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1 – 10 of 16Gary D. Jones, Denise M. Cumberland and Meera Alagaraja
The purpose of this paper is to propose and predict an improved model for antecedents to work group productivity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose and predict an improved model for antecedents to work group productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
The Campion work group effectiveness model (CWGEM) provides a wide variety of variables or constructs to predict and measure the effectiveness of a team, but suffers from limitations. This paper introduces social value orientation (SVO) and suggests its potential utility as an alternative conceptualization of certain portions of CWGEM, which, based on the literature reviewed, has the potential to explain differences in social support, workload sharing and communication and cooperation within groups, resulting in one measure more efficiently replacing three.
Findings
A series of testable propositions offering revisions to CWGEM is presented, along with special consideration for the inclusion of SVO as a predictor of work group outcomes. This paper expands on a theoretically developed empirical model that can predict differences in work group production.
Research limitations/implications
The revision to CWGEM presented here requires empirical validation, but work group conflict could benefit from an additional factor that explains interpersonal conflict, as SVO does.
Originality/value
The authors’ primary contribution is offering a revision to CWGEM that could provide an improved explanation for differences in work group productivity using SVO and a model that could result in a more efficient and better measure.
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Denise M. Cumberland, Tyra G. Deckard and Andrea D. Ellinger
The purpose of this study is to examine a unique application of mega-events theory in a US health-care organization. The organization hosted 50 virtual listening calls (LCs) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine a unique application of mega-events theory in a US health-care organization. The organization hosted 50 virtual listening calls (LCs) in the summer of 2020 to understand and to hear their employees’ voices regarding their emotions about issues of racial injustice and to solicit their ideas for creating a more inclusive workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an illustrative, descriptive qualitative design. Using Saldaña’s (2015) structural coding approach, data from 388 employees who voluntarily participated in 50 virtual LCs were analyzed.
Findings
A total of eight themes with respective subthemes emerged regarding employees’ range of emotions and six themes emerged regarding employees’ specific suggestions for creating a more diverse and inclusive organization. This research suggests that hosting these open, virtual LCs enabled a space for employees to authentically voice their perspectives, learn from each other and afforded a powerful learning opportunity for organizational leaders to inform their diversity and inclusion practices.
Originality/value
This study represents a unique application of mega-events theory, focuses on pivotal events in the summer of 2020 that have been nationally and globally impactful and demonstrates the power of listening and learning to inform taking action in a health-care organization already constrained with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
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Denise M. Cumberland, Brad Shuck, Jason Immekus and Meera Alagaraja
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the effect of supervisor openness on employee voice among middle management employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the effect of supervisor openness on employee voice among middle management employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors develop a model to examine the mediating role of job satisfaction and employee engagement in the SME context.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather data from respondents who worked in SMEs (N=202). Exploratory factor analysis was used for dimensionality assessment of the voice measure. Mediation analysis was used to examine a two-mediator model to investigate the effects of engagement and job satisfaction on voice, and the degree these variables mediated the relationship of supervisor openness to ideas with employee voice.
Findings
Results revealed that supervisor openness is positively associated with job satisfaction and employee engagement, but only engagement was a facilitating variable that stimulated employee voice.
Research limitations/implications
Middle management members can be a conduit or inhibitor of the free flow of information. Yet, research has tended to ignore the role of middle managers in voice research. Moreover, within the specific organizational context of SMEs, greater understanding of both the antecedents and mediators to voice behavior is likely to impact the development of specific HR practices that focus on engagement and better facilitate two-way communication between supervisors and employees.
Originality/value
This work refines the understanding of the role employee engagement has on employee voice in the context of SMEs.
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Denise M. Cumberland, Andrea D. Ellinger and Tyra G. Deckard
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted healthcare systems worldwide. Understanding the perspectives and insights of frontline healthcare workers caring for and…
Abstract
Purpose
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted healthcare systems worldwide. Understanding the perspectives and insights of frontline healthcare workers caring for and interacting with patients with COVID-19 represents a timely, topical, and important area of research. The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to assist one US healthcare system that has an expansive footprint with the implementation of a needs assessment among its frontline healthcare workers. The leadership within this healthcare system wanted to obtain a deeper understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting the personal and professional lives of its workers. Further, the organisation wanted to solicit employees’ feedback about what they needed, understand the issues they were facing, and solicit their ideas to help the organisation know where to take action.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research employed 45 focus groups, referred to as virtual listening calls (LCs) in this organisation, which were held over a four-week period. A total of 241 nursing staff, representing healthcare facilities across the country, attended 26 of the LCs. A total of 19 LCs were held with 116 healthcare workers who are employed in other clinical roles (e.g. therapists) or administrative functions.
Findings
Extending beyond the available research at the time, this study was initiated from within a US healthcare system and informed by the frontline healthcare employees who participated in the LCs, the findings of this study include the perspectives of both nursing and other healthcare workers, the latter of which have not received considerable attention. The findings underscore that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the personal and professional lives of all of these healthcare workers and has exacted an emotional toll as noted in other studies. However, this study also highlights the importance of listening to employees’ concerns, but more importantly, their recommendations for improving their experiences. Notably, the organisation is in the midst of making changes to address these frontline workers’ needs.
