Kathleen Simione, Rowena Ortiz-Walters, Julia M. Fullick-Jagiela and Patricia S. Kelly
Team-based assignments must be constructed to contribute to the effective development of teamwork skills, an important learning objective for most schools of business. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Team-based assignments must be constructed to contribute to the effective development of teamwork skills, an important learning objective for most schools of business. The purpose of this paper is to understand how students view the usefulness of team assignments in order to inform more effective pedagogical techniques related to team-based assignments and the development of student teamwork competencies.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from Likert-scale online surveys administered to students upon completion of the first-year team-based introductory business course. Survey items were developed to assess the team-related activities and components in the course and students’ perceived usefulness of team-based assignments. Results from exploratory factor analyses are presented.
Findings
Data analyses indicated that survey items contributed to students’ perceived usefulness of team-based assignments. Across three studies, the authors developed a new measure to evaluate effectiveness of team-based assignments.
Practical implications
For those educators who utilize team-based assignments in their courses, this study provides a much needed measure to assess the effectiveness of assignments intended to develop students’ teamwork competencies. The findings also serve to provide evidence of assurance of learning, and evidence of how students are developing in the area of interpersonal skills and abilities to manage interactions that most schools of business and universities deem as essential learning outcomes as a result of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business requirements.
Originality/value
Evidence from online surveys of 755 students in a pilot study and two additional studies conducted longitudinally over a two-year period support a new measure to assess the usefulness of specific team assignments.
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Eleni Georganta, Katharina G. Kugler, Julia A.M. Reif and Felix C. Brodbeck
Several theoretical models have been developed to describe the process of successful team adaptation. Testing the models through empirical research is lacking. This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Several theoretical models have been developed to describe the process of successful team adaptation. Testing the models through empirical research is lacking. This study aims to empirically examine the way teams adapt to unexpected or novel circumstances and investigate the four-phase team adaptation process (i.e. situation assessment → plan formulation → plan execution → team learning), as proposed by Rosen et al. (2011).
Design/methodology/approach
To test the positive relationship between the four team adaptation phases and their suggested sequence, a cross-sectional field study was conducted. Data were collected from 23 teams participating during an 8-week team project.
Findings
Results from random intercept models confirmed that the team adaptation process consisted of four phases that were positively related to each other. As expected, plan formulation mediated the positive relationship between situation assessment and plan execution. However, team learning was independently related to all three previous phases, and not only to situation assessment as theory suggests.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of the first attempts to test the theoretical model of the team adaptation process presented by Rosen et al. (2011). Findings illustrated that the team adaptation process is not a simple four-phase sequence, but it constitutes four dynamic phases that are strongly interrelated to each other.
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Johannes Stark and Julia A.M. Reif
Defying conventional wisdom, leaders' storytelling may have ambiguous and even negative effects on followers. Built upon transformational leadership and leader -member exchange…
Abstract
Purpose
Defying conventional wisdom, leaders' storytelling may have ambiguous and even negative effects on followers. Built upon transformational leadership and leader -member exchange theory, the intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership provides a framework to systematically explain when and why unintended effects of storytelling happen. Despite its theoretical and practical relevance, a quantitative evaluation of the model's main assumptions, and particularly of followers' perceptions of leader storytelling, is still pending.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed a scale to assess followers' story perceptions in study 1 (N = 79) and confirmed the scale's structure in study 2, an online cross-sectional field study (N = 60). In study 2, the authors also tested a main assumption of the intention-perception model of storytelling, that is, the relationship between followers' story perceptions and story effects, mediated via followers' affective arousal.
Findings
Data revealed that story effects indeed depend on followers' perception of the story. In particular, the better a leader's story met followers' needs (need-supply fit), the more adequate the input load transported by the story (story load), the more positive followers' appraisal of their leader's story (story appraisal) and the more positive affective reactions and positive effects of storytelling (transformation, leader -member exchange quality, and trust in the leader) followers perceived.
Practical implications
The authors provide practical insights into how leaders may improve their storytelling by tailoring their stories to the expectations and needs of their followers.
Originality/value
Taking a follower-centric perspective on a common leadership practice (i.e. storytelling), the present research provides first support for the intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership.
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Johannes Stark, Julia A.M. Reif and Tom Schiebler
Storytelling is considered an effective leadership behavior. However, research on storytelling’s effects on followers is scarce and disconnected from leadership theory. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Storytelling is considered an effective leadership behavior. However, research on storytelling’s effects on followers is scarce and disconnected from leadership theory. This paper aims to explore the perspectives of both leaders and followers with a focus on interaction-based moderators and affective mediators of storytelling effects, building on transformational leadership and leader-member exchange theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from semi-structured interviews (N = 27 independent leaders and followers) were analyzed with a combined content-analytic and grounded theory approach.
Findings
Leaders’ intended effects of storytelling (transformation, relationship and information) evoked either positive or negative affective reactions in followers depending on how well the story met followers’ needs (need-supply fit), the adequacy of the input load transported by the story (story load) and how followers interpreted their leaders’ story (story appraisal). Followers’ positive or negative affective reactions translated into positive effects (corresponding to leaders’ intended effects) or negative effects (contradicting leaders’ intended effects), respectively. Results were integrated into an intention-perception model of storytelling.
