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Process orientation is important for improving organizational performance. The process view is considered a key enabler of digital transformation, and thus management control systems (MCS) are expected to incorporate this view. However, the existing body of knowledge is fragmented, as different process approaches are often considered independently following a reductionist view of control practices. This paper aims to provide recommendations for further research as well as guidance for practice by a systematic review of the state of research of MC for process orientation. It is based on both a comprehensive view to MC using an MCS package approach and a comprehensive view of process orientation.

A systematic literature review addressing major types of process orientation approaches was performed by applying the comprehensive MC framework of Malmi and Brown. The results were synthesized and propositions were developed.

All components of the MC framework, as well as MCS packages, are highly relevant for process orientation. Propositions regarding configurations of MC for process orientation show directions for future research. However, comprehensive considerations of packages and of individual components, especially cultural controls, remain scarce in the literature.

To the best of the authors‘ knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive, structured overview of MC for process orientation, applying a nonreductionist view, based on an MCS Package approach, and consolidating the so far fragmented view of different process approaches.

The evolution and trends of special education and educational leadership are evident, especially in recent years. The former has strived to provide equitable educational opportunities to students with disabilities. The latter has dealt with how people in positions of authority in K-12 schools create policy, use resources, and influence other people to achieve educational goals. Together, these notions constitute an idea that school leaders and administrators can provide insight, oversight, assistance, and guidance toward creating educational environments for students with and without disabilities. This chapter examines the current state of special education and educational leadership by exploring the evolution of special education, relevant legal cases, and the enactment of inclusive education. Furthermore, this chapter addresses contemporary issues for leaders, such as the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, while dealing with special education and the increasing pressure from families for equity for students with disabilities.

Despite much attention being devoted to shared leadership, the negotiation of such arrangements remains underexplored. In parallel, the revival of interest in matrix structures reveals their challenges but neglects the dynamics of shared leadership. In this case study, the author analyzes the tensions experienced by senior managers of a healthcare organization transitioning from a hierarchical to matrix structure as they negotiate their leadership roles in this new arrangement.

The author interviewed 16 senior managers, observed their meetings and analyzed documents. These data were combined with secondary data including previous interviews and observations of this top leadership team. The author then conducted an inductive data analysis.

The author's analysis reveals that the tensions experienced by senior managers as they negotiate their roles reflect the co-existence of leadership surpluses (too much leadership) and deficits (too little leadership) in matrix organizations. The author argues that surpluses and deficits are not mutually exclusive but are interrelated and shows how leadership surpluses can create leadership deficits.

The author’s findings suggest that in contexts of leader abundance, actors should explore leadership voids. Particular attention should be paid to incidents of intrusion and exclusion, moments of transition and intense role negotiation, as those contexts are particularly conducive to leadership deficits.

While previous work on matrix structures focuses on leadership surpluses, the author discusses leadership deficits. The author explores how more leaders do not necessarily mean more leadership, but instead how more leaders may result in leadership voids.

As aging populations lead to longer working lives and increasing automation threatens job security, maintaining lifelong employability is becoming a fundamental challenge for many individuals. The purpose of this study is to examine how lifelong employability can be maintained.

Based on the theoretical perspectives of both movement capital and selection, optimization and compensation (SOC) theories, we used large-scale survey data (N = 2,256) from three European countries to investigate strategies for preserving employability among aging workers. Specifically, we explored the perceived risk of automation, lifelong learner characteristics and self-efficacy for occupational mobility as boundary conditions that may shape the negative relationship between age and employability.

We found a negative relationship between age and employability, which was more pronounced when the perceived risk of automation was higher. Furthermore, lifelong learner characteristics and self-efficacy for occupational mobility mitigated the negative relationship, so that age was not related to employability if people possessed lifelong learner characteristics and were ready for a career change.

Our study implies the importance of investing in enhancing lifelong learner characteristics and self-efficacy for occupational mobility for older employees.

This study aims to investigate organizational learning, represented by the absorptive capacity, as a condition for the firm to learn about marketing data and make more informed decisions. The authors also aimed to understand how the behavior of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) businesses differ in this scenario through a multilevel perspective.

