Eduard Grasa, Sergi Figuerola, Albert López, Gabriel Junyent, Michel Savoie, Bill St Arnaud and Mathieu Lemay
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the advantages of using the UCLP software for network operators, advanced and regular end users in the research networking…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the advantages of using the UCLP software for network operators, advanced and regular end users in the research networking community. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an example of the deployment of UCLP in the GÉANT2/National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) scenario, and compares how network operators, advanced users and regular end users would do their work, with and without UCLP. Findings – The paper provides high‐level technical information about UCLP as well as depicting the drivers for its use in the European research networking community. Research limitations/implications – This paper does not explain the details of the deployment of the software in the GÉANT2/National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) scenario, it just explains the benefits that the deployment of the software would provide. If the deployment was to be done today, some improvements to UCLP should be done, as well as support for more equipment vendors should be added. Practical implications – UCLP could provide more flexibility to the e‐science community if it was deployed over the European research networking infrastructure, because it would isolate network users from each other while providing them an unprecedented degree of control over the network. Originality/value – Nowadays, several control/management solutions for networks exist, but none that is capable of partitioning a physical network into slices and handoff its management to the users, like UCLP does. This is the first UCLP paper that studies a hypothetical deployment of UCLP in the European research networking scenario, and evaluates the drivers and implications of such a deployment.
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Jules Carrière and Christopher Bourque
The purpose of this paper is to provide further insight into the relationship between internal communication practices, communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide further insight into the relationship between internal communication practices, communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. It is centered in the emergency services sector in general, and on land ambulance services in particular. The focus organization is a large urban land ambulance service with an operating budget of approximately $50 million and 468 employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Only paramedics were eligible to participate in the study. In total, 91 (32.5 per cent) of the organization's 280 paramedics participated. Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising pre‐existing work‐related psychometric measures. The measures included the Communication Audit Survey, the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Affective Organizational Commitment Scale. Only quantitative data were collected.
Findings
The data showed that internal communication practices explained 49.8 per cent of the variation in communication satisfaction, 23.4 per cent of the variation in job satisfaction, and 17.5 per cent of the variation in affective organizational commitment. However, these effects were fully mediated by communication satisfaction when job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment were regressed against both internal communication practices and communication satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
These findings have important practical and theoretical implications. Managers will not be able to foster job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment through internal communication practices unless they recognize and appreciate what information is valued by employees. Second, managers must have a clear understanding of both the quantity and quality of information desired by employees if they are to design internal communication systems that meet the information needs of employees. Finally, one must consider the possibility that, for employees, communication satisfaction represents a fundamental yardstick against which all of the organization's activities and change initiatives are measured. This possibility is supported by research from the domain of change management.
Originality/value
Given the present shortage of skilled and able emergency personnel, it is in the best interest of organizations to enhance job satisfaction and commitment of such critical employees.
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Moshe Banai and Philip Tulimieri
This study uses social exchange theory to describe, explain and propose the influence of dyad partners' leadership position structure, which includes the roles they play and their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study uses social exchange theory to describe, explain and propose the influence of dyad partners' leadership position structure, which includes the roles they play and their existing and prospective common experience, on their commitment to their dyad and their cooperation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses the case of equally empowered co-CEOs in a family business, who play the roles of family member, owner and executive; co-CEOs in a startup firm, who play the roles of owner and executive; and co-CEOs in a merger and acquisition (M&A), who play the role of executive. Co-CEOs in family businesses benefit from longer existing and longer prospective dyad longevity than co-CEOs in startups, who, in turn, benefit from longer existing and longer prospective dyad longevity than co-CEOs in M&As.
Findings
The study proposes that the roles the partners play in the dyads, and the existing and prospective longevity of their relationship, positively influence the partners' commitment to the dyad and their level of cooperation.
