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1 – 10 of over 4000Aysu Göçer, Sebastian Brockhaus, Stanley E. Fawcett, Ceren Altuntas Vural and A. Michael Knemeyer
Sustainability continues to be put forth as a strategic priority. However, sustainability efforts are often deemphasized for short-term profitability. This study explores the…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainability continues to be put forth as a strategic priority. However, sustainability efforts are often deemphasized for short-term profitability. This study explores the nuances in managerial decision-making related to adopting sustainability initiatives within food supply chains in an emerging economy. We identify a complex interaction between sustainability efforts and risk mitigation. We derive a model to explain conflicting company goals, managerial decisions and system design.
Design/methodology/approach
We followed an exploratory research design with an inductive approach. We analyzed data from semi-structured interviews with 29 companies representing different tiers in Turkish food supply chains. We refined and validated the interview findings through a focus group with nine senior managers. We conducted open, focused and theoretical coding in an iterative and reflective manner to analyze the data and derive our results.
Findings
From the data, three themes emerged, indicating that managers are pursuing different, often conflicting, goals concerning value creation, risk management and sustainability performance. Managers identified and commented on new risks brought on by sustainability initiatives. These sustainability-induced risks were seen as a threat to operational performance, a driver of increased costs and a negative impact on product quality and delivery performance. Trade-offs across operating, sustainability and risk management systems create transformational tension that confounds the sustainability adoption decision-making process.
Originality/value
The data from the study was contrasted with a theoretical framework derived from systems theory, goal-setting theory of motivation and the theory of planned behavior. We identified four distinct decision paths that managers pursue. Increased awareness of transformational tension and how it influences managerial decision-making can enhance strategic sustainability system design and initiative success.
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One of the key aims of the UK's Transformational Government strategy is to create a “joined‐up” government where communications within and between public organisations is improved…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the key aims of the UK's Transformational Government strategy is to create a “joined‐up” government where communications within and between public organisations is improved by the use of information technology. Data sharing is a key enabler of “joined‐up” government but the implementation of the strategy presents a series of risks. The purpose of this paper is to articulate and assess the nature of those risks in relation to violations of existing laws using the National Pupil Database (NPD) in England as a case study.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper investigates examples of violations of EU law relating to rights to privacy of data sharing practices within the UK public sector using an interpretive approach to existing published information. The case of the NPD illustrates how certain identified data sharing practices contravene existing laws and exposes this aspect of the Transformational Government strategy to heightened risk of a legal challenge.
Findings
Four examples of violations of existing EU laws on privacy are identified from an investigation into the NPD for schools in England. The analysis exposes the imbalance between the data sharing practices underpinning the Transformational Government strategy in the UK and the requirements for fulfilling privacy protection rights to citizens enshrined in EU law. The findings reveal that data sharing practices as a key enabler of the Transformational Government strategy risks violating existing laws designed to protect privacy. The UK government risks a legal challenge, the outcome of which may seriously undermine the prospects for achieving the stated aim of improving efficiency and effectiveness across the public sector.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is largely restricted to the NPD for schools in England. The findings would be strengthened by expanding the research into other areas of the public sector where data sharing practices have been implemented.
Originality/value
The findings are a significant and timely contribution to understanding the data sharing/privacy tension that ministers and legislators need to address. The work provides an insight into where weaknesses exist within current arrangements that is of value to policymakers, legislators, human rights advocates and government authorities at both central and local levels.
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The purpose was to find if the relationship between personality and transformational leadership exists, when the appraisals are from leaders themselves and from their subordinates.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose was to find if the relationship between personality and transformational leadership exists, when the appraisals are from leaders themselves and from their subordinates.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken was quantitative analyses of 439 leaders and 380 subordinates.
Findings
Results indicated that the relationship between personality and transformational leadership exists. Subordinates' and leaders' ratings did not converge. According to leaders' self‐ratings, the extraverted, intuitive and perceiving preferences favour transformational leadership. On the contrary, subordinates' ratings indicated that leaders with sensing preference are associated with transformational leadership.
Research limitations/implications
Even if sample size is relatively extensive, it represents mainly middle‐level leaders. More data would be needed to gain the overall picture of this topic in all leadership levels.
Practical implications
Results of this study can be used in training and development, when trying to enhance mutual understanding. Also when leaders are appraising themselves they can have more realistic picture when knowing their tendencies due to the personality.
Originality/value
The results provides further information of this field, where the earlier results have been somehow contradictory. Paper shows how different personalities tend to over‐ or underestimate themselves when comparing to subordinates ratings.
