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1 – 10 of over 52000Barbara Galleli and Flavio Hourneaux Junior
The purpose of this paper is to identify how human competences are associated with sustainable strategic management (SSM) within organisations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify how human competences are associated with sustainable strategic management (SSM) within organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study in two phases: first, a theoretical phase is developed, resulting in a proposal for the role of human competences in organisational sustainability; second, an empirical phase including instrumental case studies of two large, sustainability-oriented Brazilian companies. Data were obtained from interviews and companies’ reports. The authors used Atlas.ti software to perform the thematic content analysis.
Findings
Despite the importance of human competences in SSM, the authors find evidence that this concept has not been developed, even for companies with a consolidated position in sustainability. Human competences are a requirement for effective SSM.
Research limitations/implications
Coexisting elements within an organisation, often referred to as elements of organisational and human behaviour, can influence the dynamics of the expected interrelationships between human competences and sustainability management, in addition to the influencing factors presented in this study.
Originality/value
In general, studies advocate that the relationships among organisational competences, human competences and organisational strategies must be aligned and reinforced. Nevertheless, these relationships are not that solid as they should be as stated in both the literature and the conventional discourse of practitioners.
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Barbara Galleli, Flavio Hourneaux Jr and Luciano Munck
The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss human competences required for sustainability management in organisations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss human competences required for sustainability management in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a systematic review of the literature, through qualitative thematic analysis.
Findings
The research covered 15 years of scientific publications and was summarised in 43 articles. It revealed that education, more than management, was the field of knowledge with more references in human competences, through exploratory methodological approaches. The competences found were plenty, but there is still some misunderstanding regarding their conceptual and theoretical bases.
Research limitations/implications
This research provides evidence that the academic knowledge on the subject is still at its initial stage, and it exposes the debility of the management area in addressing the subject.
Practical implications
The authors intend to indicate to managers some fundamentals for the adoption of human competences for sustainability aiming at a more sustainable performance in organisations.
Social implications
The results may instigate studies concerning the fit of sustainability competences developed on higher education institutions and the job market. From it, curricula and pedagogical projects can be proposed and revised with better alignment to the organisational context.
Originality/value
This paper presents a theoretical contribution by building bridges among different perspectives and fields of knowledge on the topic. The paper also offers a managerial contribution by stimulating practical discussions to develop sustainability in organisations through individuals.
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Md Shamirul Islam and Muslim Amin
The review aims to demonstrate a broader perspective of human capital and employee well-being concept. Moreover, the study attempts to analyse theoretical notions underlying human…
Abstract
Purpose
The review aims to demonstrate a broader perspective of human capital and employee well-being concept. Moreover, the study attempts to analyse theoretical notions underlying human capital and well-being relationship and thus to guide the integration of two distinct concepts.
Design/methodology/approach
This review followed the systematic literature search protocols from the Academic Journal Guide 2018 generated by the Chartered Association of Business Schools. Sixty-nine quantitative research papers were selected for the review.
Findings
Human capital is not only about individual competence but includes acquisition, utilization and development of competence in a broader sense. Employee well-being has been discussed from subjective and objective viewpoints and categorized into happiness, health and financial aspects. The review results suggest that various organizational theories, workplace learning and learning organization perspectives underlie human capital and well-being relationship. The review guides that the high involvement working model encapsulates well-being as part of human capital development.
Research limitations/implications
This review discusses practical implications for human resource management practitioners.
Originality/value
This review is a unique attempt to assess the human capital and well-being literature systematically.
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Xiaohong Liu, Da Ruan and Yang Xu
For an enterprise, the competence of human resource is more important than the intellect or the basic quality of human resource. This paper aims to present a competence…
Abstract
Purpose
For an enterprise, the competence of human resource is more important than the intellect or the basic quality of human resource. This paper aims to present a competence appraisement model of human resource in an enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper puts forward the appraisement index architecture of enterprise human resource competence on the foundation of adopting the concept and models of competence, and establishes a general model of the enterprise human resource competence appraisement.
Findings
The results obtained in this paper provide a foundation to establish a relatively reasonable and efficient enterprise appraisement system of human resources.
