Adam Felton, Lindsey Ellingson, Erik Andersson, Lars Drössler and Kristina Blennow
Recent climate scenarios indicate that Sweden's southern region, Götaland, will experience significant climate change over the coming century. Swedish forestry policy guidelines…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent climate scenarios indicate that Sweden's southern region, Götaland, will experience significant climate change over the coming century. Swedish forestry policy guidelines emphasize the need for risk spreading to reduce the potential adverse impacts of these changes. Risk spreading is defined here as reducing the vulnerability of a social‐ecological system by increasing the heterogeneity of its ecological components. Risk spreading may be achieved through the diversification of tree species currently relied upon by the forestry sector. The purpose of this paper is to consider the capacity of the socio‐ecological forest system to adapt to climate change through the use of risk spreading.
Design/methodology/approach
A variety of disciplines contribute to the understanding of the rate at which risk spreading is likely to take place in a system. A synthesis is conducted to unite these insights.
Findings
Five key constraints on the rate at which risk spreading can take place are identified. These include constraints imposed by the silvicultural system itself, voluntary policy measures, forest‐owner perceptions of climate change, motivation among forest owners to respond to risk, and forestry consultants. Potential future directions are discussed and include the need for specifying the goal of risk spreading policy, and the need to evaluate the motivations of those forest owners already altering adopting risk spreading approaches.
Originality/value
Conceptual equivalents of the “risk spreading” approach are international, due to the need for many societies to adapt social‐ecological systems to climate change. The issues raised from this case study/synthesis provide value insights regarding the breadth of systemic constraints which can thwart attempts at rapid adjustment to climate change, and where solutions to these constraints may be found.
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Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst, Holly Thorpe and Megan Chawansky
The purpose of this paper is to explore processes of group member evaluation and the interpersonal behavioral consequences of perceived group membership, within the context of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore processes of group member evaluation and the interpersonal behavioral consequences of perceived group membership, within the context of a temporary group with evolving members.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on data from an autoethnographic study, the author investigates individual socialization into a new group, with a focus on how gender influences interpersonal evaluation processes. The author analyzes the interpersonal organizing behaviors of surf lineups, which are a male-dominated group that is continually socially constructed through changing membership.
Findings
Findings support an association between denial of group membership and outcomes including incivility and denial of resources. The author develops a model of dynamic member evaluation, which identifies how group members continuously evaluate proximate individuals at the stage of impending membership, with identified outcomes of those evaluations.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of this design is that it generalizes organizing processes from a non-traditional setting to more traditional organizations. The model predicts dynamic member evaluation as individuals organize into groups in a shifting environment, with implications for scholarship on intragroup dynamics, incivility, gender and inclusion.
Practical implications
Understanding dynamic member evaluation provides a path for aspiring or new group members to employ signaling behaviors, which can help to prevent incivility and enhance resource availability. Evidence suggests that the proactive act of signaling competence may help to foster inclusion at the stage of impending membership, which is particularly important given how impending member evaluation is subject to bias. Such understanding also raises the awareness of how majority group members can manage their evaluations and refrain from letting judgments of impending members impact interpersonal behaviors, which may prevent incivility.
Social implications
The findings and resultant model illustrate the process and experience of group inclusion, showing how incivility can manifest and resources can be limited toward impending members who are excluded.
Originality/value
This study contributes to scholarship by introducing dynamic member evaluation, including the content and process of evaluation at the stage of impending membership, how resultant selective incivility can be predicted, and potential contagion effects of such incivility.
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Lawrence T. Corrigan and Daphne Rixon
Electric cooperatives may be seen as an alternative form of organizing in the shadow of investor-owned utilities. They are presumed able to meet financial challenges while…
Abstract
Purpose
Electric cooperatives may be seen as an alternative form of organizing in the shadow of investor-owned utilities. They are presumed able to meet financial challenges while simultaneously honoring cooperative principles of member-owners. This paper aims to investigate such a balancing act and conceptualize “key performance indicators” (KPIs) as a dramatic accounting discourse.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a dramaturgical approach to cooperative performance accounting, and claims that KPIs are a simplification of a complex and shifting reality which they also socially construct. Data were gathered from annual financial reports and websites of rural electric cooperatives along with semi-structured interviews conducted with senior cooperative officials.
Findings
The cooperatives in this case study reported a huge number of KPIs. However, this paper reveals that the performance indicators serve impression management goals and operational demands rather than reporting on fulfillment of the “Seven Cooperative Principles” that are fundamental to the cooperative movement.
Research limitations/implications
Extant inquiry regarding electric cooperatives tends toward a positivist research approach and a realist worldview. This overlooks dramatic and critical possibilities of KPIs as a management construction project. Expanding beyond mainstream research, this paper calls attention to artistic production of knowledge and applies a qualitative framework to problematize accounting disclosures.
