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1 – 10 of over 2000
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 July 2023

Jeremias De Klerk and Bernard Swart

Background: Amid increasing leadership failures in the global business context, the mining industry is one of the industries with many adverse incidents, affecting employee

Abstract

Background: Amid increasing leadership failures in the global business context, the mining industry is one of the industries with many adverse incidents, affecting employee safety, the environment, and surrounding communities. Emerging economies tend to have unique socio-economic challenges and greater relative economic dependence on mining, presenting unique challenges to leaders. The purpose of this research was to study the realities of responsible leadership in the mining industry in an emerging economy.

Methods: A qualitative research study, consisting of semi-structured interviews was conducted. Nine senior mine managers were selected to represent perspectives from different operations and mining houses. Data was gathered from August to October 2020 in South Africa, an emerging economy with significant mining operations. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted through the use of software, rendering five themes, with 12 sub-themes.

Results: The research found that requirements on mining leaders in emerging economies demand consistent balancing of a complex set of competing risks, whilst attending to paradoxical requirements among operations, and internal and external stakeholders. Leaders face several competing requirements from stakeholders, the environment, mining practices, and time frames. Responsible leaders must navigate a paradoxical maze of needs and time horizons, with several conflicting forces and dilemmas, and dichotomous relationships. Responsible leadership in the mining industry of an emerging economy is a proverbial minefield of paradoxes and dilemmas between responsible intentions and practical realities. These paradoxes and dilemmas are specifically acute in the context of emerging economies due to the dire socio-economic situations. A total of 10 competencies emerged as essential responsible leadership requirements in this context.

Conclusions: The study provides an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of responsible leadership in the mining industry of an emerging economy. This understanding will contribute to capacitating leaders in the mining industries of emerging economies to act responsibly.

Details

Emerald Open Research, vol. 1 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-3952

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 October 2020

Dipak Kumar Bhattacharyya

This study aims to help students to relate their theoretical knowledge in managing change in a crisis. It is more relevant in today’s pandemic situation and could be a morale…

717

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to help students to relate their theoretical knowledge in managing change in a crisis. It is more relevant in today’s pandemic situation and could be a morale booster for many entrepreneurs who are struggling to sustain.

Design/methodology/approach

It is based on managing real-life change situation in organization, and it is presented in narrative form.

Findings

CERA India could successfully transform and sustain in Covid-19 pandemic situation with an inclusive approach, without losing their identity.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on consulting experience and success story of one organization in pandemic situation. Important message is in a crisis, organizations can sustain partnering with people. But, this depends on the prevalent culture of the organization. Also, other organizations before replication need to ascertain the problem of their brand dilution, for shifting their focus to other product lines.

Practical implications

This story can be used in organizational change management classes, and students may be assigned to document their lessons. At the end of the story, some possible areas of investigation for students are listed for getting appropriate direction.

Social implications

In this pandemic situation, this study is socially relevant, as it shows how organizations can sustain with a human face.

Originality/value

This study is original and based on real-life experience in managing organizational transformation in a crisis situation. The name of the organization is imaginary, as organization did not like their name in public. This is one reason of not using their data for tabular presentation.

Details

Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management, vol. 17 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0973-1954

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 July 2022

Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand and Christel Backman

The authors set out to show how key private security industry actors in Sweden establish body-worn cameras (BWCs) as a tool to protect private security officers from the public…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors set out to show how key private security industry actors in Sweden establish body-worn cameras (BWCs) as a tool to protect private security officers from the public the officers police and to improve the work environment of the officers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with key personnel involved in the implementation of BWCs. The authors' analysis focused on delineating recurrent moral stories and affirmative environments to show how BWC use was made legitimate as a work environment tool.

Findings

The authors show how BWC use by private security officers patrolling public spaces in Sweden is legitimized by four organizational narratives: (1) the vulnerable security officer and the caring employer, (2) defenders of protective regulation, (3) moral selves and morally dubious others and (4) function creep and moral guardians. The authors explain how such organizational narratives are key to establishing and legitimizing the use of BWCs as a tool to improve the work environment of private security guards, and how certain narrative environments promote such organizational narratives in Sweden to improve the work environment of private security guards.

Originality/value

The authors' findings in this article add to a small but growing literature on BWC use in policing outside of the USA and the UK as well as to the hitherto very limited research from the work environment and managerial perspectives. The authors illustrate the importance of organizational narratives and narrative environments for understanding organizational change involving legitimation of new technologies.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 August 2023

Lilian M. de Menezes and Ana B. Escrig-Tena

This paper aims to improve our understanding of performance measurement systems in the health and care sector, by focussing on employee reactions to core performance measurement…

1646

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to improve our understanding of performance measurement systems in the health and care sector, by focussing on employee reactions to core performance measurement practices. Targets and monitoring are hypothesised to be associated with employee perceptions of job control, supportive management and job demands, which in turn, are expected to be linked to employee-wellbeing and organisational commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

Matched employee workplace data are extracted from a nationally representative and publicly available survey. Structural equation models are estimated.

