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Article
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Moses Pava

For more than 70 years, leaders of all types have consistently struggled to earn the respect and followership of others to earn the employee trust which is the key to innovation…

Abstract

Purpose

For more than 70 years, leaders of all types have consistently struggled to earn the respect and followership of others to earn the employee trust which is the key to innovation and competitive advantage and to create organizational systems and cultures that fit their strategic objectives. The purpose of this paper is to address what would be “good enough” leadership qualities.

Design/methodology/approach

Research methodology included research into several individuals that exceeded in leadership, and an examination of how they used the “good enough” leadership styles to be successful as leaders.

Findings

This paper suggests several ways to be an effective “good enough” leader. These ways translate your values into concrete directives, jettison dead metaphors, explore enlivening ones, subject your values to the test of dialogue, and hold onto your values less tightly.

Originality/value

Leadership and leadership qualities have been widely discussed in the literature. This paper approaches the situation differently. Rather than striving for perfection and being frustrated for not reaching it, this paper explores “good enough” leadership qualities that actually work well in the professional arena.

Details

International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4929

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2012

Stephen Emmitt, Christine Pasquire and Basant Mertia

The purpose of this study is to address behaviour that often leads to inappropriate processing in a small design and build contracting organisation that employs direct labour. The…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to address behaviour that often leads to inappropriate processing in a small design and build contracting organisation that employs direct labour. The objective was to reduce process waste and improve the value delivered to clients. This formed part of a larger knowledge transfer project (KTP) to improve performance on construction sites through the application of lean thinking.

Design/methodology/approach

Action research was used to identify and bring about change within the contracting organisation. The method was applied to live construction projects in the social housing sector in the greater London area. The intervention was to raise the awareness of site personnel to the importance of finishing tasks through informal discussions and visual management techniques.

Findings

Raised awareness of the importance of finishing work to allow other trades to follow on unimpeded, leading to significant improvements in the quality and flow of work. This helped to contribute to significant savings in time and cost.

Research limitations/implications

Findings relate to a small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) with directly employed labour, therefore the findings have limited applicability. Further applied research is required to determine the generalisation of the approach/findings to organisations that subcontract their labour.

Practical implications

This applied research is practical and cost effective to apply to live projects managed by small and medium sized contracting organisations.

Originality/value

Provides a unique insight into the practical application of lean thinking tools and process improvement.

Article
Publication date: 16 November 2015

Shirish C Srivastava

The purpose of this paper is to identify the four principles for firms in developing countries to enhance and augment their innovation agenda for staying competitive. With…

2443

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the four principles for firms in developing countries to enhance and augment their innovation agenda for staying competitive. With increasing globalization, firms need to continually calibrate and realign their innovation strategies to remain competitive. Although many firms in the developed countries are making sustained efforts to adopt the developing world perspective on innovation, similar efforts by firms in developing countries to reorient their innovation strategies to the developed world are minimal. In the long run, this might erode the competitiveness of firms in developing countries. Leveraging the global innovation strategy framework, the paper suggests four principles that can help developing country firms transition from a local to a global innovation strategy. Specifically, the paper exhorts developing country firms to move from a “good-enough” innovation approach to an “augmented” innovation philosophy that aims to serve the latent needs of the users. The four principles suggested for the developing country firms to further their innovation agenda are: invest in research; learn to fail; be patient; and alliance and acquire.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses prior literature and frameworks to identify the four principles that firms in developing countries should follow for furthering their innovation agenda with a view to becoming global in their approach.

Findings

The four principles suggested for the developing country firms to further their innovation agenda are: invest in research; learn to fail; be patient; and alliance and acquire.

Originality/value

The paper identifies the four principles for firms in developing countries to enhance and augment their innovation agenda for staying competitive.