Originality/value
The study offers a model that has the potential to direct scholars at the formulation of the theory of top management symmetric formal power dyads dynamics and assist family business owners, startup partners, board of directors and co-CEOs in formulating and implementing upper echelons leadership plans to enhance cooperation and coordination between equal partners.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of state fragility on select indicators of human development and identify aspects of state fragility that have the greatest…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of state fragility on select indicators of human development and identify aspects of state fragility that have the greatest impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development. The paper also explores the impact of social cohesion on human development as well as the mediating role of state legitimacy in mediating the relationship between social cohesion and human development.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on data from 180 countries and uses ordinary least squares regression and mediation analysis to explore the effects of social cohesion on human development.
Findings
The findings show a significant relationship between state fragility and human development. It suggests that policies and efforts aimed at enhancing social cohesion would have the most significant impact on human development. The findings also show that social cohesion not only has a direct effect on human development but it also has an indirect effect on human development through state legitimacy (mediator).
Practical implications
Even though state fragility has been largely associated with low income countries, different facets of fragility are manifested in various countries regardless of levels of economic development.
Originality/value
The study is timely in view of the evidence of increasing state fragility in many countries. Furthermore, this is the first scholarly work linking lack of social cohesion, state fragility and human development.
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Pascal Paillé, Pierre‐Sébastien Fournier and Sophie Lamontagne
The purpose of this study is to use three foci of commitment (to the organization, to the colleagues, and to the superior) to improve employee retention in high turnover work…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to use three foci of commitment (to the organization, to the colleagues, and to the superior) to improve employee retention in high turnover work environments.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, survey questionnaires measuring affective commitment to the organization, the supervisor‐dispatcher and colleagues were administered to 294 truckers. The two‐step approach was used. While the first step involved a confirmatory factor analysis, the second step used structural equation modeling to test hypotheses.
Findings
Findings show that the model that best fits the data is the one in which both affective commitments to the dispatcher and to the colleagues affects the intention to leave the organization through affective commitment to the organization.
Originality/value
Existing research on trucker turnover has neglected to examine the role of psychological variables such as employee commitment. Using field theory premises, this research contributes to the literature on trucker turnover by demonstrating the relevance of using several foci of commitment to predict intention to leave the organization.
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Batia Ben-Hador and Eyal Eckhaus
This study relates to two levels of organization social capital (SC): personal SC and intra-organizational SC. Personal SC is the utility derived from the person’s relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
This study relates to two levels of organization social capital (SC): personal SC and intra-organizational SC. Personal SC is the utility derived from the person’s relationship, and his positioning in networks, inside and out of the organization. Intra-organizational SC is the benefit derived from interactions within, and between groups in the organization, and is based on trust, reciprocity, common goals, sharing information and knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference between the SC levels by their connections to employee energy and success, before and after crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to test the hypotheses, the authors used the Enron e-mails corpus, the texts were analyzed using SQL.
Findings
The findings suggest that the impact of personal SC and intra-organizational SC, on employee energy and success is different. Personal SC was found to have a higher impact on those two variables, than intra-organizational SC. After crisis, this gap became larger.
Originality/value
The importance of the findings is in the distinction between the SC levels, and their different impact on the employees. However, the situation of Enron employees at that time implies that the more important level of SC is the intra-organizational SC.
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Susan K. DelVecchio, Dawn R. Deeter‐Schmelz and Kenneth Anselmi
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of salespersons' attributions about managerial e‐monitoring on salespersons' customer orientation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of salespersons' attributions about managerial e‐monitoring on salespersons' customer orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test the six study hypotheses. A main effects model was used to test the first two hypotheses, with a comparison of regression models used to identify pure modifiers.
Findings
The results of this study found informing attributions enhance customer orientation. This effect, however, can be weakened under highly bureaucratic organizational cultures. Similarly, the ability of controlling attributions to hamper customer orientation is less pronounced in cultures described as more bureaucratic.
Research limitations/implications
Building on self‐determination theory (SDT), the authors' study provides an explicit test of e‐monitoring and examines the nature and effects of information and controlling attributions. Given a low variance extracted value attained for bureaucratic culture, future research investigating the underlying dimensions of bureaucratic cultures is warranted. Likewise, more tests of the cognitive mechanisms behind salespersons' attributions are needed to further extend SDT.
