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1 – 10 of over 2000Maha Alsabbagh and Waheeb Essa Alnaser
This study aims to assess readiness for climate change mitigation in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess readiness for climate change mitigation in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Design/methodology/approach
Two stages were followed aiming at understanding the situation related to climate change mitigation in Bahrain and assessing the mitigation readiness. Baseline and mitigation scenarios for the period 2019–2040 were developed using the Low Emissions Analysis Platform software based on historical emissions and energy data for the period 1990–2018. Using the analytic hierarchy process, the mitigation readiness was assessed by 13 experts, and priority areas for mitigation action were identified.
Findings
CO2e emissions are projected to grow continuously. However, no explicit climate change strategy is in place yet. Mitigation is tackled implicitly through energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. These initiatives can make 23% reduction in CO2e emissions by 2040. Adopting additional measures is needed to achieve the recently set emission reduction target of 30% by 2035. The findings revealed potential areas for improving mitigation efforts in Bahrain. Priority areas for mitigation actions, as identified by experts, were mainly related to policy and governance. Focus needs to be paid to the social aspect of climate change mitigation.
Originality/value
Literature on mitigation readiness in developing countries is sparse. Knowledge of the requirements for climate change mitigation and assessment of the country’s performance can prioritize areas for improving mitigation action. Several lessons can be learnt from the case of Bahrain. In addition, the adopted methodology can be applied to other developing or Arab countries at local or institutional levels. However, its application to specific sectors may require adjustments.
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Carla Gonçalves Machado, Mats Winroth, Peter Almström, Anna Ericson Öberg, Martin Kurdve and Sultan AlMashalah
This research aims to identify and organise the conditions of organisational readiness for digital transformation.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to identify and organise the conditions of organisational readiness for digital transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study comprises three case studies within manufacturing companies from different sizes and industries located in Sweden. Plant visits and in-depth interviews bring to light companies' experiences with initial steps towards digital transformation. A set of conditions for digital organisational readiness was translated into a questionnaire and tested with one of the studied companies.
Findings
This paper organises and tests digital organisational readiness conditions to support companies' initial steps on digital transformation. The results are put in perspective of established change management theory and previous studies about digital transformation. The findings will conclude in a questionnaire to support dialogue and digital organisational readiness assessments.
Research limitations/implications
Additional conditions for the initial phase of digital transformation could possibly be found if more cases had been included in the study.
Practical implications
The article identifies a set of conditions translated into a questionnaire that should be used as a dialogue tool to create strategic alignment and support companies in their initial discussions. If this process can be faster and more efficient, the company can achieve a competitive advantage against competitors.
Originality/value
This research's relevance relies on the fact that companies are advancing in adopting digital technologies without being ready from an organisational perspective. This gap creates barriers for companies' digital maturing processes, stopping them from having full access to digital technologies' benefits.
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Basheer M. Al-Ghazali and Bilal Afsar
The construct of psychological capital or PsyCap (consisting of the positive psychological resources of hope, self-efficacy, optimism and resilience) has been demonstrated to…
Abstract
Purpose
The construct of psychological capital or PsyCap (consisting of the positive psychological resources of hope, self-efficacy, optimism and resilience) has been demonstrated to relate to employees’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of positive psychological capital on mental health, readiness for organizational change, and job insecurity in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 567 hotel employees working in hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A quantitative approach was used and employees were requested to fill the questionnaires.
Findings
Results show that psychological capital enhances an employee’s mental health and readiness for the organizational change. Moreover, PsyCap is found to negatively impact the perceptions of job insecurity among hotel employees. The study has useful managerial implications for hoteliers, especially, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
This is the first study of its kind to link hotel employees’ positive psychological capital with their perceptions about job insecurity and mental health. COVID-19 pandemic has hit the world fiercely and new normal expects employees to be ready to embrace changes in organizations. This study contributes to the literature on hospitality management by linking psychological capital with hotel employees’ readiness for organizational change in the context of Coronavirus.
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Arif Budy Pratama and Satria Aji Imawan
The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale for measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale for measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study employs a mixed method approach to achieve its research objectives. An exploratory study, consisting of literature review and qualitative interviews with key informants, was conducted to develop an initial instrument for measuring bureaucratic readiness. An online survey of 40 civil servants involved in smart city programmes in the Yogyakarta City government was then administered to test the instrument’s validity and reliability.
