Monica Choy, Justin Cheng and Karl Yu
The purpose of this paper is to use the case of an international luxury hotel chain in Hong Kong to illustrate general environmentally-friendly practices in housekeeping. Six…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use the case of an international luxury hotel chain in Hong Kong to illustrate general environmentally-friendly practices in housekeeping. Six in-depth interviews were conducted with the housekeeping department staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the Hotel’s environmental sustainability practices by analysing their benefits and limitations. Results reveal that all informants acknowledged the environmental sustainability strategies adopted by the Hotel, which can benefit stakeholders. Despite multiple green practices in hotel housekeeping, several strategies may not be as significant as expected with misaligned expectations from the management and the actual practices may create excessive workload for frontline room attendants with a lack of policy enforcement and supportive policies. Therefore, hotels should keep a mutual communication between the management and frontline employees prior to conducting environmentally- and employee-friendly practices. Given the labour-intensive nature of the hotel industry, the housekeeping department should ensure employment equality policy is in place with adequate environmentally friendly support for employees.
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Obinna Alo, Ahmad Arslan, Anna Yumiao Tian and Vijay Pereira
This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically addresses the role of organisational and managerial support systems in restoring employee wellbeing, social connectedness and attachment to their organisations, in order to overcome the exclusion caused by the ongoing pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a qualitative research methodology that includes interviews as the main data source. The sample comprises of 20 entrepreneurs (organisational leaders) from Ghana and Nigeria.
Findings
The authors found that COVID-19-induced worries restricted the practice of mindfulness, and this was prevalent at the peak of the pandemic, particularly due to very tough economic conditions caused by reduction in salaries, and intensified by pre-existing general economic and social insecurities, and institutional voids in Africa. This aspect further resulted in lack of engagement and lack of commitment, which affected overall team performance and restricted employees’ mindfulness at work. Hence, quietness by employees even though can be linked to mindfulness was linked to larger psychological stress that they were facing. The authors also found leaders/manager’s emotional intelligence, social skills and organisational support systems to be helpful in such circumstances. However, their effectiveness varied among the cases.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first studies to establish a link between the COVID-19 pandemic and mindfulness limitations. Moreover, it is a pioneering study specifically highlighting the damaging impact of COVID-19-induced concerns on leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) relationships, particularly in the African context. It further brings in a unique discussion on the mitigating mechanisms of such COVID-19-induced concerns in organisations and highlights the roles of manager’s/leader’s emotional intelligence, social skills and supportive intervention patterns. Finally, the authors offer an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of organisational interventions and supportive relational systems in restoring social connectedness following a social exclusion caused by COVID-19-induced worries.
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This study aims to investigate how understanding of objective knowledge (as defined by Karl Popper) is experienced by the knowledge recipient and the role that information plays…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how understanding of objective knowledge (as defined by Karl Popper) is experienced by the knowledge recipient and the role that information plays in such understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
Husserl's phenomenological approach is applied to a sample of undergraduate students' lived experiences of understanding, collected through diaries and interviews.
Findings
This study finds that understanding of certain objective knowledge develops as the knowledge appears and eventually gives itself to consciousness through the information conveying it; different degrees of givenness of the knowledge in consciousness is experienced by the mind as different levels of understanding; a relatively solid understanding is achieved when the knowledge emerges as an erected knowledge-object in consciousness. Understanding of complex objective knowledge requires not only adequate amount (dose) of information but also corroboration of manifold information sources and formats.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study apply to the understanding of objective knowledge as defined by Popper. Further research is needed to examine other types of understanding.
Practical implications
This study informs educators and LIS professionals the typical phases in the lived experience of understanding objective knowledge, and the role of information in facilitating the understanding; it urges the two professions to take such experience into consideration when designing courses and information products/services, respectively.
Originality/value
Drawing on Husserl's phenomenological approach, this study provides an intuitive account of understanding of objective knowledge, and clarifies a number of conceptual confusions within LIS concerning understanding. It may also have some cross-disciplinary relevance for reflecting education objectives and explaining the Aha! experience in psychology.