Details

Journal of Indian Business Research, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4195

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 March 2020

Leandro Lima Santos, Felipe Mendes Borini and Moacir de Miranda Oliveira Júnior

In the past years, many contributions have been published addressing frugal innovation and other types of resource-constrained innovations in the management field. Throughout this…

1252

Abstract

Purpose

In the past years, many contributions have been published addressing frugal innovation and other types of resource-constrained innovations in the management field. Throughout this paper frugal innovation is reported as a phenomenon, concept, research field and strategy, showing the different ways the literature refers to it and how scattered the concept is. However, based on the understanding, the authors decided to address frugal innovation as a kind of innovation strategy that helps companies to innovate in resource-constrained environments. Therefore, considering the increasing interest in the frugal innovation topic and adding the perspective of business strategy for resource-constrained conditions, the research question addressed in this paper is: what are the main features of the frugal innovation literature that unfold its current perspectives for business strategy? In this sense, the purpose of this study is to analyze the scientific production in frugal innovation through a literature mapping and review to better understand it, delimiting different perspectives and creating boundaries to other business strategies or approaches.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed a co-citation analysis using the Vosviewer software to notice how authors are arranged in clusters based on their understanding of the topic. Furthermore, the authors also performed a systematic literature review (SLR) analyzing the extant literature on frugal innovation based on the clusters found through the co-citation method. The final sample used in the study included 42 papers published between 2011 and 2019, using the Web of Science platform as a data source.

Findings

By means of SLR, the findings of this study provided a more organized view of frugal innovation through the co-citation analysis and the qualitative analysis of the clusters, which were the basis for the parameters established. After the conceptualization of frugal innovation strategy (FIS) and the delimitation of boundaries of FIS, the authors bring the reflections about the contribution to the literature and the practice (managers and society) by showing three assumptions to be tested and confirmed in future studies and a framework to guide companies in search of a FIS.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the discussion on frugal innovation moving a step forward to clarify the research field on this subject providing the main characteristics for researchers and practitioners. The paper has delimited the boundaries of FIS. The assumptions established in the discussion can become hypotheses for empirical studies. In addition, the authors explain why, what is, where and to whom the FIS can be developed and applied. Furthermore, the authors contribute by developing the FIS framework, with four strategic positions based on the boundaries of FIS organized by the complexity technological level. The strategic positions are frugal innovation orientation (FIO), FIO to value shared, FIO to market and FIS.

Details

Review of International Business and Strategy, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-6014

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2006

Norm Medeiros

The purpose of this paper is to seek to inspire discussions about cataloging practices in academic libraries.

912

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to seek to inspire discussions about cataloging practices in academic libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

The article reviews the recent University of California Libraries report, Rethinking How We Provide Bibliographic Services for the University of California.

Findings

The UC report is sprinkled with a sufficient and warranted number of alarming statements about the future of libraries. It should serve as a wake‐up call.

Originality/value

Readers will be acquainted with a recent, important work, the premises of which are central to the services provided by academic libraries.

Details

OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, vol. 22 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1065-075X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 June 2010

Andrew G. Hall and Claudia Zentgraf

This paper aims to explore the concept of Winnicott's intermediate space as a method of understanding the role of learning spaces in the development of technology‐enhanced…

703

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the concept of Winnicott's intermediate space as a method of understanding the role of learning spaces in the development of technology‐enhanced educational organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach takes the form of a comparative analysis of interaction within face‐to‐face and online learning environments. Data were collected from two cohorts of students, audio recordings of face‐to‐face seminars were made, and all of the discussion boards were analysed. The paper explores whether online discussion groups can be said, in Winncottian terms, to provide a “good enough” environment. The analysis focuses on introductory discussions and uses Sacks's concept of false‐firsts to describe the ways in which preliminary issues are dealt with in face‐to‐face seminars, and proceeds to examine how these occur in online environments.

Findings

The findings suggest a pedagogical basis to consider the learner's personal need for connection between experiences, imaginations and the real world. From the analysis, online discussion environments can be said to encourage learning in an intermediate space where students can, independently of the tutor, engage in the educational experience at hand.

Originality/value

The concept of intermediate space has value as a method of conceptualising more open educational environments, both virtual and physical. Furthermore, it has the potential to provide a framework within which emerging issues of space, place, and the learner can be considered.

Details

Campus-Wide Information Systems, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1065-0741

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2007

Juliane Riese

The paper's purpose is to improve understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR), by critically examining two assumptions taken for granted in capitalist market economies…

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Abstract

Purpose

The paper's purpose is to improve understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR), by critically examining two assumptions taken for granted in capitalist market economies as well as economic theory, and their consequences for CSR.

