Dear Colleagues,
Happy and prosperous 2012 -- the year of the "Strategic Alliance". I predict that this will be a breakout year for my favorite concept in business and psychology. Research on interpersonal strategic alliances at both the interpersonal and firms levels are likely to explode producing much greater understanding of the actors, their behavior, and the context of business symbiotic alliances. The breakthrough research of Yang, Lin, and Peng (2011) suggest new behavioral and relational factors drives inter-firm alliances. In addition, my work (2012) on interpersonal strategic alliances between managers at the same and different levels of authority opens the managerial leadership area to a more functional approach with a scientifically defensible specification of command-based leadership as separate from volunteer-based leadership. We understand the former but the latter needs more research. The acceptance of interpersonal strategic alliance should reverse the failed practice of confounding the contributions of volunteer-based leadership to business unit performance. What do you think?
Graen, G. B. (2012). The new LMX theory: The missing link of interpersonal strategic alliances. In M. Rumsey (Ed.) The Many Sides of Leadership: A Handbook, London, UK: Oxford University Press.
Yang, H., Lin, Z. J., & Peng, M. W. (2011). Behind Acquisitions of Alliance Partners: Exploratory Learning and Network Embeddedness . Academy of Management Journal. 5, 54 pp. 1069-1080.
Cheers,
George Graen
Center for Strategic Management
/jag