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1 – 10 of over 1000Susan Cholette, Andrew G. Clark and Özgür Özlük
This study aims to show how cost savings can be achieved through optimizing the scheduling of e-commerce enablements. The University of California is one of the largest, most…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to show how cost savings can be achieved through optimizing the scheduling of e-commerce enablements. The University of California is one of the largest, most prestigious public education and research systems in the world, yet diminished state support is driving the search for system-wide cost savings.
Design/methodology/approach
This study documents the preparation for and rollout of an e-procurement system across a subset of campuses. A math programing tool was developed for prioritizing the gradual rollout to generate the greatest expected savings subject to resource constraints.
Findings
The authors conclude by summarizing the results of the rollout, discussing lessons learned and their benefit to decision-makers at other public institutions.
Originality/value
The pilot program comprising three campuses has been predicted to yield $1.2m in savings over a one-year period; additional sensitivity analysis with respect to savings, project timelines and other rollout decisions illustrate the robustness of these findings.
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Allan H. Church and Janine Waclawski
Data collected from 319 senior executives and 2477 of their subordinates from a global diversified organization were used to explore the impact of differences in individual…
Abstract
Data collected from 319 senior executives and 2477 of their subordinates from a global diversified organization were used to explore the impact of differences in individual personality orientation on the processes by which these individuals enable their workgroups. Personality orientation was defined in terms of self‐ratings on four distinct groupings derived from a k‐means cluster analysis of self‐ratings on the Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator and the Kirton Adaptation Inventory. Perceptions of enablement and ratings of executive behavior were based on questionnaires completed by subordinates. Although no differences were found with respect to the overall degree of enablement experienced by subordinates, personality orientation did affect the specific behaviors employed by executives to enable others and the degree of managerial self‐awareness exhibited (operationalized as congruence in self vs. subordinates' ratings). Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Saba Sareminia and Fatemeh Sajedi Haji
This paper aims to present a dynamic model for strategic and personalized decision-making in human resources (HR), using data mining techniques to enhance corporate social…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a dynamic model for strategic and personalized decision-making in human resources (HR), using data mining techniques to enhance corporate social sustainability (CSS). The focus is on the interconnectedness of employee engagement (EE), enablement and the quality of work life.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model integrates various HR data, including demographic information, job specifications, payment and rewards, attendance and absence, alongside employees’ perceptions of their work-life quality, engagement and enablement. Data mining processes are applied to generate meaningful insights for senior and middle managers.
Findings
The study implemented the model within a production organization, revealing that factors influencing EE and enablement differ based on gender, marital status and occupational group. Performance-based rewards play a significant role in enhancing engagement, regardless of the reward amount. Factors such as “being recognized for competency” influence engagement for women, while payment has a greater impact on men. Engagement does not directly influence the quality of work life, but subcomponents like perceived transparency and the organization’s processes, particularly the “employee performance evaluation system,” improve work-life quality.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are specific to the studied organization, limiting generalizability. Future research should explore the model’s effectiveness in different cultural and organizational settings.
Practical implications
The proposed model provides practical implications for organizations that enhance CSS. Organizations can gain insights into factors influencing EE and enablement by using data mining techniques, enabling informed decision-making and tailored human resource management practices.
Social implications
This research addresses the societal concern regarding the impact of business activities on sustainability. Organizations can contribute to a more socially responsible and sustainable business environment by focusing on work-life quality and EE.
Originality/value
This paper offers a dynamic model using data mining and machine learning techniques for sustainable human resource management. It emphasizes the importance of customization to align practices with the unique needs of the workforce.
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This paper aims to understand if, and how, internal communication strategies can promote strategic employee communicative actions such as to disseminate positive information that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand if, and how, internal communication strategies can promote strategic employee communicative actions such as to disseminate positive information that enhances the company's reputation. These communicative actions sustain the competitive advantage of a company.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on interviews with internal communication experts; internal communication managers in ten American and 22 Italian companies. Three focus groups in Italy comprised of internal communication managers, scholars and experts.