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This paper is a response to the doctrine that capital is incompatible with public ownership. The fundamental characteristics of modern productivity determine the co-existence of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is a response to the doctrine that capital is incompatible with public ownership. The fundamental characteristics of modern productivity determine the co-existence of the market economy and capital relations.
Design/methodology/approach
Socialism can neither bypass the market economy nor “go beyond capital”; capital appears in two historical forms, including the private capital and the public capital. Public capital is the inevitable outcome of the inherent contradictions of public ownership in a socialist market economy.
Findings
It represents an economic relationship that compels individual labourers to provide surplus labour for the society. The combination of the strong accumulation function of public capital and the improvement of people's welfare is the main cause of China's development miracle.
Originality/value
The innovation impetus of the public capital and its “immunity” to the capitalist crisis highlight the tremendous power of socialism with Chinese characteristics in breaking free of the shackles of capitalism and continuously developing productive forces. Public capital demonstrates and will continue to demonstrate the historical legitimacy of socialism.
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Caihua Yu, Heng Zhang and Tonghui Lian
This study aims to explore the influence of risk preference and information acquisition on outdoor tourism safety decision-making.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the influence of risk preference and information acquisition on outdoor tourism safety decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
Five hundred twenty outdoor tourists were surveyed, and data were analyzed using two-stage regression.
Findings
Risk preference positively affects tourists’ safety decisions for outdoor travel. The greater the risk preference is, the more likely the tourists are to make the risky decision of outdoor tourism. Information acquisition significantly negatively affects tourists’ safety decisions for outdoor tourism. Tourists who obtain information through social channels are more likely to make safer travel decisions than those who do not.
Originality/value
Risk preference and information acquisition are introduced into outdoor tourism safety research.
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Donald H. Kluemper, Arjun Mitra and Siting Wang
Over the past decade, the rapid evolution of social media has impacted the field of human resource management in numerous ways. In response, scholars and practitioners have sought…
Abstract
Over the past decade, the rapid evolution of social media has impacted the field of human resource management in numerous ways. In response, scholars and practitioners have sought to begin an investigation of the myriad of ways that social media impacts organizations. To date, research evidence on a range of HR-related topics are just beginning to emerge, but are scattered across a range of diverse literatures. The principal aim of this chapter is to review the current literature on the study of social media in HRM and to integrate these disparate emerging literatures. During our review, we discuss the existent research, describe the theoretical foundations of such work, and summarize key research findings and themes into a coherent social media framework relevant to HRM. Finally, we offer recommendations for future work that can enhance knowledge of social media’s impact in organizations.
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Julius Eggert and Julia Hartmann
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential synergy between companies’ sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) activities and their supply chain resilience…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential synergy between companies’ sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) activities and their supply chain resilience (SCRES). The authors propose hypotheses about the impact of buying companies SSCM activities on the inflicted damage by unexpected supply chain disruptions and the recovery time afterwards and test these empirically using data from companies during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors investigate a sample of 231 of the largest publicly traded companies in the European Union with 4.158 firm-year observations. For the analysis, the authors generate variables capturing the companies’ intensity and years of experience of their SSCM activities targeted at the supply chain and run regression analyses on the inflicted damage due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery time after the disruption.
Findings
Buying companies’ SSCM activities have a positive effect on their SCRES. The damage inflicted by unexpected supply chain disruptions is lower when companies have higher levels of SSCM and longer experience with it. The recovery time afterwards is significantly reduced by longer experience with SSCM efforts.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest SCRES is reinforced by transparency, situational awareness, social capital and collaboration resulting from companies SSCM activities translate into increased SCRES.
Practical implications
The authors show that companies with superior SSCM are more resilient in a crisis and conclude that, therefore, companies should invest in SSCM to prevent future supply disruptions.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study analyzing a data set of multi-industry companies, linking their SSCM activities to SCRES during the pandemic.
