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1 – 10 of 37This research aims to fill a gap in the literature concerning the extent to which recruitment interviewers may substitute leadership capability sets (CSs) differing from those in…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to fill a gap in the literature concerning the extent to which recruitment interviewers may substitute leadership capability sets (CSs) differing from those in the job specification (JS).
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with senior personnel involved in senior staff selection in a higher education (HE) institution.
Findings
The interviews reveal that the majority of respondents select candidates against transactional capability sets (TcCSs), ignoring the largely transformational capability sets (TfCSs) laid down in the JS.
Research limitations/implications
The research is anchored in a single organisation and in a single sector, HE. It would be useful to extend the research to another institution in the public sector within both the public and the private sectors. It would furthermore be useful to identify the practical measures needed to overcome the problems identified here.
Practical implications
Organisations pursuing diversity initiatives or attempting to influence the culture of an organisation and its leadership style need to be aware of the extent, hitherto unrevealed, to which the leadership CSs laid down in the official selection criteria can be disregarded in favour of CSs substituted, consciously or unconsciously, by recruiters. If the practice identified here is representative across the HE sector, then a failure to follow the leadership CSs contained in a JS can serve as a barrier to the appointment of women who may favour the deployment of TfCSs. It may also serve as a barrier to the introduction of transformational leadership and cultures.
Originality/value
The paper provides useful information on CSs laid down in the official selection criteria and whether they can be disregarded in favour of CSs substituted, consciously or unconsciously, by recruiters.
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Kelly Page‐Thomas, Gloria Moss, David Chelly and Song Yabin
The purpose of this study is to investigate Western and Central European consumers and web retailers with respect to the importance and accessibility of delivery information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate Western and Central European consumers and web retailers with respect to the importance and accessibility of delivery information online prior to purchase.
Design/methodology/approach
To investigate the importance and accessibility of delivery information online, a survey was conducted of 715 internet consumers from the UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic to explore how important they rate online delivery information. In addition to this, retailing web sites from leading retailers in the UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic were content analysed in order to establish the extent to which they provided online delivery information.
Findings
The research identifies that consumers rate delivery pricing guides, delivery guarantees and delivery schedules as the most important delivery information they expect online prior to purchase. However, content analysis of retailer web sites reveals that many retailers do not adequately provide information about how they “guarantee product delivery”.
Practical implications
It is recommended here that prior to purchase online retailers should make detailed delivery information more accessible to consumers (e.g. pricing guides, timing schedules, etc.) and should consider using delivery service guarantees to assure consumers of delivery service standards and retailer responsibilities.
Originality/value
This paper makes a decisive contribution to e‐shopping behaviour and online retailing by providing insight into why visits to retailing web sites may not be followed up by purchase. This insight results from an examination of an often neglected area of the online buying process, namely “order delivery and fulfilment”. By examining the expectations of e‐consumers across Europe it investigates the role access to delivery information can have in managing customer delivery service expectations and in building trust in online retailers.
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Heather Skinner, Gloria Moss and Scott Parfitt
This paper aims to give a wider understanding of what customers really want from first and subsequent visits to mainstream city centre nightclubs and bars by examining customer…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to give a wider understanding of what customers really want from first and subsequent visits to mainstream city centre nightclubs and bars by examining customer attitudes to various aspects of the services arena and service offerings provided by such venues.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling was used to establish two focus groups within the industry's main target market age group. This qualitative data were analysed from a grounded theory approach in order to identify the emerging themes that were then tested by quantitative data gathered by means of a questionnaire in phase 2 of the research. These data were then subjected to a frequency analysis in SPSS in order to identify those elements that were most preferred by the majority of respondents.
Findings
Findings point to the relative importance of various elements of the servicescape in influencing customer decisions to enter a venue for the first time, and also to the relative importance of factors which prompt subsequent visits to a venue.
Practical implications
In such a saturated and highly competitive marketplace these findings can assist mainstream venues within the late night economy to improve their competitive position by understanding and then providing what customers really want.
Originality/value
Although there is much services marketing literature on the relevance of the servicescape and the importance of service quality, this paper attempts to ascertain which factors are truly key in customer decision‐making, and in which order each element of the service is rated by the industry's key target market.
