Looks at learning logs and their relevance in the context of self‐development in organizations and in education ‐ especially within skills development programmes.
Abstract
Looks at learning logs and their relevance in the context of self‐development in organizations and in education ‐ especially within skills development programmes.
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Explains the advantages of behavioural interviewing as a method of employee selection. Reports on a survey of UK organisations’ use of behavioural interviewing in selection. Both…
Abstract
Explains the advantages of behavioural interviewing as a method of employee selection. Reports on a survey of UK organisations’ use of behavioural interviewing in selection. Both interviewers and candidates were positive about the technique. Benefits identified were better quality information gathering leading to improved selection decisions, more consistency and improved skills of interviewers, as well providing candidates with better opportunities to explain their skills. Concerns were raised regarding the training, practice and time required, scoring procedures and possible limitations in respect of certain candidates. Links with wider use of competencies in HRM are examined as well as links with other selection methods. Concludes that behavioural interviewing has significant benefits in improving selection and can also be applied to other interviewing situations such as discipline and grievance. Discusses implications for interviewers, candidates and trainers. Issues for further research are outlined.
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The first part of a larger study into organisations’ use of structured interviewing techniques. Discusses reasons for continued popularity of interviewing in selection, despite…
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The first part of a larger study into organisations’ use of structured interviewing techniques. Discusses reasons for continued popularity of interviewing in selection, despite its shortcomings. Considers the use of two structured interviewing techniques to improve selection: behavioural and situational questioning. Presents the findings of a large scale survey of UK organisations’ use of these techniques. The use of structured interviewing is rapidly increasing and is used by all sizes of organisation. Behavioural interviewing is being used more than situational interviewing, and many respondents use both techniques. Structured techniques are most commonly used for management posts. Discusses links with competency based HRM and roles of line managers and HR specialists in selection. Areas for further research are outlined.
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Explains the use of learning logs as a tool for self‐development as a form of diary for recording and enhancing experiential learning, increasingly advocated owing to the…
Abstract
Explains the use of learning logs as a tool for self‐development as a form of diary for recording and enhancing experiential learning, increasingly advocated owing to the limitations of traditional learning methods and pressures on training resources. Evaluates a study involving over 100 participants on a postgraduate management course who kept a log for one year, recording their self‐directed learning from workplace activities. Explores the relationship between participants’ learning styles and their experiences of using learning logs. Identifies the main benefits for learners as improved self‐awareness and access to more work opportunities, as well as professional development. Highlights managers’ perceptions of benefits in managing staff development. Pinpoints simplicity and flexibility in using logs as important, for both learners and managers. Discusses the importance of support for learners as a key issue, and concludes that self‐development is a social process.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the key issues involved in situations within the workplace when an employee goes through gender reassignment, in order to consider how such…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the key issues involved in situations within the workplace when an employee goes through gender reassignment, in order to consider how such situations might be managed more effectively.
Design/methodology/approach
It analyses a case study from a national public sector organisation in the UK where a transsexual person went through male to female gender reassignment. The case was compiled via participant observation and one to one interviews with the key players in the process (managers, human resource staff and colleagues as well as the individual).
Findings
Key issues discussed include the effects on trust and relationships at work, harassment, the role of trade unions, training, and other support. It explores the difficulty of gaining acceptance for a transsexual, and links this to literature on managing diversity and change management.
Research limitations/implications
The case study is in the public sector in the UK, but implications are valid for other organisations.
Practical implications
Makes suggestions for managing transsexual issues for management and for trade unions, whilst being cautious about the extent of acceptance that can be achieved.
Originality/value
Existing literature tends to focus on the transsexual individual's own viewpoint, and guidelines from transgender support groups. This study includes the roles and reactions of all the key people involved within a real organisational case, and offers insights into the issues involved when managing transsexual cases in the workplace.
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Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and…
Abstract
Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).
The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.
This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.
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The purpose of this paper is to show how one of the biggest phenomena of the twenty‐first century is the internationalisation of professional sports and how premier league…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how one of the biggest phenomena of the twenty‐first century is the internationalisation of professional sports and how premier league football epitomises this. With the influx of foreign players, managers and now owners, European League Football has become big business. This paper aims to provide a theoretical analysis of the management implications of foreign players in the English Premiership League football – renamed the Barclays Premier League to suit the needs of its major sponsors.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach adopted is purely qualitative in nature, evaluating the top Barclays Premier League teams and the impact of globalisation on their reconfigurations since the early 1990s to date. The study draws mainly from a review of the extant literature on sports and management, as well as a critical analysis of media reports.
Findings
Globalisation has emerged as a new force that has changed the way corporations are managed. Financial services, retail and information technology firms have all responded to this new wave – and so also has sports. Unfortunately while sports have the potential to teach lessons on management strategy, management researchers seem to have relegated sports to the sociology and psychology disciplines.
