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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between knowledge management (KM) and employee empowerment in institutions of higher education.

The research method in this study was the descriptive-correlative type, and was based on the goal of the method applied. Subjects in this research included the staff members of higher educational institutions in Iran. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. To analyse research data, descriptive statistics, and for inferential statistics, the Pearson correlation, the Friedman ranking test and stepwise regression, were used. For data analysis, SPSS software was used.

The results from the study show that all alternative hypotheses were confirmed and there was a significant relationship between KM and employee empowerment. In addition, KM predicted the aspects of employee empowerment in institutions of higher education.

Through this study, the positive role of KM in employee empowerment in institutions of higher education has been described, and the importance of considering such studies has been specified for researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to address current knowledge gaps in off-site sub-element fabrication efficiency factors, by identifying an explicit relationship between productivity and employee empowerment.

The research is based on two engineering fabrication-yard case studies that investigate both qualitatively (via analysis of semi-structured interviews that incorporate a five-point Likert scale, with fabrication-product stakeholders), and also quantitatively (via assessment using SPSS statistical analyses to determine significance and trends in the data-set) the relationship between empowerment and productivity.

The results reveal a positive linear relationship in off-site construction between “employee empowerment factors” and, explicitly fabrication-yard “productivity-levels”. An especially strong and significant positive correlation is found to exist in resource development, worker involvement, process improvement, and task recognition as they refer to off-site construction productivity.

Most academic studies of off-site construction remain largely anecdotal and lack an empirical objective study; as a result, this (fabrication-yard) case-study research provides a useful approach to measure empirically the link between employee empowerment and productivity of off-site construction.

Employee empowerment in the construction industry has long been a focus of analyses; however, there remains a lack of consensus and very few studies into the direct relationship between employee empowerment on the one-hand, and productivity in off-site construction on the other-hand. It is argued here that the on-going new research undertaken in the present study will go beyond subjective opinion towards objective measurement of actual performance in off-site construction.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the extent of employee empowerment within Australian manufacturing business units using an adapted version of the Pardo del Val and Lloyd instrument. The paper also examines the influence of organizational (business unit size, training, and link to rewards) and cultural (innovation, team work, and outcome orientation) factors on the extent of adoption of employee empowerment.

Data was collected by survey questionnaire distributed to one business unit within 250 manufacturing organizations.

The results reveal a moderate level of employee empowerment in Australian organizations, with the cultural factor, teamwork, and the organizational factors, training and link to rewards, found to have a significant impact on the overall level of adoption of employee empowerment. In addition, specific cultural and organizational factors were found to be associated with four different dimensions of employee empowerment (collaboration, formalization, directness, and degree of influence), and the empowerment of employees at three different stages of the decision making process.

The Pardo del Val and Lloyd measure provides a means by which organizations can gain an improved insight into their current employee empowerment initiatives and assess the critical preconditions that are most effective in enhancing employee empowerment initiatives.

This study confirms the validity of a new measure of employee empowerment. Furthermore, the study provides the first empirical analysis of the association between organizational and cultural factors with the level of employee empowerment as assessed by this measure.

The paper's purpose is to provide background and practical exercises for management to gain a perspective on the nature of true employee empowerment.

After a brief overview of the nature of empowerment, a series to training exercises offers insight into how employee empowerment in the tourism industry can create deeper investment in the corporate mission and greater customer service. The exercises also examine approaches for management to avoid.

Employee empowerment results from recognizing the employee's ability to be organization's eyes and ears.

This discussion and set of exercises provides management with the opportunity to test their instincts against realistic situations of employee empowerment in the context of service failure.

With the growing concern for environmental and sustainability issues, especially in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, organizations feel compelled to pursue green sustainability in their operations. In this regard, the active involvement of employees in pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is crucial for achieving organizational environmental sustainability goals (Saeed et al., 2019). To shed light on this important issue, this study aims to investigate the impact of interacting/engaging environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication strategy on employees' PEBs through the mediating effects of communal relationship and employee empowerment.

A total of 443 full-time USA employees working across various industries participated in an online survey.

The interacting/engaging environmental CSR communication strategy fosters employees' perceived communal relationship with their organizations and empowers them to support their organization's environmental initiatives, which, in turn, positively influences employees' PEBs at work.

This study advances CSR and internal communication literature through the lens of relationship management and self-determination theories. The findings theoretically suggest the effectiveness of the interacting/engaging environmental CSR communication strategy in nurturing favorable employee–organization relationships (EORs), employee empowerment and PEBs at work. The practical implications of CSR communication are also elaborated.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, a case study on the application of lean production principles in a manufacturing facility is presented to demonstrate the impact of frequent and systematic use of a Kaizen event on quality and delivery performance. Second, the detailed description and analysis of the Kaizen event and its impact are provided, including a comprehensive analysis of the role of Kaizen events on employee participation and motivation.

