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1 – 10 of 12Aku Valtakoski, Javier Reynoso, Daniel Maranto, Bo Edvardsson and Egren Maravillo Cabrera
The purpose of this paper is to test how national culture may help to explain cross-country differences in new service development (NSD) by comparing the impact of NSD…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test how national culture may help to explain cross-country differences in new service development (NSD) by comparing the impact of NSD success factors between Mexico and Sweden.
Design/methodology/approach
Eight hypotheses based on prior literature on NSD and national culture were tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling and survey data from 210 Mexican and 173 Swedish firms.
Findings
Launch proficiency and customer interaction had a positive impact on NSD performance with no difference between the two cultures. NSD process formalization did not have clear positive impact on NSD performance but had a statistically significantly stronger impact in the structured culture (Mexico). Team empowerment affected NSD performance positively, but the difference between cultures was non-significant.
Research limitations/implications
The impact of national culture depends on the type of NSD success factor. Some factors are unaffected by the cultural context, while factors congruent with the national culture enhance performance. Factors incongruent with national culture may even hurt NSD performance.
Practical implications
When choosing priorities in NSD improvement, managers need to consider the national culture environment.
Originality/value
Paper directly tests how national culture moderates NSD performance using primary data. Findings suggest that the effects of NSD success factors are contingent on congruence with national culture.
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Daniel Maranto and Javier Reynoso
This paper reports on the initial results of an ongoing research conducted in Mexican service industries aimed at understanding how value is delivered, measured and…
Abstract
This paper reports on the initial results of an ongoing research conducted in Mexican service industries aimed at understanding how value is delivered, measured and continuously improved in the studied firms. Using the service profit chain model data were collected from a sample of 28 supermarkets and 29 hotels in Mexican cities. Results show that both industries are similarly characterized by the service profit chain model (SPCM) tool, thus providing some opportunity for crossâ€learning between industries; and some significant differences exist between domestic and foreign firms in both industries, thus providing some benchmark opportunities for industries based on origin of capital. For the sampled firms, categories of the SPCM were grouped into three statistically different ranges (high, medium and low), thus providing additional knowledge as to what strengths and areas of opportunity for improving performance of the studied industries there are.
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Charles M. Cameron, John M. de Figueiredo and David E. Lewis
We examine personnel policies and careers in public agencies, particularly how wages and promotion standards can partially offset a fundamental contracting problem: the…
Abstract
We examine personnel policies and careers in public agencies, particularly how wages and promotion standards can partially offset a fundamental contracting problem: the inability of public-sector workers to contract on performance, and the inability of political masters to contract on forbearance from meddling. Despite the dual contracting problem, properly constructed personnel policies can encourage intrinsically motivated public-sector employees to invest in expertise, seek promotion, remain in the public sector, and work hard. To do so requires internal personnel policies that sort “slackers” from “zealots.” Personnel policies that accomplish this task are quite different in agencies where acquired expertise has little value in the private sector, and agencies where acquired expertise commands a premium in the private sector. Even with well-designed personnel policies, an inescapable trade-off between political control and expertise acquisition remains.
Allison S. Gabriel, David F. Arena, Charles Calderwood, Joanna Tochman Campbell, Nitya Chawla, Emily S. Corwin, Maira E. Ezerins, Kristen P. Jones, Anthony C. Klotz, Jeffrey D. Larson, Angelica Leigh, Rebecca L. MacGowan, Christina M. Moran, Devalina Nag, Kristie M. Rogers, Christopher C. Rosen, Katina B. Sawyer, Kristen M. Shockley, Lauren S. Simon and Kate P. Zipay
Organizational researchers studying well-being – as well as organizations themselves – often place much of the burden on employees to manage and preserve their own…
Abstract
Organizational researchers studying well-being – as well as organizations themselves – often place much of the burden on employees to manage and preserve their own well-being. Missing from this discussion is how – from a human resources management (HRM) perspective – organizations and managers can directly and positively shape the well-being of their employees. The authors use this review to paint a picture of what organizations could be like if they valued people holistically and embraced the full experience of employees’ lives to promote well-being at work. In so doing, the authors tackle five challenges that managers may have to help their employees navigate, but to date have received more limited empirical and theoretical attention from an HRM perspective: (1) recovery at work; (2) women’s health; (3) concealable stigmas; (4) caregiving; and (5) coping with socio-environmental jolts. In each section, the authors highlight how past research has treated managerial or organizational support on these topics, and pave the way for where research needs to advance from an HRM perspective. The authors conclude with ideas for tackling these issues methodologically and analytically, highlighting ways to recruit and support more vulnerable samples that are encapsulated within these topics, as well as analytic approaches to study employee experiences more holistically. In sum, this review represents a call for organizations to now – more than ever – build thriving organizations.
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Erni Munastiwi, Ali Murfi, Sri Sumarni, Sigit Purnama, Naimah Naimah, Istiningsih Istiningsih and Annisa Dian Arini
The research aimed to explore the issues in the implementation of online education practice in elementary school, to study teachers' coping strategy to the online…
Abstract
Purpose
The research aimed to explore the issues in the implementation of online education practice in elementary school, to study teachers' coping strategy to the online education issues and to evaluate teachers' problem-solving skill in online learning practice during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory research focused on identifying the obstacles in teaching practice faced by elementary school teachers as well as their coping strategy with eight convenience sampled schools.
