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1 – 10 of over 25000Organizational culture is a critical factor in building and reinforcing knowledge management in organizations. However, there is no theoretical framework that comprehensively…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational culture is a critical factor in building and reinforcing knowledge management in organizations. However, there is no theoretical framework that comprehensively explains the effect of organizational culture on knowledge management in organizations. This paper endeavors to develop a theoretical integrative framework for organizational knowledge management and organizational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper. It modifies the “competing value framework” by adding a new dimension representing ethical and trusting culture, and then integrates it with the SECI model of knowledge creation and conversion by identifying the conceptual parallels between the two frameworks and then analyzing the interaction effects among the dimensions.
Findings
Based on the congruity between the modified competing values framework and the knowledge creation and conversion framework, the paper formulates six propositions about the propensity of organizations of different dominant cultural styles to engage in the four processes of knowledge creation and conversion.
Research limitations/implications
The dynamic nature of the framework presented in the paper points to the importance of longitudinal and comparative research in understanding the effects of organizational culture on organizational knowledge management systems in organizations.
Practical implications
The proposed integrative framework would facilitate organizational learning and lead to the improvement of knowledge management practices in organizations as it helps managers to understand the linkages between culture and knowledge management.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new framework linking organizational culture to knowledge management. It moves away from analyzing culture only in terms of its positive and negative influences on knowledge management. Instead, it suggests a typology of the kind of knowledge management processes that organizations are likely to focus on depending on the culture that prevails in an organization.
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Knowledge contribution loafing as one of the major obstacles to knowledge sharing among designers in engineering design firms impedes better achievement of engineering design. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge contribution loafing as one of the major obstacles to knowledge sharing among designers in engineering design firms impedes better achievement of engineering design. The purpose of this paper is to examine different types of ethical climate impacts on knowledge contribution loafing among designers through the mediating effect of knowledge leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting a quantitative research design, data were collected using a survey questionnaire from 352 designers in engineering design firms. The data were analyzed using the partial-least squares structural equation modeling approach to test hypotheses.
Findings
Ethical climate is an important factor to affect knowledge contribution loafing among designers, and three types of ethical climate (self-interest, social responsibility and law/professional codes) have different degrees of influence on knowledge contribution loafing. In addition, knowledge leadership can alleviate knowledge contribution loafing, and it is a mediator between ethical climate and knowledge contribution loafing.
Practical implications
Engineering design firms should cultivate and strengthen the role of social responsibility, law/professional codes and knowledge leadership and reduce the influence of self-interest to mitigate the negative of knowledge contribution loafing among designers.
Originality/value
By identifying ethical climate as a novel influence factor for knowledge contribution loafing, this research further highlights the role of different types of ethical climate in an engineering design context. Moreover, it delves deeply into the issue around different types of ethical climate affect knowledge contribution loafing among designers through the role of knowledge leadership. This broadens the understanding of how ethical climate affects knowledge contribution loafing among designers in the engineering design organizations and enriches knowledge management literatures in engineering design industry.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior by examining the mediating role of employee advocacy, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior by examining the mediating role of employee advocacy, and the moderating role of proactive personality.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was tested by using data that were collected from 402 supervisors, and 87 subordinates who were working in 6 firms belonging to the stone and Glass sector, in the Tenth Ramadan city, Egypt. The employees and their immediate supervisors provided data on separated questionnaires, and different occasions. Then, an identification number was used by the author to match each employee questionnaire with the response of his/ her immediate supervisor.
Findings
The results revealed that employee advocacy fully mediated the positive relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior. Also, it also found that proactive personality moderated the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior, such that the relationship was stronger for people lower rather than higher in proactive personality.
Originality/value
This empirical paper provides preliminary evidence of the mediating effect of employee advocacy in the positive relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior. The model extends the existing results by adding substantive moderate proactive personality to explain how the effect of supportive leadership on employee voice behavior.
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Jamal A. Al‐Khatib, Angela D'Auria Stanton and Mohammed Y.A. Rawwas
The purpose of this study is to segment the consumer Gulf market based on actionable and strategy yielding marketing variables (i.e. ethical orientations, trust, opportunisms and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to segment the consumer Gulf market based on actionable and strategy yielding marketing variables (i.e. ethical orientations, trust, opportunisms and Machiavellianism).
Design/methodology/approach
Consumers from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait were asked to complete a survey which incorporated scales to measure consumers' ethical beliefs, Machiavellianism, ethical orientation, opportunism, trust, as well as demographic classification questions. Specifically, every attempt was made to have a broad distribution across the demographic categories of gender, age and education. Participation in the study was restricted to citizens of their respective nations. Local “data captains” were selected in each nation and trained in data collection techniques by two of the study's authors. Of the 598 questionnaires distributed, a total of 365 usable surveys were yielding an overall response rate of 61 percent. A multistage clustering approach was incorporated in order to identify the unique ethical consumer segments.
