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Despite much research, too many employees are disengaged in their work. As such, the present research uses a public sector setting to investigate variables (e.g. public service motivation and high-involvement climate) most likely associated with engagement and demonstrates a conceptual and empirical link to relevant outcomes (e.g. job performance and perceived meaningfulness).

Across a work week, the authors analyze the drivers and outcomes of public service employees’ engagement levels and the mediating effect of employee engagement.

Employee engagement mediated the positive relationship between the authors’ independent variables of public service motivation and high-involvement climate and our outcomes of supervisor-rated employee performance and meaningfulness. All direct and indirect effects were statistically significant and positive.

The authors’ sample is a nonprofit government agency, so the results may lack generalizability. Although self-determination theory (SDT) guided their choice of variables and hypotheses, they did not measure the specific needs satisfaction (competence, relatedness, and autonomy) associated with the SDT.

Managers in public-service organizations may want to recruit those high in public service motivation and institute a high-involvement climate via manager skill training.

This article follows a meta-analysis call on SDT to test the impact of variables that fall under the identified form of autonomous motivation, and investigate their impact on engagement and other positive organizational outcomes (e.g. job performance and perceived meaningfulness). Additionally, the author followed calls to extend engagement research to focus on specific industry sectors, such as the public sector.

The purpose of this research is to understand why and under what conditions employees are likely to partake in a particular type of silence, known as the Hierarchical MUM Effect (HME). This phenomenon occurs when subordinates are reluctant to share bad news with their supervisors, which can lead to deleterious outcomes in organizations due to a lack of communication. The authors also seek to find which conditions minimize HME.

The authors surveyed employees in a large healthcare organization across three weeks. The authors analyzed their results using the SPSS PROCESS macro.

The authors’ findings suggest one way to minimize a lack of upward communication is to empower employees, via a high-quality LMX relationship, and move away from a bottom-line mentality focus. Employees who are empowered show lower instances of withholding information via HME. A low bottom-line mentality enhanced this relationship.

The authors expand understanding of antecedents to a particular type of silence, the HME, defined as purposefully withholding information from a supervisor or sharing information in a way that silences the dirty details of a situation (i.e. equivocating). Although a wealth of research examines the deleterious consequences of a high BLM, the authors highlight the positive work outcomes associated with a low BLM.

Despite an abundance of studies on hybridization and hybrid forms of organizing, scholarly work has failed to distinguish consistently between specific types of hybridity. As a consequence, the analytical category has become blurred and lacks conceptual clarity. Our paper discusses hybridity as the simultaneous appearance of institutional logics in organizational contexts, and differentiates the parallel co-existence of logics from transitional combinations (eventually leading to the replacement of a logic) and more robust combinations in the form of layering and blending. While blending refers to hybridity as an “amalgamate” with original components that are no longer discernible, the notion of layering conceptualizes hybridity in a way that the various elements, or clusters thereof, are added on top of, or alongside, each other, similar to sediment layers in geology. We illustrate and substantiate such conceptual differentiation with an empirical study of the dynamics of public sector reform. In more detail, we examine the parliamentary discourse around two major reforms of the Austrian Federal Budget Law in 1986 and in 2007/2009 in order to trace administrative (reform) paradigms. Each of the three identified paradigms manifests a specific field-level logic with implications for the state and its administration: bureaucracy in Weberian-style Public Administration, market-capitalism in New Public Management, and democracy in New Public Governance. We find no indication of a parallel co-existence or transitional combination of logics, but hybridity in the form of robust combinations. We explore how new ideas fundamentally build on – and are made resonant with – the central bureaucratic logic in a way that suggests layering rather than blending. The conceptual findings presented in our paper have implications for the literature on institutional analysis and institutional hybridity.

The journey of novelty – from the moment it arises to the time it takes hold – is as fascinating as it is problematic. A new entity, to be recognized as such, needs to be differentiated from what existed before. However, novelty poses cognitive challenges that hamper its appreciation since it is difficult to form expectations about and make sense of something genuinely new. And since novel ideas, products, technologies, or organizational forms often violate existing practices and social structures, they are usually met with skepticism and resistance. In this introductory piece, we take stock of research into the challenges of generating, recognizing, and legitimating novelty. We review each paper in this volume and highlight the new perspectives and insights they offer about how individuals, teams, and organizations search for novelty, see novelty, and sustain novelty. Finally, we outline several research themes that, we believe, are worthy of further scholarly attention.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are facing changes in the twenty-first century driven in part by a change in the societal demands on the educational system. Organizational adaptation to changing environment is discussed in the business and management literature, which now includes organizational adaptation in higher education (Brown, 2012; Cameron, 1984; Drew, 2010; Rogers, 2013; Sporn, 1999). The focus of this research is organizational adaptation in four HBCUs. Although HBCUs have long histories and just over 100 of them currently exist, the researchers have focused on four of these institutions and the factors that have enabled them to adapt to change. These changes are forcing colleges and universities to reexamine their organizational strategy to adapt to changes in the educational environment.

