Search results
1 – 10 of over 2000Debora Jeske and Carol Linehan
Many employers experiment with virtual working modes for project-based work. Virtual internships are one such mode that is gaining increasing popularity worldwide, particularly…
Abstract
Purpose
Many employers experiment with virtual working modes for project-based work. Virtual internships are one such mode that is gaining increasing popularity worldwide, particularly e-internships that require remote working with employers. However, little is known about the extent to which e-internships present learning opportunities to such e-interns.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study examined mentoring experiences among a cross-sectional sample of 158 e-interns working for different companies. Data were collected using an online survey in two data collection rounds.
Findings
The length of the e-internships did not increase mentoring satisfaction, but the likelihood of e-interns having a mentor was higher the longer the e-internships. Mentoring was offered irrespective of working hours per week. Mentoring increased reported skill development, particularly in relation to their communication skills and their ability to think strategically about problems. In addition, mentored e-interns were more likely to have opportunities to cooperate with and help others. They likewise had opportunities to share information, knowledge and experiences.
Research limitations/implications
The study recruited interns from various countries. Potentially relevant cultural differences were not explored as part of this study.
Practical implications
The results demonstrate that the benefits of mentoring observed in relation to traditional internships can be fostered in e-internships. E-internships represent an opportunity for managers and employees, regardless of company size, to become mentors. E-internships thus represent another work-integrated as well as work-applied learning and skill development opportunity that creates additional options for many interns and organisations alike.
Originality/value
The evidence suggests that mentoring is becoming a regularly available feature for virtual and temporary workers such as e-interns, many of which are hired for short-term projects. As remote working has become a standard practice, e-internships are on the rise – and worthy of further study in order to promote best practices.
Details
Keywords
Musa Nyathi and Ray Kekwaletswe
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether employee outcomes of employee performance and job satisfaction mediate and enhance the effect of e-HRM usage on organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether employee outcomes of employee performance and job satisfaction mediate and enhance the effect of e-HRM usage on organizational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey involving 35 organizations using e-HRM systems. A partially mixed sequential dominant status explanatory design was used for the study. A stratified convenience sampling technique was used for the quantitative phase of the study. A purposive sampling technique was employed for the qualitative phase. A structural equation modelling technique with the use of the process macro approach was used to analyse collected data.
Findings
There is a positive relationship between e-HRM usage and employee outcomes. Employee performance and job satisfaction mediate the effect of e-HRM usage on organizational performance. Employee performance and job satisfaction are contextual variables that characterize effective e-HRM configurations.
Practical implications
Organizations should invest in employee outcomes in order to maximize the potential of e-HRM. The e-HRM configurations characterized by a multiplicity of dimensions are more likely to add to organizational value creation. The deployment of e-HRM systems should be preceded by high levels of employee performance and job satisfaction, for organizational success.
Originality/value
The study contributes to a growing body of knowledge on dimensions, which characterize effective e-HRM configurations, yielding organizational success. Employee performance and job satisfaction should be added to the characteristics of effective e-HRM configurations.
Details
Keywords
Marilú Pereira Castro and Tomas Aquino Guimaraes
The purpose of this paper is to identify dimensions that can influence the innovation process in justice organizations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify dimensions that can influence the innovation process in justice organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative approach. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview script. In all, 23 in-depth interviews were undertaken with lawyers, public defenders, judges, prosecutors and public officials from the five regions of Brazil. These data were analyzed using content analysis techniques.
Findings
The perceptions of the interviewees show that the process of innovation in justice organizations can be influenced by five dimensions: Institutional Environment (institutional level), Leadership (organizational level), Organizational Resources (organizational level), Cooperative Relations (interorganizational level) and Innovative Behavior (individual level). These dimensions may promote or restrict innovation.
Originality/value
The results indicate that there are growing efforts to introduce innovations designed to improve the performance and service delivery of justice organizations. However, there is resistance to innovation because these organizations are highly institutionalized and consequently seek stability and absence of change.
Details
Keywords
Juan Carlos Leiva and Ronald Brenes-Sanchez
This paper aims to assess knowledge relatedness as a possible determinant of business innovation performance. Knowledge relatedness is understood as the degree of similarity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess knowledge relatedness as a possible determinant of business innovation performance. Knowledge relatedness is understood as the degree of similarity between a firm’s knowledge and that of its parent, i.e. the company that the entrepreneur leaves to establish his or her own firm. Innovation performance results from the competitive position that the company achieves through its management of new products and services on the market.
