C. Richard Yarbrough, Glen T. Cameron, Lynne M. Sallot and Allison McWilliams
This paper offers a quick overview of Cameron's contingency theory of conflict management in public relations. It then applies the theory to three cases that occurred during the…
Abstract
This paper offers a quick overview of Cameron's contingency theory of conflict management in public relations. It then applies the theory to three cases that occurred during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games that were taken from the policy position papers, notes, diaries and tape recordings of C. Richard Yarbrough, Managing Director‐Communications of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG). The areas analysed include: the moving of preliminary volleyball matches from one venue to another which was forced by conflict between gay activists and local politicians who passed an anti‐gay resolution — a sustained effort at accommodation that shifted to advocacy; conflict between the ACOG board of directors and the media resulting from the disclosure of ACOG executive salaries — a strong advocacy stance that led to compromise; and conflict threatened between ACOG and a minority minister who was disgruntled about an Olympic sponsor — a case of marginality too insignificant to bother with. The cases not only illustrate and support factors in the contingency theory, but highlight the impracticality and inflexibility of two‐way symmetrical or mixed‐motive public relations as models of choice.
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The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of the subjective evaluation of job characteristics on voluntary mobility, the impact of voluntary mobility on changes in these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of the subjective evaluation of job characteristics on voluntary mobility, the impact of voluntary mobility on changes in these job characteristics, and differential education and gender patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
Ordered and multinominal logistic regression analysis and longitudinal panel analysis.
Findings
Dissatisfaction with one's wage, the match between job content and personal capacities, working hours, and the job in general cause voluntary external mobility. The latter two also increase the odds of voluntary internal mobility. Voluntary internal and external mobility in turn decreases dissatisfaction with several job characteristics. The higher the educational level, the weaker the impact of dissatisfaction with working hours on voluntary internal mobility. For women, wage dissatisfaction has a stronger impact on voluntary external mobility than for men. Moreover, dissatisfaction with the number of working hours and the job in general more often cause voluntary internal mobility for women than for men. The revenues of changing positions within or between firms, however, do not substantially differ across education and gender.
Originality/value
This paper shows that subjectively evaluated job characteristics are important push factors and result in voluntary mobility, and in some cases for women to a stronger degree than for men. Even though it could be expected that returns to voluntary mobility are lower for women and lower educated individuals, they do not differ substantially from the returns that men and higher educated workers receive.
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Enrico Guarini, Anna De Toni and Cinzia Vallone
This study attempts to analyze the role of governance mechanisms in municipal bankruptcy, which appears to be a neglected area of research. The analysis considers both the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to analyze the role of governance mechanisms in municipal bankruptcy, which appears to be a neglected area of research. The analysis considers both the organizational level (micro) and the regulatory system (macro).
Methodology/approach
We use a relevant case of municipal bankruptcy in Italy to discuss the influence of governance characteristics, such as the political and management structure, interaction, and behaviors. The issues related to the accounting system and external audits are also considered. The data for this study are obtained from secondary sources such as audited budgetary reports, public documents, and reports from the Supreme Audit Institution.
Findings
The study indicates that the spoils system can favor the politicians’ exercise of power over public managers and undermine the capacity to prevent and manage financial distress. Poor accounting and weak control systems may facilitate this process. The high turnover of top management throughout a mayor’s term in office may reflect political pressure to force accounting rules and achieve flexibility to obtain the expected results or to correct poor financial performance.
Practical implications
To avert municipal bankruptcies, regulations should consider enforcing ex ante control by external oversight bodies, forbidding risky operations and limiting the spoils system for financial management positions and internal auditors.
Originality/value
Municipal defaults around the world have indicated that regulations and audits are ineffective to prevent local governments from failing. A full understanding of complex mutual interactions between the mechanisms of governance and the behaviors of politicians and managers can provide valuable insights to prevent local governments from failing.
