Search results

Human capital is a key component of the success of organisations, and career development of staff is a vital component to both increasing and retaining human capital. Universities are no different, their people are key to their mission. There has been limited rigorous study of the careers of professional staff in the academy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A systematic literature review methodology resulted in a review of 23 articles dedicated to research on careers of professional staff in higher education (HE). Thematic analysis identified a series of enablers and barriers that influence career development and progression.

Career enablers and barriers have been found to exist at both the institutional and individual levels. Within the HE context, professional staff have a hybrid career mindset, desiring traditional and more contemporary career factors, leading to a reciprocal relationship between the organisation and the individual.

There is a need for future research to investigate the hybrid career mindset, and the reciprocal relationship, both to add depth to understanding of careers for professional staff in universities, and to examine this in other settings.

Universities may need to consider ways to integrate institutional support for high performance work systems (HPWS) with opportunities for professional staff, while individuals may need to consider adopting career self-management behaviours (CSMB) to fit their hybrid mindset.

This review has highlighted organisations and individuals will benefit if the relationship between HPWS and CSMB is better understood for the hybrid career mindset.

To validate a measure of use innovativeness, or how existing products are used in a novel and innovative manner. The measure has practical significance for innovation research as it consists of only nine items as opposed to the original 44. The use innovativeness measure derived from research predicts acceptance of new technology (in this case computer technology) and could be adapted to other fields of innovation research.

A survey was conducted and structural equation modelling techniques were used to analyse the data.

Evidence for a unidimensional measure of use innovativeness is provided by structural equation modelling. The nine‐item measure has fewer items than the original 44‐item measure developed by Price and Ridgway (1983) Price and Ridgway and consists of the items of multiple use and creative reuse. The measure was found to be positively correlated with innovativeness and opinion leadership and the acceptance of new information technology. The construct of use innovativeness is thus a practical measurement for use in innovation research.

Some limitations regarding the nature of the sample are discussed. Implications for future research in the diffusion of innovations are also addressed.

The only paper which validates a measure of use innovativeness, so that it has practical and theoretical use in innovation practice and research.

The purpose of this study is to seek to investigate the impact that perceived risk and trust have on online purchasing behavior, in particular the nature of purchasing associations within the expensive, complex, high risk and credence products such as gemstones.

An online survey of purchases of Thai gemstones was used to collect the data. Partial Least Squares was used to test the conceptual model of the study.

The results of this study suggest that the type of internet marketing strategy used by the seller (the place strategy) and the buyer's privacy and security practices influence a buyer's perceived risk to purchase gemstones online. Furthermore, the study showed that perceived risk reduces trust and perceived risk reduces online purchases.

The implications of these results are that privacy and security concerns of online buyers must be addressed in order to reduce perceived risk and thereby increase trust which is fundamental to the amount purchased online.

Online marketers of highly risky products need to consider that policies that promote trust and reduce risk are important means of increasing purchases. In particular, the use of multichannels will reduce perceived risk.

This is a rare study which examines purchases of expensive, complex, high risk and credence products such as gemstones. It is also a study which examines the behaviour of organisational buyers. Also actual reported online purchases are investigated rather than just intent.

Psychological resilience, defined here as the capacity to bounce back from adversity and failure, has been studied in various leadership contexts. However, the literature demonstrates less consensus concerning how psychological resilience manifests in, and interacts within, the leadership role and, equally, the focus on resilience development is underdeveloped. This paper addresses these issues by focusing on the interactions between psychological resilience and leadership and presents practical development strategies.

A systematic review employing 46 empirical studies followed a thematic synthesis within an associated model encapsulated as building-up resilience and being effective.

First, resilience is identified as essential and can benefit individuals and organizations' work outcomes across leadership contexts, including work performance, job engagement, well-being, and enhanced leadership capability. Secondly, leaders may build up their resilience by obtaining coping skills and improved attitudes toward challenges. Resilient attitudes, which are presented as paradoxical perspectives towards challenges, may help leaders adapt to challenges and adversities leading to beneficial outcomes.

Even though this study provides a deeper understanding of the essential function of psychological resilience in leadership, the findings are limited to the workplace contexts investigated, e.g. exploring small sample sizes (13,019) or country contexts (22). Future research could expand the rhetoric around interactions between psychological resilience and leadership. Furthermore, the underlining mechanism between the paradoxical perspective and resilient attitudes is still largely unclear. Thus, more research is needed to disclose the interaction of paradoxical perceptions and leadership resilience. Further research can investigate how resilient attitudes demonstrate in actions in dealing with challenges and adversities.

The authors further an argument that leaders may enhance their resilience through embracing a paradoxical perspective towards challenges (resilient attitude), e.g. being adaptive to adversities, and the attitude of learning from failures. These enhanced resilient attitudes could help leaders deeper understand and examine their reality and persist under high pressures and develop an innate ability to utilise resources more effectively to help them survive and thrive in challenging circumstances, instead of becoming overwhelmed by the burden of complexity or giving up. This will offer a practical contribution to resilience development.

Importantly, this study found that resilience is an essential leadership trait and can benefit individuals and organizations' work outcomes across leadership contexts. These positive effects of resilience may encourage organizations or society to promote psychological resilience, including a resilient attitude, to deal with adversities and uncertainties.

Fundamentally, the synthesized model applied may encourage further studies to focus on how to build up resilience and practically apply it in workplaces across leadership contexts. In particular, this study found that adopting paradoxical perspectives and ambidextrous leadership approaches toward adversities is an original resilience development strategy, which serves to contribute to the gap in the literature.