Sean P. Goffnett, Lawrence Lepisto and Randall Hayes
The purpose of this paper is to present a framework and a case that delineates the coordinated use of the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a framework and a case that delineates the coordinated use of the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to facilitate operational change.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses action research and thematic analysis to explore the augmentation of existing process improvement and organizational assessment methodologies in a production environment.
Findings
Organizations are under increasing pressure to improve all aspects of business. Project leaders and consultants often follow popular quantitatively oriented protocols like LSS to evaluate explicit operational processes. Including a qualitatively oriented protocol like SEAM expands the project leader’s capability through greater consideration of implicit organizational issues. This paper presents a case where LSS was complemented by SEAM to assess a process that was entangled with several latent organizational dysfunctions.
Practical implications
SEAM and LSS are accepted protocols to facilitate process improvement and organizational change. Pairing the two protocols into a SEAM-LSS model offers the strengths of each approach, while compensating for the limitations of each. The result is a more inclusive change protocol that reduces potential oversights and inefficiencies that could occur if project leaders worked within the purview of only one methodology.
Originality/value
This paper uses action research to propose a model to bring qualitative and quantitative methodologies together into a larger complementary framework to use when evaluating organizational problems and opportunities. This paper aims to stimulate discussion and research that would lead to more robust process improvement protocols.
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Richard L. Divine and Lawrence Lepisto
The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the healthy lifestyle consumer by examining demographic, personal value and psychographic antecedents.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the healthy lifestyle consumer by examining demographic, personal value and psychographic antecedents.
Design/methodology/approach
A cluster analysis was used to divide consumers into healthy and unhealthy lifestyle segments based on their diet and exercise behavior. A logistic regression analysis was then run on these segments to test the impact of 17 hypothesized antecedents.
Findings
Results indicate that people who maintain a healthy lifestyle tend to be female, older, more educated, place less importance on the value of “excitement”, have a greater tendency to plan ahead and tend to experience less role overload.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation is that the response rate of the mail survey used to collect data was only 28.8 percent. Another limitation was that the specific types of diet and exercise behavior used to classify respondents into clusters did not encompass the full range of diet and exercise options available to all consumers.
Practical implications
The financial impact of the healthy lifestyle consumer on a number of industries is documented. A demographic profile of the healthy lifestyle consumer was obtained which should assist companies seeking to target this segment. The significance of two time‐related psychographic predictors suggests that companies looking to expand the market for healthy products may want to focus on ways of making their products/services more convenient to time‐pressured consumers.
Originality/value
This paper represents one of the first attempts in the marketing literature to study the healthy lifestyle segment.
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This chapter examines how structural factors related to gender, managerial level, and economic sector could impact the level of experienced person/role conflict in management…
Abstract
This chapter examines how structural factors related to gender, managerial level, and economic sector could impact the level of experienced person/role conflict in management based on a representative survey conducted among managers in Norway. Person/role conflict appears relevant for understanding emotions in organizations and is linked with emotional dissonance and emotional labor through theoretical and empirical considerations. Our findings reveal that the effect of gender remains significant when controlled for economic sector and managerial level. This indicates that experienced person/role conflict can be partially caused by perceived incongruity between internalized and gender role-related expectations as well as managerial role-related expectations.
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Virpi Ala-Heikkilä and Marko Järvenpää
This study aims to take a step toward integrating research regarding the image, role and identity of management accountants by understanding how employers’ perceptions of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to take a step toward integrating research regarding the image, role and identity of management accountants by understanding how employers’ perceptions of the ideal management accountant image differ from operational managers’ perceived role expectations, how management accountants perceive their identity and how those factors shape management accountants’ understanding of who they are and want to be.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative design draws upon the case company’s 100 job advertisements and 31 semi-structured interviews with management accountants and operational managers. Those data are entwined with role theory and its core concepts of expectations and identities and also early recruitment-related theoretical aspects such as image and employer branding.
Findings
The findings reveal how employers’ perceptions of the ideal image and operational managers’ role expectations shape and influence the identity of management accountants. However, management accountants distance themselves from a brand image and role expectations. They experience identity conflict between their current and desired identity, the perception of not being able to perform the currently desired role. Although this study presents some possible reasons and explanations, such as employer branding for the misalignment and discrepancy between perceptions of employer (image), expectations of operational managers (role) and management accountants’ self-conception of the role (identity), this study argues that the identity of a management accountant results from organizational aspects of image and role and individual aspects of identity.
Research limitations/implications
Image and external role expectations can challenge identity construction and also serve as a source of conflict and frustration; thus, a more comprehensive approach to studying the identity of management accountants is necessary to understand what contributes to the fragility of their identity.
Practical implications
The results provide an understanding of the dynamics of the image, role and identity to support management accountants and employers and to further address the suggested dissonance and ambiguities.
Originality/value
This study contributes by showing how the dynamics and connections between the image, role and identity influence the identity construction of management accountants. Moreover, this study shows how overpromising as a part of employer branding might not reflect the reality experienced by management accountants but may cause frustration and threaten the management accountants’ identity.