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Customer transformation is currently overlooked in service research. This article aims to conceptualize customer transformation and develop a research agenda to encourage more…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer transformation is currently overlooked in service research. This article aims to conceptualize customer transformation and develop a research agenda to encourage more exploration in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual article builds on the literature on transformation and related topics in psychology, sociology, education and anthropology.
Findings
The presented definition of customer transformation distinguishes itself from other related concepts such as minor change. The research agenda, structured around five themes, reveals four distinctive attributes of customer transformation that warrant academic investigation. These include the inability of businesses to guarantee transformations, the potential tension between transformational aspirations and immediate needs and well-being, the imperative of cultivating long-term engagement and the likelihood of encountering customer resistance. This highlights the criticality of embracing a customer-centric approach in transformational services.
Research limitations/implications
Given the vastness of the topic, the literature review is limited and the research agenda could be widened. Furthermore, the dynamic nature of the subject introduces the possibility that the conceptual framework and research agenda may become outdated. Lastly, the universal applicability of the findings and the proposed conceptual framework are uncertain, necessitating potential validation across diverse contexts. The practical implications may also fall short of addressing the specific challenges encountered by different industries or businesses.
Practical implications
The article provides insights on customer transformation and strategies for businesses to support ongoing transformations, emphasizing personalized engagement and co-creating value to meet evolving customer aspirations.
Social implications
The need for development and growth is more pressing and decisive than ever. This need is often not well understood and, as a result, is not addressed by either scholars or companies. This paper helps address that social need.
Originality/value
The research enriches the service literature by paving the way for a crucial subfield in service research. Additionally, it establishes a shared understanding of customer transformation by highlighting its distinct characteristics and analyzing their implications for service management, proposing a conceptual framework and research agenda.
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Tiina Maria Brandt and Piia Edinger
This study aims to investigate whether transformational leadership exists in teams, and if so, whether it is represented in a similar way as in more traditional leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate whether transformational leadership exists in teams, and if so, whether it is represented in a similar way as in more traditional leadership situations. The study also aims to determine whether a team leader’s sex has an influence on the relationship between personality and team leadership when team members evaluate the leader’s behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative analysis is conducted on input from 104 team leaders and 672 team members from a Finnish university. Data were collected during university courses, and the team leaders’ transformational leadership styles were evaluated by team members at the end of the courses.
Findings
The results indicate that the transformational leadership questionnaire is applicable when studying team leadership; the Visioning dimension might be absent, but Modelling, Enabling, Challenging and Rewarding dimensions represent transformational leadership in teams. Women tend to be more transformational team leaders than men. Personality seems to influence both sexes, so that extraverted and judging personality types are more transformational leaders than introverted and perceiving ones. In relation to sex, introverted, sensing, thinking and perceiving female leaders are regarded as more transformational than men with similar preferences. Additionally, some personality preferences seem to be sex-neutral in terms of team transformational leadership when rated by team members.
Originality/value
There is no previous study combining these variables in the academic team context.
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Chaudhry Ghafran and Sofia Yasmin
Developing economies often lack sufficient state regulation to encourage corporations to engage with environmental sustainability challenges. Environmental NGOs fill this vacuum…
Abstract
Purpose
Developing economies often lack sufficient state regulation to encourage corporations to engage with environmental sustainability challenges. Environmental NGOs fill this vacuum but this relationship is fraught with challenges, linked to each party’s competing interests. This paper examines how an environmental NGO operating in a developing country manages such challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal case study, from 2017–2022, based on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, with the main periods of field work in 2017 and 2020.
Findings
We unravel nuanced dynamics of accountability within an NGOs collaborative ecosystem. Our findings reveal a web of interlinked obligations and expectations, strategically adopted to reconcile environmental and CSR logics fostering trustworthy partnerships with firms. Despite aiming for transformative change, the NGO made gradual initiatives, to meet the challenges of fostering systemic change in developing nations. Institutional logics of professionalism and development allowed NGO members avoid mission drift and realign upward accountability relations into lateral ones.
Originality/value
The study provides insight into successful NGO-corporate partnerships and illustrates how accountability is negotiated, upheld, and reconceptualized in such collaborations.
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This chapter investigates the mutual relationship between logic and paradox, showing that paradox is indispensable to test logic, as well as logic is necessary to extend our…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the mutual relationship between logic and paradox, showing that paradox is indispensable to test logic, as well as logic is necessary to extend our understanding of paradox. Firstly, I consider the lesson that organizational theory can draw from formal logic’s investigation of semantic and set-theoretic paradoxes. Subsequently, I survey the plural interpretations of the concept of “logic” in organizational theory (as logic of theory, logic of practice, and institutional logics). I argue that this plurality of meanings is not a source of confusion but offers an opportunity to illustrate different manifestations of, and ways to cope with, organizational paradoxes.
