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Article
Publication date: 3 June 2021

John F. Blattner, William P. Karmia and Thomas J. Walter

The purpose of this case study is to investigate how a small catering company has coped with the current Covid-19 pandemic. Initial research was performed in 2014 and repeated in…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this case study is to investigate how a small catering company has coped with the current Covid-19 pandemic. Initial research was performed in 2014 and repeated in 2018. Given the far reaching business challenges of the pandemic, the authors examined the viability of the organization within the current climate.

Design/methodology/approach

Embedded organizational components of culture, leadership and engagement are explored as key elements in the sustainability of the company during the pandemic crisis. Prior research data using the organizational culture inventory is used to assess organizational culture over a four-year period. Employee data and interview analysis within company structure is used to determine how leadership and employee engagement is impacted. Culture research is examined to determine the influence of company culture upon organizational survival.

Findings

This paper identifies workplace culture elements that contribute to company sustainability. Embedded core value systems, strong employee engagement mechanisms and focused leadership styles were observed to be critical influences upon company survival during the pandemic.

Originality/value

This research would assist industry professionals and practitioners in understanding the active workplace culture mechanisms found to be effective for organizational survival during periods of crisis. Companies that adopt similar practices may acquire sustainability advantage during the pandemic.

Details

Strategic HR Review, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-4398

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Article
Publication date: 10 August 2015

John Blattner and Thomas J. Walter

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how organizations can create and sustain a highly engaged, high performing company culture, one that fully integrates and leverages the…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how organizations can create and sustain a highly engaged, high performing company culture, one that fully integrates and leverages the strengths of boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials.

Design/methodology/approach

Once a company run with a command and control approach, Tasty Catering leadership was confronted by its younger generation, mid-level leaders who said, “We no longer wanted to be told what to do”. Instead, they wanted to be given clearly defined tasks with identified outcomes and measures, and the freedom to pursue those goals how they so choose. In short, they wanted to change from “command and control” management to “team” leadership. After considerable thought, Tasty Catering leadership decided to embrace this creative destruction and the transformation began. From all employees reading Good to Great and breaking into teams to discuss applicability to the company to employee-led development of company culture starting with core values, the leadership team witnessed the beginning of something they realized was going to take their organization to new heights. This case study will outline key steps for leaders and HR leaders with lessons learned and tips for success as they transform with team leadership, open-book management and engaging younger workers.

Findings

Business and HR leaders should consider assessing their organizational culture and effectiveness to gain a baseline and make measurable improvements. PAS International administered Tasty Catering’s assessment using the Organizational Culture Inventory® (OCI®) and the Organizational Effectiveness Inventory® (OEI®), finding a rare and very strong match up of ideal and current operating culture for both employee and leadership segments in an organization. The results of the assessment, normed against more than a thousand other organizations, validate Tasty Catering’s healthy, high performing work environment.

Originality/value

The culture-based leadership model and financial transparency led and implemented by Tasty Catering’s younger workers are examples of workplace practices that enable high employee involvement, growth, development and recognition. The company’s cultural efforts continue to pay off in high staff morale, as well as a 14 percent rise in sales and a 117 per cent increase in profits last year. Recognizing the importance of sustainability and continuous improvement, all of Tasty Catering’s employees, those representing every generation, are constantly identifying the best and new ways to maintain their strong culture and performance link.

Details

Strategic HR Review, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-4398

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Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 10 August 2015

Javier Bajer

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Abstract

Details

Strategic HR Review, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-4398

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Book part
Publication date: 9 January 2014

This chapter takes a look at the Social Web. Humanities scholars are, by and large, a fairly social group. Attend any of the Modern Language Association conferences and you will…

Abstract

This chapter takes a look at the Social Web. Humanities scholars are, by and large, a fairly social group. Attend any of the Modern Language Association conferences and you will be inundated with invitations to attend events hosted by publishers, groups within MLA, universities, and alumni organizations. The way we now include apps as an inherent part of our socialization, however, is changing and evolving as a result of some of the tools that are to be associated with the digital humanities, albeit not necessarily as apparently so as some others. This chapter explores the familiar players like Facebook™, Google+™, Twitter™, and others and discusses how they are being used by those in the field, contextualizing them within a variety of disciplines in the humanities through case studies while situating the category alongside theories that make sense of their use. Not as commonly used in academic social networks are vlogging applications along with student blog sites, which are also examined in this chapter. It is in this and subsequent chapters where augmented reality enhancements will be used. Please follow the directions at the beginning of Chapter 2 to access these additions.

Details

Digital Humanities: Current Perspective, Practices, and Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-689-7

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 December 2006

John Morgan and Thomas Davies

This paper reports results of analyses made at an all-female Gulf Arab university measuring the nature and extent of biases in students' evaluation of faculty. Comparisons are…

414

Abstract

This paper reports results of analyses made at an all-female Gulf Arab university measuring the nature and extent of biases in students' evaluation of faculty. Comparisons are made with research reporting the nature of similar relationships in North America. Two issues are investigated: 1) What variables (if any) bias faculty evaluation results at an all-female Arab university? 2) Are biasing variables different in nature or magnitude to those reported at North America universities? Using the population of 13,300 faculty evaluation records collected over two school years at Zayed University, correlations of faculty evaluation results to nine potentially biasing factors are made. Results show biases to faculty evaluation results do exist. However, biases are small, and strikingly similar in nature to those reported at North American universities.