Findings
Employee communicative actions have been categorized into: exploration, interpretation, sharing and acting. Internal communication strategies enable employees to be effective communicators.
Research limitations/implications
A survey among employees was used to investigate the link between employee communicative actions and internal communication and relationship quality.
Practical implications
Internal communication managers are expected first, to become enablers towards employees and line managers; and second, to facilitate sense-making processes and the quality relationship building.
Originality/value
This article provides empirical evidence of the emerging issues of employee communicative actions and the enablement function of internal communication. It adds a broader and validated range of employee communicative actions to those that had previously been studied, and develops a preliminary inventory of enablement strategies that have been adopted by leading companies.
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Sanjay Jharkharia and Ravi Shankar
Information technology (IT) is increasingly being used towards the effectiveness of supply chains. There are, however, some barriers in this process. These barriers influence one…
Abstract
Purpose
Information technology (IT) is increasingly being used towards the effectiveness of supply chains. There are, however, some barriers in this process. These barriers influence one another and also adversely affect the IT‐enablement of a supply chain. The aim of this paper is to understand these mutual influences so that those barriers which are at the root of few more barriers (called driving barriers) and those which are most influenced by the others (called dependent barriers) are identified.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to rank the barriers.
Findings
The results of the survey and the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology have been used to evolve the mutual relationships among these barriers.
Originality/value
It is observed that there are some barriers, which have both high driving power and dependency and therefore need more attention.
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This paper aims to present a digest of the main discussion points and key findings from a recent Social Care Institute for Excellence report on risk enablement and safeguarding in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a digest of the main discussion points and key findings from a recent Social Care Institute for Excellence report on risk enablement and safeguarding in the context of self‐directed support and personal budgets.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores how the personalisation agenda and adult safeguarding can work together in policy and practice and addresses some of the frontline concerns about empowerment and duty of care.
Findings
Evidence on how self‐directed support and personal budgets can be used to enable people to take positive risks while staying safe and emerging practice is examined. It suggests that person‐centred working in adult safeguarding, along with the mechanism of self‐directed support planning and outcome review, can support the individual to identify the risks they want to take and those they want to avoid in order to stay safe. It is clear that if frontline practitioners are overly occupied with protecting organisations and individuals from financial abuse, this will impact on the capacity of those practitioners exercising their duty of care at the front line. This means that practitioners are less able to engage with individuals to identify safeguarding issues and enable positive risk taking. Defensive risk management strategies or risk‐averse frontline practice may then result in individuals not being adequately supported to make choices and take control and, therefore, being put at risk. Practitioners need to be supported by local authorities to incorporate safeguarding and risk enablement in their relationship‐based, person‐centred working. Good quality, consistent and trusted relationships and good communication are particularly important for self‐directed support and personal budget schemes.
Originality/value
The use of “risk enablement panels” and “personalisation and safeguarding frameworks” are two ways to address some of the issues in practice.
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Mehrzad Saeedikiya, Aidin Salamzadeh, Yashar Salamzadeh and Zeynab Aeeni
The current research aimed to investigate the external enablement role of Digital Infrastructures (DI) in the interplay of entrepreneurial cognitions and innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
The current research aimed to investigate the external enablement role of Digital Infrastructures (DI) in the interplay of entrepreneurial cognitions and innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) were used for analyses. This yielded a sample of 8,601 Generation Z entrepreneurs operating in 25 European countries.
Findings
Applying hierarchical moderated regressions showed that socio-cognitive components of an entrepreneurial mindset (self-efficacy, risk propensity, opportunity identification) affect innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs. More importantly, DI plays an external enablement role in the interplay of cognitions and innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the socio-cognitive theory of entrepreneurship by integrating an external enablement perspective into the study of cognitions and entrepreneurial outcomes (here, innovation). It contributes to the digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship by connecting the conversation about the socio-cognitive perspective of entrepreneurship regarding the role of cognitions in innovation to the conversation in information systems (IS) regarding technology affordances and constraints. This study extends the application of the external enabler framework to the post-entry stage of entrepreneurial activity and integrates a generational perspective into it.
