China is a fast‐growing economy, and many multinational companies (MNCs) have found their ways to infiltrate that market. The competition among the MNCs has generated human…
Abstract
Purpose
China is a fast‐growing economy, and many multinational companies (MNCs) have found their ways to infiltrate that market. The competition among the MNCs has generated human resource management (HRM) problems. When formulating approaches in dealing with these problems, the expatriate management of the MNCs often “speak for” their local employees, as if the latter has no voice of its own. It is suspected that MNCs know partly what their local employees value. With such limited understanding, the former may be ineffective in managing their local staff. The purpose of this paper is to report a study that explores the HRM problems from local employees' perspectives. To understand Chinese employees, the conceptual lens, stemmed from Chinese philosophical traditions instead of that derived from western experience, is used.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with Chinese employees working in MNCs.
Findings
The findings suggest that “asymmetrical understanding” exists between expatriate managers and their Chinese employees, and that the former may know much less about the latter than it is normally assumed.
Research limitations/implications
The findings, illustrated through interviews, have shed light on how MNCs could manage their Chinese employees, and how a meaningful dialogue could take place: understanding the other (Chinese employees) on their own intellectual ground to overcome “asymmetrical understanding”.
Originality/value
By allowing the voice of the other to come forth rather than to keep it in the background as, at best, a whisper, the study helps create a platform for a meaningful cross‐cultural dialogue between voices from the west and the other.
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Peter G. Håkansson and Magnus Andersson
The aim of this chapter is to investigate regional inequality and centralization tendencies in Sweden. For this, we use official data from Statistics Sweden on house prices and…
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to investigate regional inequality and centralization tendencies in Sweden. For this, we use official data from Statistics Sweden on house prices and employment. The data is on the municipality level and covers the period 1985–2014. The research question then becomes, in relation to employment and house prices, which municipalities have gained and which have lost during this period? The time period has been divided into three subperiods that reflect different phases in the process of economic structural change. Two major economic crises are used to signal the end and the start of new structural phases in the Swedish economy. The study uses two dimensions of local economy: employment rates and house prices in municipalities in relation to the national mean. The results indicate increasing divergence between Swedish municipalities over the period. However, the magnitude of the divergence differs within the studied period. Particularly, when it comes to house prices, the third subperiod (2009–2014) shows increasing divergence between Stockholm and Gothenburg in relation to Malmö and the rest of country. Further, when we study the two dimensions simultaneously in accordance with our model, the number of municipalities with above-national-mean employment rates and house prices decreases over time. In the last period, 2009–2014, municipalities with means above the national mean are concentrated in urban agglomerations mainly located close to Sweden’s three largest cities.
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Murad Ali, Muhammad Shujahat, Noureen Fatima, Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, Tan Vo-Thanh, Mohammad Asif Salam and Hengky Latan
The existing literature indicates that the ultimate purpose of green human resource management (GHRM) practices is to enhance sustainable corporate performance by shaping…
Abstract
Purpose
The existing literature indicates that the ultimate purpose of green human resource management (GHRM) practices is to enhance sustainable corporate performance by shaping employees’ green behaviors. In this vein, we argue that green organizational culture and employee existing pro-environmental behaviors are the important factors or channels through which GHRM practices shape green employee behaviors for sustainable corporate performance. Consequently, we draw on the ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) framework to examine how firms’ GHRM practices indirectly shape employee green behavior for sustainable corporate performance by cultivating and reinforcing green organizational culture under the boundary condition of high employee pro-environmental behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses multi-source, dyadic, and time-lagged data collected from green HR managers and employees in 242 ISO-14001-certified green firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study applies structural equation modeling through LISREL 12 software for testing of hypotheses.
Findings
The findings support the postulation that GHRM practices, directly and indirectly, shape employee green behaviors for sustainable performance. GHRM practices indirectly enhance employee green behaviors for sustainable performance by cultivating and fostering the green organizational culture in the presence of high pro-environmental behavior.
Practical implications
This study outlines theoretical and practical implications on how HRM managers require an established green organizational culture and employee pro-environmental behaviors to effectively direct GHRM for enhanced sustainable corporate performance. HRM managers should make use of appropriate interventions, including but not limited to GHRM practices, to foster a green organizational culture and employee pro-environmental behaviors.
Originality/value
This is an original study that outlines the importance of alignment between Green HRM practices and employee pro-environmental behaviors towards shaping green organizational culture and employee behaviors for corporate sustainability. The study demonstrates how GHRM practices enhance sustainable corporate performance through sequential mediations of green organizational culture and employee green behaviors, and under the boundary condition of pro-environmental behavior.
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Zeeshan Ahmed, Mishal Khosa, Nhat Tan Nguyen, Abdulaziz Fahmi Omar Faqera, Afeez Kayode Ibikunle and Saqlain Raza
Employee green behavior contributes to the achievement of hospitality organizations’ sustainability goals. However, there is a need to examine how green human resource management…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee green behavior contributes to the achievement of hospitality organizations’ sustainability goals. However, there is a need to examine how green human resource management (GHRM) fosters employees’ green behavior. Anchored on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we anticipate that GHRM may have double-edged effects on employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) via two opposing mechanisms (e.g. environmental passion and emotional exhaustion). Moreover, we expect that the relationship of GHRM on environmental passion and emotional exhaustion depends on environmentally specific empowering leadership (ESEL).
