Search results

The purpose of this teaching case is to introduce students to an alternative business model as practiced by the Haier Group, a Chinese company, and how that model was used to turn around an acquired company in the United States of America (USA). The explicit teaching objectives are threefold. First, the case provides insights into Haier’s unique employee-centered culture. Second, Haier’s efforts to transfer parts of its culture to the newly acquired General Electric (GE) Appliance Division are discussed. Third, to improve the performance of the acquired division, Haier had to invest in people, equipment and new product technology.

This case is based on both primary and secondary research. The authors interviewed the chief executive officer. In addition, one of the authors spent a week in China observing and participating in meetings at the Haier Group. Both before and after the interviews, the authors searched both print and electronic media for additional information.

The case describes how Haier, a large Chinese appliance manufacturer, learned from its own difficult growth in building an employee- and client-driven organization. Haier was able to transfer key aspects of its culture, management practices and technology to help turnaround the well-known American appliance brand GE. The results of the first five years have been financially successful and investment in new product technology (Smart Home) bodes well for the future.

This case represents only one successful turnaround of one acquisition, GE Appliances, by the Haier Group in the USA. Whether the changes introduced would work with other acquisitions in other countries is unknown. Thus, additional follow-up research needs to be done.

This case brings into question the traditional, hierarchical, bureaucratic, spreadsheet-driven model of management that is the predominant model taught and practiced in the USA. Others, such as Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, have also raised the same question. This case introduces readers to another way and is just one more example of how managers who practice a high engagement style and share financial success with workers can outperform those who do not.

This case documents the introduction of nontraditional management and human resource management practices by a foreign, Chinese company, into what at one time had been a highly regarded division of a traditional major American corporation. GE had become known for strident labor-management relationships. The employees’ acceptance of the alternative approach to management was in doubt prior to the acquisition, but over the past five years, the labor–management relationship appears to have improved as well as the profitability of the division.

Although the acquisition of the GE Appliance Division by the Haier Group has been widely reported in the press, knowledge of how the acquisition was successfully turned around from a money-losing GE Division to a profitable and growing portion of the Haier Group has been largely ignored in both the popular press and in instructional material for the classroom. This case study seeks to ameliorate the latter deficiency.

Despite the burgeoning popularity of virtual gifting in live streaming, research lacks an in-depth understanding of the drivers behind this behavior. Using para-social relationship (PSR), this study aims to capture viewers’ lively social feelings toward the streamer as the key factor leading to the purchase behavior of virtual gifts. It also aims to establish a theoretical link between PSR and viewers’ holistic experience in live streaming as captured by cognitive absorption and aims to investigates the role of technological features (i.e. viewer–streamer and viewer–viewer interactivity, streamer-level and viewer-level deep profiling and design aesthetics) in shaping viewers’ experience.

Based on 433 survey responses, this study employs a combination of structural equation modeling and neural networks to offer valuable insights into the relationships between the technological environment, viewer experience and viewer behavior.

Our results highlight the salience of PSR in promoting the purchase of virtual gifts through cognitive absorption and the importance of the technological environment in eliciting the viewer experience. This study sheds light on the development of PSR in a technological environment and its relationship with cognitive absorption.

By applying PSR to conceptualize viewers’ perceived connection with the streamer, this study extends the research on purchase behavior in the non-shopping context by providing an enlightened understanding of virtual gift purchase behavior in live streaming. Moreover, by theoretically linking PSR with cognitive absorption, virtual gift purchase and technological features of live streaming, it enriches the theory of PSR and bridges the gap between the design practice of supporting the IT infrastructure of live streaming and research.

In the context of an analysis of stopgap and reactionary presidential library and records act, the purpose of this paper is to consider how the separation of the Obama Presidential Library from the Obama Presidential Center illuminates fundamental flaws in the public-private model that demand a more comprehensive legislative solution.

Drawing upon government, academic and public sources, this paper examines the legislation of presidential records and libraries to gain perspective on the presidential library system and the Obama Presidential Center, the first post-Presidential Records Act institution to operate independently of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

This paper traces the evolution of presidential library statutes and standards to reveal how the genesis of an independent Obama Presidential Center strained an already stressed system, creating significant questions about its future.

This paper offers an original treatment of the statutes governing NARA’s administration of presidential libraries, framing a cycle of calls and responses, with the acts of individual presidents eliciting acts of Congress. Also original, and timely, is the treatment in this paper of how these laws created the conditions for an independent Obama Presidential Center.

This paper aims to determine the impact of perceived virtuality on team dynamics and outcomes by adopting the Input-Mediators-Outcome (IMO) framework. Further, it also investigates the mediating role of team processes and emergent states.

The authors collected survey data from 315 individuals working in virtual teams (VTs) in the information technology sector in India using both offline and online questionnaires. They performed the analysis using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).

The authors investigated two sets of hypotheses – both direct and indirect (or mediation interactions). Results show that psychological empowerment and conflict management are significant in managing VTs. Also, perceived virtuality impacts team outcomes, i.e. perceived team performance, team satisfaction and subjective well-being.

The interplay between the behavioural team process (conflict management) and the emergent state (psychological empowerment) was examined. The study also helps broaden our understanding of the various psychological variables associated with teamwork in the context of VTs.

Findings from this study will aid in assessing the consequences of virtual teamwork at both individual and organisational levels, such as guiding the design and sustainability of VT arrangements, achieving higher productivity in VTs, and designing effective and interactive solutions in the virtual space.

The study examined the interplay between behavioural team processes (such as conflict management) and emergent states (such as psychological empowerment). The study also theorises and empirically tests the relationships between perceived virtuality and team outcomes (i.e. both affective and effectiveness). It may serve as a guide to understanding team dynamics in VTs better.

This exploratory study attempts to enhance the current understanding of the research and practice of VTs within a developing economy.

This conceptual paper aims to present a new, integrated model for change readiness that focuses on affective sensemaking among intra-organizational members. Change processes are often hindered by lack of preparedness, which can be justified by organizational members' emotional resistance to change and divergent understandings of its meaning. Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to change.

The authors offer a conceptual process model that describes how employees prepare for organizational change. The model illustrates how emotionally laden narratives enable employees to make sense of organizational change communicated by middle managers.

The sensemaking process is initiated by the negative emotions employees often experience when organizational change is first presented. Then middle managers must transform the negative felt emotions into positive valence via the strategic use of narratives that contain an affective component. This is done to increase the likelihood that convergent sensemaking takes place. Until this stage, intra-organizational members holding different perspectives about the need to change, engage in discussions in which the conflicting views are supported by the instrumental and systematic use of emotional tools with different valence.

First, we contribute to the change readiness literature by offering a detailed process for managers to influence individual readiness for change in their organizations. Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to change. Future work needs to empirically test our model.

We contribute to the sensemaking literature by integrating positive and negative valence into the process for understanding organizational change. Finally, we contribute to our practical understanding of convergent sensemaking processes through the strategic use of narratives in organizations.

Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to organizational and social change.

Our main contributions are three-fold. First, we contribute to the change readiness literature by offering a detailed process for managers to influence individual readiness for change in their organizations. Secondly, we contribute to the sensemaking literature by integrating positive and negative valence into the process for understanding organizational change. Finally, we contribute to our understanding of convergent sensemaking processes through the strategic use of narratives.