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Sanjay Jharkharia and Ravi Shankar
Some enablers support the information technology (IT) enablement of supply chains. The aim of this paper is to understand mutual influences of these enablers and also to identify…
Abstract
Some enablers support the information technology (IT) enablement of supply chains. The aim of this paper is to understand mutual influences of these enablers and also to identify those enablers which support other enablers (“driving enablers”) and those which are most influenced by others (“dependent enablers”). A questionnaire‐based survey has been conducted to rank these enablers. The results of the survey and the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology have been used to evolve mutual relationships among these enablers. It is observed that two enablers, namely “awareness about use of IT in supply chains” and “trust among supply chain partners”, have high driving power and therefore deserve serious attention. The study concludes with a discussion and managerial implications.
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Grace Nalweyiso, Samuel Mafabi, James Kagaari, John Munene, Joseph Ntayi and Ernest Abaho
This paper aims to investigate whether relational agency fosters relational people management using evidence from micro and small enterprises in Uganda, an African developing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether relational agency fosters relational people management using evidence from micro and small enterprises in Uganda, an African developing country. Specifically, the paper examines whether the individual relational agency dimensions (shared learning, mutual cooperation, collective efficacy and interaction enablement) also affect relational people management.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey design using a quantitative approach was used in this study. Data were collected from 241 micro and small enterprises in Uganda using a structured questionnaire and were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists.
Findings
The results indicate that relational agency is positively and significantly associated with relational people management. Findings further indicated that collective efficacy, mutual cooperation, shared learning and interaction enablement individually matter in relational people management.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study may be among the first to demonstrate that relational agency and its individual dimensions (interaction enablement, shared learning, mutual cooperation and collective efficacy) foster relational people management in the context of micro and small enterprises of Uganda, an African developing country. Consequently, this study contributes to both theory and literature via the cultural historical activity theory, hence, adding to the scant existing literature on relational agency and relational people management.
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Luca Quaratino and Alessandra Mazzei
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of managerial strategies in promoting employee brand consistent behavior. Using a recently developed holistic model of behavioral…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of managerial strategies in promoting employee brand consistent behavior. Using a recently developed holistic model of behavioral branding, that suggests that a wide array of managerial strategies affects the branding process, this study addresses two specific questions: what communication strategies, in the opinion of managers, sustain employee brand consistent behavior? And what are the most important factors, both contextual and related to their cognitive-emotional states, that employees think affect their brand ambassadorship behavior?
Design/methodology/approach
A long-term research program was conducted based on a multiple methods research strategy to answer the two questions. The choice of different methods was mainly based on the specific characteristics of the two targets: communication managers and employees. The first one based on interviews with 32 managers, and the second one based on a case study of a single company.
Findings
The results show that enablement-oriented strategies are more effective than communication-oriented strategies in sustaining employee brand builder roles. Weak employee commitment, unsatisfactory external communication, and low levels of motivation are strong contextual factors inhibiting employee attitudes to brand ambassadorship, one of the most relevant employee brand consistent behaviors in competitive contexts. The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors, not by means of prescriptions of in-role behavior, but enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors; besides, that companies should put a significant effort in “preparing the soil,” i.e. investing in enhancing employee commitment, level of motivation, and understanding/alignment with the external communication.
Practical implications
The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors not by means of in-role behavior prescriptions rather by means of enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors. Besides, managers should invest significant efforts in enhancing employee motivation, commitment, and understanding/alignment to external communication as they represent key factors in sustaining brand ambassadorship behaviors.
Originality/value
The values of the study lies in having highlighted the crucial role of enablement-oriented strategies, and the relevance of specific contextual variables affecting the attitude of employee toward brand consistent behaviors.
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