Muhammad Rafique, Shafqat Hameed and Mujtaba Hassan Agha
Absorptive capacity being an emerging field of research has been studied in different perspectives both in technological aspects and soft issues. Although an original study of…
Abstract
Purpose
Absorptive capacity being an emerging field of research has been studied in different perspectives both in technological aspects and soft issues. Although an original study of absorptive capacity placed employees as playing pivoting role in the development of absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), unfortunately, there are limited studies on behavior of employees toward this emerging construct. This study aims to explore the impact of employees’ behavior in the development of absorptive capacity. Specifically, impact of knowledge sharing, learning adaptability and organizational commitment on absorptive capacity has been evaluated in this study.
Design/methodology/approach
This cross-sectional study was conducted at the pharmaceutical firms of Pakistan. The data were collected through random sampling from middle managers as a unit of analysis of this study. The rationale of the unit of analysis is that the maximum information is handled/accessed by the middle managers in the perspective of Pakistan. The data were collected from 170 respondents on a five-point Likert scale with the response rate of 66.7 per cent. Data were collected from different genders and different age groups with different qualification levels.
Findings
All independent variables showed significant positive correlations with overall absorptive capacity (ACAP). At the same time, different relationships of all independent variables were found in different ways with different significant levels. The results showed that different strategies may be adopted to manage the external knowledge for competition in turbulent environment. For example, organizational commitment may be incorporated at strategy formulation only, whereas the Adaptability at both routine and strategy formulation stage. As all independent variables showed no correlation with Acquisition it is concluded that Acquisition is purely a routine function, and instead of coordination, the routine processes must be emphasized.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on the data from the middle managers of the pharmaceutical firms only. The results may not be generalized to the sectors. Another limitation is that the respondents of the study were middle managers. It was made intentional to see the impact of management aspects other than organizational mechanisms, as discussed by Cohen and Levinthal (1990) and Jansen et al. (2005) in their studies. The results on the basis of the data collected from other entities of the organization may differ. This is a cross-sectional study, and a longitudinal study may give different results.
Practical implications
Absorptive capacity has the capability to absorb new knowledge and plays an important role in the development of organizational processes to compete in the turbulent environment. It is dependent not only on technological infrastructure but also on the employees’ behaviors and attitudes. This study gives insights about the knowledge process activities and employment of human resource at each phase of absorptive capacity in relation to their behaviors toward knowledge process.
Social implications
Development of organizational process with knowledge management plays an important role in the capacity building, which ultimately enhances social paradigm of activities.
Originality/value
Pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan acquire technologies from foreign countries and have very limited research and development of their own. As technology is upgraded by the foreign companies as a continuous improvement process, local firms of Pakistan are required to absorb the new knowledge with the same pace. The study highlights importance of human capital in the development of this capability.
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Muhammad Rafique, Shafqat Hameed and Mujtaba Hassan Agha
The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of middle managers (MM) in the knowledge-intensive environment as perceived by the employees, MM and principal decision makers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of middle managers (MM) in the knowledge-intensive environment as perceived by the employees, MM and principal decision makers (DM) in the context of the absorptive capacity process.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative study, the data were collected from pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan by using purposive sampling and the results were analyzed based on the thematic analysis approach.
Findings
The results show that employees and principal DM have a strong agreement between them regarding the roles of MM; however, MM have contrasted views. Some of the roles were agreed to by all the respondents.
Research limitations/implications
This study has focused on the roles of MM (common and conflicting) in knowledge-intensive pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan. The results of other studies on the roles of MM in the context of traditional and hybrid organizations may differ from this study.
Practical implications
The results of this study show the importance of role specificity of MM for the smooth absorptive capacity process. While dealing with complex knowledge structures in pharmaceutical companies, this study gives strong input to HR mangers and consultants and practitioners as they continuously handle complex knowledge process activities.
Originality/value
The study has explored the specific roles of MM by using the thematic analysis approach.
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Shahneel Baray, Shafqat Hameed and Atta Badii
This paper's purpose is to examine the impact of ERP adoption in one of the most traditional sectors, namely the printing industry, within a case study of five typical large‐scale…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper's purpose is to examine the impact of ERP adoption in one of the most traditional sectors, namely the printing industry, within a case study of five typical large‐scale printing organisations set in the developing economy context of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology and the analysis motivated an interpretive approach. The inductive reasoning approach has been used, since the aim was to find something new for the printing industry and to try to discover the advantages that ERP could bring about for the industry. In this research study, semi‐structured interviews were conducted along with a number of visits to the targeted printing firms selected as being prototypical of the sector in this business environment. The research questions focused on identifying and exploring the benefits related to ERP for the printing industry, and why it was needed.
Findings
The research shows that all the functional categories identified in the literature for ERP can be introduced in the printing industry. However, within each category, not all its modules can be adopted for this industry. The research has also shown that the benefits of some areas of ERP are still to be understood by the stakeholders.
Practical implications
The enterprises under study now have an opportunity to look into ERP solutions as the basis also for first‐mover advantage within their sector.
Originality/value
There has been one previous attempt in Pakistan to restructure the largest printing press by introducing SAP, which failed due to lack of technical expertise and training support. This paper draws on the successful approaches deployed in ERP implementations in other sectors and examines the extent to which they can be adapted for the printing industry, for example which modules should be prioritised for integration and how to optimise their impact.
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Muhammad Zubair Alam, Shazia Kousar, Nyla Shafqat and Aiza Shabbir
This paper aims to explore the way tacit knowledge (TK) sharing occurred among automotive workshop (AW) employees. Challenges and drivers of TK sharing (TKS), including stakes of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the way tacit knowledge (TK) sharing occurred among automotive workshop (AW) employees. Challenges and drivers of TK sharing (TKS), including stakes of experienced employees that hinder the smooth transfer of TK, have been explored.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews have been conducted with experienced technicians using open-ended questions to gain deep insights on the issue of TKS. Data coding has been done for thematic analysis to extract themes.
Findings
This study explains the way TK is shared and transferred among employees in the AW sector. Various drivers and challenges in the smooth transfer of TK have been found. Various stakes of employees in the sharing of TK have been explored.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explored stakes of experienced employees in TKS by exploring challenges in the TKS process among employees. Automotive repair is a complicated technical job that integrates various trade persons for the successful execution of jobs for customer satisfaction. TK is a core value and a sensitive issue among employees, which makes the job of researchers challenging, resulting scarcity of literature on this vital issue.