Bruce H. Bader, M. Affan Badar, Suhansa Rodchua and Alister McLeod
This research brings together two streams of thought applied to decision-making: lean thinking and stakeholder theory. Both have been identified as ways to improve organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
This research brings together two streams of thought applied to decision-making: lean thinking and stakeholder theory. Both have been identified as ways to improve organizational value. Previous studies disagree regarding whether they can work together. This study investigates if managers balance stakeholders and lean thinking in decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
This research investigates if both lean thinking and stakeholder salience share common literature by using data mining. It surveys organizations that perceive themselves as lean and have multiple diverse stakeholders to determine whether waste and salience are considered when making decisions. An ANOVA is done to see if organization type, management level, organization size, geographic location, or lean maturity has an effect on the priority of stakeholder salience or lean thinking's waste variants when making decisions.
Findings
Findings of this research are: 1) stakeholders salience criteria are considered more often than lean thinking's waste variants in decision-making by managers as a whole and in particular by middle-level managers and senior managers. However, lean thinking's waste variants are considered as often as stakeholder salience criteria by first-line managers. 2) The ranking of stakeholder salience in making decisions is not affected by organization type, respondent position, organization size, perceived lean experience, or geographic location. The organization type, organization size, lean experience, and location do not affect the ranking of lean thinking variants either. But the ranking of lean thinking's waste variants is significantly different for first-line, middle-level, and senior managers. Middle-level managers rank lean thinking higher than that of either first-line or senior-level. Because of this, middle managers have a more balanced approach in using lean thinking and stakeholder salience than other managers. 3) Stakeholder salience criteria have a significantly higher ranking than lean thinking variants in making decisions for all organization types: manufacturing and nonmanufacturing.
Originality/Value
This research demonstrates a significant disconnect exists between lean thinking and demands of stakeholders that impacts the value of an organization, and only middle-level managers bring balance and awareness of both streams of thought. An empirical instrument has been developed to balance the stakeholder salience criteria with the lean thinking variants.
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Bader Alhammadi, Khalizani Khalid, Syed Zamberi Ahmad and Ross Davidson
This paper aims to adopt the dynamic capabilities view to investigate the relationship between managerial ties (i.e. business and political ties), dynamic capabilities and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to adopt the dynamic capabilities view to investigate the relationship between managerial ties (i.e. business and political ties), dynamic capabilities and innovation climate on ambidextrous innovation (i.e. balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation), in the renewable and sustainable energy context. It also examines the mediating effects of dynamic capabilities between managerial ties and ambidextrous innovation (i.e. balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation), and moderating effects between dynamic capabilities and ambidextrous innovation relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Multilevel analyses conducted using AMOS 26 on 288 employees working in 47 UAE energy firms.
Findings
Results found that business ties influences balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation indirectly, whereas political ties only impact combined ambidextrous innovation indirectly through dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities insignificantly mediated managerial ties–ambidextrous innovation and political ties–balanced ambidextrous innovation relationships, with stronger indirect effect on combined than on the balanced dimension. Findings also indicate that innovation climate is the crucial moderator between dynamic compatibilities and ambidextrous innovation, as well as balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation, with stronger effect on balanced dimension than the combined.
Originality/value
This study addresses recent calls by highlighting the role of dynamic capabilities, an important yet underexplored organizational capabilities in the innovation and ambidexterity literature. Also, this study advances insight into how balanced and combined exploration–exploitation innovation and dynamic capabilities are connected and enhances the understanding into how organizational factors stimulate dynamic capabilities leading to superior innovation.
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Inam Ul Haq, Dirk De Clercq and Muhammad Umer Azeem
With a basis in conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of championing behaviour in the relationship between employees’…
Abstract
Purpose
With a basis in conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of championing behaviour in the relationship between employees’ fear of terror and their job performance, as well as the buffering role of their passion for work, as a personal resource, in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The tests of the hypotheses rely on three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan.
Findings
An important reason that concerns about terrorist attacks diminish performance is that employees refrain from championing their own entrepreneurial ideas. This mediating role of idea championing is less salient, however, to the extent that employees feel a strong passion for their work.
Practical implications
For human resource managers, this study pinpoints a key mechanism – a reluctance to mobilize active support for entrepreneurial ideas – by which fears about terrorism attacks can spill over into the workplace and undermine employees’ ability to meet their performance requirements. It also reveals how this mechanism can be better contained by the presence of adequate personal resources.
Originality/value
This study adds to burgeoning research on the interplay between terrorism and organizational life by specifying how and when employees’ ruminations about terrorism threats might escalate into diminished performance outcomes at work.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a societal context of ethnic conflict influences employee innovation behavior in the work domain and whether a collaborative…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a societal context of ethnic conflict influences employee innovation behavior in the work domain and whether a collaborative conflict management style adopted by supervisors plays a moderating role.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the conflict, organizational behavior and innovation literature, the study examines the main and interaction effects of employee sensitivity to ethnic conflict, organizational frustration and collaborative conflict management style of supervisors on employee engagement with colleagues to innovate products, services and job processes. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for ethnic diversity in workgroups.
Findings
Employee innovation behavior is greatest when employee sensitivity to ethnic conflict is high, organizational frustration is low and when supervisors are perceived to be highly collaborative in managing conflict, regardless of whether the workgroup is ethnically homogenous or diverse.
Research limitations/implications
The study findings expand our knowledge of the effects of sociopolitical conflict on employee behavior and the role of collaborative conflict management. Future research can address limitations including self-reports, cross-sectional design and single country setting.