Originality/value
The research offers information about the enterprise appraisement information processing system of human resources.
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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the research and literature through the development of the theme of competence foresight. In addition, the aim is to construct…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the research and literature through the development of the theme of competence foresight. In addition, the aim is to construct information pathways for the foresight mechanism, for the use of practitioners, to enable them to manage talent and competences with an anticipatory perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The research strategy is theoretical research with interpretive concept analysis approach. The research compares, compiles and combines theories and perspectives of strategic human resource management and development, talent management, competence management and foresight.
Findings
The results combine the information pathways and elements of the pathways for the competence foresight mechanism. The main three pathways in the mechanism are the pathways for detecting the needed competences for strategy implementation, the pathways for detecting rapid changes and the loss of competences.
Research limitations/implications
As talent management frameworks are organization specific, so are the mechanisms and information pathways for competence foresight. The results can be adjusted and developed to fit into other organizations.
Practical implications
The analysis and results provide the practitioners in human resources with new perspectives to use systematic foresight processes in talent management and development. The results can also be used for modelling the information pathways for the competence foresight mechanism in talent management software.
Originality/value
The research on human resources development and talent management does not deal with competence foresight. This paper addresses this deficiency and brings new, valuable perspectives of foresight and future studies for researchers and practitioners. This paper challenges further research on various aspects of competence foresight.
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Marko Kesti and Antti Syväjärvi
The purpose of this paper is to deal with tacit signals and organization performance development. Tacit signals are personal guiding beliefs that arise from tacit knowledge. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to deal with tacit signals and organization performance development. Tacit signals are personal guiding beliefs that arise from tacit knowledge. The paper describes theoretical hypotheses how tacit signal method is utilized in competence measurement and organization performance improvement. Theories are evaluated by empirically grounded study.
Design/methodology/approach
The tacit signal approach is linked to human pressure‐performance theory of inverted U‐curve, known as Yerkes‐Dodson law. Moreover, a new mental model of five interrelated competences is used in order to understand the pluralistic nature of organization development. These five competences are management, leadership, culture, skills, and processes. The paper describes how competences can be studied by tacit signals, offering positive elements for both management and performance. The case study is done in Finnish commercial business enterprise of approximately 1,000 employees.
Findings
Empirically grounded case study supports the theoretical approach, showing that tacit signals are in correlation to organization performance. Tacit signals help working groups identifying their collective dissonance in a way that will help them to increase emotional intelligence and performance. In the case, company significant improvement in profitability is found.
Originality/value
The paper connects researcher innovation of tacit signals to organization competence measurement. This paper supports hypotheses that persons have tacit knowledge of personal situation at pressure‐performance curve. This situation can be measured for each competence by tacit signal inquiry which guides to optimal improvement which strengthens the group emotional intelligence and increases performance. The described tacit signal method and system intelligence model gives additional value to further scientific studies.
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Laura Grazzini, Giampaolo Viglia and Daniel Nunan
There is growing interest in the use of human-like social robots, able to undertake complex tasks whilst building consumer engagement. However, further exploration is needed on…
Abstract
Purpose
There is growing interest in the use of human-like social robots, able to undertake complex tasks whilst building consumer engagement. However, further exploration is needed on the optimal level of humanoid appearance for service robots. In particular, the literature is limited with respect to mitigating disconfirmed expectations for robots high in human-likeness. This paper aims to address this gap by testing the effect of robot appearance, disconfirmed expectations and warmth (vs competence) on customers’ responses.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a mixed-method design by presenting a focus group (Study 1) that guides two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 and 3). Studies 2 and 3 test for the moderating effect of warmth (vs competence) and the mediating roles of perceived eeriness and disconfirmed expectations.
Findings
The findings show that a robot high (vs low) in human-likeness leads to higher negative customers’ responses, which is explained by disconfirmed expectations rather than perceived eeriness. However, when customers interact with a warm (vs competent) robot high in human-likeness, this negative effect vanishes.
Research limitations/implications
The paper investigates boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms that affect customers’ experiences. Although the study adopts high realistic experiments, a limitation lies in not measuring customers’ actual behaviours in the field.
