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There is a growing array of literature that supports various implications of positive organizational psychology on workplace outcomes such as the positive work cultures. However, lack of appropriate measuring instruments is halting the progress in this field. Laid down in this article are the conceptual and empirical perspective regarding a positive group culture, i.e. meaningful group culture (MGC) and elaboration of what MGC is and how to measure it. For this study, the MGC is defined as a culture of humane orientation and explained through five dimensions: ideology infused, caring for employees, pro diversity, helping and employee-centric organization identification. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

To further elucidate, development and validation of the MGC instrument was carried out in three phases. In the very first phase, content and face validity was assessed by experts. Following it, the second phase construct validity was undertaken through exploratory factor analysis of the results from the use of the instrument on a sample of 540 professionals. To end with, in the third phase, multilevel confirmatory analysis was conducted on an organizational sample of 397 individuals and 106 groups.

The results of the Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MCFA) provided further evidence of confirmation that the extraction of five factors was appropriate, and reliability analysis showed the MGC to be both valid and reliable. Consequently, the applications of the tool to Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals are suggested.

To broaden the coverage and enhance generalizability, the study focused on multi-sector convenient based sample.

HRD professionals can use it as a diagnostic tool for deeper exploration into systematic and organizational issues. The use of it can provide a window for addressing the developmental needs within the organizations.

This study is possibly one of the first to develop a psychometrically valid scale to measure higher order measure of a work group culture through multilevel assessment of the model.

The study aims to explore the role of mentoring and the moderating effects of gender on protean and boundaryless career orientations in the African albeit Nigerian cultural context.

Data were collected from 250 Nigerian nurses through a questionnaire.

Mentoring support predicted protean career dimensions but was non-significant for boundaryless career dimensions. Gender directly accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in physical mobility in favor of women but did not predict self-directed, value-driven and psychological mobility career attitudes. Gender significantly moderated the relationship between mentoring and new career dimensions except physical mobility.

The male sample was limited and data from a single professional group/organization in Nigeria may not typify organizations in general. This calls for caution in generalizing findings.

Proactive career management and value-driven attitudes can be fostered by ensuring quality mentor support. The peculiar direct and moderating effects of gender on protean and boundaryless careers deserve particular attention.

The absence of African perspectives on new career directions in most reference journals limits the global scope of comparative studies. The present study provides information on the under-researched role of mentoring and gender in modern career models from Africa, and makes useful theoretical contributions to new career perspectives, especially in the context of how relationships among study variables may differ across national cultural contexts.

Organizational culture has been identified as an important factor in increased employee commitment. Particularly during a shortage of skilled workers, commitment is a meaningful indicator of higher loyalty and retention. However, limited research has studied the relationship between organizational culture and commitment from a global perspective. Most research focuses on specific aspects of culture and examines the aspects' effects on commitment separately. The author's objective is to identify influential organizational culture's dimensions and assess dimensions' relationship to commitment holistically.

For this purpose, the author analyzed a data set with 241,648 participants from 9 industries in Germany. The survey captures individual attitudes toward certain aspects of organizational culture and assesses workers' commitment to their organizations.

The results of a linear regression show that all cultural dimensions considered, namely transformational leadership behavior, team cohesion, compensation, fairness and caring attitude, if well-developed, positively and significantly influence organizational commitment. Interestingly, team cohesion has the greatest effect on commitment, followed by transformational leadership behavior, compensation, caring attitude and fairness.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between organizational culture and commitment holistically, thereby revealing which aspects of corporate culture are particularly important for increasing workers' commitment.

This research explores perceptions of knowledge management processes held by managers and employees in a service industry. To date, empirical research on knowledge management in the service industry is sparse. This research seeks to examine absorptive capacity and its four capabilities of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation and their impact on effective knowledge management. All of these capabilities are strategies that enable external knowledge to be recognized, imported and integrated into, and further developed within the organization effectively. The research tests the relationships between absorptive capacity and effective knowledge management through analysis of quantitative data (n = 549) drawn from managers and employees in 35 residential aged care organizations in Western Australia. Responses were analysed using Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation Modelling. Additional analysis was conducted to assess if the job role (of manager or employee) and three industry context variables of profit motive, size of business and length of time the organization has been in business, impacted on the hypothesized relationships.

