Qabas Jarmooka, Richard Glenn Fulford, Robyn Morris and Llandis Barratt-Pugh
National and organizational innovation is currently at the forefront of media discussion and is viewed as critical to economic development. While the argument for investment is…
Abstract
Purpose
National and organizational innovation is currently at the forefront of media discussion and is viewed as critical to economic development. While the argument for investment is universal, how it should be orchestrated is uncertain. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the three major related components of information and communication technology (ICT), knowledge management processes (KMP) and innovation, to explore empirically the constituents of ICT and KMP that improve innovation within Australian enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
The method is a quantitative survey of 148 industry managers. The data was refined through confirmatory factor analysis. The hypotheses were evaluated by regression equations and parameter estimates. The findings were identified by the magnitude of the effect sizes.
Findings
The study’s evidence illuminated how specific components of ICT and KMP impact on particular aspects of innovation. The findings indicate key emerging relationships and then propose a conceptual model validated by the analysis of the survey evidence. The study identifies that investment in ICT and KMP has a positive impact on innovation performance. A particular finding is that information or data capture technologies have the most significant positive consequence for innovation.
Practical implications
The modeling can be used by managers as a guide to mapping ICT and KMP to specific innovation outcomes. In a modified form, it could be applied as a self-assessment instrument for managers in organizations.
Originality/value
This is a valuable addition to current literature, as it is unique in bringing these three key components together, confirming their instrumental impact, and indicating the differentiated investment strategies that can be implemented to achieve specific and unique innovation agendas. In addition, some refined constructs, which were developed as part of this study, provide a pre-tested, validated survey instrument for further research.
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Llandis Gareth Barratt Barratt-Pugh and Dragana Krestelica
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between higher educational institution bullying policies and the subsequent cultural impact to determine the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between higher educational institution bullying policies and the subsequent cultural impact to determine the effectiveness of policy in ameliorating bullying within the university culture.
Design/methodology/approach
This study consisted of two separate but related case studies at two universities in different countries, focussing on university staff. The field work gathered data about existing anti-bullying policy, the extent to which it was part of the organisational culture for staff, and the levels of staff bullying experienced or seen within the organisation. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected.
Findings
The study found that despite one university having significant policy and the other having very little policy, the knowledge of policy in both universities was and subsequent experience of bullying for staff were very similar.
Research limitations/implications
The findings indicate that anti-bullying policy alone appears to have a limited impact on organisational behaviour. This suggests that the entrenched and historical master/servant relations of academia enable such practices to continue. Policy implementation is insufficient and training and development to generate more inclusive, people-focussed management cultures is necessary to ameliorate bullying behaviour.
Practical implications
The paper draws on the experiences, critique and suggestions of the study participants to prepare a possible agenda for cultural change that human resource (HR) managers could develop in association with academic and professional managers within their institution.
Social implications
The findings suggest that in any social setting or organisational structure where strong historical patterns of master/servant endure, the opportunity for bullying behaviours to grow and flourish is fertile and that policy statements alone may have little impact on curtailing such behaviour.
Originality/value
This study makes two contributions to existing knowledge. First, it provides evidence that anti-bullying policy is alone unlikely to have an effective impact on instances of bullying within the culture. Second, the case study contrast displays that unacceptable levels of bullying exist in two very different institutions in two very different cultures. Whilst one country has a war-torn history and the other exists in splendid isolation, the same patterns persist, indicating that universities have structured cultural issues that are difficult to change.
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Fang Zhao, Llandis Barratt-Pugh, Peter Standen, Janice Redmond and Yuliani Suseno
Drawing on social network and social capital literature, this study aims to explore how digital entrepreneurs utilize social networks to build their entrepreneurial capability…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on social network and social capital literature, this study aims to explore how digital entrepreneurs utilize social networks to build their entrepreneurial capability, creating and developing business ventures in a digitally networked society.
Design/methodology/approach
The study takes a qualitative approach, interviewing 35 digital entrepreneurs with businesses operating across multiple industry sectors in Western Australia.
Findings
The findings suggest that structural social capital provides a key resource with groups of relational contacts who facilitate in building entrepreneur capability, the venture and customer markets. Relational social capital provides a foundation of trust between entrepreneurs and social network members that is strategically important for digital entrepreneurship (DE). Cognitive social capital provides mechanisms to form relationships based on shared values across social networks.