Practical implications
This study provides new insights on how the appearance and characteristics of social robots influence the consumers’ experience. By doing so, this study offers managers actionable insights (i.e. enhancing warmth) to lessen the risk of disconfirmed expectations.
Originality/value
The paper offers new explanations as to why human-like robots can generate negative responses from customers. Moving beyond the “uncanny valley” hypothesis, this study shows the key role of disconfirmed expectations in explaining consumers’ negative responses towards humanoid robots. Moreover, it sheds light on the moderating role of warmth (vs competence), which can mitigate such negative effects.
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Emmanuel Flores, Xun Xu and Yuqian Lu
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to raise and address an important change for the human capital in the future of Industry 4.0, and to propose a human-focused perspective for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to raise and address an important change for the human capital in the future of Industry 4.0, and to propose a human-focused perspective for companies underneath the new Industrial Revolution.
Design/methodology/approach
The research study follows a state-of-the-art literature review process. The nature of the selected approach enables to cover the extensive aim of the paper with sufficient scientific solidity that should support the understanding of every topic.
Findings
This work has presented three relevant aspects for Industry 4.0 and its human labour force: a workforce architecture with new interactions, a term to embrace the human capital of the future and a typology for referencing the required competences for Industry 4.0.
Research limitations/implications
The paper sheds light on an important aspect for the emerging Industrial Revolution, the human force. The result and conclusion sections suggest future implications for academia and the private sector, due to changes at the conceptual and practical levels of human operation in the industry – for example, new structural interactions among employees, additional qualities to human capital and different ways to identify the competences for the workforce.
Originality/value
This is an interdisciplinary study that tries to bring together a modern industrial term, a social focus and a company scenario. From this, it was possible to obtain a new social term, a novel typology of competences and a new company-scenario interaction.
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Paula Cristina Nunes Figueiredo, Maria José Sousa and Eduardo Tomé
The aim of the paper is to propose an integrative model of the leader competences through the analysis of the several models of competence found in the literature review.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is to propose an integrative model of the leader competences through the analysis of the several models of competence found in the literature review.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used was qualitative, based partially on an integrative literature review (Torraco 2016). This paper aims to review, update and criticize the literature related to the competences approach in the organizational context and, on the other hand, to review, criticize and synthesize the literature, namely, the models and competences.
Findings
Difficulties in choosing and implementing a leader competency model led to the integration of competencies in a single model, seeking to simplify the choice and implementation process in organizations. The integrative model of leader competences arises from the literature review, more specifically from the analysis of the different approaches found. This model is grouped into four dimensions – intellectual competences, management competences, social competences and emotional competences. This research is a contribution to reduce the fragmentation of leadership and management theories and facilitates the choice and implementation of a leader competence model suited to the organization’s needs, contributing to the leadership effectiveness.
Originality/value
The integrative model of the leader competences allows the choice and implementation of a competence model with a wide range of competences considered as essential in the organizational context by several researchers. This model simplifies the process of identifying the competences that need to be developed, feeding the human resources development process within the organization.
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Cristina Lourenço Ubeda and Fernando Cesar Almada Santos
The aim of this paper is to analyse the staff development and performance appraisal in a Brazilian research centre.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to analyse the staff development and performance appraisal in a Brazilian research centre.
Design/methodology/approach
The key issues of this case study are: the main organisational changes which have taken place over the last decades; the aspects of the organisational structure that have either contributed to or hindered competence‐based management; the development of necessary researchers' competences related to main projects and processes and the way of appraising the development of their competences. The analysis of this paper was carried out considering the following phases: strategic planning, specifications of projects and processes, competence‐based management and performance appraisal of researchers.
Findings
Although integration was found between the performance measurement and strategic plans defined by the research centre, competence‐based management is still centred on individuals and based on their tasks. The link between researchers' competences and their social context is not considered.
Originality/value
Feedback from the results of research projects and recycling of organisational processes would allow the studied organisation not only to identify the individual competences necessary for each activity, but also to improve the relationship between professional growth and innovation brought about by competitive strategies of companies.
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