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1 – 10 of over 2000This study explores the different survival strategies employed by family-owned small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria. The study delves into the dynamics of ensuring…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the different survival strategies employed by family-owned small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria. The study delves into the dynamics of ensuring business continuity from founders to successors and identifies the success factors that can facilitate seamless leadership transition outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilised a qualitative multiple-case study approach, with the population consisting of founders from three medium-sized family businesses in Nigeria. Semi-structured interviews were the primary data collection tool used in the study. Furthermore, company documents were analysed to gain further insights into the leadership transition strategies employed in the selected businesses.
Findings
Successful transition and survival of family businesses are dependent on the founder's desire and support for transition, successor preparation, building trust and credibility in successors, and instilling a clear vision for the business.
Research limitations/implications
The study's findings will provide valuable insights to leaders of family-owned SMEs, specifically in the development of effective leadership transition action plans. It should be noted that the study is limited to three family-owned businesses in two locations in Nigeria, which may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Despite this, the study offers novel contributions to the current literature by presenting practical strategies for achieving the survival of family businesses in an emerging economy.
Originality/value
This study proposed strategies for business survival, continuity, sustainability and seamless leadership transition for small and medium-sized family-owned businesses. Importantly, the study recommends action plans for present and prospective family business leaders to deepen succession pathways.
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Else Marie Lysfjord and Siv Skarstein
This study aims to examine nurses’ motivation for leadership and explore important challenges nurses face in leadership positions.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine nurses’ motivation for leadership and explore important challenges nurses face in leadership positions.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 nurses in leading positions. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
Findings
Nurse leaders are recruited from clinical settings, and the transition process from clinical nurse to leader is demanding. Their motivation for leadership seems to be in human values and caring for others. Lack of strategic focus might be a challenge. Nurses in leadership positions emphasize the importance of good relationships with the staff and require an increased focus on strategic leadership.
Research limitations/implications
Studies have revealed the frustration associated with the role of a nursing leader. According to an evaluation of a clinical leadership development programme, nurses were found to be inadequately prepared for their roles. They had not experienced positive role models, they felt overwhelmed and they regarded colleagues and nursing management structures as unsupportive. There is a need for further research into effective measures to strengthen nurse managers.
Practical implications
The role of leaders has changed over time. There are now increasing requirements and objectives with regard to laws, action plans, improvement projects and cost-effectiveness. A nurse leader has both many tasks and great responsibility. Good leadership relies on skilled nurse leaders meeting statutory requirements in patient care and delivering good quality and patient-safe services. Engaging in process-oriented guidance, such as mentoring, is one way to become more aware of oneself as a professional leader (Mathena, 2002).
Originality/value
By identifying and understanding the specific challenges that nurse leaders face, this study can contribute to the development of interventions and strategies to improve leadership practices, thereby enhancing organizational effectiveness.
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Arpan Upadhyaya and Sunaina Kuknor
The paper examines the succession management strategies and the preparation level of heirs in the context of family-owned educational institutions in Nepal.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines the succession management strategies and the preparation level of heirs in the context of family-owned educational institutions in Nepal.
Design/methodology/approach
Sixteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the institution's leader were conducted. Each interview was transcribed using content analysis. Several themes and new items emerged that define the institutional strategies in succession management.
Findings
The paper provides insight into the challenges of implementing effective succession management strategies. The identified themes are traits, processes, challenging aspects and effective plans. The study's findings show the lack of awareness about the importance of succession planning among the institution owners due to the availability of limited resources. The paper also provides some insights into how family ownership and management are done and the lack of formal processes in succession management strategies.
Practical implications
This paper offers readers the chance to think about succession planning strategies. Also, it adds value in their critical analysis of the succession plan. The study advised the learners to consider additional elements that can impact succession planning, such as experience, educational requirements and their desire to work. It will aid researchers in considering the societal perspective of the successor, which is also a significant worry.
Originality/value
It focuses on a specific context, private schools in Nepal, and examines the challenges they face in implementing succession management strategies. The paper tries to identify the approach that may reveal potential solutions that have not been considered. The paper aims to clearly articulate the unique contributions of the study and explain how it advances the existing literature on succession management.