Design/methodology/approach
For the empirical work, the authors used a database composed of 356 entrepreneurs who established recently their own business in Costa Rica: people who stopped working in multinational companies in Costa Rica and created their own businesses, and people who created their own businesses simultaneously as the former employees of multinationals.
Findings
This paper reports a positive and significant correlation between knowledge relatedness and innovation performance for a number of young firms.
Originality/value
This paper presents the fact of including knowledge relatedness as a research topic linked to business innovation.
Details
Keywords
Amy Fahy, Steven McCartney, Na Fu and Joseph Roche
Although significant research has examined the concept of transformational leadership, few studies have explored the indirect impact of transformational leadership on individual…
Abstract
Purpose
Although significant research has examined the concept of transformational leadership, few studies have explored the indirect impact of transformational leadership on individual and organizational outcomes within the context of crisis. Accordingly, this study aims to advance our understanding of the indirect impact of transformational leadership on school performance and principals' work alienation within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, this study contributes to this developing stream of literature by hypothesizing the indirect effect of two relational resources, namely employee trust and relational coordination, which mediate the relationship between transformational leadership, school performance and principals' work alienation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on a unique sample of 634 principals from Irish primary schools navigating the COVID-19 crisis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using Mplus 8.3 to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
Mixed findings emerged concerning the mediating process of relational resources and their impact on transformational leadership, school performance and principals' work-alienation. In particular, support is found for the critical role of principals whose transformational leadership style can help increase school performance. However, evidence suggests that employee trust does not mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and principals' work alienation.
Practical implications
This study provides several practical insights for education professionals, policymakers and HRM practitioners across each phase of the crisis management cycle. Firstly, regarding the pre-crisis stage, educational institutions should invest in targeted leadership development programs that prioritize relationship-building and effective communication among stakeholders. Second, during crises, the study emphasizes the role of relational resources in mediating the impact of leadership on school performance. Moreover, the study illustrates the importance of proactively cultivating strong connections with stakeholders, fostering timely, problem-solving-based communication. Finally, in the post-crisis phase, collaboration with government stakeholders is recommended to inform recovery policies.
Originality/value
This study makes several contributions to the literature on leadership and crisis management. First, this study adds new insights suggesting how principals as leaders influence school performance during crisis. Second, by adopting a relational perspective, this study suggests two types of relational resources (i.e. employee trust and relational coordination), as the mediators between transformational leadership, school performance and principals' work alienation. Third, this study moves the existing research on leadership during crisis forward by focusing on the functional effectiveness of leadership while focusing on the principals' work alienation during the pandemic.
Details
Keywords
Barbara Rebecca Mutonyi, Terje Slåtten and Gudbrand Lien
The aim of this study is to examine the role of organizational climate in employees’ creative performance using the public sector as an empirical context. The employees’ creative…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to examine the role of organizational climate in employees’ creative performance using the public sector as an empirical context. The employees’ creative performance is divided into two entities and studied as two separate effect variables: individual creativity and individual innovative behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model is developed and tested in a survey in which employees of a public sector organization participated.
Findings
The findings indicate that organizational climate has an important role in employees’ creative performance. The organizational climate showed a positive and significant link to the two creative performance variables included in this study. Moreover, the study revealed that individual creativity mediates the relationship between organizational climate and individual innovative behavior.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is limited to examining the role of organizational climate on two creative performance variables related to individual employees in the public sector. To trigger individual creativity and individual innovative behavior in the public sector, there is a need for managers to build, develop and maintain an organizational climate that supports both employees’ creativity and enthusiasm in implementing those novel and useful ideas.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first in the public sector to demonstrate the importance of organizational climate for employees’ individual creative performance. The findings of this study adds to our current knowledge and understanding of the value of organizational climate, and its influence on individual creative performance in the public sector.
Details
Keywords
Nicola Cangialosi, Adalgisa Battistelli and Carlo Odoardi
How to design jobs to support innovation is an issue that has received plenty of consideration over the past years. Building on the job characteristics model, the present study is…
Abstract
Purpose
How to design jobs to support innovation is an issue that has received plenty of consideration over the past years. Building on the job characteristics model, the present study is set up to identify configurations of perceived job characteristics for innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting a fuzzy-set configurational approach (fsQCA), the research question is addressed through a two-wave self-report survey of 199 employees of an Italian manufacturing company.