Placing absorptive capacity as a mediator of the relationship between business analytics and rational marketing decisions, the authors analyzed data from 224 Brazilian retail companies using structural equation modeling estimated with partial least squares. To test the cross-level moderation effect, the authors also performed a multilevel analysis in RStudio.

The authors found a partial mediation of the absorptive capacity in the relation between business analytics and rational marketing decisions. The authors also discovered that, in the MSMEs firms’ group, even if smaller companies find it more difficult to use data, those that do may reap more benefits than larger ones. This is due to the influence of size in how firms handle information.

The sample size, despite having shown to be consistent and valid, is considered small for a multilevel study. This suggests that our multilevel results should be viewed as suggestive, rather than conclusive, and subjected to further validation.

Rather than solely positioning business analytics as a tool for decision support, the authors’ analysis highlights the importance for firms to develop the absorptive capacity to enable ongoing acquisition, exploration and management of knowledge.

MSMEs are of economic and social importance to most countries, especially developing ones. This research aimed to improve understanding of how this group of firms could transform knowledge into better decisions. The authors also highlight micro and small firms’ difficulties with the use of marketing data so that they can have more effective practices.

The research contributes to the understanding of organizational mechanisms to absorb and learn from the vast amount of current marketing information. Recognizing the relevance of MSMEs, a preliminary multilevel analysis was also conducted to comprehend differences within this group.

The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between digital leadership and academic performance. It models the digitalization process, outlining why and how digital leadership is important for better academic performance. At the same time, this study examines the role of digital culture as a moderating variable in the direct relationship between main variables of the study. The study aims to expand the domain of academic performance at the university by including a much recent leadership-related aspect and organizational context of the digital culture.

The study opted for a descriptive study, using the survey instruments to collect the data. The sample population consisted of students currently enrolled at the Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Melaka, Malaysia. Based on the convenience sampling, 383 samples were drawn from the sample population. All items were adopted from previous literature, and expert feedback was obtained to examine the validity of the instruments. The data were analysed using SPSS and SmartPLS version 3.0.

This study provides empirical insights about how digital leadership is important for academic performance for the new millennials. Also, digital culture is found to provide significant moderation effect into the relationship. It suggests that universities must promote digitalization culture and embed the use of technology and digitalization into teaching and learning to cultivate a more effective learning process among university students. This is important as elements of digital leadership, including adaptive role, attitude, digital competency, digital skill and inspirational role, are found to significantly contribute to academic performance.

This study only focuses on samples taken from one of the faculties in one campus, thus limiting its scope. Future research is encouraged to replicate the same study setting to include larger sample size from different faculties, or perhaps from different universities. These propositions could help to better generalize the research findings on the practice of digital leadership on academic performance in the country. However, this study established a digital leadership model that can be applied to undergraduate students at the universities. Also, the inclusion of digital culture can strengthen the learning process.

This study includes implications for the development of digital leadership attributes and promoting digital culture within the university students and environment for engaging in a better academic performance. Digital leadership is found to be an important criterion of academic performance in this digital age society, and cultivating digital culture enhances students’ academic performance. These findings shall prompt the university to actively engage in fostering digitalization culture within the university. Also, the top management of the university should inform the students to be adaptive and cultivate the attributes of digital leaders, as their readiness to cope with the technological change has significant positive impact on their academic performance.

It is important to ensure that the future graduates that are being produced are ready to take on more challenges as digital leaders in the digital society. This might accelerate the country’s initiatives and efforts towards becoming a developed nation. Thus, investing in oneself to become digitally literate and competent might not only influence their academic performance, but they will also be equipped to fulfil one of the expectations of future employers of potential graduates, which is possessing digital leadership.

Digitalization is not only about the technology. It is about the people too. As the study on digital leadership is still in its infant stage, this study is unique as it is among the earliest to establish digital leadership constructs within the context of Malaysia. It informs the university that digital leadership provides significant contribution to academic performance. Thus, the university is encouraged to nurture digitalization, not only in the teaching and learning but also with the people within the university environment. Determining the right programs and plans for the curricular will help students to develop digital leadership attributes more effectively. Finally, improving digitalization among its students and culture is important, as these elements provide significant effect towards academic performance.