Findings

Performance measurement systems are neither perceived as resources nor additional demands. Setting many targets and a focus on productivity can lead to negative employee outcomes, since these positively correlate with perceptions of job demands, which negatively correlate with employee wellbeing. However, monitoring financial performance and monitoring employee performance may be helpful to managers, as these are positively associated with employee perceptions of job control and supportive management, which positively correlate with job satisfaction and organisational commitment and, negatively, with anxiety. Overall, common criticisms of performance measurement systems in healthcare are questioned.

Originality/value

Given the lack of consensus on how performance measurement systems can influence employee experiences and outcomes, this study combines theories that argue for performance measurement systems in managing operations with models developed by psychologists to describe how perceptions of the work conditions can affect employee attitude and wellbeing. A conceptual model is therefore developed and tested, and potential direct and indirect effects of performance measurement systems in the health sector are inferred.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 43 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 April 2020

Riccardo Stacchezzini, Francesca Rossignoli and Silvano Corbella

This article investigates the implementation of a compliance programme (CP) in terms of how practitioners conceive of and execute the responsibilities arising from this corporate…

3737

Abstract

Purpose

This article investigates the implementation of a compliance programme (CP) in terms of how practitioners conceive of and execute the responsibilities arising from this corporate governance mechanism.

Design/methodology/approach

This study involves a practice lens approach forms the case study analysis and interpretation, involving both interviews and documentary materials collected from an Italian company with prolonged compliance experience. Schatzki's (2002, 2010) practice organisation framework guides the interpretation of CP as a practice organised by rules, practical and general understandings and teleoaffective structures.

Findings

CP practice evolves over time. A practical understanding of daily actions required to accomplish the CP and a general understanding of the responsibilities connected with the CP, such as the attitudes with which the CP is performed, are mutually constitutive and jointly favour this evolution. Dedicated artefacts – such as IT platforms, training seminars and compliance performance indicators – help spread both of these types of understanding. These artefacts also align practitioners' general understanding with the CP's teleoaffective structures imposed, including the CP's assigned objectives and the desired reactions to them.

Research limitations/implications

The findings have theoretical and practical implications by revealing the relevance of practitioners' understanding of corporate governance mechanisms in their implementation processes.

Originality/value

This study reveals the potential benefits of practice lens approaches in corporate governance studies. It responds to the call for qualitative studies that demonstrate corporate governance as implemented in daily activities.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 33 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 March 2022

Sónia Silva, Armando Silva and Ricardo Bahia Machado

Using, for the first time, a sample of European listed firms from 30 countries with different legal regimes of board-level employee representation (BLER), the purpose of this…

1217

Abstract

Purpose

Using, for the first time, a sample of European listed firms from 30 countries with different legal regimes of board-level employee representation (BLER), the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of BLER on firms’ value of European public companies, where employee representation is voluntary or imposed by law depending on the country of origin.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a difference-in-differences approach and a matching procedure, the authors analyze the impact of BLER on firms' value.

Findings

The results of this paper suggest that BLER adopted voluntarily affects positively firms’ value comparing to a group of firms where employee representation is in some way mandatory. Moreover, the findings of this paper show that firms from countries where BLER is not imposed by law tend to pay higher dividends. Nevertheless, the evidence presented in this paper only holds for low levels of employee representation on the board.

Research limitations/implications

This research not only provides some evidence in favor of the codetermination on corporate governance but also offers new avenues for discussing the conditions necessary for codetermination to be effective, especially the level of employees' participation on board.

Practical implications

This study provides to policymakers new insights for them to gain perspective, analyze and decide if codetermination is a useful tool to improve firms’ performance or at least in what conditions it should be applied.

Social implications

This study incentives the discussion of the proper way to include workers in firms’ boards with expected benefits on firms’ performance, economies and societies.

Originality/value

This paper provides evidence of a positive (but limited) impact on firms’ value derived from voluntary codetermination.

Details

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1358-1988

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 July 2023

Jonas Fasth and Stefan Tengblad

This paper investigates the ways managing directors (MDs) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involve employees in strategic conversations. The paper examines how…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the ways managing directors (MDs) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involve employees in strategic conversations. The paper examines how managers interact with employees in strategic conversations, and why the managers do so (or do not), to generate empirically grounded knowledge about the nature of internal openness in SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a general inductive approach and is based on in-depth interviews with 60 Swedish MDs with development and growth ambitions.

Findings

The paper develops a model of employee involvement in strategic conversations based on the nature and intensity of the MD–employee interaction. A key finding is that SMEs exhibit wide variation in terms of employee involvement, from virtually no employee involvement to, in some cases, far-reaching company democracy. The reasons for this variation are complex, but personal preferences and company size are shown to have an impact, as does, to some degree, ownership structure. In contrast to existing research, the limitations and drawbacks of involving employees in strategic conversations are outlined.