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This paper explores the Entrepreneurial Well-Being (EWB) of expatriate entrepreneurs in China. Through the analysis of their contextualised lived experience across the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the Entrepreneurial Well-Being (EWB) of expatriate entrepreneurs in China. Through the analysis of their contextualised lived experience across the entrepreneurial journey, the paper proposes a novel theorisation of EWB.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts an interpretivist approach of abductive reasoning to analyse the data from 50 in-depth interviews conducted with expatriate entrepreneurs in China. Expatriate entrepreneurs are confronted with enhanced challenges in their host country, leading to particular emotional engagement with the entrepreneurial journey.
Findings
Findings show the importance of life situations, emotions and relatedness in the entrepreneurial process and the EWB of expatriate entrepreneurs. Theorising from their lived experiences, the paper presents EWB as a dynamic process. It further theorises this process as a constant, ongoing interaction and integration between the self and world, in an interplay of being and becoming. Such theorisation contributes first to advancements in the EWB literature, with a stronger emphasis on the entrepreneurial aspect. The paper also contributes to discussions on contextualised entrepreneurship by stressing the role of emotions and relatedness in the pursuit of EWB.
Originality/value
Entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon, which is often presented as a suitable alternative career path for migrant and expatriate individuals. However, the importance of EWB for entrepreneurs requires further attention from policy-makers, support institutions and entrepreneurs themselves. By theorising EWB as a processual journey of being and becoming and the relation between the self and world, this paper opens avenues for innovative support policies and practices aiming at developing the full potential of individuals in entrepreneurship and promoting both the happiness index and the global index of society.
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Isabella Maria Weber and Gregor Semieniuk
American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for…
Abstract
American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for the developing world. But the knowledge of “actually existing Maoism” was very limited due to the mutual isolation between China and the US. This chapter analyses the First Friendship Delegation of American Radical Political Economists (FFDARPE) to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, consisting mainly of Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) members, which was the first visit of a group of American economists to China since 1949. Based on interviews with trip participants as well as archival and published material, this chapter studies what we can learn about the engagement with Maoism by American radical economists from their dialogues with Chinese hosts, from their on-the-ground observations, and their reflection upon return. We show how the visitors’ own ideas conflicted and intersected with their perception of the Maoist practice on gender relations, workers’ management, and life in the communes. We also shed light on the diverging conceptions of the role for economic expertise between URPE and late Maoism. As the first in-depth study on the FFDARPE, we provide rich empirical insights into an ice-breaking event in the larger process of normalization in the Sino-US relations, which ultimately led to the disillusionment of the Left with China.
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David M. Boje and Grace Ann Rosile
South African scholars, like most scholars in the developing world, have sold the idea that social constructivism is the gold standard of qualitative management research. In this…
Abstract
South African scholars, like most scholars in the developing world, have sold the idea that social constructivism is the gold standard of qualitative management research. In this chapter, we caution against this subordination to unquestioned conventions and offer a process relational ontology as an alternative to social constructivism that is often punted by most qualitative research programmes and textbooks. We also debunk the idea that ‘grounded theory’ exists by delving into epistemology and showing how science is ‘self-correcting’ rather than ‘tabula rasa’. Instead of boxing business ethics knowledge, as has been done by the case study gurus, we encourage business and organisational ethicists to own their indigenous heritage through storytelling science based on the self-correcting method underpinned by Popperian and Peircian epistemological thought. This chapter encourages business management researchers to move towards more profound ethical knowledge by refuting and falsifying false assumptions in each phase of the study, in a sequence of self-correcting storytelling phases. This is what Karl Popper called trial and error, and what C.S. Peirce called self-correcting by the triadic of Abduction–Induction–Deduction. We offer a novel method for accomplishing this aim that we call ‘Conversational Interviews’ that are based on antenarrative storytelling sciences. Our chapter aims to evoking the transformative power of indigenous ontological antenarratives in authentic conversation in order to solve immediate local problems ad fill the many institutional voids that plague the South(ern)-/African context.