Findings
The analysis resulted in three distinct segments/clusters: “Principled Purchasers”, “Suspicious Shoppers” and “Corrupt Consumers”. Members of the Principled Purchasers segment tended to be less Machiavellianistic, less opportunistic, more trusting of others, less relativistic, more idealistic and perceived questionable actions in a negative light. Suspicious Shoppers were less trusting, tended to proceed with caution in their dealings, were somewhat opportunistic but placed a high emphasis on ethical behavior. Like the Suspicious Shoppers, the Corrupt Consumers were not trusting individuals. Unlike Suspicious Shoppers, however, Corrupt Consumers were Machiavellianistic, took advantage of opportunities, were not ethically oriented and were more likely to act in an unethical manner.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should attempt to obtain data from a more diverse sample in the Middle East. Social desirability bias may have been a factor in response to some of the questions resulting in respondents providing the socially desirable response in order to appear ethical. Future studies should examine the inclusion of measures for controlling such bias.
Practical implications
Companies should alter their marketing approach depending upon the segment being targeted. Companies focusing on “Principled Purchasers” should emphasize customer satisfaction and honesty in their transactions. “Suspicious Shoppers” are best appealed to by companies who can create a mutually satisfying relationship in which both parties benefit. In conducting business with “Corrupt Consumers”, international marketing managers must be aware of situations in which this group might try to exploit or deceive the firm, such as used or altered returns, product theft, illegal consumption or other immoral/illegal activities; all of which are costly to the organization and, ultimately, the general public at large.
Originality/value
Despite the socio‐economic similarities among Gulf countries (levels of income, market size, religion, language, etc.), important micro level differences exist and are often overlooked. Ignoring such differences may steer multinational firms towards the adoption of a simple and less expensive standardized marketing strategy across the region.
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International development and humanitarian work, including research and evaluation practice, relies upon the development of strong and trusting relationships between…
Abstract
International development and humanitarian work, including research and evaluation practice, relies upon the development of strong and trusting relationships between practitioners, researchers, local partners and communities. Due to these relationships, research conducted in developing countries and particularly in relation to development practice raises distinct ethical issues and dilemmas. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the importance of the consideration of ethics in international development and humanitarian research and how organisations can incorporate a culture of ethical inquiry into research and evaluation practice. It will highlight that good intentions and policy documents are alone not enough for when practitioners are working in development. It will also examine how principles and guidelines drafted expressly for and by the Australian international development sector is being used as a facilitator of ethical inquiry and good practice.
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Yongdan Liu, Matthew Tingchi Liu, Andrea Pérez, Wilco Chan, Jesús Collado and Ziying Mo
The clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, although manufacturers and retailers are trying to revert this tendency by applying ethical fashion…
Abstract
Purpose
The clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, although manufacturers and retailers are trying to revert this tendency by applying ethical fashion principles. Drawing on the knowledge–attitude–behavior (KAB) model or practice, this study aims to predict Chinese consumers' purchase intention of ethical fashion by employing and extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB).
Design/methodology/approach
The extended TPB model incorporates knowledge of ethical fashion and trust in the fashion industry and two critical variables in ethical fashion literature to explain the purchase intention of ethical fashion. Primary data from 245 Chinese respondents were collected in 2019. The model was tested and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
Results show that the extended TPB model has higher predictability than the original TPB model. Attitude toward ethical fashion and subjective norm significantly predicts purchase intention while perceived behavioral control (PBC) does not. In addition, trust of ethical fashion is positively related to attitude toward ethical fashion and purchase intention, whereas knowledge of ethical fashion plays a significant role in predicting trust and the three TPB factors. The subjective norm was found to have the most significant impact on consumers' intention to purchase ethical fashion, which shows that social pressure from one individual's reference group is the most dominant factor in forming consumer's purchase intention on ethical fashion.
Originality/value
The findings enrich the past literature on ethical fashion that trusting belief is a salient determinant of consumers' attitude toward ethical fashion and purchase intention of ethical fashion products. The findings also supported the applicability of KAB and TPB in the domain of ethical consumption in the context of a developing country.
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FR. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, S.J.
This chapter covers basic concepts, ethical theories, and moral paradigms of corporate ethics for identifying, understanding, and responding to the turbulent market challenges of…
Abstract
Executive Summary
This chapter covers basic concepts, ethical theories, and moral paradigms of corporate ethics for identifying, understanding, and responding to the turbulent market challenges of today. The concept, nature, and domain of ethics, business ethics, managerial ethics, and corporate executive ethics are defined and differentiated for their significance. The domain, scope, and nature of related concepts such as legality, ethicality, morality, and executive spirituality are distinguished and developed. Among normative and descriptive ethical theories that we briefly review and critique here are teleology or utilitarianism, deontology or existentialism, distributive justice, corrective justice, and ethics of malfeasance and beneficence. Other moral theories of ethics such as ethics of human dignity, ethics of cardinal virtues, ethics of trusting relations, ethics of stakeholder rights and duties, ethics of moral reasoning and judgment calls, ethics of executive and moral leadership, and ethics of social and moral responsibility will be treated in a later book. The thrust of this book is positive: despite our not very commendable track record in managing this planet and its resources, our basic questions are: Where are we now? What are we now? Where should we as corporations go, and why? What are the specific positive mandates and metrics to corporate executives to reach that desired destiny? This chapter explores responses to these strategic corporate questions.
