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The purpose of this paper is to study the status of the individual self in the emergence of change initiatives in organizations.

This theoretical paper examines the emergence of change initiatives through the building of agents’ capacity to act, based on a theory of action inspired by Paul Ricœur.

This paper identifies the “course of recognition” to favor the emergence of change initiatives and the building of the capacity to act of agents, respecting the autonomy at the individual level, a sense of care at the group level and justice at the institutional level.

The theoretical research can be extended with empirical studies dealing with the role of agents’ capacities in conflict management, the role of the “narrative self´” in change processes in organizations and the conjoint operationalization of autonomy care and justice to determine the agents’ capacity to act for initiatives to emerge.

It is important to develop a sense of shared leadership to nurture the capacity to act of agents to make change initiatives emerge in organizations, increasing organizational members’ feelings of being recognized.

So far, research has not provided satisfactory answers to the question about how to best initiate organizational change. The use of Ricœur’s theory of action adds value to the existing approaches as it addresses the source of the emergence of initiatives from agents’ feelings of their capacity to act, and integrates individual, group and institutional levels, which are rarely contemplated together.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend how individuals analysed organisational initiatives while responding to the COVID-19 crisis through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives through both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) forms. CSR actions manifested finally towards the achievement of organisational reputational and economic egoism.

The study was conducted on 331 respondents during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in India. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Two models were tested. The research models were tested using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and AMOS.

This study considered the evaluation of the in cash (funding-based) and in-kind CSR types of CSR initiatives by individuals with personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism. The results of the first model indicated a significant positive relationship between independence, utilitarian thinking (UT) and organisational economic egoism (OEE). The mediating effect of UT between the independence-OEE relationship was significant. The results of the second model also found a significant relationship between interdependence, deontological thinking (DT) and organisational reputational egoism (ORE). Similarly, there was a significant positive relationship between altruism, DT and ORE. The mediation effect of DT was significant for both the relationships. The moderated mediation relationship of both the first and second model has been found to be significant.

In the research integrated models were developed associating individual personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism with UT and DT and subsequently to organisational economic and reputational egoism.

Managers undertaking CSR initiatives through both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) would be better able to understand based upon these study insights what nature of CSR initiatives (in-kind or in cash) are more appropriate for what kind of individual context (independence, interdependence and altruism) in decision-making (UT and DT) with organisational context (organisational economic and reputational egoism).

In the trying realities of the COVID-19 context, firms were contributing to society through CSR initiatives which were both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) in nature. This study emphasised what kind of CSR initiative was more appropriate for what kind of context for both enhanced social good and increased organisational gains.

This was one of the first studies in the context of CSR initiatives during COVID-19 times that analysed evaluation of in cash (funding-based) and in-kind CSR actions. CSR initiatives by individuals with personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism were related to UT and DT and finally manifested towards organisational economic and reputational egoism.

This study addresses a central research question: Does employees' personal initiative, with a benevolent political will, lead to career growth prospects in a work environment replete with perceived organizational politics? Drawing upon self-determination, signalling, and social cognitive theories, the authors examine how perceptions of organizational politics operate to limit the influence of benevolent political will – induced personal initiative on career growth prospects.

This research adopts a quantitative research design. This multi-wave, multi-sample and multi-source investigation includes 730 subordinate-supervisor dyads from India's information technology, education and manufacturing companies. The sample comprises 236 full-time faculty members from higher educational institutions and 496 mid-level managers from technical and service departments of information technology and manufacturing companies.

The results indicate that benevolent political will is significantly related to career growth prospects. In addition, perceptions of organizational politics shows a crossover interaction effect. The findings reveal that the indirect relationship between benevolent political will and career growth prospects changed significantly from those with a low perception of organizational politics to significantly negative among those perceiving organizational politics as high.

This study provides several implications for practice regarding personal initiative, benevolent political will and perceptions of organizational politics.

The significant contributions of this study are to provide new insights into the relationship between benevolent political will and career growth prospects and to unravel the paradoxical nature of the personal initiative phenomenon.

On the basis of the Collective Intelligence Genome framework, which was developed to describe private, for profit ventures, this study aims to review the recent public sector initiatives launched by the American federal government and the European Union. The study's goal is to examine if, and how, the Genome construct would apply to not for profit.

This paper builds on an existing classification methodology for collective intelligence initiatives and extends it to pubic sector initiatives.

The findings suggest that, although the framework offers a generally good fit, it does not fully address all the factors at play and the paper proposes expanding the gene pool. In addition, it confirms that Collective Intelligence initiatives do indeed co‐create value and conform to the emerging services dominant logic concept.

With the growing success of profit motivated internet‐based collaborative ventures, including Innocentive, VenCorps, Threadless and many others, governments have taken notice and engaged. Recent public sector initiatives, including Open.gov, Peer 2 Patent, innovation.ED.gov among others, have begun to leverage collaborative internet media through similar means. These initiatives not only engage a broader community in the co‐creation of value, but also foster what has been termed as Collective Intelligence. This paper details one of the first forays into what might be termed sense making within the public sector usage of Collective Intelligence using the Genome framework and, as such, provides researchers and practitioners with a means of assessing value, potential impact and making comparisons.

This paper aims to discuss how religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals may view the three core workplace spiritual values: transcendence, existence of a higher power and interconnectedness. Additionally, this paper studies how the contrasts between the views of religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals about the three core spiritual values affect their performance of social responsibility initiatives.

