Dayr Reis, Leticia Pena and Paulo A. Lopes
Successful firms are making a concerted effort to develop closer ties to their customers. However, the customer has not always been king. By describing the dialectic character of…
Abstract
Successful firms are making a concerted effort to develop closer ties to their customers. However, the customer has not always been king. By describing the dialectic character of customer service and tracing it back in history, this paper provides some of the knowledge necessary to explain its present status and predict its future course.
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Centers on motivation in work organizations, yesterday, today and tomorrow. To retain qualified employees in an organization and to maintain a satisfactory type of role…
Abstract
Centers on motivation in work organizations, yesterday, today and tomorrow. To retain qualified employees in an organization and to maintain a satisfactory type of role performance, people’s experiences in the system must be rewarding, particularly if they have freedom to move in and out of organizations. Motivating people to work in the twenty‐first century with theories conceived in the 1800s and early 1900s is likely to be infeasible. After reviewing the major events in the management history of the last 100 years, the authors try to distill the knowledge that will help illuminate the motivation path for present and future managers. The core message is that managers should reconsider the outdated motivational patterns utilized to maintain role performance in organizations. The authors propose a fresh motivation formula for the twenty‐first century, based on “friendship, work and respect”.
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This paper argues that the current framework permitting humanitarian transactions into sanctioned and conflict environments needs re-thinking and updating.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper argues that the current framework permitting humanitarian transactions into sanctioned and conflict environments needs re-thinking and updating.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on in-depth interviews conducted with banks, humanitarian actors, regulators and government officials. It incorporates a review of relevant literature and has involved extensive field-based observations including with jurisdictions experiencing conflict or subject to sanctions.
Findings
This paper finds that a recalibration of the sanctions architecture is required and that a new equilibrium needs to be created to ensure the ability of international banks to support permissible humanitarian and development payments. It further sets out that the foreign policy intention of economic sanctions, when combined with licensing complexity and other risk factors, such as terrorist financing, are not achieving their intended goals.
Originality/value
Assessment on the strategic importance of ensuring access to financial services for jurisdictions subject to sanctions and in conflict.
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Victor Oluwafemi Olorunsola, Mehmet Bahri Saydam, Taiwo Temitope Lasisi and Ali Ozturen
Archaeological heritage tourism has great potential for development in numerous destinations. However, literature on archaeological heritage tourism is scarce and empirical data…
Abstract
Purpose
Archaeological heritage tourism has great potential for development in numerous destinations. However, literature on archaeological heritage tourism is scarce and empirical data are minimal. This paper aims to identify the main themes shared in online reviews by tourists, as well as identify factors known as satisfiers and dissatisfiers based on Herzberg’s two-factor theory among tourists who visited Petra UNESCO heritage site.
Design/methodology/approach
The research used content analyses to analyse 1,419 tourist’s online reviews on TripAdvisor. Leximancer software provided computer-assisted qualitative data analysis that pinpoint the dominant themes, after which further qualitative analysis found the main narratives associated with different satisfaction groups.
Findings
Successively, seven themes were revealed: entrance, trip, monastery, buildings, animal, carriage and safe. Furthermore, a four-dimensional model was postulated to help understand the components and flow of visitors’ experiences in an archaeological heritage site. In addition, the findings of the study revealed that tourists who scored their experience as 4 (very good) or 5 (excellent) (satisfiers) commonly shared perceptions about architecture, buildings, safe, temples, monasteries, tours, tombs and helpful. Contrarily, reviewers that rated their experience as 1 (terrible) or 2 (poor) (dissatisfiers) shared narratives around concepts such as expensive, animals, carriages, locals and shops.
Originality/value
The results offer valuable understandings of cultural heritage tourists’ overall experiences based on TripAdvisor reviews and facilitate the identification of the dominant themes associated with drivers of tourists’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
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Fadi Alsarhan and Arwa Al-Twal
The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between economic challenges, tribalism and the use of the wasta informal network in the workplace across Middle East and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between economic challenges, tribalism and the use of the wasta informal network in the workplace across Middle East and North Africa (MENA) organizations, with Jordanian public organizations taken as an illustrative case.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach was applied, and a total of 28 semi-structured interviews were conducted with human resource (HR) officials working in different public organizations such as state-owned enterprises (SOEs), ministries, government agencies (GAs) the military forces and security agencies.
Findings
The authors' findings show that employees who live in rural areas are more likely to use wasta in public organizations than the counterparts living in the capital Amman. This contrast is accounted for by major differences between mentalities, the strength of tribalism, norms and living standards among residents of urban and rural areas. The authors argue that these differences play a pivotal role on the use of wasta informal networks in the workplace.
Originality/value
The outcomes obtained in this study have proven to be unique and important due to the authors' holistic theoretical understanding of wasta, which offers important insights into its emergence, evolution and use in the workplace. The outcomes of this study also serve as guidance for organizations in understanding the “hidden force” of wasta and the extent to which the organizations' businesses may be impacted by this, based on the type of employees the organizations already have or intend to hire and employees' tribal ties. This study accounts for the wide use of informal networks in managerial activities, based on important social and economic realities that have not been previously explored in the literature.