Originality/value
Proposing an intention-perception model of storytelling, this paper explains when and why unintended effects of storytelling happen, and thus provides an alternative view to the one-fits-all approach on leaders’ storytelling advocated by popular management literature.
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Julia A.M. Reif, Katharina G. Kugler and Felix C. Brodbeck
Managing business processes means establishing and maintaining their regulatory power, i.e., their capacity to guide and shape the practice of users and stakeholders. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Managing business processes means establishing and maintaining their regulatory power, i.e., their capacity to guide and shape the practice of users and stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the regulatory power of standardized business processes can be established and managed.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on a theory of standardization and on qualitative data, the authors suggest a “model of self-reinforcing business process management.”
Findings
Business process management consists of several phases (process design, process implementation, process application and process follow-up). A cyclical perspective on how these phases work together to create process legitimacy as presented in the model of self-reinforcing business process management can foster better understanding of the self-reinforcing dynamics of business process management.
Research limitations/implications
The paper offers starting points for interdisciplinary research on business process management. The proposed model should be further examined with regard to its usefulness for overcoming tensions and dynamics associated with standardization.
Practical implications
The model of self-reinforcing business process management provides a guideline for managers involved in planning, implementing, applying, or improving business processes or further areas of change-related organizational governance.
Originality/value
By modeling a cyclical sequence of business process management and highlighting the role of different kinds of legitimacy, the authors integrate functionalist and social perspectives on business process management in one model.
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Julia M. Jonas, Julian Boha, David Sörhammar and Kathrin M. Moeslein
To further extend the understanding of multidimensional engagement of stakeholders embedded in service systems, the purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents that…
Abstract
Purpose
To further extend the understanding of multidimensional engagement of stakeholders embedded in service systems, the purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents that constitute stakeholder engagement in inter-organizational service ecosystems where stakeholders co-create innovations over time.
Design/methodology/approach
An explorative, longitudinal case study design is employed to analyze stakeholders’ engagement in co-innovation in an inter-organizational service system in an engineering context.
Findings
The study identifies eight antecedents for stakeholder engagement in innovation in the context of a B2B environment. Building on related engagement research, the empirical data show how stakeholder engagement is influenced at both individual and organizational levels by the antecedents friendship, common experiences, self-representation, trust, a common goal, resource dependency, level in the hierarchy, institutional arrangements, and local proximity.
Originality/value
The paper extends current understanding of engagement and illuminates stakeholder engagement on a micro level, addressing four key issues for stakeholder engagement in a service ecosystem. How can stakeholder engagement be maintained over time? Does stakeholder engagement at specific hierarchical levels enhance or hinder inter-organizational co-innovation? Is strong engagement necessary for innovation activities? Are the different engagement antecedents linked?
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Julia A.M. Reif, Katharina G. Kugler, Mariella T. Stockkamp, Selina S. Richter, Valerie M. Benning, Lina A. Muschaweck and Felix C. Brodbeck
Traditional approaches to business processes and their management consider the “people dimension” as an antecedent of process performance. The authors complemented this approach…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditional approaches to business processes and their management consider the “people dimension” as an antecedent of process performance. The authors complemented this approach by considering employees as process perceivers and thus taking an employee-centered perspective on business processes. The authors investigated dimensions of healthy business processes, that is, processes which, while promoting performance, foster employee well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a qualitative dataset and two quantitative studies, the authors developed and validated a scale for healthy business processes, interpreted it from a salutogenic perspective and tested relationships with people and performance outcomes.
Findings
The scale comprises four factors reflecting the three dimensions of the salutogenic concept “sense of coherence”: manageability was represented by the factors process tools and process flexibility; comprehensibility was represented by the factor process description; and meaningfulness was represented by the factor management support. The scale and its subscales were significantly related to people and performance outcomes.
Originality/value
The authors propose that health-oriented business process management and performance-oriented business process management are two components of an integrated business process management that favors neither a functionalist, efficiency-oriented approach nor an employee-oriented approach, but takes both approaches and their interaction equally into account in the sense of person-process fit.
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May-Ling Siow, Sridar Ramachandran, Ahmad Shuib and Syamsul Herman Mohammad Afandi
This study aims to assess the possibility of adapting evidence-based policies in the daily operations of tour operators in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia. This intervention is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the possibility of adapting evidence-based policies in the daily operations of tour operators in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia. This intervention is important, as on-site investigations reveal that operators are operating their businesses with little reference to the ecotourism policy guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a full qualitative approach. In-depth interviews were conducted on tour operators in Semporna, while text mining was used to elicit data from the Malaysian National Ecotourism Plan. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the primary sources.
Findings
Gaps were evident between best practices guidelines from the National Ecotourism Plan and the day-to-day practices of tour operators in Semporna, Sabah. This was due to the limitations of the National Ecotourism Plan and the limitations of the operators in identifying and adhering to best practices; the impracticality of best practices in site-specific scenarios; and the benefit of adapting evidence-based practices (ECP) in Semporna, Sabah.
Practical implications
The implications of this study include a plan to bring forth a non-parochial and innovative approach in rural tourism policymaking process and to advocate evidence-based intervention through the inclusion and participation of stakeholders.
Originality/value
This study contributes towards the requisite of evidence-based intervention for rural tourism policies to meet site-specific needs.