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This paper was aimed at investigating the impact of knowledge management (KM) procedures on enriching human resources in Water and Waste Water Company in East Azerbaijan, Iran.

The samples used in this study included the employees of Water and Waste Water Company in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan, Iran. A questionnaire was used for collecting data from the employees of the abovementioned company. Its reliability and validity were first examined and checked. Then, Smart partial least squares 2.0 was used for analyzing the structural model.

The results acknowledged the validity of the introduced model for enriching human resources. The findings indicated that five variables, namely, kind of knowledge, top managers, information technology, culture and organization of knowledge, have significant impact on enriching human resources.

It is undoubtable that research studies might have specific limitations which should be pointed out and addressed in future studies. The followings are the major limitations of the study: because the present study was carried out in Water and Wastewater Company in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan, hence, generalizing the findings of this study to other professional contexts and organizations should be made with caution. In fact, the present study need to be replicated in other context to find whether the same or different results are obtained. In other words, different cultural, contextual and professional conditions might result differently from the ones reported here. Inasmuch as the present study was a cross-sectional study and the data were collected via questionnaire, a longitudinal study with a longer observation and investigation might shed more light on the efficacy of KMS in organizations. The present study focused on a specific dependent variable (human resource empowerment) which was explained by different dimensions of an independent variable, i.e. KM. However, the impact and efficacy of KMS can be investigated on other organizational variables and parameters. In this study, due to certain logistic and real-life limitations such as the limited time of the staff members of the target organization, we had to use only one data-collection instrument. Nevertheless, future studies can use data triangulation so as to better capture professional contexts of the study. Furthermore, another limitation of the study is related to the individual variables of the employees which remained untouched. That is, whether employees’ personal, emotional and cognitive variables can modify the impact of KM on human resource empowerment was not investigated in the present study.

Organizational managers are recommended to provide the background for employees to share their experiences. Organizations should invest on designing and developing patterns and strategic perspectives in human resource empowerment as a key factor toward becoming knowledge-based organizations.

This paper is one of the few applied studies which acknowledged the relationship between knowledge management initiatives and empowering human resources. It addresses the gap between knowledge management and human resource empowerment.

In this paper, the authors tentatively develop a theoretical model that depicts how the dynamic capabilities of a firm may be driven by three macro-organizational foundations: visionary leadership, organizational culture, and empowered human resources. The authors propose that visionary leaders are the original driver of dynamic capabilities and that visionary leaders create a unique organizational culture and empowered human resources so that their organizations embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship, an orientation toward learning, and a commitment to mission-driven improvement.

The authors use a case of the early success of a highly performing Chinese telecommunication equipment producer, Huawei Technology, to explain the theoretical model that shows how dynamic capabilities are developed as visionary leaders influence firm routines for learning, innovation, and strategic human resource policies, which in turn collectively create and update operational capabilities to deliver directly manipulatable competitive advantages.

The paper concludes by arguing that the sources of dynamic capabilities need not be dynamic. Instead, visionary leadership, organizational culture, and human resource policies are relatively stable factors in comparison with other possible competence-building mechanisms such as innovation or ambidexterity.

The authors’ model provides a direction for firms in high-tech industries to develop dynamic capabilities in order to maintain competitiveness and sustain high performance.

This paper is the first to present three macro-level drivers of dynamic capabilities, and it is also the first to understand the success of Huawei from a dynamic capabilities perspective.

This paper aims to assess the existing situation of psychological empowerment to employees and explore the relationship between psychological empowerment and competitive advantages in service sector of Nepal.

The study followed descriptive cum exploratory research design. Data collected through structured questionnaire based on Menon’s three-component model and Wright’s four-component model used to measure psychological employment and competitive advantages from employees of banking and hospital sector.

Psychological empowerment of employees in service sector is significantly different between public and private organizations. Even though the factors that are extracted are quite different than of Western practices, psychological empowerment has positive and significant impact on the competitive advantages.