Structural model analysis examines the relationships between variables as hypothesized in the research framework. Analysis found that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities correlated significantly with effective knowledge management, with absorptive capacity explaining 56% of the total variability for effective knowledge management. Findings from this research also show that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities provide a useful framework for examining knowledge management in the service industry. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the perceptions held between managers and employees, nor between respondents in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Furthermore, the size of the organization and length of time the organization has been in business did not impact on absorptive capacity, the four capabilities and effective knowledge management.

The research considers implications for business in light of these findings. The role of managers in providing leadership across the knowledge management process was confirmed, as well as the importance of guiding routines and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. Further, the results indicate that within the participating organizations there are discernible differences in the way that some organizations manage their knowledge, compared to others. To achieve effective knowledge management, managers need to provide a supportive workplace culture, facilitate strong employee relationships, encourage employees to seek out new knowledge, continually engage in two-way communication with employees and provide up-to-date policies and procedures that guide employees in doing their work. The implementation of knowledge management strategies has also been shown in this research to enhance the delivery and quality of residential aged care.

This paper focuses on how gendered processes of working life are (re)constructed and are also challenged discursively in paid and volunteer care and work in reception centers. The purpose of this paper is to show how caring work with asylum seekers can both enhance the traditional gender order and challenge it through enabling men to have opportunities to care.

The data were produced through qualitative interviews among paid workers and volunteers in reception centers, and analyzed through a discourse analysis approach.

Three discourses of care and work were identified: a discourse on solidarity and care; a discourse on control and order; and a discourse on caring men. The findings show that traditional attitudes toward gender are easily discerned in other cultures, but not as easily recognized in the everyday processes near at hand. Gender order is retained through traditional roles, which also reflects conventional attitudes in a society often seen as a model country for equality. However, change is possible, and one core issue is the need to involve men in care work and caring in general.

The findings can be applicable to the deconstruction of traditional gender order in working life; to the disclosure of gendered xenophobia in work with asylum seekers, in particular through dialogue with “Others”; and to the enabling of care by men.

Little previous research has been done on care in reception centers and care as a gendered activity with value. In the future many countries are likely to encounter increases in asylum seekers, and therefore, intersections of gender and ethnicity are of importance in societies as regards migration, work and care.

The purpose of this paper is to make a case for the strength of qualitative work, but more specifically for various kinds of ethnographies.

The authors argue that global neoliberal and audit culture policies have crept into academic research, tertiary education practice, and research culture.

The authors then discuss major tenets of and make the case for the use of auto-, duo-, and collaborative-ethnographies as caring practices and research method(ologies) that may in fact push back against such hegemonic neoliberal practices in the academy. Finally, the authors link these caring types of ethnographies to the papers within this special issue.

This is an original look at the concepts of auto-, duo-, and collaborative-ethnographies with relation to caring practices.

This study aims to explore the cultural context of care‐giving amongst South Asian communities caring for a child with intellectual disabilities in the United Kingdom.

In the context of the United Kingdom's Children's Intellectual Disability Services, the study set out to develop a culturally sensitive account of Sikh and Muslim parents' experiences of caring for a child with intellectual disabilities. Focus groups were conducted with parents from Sikh and Muslim support groups who were all accessing intellectual disability services for their children. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative technique.

Three master themes emerged from the analysis which were: Making sense of the disability; Feeling let down by services and Looking to the future. These themes reinforce findings from previous research particularly in relation to difficulties when making sense of the disabilities and difficult interactions with services.

The study makes recommendations for service delivery to ethnic minority groups including being aware of intra‐group variations in the interpretations and responses of South Asian parents.

Ultimately, the study makes recommendations for developing culturally sensitive support and interventions for ethnic minority groups which is important given the increase in multi‐ethnic populations in the UK.

Using structural equations modeling, this study explored the association between school ethical climate (characterized by values of caring, rules and a professional code) and two types of parental involvement: cooperation‐based and conflict‐based. The mediating effects of perceived parental influence and trust and parents’ socioeconomic (SES) level were considered as well. School‐level data were obtained from 157 teachers representing 20 elementary schools in Israel, and individual‐level data were obtained from 936 parents. Results showed that an ethical climate characterized by rules and a professional code was more common and more strongly related to parental involvement than a caring climate. Different patterns were detected for the two SES groups: high‐SES parents tended to be less involved (both cooperation‐wise and conflict‐wise) than low‐SES ones when the school climate was perceived as more ethical. Results have implications for research on school values and school culture.