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The purpose of this study is to explore public servants’ perspectives on return to office, hybrid work model and digital government. This is done by answering two research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore public servants’ perspectives on return to office, hybrid work model and digital government. This is done by answering two research questions: what benefits and challenges public servants foresee with return to office and whether hybrid work enables or impedes digital government initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is designed as a mixed methods study of federal and provincial governments in Canada based on the analysis of Reddit data. Research methods include machine-assisted toxicity and sentiment analysis and manual content analysis to identify emerging themes.
Findings
The findings highlight public servants’ mostly discussed concerns with return to office. Other notable discussion topics include resistance to the hybrid work model and identifying the ways how it would be operationalized. Some supported return to office.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s limitations are related to using Reddit as the data source and user representation on Reddit. The main implications are its contribution to emerging literature on the future of work and digital government.
Practical implications
This study highlights that perspectives of public servants are paramount for development and implementation of transformational initiatives and offers insights for public sector managers on how to incorporate these into practice while improving the efficiency of digital government initiatives and the system.
Originality/value
This study addresses the gap in literature by seeking to understand the perspectives of public servants in a variety of roles as well as implications of transition to hybrid work on digital government and future of work initiatives.
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Lijie Zhang, Yevhen Baranchenko, Zhibin Lin and Li Ren
This study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by examining the role of family firm succession in shaping the firm's approach to financialisation, which has received limited…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by examining the role of family firm succession in shaping the firm's approach to financialisation, which has received limited attention in the previous research. In addition, the study explores the influence of factors such as clan culture, concentration of control and generational differences on the relationship between succession and financialisation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were based on a sample of 7,023 firm-year observations, compiled from the listed family firms in China's A-share. Several tobit models are used for analysing the data and testing the hypotheses.
Findings
Family firm succession is negatively related to the level of financialisation, and this relationship is influenced by clan culture, concentration of control and the stage of succession. Specifically, a higher clan culture, a greater concentration of ultimate control by the controlling family member and the dominance of the first generation in management strengthens the negative relationship between family firm succession and financialisation.
Originality/value
This study offers new insights into the consequence of family firm succession on a new area of the firm's strategy, i.e. financialisation. The study further advances the understanding of family firm succession by considering the role of clan culture, the concentration of control and the stage of the succession process.
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Sara Willermark and Anna Sigridur Islind
This study aims to explore virtual leadership work within educational settings in the light of social disruption. In 2020, a global pandemic changed the way we work. For school…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore virtual leadership work within educational settings in the light of social disruption. In 2020, a global pandemic changed the way we work. For school leaders, that involved running a virtual school overnight. Although there is a stream of research that explores leadership in solely virtual communities, there is a gap in the literature regarding practices that transition from analog to virtual practices and the changes in leadership in those types of work practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The data gathering method constitutes a questionnaire to explore school leaders’ experiences of virtual work and virtual leadership in light of social disruption. One hundred and five Swedish school leaders answered the questionnaire covering both fixed and open questions.
Findings
The results show that school leaders’ general experiences of transition to virtual school have worked relatively well. We show how the work changes and shift the focus in the virtual workplace.
Originality/value
The author’s contributions include theorizing about leadership affordances in virtual schools and providing implications for practice. The authors summarize our main contribution in five affordances that characterize virtual leadership, including a focus on core activities, trust-based government, 1:1 communication with staff, structure and clarity and active outreach activities. The results could be interesting for understanding the radical digitalization of leadership in the digital workplace.
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Laura Vaughn, Cameron C. Beatty and Emily Ostermeyer
This qualitative study aims to provide insights and reflections of how the pandemic affected the identity and a sense of self of students, who completed undergraduate leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
This qualitative study aims to provide insights and reflections of how the pandemic affected the identity and a sense of self of students, who completed undergraduate leadership learning academic program.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews.
Findings
Findings of this study showed three major themes throughout the interviews. During the COVID-19 pandemic, participants identified experiences with self-reflection, building community and navigating issues of social justice.
Originality/value
These findings highlight how leadership learning enabled certain participants to navigate and seek to resolve these problems and how their leadership learning aided their own self-discovery.
