Marc Rücker, Tobias T. Eismann, Martin Meinel, Antonia Söllner and Kai-Ingo Voigt
The aim of this study is to investigate whether activity-based workspaces (ABWs) are able to solve the privacy-communication trade-off known from fixed-desk offices. In fixed-desk…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to investigate whether activity-based workspaces (ABWs) are able to solve the privacy-communication trade-off known from fixed-desk offices. In fixed-desk offices, employees work in private or open-plan offices (or in combi-offices) with fixed workstations, which support either privacy or communication, respectively. However, both dimensions are essential to effective employee performance, which creates the dilemma known as the privacy-communication trade-off. In activity-based workspaces, flexible workstations and the availability of different spaces may solve this dilemma, but clear empirical evidence on the matter is unavailable.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this knowledge gap, the authors surveyed knowledge workers (N = 363) at a medium-sized German company at three time points (T1–T3) over a one-year period during the company’s move from a fixed-desk combi-office (a combination of private and open-plan offices with fixed workplaces) to an ABW. Using a quantitative survey, the authors evaluated the employees’ perceived privacy and perceived communication in the old (T1) and the new work environments (T2 and T3).
Findings
The longitudinal study revealed a significant increase in employees’ perceived privacy and perceived communication in the ABW. These increases remained stable in the long term, which implies that ABWs have a lasting positive impact on employees.
Originality/value
As the privacy and communication dimensions were previously considered mutually exclusive in a single workplace, the results confirm that ABWs can balance privacy and communication, providing optimal conditions for enhanced employee performance.
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Christian V. Baccarella, Lukas Maier, Martin Meinel, Timm F. Wagner and Kai-Ingo Voigt
Recent technological and social changes have challenged manufacturing firms to remain competitive in increasingly dynamic markets. A way of facing these challenges is to foster…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent technological and social changes have challenged manufacturing firms to remain competitive in increasingly dynamic markets. A way of facing these challenges is to foster organizational structures that encourage creativity. Although the general importance of organizational creativity for market success is undeniable, few studies on manufacturing firms have provided a nuanced view of how this relationship is affected by firm-external factors (e.g. different levels of market dynamism) and whether and how this leads to greater market success.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses survey data from 255 chief executive officers (CEOs) and top managers of manufacturing firms in Germany. The authors performed different regression analyses to test for direct, mediation, moderation and moderated mediation effects.
Findings
The findings show that, in highly dynamic markets, organizational support for creativity indeed helps manufacturing firms to remain competitive by positively influencing firms' innovation performance, which subsequently results in improved market performance. By contrast, in markets with low dynamism, organizational support for creativity has no impact on firms' innovation and market performance.
Research limitations/implications
From a theoretical perspective, this study introduces market dynamism as a novel, so-far underexplored firm-external factor that moderates the relationship between organizational support for creativity and innovation and market performance. This research thus enhances the understanding of the dynamics of organizational creativity and its effects on innovation and market performance in an organizational context of manufacturing firms.
Practical implications
In general, this research emphasizes the importance of establishing a creativity-supporting environment to enhance innovation and market performance. Most importantly, this relationship depends on whether firms are active in highly dynamic or stable markets. Managers should thus consider the level of (future) market dynamism when making decisions about creativity-supporting work environments.
Originality/value
This research provides novel insights into how organizational support for creativity influences innovation and market performance in the manufacturing industry and introduces market dynamism as an important moderating factor.
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Zita K. Lucius, Svenja Damberg, Martin Meinel and Christian M. Ringle
The purpose of this study is to investigate how working from home (WFH) affects the relationship between internal corporate social responsibility (ICSR) and employee creativity in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how working from home (WFH) affects the relationship between internal corporate social responsibility (ICSR) and employee creativity in times of uncertainty when employees’ occupational stress increases and their identification with their company decreases.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying social identity theory, the authors derive and test the hypotheses presented in this study regarding ICSR’s direct effects on employee creativity, given the amount of time they spent on WFH and the role of threat in this relationship. The authors use partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the various effects. Via an online questionnaire and using the snowball technique, the authors collected data from 158 participants in different industries in Germany.