Practical implications
The Barclays Premier league football provides a unique environment for management decisions and processes to occur in a range of markets and at varied levels. However, the globalisation of professional sports has received relatively very little attention in the academic literature – especially in the field of business and management.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the scant literature on the management implications of football by highlighting how globalisation has affected and reconfigured professional sports using the influx of foreign players into the English football league as a point of departure.
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Ben-Roy Do, Pi-Wen Yeh and Jean Madsen
Human resource (HR) flexibility is a firm-level capability that consists of employee skill flexibility, employee behavior flexibility, and HR practice flexibility. HR flexibility…
Abstract
Purpose
Human resource (HR) flexibility is a firm-level capability that consists of employee skill flexibility, employee behavior flexibility, and HR practice flexibility. HR flexibility allows organizations to adapt and be responsive to changes in their environments. Findings from this paper indicate that if the organization is highly innovative and has flexible HR policies, then that influences organizational culture, risk-taking and experimentation within a firm. This paper has also revealed that process innovation mediates between adaptability culture and product innovation. It also revealed that managers should emphasize processes to improve efficiency for resource exploitation. The lessons learned from process innovation activities indicated that having a strong knowledge base assists a firm in developing innovative technology such as automation for manufacturing, handling and testing or simply smart manufacturing.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaires were sent to employees at 23 Taiwanese companies in high-tech industries, where innovation is the key to their survival, and 293 valid surveys were collected. Structural equation modeling, (SEM) using IBM SPSS Amos, was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results fully support the hypotheses that HR flexibility positively influences adaptability culture and contributes to organizational innovation. Furthermore, it was found that adaptability culture has a direct impact on process innovation and an indirect impact on product innovation through process innovation.
Originality/value
The critical role of HR flexibility and adaptability culture on organizational innovation in the high-tech sector were highlighted. The importance of HR flexibility is emphasized to provide managerial hints to top managers.
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Dominique Biron and Etienne St-Jean
Longer life expectancy brings a new phenomenon: senior entrepreneurship. Whereas starting a business involves investing energy, time, money or other types of resources, ageing is…
Abstract
Purpose
Longer life expectancy brings a new phenomenon: senior entrepreneurship. Whereas starting a business involves investing energy, time, money or other types of resources, ageing is somewhat incompatible with these terms. Research on the impact of time perception on the entrepreneurial process is rather scarce. Considering the lack of knowledge related to the impact of time perception on the entrepreneurship process, this study aims to answer the following research question: how does temporal perception influence the entrepreneurial process?
Design/methodology/approach
Senior entrepreneurs are the most relevant category of individuals from which the impact of time perception could be observed, as they are objectively closer to the end of their careers than younger entrepreneurs. Therefore, longitudinal research was conducted by interviewing five senior entrepreneurs at 4-year intervals.
Findings
Results show that there are two types of temporal perception in entrepreneurship: temporal perception of the entrepreneur's career and temporal perception of the enterprise's development. When these two-time perspectives are not synchronized with the entrepreneur's vision, the entrepreneur develops strategies for seeking to re-establish synchronicity between the temporal perspective (TP) of their entrepreneurial career and that of the business development. The senior entrepreneur is distinguished from a traditional entrepreneur by a limited TP of their entrepreneurial career combined with the notions of bridge employment and generativity.
Research limitations/implications
The number of cases under study did not allow us to examine every possible type of situation. The sampling of the cases under study did not offer great diversity in terms of gender, as the study had only men. However, the range of ages at startup, from 50 to 65 years, provides greater diversity, as does the range of business segments that included the service, manufacturing and retail food industries.
Originality/value
Entrepreneurs with a limited career time perspective correspond to senior entrepreneurs, while others who have an open career prospect, regardless of their age, correspond to any other form of an entrepreneur. This study has also been able to identify that an entrepreneur who realizes their limited entrepreneurial career horizon and perceives a temporal purpose of their company in the service of the involved parties tends to plan the entrepreneurial exit phase.
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Jean Clarke and Mark P. Healey
We argue that voice – the sound that people produce when they speak – is an important resource for entrepreneurs, especially when they are pitching to potential investors. We…
Abstract
We argue that voice – the sound that people produce when they speak – is an important resource for entrepreneurs, especially when they are pitching to potential investors. We integrate evidence from entrepreneurship, social psychology and linguistics to show that the voice can be regarded both as a tool for entrepreneurs to utilize and as a vital source of information allowing listeners to make judgements about the speaker and their message. To better understand how the voice may be used and interpreted in investment pitches, we develop a model of the relationship between the entrepreneurial voice and investor judgments. Voice depends on entrepreneurs’ characteristics including gender and communication goals but can be utilized to express emotions (purposefully or not) and signal qualities such as competence and trustworthiness. How potential investors interpret these displays depends on cultural expectations and stereotypes. Our review illustrates that female entrepreneurs may find it more difficult to persuade investors due to their naturally higher voice pitch and bias against speech patterns prevalent among young women. We highlight directions for future research exploring the voice as a unique cultural resource for entrepreneurs.