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Oswaldo Morales, Andrew N. Kleit and Gareth H. Rees
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a country’s mixed history of colonialism and cultural heritage as a background to the management of a mining company’s community…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a country’s mixed history of colonialism and cultural heritage as a background to the management of a mining company’s community engagement. Mining-related social conflicts have intensified in Peru as mining expansion challenges Andean people’s traditional livelihoods. It is generally thought that resolving such conflicts requires a set of long-term strategies and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study has been developed using an inductive methodology through content analysis of newspaper reports, official documents and the academic literature. It follows a complex and evolving situation, blending social and cultural theory and norms with actual events to provide insight into the conflicts’ historical, social and cultural forces.
Findings
Mining conflicts are complex business and strategic problems that call for a more thorough analysis of causal variables and a deeper understanding of the underlying cultural and historical forces. Transactional community engagement responses may not always be adequate to maintain a mining project’s social licence.
Originality/value
Based on the information presented, students can use the case as a means to examine and critique community engagement approaches to social conflict resolution through this summary of a real-life example of social conflict in Peru’s mining industry. The case may also be used as the basis for teaching forward planning and contingency management for long-term projects involving stakeholders and potential conflict. The case has been used as a resource for teaching communications, risk evaluation and community engagement strategies as part of a Master’s in the Energy Sector Management programme in Peru.
Propósito
Este caso propone una introducción a la historia del colonialismo y multiculturalismo en el Perú relacionado con el manejo de las relaciones comunitarias por parte del sector minero. Los conflictos sociales provenientes de la actividad minera se han intensificado en el Perú debido a que esta industria insiste en desafiar el estilo de vida de los pueblos andinos. Se piensa que una solución de estos conflictos requiere un conjunto de estrategias y compromisos a largo plazo.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
El estudio de caso se ha desarrollado utilizando una metodología inductiva a través del análisis de contenido de informes periodísticos, documentos oficiales y la literatura académica. Se analiza una situación compleja, mezclando la teoría y las normas sociales y culturales con los acontecimientos actuales para proporcionar una visión de las fuerzas históricas, sociales y culturales que sustentan los acontecimientos que ocurren.
Hallazgos
Los conflictos mineros son problemas de negocios complejos y estratégicos que requieren un análisis más profundo de las variables causales y una comprensión más profunda de las fuerzas culturales e históricas subyacentes. Las respuestas transaccionales de participación de la comunidad no siempre son adecuadas para mantener la licencia social de un proyecto minero.
Originalidad/valor
Basados en la información presentada, los estudiantes pueden usar el caso como un medio para examinar y criticar los enfoques de participación comunitaria en la resolución de conflictos sociales a través de un ejemplo real de conflicto social en la industria minera peruana. El caso también puede utilizarse como base para enseñar la planificación anticipada y la gestión de contingencias para proyectos a largo plazo que involucren a las partes interesadas. El caso se ha utilizado como recurso para la enseñanza de comunicaciones, estrategia, evaluación de riesgos y de participación comunitaria como parte de un programa de Maestría en Gestión del Sector Energético en Perú.
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Michael S. Cole, Stanley G. Harris and Jeremy B. Bernerth
The purpose of this paper was to examine the interaction effects of managers' perceptions of the supporting vision clarity, appropriateness, and execution of a major…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to examine the interaction effects of managers' perceptions of the supporting vision clarity, appropriateness, and execution of a major organizational change on their job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and role ambiguity.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from upper and middle‐level managers of a Fortune 500 US manufacturer and maker of consumer goods involved in a large organizational change initiative. A survey was completed by 217 managers, for a response rate of 89 percent. Change attitudes, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, role ambiguity, and control variables were all assessed.
Findings
A three‐way interaction between change vision clarity, change appropriateness, and change execution was found to predict managers' job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and role ambiguity.
Research limitations/implications
The study relied on self‐reports collected at one point in time, allowing for the possibility of common method bias. The complex, nonlinear relationships indicate that method bias cannot fully account for the reported relationships.
Practical implications
Study results illustrate that the individual experience of major change is multifaceted and that simultaneously considering the combined effects of individual's change attitudes including readiness (in the form of believing a change is needed and appropriate) and the perceived effectiveness of the change execution on key job‐related outcomes can help practitioners understand more fully the implications of organizational change.
Originality/value
The findings lend support to the notion that individual's sentiments concerning organizational change are interactive and should not be ignored.
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Joshua B. Barbour, Patrice M. Buzzanell, William J. Kinsella and Keri K. Stephens