This study is mainly based on service sector of Nepal: Banking and Hospital.

This paper is useful to academicians and practitioners seeking to develop psychological empowerment to achieve competitive advantages in their organizations and help to add values in people management areas particularly in South Asian corporations.

This is perhaps the very first investigation of its kind in the Nepalese context.

Lean (TQM and JIT) and agile manufacturing (AM) are viewed as strategic capabilities that can help firms to meet diverse set of market demands. However, the question whether lean manufacturing and AM are complementary or competing capabilities is still open to discussion. This research proposes an integrated research framework that draws on complementary theory, theory of systems, and concept of fit to examine this question regarding these two strategic capabilities.

Data are collected from 248 apparel exporting firms, and the proposed model is evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Results show that lean manufacturing, AM, and supporting management and infrastructural practices have positive and complementary effects on firm's performance. Further, results depict that lean manufacturing and AM complementarity is a complete organizational synergistic phenomenon, and piecemeal implementation of these initiatives may lead to suboptimal or unsatisfactory results. Results also indicate that there is no significant direct (correlated and uncorrelated) relationship of management, infrastructure, lean manufacturing, and AM practices with firm's performance and support that lean manufacturing and AM are not competing paradigms.

This research is based on cross-sectional data from one industry. Future research should collect data from diverse sectors in different countries.

This study provides a key insight for manufacturing managers that piecemeal implementation of lean manufacturing and AM does not yield optimal outcomes. In addition, study suggests that lean manufacturing and AM complementarity builds on strong foundation of strategic management and internal and external infrastructure. Therefore, managers should focus on development of skilled and empowered human resources, technological advancements, and learning and virtually integrated organizations for effective implementation of lean manufacturing and AM.

Proposed framework is one of the first, if not the first, that seeks to resolve the question: whether lean manufacturing and AM are complementary or competing capabilities. Complementary effects of lean manufacturing and AM along with management, internal infrastructure, and common external infrastructure practices have positive impact on performance. This study also segregated infrastructure practices into internal and common external infrastructure practices.

The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of human resource (HR) practices (human resource empowerment, organizational culture and transformational leadership) on innovation activities as well as the effect of innovation activities on perceived financial performance within sport services firms.

The proposed relationships were examined using empirical data from 172 managers of Greek sport services firms. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) analysis was used to investigate the role of human resource management (HRM) practices on innovation activities and whether innovation activities affected the perceived financial performance.

The results of the study indicated that HRM practices, such as human resource empowerment, organizational culture and transformational leadership, significantly impact innovation activities and subsequently innovation activities have a significant and positive effect on perceived financial performance as measured by satisfaction levels in relation to specific key performance indicators (KPIs) such as profit, ROI, sales volume and market share.

This study presents useful theoretical and managerial implications that can be used by sport service firms to assess the effects of HRM practices on innovation activities and perceived financial performance.

This study contributes to the literature on several merits. Firstly, the authors jointly estimate the impact of HRM practices on innovation and its concurrent effect on perceived financial performance, which is not methodologically considered before. Secondly, the authors incorporate a more thorough measure of perceived financial performance including four dimensions of performance, and finally the authors analyze a larger sample of sport services firms relative to previous studies, leading into more concrete conclusion on the research hypotheses.

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the mediating effect of psychological empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership and two employee outcomes: organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention.

The data were collected from 316 employees working in the textile industry to empirically test the proposed model.

The findings of this study indicate that psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and both employee outcomes of organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention.

This study suggests that organizations aiming to minimize turnover intention among employees should develop a transformational leadership style at the managerial level to enhance psychological empowerment among employees, which, in turn, will also improve organizational citizenship behavior.

This study proposes and tests the indirect effect of transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention via psychological empowerment.

This study aims to identify the drivers of human resource empowerment in understanding the new concept of Quality 4.0 in the digital era.