Findings
Perceived bureaucratic readiness can be measured through four dimensions: commitment of the upper echelons, legal support, information technology resources and governance.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed scale provides an alternative instrument for measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives. However, as data were only derived from one city government, they are relatively small in scope. Future research can be conducted for generalisation by replicating this study in other cities, thereby measuring its effectiveness in other contexts and settings.
Practical implications
This study not only provides a better understanding of bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives, but also proposes an assessment tool as a practical means of assessing bureaucratic readiness. The quantification of readiness is beneficial to putting smart city programmes into practice, as it allows smart city managers to assess the internal bureaucracy’s level of readiness. It also allows managers to mitigate and further policy agendas and thereby improve the bureaucracy’s support for smart city programmes.
Originality/value
Literature sometimes underestimates the role of bureaucracy in smart city implementation while overly stressing stakeholders, vendors and technology. This paper attempts to contribute to smart city research by reaching beyond the technological perspective and focusing on local government bureaucracy. None of the extant literature provides a scale for measuring bureaucratic readiness. The study thus proposes a systematic way to develop a means of measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city programmes.
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Rachel Madeira Magalhães, Luiz Carlos Brasil de Brito Mello and Maria Aparecida Steinherz Hippert
The main factor that leads organizations to implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) is customer demand. While this is a frequent topic in the BIM literature, few studies…
Abstract
Purpose
The main factor that leads organizations to implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) is customer demand. While this is a frequent topic in the BIM literature, few studies address BIM organizational readiness. Due to this gap in BIM implementation literature, this paper aims to understand what affects organizational BIM readiness and how the BIM readiness process occurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The present paper adopts design science research as a methodological approach. A literature review examined 69 journal articles. The analysis focused on multiple theories, such as organizational readiness for change, adoption and diffusion of innovations and project management.
Findings
By investigating BIM organizational readiness, this study presents a construct and a conceptual model for driving BIM readiness.
Originality/value
This study can benefit researchers and organizations. The results presented may drive further research and discussions on the topic. But it is important to state that these results must be tested on real situations.
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Dinah Koteikor Baidoo and Williams E. Nwagwu
This study assessed the technology readiness of library commons in selected universities in Ghana from the perspectives of both clients and service providers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study assessed the technology readiness of library commons in selected universities in Ghana from the perspectives of both clients and service providers.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample survey research design was used to carry out the study, and the study consisted of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data were collected from 157 of the 430 commons’ users and six library directors/commons librarians, using a questionnaire and an interview schedule respectively. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential analysis with SPSS Ver. 22, and structural equation modelling with AMOS Ver. 23.
Findings
The study found significant relationships between the availability of learning resources and users' experience, use and satisfaction with the commons. Additionally, there were significant relationships between the readiness of the commons, users' perceptions and their satisfaction levels. The library/commons managers identified key preparedness issues, including inadequate planning and poor space allocation. Furthermore, the study revealed negative feelings among library/commons managers, such as insecurity, resistance and low confidence.
Practical implications
The academic libraries in Ghana should evaluate their commons following the findings of this study, and use other readiness implementation tools to identify and address the gaps in their implementation of the commons.
Originality/value
This study was based on the opinions of the users and operators of the commons and focused primarily on technology-related factors. However, it is essential to evaluate other readiness factors, such as change and services, and institutional factors, using frameworks such as Hess and Ostrom’s (2005) Institutional Development Framework, to provide complementary results that can guide better implementation of the commons and improve the quality of services.
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Gordon Monday Bubou and Gabriel Chibuzor Job
The purpose of this study is to explore the role individual innovativeness along with e-learning self-efficacy play in predicting the e-learning readiness of first- and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the role individual innovativeness along with e-learning self-efficacy play in predicting the e-learning readiness of first- and second-year students of an open and distance education institutions in an African context.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, building on previous related research in this area, a quantitative approach was adopted to address the research questions and to establish whether a statistically significant relationship existed between individual innovativeness, e-learning self-efficacy, the independent variables; and e-learning readiness, the dependent variable. In total, 476 first- and second-years students of the university participated in the four-Likert-type scale survey. The research instrument which comprises 74 survey items was completed by 217 of the students. Statistical tools used for analysing data included both Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficients and t-tests.