Originality/value

The study provides important insight into MDs' views and practices of internal openness in strategic conversations in SMEs. A model of employee involvement in strategic processes is outlined, and potential limitations of internal openness are highlighted.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 29 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 1 December 2022

Clemens Striebing

Purpose: The study elaborates the contextual conditions of the academic workplace in which gender, age, and nationality considerably influence the likelihood of…

Abstract

Purpose: The study elaborates the contextual conditions of the academic workplace in which gender, age, and nationality considerably influence the likelihood of self-categorization as being affected by workplace bullying. Furthermore, the intersectionality of these sociodemographic characteristics is examined.

Basic Design: The hypotheses underlying the study were mainly derived from the social role, social identity, and cultural distance theory, as well as from role congruity and relative deprivation theory. A survey data set of a large German research organization, the Max Planck Society, was used. A total of 3,272 cases of researchers and 2,995 cases of non-scientific employees were included in the analyses performed. For both groups of employees, binary logistic regression equations were constructed. the outcome of each equation is the estimated percentage of individuals who reported themselves as having experienced bullying at work occasionally or more frequently in the 12 months prior to the survey. The predictors are the demographic and organization-specific characteristics (hierarchical position, scientific field, administrative unit) of the respondents and selected interaction terms. Using regression equations, hypothetically relevant conditional marginal means and differences in regression parameters were calculated and compared by means of t-tests.

Results: In particular, the gender-related hypotheses of the study could be completely or conditionally verified. Accordingly, female scientific and non-scientific employees showed a higher bullying vulnerability in (almost) all contexts of the academic workplace. An increased bullying vulnerability was also found for foreign researchers. However, the patterns found here contradicted those that were hypothesized. Concerning the effect of age analyzed for non-scientific personnel, especially the age group 45–59 years showed a higher bullying probability, with the gender gap in bullying vulnerability being greatest for the youngest and oldest age groups in the sample.

Interpre4tation and Relevance: The results of the study especially support the social identity theory regarding gender. In the sample studied, women in minority positions have a higher vulnerability to bullying in their work fields, which is not the case for men. However, the influence of nationality on bullying vulnerability is more complex. The study points to the further development of cultural distance theory, whose hypotheses are only partly able to explain the results. The evidence for social role theory is primarily seen in the interaction of gender with age and hierarchical level. Accordingly, female early career researchers and young women (and women in the oldest age group) on the non-scientific staff presumably experience a masculine workplace. Thus, the results of the study contradict the role congruity theory.

Details

Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-959-1

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 July 2020

Tina Peeters, Jaap Paauwe and Karina Van De Voorde

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key ingredients that people analytics teams require to contribute to organizational performance. As the information that is currently…

25334

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key ingredients that people analytics teams require to contribute to organizational performance. As the information that is currently available is fragmented, it is difficult for organizations to understand what it takes to execute people analytics successfully.

Design/methodology/approach

To identify the key ingredients, a narrative literature review was conducted using both traditional people analytics and broader business intelligence literature. The findings were summarized in the People Analytics Effectiveness Wheel.

Findings

The People Analytics Effectiveness Wheel identifies four categories of ingredients that a people analytics team requires to be effective. These are enabling resources, products, stakeholder management and governance structure. Under each category, multiple sub-themes are discussed, such as data and infrastructure; senior management support; and knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs) (enablers).

Practical implications

Many organizations are still trying to set up their people analytics teams, and many others are struggling to improve decision-making by using people analytics. For these companies, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current literature and describes what it takes to contribute to organizational performance using people analytics.

Originality/value

This paper is designed to provide organizations and researchers with a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to execute people analytics successfully. By using the People Analytics Effectiveness Wheel as a guideline, scholars are now better equipped to research the processes that are required for the ingredients to be truly effective.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 August 2023

Andrew Pendleton, Andrew Robinson and Graeme Nuttall

The paper traces the development of employee ownership in the UK since the 1980s. It proposes that employee ownership is a function of macro-level contexts and micro-level…

1284

Abstract

Purpose

The paper traces the development of employee ownership in the UK since the 1980s. It proposes that employee ownership is a function of macro-level contexts and micro-level decisions, with the latter framed and guided by the former. The macro context comprises the regulatory framework and the provision of incentives to adopt employee ownership. The paper shows how the evolution of these has led to a steep increase in employee ownership in the last eight years.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on several sources of empirical data to chart the development of employee ownership in the UK since the 1980s and to identify the current features of employee ownership. Two firm-level surveys conducted in 2015 and 2020/21 are supplemented by qualitative case study data collected in the early 1990s. An annual census of all employee-owned firms facilitates a comprehensive overview of the current state of UK employee ownership.

Findings

It is found that there has been a steep increase in the number of UK employee-owned firms since 2014 after several decades of uneven growth. This is attributed to the introduction of new incentives and to refinements of the regulatory framework. Over the period, there has been a shift from hybrid employee ownership, combining direct and indirect forms, to indirect ownership associated with the employee ownership trust model.

Originality/value

The paper provides an original history of employee ownership in the UK using rich and unique data, along with the most comprehensive picture of current employee ownership to date.

Details

Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-7641

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000