The study utilizes a Kaizen event’s case study data with the help of various waste detection and elimination tools and techniques. Changes in overall productivity along with potential long-term improvements in the delivery process are also analyzed and documented.

Pre- and post-quality measures are provided to demonstrate the results of the event on the production quality and on the performance of the overall manufacturing processes. Qualitative findings regarding performance measurements and the impact on the employees are reported.

The Kaizen team applied analytical techniques to one manufacturing site in North America of a company that has a manufacturing presence in 20 different countries.

Kaizen studies involving packaging operations are quite limited. This study fills this gap by detailing the Kaizen event implementation in a packaging delivery and dispensing systems manufacturer for the cosmetic industry. The implementation of this Kaizen event is detailed along with the data and techniques utilized for process improvement. The study also reports findings regarding the impact of the Kaizen event on employee participation.

This article aims to introduce a guide to improving hospital bed setup by combining lean technical practices (LTPs), such as kaizen and value stream mapping (VSM) and lean social practices (LSPs), such as employee empowerment.

Action research approach was employed to analyze the process of reconfiguration of bed setup management in a Brazilian public hospital.

The study introduces three contributions: (1) presents the use of VSM focused specifically on bed setup, while the current literature presents studies mainly focused on patient flow management, (2) combines the use of LSPs and LTPs in the context of bed management, expanding current studies that are focused either on mathematical models or on social and human aspects of work, (3) introduces a practical guide based on six steps that combine LSPs and LSPs to improve bed setup management.

The research focused on the analysis of patient beds. Surgical beds, delivery, emergency care and intensive care unit (ICU) were not considered in this study. In addition, the process indicators analyzed after the implementation of the improvements did not contemplate the moment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, this research focused on the implementation of the improvement in the context of only one Brazilian public hospital.

The combined use of LSPs and LTPs can generate considerable gains in bed setup efficiency and consequently increase the capacity of a hospital to admit new patients, without the ampliation of the physical space and workforce.

The improvement of bed setup has an important social character, whereas it can generate important social benefits such as the improvement of the admission service to patients, reducing the waiting time, reducing hospitalization costs and improving the hospital capacity without additional physical resources. All these results are crucial for populations, their countries and regions.

While the current literature on bed management is more focused on formal models or pure human and social perspectives, this article brings these two perspectives together in a single, holistic framework. As a result, this article points out that the complex bed management problem can be efficiently solved by combining LSPs and LTPs to present theoretical and practical contributions to the important social problem of hospital bed management.

The purpose of the paper is to use a case study setting involving the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to expose and analyze the conflicts in the characterizations of the post bureaucratic organisation (PBO) in the literature. ERP implementations are often accompanied by increasing levels of stress in organizations that place pressures on organizational relationships and structures. Additionally, ERPs are regarded as introducing their own techno‐logic of centralization, standardization and formalization that provides an apparent contrast to the exhortations about employee empowerment.

A case study of ERP implementation in a medium‐sized entity is presented. The paper explores aspects of ERP and PBO from the context of postmodern organization theory.

Some concerns about PBO identified in the literature are reflected in the case situation. For example, there is a commitment to give up private time and work flexibly by some employees. The paper also provides evidence of the way the management team substitute their reliance on a key individual knowledge worker for that of an ERP system and external vendor support. Paradoxically, trust in that same knowledge worker and between core users of the system is essential to enable the implementation of the system.

This paper adds empirical insight to a predominantly theoretical literature. The case evidence indicates some conflicting implications in the concurrent adoption of PBO and ERP.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Lean services methodology as a mechanism for improving products and services in libraries and information organizations. Through a high-level exploration of the philosophy, goals and principles of the methodology, the reader will gain an understanding of the methodology and its usefulness to information organizations.

This paper is a general overview of the philosophy, goals and principles of the Lean services methodology. As such, it serves as a brief introduction to the topic.

The Lean services methodology is an important tool for libraries and information organizations as they attempt to improve customer satisfaction and service. Having been adapted from the principles used in manufacturing to improve processes and customer satisfaction, Lean services is an appropriate tool to enable organizational improvement through individual empowerment.

While the Lean services methodology has been widely adopted in other service-based industries, there is scant literature about the role of Lean services in libraries and information organizations.

The purpose of this response is to refute Voelpel et al.'s five proposed explanations about why the Balanced Scorecard fails to support innovation and employee empowerment.

Provides quotes from published articles and books by Kaplan‐Norton that directly contradict the positions taken by Voelpel et al.

Voelpel et al. failed to read or systematically ignored the relevant literature before writing their article.

This response confirms that enterprise leaders can continue to adapt and use the Balanced Scorecard to facilitate the implementation of their new, innovative strategies.