First, the literature of quality management evolution in the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) and the position of the required workforce in Quality 4.0 were reviewed and then by using the opinions of experts and managers of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms, a set of driver effects on the readiness and ability of human resources was identified in the context of Quality 4.0. After identifying the drivers, cause-and-effect relationships among these drivers were investigated using the Grey DEMATEL technique.

A total of 29 Quality 4.0 drivers of readiness and workforce ability were identified, based on multiple interactions of quality management in different stages of the production cycle. They were divided into new valuation approaches, composite dimensions, team creativity and thorough inspection. “Technical abilities and capability to solve problems” was identified as the most significant driver.

Findings help KIBS firms to take necessary measures and plans. Consequently, they can increase the readiness and ability of human resources based on the changes in managing Quality 4.0. Also, considering the importance of each driver, they will be able to take a step towards total quality improvement.

Despite extensive research on the subject of the fourth Industrial Revolution, research on the human aspects required for managing Quality 4.0 is limited. This study was performed to examine the cause-and-effect relationships between human resource drivers to adapt to the changes in Quality 4.0.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the adoption of human resource (HR) analytics and managerial decision-making (DM), with attitude toward artificial intelligence (AI) as a potential moderator.

This study was conducted in three phases. In Phase I, a comprehensive scale to measure the “Adoption of HR analytics” was conceptualized and developed. In Phase II, the scale was validated and operationalized. Finally, in Phase III, a survey of 377 managers was conducted, and a conceptual model was validated using structural equation modeling.

This study reveals that the adoption of HR analytics (HRA) and a positive attitude toward AI significantly influence DM. The findings suggest that the structural factors play the most important role in the adoption of HRA, followed by individual factors, value and system support.

These findings hold valuable implications for managers seeking integration of HRA and AI within organizational systems and processes. HR practitioners can evaluate their organization’s readiness for HRA, enabling them to build a future-proof workforce with the necessary skills. It can help managers make the adoption of AI-enabled HRA a reality. The study also helps to remove inhibitions and concerns of HR managers and employees related to AI.

This paper addresses the methodological, practical knowledge and evidence gap in the area of adoption of HRA and DM. It sheds light on the “future of work” in HR, highlighting a potential shift toward human-AI collaboration.

The strategic management literature states that firms who wish to have a competitive advantage through high customer service (rapid response) and product differentiation need to restructure their organization into empowered, self-managed work units so as to ensure that there is “value-added” at each stage of the value chain. (Porter, 1985; Hill and Jones, 2001) In this case, Vanguard altered part of its structure through the development of teams in order to maximize its operations; and given their results Vanguard successfully put theory into practice. When the major supporter of team management, Mike Wesley, leaves the firm, he is replaced by Wendy Kiefer, a strong supporter of team structures. Her replacement, Shari Lastarza, however is the “old” assembly manager and does not buy into the team concept. Could this be anything but a formula for disaster?

Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment continues to be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners. There are several researches on organizational commitment. The research with respect to psychological empowerment, which is emerging as very important factor for employees of service sector is rare. The purpose of this paper is to examine the linkages between psychological empowerment and factors of organizational commitment.

The sample size for the study comprised 332 Indian IT executives. The data were collected during the time when organizations were trying to overcome recession. Descriptive and inferential statistics like correlation, regression and canonical correlation were used to analyze the data.

Results of data analysis confirm the hypotheses drawn from the literature. Consistent with other studies, the results of this study confirm that the psychological empowerment influences affective and normative commitment positively. However, no relationship was found between psychological empowerment and continuance commitment.

The prime objective of organizations is to increase affective commitment among employees of the organization. The basic change suggested in this paper is to undergo a job design and make employees understand the importance of their task/job. The feeling among employees that the job done by them has significant impact on the day‐to‐day work activity will generate high degree of affective commitment.

The paper shows that organizations can influence the affective and normative commitment of employees by providing jobs that are challenging for the employees, and by having correct alignment with the goal.