Originality/value
Prior KPI research has often been instrumental, looking for predictive evidence that KPIs have strategic value as a “tool” for organizations to attain competitive advantage. This paper introduces the notion that performance measures are theatrical, and applies this to rural electric cooperatives, an industry mostly ignored in the academic literature.
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Sheldon Carvalho, Charles Carvalho and Fallan Kirby Carvalho
Existing research on challenging experiences has focused primarily on the positive outcomes of these experiences for individuals and organizations. However, some studies have also…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing research on challenging experiences has focused primarily on the positive outcomes of these experiences for individuals and organizations. However, some studies have also highlighted the potential downsides to these experiences. This paper offers recommendations for organizations, including specific actions and interventions to foster development using challenging experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reviewed the academic and practitioner literature on challenging experiences to formulate their recommendations.
Findings
Based on a review of the literature, the authors offer five recommendations for organizations to manage challenging experiences effectively and, thus, foster the development of their employees.
Originality/value
The authors hope that the adoption of their five recommendations may assist organizations in improving their leadership bench strength.
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Mar Cárdenas-Muñoz, Luis Rubio-Andrada and Mónica Segovia-Pérez
The purpose of this research is to determine key behaviours to be efficient in identifying and developing employees' talent. The article aims to address the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to determine key behaviours to be efficient in identifying and developing employees' talent. The article aims to address the relationship between learning agility and job crafting, the influence between them, and how this relationship is built to improve performance and adaptability. For this purpose, the research has analysed which behaviours obtain the highest scores in both scales (job crafting and learning agility), designing the tool which allows Human Resources (HR) professionals an efficient identification and development behaviours to get the versatile talent that companies and professionals of the future need.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the questionnaire that has integrated the learning agility scale and the Spanish job crafting scale. Data were collected from a sample of business professionals in Spain. Factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used, using a classificatory variable with the 126 valid responses obtained.
Findings
In an ever-changing environment, continuous employee adaptation to his/her role within a company is a critical factor for its survival. However, there is a paucity of large-scale empirical research on which behaviours employees have to develop to increase their adaptative skills. Drawing on the outcome of extant literature, the authors identify learning agility as the construct that firms have to encourage in their employees to impact job crafting. The contribution of the paper is twofold: (1) the authors empirically explored the association and the effects of learning agility and its factor on the development of job crafting. Results demonstrated the association between the two constructs; further, higher scores in both learning agility and job crafting predict increased employability, and higher scores in job crafting are associated with higher scores in change agility; (2) this study provides a multidimensional instrument that provides HR departments with the key behaviours to recruit in order to develop talent to prepare employees to face future challenges, ensuring the right performance and sustainable impact in the environment.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of this study is that it is done exclusively within Spanish companies, even though from different industries and with different characteristics. Therefore, future research is necessary and should be conducted in other countries in similar industries to explore the empirical findings from this study in additional contexts.
Practical implications
This research has found a tool that might allow HR departments to measure what level of job crafting and learning agility their employees have and to identify what key behaviours they need to focus on in the recruitment or in their internal strategic HR action plan to overcome any future challenges in their organization.
Social implications
In a scenario where artificial intelligence is modifying the professional landscape, generating uncertainty about which skills are best to develop, the results are a guide for enterprises as to where to focus plans for learning and training, as well as for business schools regarding the content provided in training programs.
Originality/value
The authors advance the literature by providing a theoretical base for understanding the relationship between job crafting and learning agility. This article offers some practical managerial recommendations that help the human resources department focus on behaviours that allow talent to be identified and recruited to ensure an effective organization.
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This study aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms underlying hospitality employees’ social exchange relationships at work by applying the social aspects of work and the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms underlying hospitality employees’ social exchange relationships at work by applying the social aspects of work and the social exchange theory.
Design/methodology/approach
MTurk was used for conducting a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, targeting frontline employees who were working in full-service restaurants. Descriptive statistic, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed.
Findings
Customer-employee exchange had a positive relationship with gratitude. Moreover, gratitude was positively associated with both role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service. Leader-member exchange and coworker exchange were positively related to obligation. Obligation had positive association with both role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service. The mediating effects of gratitude and obligation were statistically significant.
Research limitations/implications
Employees’ social exchange relationship with customers promotes prosocial behaviors by arousing gratitude in them. Moreover, their social exchange relationships with supervisors and coworkers lead to prosocial behaviors by provoking obligation from them.
Originality/value
This research shows the importance of the social aspects of work to contribute to employees’ prosocial behavior in the hospitality industry. Moreover, it proves the critical roles of emotions to guide employees’ decisions about social exchange.