Findings
Online education practice faced unpreparedness and competency issues. Unpreparedness was found in terms of social, technical and cultural factors, while competency issue was related to online education competency and digital competency. Teachers’ struggle to cope with the issue in online education practice was focused on the performing conventional education in the online manner, suggesting teachers' lack of competency in encouraging learning success. Teachers neglected the development of students' readiness and competencies to engage in online learning. Moreover, teachers’ struggle had the least impact on the development of their online teaching competency and digital competency that are required for carrying out online teaching. In general, teachers' problem-solving skill was below the expected level. These findings suggested that improvement of teachers' competencies is important in order to cope with the issues such as in online education practice during Covid-19 pandemic and to face future challenges in education.
Originality/value
This study evaluated the gap between actual action and expected action of elementary school teachers in coping with the issues regarding online education practice.
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Kathi N. Miner, Samantha C. January, Kelly K. Dray and Adrienne R. Carter-Sowell
The purpose of this project was to examine the extent to which early-career women faculty in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experience working in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this project was to examine the extent to which early-career women faculty in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experience working in a chilly interpersonal climate (as indicated by experiences of ostracism and incivility) and how those experiences relate to work and non-work well-being outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data came from a sample of 96 early-career STEM faculty (Study 1) and a sample of 68 early-career women STEM faculty (Study 2). Both samples completed online surveys assessing their experiences of working in a chilly interpersonal climate and well-being.
Findings
In Study 1, early-career women STEM faculty reported greater experiences of ostracism and incivility and more negative occupational well-being outcomes associated with these experiences compared to early-career men STEM faculty. In Study 2, early-career women STEM faculty reported more ostracism and incivility from their male colleagues than from their female colleagues. Experiences of ostracism (and, to a lesser extent, incivility) from male colleagues also related to negative occupational and psychological well-being outcomes.
Originality/value
This paper documents that exposure to a chilly interpersonal climate in the form of ostracism and incivility is a potential explanation for the lack and withdrawal of junior women faculty in STEM academic fields.
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Antonio & Bonanno paint a fairly bleak picture of the trajectory of our current history in the emergent post-Cold War world. They show how three political discourses  
Abstract
Antonio & Bonanno paint a fairly bleak picture of the trajectory of our current history in the emergent post-Cold War world. They show how three political discourses – Cold War modernization, neoliberal globalization, and neoconservative politics – all draw on particular elements of American Exceptionalism that have shifted us toward imperialist tendencies that “ignore or diminish the importance of substantive equality and social justice.” Although Langman & Burke stop short of making the same final point, their analysis of the weaker sides of the tri-part dialectic – individual/community, toughness/compassion, moralism/pragmatism – is useful in developing Antonio & Bonanno's point a bit further.
The purpose of this viewpoint is to discuss the need to evolve from a service marketing approach to a service logic mindset throughout the organization in Latin America…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this viewpoint is to discuss the need to evolve from a service marketing approach to a service logic mindset throughout the organization in Latin America. In doing so, it addresses a void in the service literature due to the lack of attention on its uniqueness in this region.
Design/methodology/approach
To confirm the predominant approach of studying service and the need for a paradigm shift in service organizations, two independent journal article searches during 1989–2020 were conducted. The purpose was to learn where Latin American service researchers are focusing their research efforts and to discuss how the meaning of service applies to this region.
Findings
Forty-eight journal articles were analyzed and six distinctive groups were identified where service researchers are focusing their work on Latin America. Service has been studied mainly from the marketing perspective; with limited original research published in indexed journals; focused on making product-oriented promises, increasingly enabled by technology. The need for developing a service logic mindset throughout the organization has begun to be emphasized rather recently in the field. The variety of meanings of service and the complex context represent challenges for this enterprise.
Research limitations/implications
Future research is needed to work on a more comprehensive conceptualization of service at higher levels of analysis. Further context studies are required to enrich knowledge on service in Latin America. Service researchers and organizations should work on these two challenges to continue moving from the marketing perspective of service to a service logic mindset throughout the organization.
Originality/value
The paper points out the relevance of conducting further service research in Latin America, arguing that service has been studied mainly from the marketing perspective, and claiming the need to move to a service logic mindset. This viewpoint opens a discussion in the service research community toward a paradigm shift that, although inspired in Latin America, may not be necessarily limited to this region.
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Muhammad Sabbir Rahman, Bashir Hussain, Mehdi Hussain, Hasliza Hassan and Raechel Johns
The aim of this research is to examine the key determinants influencing the success of new service development projects (NSDPs) across four service typologies context.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to examine the key determinants influencing the success of new service development projects (NSDPs) across four service typologies context.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers used the scenario-based survey method in an NSDP setting. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses based on survey data from 570 managers under four service typologies.
Findings
Service firms' cross-functional integration (CFI) and internal project team efficiency (IPTE) positively influenced NSDPs. The results also indicated that both technology infrastructure (TI) and IPTE mediated the relationship between CFI and NSDPs. In addition, the mediation effect of TI existed between the relationship of IPTE and NSDPs. Furthermore, the proposed model confirms that, for NSDPs, the role of knowledge-sharing behaviour (KSB), authentic leadership (AL) and firm's culture (FC) across the four service typologies moderated the relationship.
Practical implications
With a better understanding of the dynamics of the aforementioned variables, service managers and the project team can more effectively develop and execute strategies for an NSDP. The article enables practitioners to expand their current understanding of NSDPs by providing insights of the unique antecedents that are significant for new service development across four service types.
Originality/value
This research is the first of its kind to examine the mediating role of KSB and TI in determining NSDPs. This study provides one of the first empirical examinations on NSDPs in the context of four service typologies from the perspective of a developing country, where the service industry is competitive. The study demonstrates that the critical success factors of NSDPs do not differ across service types, thereby confirming the “One Basket Fits all” assumption in the current NSDP research study.
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