Practical implications
Managers seeking to improve customer orientation through the use of e‐monitoring might be best served by encouraging a salesperson's informing attributions. This might be accomplished by clearly communicating the purposes of the e‐monitoring to members of the salesforce.
Originality/value
By investigating the positive and negative effects of e‐monitoring on salesperson customer orientation, this study offers concrete implications for researchers and practitioners on a topic that previously has been examined in the literature only via speculative post hoc analysis.
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Rakesh Singh and Pingali Venugopal
This study aims to address the need to study salesperson’s customer orientation and its effectiveness to explain the efficacy of predispositions and skills at individual level…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address the need to study salesperson’s customer orientation and its effectiveness to explain the efficacy of predispositions and skills at individual level. This study is set in the Indian context and, therefore, offers a detailed insight from an Indian sales force perspective. Also, this study introduces self-leadership into sales literature.
Design/methodology/approach
A model was tested using survey data collected from salespeople within a print media company located in India. A structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results suggest an interesting interplay between salesperson’s customer orientation and his/her sales performance. The relationship between customer orientation is fully mediated by salesperson’s emotion regulation ability and his/her salesmanship skills. Results support the role of natural rewards strategies as driver of individual level customer orientation which will be of great interest in future research in this area.
Research limitations/implications
The research suggests that a salesperson’s customer orientation relates positively with sales performance through two process variables – emotion regulation and salesmanship skills. Within an Indian sales force, individual salesperson’s customer orientation is significantly influenced by his/her natural rewards strategies which have important implication for sales force recruitment. Moreover, sales training and other interventions targeted toward building salesmanship skills and emotion regulation abilities may actually enhance effectiveness of customer-oriented sales force. Theoretical and managerial applications are also discussed.
Originality/value
This study extends the literature through its examination of an Indian sales force, the incorporation of self-leadership construct (natural rewards strategies) and its argument for an alternative approach toward salesperson’s customer orientation effectiveness.
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Bobby Medlin, Kenneth W. Green and Alan D. Wright
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a specific set of management practices and policies and policies (organizational behavior modification, the management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a specific set of management practices and policies and policies (organizational behavior modification, the management principles, and the management process) on human resource outcomes and on individual employee performance. A comprehensive management practices and policies performance model is theorized and empirically assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected from a sample of full-time employees working in the Southern USA are analyzed using a partial least squares/structural equation modeling methodology.
Findings
Considering the direct and indirect links among the constructs the authors conclude the following: organizational behavior modification, the management principles, and the management process combine to improve organizational commitment and job satisfaction; organizational commitment and job satisfaction combine to improve employee engagement and workplace optimism; and employee engagement and workplace optimism combine to enhance individual performance.
Research limitations/implications
The model tested reflects the synergy created though the implementation of the management practices and policies and policies and the impact of that synergy on human resource outcomes and individual employee performance. This is the first assessment of this comprehensive model. Replication and verification of the model are suggested.
Practical implications
Practitioners are provided with a framework for assessing the synergistic impact of the management practices and policies on human resource outcomes and individual employee performance. The theorized model and results provide practicing managers with a blueprint for the systematic implementation of the management practices and policies.
Originality/value
A comprehensive management practices and policies performance model is proposed and empirically assessed. The results support the proposition that implementation of the management practices and policies leads to improved human resource outcomes and individual employee performance.
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Mohammed Farhan, Caroline C. Krejci and David E. Cantor
The purpose of this research is to examine how a change in team dynamics impacts an individual's motivation to engage in helping behavior and operational performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine how a change in team dynamics impacts an individual's motivation to engage in helping behavior and operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
An online vignette experiment and a hybrid discrete event and agent-based simulation model are used.
Findings
Study findings demonstrate how a non-core worker's perception of team dynamics influence engagement in helping behavior and system performance.
Originality/value
This study provides a further understanding on how team members react to changes in team processes. This study theorizes on how an individual team member responds to fairness concerns. This study also advances our understanding of the critical importance of helping behavior in a retail logistics setting. This research illustrates how the theory of strategic core and procedural justice literature can be adopted to explain team dynamics in supply chain management.