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Robert Rieg, Jan-Hendrik Meier and Carmen Finckh
Job advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles are sought and…
Abstract
Purpose
Job advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles are sought and expected. However, which roles are communicated in job advertisements is unknown so far.
Design/methodology/approach
With a text-mining approach on a large sample of 889 job ads, the authors extract information on roles, type of firm and hierarchical position of the management accountant sought.
Findings
The results indicate an apparent mix of different role types with a strong focus on a classic watchdog role. However, the business partner role is more often sought for leadership positions or in family businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is the lack of an agreed-upon measurement instrument for roles in job offers. The study results imply that corporate practice is not as theory-driven as is postulated and communicated in the management accounting community. This indicates the existence of a research-practice gap and tensions between different actors in the management accounting field.
Practical implications
The results challenge the current role discussion of professional organizations for management accountants as business partners.
Originality/value
The authors contribute the first study, which explicitly analyzes the communication of roles in job offers for management accountants. It indicates a discrepancy between scholarly discussion on roles and management accountants' work from an employer's perspective.
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Elisabetta Savelli, Barbara Francioni and Ilaria Curina
This paper aims to address the food waste phenomenon by investigating the relationship between healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity and by considering the mediating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the food waste phenomenon by investigating the relationship between healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity and by considering the mediating role of food waste preventing behavior on such a relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an online survey of 1,941 UK millennial consumers, the research hypotheses were tested using the PLS-PM approach to structural equation model.
Findings
The results reveal that both the consumption of healthy food and the habit of eating at home enhance food waste reduction. Moreover, the findings corroborate the mediating effect of the food waste preventing behavior on the relationship between a healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity, thus underlying its role as an effective mechanism able to improve the influence of healthy lifestyle dimensions on food waste intensity.
Practical implications
The paper offers three levels of practical implications directed to public institutions, private manufacturers and retailers.
Social implications
The study underlines the key relevance of ad hoc educational programs aimed at improving the overall awareness of young consumers about food waste damages, by specifically identifying the main features on which these programs should focus.
Originality/value
This paper adds knowledge by helping to explain how and why a healthier lifestyle could translate into food waste reduction. Moreover, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of preventing behavior by proposing a rich overview of strategies to adopt to avoid food waste.
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Deborah Callaghan and Helen Collins
This paper explores employee experiences of induction in the Big Four accountancy firms to understand how induction influences new recruits' career aspirations.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores employee experiences of induction in the Big Four accountancy firms to understand how induction influences new recruits' career aspirations.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Bourdieusian sociology, this article adopts an interpretivist multi-method approach through focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 28 newly appointed accounting professionals. The study defines newly appointed as those who have experienced induction within the last two years of their employment.
Findings
The study's findings challenge the authenticity of induction from a shared employee consensus. It cites contagious spin, regarding career progression opportunities espoused during induction, at odds with the reality of work, ultimately contributing towards unfulfilled employee aspiration. As current strategies suggest that the intersection between employee aspiration and employer provision in the accountancy profession, is too broad, this study argues for more collaborative inductions. In addition, it proposes that accountancy firms should re-evaluate their current strategies and co-construct more authentic inductions that benefit all stakeholders to develop a stronger psychological contract that positively influences employee aspiration.
Research limitations/implications
The paper posits action-learning as a solution to address employee aspiration in induction campaigns in the accountancy profession.
Practical implications
As aspiration is the genesis of motivation and engagement, this study’s findings suggest that the use of an action-learning ethos in induction activities may provide an opportunity to explore the complexities of employee socialisation and provide a voice to new recruits attempting to influence any tensions or disappointment that may arise, as unmet career aspirations emerge.
Originality/value
The paper posits action learning as a solution to address employee aspiration in induction campaigns in the accountancy profession.
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Jaana Lepistö and Maria‐Leena Ronkko
This paper aims to explore the perceptions of teacher students regarding entrepreneurship education and how they understand entrepreneurship as part of their future pedagogical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the perceptions of teacher students regarding entrepreneurship education and how they understand entrepreneurship as part of their future pedagogical work.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in 2010, 2011, and 2012 from the essays of 257 teacher students. The data were then analysed through a phenomenological approach.
Findings
On the basis of the results, we categorise teacher students into three types: sceptics, followers, and innovators.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to teacher students at the Department of Teacher Education at Rauma. The data were collected during an Entrepreneurship and Citizenship course under the Teacher Education programme.
Practical implications
The most important and necessary requirement for developing entrepreneurship education for future teachers is to clearly define the aforementioned concept. A learning environment should enable teacher students to approach the topic in an informal manner, allowing them to comfortably compare different critical views. Further maximising the benefits of such an environment necessitates fostering a relaxed and encouraging learning atmosphere, as well as multi‐professional cooperation. The “leading extract” of entrepreneurship education must be based on education and pedagogy, instead of on market forces.
Originality/value
Early entrepreneurship research concentrates on what entrepreneurship means and includes, how it should be realised, and what the responses are to related educational initiatives. The current work focuses on the conclusions teacher students draw about entrepreneurship/enterprise education and what kind of entrepreneurship/enterprise education is presently a part of teacher education.