Khiam Jin Lee, Sanna K. Malinen and Venkataraman Nilakant
This study examines challenges to cross-sector collaboration in disasters. The authors use Malaysian flooding as the context for the study and offer a framework to understand…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines challenges to cross-sector collaboration in disasters. The authors use Malaysian flooding as the context for the study and offer a framework to understand different types of collaborators in disaster settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected with semi-structured interviews, complemented with secondary data from government documents and news reports. The authors interviewed a total of 30 participants including six disaster aid recipients and 24 strategic and operational participants from 12 disaster management organizations. Thematic analysis was conducted including two cycles of coding, memoing and constant comparisons.
Findings
The authors present two key theoretical contributions: key barriers to cross-sector collaboration and a typology of collaboration in disasters. Key barriers include leadership approach and central vs local decision-making, differing levels of motivation to collaborate and the organizations' ability to collaborate in disasters. Despite these barriers, collaboration does occur in disaster settings. The authors suggest that the forms of collaboration may be driven primarily by differing motivations to collaborate and differing perceptions of others’ ability to collaborate, resulting in four types of collaboration: (1) enthusiastic, (2) mandate-driven, (3) reluctant and (4) non-collaboration.
Originality/value
The authors show that although the command-and-control model was dominant, organizations also attempted to improve disaster management efficacy through collaborative approaches. Central institutional agencies and their wider external partners are capable of using cross-sector collaboration as a strategy to tackle the complex problems post-disaster. However, pre-disaster relationship building will likely help organizations to collaborate more effectively when a disaster occurs.
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Ashish Malik and Venkataraman Nilakant
The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence training decision making in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India's IT‐enabled business process…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence training decision making in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India's IT‐enabled business process outsourcing industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The research strategy employed is a case study. Data from semi‐structured interviews, organizational documents, and non‐participant observation are analysed.
Findings
The inclusive theoretical approach uncovers novel explanations through the complex interaction that occurs between various internal and external factors that shape the nature and extent of training provision in SMEs in the context of a developing country. In SMEs, enterprise training can take a variety of forms – formal, informal, and incidental. The final training provision is shaped by high employee turnover, the complexity of the process, client specifications, and the presence of certain organizational capabilities.
Research limitations/implications
Although a multi‐case embedded design was followed, the results and findings cannot be generalized to a wider population. Findings are generalized to the literature on the drivers of training.
Practical implications
The paper's findings allow practitioners to utilize scarce resources effectively, particularly for where SMEs are operating in a dynamic outsourcing environment.
Originality/value
This paper extends the current academic and policy discourses on formal and informal training in SMEs by reporting findings from a new context – India's dynamic outsourcing environment. Novel explanations are offered of how SMEs that outsource business process offshore meet their skill development needs.