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Cecelia Corson and M. Gloria González-Morales
As of 2023, the total number of Nobel Prizes granted in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields was roughly 622 and of those, only 26 have been awarded to women…
Abstract
Purpose
As of 2023, the total number of Nobel Prizes granted in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields was roughly 622 and of those, only 26 have been awarded to women. STEM fields have historically excluded women at all levels with increasing impact at the higher levels of the career ladder (NSF, 2010). The study serves to shed light on women’s and men’s experiences of belonging in STEM fields – uncovering similarities and differences between the two groups.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a qualitative phenomenology, investigating the phenomenon of belonging in STEM among 39 workers in STEM fields.
Findings
Through this qualitative study, we uncovered the similarities around the three primary ways that both men and women conceptualized belonging in these spaces – through feeling heard and contributing, through representation and through feeling safe to take risks. We also identified differences in the ways the men and women conceptualized belonging, such as women’s stronger leadership orientation, greater pull toward connection and more negative mindsets around their inclusion in STEM spaces, and men’s strong orientation toward merit and performance, lesser leadership orientation and more positive mindsets about women’s belonging in STEM fields.
Originality/value
The study takes a novel approach by investigating the experiences of belonging in STEM fields, bringing to light new concepts about the different ways that groups experience belonging. The study uses the Appreciative Inquiry framing of questions to highlight the peak experiences of belonging.
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Gloria Nakie Apore and Emmanuel Selase Asamoah
In spite of the observation that nurse managers’ style of authority in sub-Saharan Africa is one of antagonistic vibe and lordship, there is not much information on the kind of…
Abstract
Purpose
In spite of the observation that nurse managers’ style of authority in sub-Saharan Africa is one of antagonistic vibe and lordship, there is not much information on the kind of leadership provided in the hospitals by nurse managers. Following the notion that transformational leadership is a solution to many leadership problems and often creates valuable positive change in followers, this study aims to examine the level of transformational leadership behavior of nurse leaders; determining the effects of the sub-constructs of emotional intelligence (EI) on the transformational leadership behavior of leaders; and determining whether there is a difference in the exhibition of transformational leadership behavior due to the gender of leaders.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses five of the major public hospitals in the Greater Accra Region (the capital) of Ghana. Evidence of such links would be considerable for Ghanaian healthcare providers in their quest to find potential nurse leaders to train, so as not to dwell highly on the seniority criterion in the selection of leaders. Using a quantitative approach, the Wong Law EI Scale (2002) and leadership items adapted from Rafferty and Griffin (2004) were used to collect the data. A descriptive statistics (mean) revealed that nurse leaders from the selected hospitals exhibited a high level (M= 3.90, SD = 0.14) of transformational leadership behavior.
Findings
A multiple regression analysis revealed that three of the sub-constructs of EI significantly affected transformational leadership with the “self-emotion appraisal” construct having the strongest effect on transformational leadership behavior (β = 0.508, p = 0.000). However, the others’ emotion appraisal sub-construct did not significantly affect transformational leadership. Furthermore, the results from the independent sample t-test revealed no significant difference in the exhibition of transformational leadership due to gender.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, when leaders are trained to be emotionally intelligent and their skills are fostered, they are more likely to exhibit transformational leadership behaviors, which will further result in organizational effectiveness and follower satisfaction. Hospitals must focus on the control of one’s emotions at work, and subsequently, understanding others’ emotions. In developing transformational leaders, there is the need to identify some tools that will increase EI level, more specifically, traits related to the understanding of others’ emotion. The findings from this study indicate that one of the factors to check when selecting nurse leaders should be their EI and not necessarily a matter of seniority in many cases in emerging economies.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is in the fact that it focuses on an emerging economy, which is under researched. In Ghana, the criteria for promotion of nurse leaders’ is based strictly on seniority and age and not on factors such as the leaders EI. The profession of nursing is such that leaders need to understand that certain soft skills such as EI are considered necessary to transform the hospitals and staff they lead. This study, therefore, sheds light on these key areas from the perspective of an emerging economy, which are usually not in the domain of literature in the area of healthcare leadership.