Findings
The empirical results of this study show that ICSR activities increase employee creativity, partly by reducing one harmful aspect of stress, namely, threat. In addition, the authors find that WFH moderates this effect, such that the higher the degree of WFH, the weaker the ICSR activities’ effects are.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on the respondents’ WFH situation during the global COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this research contributes to understanding the roles that modern work practices, human resource management (HRM) and ICSR actions play in respect of employee creativity. The authors expand the theoretical understanding, which is based on social identity theory, by showing that the greater the amount of time spent on WFH, the more it reduces ICSR’s positive effect on employee creativity. The findings of this study open avenues for future research and longitudinal studies that compare the ICSR effects during and after the pandemic, as well as for those that compare WFH and its effects on organizational creativity.
Practical implications
This study shows that managers should encourage appropriate ICSR measures in their organizations and should specifically consider the work setting (i.e. WFH or at the office) as a boundary factor for these measures’ effectiveness. However, ICSR actions, such as anti-discrimination measures, are less effective in respect of building the employee–employer relationship and supporting employees’ identification with and commitment to the company when they work from home. Given the economic benefit of decreased turnover rates and the societal benefit of a company output with higher creativity levels, this study has an impact from both an economic and a societal perspective.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on employee creativity and ICSR’s roles in current HRM practice, which is still underexplored. More importantly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first empirical evidence of a hitherto overlooked mechanism explaining ICSR activities’ effects on, or their perceived threat to, employee creativity.
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Aims to demonstrate how information warfare (IW) is being progressively domesticated and how it democratizes warfare. Briefly outlines the so‐called Revolution in Military…
Abstract
Aims to demonstrate how information warfare (IW) is being progressively domesticated and how it democratizes warfare. Briefly outlines the so‐called Revolution in Military Affairs. Presents an overview of the various modalities of IW. Introduces the defining features of IW from both the attacker’s and the target’s perspective. Describes types of offence and defence. Assesses the extent to which IW and information terrorism are having or will have an impact on the daily lives of individual groups and considers the various social actors. Offers some observations on the negative externalities and possible longer term social costs associated with IW and information terrorism in the civil sphere.
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Melanie Malczok and Sabine Kirchhoff
At the beginning of any conceptual work concerning communication management, there is a demand for a deeper understanding of the problem that needs to be addressed and for the…
Abstract
At the beginning of any conceptual work concerning communication management, there is a demand for a deeper understanding of the problem that needs to be addressed and for the context in which it occurs. Communication management practice mostly relies on instruments like briefings, structured interviews or classic controlling data, when it comes to an analysis of organisational structures. This chapter shows that the potentials of a more constructivist perspective and a qualitative methodology can be useful to find out what is really at stake. It presents creative visualisation of organisational contexts and visual grounded theory methodology by the example of internal communication management.
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Anastasia Kulichyova, Sandra Moffett, Judith Woods and Martin McCracken
Purpose: This chapter explores the strategic role of human resource development (HRD) as a function of talent management (TM) and discusses how HRD activities can help to…
Abstract
Purpose: This chapter explores the strategic role of human resource development (HRD) as a function of talent management (TM) and discusses how HRD activities can help to facilitate more creative behaviours, in the international hospitality industry.
Approach: We focus on TM and HRD research exploring how these lenses are conceptually positioned given our current knowledge on creativity. We draw on the system-based approach to creativity and reconceptualise the creativity components by levels of flexibility/plasticity and outline how such approaches can help creative practice development.
Findings: We rationalise the existing conceptual approaches to creativity and propose a simplified model considering the developmental aspects of creativity. First, we theorise the TM/HRD strategies, such as training and development via learning, as a mechanism to connect TM/HRD to creativity in the organisational setting. We inform the current literature on whether and how creative processes emerge at work and affect creative flow in the bottom-top and top-bottom directions. Second, we advance the development of creativity theory by reconceptualising the established creativity components by degrees of flexibility/plasticity. Such re-conceptualisation allows for more nuanced examinations of organisational stimuli (i.e. training and development) on developmental conceptions of creativity.
Originality: This is the first piece of work that has investigated the fit between TM/HRD and creativity research. Our conceptual model illustrates that creativity can be promoted and developed at work by incorporating developmental initiatives such as TM/HRD.
