Paul G. Wilhelm and Melanie Treviño
After the Second World War the U.S. emerged as an industrial power and remained the world's dominant economic force for a number of years. Europe, due to heavy infrastructure and…
Abstract
After the Second World War the U.S. emerged as an industrial power and remained the world's dominant economic force for a number of years. Europe, due to heavy infrastructure and capital damage brought about by the war, was in no position to challenge the U.S. in any manufacturing or industrial venture. Thus after the war the U.S. enjoyed its longest period of economic expansion in history. This economic boom was to continue, off and on, well into the early 1970s.
Lu Zhang, Mary A. Gowan and Melanie Treviño
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between country of birth or ethnicity (cultural proxies) and career and parental role commitment, and whether or not that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between country of birth or ethnicity (cultural proxies) and career and parental role commitment, and whether or not that relationship is mediated by two psychological dimensions known to differ across Mexican and USA cultures. These mediators are family achievement orientation and gender role orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 372 working female students at community colleges in the USA and Mexico. The survey focussed on career and parental role commitment, family achievement orientation, and gender role attitudes.
Findings
Both country of birth and ethnicity predict career and parental role commitment. Females born in Mexico and Hispanics have higher career role commitment and lower parental role commitment than females born in the USA and non-Hispanic whites. Family achievement orientation and gender role attitudes partially mediate these relationships.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-cultural research of work and family issues needs to incorporate psychological dimensions in accounting for country/ethnic differences.
Practical implications
Employees’ cultural backgrounds should be considered in designing programs to support family and work balance.
Social implications
Assistance programs designed to enable Hispanics to work will be valued and fit with the Hispanic cultural focus on working as a means to care for family.
Originality/value
This study addresses a stated need in the work/life literature for research that addresses cross-cultural differences, and research in the cross-cultural research that calls for the inclusion of psychological dimension mediators between culture and the variables of interest.
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The 1960s in America was the decade of social responsibility, founded upon fifteen years of unparalleled economic growth. To some, world prosperity seemed a realizable ideal…
Abstract
The 1960s in America was the decade of social responsibility, founded upon fifteen years of unparalleled economic growth. To some, world prosperity seemed a realizable ideal. Social theorists like Buckminster Fuller, John Gardner, and John Rawls saw opportunities for sharing wealth in a cooperative net that assumed a rising standard of living across the world. While some might find little cheer in John Kenneth Galbraith's model of the “New Industrial State,” few would now argue that his model was not, in the main, correct. The following two decades proved that while global industrialization was realizable, perhaps inevitable, there was no guarantee that social equity across the board would be the result of that process. In a competitive world marketplace, it might seem that abstract considerations of justice and equity are a luxury few firms or nations can now afford.
Amitabh Anand, Melanie Bowen and Deva Rangarajan
Despite the prominence of ethics in mainstream marketing and sales literature, studies on the role of unethical sales practices remain sparse. As a result, we sought to fill this…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the prominence of ethics in mainstream marketing and sales literature, studies on the role of unethical sales practices remain sparse. As a result, we sought to fill this void by reviewing and integrating the available research on unethical sales practices.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic methodology is used to review the literature. The data study covered peer-reviewed journal publications from 2008 through 2020.
Findings
Our investigation uncovered patterns (situational ethical behavior, ethical sales organizational culture, ethical leadership of salespeople, and unethical behavior). We suggest promising avenues for further research by concluding our methodological and theoretical contribution.
Originality/value
Today’s sales profession is continually evolving, putting increased demand on salespeople to adapt to new norms. Salespeople may be enticed to engage in unethical sales tactics in these situations, endangering not just themselves, but also their organizations and clients. This research contributes to the unique nature of ethics among sales people.
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David J Finch, Melanie Peacock, Nadege Levallet and William Foster
The increasing demand for post-secondary education, and the ongoing difficulty students’ face in securing appropriate work upon program completion, highlight the importance of an…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasing demand for post-secondary education, and the ongoing difficulty students’ face in securing appropriate work upon program completion, highlight the importance of an enhanced understanding of employability resources for university graduates. Just as organizations achieve a strategic advantage from resources and dynamic capabilities (DCs), university graduates can similarly apply these principles and tactics to be competitive in the job market. The purpose of this paper is to ask the question: how can new graduates enhance their competitive advantage when entering the employment market? To address this question the authors propose to adopt the DCs framework to analyze the competitive advantage of a graduate and argue that university graduates can take specific steps to enhance their own competitive advantage in the labor market.
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive review of the existing human resource and strategic management literature was used to develop a conceptual DCs model of employability. The core dimensions of the conceptual model were refined using 26 one-on-one interviews with employers of new university graduates. This study concludes by recommending specific empirical and experimental research to further test the model.