Findings
It was discovered that a strong positive and significant relationship was observed between individual innovativeness and e-learning readiness of first- and second-year students of the Yenagoa Study Centre of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN); a statistically significant relationship was also found between e-learning self-efficacy scores and the e-learning readiness of the first- and second-year students of the Yenagoa Study Centre of NOUN; there was a statistically significant joint relationship between the three variables under investigation; findings equally revealed that male respondents had higher e-learning readiness than their female counterparts.
Research limitations/implications
Like every other study of this nature, this one also suffers some limitations. First, NOUN is a very large university with over half a million students spread across almost 78 study centres. This means that observation from just one study centre amounts to a very small sample size. This according to Schweighofer, Weitlaner, Ebner and Rothe (2019) jeopardises the generalisability and validity of study results. The authors also maintain that empirical data generated from surveys that usually rely participants' abilities to read and select responses without further interpretation by the researchers suffer from cognitive biases like social desirability. To address the above limitations, detailed studies involving all studies centres of NOUN be undertaken and other qualitative and or mixed research methodologies be adopted in the future.
Practical implications
The implications for this study are that people who are innately innovative will willingly accept technology and by extension, learning in technology-rich environments like those found in like NOUN whose mode of study is blended learning inherently found in open and distance learning (ODL) institution. Therefore, this study is significant as it will provide relevant information to the management and administrators of NOUN, policymakers and regulatory institutions for the development, deployment and implementation of e-learning strategies. Findings will also benefit e-learning initiatives undertaken by similar institutions that adopt the ODL mode of education in Nigeria and other developing countries.
Originality/value
Even though, studies on the antecedents of e-learning readiness have been widely conducted across diverse contexts, studies exploring the associations between individual innovativeness, e-learning self-efficacy and e-learning readiness are relatively hard to come by. The above two variables as predicting the e-learning readiness in the study context are comparatively new. This study thus focuses on the relationships between the individual innovativeness levels, e-learning self-efficacy beliefs of students and their e-learning readiness which ultimately determines their ability to sustain studies in an ODL institution.
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Dag Naslund and Andreas Norrman
The purpose of this paper is to develop, implement, test and further enhance a framework for measuring organizational change initiatives.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop, implement, test and further enhance a framework for measuring organizational change initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual part of the framework is based on the structured analysis of existing literature. The framework was further developed during an action research (AR) study where the authors developed, implemented, evaluated and improved the measurement system for organizational change initiatives.
Findings
The academic literature is rich in conceptual articles providing required characteristics of a “good” measurement system and frameworks for how organizations should measure performance. However, academia provides less empirical evidence of how these performance measurement systems can be implemented, evaluated and improved. In this paper, the authors present a study where the developed measurement system has been implemented, evaluated and improved. The results in terms of how the actual framework worked as well as the response from the case organizations are equally positive.
Research limitations/implications
The framework has been implemented in two different, major change initiatives in one case organization. While the results are truly encouraging, the framework needs to be further tested and refined in more organizations.
Practical implications
There is a gap between academic perception and practical reality regarding how organizations should measure performance in general as well as measuring organizational change initiatives. The presented, and empirically tested, framework measures both the results of the change initiative (effectiveness) the actual change process (efficiency) as well as the perception of the change initiative and process from different key stakeholders.
Originality/value
This is the first developed, implemented and further improved measurement system for organizational change which measures both the efficiency and effectiveness of the change initiative (process).
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Brian Matthews, Jamie Daigle and Joy Cooper
The purpose of this study is to validate multiplicative cycle that exists between the job readiness and satisfaction model explored by Matthews et al. (2018), the satisfaction and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to validate multiplicative cycle that exists between the job readiness and satisfaction model explored by Matthews et al. (2018), the satisfaction and performance paradigmatic nuances analyzed by Judge et al. (2001) and Gu and Chi (2009), in addition to the expectancy model theorized by Vroom (1964). The motivation to transfer learning serves as a conveyable variable transmitted within a learning continuum that sustains cyclical outputs.