Practical implications
The findings of this study suggest that employee innovation behavior can be enhanced through developing collaborative conflict management skills of those in leadership positions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to empirically examine the influence of ethnic conflict on employee innovation behavior and is of value to businesses operating in conflict settings.
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Mariam Bader, Jiju Antony, Raja Jayaraman, Vikas Swarnakar, Ravindra S. Goonetilleke, Maher Maalouf, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes and Kevin Linderman
The purpose of this study is to examine the critical failure factors (CFFs) linked to various types of process improvement (PI) projects such as Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the critical failure factors (CFFs) linked to various types of process improvement (PI) projects such as Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Agile. Proposing a mitigation framework accordingly is also an aim of this study.
Design/methodology/approach
This research undertakes a systematic literature review of 49 papers that were relevant to the scope of the study and that were published in four prominent databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCO.
Findings
Further analysis identifies 39 factors that contribute to the failure of PI projects. Among these factors, significant emphasis is placed on issues such as “resistance to cultural change,” “insufficient support from top management,” “inadequate training and education,” “poor communication” and “lack of resources,” as primary causes of PI project failures. To address and overcome the PI project failures, the authors propose a framework for failure mitigation based on change management models. The authors present future research directions that aim to enhance both the theoretical understanding and practical aspects of PI project failures.
Practical implications
Through this study, researchers and project managers can benefit from well-structured guidelines and invaluable insights that will help them identify and address potential failures, leading to successful implementation and sustainable improvements within organizations.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first study of its kind to examine the CFFs of five PI methodologies and introduces a novel approach derived from change management theory as a solution to minimize the risk associated with PI failure.
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The following is an annotated list of materials that discuss the ways in which librarians can provide library users with orientation to facilities and services, and instruct them…
Abstract
The following is an annotated list of materials that discuss the ways in which librarians can provide library users with orientation to facilities and services, and instruct them in library information and computer skills. This is RSR's 11th annual review of this literature, and covers publications from 1984. A few items from 1983 have been included because of their significance, and because they were not available for review last year. Several items were not annotated because the compiler was unable to secure them.
Tammie Preston-Cunningham, Barry L. Boyd, Chanda D. Elbert, Kim E. Dooley and Kelli Peck-Parrott
This study investigates the perceptions of leadership of African American undergraduate males who attend a predominately-White institution in the Southwest after participation in…
Abstract
This study investigates the perceptions of leadership of African American undergraduate males who attend a predominately-White institution in the Southwest after participation in a leadership development program. Research concerning African American undergraduate males in education has been from a deficit-orientated narrative and focused primarily on academic achievement or lack of involvement, with little attention paid to African American males performing leadership. As society continues to focus on graduation and college attendance by African American males, it is important to explore African American undergraduate male leadership as a viable method to engage and influence graduation and attendance. This study examines the way in which African American undergraduate males make meaning and define leadership. Results indicated that African American undergraduate males defined leadership as either leader behaviors or specific characteristics that leaders possess. The study indicates a need for leadership educators and student affairs professionals to develop and implement a common language concerning leadership with student leader
Thomas M. Keck and Kevin J. McMahon
From one angle, abortion law appears to confirm the regime politics account of the Supreme Court; after all, the Reagan/Bush coalition succeeded in significantly curtailing the…
Abstract
From one angle, abortion law appears to confirm the regime politics account of the Supreme Court; after all, the Reagan/Bush coalition succeeded in significantly curtailing the constitutional protection of abortion rights. From another angle, however, it is puzzling that the Reagan/Bush Court repeatedly refused to overturn Roe v. Wade. We argue that time and again electoral considerations led Republican elites to back away from a forceful assertion of their agenda for constitutional change. As a result, the justices generally acted within the range of possibilities acceptable to the governing regime but still typically had multiple doctrinal options from which to choose.
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Xingxin Li, Yanfei Wang, Yu Zhu and Lixun Zheng
Drawing on affective events theory (AET), this study aims to investigate how and when leader voice solicitation affects employees’ innovative behavior. Specifically, this study…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on affective events theory (AET), this study aims to investigate how and when leader voice solicitation affects employees’ innovative behavior. Specifically, this study proposes that leader voice solicitation evokes employees’ feelings of pride, which subsequently motivate employees’ innovative behavior. Moreover, collectivism orientation plays a moderating role in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected 251 supervisor–subordinate dyadic data in two phases and employed structural equational modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results revealed that employees’ feelings of pride mediate the positive relationship between leader voice solicitation and employees’ innovative behavior. Collectivism orientation intensifies the mediated relationship.
Originality/value
This study extends the potential outcome variables of leader voice solicitation. Moreover, it introduces a novel theoretical perspective to explore the impact of leader voice solicitation on employees. Importantly, this study examines the mediating effect of pride and the moderating effect of collectivism orientation, deepening the understanding of how and when leader voice solicitation affects innovative behavior.
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THE profession served by this journal lost an outstanding personality when Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth died at the age of 93 on January 2nd. As wife and business partner to her…
Abstract
THE profession served by this journal lost an outstanding personality when Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth died at the age of 93 on January 2nd. As wife and business partner to her husband, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, she was one of the pioneers of motion study. It required rare courage for a shy and retiring person like herself to take over the responsibilities of her husband when he died suddenly in 1924. Yet within three days of that event, after a family conference about the future, she sailed for Europe to fulfil an engagement of her husband to speak at the First Congress of Scientific Management in Prague.