Nigel Nicholson | London Business School (original) (raw)

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Papers by Nigel Nicholson

Oxford University Press eBooks, Apr 1, 2019

Chapter 5 explores an idea central to the medical profession, that a physician should be an auton... more Chapter 5 explores an idea central to the medical profession, that a physician should be an autonomous agent. In the archaic and early classical period, physicians faced being associated with servility and a lack of autonomy. The autonomy of modern physicians is also threatened by a system that frames patients as customers and applies increasing pressure to make medical decisions based on broad outcomes data. Physicians should seek to regain their professional autonomy not by resisting data-based decision-making but rather by designing and leading the collection and analysis of the data, as well as creating and implementing evidence-based guidelines.

If transitions are turning points then clearly some are more redirecting than others. At one extr... more If transitions are turning points then clearly some are more redirecting than others. At one extreme, transitions can be the changes that keep one on a steady course, like the adjustments a driver has to make to keep on the road or the budgetry changes a household initiates to maintain a steady state in the quality of life. Alternatively transitions may be junctures at which the entire balance and direction of the life-course shifts. Our interest veers toward the latter, though it is important to recognize that such far reaching effects may not always be immediately visible to the person undergoing the change. Fundamental life changes may initially only be apprehended as small movements; the significance of a change may not be appreciated for some time; successive minor developments may accumulate into major new branches of growth, and so only be perceptible as turning points when one is looking back over a lengthy period of time. The theory of transitions we considered in Chapter 5 illustrates how a number of different outcomes may flow from the adjustment process, and we have seen how role innovation is a fairly constant adaptive strategy in managers' work lives. But we have also seen how the job changes managers experience are, more often than not, radical in the altered situations they represent and the new demands they make.

Administrative Science Quarterly, Sep 1, 1985

SAGE Publications, Inc. eBooks, 2007

Human Relations, Dec 1, 1993

The managerial plateau is generally assumed to be problematic for organizations, generated by mot... more The managerial plateau is generally assumed to be problematic for organizations, generated by motives for advancement outstripping opportunities for upward mobility. However, previous research has used unitary criteria for plateauing of untested validity, and failed to examine the phenomenon contextually by taking account of internal labor market characteristics. Measurement of agegrading was used to address these problems. Drawing upon a sample of 4000 managers at various levels of a large corporation the present study had three objectives. First, in setting out to evaluate the characteristics of the internal labor market, results showed patterns consistent with a partial "tournament" career system, but also that different career systems may coexist within the single organization, through advancement criteria differing across company levels. Second, in aiming to assess the relationships between conventional plateau criteria and agegrading, agegrading was found to covary with the more widely used criteria, while avoiding some of their difficulties. Third, looking at the consequences for managers' career attitudes and adjustment, it was found that off-line slow (i.e., plateaued) managers did not exhibit lowered career satisfaction, adjustment, or mobility aspirations, despite the fact that they have lower expectations of promotional and non-promotional job moves. At the same time some off-line fast (i.e., high fliers) managers did have higher satisfactions and expectations. Results are interpreted in terms of countervailing satisfactions, exit costs, and loyalty. It is also noted that these features can conceal from companies the shortcomings of their career development systems, and lead to the neglect of constructive alternatives to promotion for plateaued staff.

University of Chicago Press eBooks, 2014

Journal of General Management, 1997

If homeworking becomes more common, there are dangers and benefits both for the organizations and... more If homeworking becomes more common, there are dangers and benefits both for the organizations and the individuals involved.

The “I” of Leadership, 2015

Evolutionary perspectives contend that complex structures in the social and the biological world ... more Evolutionary perspectives contend that complex structures in the social and the biological world have developed over time through causal processes that require little or no foresight but considerable trial and error. Evolutionary thought in organizational analysis comprises two distinct intellectual lines. The first, concerned with organizational change, relies to a considerable extent on a selection logic in which change comes about through the birth and death of individual entities that make up a population of similar things. This account of ...

London Business School Review

The late South African president exemplified an inner strength that all business leaders should a... more The late South African president exemplified an inner strength that all business leaders should aspire to, says Nigel Nicholson

Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2005

The article applies evolutionary theory to the concept of career success, to argue the primacy of... more The article applies evolutionary theory to the concept of career success, to argue the primacy of ‘objective’ outcomes, utilities such as status and wealth, and to analyze why the relationship with subjective career success is not stronger. Although there are grounds for expecting subjective evaluations to be sympathetic secondary accompaniments of objective success and failure, there are substantial numbers of paradoxically ‘happy losers’ and ‘unhappy winners’ in the career game. These are explored theoretically as adaptive outcomes of self‐regulation and sense‐making processes. The nature of that game is then explored by a closer examination of the interrelations and decay functions of the major objective success outcomes. This is undertaken as a theoretical exercise, and also by reference to the evidence in the literature. Both approaches support the existence of close linkages among most of these outcomes, though empirical data reveal variations that highlight the importance for careerists to be aware of trade‐offs and risks in career strategies. Context mediates these relationships, especially key contingencies such as individual differences, gender, career stage, culture, and business sector. The implications are discussed; in particular the role of careers theory and research in helping to cut through some of the ideological aspects of ‘subjective’ careers in order to help raise the awareness of actors in the labor market about objective career realities. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2008

It is understandable that the family business field is highly business-focused, yet whether value... more It is understandable that the family business field is highly business-focused, yet whether value is created and sustained — or wantonly destroyed — is in almost all cases due to the family and its dynamic. Some families are able to generate remarkable “family capital,” based on a mixture of strong values and positive relationships that sustains a market-beating culture, but some others are clearly highly dysfunctional. Indeed, some become so as a result of the pressures that owning and running a business bring to bear on the family (Gordon and Nicholson, 2008). They lack the adaptability and resilience to be able to harness the forces underlying the business and drive them in a positive direction. Indeed, businesses doubly test families by not only subjecting them to unusual pressures, but also by locking them into a shared fate when otherwise members might better escape, to develop in their own personal directions.