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Company stakeholder responsibility considers stakeholder engagement and management as key to long-term firm success. The purpose of this paper is to examine how top managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes change and how they balance stakeholder responsibilities and economic interests.

The authors conducted empirical research using the company stakeholder responsibility framework by conducting a repeated cross-sectional survey in Finland in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

The study shows how development in the business context influences managers’ attitudes towards stakeholder responsibility. Simultaneously with the expansion of free competition in 1990s Finland, managerial commitment to company stakeholder responsibility strengthened in Finnish industry.

The target group consisting of industrial managers both in a single-country context and the social desirability bias present in survey research may limit the generalisability of the results.

The study contributes to the discussion of the role of situational factors in the development of corporate responsibility by showing that while economic changes have some influence on managerial attitudes, the expansion of free markets, together with increased regulation in certain areas, appears to influence managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes to an even greater degree.

The purpose of this paper is to understand differences between the strategic level and the operational level of corporate responsibility within an organization.

The research was conducted as a single case study of one of the more noteworthy Finnish firms with respect to corporate responsibility reporting.

The results show that strategic and operational levels differ in terms of their developmental stage of corporate responsibility. The strategic level is more focused on responsibility issues concerning external stakeholders, on reporting, on corporate image and on quantitative measures. The operational level emphasizes internal stakeholders, acting, daily existence, and qualitative criteria.

A well‐known corporate responsibility model was useful for identifying how perspectives concerning corporate social responsibility vary within the corporation. However, to explore the reasons for this variation, the actors, actions, outcomes and drivers of corporate responsibility need to be examined. The single case study method limits the generalizability of the results.

The research presents a unique case study with novel empirical data. The study contributes to the corporate responsibility research by discussing the differences between words and deeds of corporate responsibility, by testing the usefulness of a corporate responsibility framework and by trying to understand the reasons why different functions of an organization are at different developmental stages regarding corporate responsibility.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness.

A quantitative empirical analysis was conducted on the basis of a survey of 147 respondents within the public sector in Finland. A multivariate linear regression analysis was done to examine how the ethical culture of organisations is related to organisational innovativeness.

A positive link was found in the ethical culture of an organisation and organisational innovativeness: ethical culture was important to behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness. Within the ethical culture of an organisation, the dimension of the congruency of management in particular had an important role in organisational innovativeness.

The data were collected from the public sector, and therefore, future studies from the private sector organisations are needed. The results lend support to previous research arguments for the positive effect of an ethical organisational culture on organisational outcomes, particularly the organisational innovativeness described in this paper.

It is suggested that congruency of management, discussability and supportability are the organisational virtues which can most effectively enhance organisational innovativeness, specifically behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness in practice.

The research paper provides empirical evidence on the interrelation between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness; evidence which is scarce in existing literature on organisational innovativeness. Thus, the paper helps fill this gap in the literature in the field.

This paper aims to create a model for evaluating organizational change initiatives from a stakeholder resistance viewpoint.

The paper presents a model to evaluate change projects and their expected benefits. Factors affecting the challenge to implement change were defined based on stakeholder theory literature. The authors test the model's practical validity for screening change initiatives to improve operating room productivity.

Change initiatives can be evaluated using six factors: the effect of the planned intervention on stakeholders' actions and position; stakeholders' capability to influence the project's implementation; motivation to participate; capability to change; change complexity; and management capability.

The presented model's generalizability should be explored by filtering presented factors through a larger number of historical cases operating in different healthcare contexts. The link between stakeholders, the change challenge and the outcomes of change projects needs to be empirically tested.

The proposed model can be used to prioritize change projects, manage stakeholder resistance and establish a better organizational and professional competence for managing healthcare organization change projects.

New insights into existing stakeholder‐related understanding of change project successes are provided.

The purpose of the present study is to identify the core cultural aspects perceived by the executives of public, private and foreign banks in India.

Of the 124 responses, 96 usable responses were assessed from middle and lower level managers. Qualitative content analysis and deconstruction method were used to identify the perceived cultural aspects.

Interestingly, managers of Indian banking industry stated that cultural aspects of their banks possess good work and working environment, prefer people, management, experience and promotions in comparison to other factors like policy, bonus, market, commitment, project, etc. It is also noted that cultural aspects of banks prefer learning, training and team working.

Assessment of the perception of managers toward their culture will foster the banks to develop integral subculture and to achieve the long-term organizational goals.