Originality/value
The study, inclusive of nursing and other healthcare staff, demonstrates how an organisation can adapt to a crisis by listening and learning from its frontline employees.
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Denise M. Cumberland, Tyra G. Deckard, Lisa Kahle-Piasecki, Sharon A. Kerrick and Andrea D. Ellinger
The concept of digital badges (DBs) as a form of microcredentialing has gained considerable traction in higher education and workplace settings in recent years. This scoping…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of digital badges (DBs) as a form of microcredentialing has gained considerable traction in higher education and workplace settings in recent years. This scoping review aims to map the empirical research conducted on DBs in higher education and workplace settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of this study is a scoping literature review. This scoping review adopts the five-stage scoping framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005).
Findings
Based upon our review of the 45 studies that comprised this scoping review of the empirical literature on DBs, we advance a typology that segments the empirical research based on whether DBs are used as pedagogical tools (PTs) or microcredentials. The authors found some confusion regarding nomenclature, numerous theories offered to explain DBs and divergent findings that suggest room for further exploration of this relatively new phenomenon.
Originality/value
This scoping review of the literature helps make sense of the emerging research landscape on DBs. The findings suggest that using DBs as a PT or as a microcredential has implications for a wide range of stakeholders regarding promoting lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling the workforce. With the financial constraints facing higher education in a postpandemic environment, understanding the impact of DBs is needed before making an investment in this arena.
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Ryan W. Quinn, Denise M. Cumberland and Sharon A. Kerrick
Employees often improve at work by learning from others who have been successful. They learn by hearing their stories. However, the number of stories, task type and context all…
Abstract
Purpose
Employees often improve at work by learning from others who have been successful. They learn by hearing their stories. However, the number of stories, task type and context all affect learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of stories they hear, the type of task they are learning to perform and their performance in the task to date all affect performance improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examine how task complexity and recent performance relative to others influence the relationship between the number of success stories a person reads and their subsequent performance. The authors used a sample of order processing employees from a label manufacturing company to test our hypotheses.
Findings
The authors find that in complex tasks, subsequent performance is highest when people read a small number of stories, and lowest when people read no stories or too many stories. In simple tasks, the authors find that when people have average recent performance, more stories leads to lower performance, but when recent performance is high or low, more stories increases subsequent performance.
Research limitations/implications
The authors move beyond research that shows that people do not learn as much from success as they could and that success primarily promotes reinforcement to examine contingencies that enhance or detract from learning from success stories. This adds nuance to existing theory.
Practical implications
This study suggests access to others’ success stories is an alternative that can provide employees with ideas for how to improve their own performance. But care and consideration must be taken to limit the number of success stories based on the complexity of the task.
Originality/value
There is little research on either the vicarious learning of simple tasks in organizations or on how employees learn from others’ success stories. This matters because vicarious learning can enable employees to avoid missteps and create opportunities that would likely not happen if they only learn from their own experiences.
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Ann M. Herd, Denise M. Cumberland, William A. Lovely and Allan Bird
While international learning programs have received a great deal of attention and have been found to provide valuable learning experiences for participants interested in…
Abstract
While international learning programs have received a great deal of attention and have been found to provide valuable learning experiences for participants interested in developing global leadership competencies (GLCs), they are resource-intensive and variably effective. This chapter examines the relatively unexplored use of assessment center (AC) methodology as a complementary avenue for developing students’ GLCs. Scholarly literature sources pertaining to GLCs and their development, experiential learning theory, and AC methodology are reviewed to develop a conceptual model and propositions related to participants’ learning in an AC designed to develop GLCs. An example is described of one university’s design and facilitation of an AC used to develop students’ GLCs. The role of AC methodology, along with international and other learning experiences for developing students’ GLCs, and recommendations for future research, are discussed.
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Denise M. Cumberland and Rod P. Githens
The purpose of this case study was threefold. First, to examine whether a needs assessment can work in the context of an organization’s new product development process to identify…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this case study was threefold. First, to examine whether a needs assessment can work in the context of an organization’s new product development process to identify the gap between what “is” occurring and what “should” be occurring. Second, to investigate how a well-known stakeholder classification system can be adopted in a practitioner setting. Third, to identify why the new product development process derailed in a quick-service restaurant chain.
Design/methodology/approach
A Fortune 200 quick-service restaurant chain provided the setting for a case study on the new product development (NPD) process. Data were gathered from multiple stakeholder groups using interviews and a survey questionnaire.
Findings
Findings support the adaptability of needs assessment as a learning tool to help organizations identify and address performance gaps. A second finding was the applicability of the Mitchell et al. (1997) classification system to identify and prioritize groups of stakeholders. Finally, this study revealed that the specific activities involved in the NPD process were not codified, and that the restaurant chains cross-functional team was not adhering to the process due to a lack of training.
Research limitations/implications
The specific setting may limit the generalizability of findings. Future research could determine the applicability in other settings.
Practical implications
This study provides useful insights for applying needs assessments in conjunction with a stakeholder analysis when problems arise in the product development process.
Originality/value
The study contributes to understanding around product development learning tools and provides impetus for the adoption of needs assessments and stakeholder analysis when deficiencies in the process occur.
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