Design/methodology/approach
An archetype to explore the connection between the three hypothesized theories is created through a neural network program. Exploring this connection develops deeper understandings of the derivatives of employee motivation as it pertains to its effect on readiness, satisfaction, performance and achievement dyads. A detailed analysis of the literature leads to the hypothesis that the motivation to transfer learning creates a multiplicative effect among hypothesized relationships.
Findings
The neural network program scaffolds the proposed general belief that positive effects of transfer motives cause a cyclical effect that continues to perpetuate among hypothesized dyads. Conversely, if this motivation decreases or ceases among one or more dyads, the cyclical effect will retract and, eventually stop.
Originality/value
Based on the neurologic outcome, one central theme emerged: managers must offer opportunities to acquire knowledge through assistive mechanisms (i.e. training) by providing external stability through controlled channels that activates the motivation to transfer learning into new opportunities. The transference of this knowledge produces reconstructive growth opportunities through continuous learning thus increasing performance.
目的
本研究的目的、除了驗證弗魯姆 (Vroom) (1964) 建立的「期望模型」理論外,也去驗證存在於工作準備就緒與馬修斯等人 (Matthews et al.) (2018) 所探索的滿足感模型之間的倍增週期,及質治等人 (Judge et al.) (2001) 和古與池 (Gu & Chi) (2009) 所分析的滿足感及表現之範式細微差別。學習轉移的動機作為一個被傳送至學習漸變體內的可輸送變量而運作,而這個學習漸變體是會維持週期性的輸出的。
研究設計/方法/理念
透過神經網絡程序,創造一個用以探索這三個假設性理論之間的關係的原型。探究這些關係,會使我們更能深入了解僱員動機的衍生品,因這涉及僱員動機對準備就緒、滿足感、表現及功績二元體的影響。仔細分析文獻帶出了一個假設,就是: 學習轉移的動機會在各假設的關係裏創造一個倍增的效果。
研究結果
這個神經網絡程序續步闡釋了一個被倡議的普遍觀念,那就是轉移動機的正面影響會帶來一個在假設性的二元體中會繼續持續下去的週期性效應。相反地,如果這動機在一個或多個二元體中減弱或停止,這週期性效應將會撤回及最終停止。
研究的原創性/價值
基於神經病學的結果,一個核心主題浮現了, 就是:管理人員必須提供透過輔助機制 (就是說:培訓) 而獲取知識的機會。方法是給會引發把學習轉為新機會的動機之受控渠道、提供外在穩定性。這知識的轉移,透過不斷學習而創造重建的成長,表現因而得以提升。
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Drawing on Bandura’s social learning theory (SLT), the purpose of this paper is to investigate, analytically, the impact that after-training skills level (i.e. perceived skill…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on Bandura’s social learning theory (SLT), the purpose of this paper is to investigate, analytically, the impact that after-training skills level (i.e. perceived skill match) has on change self-efficacy. Moreover, this research also aims to identify which specific skills sets (if any) act as a protective factor during organizational change, supporting the change confidence (CC) level of the people involved.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research was carried out on a sample of 200 workers in the bank sector.
Findings
Findings of this study suggest that skill match has a significant impact on the CC level. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that, even in front-office jobs, a perceived skill match of soft skills does not have a significant impact on staff CC, unlike that suggested by common sense and by literature.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should investigate if and how a training process enables change self-efficacy over time or instead shows its utility only when it is relating to a specific and limited period.
Practical implications
This study suggests that in designing training, top and middle management should pay specific attention to change recipients’ needs by adopting a bottom-up approach. Moreover, to improve training effectiveness, it would be advisable to also train change recipients’ supervisors.
Social implications
This study has social implications in suggesting how to foster the adaptive capabilities of change recipients in current turbulent times. In doing so, it suggests how to prevent some undesirable change consequences such as anxiety, intention to quit, work-related stress and change cynicism.
Originality/value
This paper shows that, from a methodological point of view, it is necessary to evaluate training effectiveness at the level of a specific skill area and not simply by comparing the trained/not trained people, as typically practiced until now.
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