Search results

The reliance on teams in today’s work environment underscores the importance of understanding how teams function. To better understand teams, one must be able to measure team dynamics or interaction. The purpose of this chapter is to outline an unobtrusive approach to measuring team dynamics from verbal communications.

The basic premise of this approach is that the words we use provide insight into how we feel and think at any given time. The methodology described in this chapter employs a lexical analytic approach to examining team dynamics. To best accomplish this, we first identify the principal features or dimensions of teamwork and then we propose lexical measures that may map to these processes.

This approach can be employed to track team functioning over time “at a distance” without interrupting task performance.

This chapter describes an approach to measuring relevant teamwork dimensions through verbal content. This approach has the potential to give us direct, unobtrusive insight into the emotional and cognitive states of teams. It is original in its examination of how team dynamics can be indexed in speech.

This paper aims to provide a review of hotel performance within the hospitality and tourism research domain. The authors use network analysis to examine two research questions. The first relates to ascertaining general trends within the hotel performance literature, and the second focuses on identifying the salient streams and sub-topics.

Articles were selected according to three criteria: keywords, journals and year of publication. The analysis embraces 20 years (1996-2015). These choices assure a wide coverage of the literature. Using these three criteria, the sample includes 1,155 papers. For the analysis, the authors created a network of papers designated as nodes, and the citations among the papers as links. A network approach recognizes the internal structure of the network by identifying groups of nodes (papers) that are more densely connected between themselves than to other nodes within the network (modules, clusters or communities).

The authors found 761 papers that were “connected” studies within the network. By contrast, 34 per cent of the sample (394 papers) consists of “unconnected” studies. Excluding outliers, the net sample was 734 articles. The authors identify 14 clusters, which they break down into several sub-topics. The authors conclude by providing some conclusions regarding trends and future research directions. With regards to salient topics, cross-citation and network analysis provide a detailed picture of where the literature comes from and where it currently stands. Conclusions are articulated at the theoretical and empirical levels.

Compared with previous hotel performance reviews, the approach followed by this study enables the discovery of an analytical research map, which is able to identify both clusters and sub-topics populating each segment. Researchers are able to position their work and identify issues that are in growth and decline.

Research on international marketing usually involves comparing different groups of respondents. When using structural equation modeling (SEM), group comparisons can be misleading unless researchers establish the invariance of their measures. While methods have been proposed to analyze measurement invariance in common factor models, research lacks an approach in respect of composite models. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel three-step procedure to analyze the measurement invariance of composite models (MICOM) when using variance-based SEM, such as partial least squares (PLS) path modeling.

A simulation study allows us to assess the suitability of the MICOM procedure to analyze the measurement invariance in PLS applications.

The MICOM procedure appropriately identifies no, partial, and full measurement invariance.

The statistical power of the proposed tests requires further research, and researchers using the MICOM procedure should take potential type-II errors into account.

The research presents a novel procedure to assess the measurement invariance in the context of composite models. Researchers in international marketing and other disciplines need to conduct this kind of assessment before undertaking multigroup analyses. They can use MICOM procedure as a standard means to assess the measurement invariance.

One way to increase the availability and to add more value to exotic Brazilian fruits is to develop new products. However, prior to product development, there is a need to know consumer’s preferences and target audience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of different characteristics of Cerrado fruit preserves on the intention to purchase using conjoint analysis.

Conjoint analysis evaluated three factors with three levels each, defined by focus group technique. The attributes and levels evaluated were: flavor (marolo, marolo and soursoup, marolo, soursoup and sweet passion fruit), nutritional information (light, diet and absent) and health claims (aids reduction of cardiovascular disease risk; aids reduction of blood cholesterol; aids activation and regulation of the gastrointestinal system).

The results of conjoint analysis led to three consumers’ groups. Group 1 (majority) were more influenced by flavor (IR=26.5 percent) and nutritional information (IR=59.3 percent). Groups 2 and 3 were greatly influenced by flavor and nutritional information, respectively. Health claims influenced weakly on the intention to purchase regardless the groups. Thus, the concept of Cerrado fruit preserves for each group was different.

This research contributes to future studies, supporting the development of products based on Cerrado fruits and the variety of products on the market. There are few research works using conjoint analysis to evaluate consumer preferences in the early stages of new product development, which makes this paper even more relevant.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the classification ability of pork quality by cluster analysis in relation to reference criteria proposed in the literature. Verify if clusters were theoretically significant with major pork quality categories. Verify if classificatory parameter values of quality attributes determined “a posteriori” may be used for following categorization.

In total, 60 pork loins were classified into pale, soft and exudative, reddish-pink, soft and exudative, RFN and dark, firm and dry by reference criteria and hierarchical cluster analyses were performed to identify groups of samples with different attributes, based on only pH45min and on pHu, L* and drip loss.

Cluster analysis divided total samples into different (p<0.05) smaller groups. Two groups were formed based on only pH45min and five groups were formed based on pHu, L* and drip loss. By these five groups, L* of 44 and 52 distinguished between dark, reddish-pink and pale meat colors and drip loss of 2 and 6 percent distinguished between dry, non-exudative and exudative meats. Cluster analyses identify pork groups with different attributes and the proposed parameters can be used to distinguish between groups theoretically similar to major pork quality categories.

To decide the best destination to pork carcass and to reduce economic losses, the correctly classify of the pork quality is decisive. This study proves that cluster analysis is able to classify pork into groups with significantly different quality attributes, which are significant with major pork quality categories, without unclassified samples.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

Researches have documented the impact of dyadic communication and relationships on individual behavior in workgroups. However, communication remains as the background element in leadership and management literature as opposed to being the primary process in the leader‐member relationships development. The purpose of this paper is to establish and interpret the appropriate level of analysis based on the correlation between leader‐member exchange (LMX) quality, supervisory communication and team‐oriented commitment in a Malaysian organization setting.

A survey from a Malaysian organization (n=201) is analyzed on the relationships between LMX quality, supervisory communication and commitment using within and between analysis (WABA).

The individual dyad relationships and communication correlates with team‐oriented commitment at the group level. Therefore, LMX quality and supervisory communication influence overall team‐oriented commitment in a work group.

Given that the analyses are based on self‐report in one organization, these results have to be handled carefully.

The results implied that the relationship between dyadic relationships quality, supervisory communication and team‐orientated commitment is best connected if individual workers in work group are encouraged to communicate their needs to supervisors. As such, the worker's ability to communicate mutually about relationships (LMX quality and positive relationships communication) and work (upward openness and job relevant communication) with their immediate supervisor implicates both personal fit and work group functioning.

The results extend the authors' understanding of LMX quality, supervisory communication and team‐oriented commitment by identifying the specific form levels of analysis in a Malaysian organization setting.

The history of Organizational Development (OD) reveals a much older tradition of organizational science than the conventional wisdom would suggest. By the 1960s and 1970s OD became self‐confident and dynamic. This period was not only highly experimental but established the principles of OD for much of the twentieth century. By the end of the twentieth century new images of OD had occurred and much of the earlier thinking had been transformed. This review illustrates some examples under a series of themes that have had a major impact on the discipline of OD and on the wider thinking of organizational theorists and researchers.

Many attempts have been made to integrate communication with other properties of organisations. Frameworks and models have been developed by Galbraith (1977, 1973), Tushman (1979), Tushman and Nadler (1978), and Penley (1982). This study proposes to continue the line of research by considering additional aspects of the organisational environment in addition to various communication variables.