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Sebastiano Cupertino, Gianluca Vitale and Paolo Taticchi
This paper aims to investigate possible interdependencies affecting short-term profitability between internal and process business aspects which can play a critical role in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate possible interdependencies affecting short-term profitability between internal and process business aspects which can play a critical role in sustainability operationalisation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted the panel data approach to perform a partial least square structural modelling equation analysis on a sample of 391 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) non-financial-listed companies, considering a timeframe of five years.
Findings
Corporate sustainability is a result of interplays between managerial commitment, strategy, slack resources’ exploitation, innovation, the sustainable management of internal production and procurement processes that managers can catalyse to foster short-term firms’ profitability.
Research limitations/implications
The study is focused on internal process business determinants of sustainability, and the analysis is limited to a short-term timeframe and on non-financial OECD-listed companies.
Practical implications
Managers searching for trade-offs between financial and non-financial performances should enhance their commitment towards sustainability by defining appropriate strategies suitable to employ mainly slack resources derived from core business activities enabling innovation processes, which, in turn, are able to foster sustainability of internal production and procurement processes.
Originality/value
The execution of sustainability is a complex process that needs to be investigated using a holistic approach net of endogeneity biases to better appreciate those interrelationships within multiple drivers determining the firm sustainable growth.
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Andrew S. Griffith and Ceire Kealty
The purpose of this paper is to explain the relationship alumni may have with their institution’s library and its effect on student success, which, in turn, produces more engaged…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the relationship alumni may have with their institution’s library and its effect on student success, which, in turn, produces more engaged alumni.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a base interaction model that describes this relationship.
Findings
Libraries are well positioned to not only engage current students but to establish the foundation for these students to become engaged alumni.
Originality/value
This base relationship model may help with advocating for secure funds of libraries and/or a higher priority for fundraising.
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Vivien Jancenelle, Susan F. Storrud-Barnes and Dominic Buccieri
Past research has generally purported that market orientation (MO) leads to superior firm performance, despite emerging evidence suggesting that the highest levels of MO are not…
Abstract
Purpose
Past research has generally purported that market orientation (MO) leads to superior firm performance, despite emerging evidence suggesting that the highest levels of MO are not always rewarded. Drawing on resource-based view and MO literature, the authors posit that too much MO may be as detrimental as too little for firms seeking to achieve better performance, and that moderate MO capabilities may be the most beneficial. Furthermore, the authors propose and test for organizational confidence as a first potential moderator of the MO-performance inverted U-shaped link.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use Computer-Assisted-Text-Analysis (CATA) methodology assess constructs from annual reports matched with a 5-year longitudinal dataset of 2,245 firm-year observations drawn from the S&P 500.
Findings
The results not only support the presence of an inverted U-shaped link between MO and firm performance, but also identify organizational confidence as an important moderator of this newly uncovered curvilinear relationship.
Practical implications
When it comes to the effect of MO on firm performance, there can be indeed be “too much of a good thing,” and managers should be aware of the trade-offs that come attached with overcommitting to a MO strategy.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to extant research on the MO–performance link by moving beyond simple linear relationships and identifying an inverted U-shaped relationship between MO and firm performance. This newly found curvilinear relationship may explain and reconcile prior contradicting findings on the benefits of MO. Organizational confidence is also found to trigger a shape-flip of the MO–performance link, thereby suggesting a new boundary condition.
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The purpose of this paper is to compare internal and external job mobility (quits and promotions) as separate mechanisms for workers improving earnings and job fit.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare internal and external job mobility (quits and promotions) as separate mechanisms for workers improving earnings and job fit.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors sample the core workforce from the British Household Panel Survey, estimating the effects of quits and promotions on two sets of outcomes. The first is subjective; satisfaction with work, pay and hours. The second is objective realities about the job; gross monthly pay and weekly working hours. The authors use linear fixed-effects estimation to control for individual heterogeneity.
Findings
Quits and promotions are distinctly different mechanisms for improving earnings and job fit. Quits improve measures of job fit (satisfaction with work, pay and hours) but have little effect on earnings. Internal promotions bring earnings growth but have little effect on job fit. The findings shed light what drives “voluntary” mobility; internal mobility may be driven by higher “reservation wages” and career progression, while external mobility may be driven by job matching and the need to find more appropriate work.
