Simon A. Booth and Kristian Hamer
The purpose of this paper is to assess claims that culture is a significant factor in accounting for corporate financial performance (defined as sales intensity (SI)) in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess claims that culture is a significant factor in accounting for corporate financial performance (defined as sales intensity (SI)) in the retail sector at store level. The paper provides a critical analysis of the “strong culture‐good performance” thesis.
Design/methodology/approach
Company data were used which included the annual employee survey (at store level), store characteristics data, and store sales data (SI per square foot). Multiple regression was used to predict SI. Stepwise cross‐lagged regression analysis was used to infer cause and effect linkages.
Findings
Contrary to the strong culture thesis, the results show that a physical factor, store format, is the most important element in explaining SI. Employee morale is the most significant human cultural variable, followed by employee perception of manageable workloads. Interestingly, whilst job satisfaction is a significant predictor, it is in a negative direction. The more employees are satisfied, the more SI decreases.
Research limitations/implications
This is a very large study at store level, and the literature suggest the methods adopted are the best available. The key limitation of the research lies in the reliability of the inference that behavioural and managerial attributes are causally related to performance outcomes measured in sales data. Many other external factors also influence store sales in any given period (ranging from macroeconomic to store level promotion factors). The research accounts for 32.7 per cent of total variance, so other factors beyond the scope of this study are also likely to have significance.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first contributions to empirically analyse corporate culture compared to other factors that explain store performance.
Details
Keywords
Simon Booth and Kristian Hamer
This paper aims to identify key variables that influence the variability of labour turnover.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify key variables that influence the variability of labour turnover.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach used in this research is a case study of a major retailer. The key data sources are an index for local competitive and labour market factors, an annual employee survey, and internal labour turnover data for each UK unit of the retailer. The method used for analysis is stepwise regression which identifies the key relationships that predict labour turnover.
Findings
The findings show that environmental factors such as local labour markets have a major influence on labour turnover. Organisational factors such as company culture and values are a significant influence. Management behaviour as seen through operational and control variables are also of importance. Individual employee variables are also important in decisions concerning turnover.
Research limitations/implications
The statistical analysis accounts for 38.7 per cent of the total variance in labour turnover. There are, therefore, other factors which are not assessed in this paper which also contribute to labour turnover. Whilst this study is of retail units across the UK as a whole, it is of one organisation and statistical generalisations cannot be made from this research.
Practical implications
A significant paradox is found in which, as employees become more embedded and familiar with the organisation, its valency for them diminishes and labour turnover increases. This poses a challenge for retailers: how can they retain valued employees who find that as their self‐esteem increases they wish to search for better jobs elsewhere?
Originality/value
This research uses a statistical approach to provide new findings concerning the attitudes of individuals to their work and good explanations of the factors involved in labour turnover. It also provides statistical predictions which could be used by managers who wish to improve performance and decrease labour turnover at the retail unit level.
Details
Keywords
James E. Schrager and Albert Madansky
The purpose of this paper is to apply the cognitive research of Herbert Simon to business strategy decisions, to begin a discussion of the emerging field of Behavioral Strategy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply the cognitive research of Herbert Simon to business strategy decisions, to begin a discussion of the emerging field of Behavioral Strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
Research on cognition, memory and expertise are organized, with the aim of enlightening the process of business strategy development.
Findings
The authors select four insights from Simon's work to form an integrative framework of decision making and apply this to illuminate existing approaches to schools of strategy thought and practice.
Research limitations/implications
This paper should lead to research on how to advance the process of solving strategic problems, in both practice and theory. The most important limitation is that much additional research lies ahead, as this is a foundational view.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to recognize the potential for application of Simon's cognitive research to the practice of strategic decisions.
Details
Keywords
Richard Bradford-Knox and Simon Neighbour
This case study follows the history of the personal and experiences, viewpoints, and attitudes of the key actors from both parties over the period of setting up and implementing a…
Abstract
Purpose
This case study follows the history of the personal and experiences, viewpoints, and attitudes of the key actors from both parties over the period of setting up and implementing a primary authority partnership. It is one of a series research papers and case studies that study approaches to improve compliance with public and private regulations through cooperative and collaborative approaches. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a grounded qualitative study of what a number of individuals said in the course of a number of interviews. The aim and objectives being to obtain, from the key actors, their personal viewpoints, attitudes to and experiences of the partnership. Unlike some grounded approaches the research was based on the priori themes of cooperation and collaboration using semi structured interviews. At one stage, because of difficulty of access to the key actors caused by major re-development of the company, questionnaires replaced interviews.
Findings
The authors found that barriers to achieving a successful partnership included an initial reluctance, by all parties concerned, to cede some of their management autonomy to others and experiences of uncooperative behaviour between the public and private sectors in the past. They were largely overcome as the implementation of the project progressed resulting in improved food safety compliance management based on mutual trust. Other benefits for Preston City Council were immediate cost savings for Preston City Council in their use of human resources. For E.H. Booths, Ltd no initial cost saving was made, but there is potential longer term savings to be made through better risk based targeting of resources. These benefits only being made possible by the collaborative effort and support from all parties and individuals involved.