Details

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2077-5504

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Book part
Publication date: 10 June 2021

Debra Merskin

Rarely acknowledged, particularly in business and communications, is that animals have interests in decisions that affect them. This chapter raises questions about how…

Abstract

Rarely acknowledged, particularly in business and communications, is that animals have interests in decisions that affect them. This chapter raises questions about how stakeholding is defined and explains why the circle of ethical consideration has been limited to human beings but should be expanded when so much of what we do impacts animals – animals who often labor for our benefit, not theirs, whose bodies are used as food, whose skins are used for fashion and furniture, and who are experimented upon, all without their consent, nor representation of their interests beyond essential physical needs. Animals as laborers/workers for our interests is an important expansion to business and public relations (PR) ethics. While labor is deeply raced and gendered, it also is species dependent. Many practices allowed with animal workers would never be permitted or certainly regarded with concern, if among human beings. Freeman's (1984) two-tiered sense of stakeholders is applied and the argument made that animals should be included in the array of stakeholders, the argument being they are not only silent but also silenced as have been marginalized human groups. This chapter offers a textual analysis of the cover of the December 09, 2013 issue of Time magazine and a response article which serve as a case study for considering animals as stakeholders integral to PR–corporate social responsibility–diversity, equity, and inclusion intersection. I examine deer in the urban landscape and ask whether their perspectives are included in decisions about population, habitat, and health. If communications are to be ethical, inclusive, and socially responsible, animals must be affirmed as part of DEI commitments. Action steps/recommendations for doing so are included.

Details

Public Relations for Social Responsibility
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-168-3

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Book part
Publication date: 25 November 2013

This Chapter provides an overview of the field of digital humanities and examines the arguments that are helping to shape it in a variety of ways. This chapter explores the unique…

Abstract

This Chapter provides an overview of the field of digital humanities and examines the arguments that are helping to shape it in a variety of ways. This chapter explores the unique difference in perspective between the “code” as the basis of understanding the humanities in general and digital humanities more specifically and the focus of pedagogues, who believe that it is indeed the examination and expression of the humanities that help shape the code, thus giving the code meaning. There are also those who focus more on research within the field and are not conversant on how various tools work but instead why they are chosen in the first place. This chapter also explores how the work of students, as user of that which we in the field code, teach and research, impacts the discipline.

Details

Digital Humanities: Current Perspective, Practices, and Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-689-7

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Article
Publication date: 1 September 2006

Mallika Bose, Eliza Pennypacker and Thomas Yahner

A group of faculty at Penn State's Department of Landscape Architecture observed that the traditional master/apprentice model of studio instruction fosters greater student…

105

Abstract

A group of faculty at Penn State's Department of Landscape Architecture observed that the traditional master/apprentice model of studio instruction fosters greater student dependence on faculty for decision-making guidance than the faculty considers desirable. They contend that this traditional model promotes a studio dynamic that encourages students to look to the professor for design ideas and wait for faculty approval before making design decisions. The faculty considered this decision-making dependency to be in conflict with the need for students to develop the critical-thinking skills required to address the complex and ill-structured problems that are common in architecture and landscape architecture. In response to their concern this faculty team developed a studio teaching method they termed “independent design decision-making.” They speculated that by transferring the responsibility for design decisions from professor to the student, students could improve their critical thinking and gain confidence in design decision-making. The faculty conceived a set of strategies to implement in a 3rd year team-taught site planning and design studio that presents a range of complex design issues and scales. In collaboration with Penn State's Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, the faculty researchers developed a 2-year comparative study to test this new teaching method in the same design studio with two consecutive student groups-evaluating the strategies implemented in the first year, refining methods, then applying and re-evaluating the results in the next year's class. These new strategies included ways students receive information to inspire their designs (“input strategies”) and ways to receive critique on their design ideas (“feedback strategies”). Two evaluation instruments were chosen to assess this method of studio teaching: 1) the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), and 2) Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG). This paper presents this teaching/learning method and reports on the results of the comparative study.

Details

Open House International, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

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Book part
Publication date: 31 January 2025

Robert J. Antonio

This chapter focuses on the conservative Heritage Foundation's “Project 2025” and especially its comprehensive Mandate for Leadership, which provides a detailed plan for…

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the conservative Heritage Foundation's “Project 2025” and especially its comprehensive Mandate for Leadership, which provides a detailed plan for fundamental policy and administrative changes to be instituted in a Trump second term. It advocates an unparalleled concentration of executive power, elimination of the independence of the civil service and Department of Justice from the office of the president, and institution of permanent dominance of Trumpian conservatism. The specific focus is on the Mandate's proposed antienvironmental policies, which are weaved throughout the document and are designed to roll back sweepingly previous climate-change and environmental protection policies. Stressing maximal usage, production, and export of fossil fuel, the Trumpian “energy dominance agenda” is in polar contradiction to climate science policy aimed at decarbonizing the economy and society and averting catastrophic climate change and a “Hothouse Earth.” The Mandate's postfactual discourse combined with its advocacy of an all-powerful president and conspiratorial vision of the “woke” left as public enemy has definite protofascist overtones.

Details

The Future of Agency
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83608-978-0

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Book part
Publication date: 25 November 2013

Abstract

Details

Digital Humanities: Current Perspective, Practices, and Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-689-7

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