Purpose. This chapter discusses the challenges and different strategies to increase skill development for the future workforce.

Methodology. Multiple sources on the topic were studied and reviewed in this chapter. The idea of skill and its development is discussed in the literature review.

Findings. Different nations’ governments have promoted human capital development by providing up-skilling and retraining programs to balance supply and demand. Skills gaps need to be brought to the attention of stakeholders, such as governments, businesses, and the educational system. Teachers, employers, and other stakeholders need to develop strategies and action plans to ensure that the skills gaps are appropriately identified and adequately addressed. These initiatives must be developed with input from various stakeholders.

Practical Implications. The research results would inform the curriculum, incorporating skill development processes tailored to various scenarios. These findings would aid business organisations in crafting skill development programs that address identified skill gaps. Challenges in skill development would be taken into account during course development, and relevant teaching–learning materials would be created. Key stakeholders, such as accrediting organisations, employers, and students, should exert more influence on academic institutions to prioritise societal demands for economic development.

Originality/Value. The uniqueness and significance of this chapter lie in its concise summary of the strategies to tackle the hurdles in skill development.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) was mandated and institutionalised in India through the Companies Act (2013), a decade ago. It is critical to understand the priorities of the models used by the companies to effectuate their CSR policy. This paper aims to understand the skewing of interest towards Education and Health interventions. The paper then proposes a framework to cross-level and effectuate CSR programme implementation.

The qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews of the stakeholders from the CSR environment. The findings are used to derive a model to effectuate CSR in India.

The findings may be divided into two sub-themes – (a) observations from the field study and (b) integrated solution ecosystem (ISE) framework. The qualitative study and the insights form the first component. The proposed framework which can enhance the efficiency of CSR practices may be found in the second sub-theme.

Operationalisation of the proposed model, if adopted would require integrated efforts from multiple functional departments which could lead to an extended timeframe for implementation. This may eventually lead to a need to revise the model in the making. The research could also include perspectives from governmental stakeholders which is missing here.

The emerging model can present an opportunity for corporates and policymakers to revisit the CSR structure and frameworks. It can also be used to evaluate and audit the CSR practices of companies.

The ISE posits a bunch of actionable themes which can deliver an impactful transition from the existing approach to CSR to a more far reaching one. While the ground rules are revisited, the approach also allows a critical departure from a corporate-driven model of engagement with the community. The modifications or corrections in this model would also mean a more inclusive layering of developmental interventions. The diversity which could potentially be brought in to designing interventions can be another key impact.

This paper presents insights for some of the pivotal stakeholders of CSR in countries like India. It presents a possible model of effective and optimal utilisation of CSR spending.

Taking the dialogic organizational development perspective, this study aims to investigate the framing processes when engaging in dialogue for strategy implementation and how these enable the evolution of implementation opportunities.

Through a qualitative exploratory study conducted in a large multinational, the authors analyse the dialogue and interactions among 25 dyads when identifying opportunities to contribute to strategy implementation. The data analysis relies on a process-coding approach and linkography, a valuable protocol analysis for identifying recursive interaction schemas in conversations.

The authors identify four main framing processes – shaping, unveiling, scattering and shifting – and provide a framework of how these processes affect individuals’ mental models through increasing the tangibility of opportunities or elevating them to new value hierarchies.

From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the strategy implementation and organizational development literature, providing a micro-perspective of how dialogue allows early knowledge structures to emerge and shape the development of opportunities for strategy implementation.

From a managerial perspective, the authors offer insights to trigger action and change in individuals to contribute to strategy when moving from formulation to implementation.

Rather than focusing on the structural control view of strategy implementation and the role of the top management team, this study considers strategy implementation as a practice and what it takes for organizational actors who do not take part in strategy formulation to enact and shape opportunities for strategy implementation through constructive dialogue.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.