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1 – 10 of 26This study explores the social conditions for sustainability practices, addressing the processes whereby associational gardening practices in a highly segregated context may or…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the social conditions for sustainability practices, addressing the processes whereby associational gardening practices in a highly segregated context may or may not create connections and capacities across urban social divides.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on organizational ethnographic fieldwork, the article explores urban gardens as potential meeting places in a segregated city, Gothenburg, focusing on collectively organized gardening projects in different socioeconomic and socio-spatial settings.
Findings
The study identifies the unintentional encounters embedded in the immaterial act of gardening, that is, digging, planting and actual gardening practices regardless of the harvest. Such practices were found to be important for social sustainability practices beyond the continuous reproduction of silos, at least in multicultural settings. Nevertheless, many urban gardeners create a green living room for themselves and their neighbours, and engagement with those outside their silos often becomes more of a symbolic act of global solidarity, especially in more culturally homogeneous areas.
Originality/value
The article fills a gap in the research by focusing on the social conditions for sustainability practices in urban segregated areas. By showing how gardening practices often reproduce cultural similarity, the study highlights the importance of revealing practices and places that facilitate unintentional social “bonus” interactions that nonetheless occur in two of the gardening environments studied. Unintentional encounters are identified as important dimensions of social sustainability practices.
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Irene Zografou and Eleanna Galanaki
Some firms excel at positively presenting their employer brand (talk), while others excel at effectively implementing human resource management (HRM) practices for the benefit of…
Abstract
Purpose
Some firms excel at positively presenting their employer brand (talk), while others excel at effectively implementing human resource management (HRM) practices for the benefit of the employees (walk). Which approach is more effective? Focusing specifically on small and medium-sized hotels (SMHs), this study explores the relation of employer branding (EB) and HRM practices with organizational performance (OP).
Design/methodology/approach
Stratified sampling was used to identify 34 top management figures (owners, CEOs, and top HR managers) from SMHs across Greece. These individuals agreed to participate in in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, focusing on their hotels’ HRM, EB, and organizational performance. The interviews were subjected to content analysis, further coupled with graphical exploration of the relations between the concepts under study.
Findings
The findings reveal a noteworthy pattern: high-performing SMHs tend to prioritize EB, particularly leveraging social media channels. This prioritization is further reinforced by the implementation of HRM practices, including extensive training and rewards. Clustering SMHs into four different levels based on their application of EB and HRM practices and the effect of these practices on OP, enables us to extend this study and gain valuable insights into the interplay of these factors.
Practical implications
This study highlights the need for practitioners to invest in HRM practices, especially in training and rewards, while giving due attention to EB, despite the potential resource limitations SMHs often face. Importantly, when basic levels of HRM are combined with high levels of EB, OP seems to be maximized.
Originality/value
Both HRM and EB deal with the employer – employee interaction, that’s why EB in most companies is the responsibility of the HRM department. Surprisingly, academic research has treated them as distinct fields, in isolation, ignoring their combined effects. This paper is the first to conceptualize EB as communication (“talk”) and HRM as practice (“walk”) and to thus propose that a complementarity relationship between these two dynamics may facilitate OP. Additionally, this study is the first to combine content analysis with a quantitative exploration to gain more holistic and valuable insights on the topic.
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Alexander Hofer, Ewald Aschauer and Patrick Velte
This study aims to analyse the motivations and underlying assumptions of decision makers driving the adoption of sustainability-oriented targets in executive compensation (SCTs…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the motivations and underlying assumptions of decision makers driving the adoption of sustainability-oriented targets in executive compensation (SCTs) to better understand SCTs’ impact on sustainability performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a qualitative approach, 15 in-depth interviews are conducted in a two-tier governance setting. Participants include management and supervisory board members, compensation consultants and other stakeholders involved in proxy voting.
Findings
SCT implementation is primarily determined by meeting shareholders’ expectations rather than those of other stakeholders. Decision makers react in a differentiated way to increased expectations by implementing either primarily symbolic or substantive measures and encounter different implementation challenges like insufficient data quality and a lack of experience within supervisory boards, both of which potentially contribute to decoupling.
Research limitations/implications
The study offers valuable insights for companies in designing SCTs and emphasises the significance of addressing decoupling to effectively enhance sustainability performance through SCTs and provides a foundation for future studies aimed at analysing this phenomenon.
Originality/value
Using a neo-institutional theory lens, this study marks one of the first interview-based investigations to distinguish between symbolic and substantial SCTs. It delves deeply into the role of decoupling and the associated challenges, offering fresh perspectives within the under-researched framework of a two-tier corporate governance structure. Moreover, this study aims to meticulously capture the real-world design practices and implementation processes of SCTs through experts, an aspect that was emphasised as a limitation in previous studies.