Findings
Results reveal four compatible configurations of job characteristics leading to high levels of innovative work behavior and two for low levels.
Practical implications
The results offer guidance for managers and organizations that aim to strengthen employee-driven innovation by offering different recipes of job design to maximize the chance of boosting innovative behaviors among their workers.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first to empirically test the relation of job characteristics for innovative behavior using a configurational approach. By doing so it contributes to the literature by advancing the notion that innovative endeavors are determined by the holistic effects of different interdependent configurations of job characteristics.
Details
Keywords
Marco Andre Willey Ramos, Paulo S. Figueiredo and Camila Pereira-Guizzo
Today, organizations must be able to create innovative strategies, and creative performance depends on knowing what hinders or stimulates creativity. This paper aims to determine…
Abstract
Purpose
Today, organizations must be able to create innovative strategies, and creative performance depends on knowing what hinders or stimulates creativity. This paper aims to determine which factors in the workplace environment positively or negatively affect creativity by analyzing individuals’ perceptions in a sample of Brazilian industrial companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The discussion is based on the componential theory of creativity and the use of a recognized research instrument (KEYS). A regression analysis was carried out, using eight environmental factors related to creativity. The purpose of the collection is to observe the statistical relationships between the scales of the factors and the results related to creativity.
Findings
Among the eight factors of the original componential theory, only three were found to have a significant impact on the creative process: organizational incentives, challenging work and support from the work group.
Research limitations/implications
The sample in this study was relatively small, and a larger sample will be required to undertake factor analysis.
Practical implications
Possible implications for the management of innovation in the Brazilian context are discussed in light of these results.
Originality/value
This study contributed to the production of knowledge, still scarce in the country, about the search for creative solutions through the work environment by confirming which factors are significant and determinants of creative performance and challenging factors that had already been proven by other studies in non-Brazilian contexts.
Details
Keywords
Rebecca L. Fix and Lisa A. Cooper
The current study evaluated (1) characteristics of the community leadership development program associated with successful participant recruitment, (2) active ingredients that…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study evaluated (1) characteristics of the community leadership development program associated with successful participant recruitment, (2) active ingredients that promoted fellow engagement and program completion and (3) how the program addressed blackness and racism.
Design/methodology/approach
Individual interviews were conducted with a representative subset of former program fellows.
Findings
Results indicated that offering training in small cohorts and matching fellows with individual mentors promoted program interest. Program strengths and unique ingredients included that the program was primarily led by people from the Black community, program malleability, and that the program was a partnership between fellows and leadership. Additionally, the program was responsive to fellows’ needs such as by adding a self-care component. Fellows also noted dedicated space and time to discuss race and racism. Results offer a unique theoretical perspective to guide leadership development away from the uniform or standardized approach and toward one that fosters diversity and equity in leadership.
Originality/value
Altogether, this work demonstrates how leadership development programs can be participant-informed and adapted to participants’ social and cultural needs.
Details
Keywords
Maurissa Moore and David O'Sullivan
This study explores one-to-one LEGO® Serious Play® in positive psychology coaching (1-1 LSP in PPC) as an intervention to help emerging adults (EAs) in higher education develop a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores one-to-one LEGO® Serious Play® in positive psychology coaching (1-1 LSP in PPC) as an intervention to help emerging adults (EAs) in higher education develop a growth mindset.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative single-participant case study of an EA undergraduate student's experience with 1-1 LSP in PPC to help him navigate uncertainty about making a decision that he felt would influence his future career.
Findings
1-1 LSP in PPC enabled the participant to create a metaphoric representation of how a growth mindset operated for him, promoting self-awareness and reflectivity. The LEGO® model that the participant built during his final session acted as a reminder of the resources and processes he developed during coaching, which helped him navigate future challenges.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the emerging literature on the impact of using LSP as a tool in one-to-one coaching in higher education. The participant's experience demonstrates that 1-1 LSP in PPC may be an effective way to support positive EA development. More research is needed to explore its potential.
Practical implications
This study provides a possible roadmap to incorporate 1-1 LSP in PPC into coaching in higher education as a reflective tool to build a growth mindset in EA students.
Originality/value
Because most undergraduates are EAs navigating the transition from adolescence into adulthood, universities would benefit from adopting developmentally informed coaching practices. 1-1 LSP in PPC may be an effective intervention that provides the structured and psychologically safe environment EAs need to develop lasting personal resources.
Details