A conceptual analysis was used.

This paper suggests that religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals view the three core spiritual values differently. Drawing upon the three core spiritual values viewed by religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals, this paper proposes the following. First, religiously affiliated individuals will focus on implementing social responsibility initiatives for a longer time orientation compared to non-religiously affiliated individuals. Second, when engaging in social responsibility, religiously affiliated individuals will focus on implementing a smaller scope of social responsibility initiatives than non-religiously affiliated individuals. Finally, religiously affiliated individuals will focus on implementing a larger scale of social responsibility initiatives than non-religiously affiliated individuals.

This paper is one of the very first studies addressing how religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals view core values of spirituality. Additionally, this paper advances the literature by contrasting how religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals engage in socially responsible initiatives in accordance with how they view spirituality.

Prior research into multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) entrepreneurial initiatives has drawn from various theoretical bases, including entrepreneurial cognition, knowledge-based view, and management control theory. Empirical studies and cases have consistently pointed to the temporal dimension, highlighting the dynamic elements of learning, capability development and evolution, and consequences of conflict. By incorporating theory on time use into the analysis, we develop a new theoretical insight regarding the temporal dimension of MNE entrepreneurial initiatives. Our analysis offers a basis for a more explicit focus on time use in studies of entrepreneurial initiatives in MNEs than has been offered to date. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

There is a growing interest in understanding the motivational processes explaining the emergence of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Romance of Leadership (RoL), that is the over-attribution of responsibility for performance to leaders, and motivation to lead (MtL) as well as moderation effects of self-efficacy and personal initiative.

Data were collected using a questionnaire design. The sample consisted of n=1,348 participants at different career stages (students and employees). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses.

Individuals high in RoL tend to be more motivated to lead. The results also support the assumed moderating effects. This relationship is stronger for individuals high in self-efficacy and high in personal initiative. This was particularly true for the student sample.

Due to the cross sectional design causal inferences are limited. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the socio-cognitive processes that influence MtL at different career stages and shed new light on the outcomes of RoL.

–The research can help career counselors, coaches, and HR managers to better understand socio-cognitive processes underlying MtL of different groups and therefore improve the quality of advice to their clients.

Career planning is an important issue when the pool of talented leaders needs to be increased. The study contributes to knowledge on antecedences of MtL. This may help to clarify newcomers’ and other applicants’ career ambitions.

This is, to the authors knowledge, the first study to investigate the effect of RoL on MtL.

This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how individual characteristics and perceived contextual conditions shape reflection in professional work, particularly in workplaces that provide a variety of work experiences related to changes. The authors examine the effects of personal initiative, self-efficacy and perceived psychological safety in work relations with colleagues and supervisors on individuals’ reflection at work.

A sample of 84 client advisors who had recently been affected by major changes in retail banking workplaces participated in the study. The participants completed a questionnaire consisting of instruments to map their self-rated personal initiative, self-efficacy beliefs, reflection at work and perception of psychological safety in work relations with colleagues and supervisors. The data were analysed by performing correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses.

The results revealed that both individuals’ personal initiative and self-efficacy significantly positively affect reflection at work. An individual’s perception of psychological safety – particularly among peers – positively predicts reflection.

This paper enriches the research on reflection in professional work, particularly against the backdrop of workplace changes. This is done by emphasising the power of individuals’ proactive role and initiative-taking work behaviour; positive beliefs in their own capabilities, e.g. managing the various opportunities involved in workplace changes; and their perception of a psychologically safe environment within a work group that is characterised by interpersonal trust, mutual respect and supportive cooperation.

As part of discussing future research in the era of change for Globalization 4.0, this chapter examines the traditional academic CSR literature to determine a gap in current research. An academic literature search revealed limited literature on actual CSR activities, and more specifically, Social Initiatives (SIs). It is important to expand on this area of research as it relates to an evolution of the original CSR definition by Carroll (1979, 1999). The literature review also revealed limited use of Social Identity Theory in CSR studies: a theory which provides an excellent context to give ‘purpose’ and meaning to a more socially oriented form of CSR. It also provides a base to understand human ‘identification’ and ‘identity’ with CSR activities, in a new era of change. Recent research reveals the importance of understanding what employees and global citizens as stakeholders want, need, identify, and engage with. Following a literature review, this chapter introduces a new ‘Social Initiatives Framework,’ designed to incorporate the many terms and alternative themes associated with CSR. The chapter concludes with extracts from an example paper for this area of research, and provides a model to examine changing stakeholder perspectives in global settings. The findings behind the development of the model is discussed, revealing substantial opportunities for future research. The chapter highlights the development of CSR SIs to study the sustainable development goals, while also supporting social enterprises to solve wicked challenges and create shared value (CSV) for both the host community and the company within the setting where the organization resides.

At any point in time, most companies have a myriad of internal development initiatives in progress, dealing with a broad spectrum of different activities with respect to time horizon, functional areas involved, and actors with different roles and interests.

This chapter sets forth to analyse how to manage this myriad of projects. Two ways of bringing several projects into a meaningful context will be presented. In the first way, a plurality of simultaneous development initiatives is organized in portfolios based on their mutual interdependencies. Four approaches to prioritizing projects in a portfolio will be discussed.

In the second way, a development program is formulated in which a strategic effort should be implemented by means of a number of different projects.

The last section will focus on company development under unpredictable and complex conditions, and we will present a framework for Agile company development.