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Marzena Fryczyńska and Agnieszka Pleśniak
The article shows partial proof for the protean paradox existing outside of the Anglo-Saxon part of the world. We pose questions about the impact of each protean career…
Abstract
Purpose
The article shows partial proof for the protean paradox existing outside of the Anglo-Saxon part of the world. We pose questions about the impact of each protean career orientation (PCO) dimension on career outcomes, i.e. objective career success (OCS) and subjective career success including career satisfaction (CS) and perceived employability (PE) of studying employees.
Design/methodology/approach
We collected data among postgraduate students (N=239) using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. We estimated the model using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The self-direction of PCO improves CS and PE, but only if a person achieves OCS in the organization. We found the same mediation pattern for the values-drive of PCO but in the opposite direction, i.e. greater orientation on personal rather than organizational values – values-drive of PCO was associated with lesser career outcomes. Interestingly, values-drive had a small and direct impact on PE.
Originality/value
This study helps us understand how both dimensions of PCO affect career outcomes differently: objective success and subjective factors like CS and PE among employees who are studying.
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Cinzia Calluso and Maria Giovanna Devetag
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to making workers more uncompromising with respect to issues such as quality of workplace relations and work-life balance. Hence, motivation…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to making workers more uncompromising with respect to issues such as quality of workplace relations and work-life balance. Hence, motivation and leadership style assume a key relevance for keeping the workforce engaged. We hypothesize that individuals may exhibit different preferences for motivational drivers and for leadership style, and that these two sets of preferences might be correlated with each other and with employees’ personality traits.
Design/methodology/approach
Here, we empirically investigate the relationship between leadership style and motivation, by also hypothesizing the possible contribution of personality traits. An online survey was developed and distributed to 150 employees or interns/trainees to collect measures related to their preference for leadership, their motivational drivers, as well as their personality traits. The data were analyzed by means of mediation and moderation analyses to disentangle the three-level relationship existing between these constructs.
Findings
Our results suggest that indeed there exists a relationship between preferences for leadership style and motivational drivers. Furthermore, one of these relationships appears to be critically mediated by specific personality traits.
Originality/value
This work is the first, to our knowledge, empirically testing the existence of a three-level relationship between leadership preferences, motivation and personality traits of employees and to contribute to disentangle their reciprocal influences.
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This paper aims to examine how different contextual contingency factors and organizational goals influence construction clients’ decision-making when procuring contractors in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how different contextual contingency factors and organizational goals influence construction clients’ decision-making when procuring contractors in the housing sector. More specifically, it investigates how clients’ choice of procurement strategies and organizational control systems is contingent upon various contextual factors and organizational goals.
Design/methodology/approach
It is based on an explorative interview study of clients and contractors in the Swedish housing sector underpinned by a review of organizational control literature.
Findings
The client's knowledge and resources, as well as project complexity and uncertainty, are the most important contextual contingency factors, while property management and sustainable development are the most important organizational goals that housing clients consider when designing procurement strategies.
Research limitations/implications
The paper contributes to the understanding of how construction clients choose procurement strategies, by providing new insights into effects of the mentioned contextual contingency factors and organizational goals on clients’ choice of control systems through their procurement strategies.
Practical implications
Property owners who continuously procure housing projects with sustainability requirements and high degrees of complexity and uncertainty should develop knowledge and resources related to their client role, to enable the design and implementation of appropriate procurement strategies.
Originality/value
Novel aspects of the paper are the demonstration of the value of a holistic approach, considering both contextual contingency factors and organizational goals, when selecting control systems and explicit discussion of how the client's knowledge and resources influence possibilities to implement different control systems.
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This study explores the relationships between corporate board characteristics (CBCs) and corporate social responsibility budget (CSRB) of selected Bangladeshi banks. CSRB was…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the relationships between corporate board characteristics (CBCs) and corporate social responsibility budget (CSRB) of selected Bangladeshi banks. CSRB was regarded as the sole dependent variable. In contrast, CBCs was separated into three independent constructs: board members' age (BMA), board members’ educational level (BMEL) and the number of board meetings per year (NBMY). A single moderator, corporate reputation (CR), was used to assess the moderating impact on the direct relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Annual reports from 2017 to 2021 (5 years) of 25 selectively listed Bangladeshi banks were used as study samples. Further, the researcher conducted informal interviews with 251 board members of those selected banks using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study used “multiple regression analysis” to evaluate the moderating effects on the three direct relationships and “Pearson's correlation coefficient” to assess the immediate impacts.
Findings
After analysis, the results revealed that all the three independent components, BMA, BMEL and NBMY, have substantial positive relationships with the dependent variable, CSRB. Moreover, it was identified that CR can moderate (strengthen) all the three direct relationships.