Research limitations/implications
The study produces early evidence that in a multiplexed networking world, social capital accrual and use online is different from that of off-line. More empirical studies are needed to understand the complexity of the changing nature of online and off-line social networks, the consequential social capital and their interdependence in DE.
Practical implications
This is an exploratory qualitative study using a limited sample of 35 Australian digital entrepreneurs to explore the impact of social network interaction on digital entrepreneurs and their ventures, with the purpose of stimulating a social network approach when studying DE. This study confirms the critical importance of entrepreneurial social networks in the digital age and provides empirical evidence that online networks foster business development, while off-line networks feed self-development.
Originality/value
The study contributes to current research on DE as a dedicated new research stream of entrepreneurship. Specifically, the study contributes to a greater understanding of how digital entrepreneurs leverage social networks in today's digitally connected society.
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Llandis Barratt‐Pugh, Susanne Bahn and Elsie Gakere
The purpose of this paper is to explore the merger of two large State departments and the cultural change program orchestrated by the Human Resources (HR) department. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the merger of two large State departments and the cultural change program orchestrated by the Human Resources (HR) department. This study reveals the instrumental role played by some managers who accelerated the cultural change process through utilising formal and informal agencies of change in their management roles.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores a two‐year investigation of a major State organisation trying to reshape the culture and values of the organisation after a politically determined merger. This paper reviews the context for this change process, the associated concepts from the literature, and adapts Gidden's Structuration Theory to provide a model of manager action during the change process that may also be used to explore subsequent change practices.
Findings
The findings from the sequenced phases of data collection provide new evidence from a strategic HR perspective of the multiple ways managers act to embed a culture change for the emerging organisation.
Practical implications
The subsequent discussion centres on the diverse roles played by managers in the new disjointed and often dysfunctional culture to develop unified cultural change with their staff, with the change process being modelled in terms of Structuration Theory.
Originality/value
The paper uses the findings from an empirical study to indicate the agencies of change that managers can employ during organisational change processes. By doing so it provides both a pragmatic model for managers of change and through the typology of manager agencies of change makes an addition to the existing theoretical frameworks of change management.
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Professor Slawomir Magala is a full professor of Cross-Management at the Department of Organization and Personnel Management in Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus…
Abstract
Purpose
Professor Slawomir Magala is a full professor of Cross-Management at the Department of Organization and Personnel Management in Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University (RSM, 2015). His education stems from Poland, Germany and the USA, and has taught and conducted research in China, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Estonia, the United Kingdom and Namibia. He is a former Chair for Cross-Cultural Management at RSM and has achieved many things, from being editor-in-chief of the Journal of Organizational Change Management (JOCM), to receiving the Erasmus Research Institute in Management (ERIM) Book Award (2010), for The Management of Meaning in Organizations (Routledge, 2009). It has received honors for being the best book in one of the domains of management research. It was selected by an academic committee, consisting of the Scientific Directors of CentER (Tilburg University), METEOR (University of Maastricht) and SOM (University of Groningen). All these research schools are accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a review of Professor Slawomir Magala’s contributions as editor of Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Findings
Slawomir (Slawek) Magala will be known for many contributions to social, organizational, managerial research, and it will be remembered that he has created a great legacy in the field of cross-cultural competence and communication on processes of sense making in professional bureaucracies. He has authored and co-authored many publications including articles, books, professional publications, book contributions and other outputs, and is an established professor of cross-cultural management at the Department of Organization and Personnel Management in RSM, Erasmus University. He will be known for his work as editor of Qualitative Sociology Review, and one of the founding members of the Association for Cross-Cultural Competence in Management, not to mention the Journal of Organizational Change Management. Many of his articles have appeared regularly in leading refereed journals, such as the European Journal of International Management, Public Policy, Critical Perspectives on International Business and Human Resources Development International. His greatest legacy is in the field of cross-cultural management, but branches out to many other management studies.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to his work in capacity of editor of Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Practical implications
This review provides a guide for positive role model of an excellent editorship of a journal.
Social implications
Magala’s legacy acknowledges this research and its power to create numerous papers and attract a lot of attention (Flory and Magala, 2014). Because of these conferences, these empirical findings have led to disseminating the conference findings with JOCM (Flory and Magala, 2014). According to them, narrative research has become a respectable research method, but they also feel that it is still burdened with a lot of controversies on with difficulties linked to applying it across different disciplines (Flory and Magala, 2014).
Originality/value
The review covers the creative accomplishment of Professor Magala as editor.