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Verena Steiner-Hofbauer, Marie Celine Dorczok and Gloria Mittmann
This exploratory study aims to investigate viewers’ attitudes towards series with autistic characters. In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the depiction of…
Abstract
Purpose
This exploratory study aims to investigate viewers’ attitudes towards series with autistic characters. In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the depiction of autistic characters or characters displaying autistic symptoms in mainstream series. While research calls for a more realistic portrayal of these characters, little is known about viewers’ attitudes towards the portrayal of autistic characters.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an online questionnaire, the authors collected data from 348 young adults regarding their media consumption habits related to 15 different series featuring autistic characters. Additionally, the authors used an emotion recognition task (ERT).
Findings
The results show that participants expressed a stronger preference for series depicting characters with savant abilities compared to more “realistic” portrayals of autism. However, participants with lower scores in the ERT tended to watch series without savantism significantly more often. The findings revealed no significant differences based on sex in terms of viewership or preference for these series. These results suggest that biased or stigmatising portrayals may in part be influenced by viewers’ inclination towards savant characters. This study sheds light on viewers’ perceptions of television series featuring autistic characters, revealing potential preferences and the influence of certain character traits.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the exploratory nature of this study, further research is needed to enhance our understanding of the impact of media portrayals on attitudes towards autism.
Originality/value
The results suggest that biased or stigmatising portrayals may in part be influenced by viewers’ inclination towards savant characters. This study sheds light on viewers’ perceptions of television series featuring autistic characters, revealing potential preferences and the influence of certain character traits.
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For several decades, leaders have recognized that the ethos and language of our social, business, and governance structures have become barren, too small, and insufficient for the…
Abstract
For several decades, leaders have recognized that the ethos and language of our social, business, and governance structures have become barren, too small, and insufficient for the many challenges and opportunities facing contemporary leaders and the myriad contexts in which they serve. “Designing Leadership Like Jazz” addresses these concerns.
“Designing Leadership Like Jazz” is about understanding the centrality of leadership formation in shaping, or designing, leaders as well as understanding leadership as an art. In this chapter, I identify what leadership formation is and is not. Drawing on the language of jazz music and related arts, I also surface strategies and lessons that can be used by anyone who leads or aspires to lead. Not only can the lessons be applied by anyone who leads or aspires to lead but they also can be applied anywhere, at any time, and in any context. The lessons apply to us as individuals, in intimate relationships with family and friends, in community settings, in workgroups, among team members, in organizations and institutions, and in nations.
Sequestered in their boardroom, Morgan Donne, the CEO of a struggling financial services company, recounts their past successes. Determined to help her inner circle remember what it is like to be part of a winning team, she invites them to share a story about their strengths. Morgan begins. Then the CFO shares his story.
This paper contributes to discourse about complex disasters by applying cultural lenses to the study of coastal infrastructure (such as seawalls and dikes), thus departing from…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper contributes to discourse about complex disasters by applying cultural lenses to the study of coastal infrastructure (such as seawalls and dikes), thus departing from studies that focus on characterising, assessing, and predicting the physical resilience of hard structural forms that dominate knowledge about coastal infrastructure.
Design/methodology/approach
This ethnographic study nuances Philippine coastal infrastructure through examining the material registers of a seawall bordering an island inhabited by artisanal fisherfolk. By “material registers”, this research refers to the socially informed ways of regarding and constructing material configurations and how the latter are enacted and resisted. Data collection was accomplished through focus groups with community leaders, on-site and remote interviews with homeowners, and archival research to further understand the spatial and policy context of the structure.
Findings
The discussion focuses on the seawall’s three material registers (protection, fragility, and misrecognition) and reveals how infrastructure built for an island community of fisherfolk simultaneously fulfils, fails, and complicates the promise of disaster resilience.
Research limitations/implications
This research demonstrates the potential of “material registers”, a term previously used to analyse architecture and housing, to understand the technopolitics of infrastructure and how materially informed tensions between homeowners' and state notions of infrastructure contribute to protracted experiences of disaster and coastal maladaptation.
Practical implications
This research signposts the need for disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and sustainable development policies that legitimize the construction of infrastructure to recognize the latter's relationship and impact on multiple sphere of coastal life, including housing and citizenship implications.
Social implications
This research highlights how infrastructure for coastal disaster risk management implicates geographically informed power relations within a community fisherfolk and between their “small” island community and more politically and economically dominant groups.
Originality/value
Whereas studies of coastal infrastructure are focused on quantitative and predictive research regarding hard structural forms in megacities, this study apprehends disaster complexity through examining the cultural and contested nature of infrastructure for coastal flood management in an island community of fisherfolk.
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