Originality/value
Corporate governance (CG) and CSR are two hot topics both in academia and practice. This study highlighted the corporate board characteristics and CSR budget, two new dimensions of CG literature that are required to be paid more attention to. The researcher expects this study to enhance the literature focused on these newer dimensions of CG that might benefit both academics and practitioners.
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Jan A. Pfister, David Otley, Thomas Ahrens, Claire Dambrin, Solomon Darwin, Markus Granlund, Sarah L. Jack, Erkki M. Lassila, Yuval Millo, Peeter Peda, Zachary Sherman and David Sloan Wilson
The purpose of this multi-voiced paper is to propose a prosocial paradigm for the field of performance management and management control systems. This new paradigm suggests…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this multi-voiced paper is to propose a prosocial paradigm for the field of performance management and management control systems. This new paradigm suggests cultivating prosocial behaviour and prosocial groups in organizations to simultaneously achieve the objectives of economic performance and sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors share a common concern about the future of humanity and nature. They challenge the influential assumption of economic man from neoclassical economic theory and build on evolutionary science and the core design principles of prosocial groups to develop a prosocial paradigm.
Findings
Findings are based on the premise of the prosocial paradigm that self-interested behaviour may outperform prosocial behaviour within a group but that prosocial groups outperform groups dominated by self-interest. The authors explore various dimensions of performance management from the prosocial perspective in the private and public sectors.
Research limitations/implications
The authors call for theoretical, conceptual and empirical research that explores the prosocial paradigm. They invite any approach, including positivist, interpretive and critical research, as well as those using qualitative, quantitative and interventionist methods.
Practical implications
This paper offers implications from the prosocial paradigm for practitioners, particularly for executives and managers, policymakers and educators.
Originality/value
Adoption of the prosocial paradigm in research and practice shapes what the authors call the prosocial market economy. This is an aspired cultural evolution that functions with market competition yet systematically strengthens prosociality as a cultural norm in organizations, markets and society at large.
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Jane F. Maley, Marina Dabić, Alain Neher, Lucia Wuersch, Lynn Martin and Timothy Kiessling
This conceptual work examines how, in times of post-COVID-19 paradigm shift, the employee performance management (PM) process can help multinational corporations (MNCs) strengthen…
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual work examines how, in times of post-COVID-19 paradigm shift, the employee performance management (PM) process can help multinational corporations (MNCs) strengthen their talent management and, at the same time, meet their future needs.
Design/methodology/approach
We take a conceptual approach and present our perspective on what we see as the most critical trends shaping PM and talent management. Contingency theory and Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) theory provide a sound theoretical framework for understanding and responding to the complex and rapidly changing business context post-COVID-19.
Findings
Drawing on these theories, we create a framework providing a means of understanding why and how MNCs can maintain talent and, at the same time, develop new talent through the PM process.
Practical implications
Importantly, our study emphasizes the critical role that project management and talent management techniques play for both practitioners and scholars. In order to gain and sustain a competitive edge in the ever-changing VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) landscape, these processes necessitate ongoing reassessment and adaptation. As Plato eloquently stated, “Our Need Will Be the Real Creator,” encapsulating our vision for the proactive and dynamic nature of effective project management and talent management practices.
Originality/value
The study establishes the benefits of an agile and flexible PM approach to help develop talent and pave the way for future research in this increasingly critical area
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Alejandro J. Useche, Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero and Giovanni E. Reyes
The goal is to investigate the relationship between financial performance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators and disclosures for a sample of Latin American…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal is to investigate the relationship between financial performance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators and disclosures for a sample of Latin American firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Dynamic panel data regressions are used to analyze a sample of 114 companies listed on the Latin American Integrated Market, MILA (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) for the period 2011–2020. The Altman Z-score and Piotroski F-score are used as indicators of the probability of default and comprehensive financial strength. Models are developed in which the relationship between economic value added (EVA) and Jensen’s alpha are evaluated against firms’ ESG practices.
Findings
A direct relationship between ESG strategies and financial performance was found. Better practices and transparency in ESG are related to lower probability of bankruptcy, greater financial strength, greater EVA and superior risk-adjusted returns.
Research limitations/implications
ESG data were obtained from the Bloomberg system based on a methodology that may differ from other sources. The sample covers four Latin American countries and large corporations. Independent variables were selected for their perceived validity, given their frequent use in previous studies.
Practical implications
Evidence for company management regarding the importance of strengthening ESG practices and reporting should be part of their balanced scorecards. For investors, the results support the importance of evaluating ESG practices in asset selection.
Originality/value
The present study is the first research to present empirical evidence on the relationship between ESG scores and disclosures for MILA countries, using a comprehensive set of financial performance indicators (Altman Z-scores, Piotroski F-scores, EVA and Jensen’s alpha).
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