The study analyze the cultural aspects in Indian banking industry qualitatively, based on executives characteristics. This qualitative analysis helps to find out more contemporary and prevailing factors of banks.

This paper aims to develop and apply a service design method that allows for stronger recognition and integration of human activities into the front-end stages of the service design process.

Following a discussion of different service design perspectives and activity theory, the paper develops a method called activity-set mapping (ActS). ActS is applied to an exploratory service design project to demonstrate its use.

Three broad perspectives on service design are suggested: (1) the dyadic interaction, (2) the systemic interaction and (3) the customer activity perspectives. The ActS method draws on the latter perspective and focuses on the study of human activity sets. The application of ActS shows that the method can help identify and visualize sets of activities.

The ActS method opens new avenues for service design by zooming in on the micro level and capturing the set of activities linked to a desired goal achievement. However, the method is limited to activities reported by research participants and may exclude unconscious activities. Further research is needed to validate and refine the method.

The ActS method will help service designers explore activities in which humans engage to achieve a desired goal/end state.

The concept of “human activity set” is new to service research and opens analytical opportunities for service design. The ActS method contributes a visualization tool for identifying activity sets and uncovering the benefits, sacrifices and frequency of activities.

The purpose of this study is to elicit and analyze experts’ perceptions of management and leadership competence (MLC) and likely MLC developments and requirements in hospital contexts by 2030.

A three-round, web-based Argument Delphi process was used to gather critically discussed opposing perceptions of 33 Finnish experts, which were subjected to inductive content analysis to identify themes.

Current deficiencies in MLC and several trends (e.g. an ongoing shift towards collaborative management) and required improvements (e.g. a need to adopt more holistic approaches) were identified. However, there were some conflicting perceptions, regarding for example the desirability of fixed-term positions for managers.

The findings provide qualitative indications of a group of Finnish experts’ perceptions of MLC and requirements for its development, elicited using the Argument Delphi Method. Thus, they are subject to the usual limitations of the applied methodology and should be generalized to other contexts cautiously.

The identification of current deficiencies and future requirements for MLC may facilitate the formulation of robust approaches for improving it in hospital contexts.

The findings may be useful for improving MLC in hospitals, thereby enhancing efficiency, teamwork, safety and client satisfaction in healthcare settings.

The Argument Delphi Method has been rarely used in health management science studies and healthcare context. It is intended to develop relevant arguments and reveal reasons for differing views about focal issues, thereby providing deeper understanding of experts’ perceptions of MLC and its likely development.

Although previous studies have addressed the positive relationship between trust and performance, existing research has paid limited attention to management that shapes valued organisation behaviours important for effectiveness and wellbeing. This paper examines how organisational trust and performance unfold in the context of one private and one public sector case organisation in management change.

A multiple case study design using qualitative methods is applied to analyse textual data gathered from management and employee perspectives, juxtaposing private and public organisations.

Management change renewed decision-making in both organisations through role clarification. Through clearer roles, expectations were better managed in the collaborating units of a private organisation case and of the employees in a public organisation case impacting on organisational ability and predictability. Along with organisational communication, these develop trust which seems to be reflected in employee job performance at the organisational level.

This paper contributes to the gap in qualitative, empirical and contextual research by providing understanding about how intra-organisational trust is related to performance. Further, this paper sheds light on the vulnerability within an organisation during management change and adds to the somewhat scarce studies of relationships between trust and performance by juxtaposing the two contexts. Consequently, this enables one to reveal different approaches to trust and performance between the two sectors.

It has been argued that systems integration plays a central role when a company supplies complex technical and engineering intensive industrial projects. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of customer integration as part of systems integration in industrial project business.

This paper develops the understanding of systems integration based on an empirical study, in two phases, of a global company providing large and complex solutions including demanding strategic and operational efforts, within the power and marine sectors. The paper analyzes the technical and social dimensions and describes how to systematically manage them.

The social dimension of integration can be achieved by making a direct change in policy towards the six supplier capabilities or integration mechanisms found critical: showing interest in the customer's needs and business requirements; promptly responding to and solving customer needs; having knowledge concerning the latest technical development; having the ability to listen to the customer and to reflect on what has been said; taking responsibility for the delivered installation after handing it over and having logistics competence to guarantee availability of parts.

The benefits of understanding and managing the social dimension, in terms of customer integration, of systems integration properly have a considerable financial impact on the project company's business.

Addressing the social dimension of systems integration is beneficial to a project company's business because the company can decrease its level of risk and uncertainty, and at the same time develop market opportunities by increasing the value of the offerings.