Design/methodology/approach

The two assumptions of resource scarcity and the necessity to outperform competitors, and their consequences for one's understanding of CSR are discussed. Some criticisms of CSR are reviewed in this context.

Findings

The paper argues that the named assumptions put pressure on individuals and induce fear, inhibiting individual reflection on the ends and consequences of economic activity. Moreover, if individuals look to organizations for alleviation of fear, this will inhibit such reflection on the organizational level. This lack of reflection leads to CSR being interpreted and practised in narrow ways, for example, as a public relations measure unconnected to core business. Thus, in order to arrive at a more holistic understanding and practice of CSR, the basic assumptions of scarcity and outperformance must be addressed.

Originality/value

The paper positions the CSR concept, as well as the problems and criticisms related to it, in a broader historical, cultural and psychological context.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2007

Peter Simpson

This paper aims to help develop an understanding of how complexity theory may be applied to an understanding of leadership and organizational dynamics and contributes to the…

4044

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to help develop an understanding of how complexity theory may be applied to an understanding of leadership and organizational dynamics and contributes to the growing body of literature in the same subject.

Design/methodology/approach

Stacey's theory of complex responsive processes is used to analyse leadership and organizational dynamics in an unusual example of an organizational simulation exercise on an MBA programme.

Practical implications

This article shows how the theory of complex responsive processes may offer the potential to understand episodes of emergent, and potentially creative, forms of organization and leadership. It demonstrates how to recognise and work with the qualities of participation, conversational life, anxiety, diversity, and with unpredictability and paradox.

Originality/value

This paper complements previous articles in LODJ that seek to use complexity theories in the analysis of leadership and organizational dynamics. It demonstrates how an analysis from the perspective of complex responsive processes differs from that of complexity theories that focus on systemic rather than process thinking and that do not incorporate insights from psychology and social theory.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 September 2011

Kunting Chen and Changbiao Zhong

This paper aims to study the formation and amplification mechanism of the financial crisis and business cycle and also discuss the related optimal rules for the central bank and…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study the formation and amplification mechanism of the financial crisis and business cycle and also discuss the related optimal rules for the central bank and government.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is developed basically on a simple financial business cycle model by embedding credit constrains into the DSGE model.

Findings

The model in this paper puts forward an explanation for the mechanism of cycles' formation. Using this it finds that: the financial lever in modern economy is the offender of the USA financial crisis, which created the cycles and amplified it into the crisis when the financial lever multiple was increased to much greater levels, and that the traditional policy rule is not good enough for a long running growth process.

Research limitations/implications

The findings in this study suggest that to keep the financial lever multiple under a safe level and to reform the policy rule to be good enough for a long run growth process is necessary.

Practical implications

According to the model's principle, the paper claims that: the development of the financial and credit markets during recent years has increased the volatility of the economic cycle – excessive credit abuse has become the root cause of the instability of the economy system; the proportion of the mortgage loan and similar financial products in the economy should be controlled strictly; it is necessary to recheck the traditional standpoint of the monetary policy. Rule policy by the Keynesian model exists as a short‐term problem, thus it is not sufficient to study the questions related to technological shocks.

Originality/value

The model in this paper explains well the mechanism of cycles and crisis' formation. The findings under the modeling economy give a safe level for financial lever multiples for the first time. The financial business cycle model being used in studying the Chinese economy is a pioneering and exploratory experiment.

Details

China Finance Review International, vol. 1 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1398

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1991

David Henige

It does not seem too much to argue that high quality reference works, always crucial to the effective pursuit of research, have become increasingly important with the continuing…

Abstract

It does not seem too much to argue that high quality reference works, always crucial to the effective pursuit of research, have become increasingly important with the continuing proliferation of information as well as the increasingly complex need to capture ways of organizing it. Nor is it too much to say, unfortunately, that, even while this is so, reference works are well on their way to becoming the orphans of academic publishing. Today, more than ever, the publication of reference tools is largely in the hands of a few publishers, who depend on marketing techniques (particularly the packaging of books into series) rather than on the inherent quality of, or demonstrated need for, particular reference tools. Moreover (a point to which I will return), reference works are increasingly appearing in print as the inchoate and offhand products of desktop publishing.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

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