Design/methodology/approach
The data were garnered from 356 hospitality employees in Pakistan and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The findings revealed a significant and positive link between GHRM and employee OCBE and environmental passion and a significant and negative relationship between GHRM and emotional exhaustion. Similarly, the link between environmental passion and employee OCBE was significant and positive and between emotional exhaustion and employee OCBE was significant and negative. Our results indicate that the impact of GHRM on OCBE among hospitality employees was mediated by environmental passion and emotional exhaustion. Further, ESEL strengthened the association of GHRM with environmental passion while mitigating the effect of GHRM on emotional exhaustion.
Originality/value
Anchored on the COR theory, our study provides novel empirical evidence by investigating the mechanisms and boundary conditions between GHRM and employee OCBE nexus in the hospitality realm.
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Yongxiang Hu, Mengqi Lai, Zonghao Hu and Zhenqiang Yao
Laser additive manufacturing is widely utilized to fabricate the Ti6Al4V alloy, but it requires post-processing to improve its performance. This paper aims to propose laser…
Abstract
Purpose
Laser additive manufacturing is widely utilized to fabricate the Ti6Al4V alloy, but it requires post-processing to improve its performance. This paper aims to propose laser peening (LP) as an effective way to improve the surface characteristics of the Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated by direct laser deposition (DLD).
Design/methodology/approach
Surface integrity including surface roughness, porosity, residual stress and microhardness are investigated in detail before and after LP treatment. Microstructure evolution is characterized by the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to analyze crystal phase, grain boundary misorientation and texture.
Findings
Multiple overlapping layers of LP treatment result in slight influence on the polished surface of DLD-built samples. Porosity measured by the Archimedes test is found to be greatly decreased after LP treatment. Compressive residual stresses are significantly induced, the magnitude of which is greatly increased by increasing layers of LP treatment. And, local weakening or enhancement of residual stress in depth is observed because of pore and inclusion defects in the DLD-built Ti6Al4V alloy. Favorable hardness property can be obtained after multiple overlapping layers of LP treatment. EBSD analysis shows that LP treatment with multiple layers can introduce a large amount of lower-angle boundaries, indicating that dislocations beneath the top surface could induce a strain-hardened layer. The microtexture of the DLD-built Ti6Al4V alloy cannot be eliminated to decrease the anisotropy of the mechanical property.
Research limitations/implications
The variation of porosity observed after LP inside the DLD-built Ti-Al-4V is attractive but requires more detailed work to analyze the evolution of pore geometry.
Practical implications
Surface treatment of an additive manufactured titanium alloy was carried out to improve its fatigue resistance.
Originality/value
This work is original in proposing LP as an effective post process for the surface treatment of an additive manufactured titanium alloy through analyzing the surface integrity and microstructure evolution.
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Zonghua Liu, Yanping Li, Yulang Guo, Ming Zhang and Thomas Ramsey
With increasing pressure to achieve environmental sustainability, hotel organizations implement green human resource management (GHRM) to inspire employees’ green behavior to…
Abstract
Purpose
With increasing pressure to achieve environmental sustainability, hotel organizations implement green human resource management (GHRM) to inspire employees’ green behavior to improve environmental performance. Following the conservation of resources theory, this research aims to examine how GHRM fosters employee green advocacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from 315 employees from 24 hotels in China. This study used the SPSS PROCESS to test the mediation and moderated mediation model.
Findings
The results showed that GHRM has a positive impact on green advocacy, and harmonious environmental passion (HEP) fully mediates the positive relationship between GHRM and green advocacy. Furthermore, the relationship between GHRM, HEP and green advocacy is moderated by environmentally specific transformational leadership (ESTL). Subsequently, the findings imply that the indirect effect of GHRM on green advocacy via HEP is stronger while ESTL is higher.
Originality/value
This study extends the research on GHRM and green advocacy by exploring how and when GHRM stimulates employee green advocacy via HEP in the Chinese context.
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Yuan Ren, Pingyuan Cui and Enjie Luan
This paper aims to investigate, a new optimization algorithm for complex orbit transfer missions with low‐thrust propulsion system, which minimizes the drawbacks of traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate, a new optimization algorithm for complex orbit transfer missions with low‐thrust propulsion system, which minimizes the drawbacks of traditional optimization methods, such as bad convergence, difficulty of initial guesses and local optimality.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the trajectory optimization problem comes down to a nonlinear constraint parameter optimization by using the concept of traditional hybrid method. Then, one utilizes genetic algorithm (GA) to solve this parameter optimization problem after treating the constraints with the simulated annealing (SA) and random penalty function. Finally, one makes use of localized optimization to improve the precision of the final solutions.
Findings
This algorithm not only keeps the advantages of traditional hybrid method such as high precision and smooth solutions, but also inherits the merits of GA which could avoid initial guess work and obtain a globally optimal solution.