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Gavin Melles, Neil Anderson, Tom Barrett and Scott Thompson-Whiteside
Design thinking has become something of a buzz word in innovation discussions and has recently also invested occupied education spaces. In this chapter we briefly compare design…
Abstract
Design thinking has become something of a buzz word in innovation discussions and has recently also invested occupied education spaces. In this chapter we briefly compare design thinking to problem-based learning (PBL) and enquiry-based learning (EBL) approaches to problem solving in education before focusing on the approach itself and current debates about its meaning and significance. This chapter focuses particular attention on the problem finding aspect of design thinking and its integration of creative methods for solving a range of tame to wicked problems in a variety of spaces. We ground our analysis in three environments of design thinking and five specific cases of application across education sectors from primary through to university. The examples focus on the generative potential of design thinking for all students and especially those from non-design disciplines. It is this capacity of design thinking to complement existing pedagogies and provide inspiration for change and innovation that is the strength of the model.
Emilio J. González and José M. Mella
This chapter focuses on the main challenges of teaching and learning European Union (EU) issues, bearing in mind that the future of the EU is far from being granted, the shock of…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the main challenges of teaching and learning European Union (EU) issues, bearing in mind that the future of the EU is far from being granted, the shock of Brexit, and the new technological innovations. The purpose is to design a methodology for teaching EU using knowledge management and design thinking procedures. Knowledge management refers to information selection, acquisition, integration, analysis and sharing knowledge that takes place in an environment dominated by social networks in which technological links play a major role. The design thinking procedures, as a collaborative methodology, create groups of students in the classroom. Each group should represent an EU member state. Once groups are created, the teacher must give them a task that may include a problem that the EU has had to solve during its history. Then, individual groups must be asked to design a solution. A consensus among all participating groups on the proposed solution should be reached. To design a solution, based on a mind map, groups should be working inside and outside the classroom using technological tools and interacting through social media. At the end of this process, students must play a Kahoot to fix and clarify the key concepts of each lesson. This process must be repeated for all the chapters of the EU syllabus. The syllabus is made up of key issues of the EU. Students should be taken to discover how EU affects their lives and to wonder how they would be without the EU.
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Maria de Las Mercedes Capobianco Uriarte, Ricardo Alberto Cravero, Alejandro Alfredo Regodesebes Urrutia, Marcelo Grabois and María del Pilar Casado Belmonte
This study explores the thematic relationships within the field of sustainability of agri-food chains oriented toward Industry 4.0, focusing on the analysis of scientific…
Abstract
This study explores the thematic relationships within the field of sustainability of agri-food chains oriented toward Industry 4.0, focusing on the analysis of scientific production, through research articles and technological output according to patents worldwide. Agri-food Industry 4.0 is an expanding interdisciplinary field in which science and technology interactions are increasingly intensifying with a strong link to sustainable development.
This study has used high impact indexed publications (Web of science) and patents as proxy indicators of innovation, which are transformed into two sets of data, reflecting the scientific and technical backgrounds, respectively. On the one hand, both quantitative and qualitative analysis methodologies were used to examine the scientific papers through descriptive analysis, focused on collaborations networks by authors, institutions, and countries, as well as a content analysis of keywords. On the other hand, the analysis of technical background on patent families shows the temporal evolution of technologies with future challenging trends, text mining, main applicants, and geographical examination.
The results show that in the field of sustainability in agri-food chains oriented to Industry 4.0, most research is in the agricultural field in scientific articles, with high impact in climate-smart agriculture. Patent analysis reveals a marked increase in the patenting rate from 2012 and 2013, coinciding with the start of scientific production in this field of knowledge. In spite of the fact that China is the leader country in this technological field, India shows a significant change. Moreover, India is a country that is currently showing significant progress, both in the field of scientific production and in its categorization as an innovative country due to its growth in patent filings.
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Martin Gutbrod, Christian Werner and Stefan Fischer
One of today’s major problems in the field of e‐learning is that the creation of high‐quality content is still rather time consuming and expensive. In the past, many efforts have…
Abstract
One of today’s major problems in the field of e‐learning is that the creation of high‐quality content is still rather time consuming and expensive. In the past, many efforts have been made to produce educational content on the fly, but the results were mainly static blocks of recorded lecture lacking sophisticated navigation facilities. Facing this challenge the authors developed the concept of hyper‐presentations. During the live presentation content‐ and time‐based metadata is captured and stored in a lightweight and player‐independent format. With this metadata powerful navigation facilities like real time navigation and full text search in audio or video data can be generated automatically. This improves flexibility and interoperability of technical solutions, which are both key factors in the emerging rapid e‐learning market.