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Managers of public organizations in liberalized sectors face the dual imperative of retaining skilled employees who might be poached by commercial competitors and improving service performance levels without a free hand to invest resources. While employee work engagement (EWE) has been previously suggested as a solution to such management challenges, limitations in its ability to retain employees have been identified. We therefore examine how a social identity crafting (SIC) approach to public leadership that confers a sense of group identity among team members can enhance and extend beyond EWE in addressing this dual imperative.

We report findings from a survey of employees (n = 199) at “ATCO,” a state-owned national airline that is facing challenges from commercial rivals within a new, competitive environment.

We confirm previously identified limitations of EWE and, further, demonstrate that a social identity approach to leadership offers a promising avenue for public managers, not only by enhancing employee engagement but, more importantly, by enhancing retention and service performance.

We contribute to studies of leadership, particularly for managers operating in the public sector and resource-constrained environments, demonstrating how SIC, which does not require costly investment to attain, can deliver improved service performance and reduced employee turnover intention, operating beyond EWE, which reaches a plateau in respect of the latter.

THE Arsenal de I'Aéronautique occupies a unique position in French aviation some‐what analagous to that held prior to and during the Four Years' War by the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough. Founded in 1936, it was intended to be a State factory under the direct control of the Ministére de I'Air for the study and evolution of prototypes and new equipment. It was established with the object of producing prototypes of airframes and engine‐coupling equipment which could ultimately go into production in one of the Sociétés Nationales and it was also definitely considered as a competitor to these concerns. (It is of interest here to point out that the four great French nationalized companies, Centre, Nord, Sud‐Est and Sud‐Ouest, which were founded in 1936 from various private companies are not under the strict control of the Air Ministry. In point of fact, they exercise considerable freedom much as any other large concern; the nationalizing consisting mainly of additional capital added by the State to counter the disastrous effects of the ever‐falling franc.)

THE policy and organization of the Avro Repair Group was based upon intelligent anticipation—anticipation of the many and varied types of damage that might be expectedl anticipation of quantities, and anticipation of facilities to deal with all contingencies. The central depot at Bracebridge Heath, Lincoln, developed from an ex‐1914–18 war hangar to an establishment employing nearly 3,000 men and forming the hub of an organization that embraced many stations and subcontractors' works, civilian out‐working parties, of A. V. Roe personnel, effected a high proportion of major repairs to Lancaster, York and Anson aircraft; such parties were stationed all over the British Isles and were supplemented by a fleet of some seventy mobile workshops.

The authors explore the metaphors people from Indonesia use to describe their propriety beliefs about the ethical legitimacy of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS). This paper aims to understand why there is a consensus of propriety beliefs about the ethical legitimacy of TAPS in the face of increased government regulations and international criticism of such marketing practices.

The data were collected from 71 study participants using both focus groups and in-depth photo-elicitation interviews.

The participants use three sets of metaphors to describe propriety beliefs. First, participants used metaphors that described the centrality of TAPS and smoking in Indonesian society. Second, they used metaphors that described TAPS regulations and regulators and third, they used metaphors that described the activities of tobacco firms. Participants’ photographs revealed strong collective validity of TAPS within Indonesia and strong propriety beliefs consensus.

This study is one of the first to integrate legitimacy-as-perception theory and the ecological systems framework to gain a multilevel insight into the TAPS activities are perceived as legitimate and, therefore, not unethical.

The findings have important implications for tobacco control regulators who wish to curtail TAPS in a country where all levels of the ecological system reinforce their collective validity. Policy and regulative initiatives must, therefore, be used in a systemic way to change this collective validity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use a legitimacy perspective to understand the ethical legitimacy of TAPS in marketing literature. It is also the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to use the three legitimacy-as-perception constructs: propriety beliefs, collective validity and consensus of propriety beliefs. The authors show that despite increased government regulations and international disapproval, TAPS continues to be considered ethically legitimate in Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process optimization of a precast concrete component production line by using value stream mapping.

This paper is an empirical focused on of lean production theory and value stream mapping. The data in the case study were collected in real time on-site for each process during the production process of a prefabricated exterior wall.

The results of the current value stream map indicate that the main problems of the current production process are related to equipment, technology and organization. The equipment problems include simple demolding and cleaning tools and the lack of professional transfer channels. The technology problems include the lack of a marking mechanism and pipeline exit mechanism. There is a lack of standard operating procedures and incomplete process convergence. A comparison and analysis of the current value stream and the future value flow indicate that optimizations of the process flow, the production line layout, and the standard operating procedures have shortened the delivery cycle, reduced the number of workers, improved the operator’s operating level and balanced the production line.

The results of this study provide practitioners with a clear understanding of the optimization of the precast concrete component production and represent a method and basis for the process optimization of a factory production line; the approach is suitable for process optimization in other areas.

This research represents an innovative application of lean production theory and value stream mapping in a complex production line of precast concrete components and thereby fills the gap between the theory and practice of the optimization of a precast concrete component production line.

This study examines the relationship between strategic entrepreneurial behaviors (SEBs) and the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging market context. The authors expand upon prior work in this area by building and testing a model that assesses the moderating effect of CEOs’ narcissism and Machiavellianism on the relationship between SEBs and SME performance.

To test the authors’ theoretical model, the authors use the results of a larger data collection project in Russia to create a national random sample of 372 Russian SMEs that were approached between August and November 2019.

The authors found support for the positive relationship between SEBs and SME performance. Additionally, the authors found that CEO narcissism and Machiavellianism strengthen the relationship between SEBs and firm performance.

This study is an important step toward enriching the understanding of the role of CEO personality traits in shaping the efficiency of entrepreneurial behavior at the firm level. Extending previous research, the authors show that SEBs have a positive effect on firm performance in an emerging market context. Additionally, the authors contribute insight about how personality characteristics of CEOs, specifically narcissism and Machiavellianism, influence the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior and firm performance. Finally, the authors’ research contributes to the development of strategic leadership theory: the results offer insight to scholars regarding the potentially beneficial attributes of otherwise “dark” leaders.