The purpose of this research was to examine enabling factors of four HBCUs to adapt to the changing environment. Drawing from historical and archival material, the researcher examined four HBCUs – Bluefield State College, Bowie State University, Hampton University, and Spelman College, and how each adapted to the changing environment. A multiple case study designed was selected to understand the adaptation phenomenon within and across institutions. A review of the literature on organizational adaptation and change, along with a case study analysis of four HBCUs identified the factors that enhanced their adaptive strategies and ability to adapt successfully to the changing environment. The four factors were leadership, culture, structure, and business strategy that influenced each university's ability to adapt successfully to change. Chaffee's (1984, 1985) adaptive and interpretative strategy models and Miles and Snow's (1978) adaptive cycle provided the lens to examine adaptation in these institutions. In this study, leadership, culture, structure, and business strategy were observed as factors that enhanced each school's adaptation to the changing environment.

Chaffee's (1984, 1985) adaptation models and Miles and Snow's (1978) theoretical framework were employed to evaluate adaptation in these organizations. Each of these institutions faced organizational challenges that required an adaptive response. The quality of the adaptive response enabled each organization to adapt to its changing environment, and these changes involved long-range planning for these organizations and not merely short-term gains. The adaptive responses were hinged on the presence of four factors: leadership, culture, structure, and business strategy. Leadership and culture were the most prominent factors that supported organizational change.

The overall purpose of the study is to identify the impact of heuristics, prospect theory biases and personality traits on property investment decision-making of rank and file individuals in Kosovo, with a concentration in Prishtina, which is the city with the largest number of investors and property transactions in Kosovo.

The present study used quantitative research with the questionnaire used as a research instrument. The questionnaire survey was conducted with 1,209 rank and file property investors in Prishtina, Kosovo. The sampling method used in this research was stratified random sampling.

The study finds that heuristics, prospect theory biases and personality traits as a whole model affect investment decision-making in Prishtina, Kosovo. Nevertheless, the study finds that not all dimensions of the constructed research model (heuristics, the prospect theory and personality) affect the property investment decision-making in Prishtina at the same level. Whereas prospect theory biases (regret aversion, framing and self-control) seem to very strongly influence property investment decision-making of rank and file investors in Prishtina, personality traits (conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to new experiences) seem not to affect the real estate investment decision-making. Finally, heuristics biases also strongly influence the real estate investment decision-making with a strong statistically significant explanatory power but not to the same degree as prospect theory biases.

The present study contributes toward the understanding of the role that is played by heuristics, prospect theory biases and personality traits in Kosovo's property investment industry. More importantly, the implication of the results of the present study is that it goes some way toward enhancing understanding of heuristic and prospect theory-driven biases and their influence on property investment decision-making in a developing economy. The present study paves the way to further analyze why personality traits do not influence property investment decision-making in Kosovo.

The present study is the first quantification of the impact of heuristics, prospect theory biases and personality traits on the investment decision-making of rank and file individuals in Prishtina, Kosovo.

This study aims to explore the impact of applying a blockchain-based information system in the international students’ administrative workflow in the context of a public research university in the USA.

Specifically, a prototype of the blockchain-based information system was developed and tested. The system has the potential advantages of being more efficient, more transparent, faster and safer.

The results show that digital registration could increase student registration efficiency with a blockchain-based application.

There are also some limitations of this study. As an early exploration of the use of blockchain technology in higher education, this study could be further extended in several aspects: different institutions (e.g. private vs public school) may have different operational strategies towards international student affairs. The different administrative processes should be discussed in the context of different institutions, and thus the proposed system should be tested and evaluated based on the requirements of different institutions. Use experience and feedback from different users such as university administrators and students should be considered and investigated with respect to the necessary improvement of the proposed system. The extensibility and scalability of the system should be assessed to accommodate any potential modifications of the administrative process.

The findings show that a blockchain-based information management system has the potential to improve data transmission efficiency and protect information privacy.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the key conceptual and empirical inter‐relationships between service encounter variables of perceived agent service quality, overall customer satisfaction and perceived value and their relationships with behavioural outcomes of repurchase, recommendation and complaint intentions in the life insurance services in India.

A total of 258 valid responses were generated from existing customers of life insurance services on the selected variables. The relationships were tested by structural equation modeling using AMOS version 4.0. The initial hypothesized model was rejected and a model was modified till acceptable fit was achieved.

The results provide empirical support for the comprehensive nature of direct and indirect effects of service quality, value perceptions and overall satisfaction on future behavioural intentions (BI). The study identifies the key agent service quality attributes of product knowledge, empathy, reliability and trust as important antecedents of favourable behavioural outcomes. Agent service quality, satisfaction and value perceptions have significant affect on recommendation intentions.

This is the first study using multivariate and composite model of inter relationship of service encounter constructs and their affect on both favourable and unfavourable BI.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.