Francis J. Aguilar
Administrative Science QuarterlyThe General Managers.
995 Citations1984Karlene H. Roberts, John P. Kotter
American Sociological ReviewFunctional and Conflict Theories of Educational Stratification
815 Citations1971Randall Collins
Academy of Management JournalTop Executive Locus of Control and Its Relationship to Strategy-Making, Structure, and Environment.
758 Citations1982Danny Miller, Mario De +1 more
American Sociological ReviewLeadership and Organizational Performance: A Study of Large Corporations
740 Citations1972Stanley Lieberson, James O’Connor
It appears that the importance of external restrictions, and hence the maximum possible leadership influence, may range widely between specific performance criteria, which suggests a perspective on organization performance that may be applied to the leadership influence in other large organizations and political bodies.
Strategic Management JournalEnvironmental scanning and organizational strategy
726 Citations1982Donald C. Hambrick
Test empirically the relationships between the environmental scanning activities of upper‐level executives and their organizations' strategies, on the premise that executives would scan to reinforce their organization's particular basis for competing.
Administrative Science QuarterlyEnvironment, Strategy, and Power Within Top Management Teams
600 Citations1981Donald C. Hambrick
This study distinguishes two sources of critical contingencies for organizations: environment and strategy and explores how coping with each type of contingency is related to power within top management teams.
Journal of Management StudiesMANAGERIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH COMPANY PERFORMANCE PART I
536 Citations1974John Child
Strategic Management JournalPerformance and consensus
502 Citations1980L. J. Bourgeois
Top management consensus on corporate objectives and on the competitive weapons employed to attain them was studied and it was found that while agreement on both is associated positively with economic performance, agreement on means is significantly more important.
Academy of Management JournalAssessing Personal, Role, and Organizational Predictors of Managerial Commitment.
494 Citations1978J. Stevens, Janice M. Beyer +1 more
Using a role and exchange theory framework, this study examines the commitment to their organization and to the federal service of 634 managers in 71 federal government organizations and indicates that certain role factors such as tenure and work overload and personal factors are strong influences on commitment.
American Sociological ReviewSociometric Location and Innovativeness: Reformulation and Extension of the Diffusion Model
443 Citations1970Marshall H. Becker
Administrative Science QuarterlySuccessor Type and Organizational Change in the Corporate Enterprise
376 Citations1972Donald L. Helmich, Warren B. Brown
Academy of Management JournalEffects of Ownership and Performance on Executive Tenure in U.S. Corporations.
352 Citations1980Gerald R. Salancik, Jeremy M. Pfeffer
Academy of Management JournalAge and Experience as Determinants of Managerial Information Processing and Decision Making Performance.
338 Citations1975Ruth Taylor
Strategic Management JournalStrategic awareness within top management teams
332 Citations1981Donald C. Hambrick
Strategic awareness is greater in organizations that have recently changed their strategies than in those that have not, and differs across the three industries studied.
American Economic ReviewManagerial Pay and Corporate Performance
312 Citations1970Wilbur G. Lewellen, Blaine Huntsman
Academy of Management JournalA Model of Corporate Performance as a Function of Environmental, Organizational, and Leadership Influences.
310 Citations1981Nancy Weiner, Thomas A. Mahoney
Medical Entomology and ZoologyManagerial process and organizational behavior
273 Citations1976Alan C. Filley, Robert J. House
American Sociological ReviewAge, Cohorts and the Generation of Generations
267 Citations1970Gösta Carlsson, Katarina Karlsson
Journal of Political EconomyExecutive Motivations, Earnings, and Consequent Equity Performance
217 Citations1971Robert T. Masson
The Economic JournalIndustrial Economics: Theory and Evidence.
210 Citations1979Keith Cowling, Donald A. Hay +1 more
Journal of Applied PsychologyAn empirical study of contemporary beliefs about work in American society.
189 Citations1978Rogene A. Buchholz
American Sociological ReviewProfit Constraints on Managerial Autonomy: Managerial Theory and the Unmaking of the Corporation President
161 Citations1981David R. James, Michael Soref
Strategic Management JournalStrategic management archetypes
139 Citations1980J. G. Wissema, Hanneke Pol +1 more
Classifications of strategies and of management archetypes are developed that can assist both managers‐employees and managers‐Employers when filling management vacancies and be used to assist management development programmes and to relate management planning to strategic planning.
Personnel PsychologyTHE BELIEF STRUCTURE OF MANAGERS RELATIVE TO WORK CONCEPTS MEASURED BY A FACTOR ANALYTIC MODEL<sup>1</sup>
80 Citations1977Rogene A. Buchholz
Journal of Consumer ResearchInfluences on Married Women's Volunteer Work Participation
64 Citations1981Vicki R. Schram, Marilyn M. Dunsing
Management DecisionManagement youth and company growth
60 Citations1970Peter M. Hart, John W. Mellors
Administrative Science QuarterlyForms of Government and Socioeconomic Characteristics of Suburbs
47 Citations1963Leo F. Schnore, Robert R. Alford
PsychiatryManagement Succession and Administrative Style
46 Citations1967Joel Kotin, Joel Kotin
This study of management succession is the second of two articles dealing with the events that occurred at a state mental hospital following a change of superintendents, concerned with the interaction of social structure and executive personality in determining the successor's role.
American Sociological ReviewThe Regeneration of Social Organizations
46 Citations1971Kenneth McNeil, James D. Thompson
Journal of Consumer ResearchAllocation of Time to the Mass Media
38 Citations1981Jacob Hornik, Mary Jane Schlinger
Academy of Management JournalUnderstanding Reorganizations of Divisionalized Companies.
19 Citations1979Stuart Allen
Addictive BehaviorsAlcohol abuse among veterans: The importance of demographic factors
10 Citations1979Joseph A. Boscarino
Initial analysis of a representative national sample of noninstitutionalized adults indicated that veterans had over twice as high a prevalence of defined alcohol abuse than nonveterans, but after controlling for demographic factors, there was a substantial reduction in this difference.
Personnel PsychologyA MARKET RESEARCH APPROACH TO DETERMINING LOCAL LABOR MARKET AVAILABILITY FOR NON‐MANAGEMENT JOBS
7 Citations1978Richard J. Ritchie, Victor D. Beardsley