“羁束”还是“自由裁量”?——管理决断权调整研究述评与展望

“Stranglehold”or Not:Review of Managerial Discretion Adjustment

"羁束"还是"自由裁量",是管理决断权调整的不同方向,而管理决断权调整这一概念是对现代企业经营管理活动中如何发挥管理者作用的探讨。新制度理论、人口生态学理论和高阶梯队理论等为这一过程的解读提供了不同的研究视角,却并未达成共识。本文首先回顾管理决断权的概念,阐释当前背景下研究管理决断权调整的实践意义;其次,从管理决断权的内涵与本质、理论演进和模型三方面归纳管理决断权调整的理论基础,分别总结管理决断权的测量及调整前因、调整影响效应等方面成果;再次,从企业战略角度来整体审视管理决断权调整问题,认为管理决断权调整所实现的"羁束"型或"自由裁量"型管理模式与企业战略活动和战略行为密切相关;最后,总结结论并对未来研究方向进行展望。本文对管理决断权调整的最新研究进展进行述评,指出企业管理者"羁束"还是"自由裁量"的角色转换,已不再是一种非此即彼、孰优孰劣的互斥方案,而需要结合企业内外部具体情境特别是基于战略决策视角对管理决断权的调整进行综合权衡。本文为具体落实"简政放权"的重要战略部署及今后探讨管理决断权调整问题提供了新思路。

“Stranglehold”or not,that is a different direction of managerial discretion adjustment.Managerial discretion adjustment is widely used in discussing how managers operate in modern management activities.New institutional theory,human ecology theory and upper echelons theory respectively offer different perspectives to explain this process.But none of them achieve to any agreement.Specifically,based on the perspective of Economics and Finance,new institutional theory and human ecology theory believe that the role of managers is quite limited because of the similar environment and inertia factors.However,based on the perspective of Management,upper echelons theory holds the view that senior managers can influence organizational behavior and have a significant impact on the results of organizational activities.To reconcile such differences,Hambrick and Finkelstein put forward the concept of managerial discretion,which measures the actual work of managers.Managerial discretion refers to the autonomy that managers have in the process of formulating and implementing the enterprise strategies,which is the core variable that influences the process and result of management strategy selection.Our study firstly reviews the concept of managerial discretion and its practical implications.Additionally,we build theoretical foundation from three angles:the essence,the development and the effects of managerial discretion adjustment.Thirdly,the study concludes the achievements of managerial discretion adjustment s measures,factors and influential effects.Moreover,from the perspective of enterprise strategic decision,we examine the issue of managerial discretion adjustment as a whole.It considers that the management model of“Stranglehold”or not realized through the managerial discretion adjustment is closely related to the strategic activities and strategic actions of enterprises.Finally,we draw the conclusions and offer some future directions.Based on the literature review,our study reviews the latest research progress on the managerial discretion adjustment.The role conversion of“Stranglehold”or not for enterprise managers is no longer a kind of mutually exclusive scheme that which is better,and requires to combine specific circumstances within and outside the enterprise,especially based on the strategic decision perspective to make a comprehensive trade-off decision of managerial discretion adjustment.Strategic decision perspective can be carried out from three aspects:selection of strategic type,strategic change and other strategies.In this regard,we believe that the management mode of stranglehold is more suitable for using defender strategy,the management mode of not stranglehold is more suitable for prospector strategy,while the management mode between them is more suitable for analyzer strategy.Presently,many scholars directly examine the impact of managerial discretion adjustment on strategic change for enterprises,and mainly confirm the negative effect.Furthermore,the current study results also show that the natural environmental protection commitment,fulfilment of social responsibilities,information disclosure and other strategies,are closely related to the different types of management mode,which requires management discretion to make corresponding adjustment.Generally speaking,our study provides a new idea of how to implement the important strategic arrangements for“streamlining administration and delegating power”.In the 2017 Government Work Report,Prime Minister Likeqiang pointed out the transformation of government function in terms of deepening the reform of important fields and crucial links,reducing the government s discretion and giving more power to markets and enterprises.Therefore,reviewing the research achievements of managerial discretion adjustment carefully has a certain practical guiding significance.Meanwhile,in the future,we can have a further exploration from the factors of managers,external heterogeneity of environment,dynamic perspective,double effect and internal connection with regulation.We believe that through our efforts,we will continuously enrich the theory and practice research results of managerial discretion adjustment.