Research limitations/implications
Further, research is required to reduce the computational complexity when the transfer trajectory is very complex and/or has many adjustable variables.
Practical implications
By using this method, the globally optimal solutions of some complex missions, which could not be obtained by traditional method, could be found.
Originality/value
This method combines the GA with traditional hybrid method, and utilizes SA and random penalty functions to treat with constraints, and then gives out a super convergence way to find the globally optimal low‐thrust transfer orbit.
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Hui Ma, Shenglan Chen, Xiaoling Liu and Pengcheng Wang
To enrich the research on the economic consequences of enterprise digital development from the perspective of capacity utilization.
Abstract
Purpose
To enrich the research on the economic consequences of enterprise digital development from the perspective of capacity utilization.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of listed firms from 2010 to 2020, this paper exploits text analysis of annual reports to construct a proxy for enterprise digital development.
Findings
Results show that enterprise digital development not only improves their own capacity utilization but also generates a positive spillover effect on the capacity utilization of peer firms and firms in the supply chain. Next, based on the incomplete information about market demand and potential competitors when making capacity-building decisions, the mechanism tests show that improving the accuracy of market forecasts and reducing investment surges are potential channels behind the baseline results. Cross-sectional tests show the baseline result is more pronounced when industries are highly homogeneous and when firms have access to less information.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the research related to the economic consequences of digital development. With the development of the digital economy, the real effects of enterprise digital development have also triggered extensive interest and exploration. Existing studies mainly examine the impact on physical operations, such as specialization division of labor, innovation activities, business performance or total factor productivity (Huang, Yu, & Zhang, 2019; Yuan, Xiao, Geng, & Sheng, 2021; Wang, Kuang, & Shao, 2017; Li, Liu, & Shao, 2021; Zhao, Wang, & Li, 2021). These studies measure the economic benefits from the perspective of the supply (output) side but neglect the importance of the supply system to adapt to the actual market demand. In contrast, this paper focuses on capacity utilization, aimed at estimating the net economic effect of digital development by considering the supply-demand fit scenario. Thus, our findings enrich the relevant studies on the potential consequences of digital development.
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Subhash C. Kundu and Purnima Chahar
Based on the Social Exchange Theory (SET), the paper attempts to extend the research on the relationship between green self-managed teams and firm performance by exploring the…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the Social Exchange Theory (SET), the paper attempts to extend the research on the relationship between green self-managed teams and firm performance by exploring the serial mediation of extra-role green behavior and environmental performance. Furthermore, via moderated mediation, the study inspected the differences in relationships among these variables for manufacturing and service organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data of 407 respondents from 122 manufacturing and service organizations (having green self-managed teams) operating in India were collected using purposive sampling. Various statistical techniques like confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), correlations, multiple regressions and bootstrapping were employed.
Findings
The results indicated that extra-role green behavior and environmental performance served as serial mediators. Additionally, the nature of the organizations significantly moderated several indirect relationships, with one pathway found to be insignificant.
Research limitations/implications
The study may be limited by the fact that the data were collected at a single moment in time rather than using a longitudinal design.
Practical implications
The study guides service organizations to attract environmentally conscious employees by promoting green self-managed teams and manufacturing organizations to enrich their operations and service delivery through such teams.
Originality/value
The study uniquely examines how green self-managed teams addressing environmental issues contribute to improved firm performance through mutual exchanges. It also advances existing literature by conducting a comparative analysis across manufacturing and service organizations in an emerging Indian market.
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Ren Yuan, Cui Pingyuan and Luan Enjie
This paper seeks to examine the development of the on‐board guidance law for multi‐revolutions orbit transfer spacecraft with low‐thrust propulsion systems.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the development of the on‐board guidance law for multi‐revolutions orbit transfer spacecraft with low‐thrust propulsion systems.
Design/methodology/approach
In the research, first, a set of equinoctial elements is utilized to avoid the singularities in dynamical equation of classical orbit elements. A thruster switch law is derived by analyzing the efficiency of the changing of each orbit elements. Second, by using the theory of Lyapunov feedback control, analytic expressions of thrust angles are derived. Finally, the weights of the Lyapunov function are adjusted by hybrid genetic algorithm to improve the performance of the guidance law.
Findings
First, the dynamical equations of classical orbit elements are always singularity during the orbit transfer. By using modified equinoctial elements, these singularities could be avoided. Second, the trajectory is sensitive to the weights in Lyapunov function. With reasonable weights, the key parameters under the control of the guidance law presented in this paper are very close to that of optimal trajectory.
Research limitations/implications
In further research, some dynamical weights methods will be used in the control law to improve the performance index, and approach the optimal solution.
Practical implications
The guidance law presented in this paper could be easily used as an on‐board algorithm for the multi‐revolutions orbit transfer or stationkeeping. Furthermore, it could also be utilized as an initial design method for low‐thrust orbit transfer.
Originality/value
Providing a low‐thrust guidance law by combining the concept of Lyapunov feedback control with hybrid genetic algorithm. This method has a super convergence and a low‐computational cost.