Cam Caldwell, Larry Floyd, Joseph Taylor and Bryan Woodard
The purpose of this paper is to define “beneficence” as a management concept that is the action associated with “benevolence” the intention. This paper explains how beneficence is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to define “beneficence” as a management concept that is the action associated with “benevolence” the intention. This paper explains how beneficence is a critical element for leaders in building trust. The authors identify how beneficence honors the ethical duties owed to followers and creates competitive advantage for organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of this paper is to present an extensive conceptual review of beneficence as it relates to leaders and managers and to suggest eight propositions identifying how beneficence can create competitive advantage.
Findings
The findings of this paper include eight propositions about beneficence as a source of competitive advantage.
Practical implications
The practical implications of this paper are for practitioners and scholars. This paper provides an opportunity for leaders to recognize the importance of translating good intentions into specific action in acting virtuously toward others. For scholars, this paper provides testable propositions for learning more about beneficence as a source of increased commitment, greater trust, and competitive advantage.
Originality/value
Although benevolence has been acknowledged to be a foundation of trustworthiness, benevolence is an attitude or intention. This paper explains the importance of beneficence as the action derived from benevolence as an attitude or intention to do that which benefits others.
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This research aims to look through the data of Nhan Dan Gia Dinh Hospital, a state‐owned hospital in Vietnam, for evidence on whether a clinical governance initiative cultivates…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to look through the data of Nhan Dan Gia Dinh Hospital, a state‐owned hospital in Vietnam, for evidence on whether a clinical governance initiative cultivates ethical leadership, market‐ or innovation‐oriented culture, knowledge sharing, and knowledge‐ or identity‐based trust.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a case study approach with hospital document collection, field observations, and in‐depth interviews conducted between April 2009 and April 2011.
Findings
The findings demonstrated that a clinical governance initiative, when effectively implemented, can function as a lever for behavioural transformations in the hospital towards ethical leadership, market‐ or innovation‐oriented culture, knowledge sharing, and knowledge‐ or identity‐based trust.
Originality/value
The current research provides a portrayal of an effective clinical governance initiative with its proactive hospital outcomes such as ethical leadership, market‐ or innovation‐oriented culture, knowledge sharing, and knowledge‐ or identity‐based trust on the hospital journey of sustainable health creation. This paper also highlights the necessity for research that examines other organizational outcomes of clinical governance in Vietnamese hospitals of other ownerships.
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Herbert Goelzner, Abraham Stefanidis and Moshe Banai
This study aims to generalize the research findings about the impact of individualism-collectivism, ethical idealism and inter-personal trust on ethically questionable negotiation…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to generalize the research findings about the impact of individualism-collectivism, ethical idealism and inter-personal trust on ethically questionable negotiation tactics, such as pretending, deceiving and lying, in a Germanic culture, namely, that of Austria.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey questionnaires translated from English to German were collected from 304 respondents. A regression analysis was used to test the contribution of the independent variables to the explanation of negotiators’ attitudes towards questionable negotiation tactics.
Findings
The research empirically corroborated a classification of three groups of negotiation tactics, namely, pretending, deceiving and lying, in Austria. Austrian negotiators who scored high on vertical individualism tended to score high on the endorsement of the pretending tactic; those who scored high on horizontal collectivism tended to score low on the endorsement of the deceiving and lying tactics; those who scored high on vertical collectivism tended to score high on the endorsement of the deceiving and lying tactics; and those who scored high on inter-personal trust tended to score low on the endorsement of the pretending negotiation tactic. Idealistic negotiators tended not to endorse the use of pretending, deceiving and lying negotiation tactics.
Research limitations/implications
The study investigated the respondents’ perceptions, rather than their actual negotiation behavior. Findings are limited to Germanic culture.
Practical implications
The study provides negotiators in Austria with a tool that has the potential to predict the extent to which Austrian negotiators would use various ethically questionable negotiation tactics.
Originality/value
This is the first study to present a model of the antecedents of negotiation tactics in a Germanic cultural context, where negotiation studies are limited. This study validates in Austria three questionable negotiation tactics groups of varying severity, which had previously been studied only in non-Germanic cultures. This research significantly contributes to the generalization of a model of the antecedents of the endorsement of questionable tactics across cultures.
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