Social implications
Researchers should treat mobile labour markets with scepticism. The growth of “boundaryless careers” may closer resemble a release valve for poor working conditions in a varied market than a growth in new opportunities for earnings and career progression.
Originality/value
Studies of job mobility overwhelmingly focus on the effects quitting without explicitly comparing this mobility to promotions. This omission gives an incomplete picture of mobility. Bringing promotions back into the discussion, helps to understand why workers commit to internal careers and firm tenure. The paper shows that quits and promotions yield distinctly different outcomes for core workers, despite both mobility types being labelled “voluntary”. Thus, the authors show that inequality in earnings and working conditions is closely tied to access to the “life-chances” of mobility; those who are able to pursue promotion are rewarded objectively; those who quit for a new employer seek a better job fit.
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Compares the perceptions of both large organisations and small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) at a meta level in regard to knowledge management (KM) to improve overall…
Abstract
Compares the perceptions of both large organisations and small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) at a meta level in regard to knowledge management (KM) to improve overall understanding and synthesis of the philosophy and to develop sector‐specific learning in the SME sector. First, identifies and describes the key dimensions of KM using a socially constructed KM model. Second, uses a survey of large (> 250 employees) and SME (< 250 employees) organisations to investigate the perceptions of the KM dimensions. Third, reviews a series of qualitative social constructionist workshops, involving both large and SME organisations which were run to gain a deeper insight into the sectoral comparisons. The results indicate that KM is understanding and implementation is developing in the large organisation sector and knowledge is recognised as having both scientific and social elements. However, the SME sector was less advanced with a mechanistic approach to knowledge and a lack of investment in KM approaches and systems.
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Kleber Vasconcellos de Oliveira, Paulo Roberto B. Lustosa, Fatima de Souza Freire and Frederico A. de Carvalho
This study examines the factors which affect the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices in line with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the factors which affect the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices in line with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines in Brazil's banking industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis comprised the deposits (demand and savings), fee income, employee expenses, regulatory capital (Basel ratio) and ownership structure of all Brazilian banks from 2006 to 2017. The sample totalled 1,613 firm-year observations. The authors used three binary regression models (logit, probit and complementary log-log) in order to choose the one that best fits the model proposed. The authors controlled for size, profitability, leverage and liquidity.
Findings
The main results show positive relationships between CSR reporting and both savings deposits and fee income. The authors also found that state-owned (foreign private-owned) banks have a positive (negative) relationship with probability of CSR disclosure. A negative relationship was found between CSR disclosure and regulatory capital, indicating that banks are more likely to publish GRI reports as they approach the minimum levels of the Basel ratio.
Research limitations/implications
Some banks may disclose CSR reports which do not adhere to the GRI guidelines; these were not captured in this study.
Practical implications
The estimated model aids understanding of factors influencing CSR disclosure in the banking industry in an emerging economy, which may help bank regulators to adopt new approaches in their supervisory and regulatory roles.
Originality/value
This work is the first to document that both fee income and banks' regulatory capital are related to CSR disclosure. Furthermore, this study investigates the entire banking industry of a Latin American country over the longest and most up-to-date period the authors are aware of.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore how chief executive officer values and ethics have been translated into what we now term corporate social responsibility in a stakeholder…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how chief executive officer values and ethics have been translated into what we now term corporate social responsibility in a stakeholder view of the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
To fulfill this purpose, the reflections of early business scholars on top management's impact on corporate social responsibility are examined and linked to more contemporary views.
Findings
In response to stakeholder expectations of corporate social responsibility it is the chief executive officer's values and ethics, moderated by managerial discretion, that frame the firm's actions and ethics.
Practical implications
The aspiring executive may evaluate the ethics of industries and firms against his or her own values to identify zones of greatest synergy, while the firm's executive search process can consider including an assessment of the fit of candidates' personal values.
Originality/value
This paper builds on the works of early management scholars to specifically link contemporary corporate social responsibility decision making with executive values.