Originality/value
On its own this case study research is limited by its size and scope but the emerging topics and findings highlight the difficulties and barriers faced in setting up partnerships between public regulators and businesses. Therefore, the results can be of value to similar studies and other areas where cooperation, collaboration, partnership, and co-regulation are significant contributory factors to successful compliance strategies.
Details
Keywords
A major difficulty in continuous speech recognition research is the lack of effective and objective evaluation of the statistical models of text. Herbert Simon's view for…
Abstract
A major difficulty in continuous speech recognition research is the lack of effective and objective evaluation of the statistical models of text. Herbert Simon's view for evaluating theories is here applied to the statistical modelling of text. Three significant contributions can be identified. First, a time‐series representation of text is used to identify three well‐known empirical laws of text generation. These laws provide an effective and objective approach for evaluating four leading statistical models of text. Second, it is shown that the Simon‐Yule model of text provides a constructive mechanism for those laws. Third, based on Simon's explanatory processes of imitation and association, an adaptive framework for continuous speech recognition is suggested.
Details
Keywords
Eucman Lee and Phanish Puranam
Expertise in designing organizations is an important construct for scholars interested in studying the micro-foundations of organizational performance. We investigate the…
Abstract
Expertise in designing organizations is an important construct for scholars interested in studying the micro-foundations of organizational performance. We investigate the existence and nature of this expertise in this chapter. Conceptualizing the designing of organizations as a problem-solving process, we describe the underlying structure of this problem space. Further, we propose that this process of problem solving should look different for “greenfield” design problems and for “brownfield” redesign problems. We test our arguments through a comparison of the think-aloud verbal protocols of 16 subjects with greater experience with organization design problems (experts) and 16 subjects with significantly lower experience with organization design problems (novices). The results suggest that the parts of the problem that experts focus on are different from those that novices focus on, and expertise matters differently for design and redesign problems.
Details
Keywords
Yolanda Muñoz-Martínez, Cecilia Simon Rueda and MªLuz M. Fernández-Blázquez
This study analyses the barriers and facilitators for the educational inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the perspective of their teachers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study analyses the barriers and facilitators for the educational inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the perspective of their teachers.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative methodology was applied, specifically a multiple case study from which 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers who had worked previously with students with ASD. The participants were Spanish teachers from different educational stages (from early childhood education to baccalaureate) and with different roles (ordinary classroom teachers and support teachers).
Findings
The results show that collaboration amongst teachers, their attitudes, the way of understanding the supports, the creation of collaboration between students and the organisation of both the school and the classroom are important for the inclusion of students with ASD. The analyses and discussion of the facilitators for the inclusion of these students are especially relevant, since they provide useful guidance for teachers who want to respond to the right of these students to an inclusive education.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations and future research lines of this study are related to the logic of amplitude and depth, respectively. Regarding amplitude, the authors highlighted the importance of gathering the voices of professionals committed to the development of more inclusive practices; however, the authors also identified the need to expand the listening to the voices of teachers who do not have such experience. This raises a possible future research line: to explore how to reach teachers with no experience in inclusive education in order to contribute to the transformation of their practice.
Practical implications
There is extensive knowledge within the classrooms, which the authors aimed to demonstrate in this study, with the hope that others can learn from it. The obtained results are useful to every teacher who wishes to create an inclusive school. In agreement with the consideration of inclusive education as a process, this investigation identified strategies and resources that facilitate the learning and participation of students with ASD, as well as barriers that must be tackled to advance in this regard.
Originality/value
The authors aimed to contribute to understanding the advances in the development of the right to inclusive education. To this end, the authors gathered the voices of teachers (those from the ordinary classroom and those considered “support teachers”) from regular schools that welcome students with ASD and which had a history of commitment to the development of more inclusive education. There is extensive knowledge within the classrooms, which the authors aimed to demonstrate in this study, with the hope that others can learn from it. The obtained results are useful to every teacher who wishes to create an inclusive school.
Details
Keywords
A literature review or review article is an integral part of a scientific body of research which synthesizes prior knowledge and provides a holistic overview of a subject domain…
Abstract
A literature review or review article is an integral part of a scientific body of research which synthesizes prior knowledge and provides a holistic overview of a subject domain. While several studies emphasize the significance of literature reviews and include the guidelines for conducting a review, limited studies demonstrated different types of literature review methodologies in a comprehensive way. Accordingly, this chapter presents various types of review methodologies which includes narrative, descriptive, systematic, meta-analysis, hybrid, umbrella, scoping, theoretical, and critical reviews. In addition, the authors' skills including logical reasoning, content analysis, literature mapping, critical writing, and ethical consideration are presented. Further, quality aspects of the literature review are discussed such as the rigor and relevance of the selected studies. Overall, this chapter provides implications for researchers in understanding types of literature review methodologies along with their objectives, strengths, and weaknesses which can assist them in selecting a suitable methodology while conducting a review.