Findings
The results from the qualitative study identified the importance of four specific resources that university graduates should possess: intellectual, personality, meta-skill and job-specific. In addition, the authors suggest that integrated DCs are crucial for enhancing the value of these individual resources. Both pre-graduate application and the construction of personal narratives are essential signals that university graduates can mobilize individual resources in a complementary and strategic manner, in real-world settings, to maximize value.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploratory study and is designed as a foundation for future empirical and experiential research.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that, in order to increase employability, university students need to assume a DCs view of competitive advantage. As a result, students need to reflect on both their intrinsic and learned resources to create a systematic competitive advantage that is valued, rare and difficult to replicate or substitute.
Social implications
This paper challenges students to assume a holistic view of education by recognizing education extends far beyond a classroom. Therefore, differentiation and value creation is reflected in the synthesis and application of both intrinsic and learned resources.
Originality/value
The integration of strategic management and human resource literature is a unique theoretical approach to explore the drivers of graduate employability.
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Melanie P. Lorenz, Jack Clampit and Jase R. Ramsey
A dilemma exists in that many view offshoring as a tradeoff between cost efficiency and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile this dilemma by showing how and why…
Abstract
Purpose
A dilemma exists in that many view offshoring as a tradeoff between cost efficiency and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile this dilemma by showing how and why offshoring to institutionally distant host countries may result in innovation. The authors introduce an institutional lens in order to understand how offshoring to institutionally distant locales affects innovation outcomes of multinational enterprises. This lens is aimed to provide an analytical tool that is less coarse and less overwhelmingly focused on institutional distance (ID) as a harsh and certain harbinger of reduced innovation performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use primary data from the Offshoring Research Network as well as secondary data from the Frasier Institute on Economic Freedom, and Hofstede’s cultural value survey to empirically assess the distinct effects of distance on innovation at the firm level.
Findings
The authors have developed a model of distance and innovation which goes beyond the traditional assumption of distance as overwhelmingly negative. Whereas in some cases, the positive effect of formal and informal distances outweigh the negative effects stimulating innovation; in other cases, the negative effects of distance hamper innovation. Finally, some elements of distance may not have an impact on innovation outcomes at all.
Research limitations/implications
While previous research stresses the negative effects of distance in general, the authors provide an ID model which, in the context of offshoring, takes into account potential positive, negative, or no effects.
Practical implications
The study presents global supply chain managers with a reference framework for making strategic offshoring relationships decisions.
Originality/value
By unbundling the inherently confounding formative construction of distance measures, eschewing the reflexive assumption that distance is always negative, and mapping theories specific to the application of distinct institutional logics to specific value-enhancing business activities (i.e. innovation), this study offers a more accurate and complete institutional picture that helps reconcile institutional theory with an empirical record that often fails to find what it predicts.
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Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox
This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia…
Abstract
This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia. Within their narratives, participants discuss various forms of workplace violence aimed at employees by management and, in some cases, other employees. In addition, shifting narratives from violence to resignation are explored. As all participants are no longer employed in the organizations described in the narratives, causal associations between workplace violence and resignation choices are of particular interest. In this context, atrocity narratives are presented in a deliberate effort to extend the theorizing of organizational change into domains that are neither attractive nor progressive.
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Mohammadreza Akbari and Robert McClelland
The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship (CC) in supply chain development, by analyzing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship (CC) in supply chain development, by analyzing the current literature, contemporary concepts, data and gaps for future discipline research.
Design/methodology/approach
This research identifies information from existing academic journals and investigates research designs and methods, data analysis techniques, industry involvement and geographic locations. Information regarding university affiliation, publishers, authors, year of publication is also documented. A collection of online databases from 2001 to 2018 were explored, using the keywords “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in their title and abstract, to deliver an inclusive listing of journal articles in this discipline area. Based on this approach, a total of 164 articles were found, and information on a chain of variables was collected.
Findings
There has been visible growth in published articles over the last 18 years regarding supply chain sustainability, CSR and CC. Analysis of the data collected shows that only five literature reviews have been published in this area. Further, key findings include 41% of publications were narrowly focused on four sectors of industry, leaving gaps in the research. 85% centered on the survey and conceptual model, leaving an additional gap for future research. Finally, developing and developed nation status should be delineated, researched and analyzed based on further segmentation of the industry by region.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited to reviewing only academic and professional articles available from Emerald, Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Scopus, JSTOR and EBSCO containing the words “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in the title and abstract.
Originality/value
This assessment provides an enhanced appreciation of the current practices of current research and offers further directions within the CSR and CC in supply chain sustainable development.