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Torbjørn Hekneby and Trude Høgvold Olsen
This paper aims to conceptualize the role of leadership in organizational learning processes in multinational companies (MNCs). The authors present a model describing how managers…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to conceptualize the role of leadership in organizational learning processes in multinational companies (MNCs). The authors present a model describing how managers in an MNC facilitated transitions between sub-processes of organizational learning at several organizational levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from the plants of a global process company in Norway, Brazil and China. Observation, in-depth interviews and archival material enabled one to reconstruct the organizational learning process over a period of 30 years as the company developed its own tailor-made improvement programme.
Findings
Based on the data, the authors describe the role of leadership in linking the sub-processes of organizational learning as orchestration, sponsoring and persistence. Orchestration included creating faith and optimism and designing the organization to allow close cooperation between operators and managers in the sub-process of experimenting. This eased transferring and institutionalizing in the global organization. Sponsoring included structural changes to support transferring and the demonstration of dedication to improvement programme values. These factors were important for institutionalizing. Persistence involved the continuous focus on adjustment of the improvement programme, which then facilitated further experimenting.
Originality/value
Firstly, this study suggests that activities and decisions in one sub-process have important implications for the following sub-processes. Secondly, this study indicates that leaders’ role in facilitating the transitions between sub-processes extend beyond their individual traits and behaviour, which previous research had focused on, and includes decisions concerning organizational structure and culture that help link social and organizational learning.
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This paper aims to focus on the relationship between female leadership and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of firms. Specifically, the study examines if…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on the relationship between female leadership and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of firms. Specifically, the study examines if firms with women as chief executive officers (CEOs) and/or board chairpersons have higher environmental and social scores.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses data on publicly listed Nordic firms in a panel regression approach to establish the relationship between female leadership and the environmental and social performance of firms.
Findings
The result of this study shows that women have a leadership characteristic that increases the weighted average of environmental (E) and social (S) performance of a firm. In particular, pillar score results indicate a positive relationship between female CEOs and the social scores of a firm but no relationship between a female board chairperson and the environmental or social scores of a firm. This implies that gender-based differences affect the CEO’s success, especially in a firm’s social performance. Further analyses show a more significant impact on the E and S performance when a woman replaces a man as CEO of a firm.
Originality/value
While prior research has explored various aspects of gender diversity in corporate leadership and its potential impact, the focus on the Nordic context in this study provides a unique perspective, given the region’s distinct business environment and societal factors. In addition, by examining the collective influence of female leaders and both female CEOs and board chairpersons separately, this study provides a nuanced understanding of how different leadership roles may impact a firm’s ESG performance.
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Anna Motylska-Kuzma, Izabela Szymanska and Krzysztof Safin
This paper investigates the impact of family influence measured by the F-PEC scale on private enterprise (both family firms and lone founders) leadership succession strategy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the impact of family influence measured by the F-PEC scale on private enterprise (both family firms and lone founders) leadership succession strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
The research dataset is comprised of 390 private enterprises whose head offices were situated in the voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska in Poland. The authors collected data through CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) method, as well as through comprehensive, structured interviews with company owners. Data were analysed using hierarchical logistic regression for each type of succession strategy.
Findings
The results suggest that increased family influence does not necessarily lead to intra-family leadership succession in private enterprises. Importantly, a range of findings contradicted authors' predictions. The relationship between the overall F-PEC scale values signifying the multi-faceted family influence over the business and the choice of internal successor was weakly negative for the total sample; also, the higher the overlap between family and business values and the higher the commitment to family business, as evidenced by the Culture subscale, the lower was the occurrence of intra-family successor choice in the population of lone founders. The Culture subscale also increased the prevalence of lack of succession planning in the sample of lone founders.
Originality/value
While several studies suggests that family firms may be more prone to choose an intra-family succession scenario, it remains unclear how lower levels of business and succession experience, may influence the successor choice. Indeed, some studies suggest that a strong family influence over a business, may stimulate family firms to choose a family outsider as a business leader. Therefore, the key contribution of this study is contextualizing the response to an ongoing succession debate. This study investigates the strategic choices of companies in the first generation of ownership operating in Poland, which serves as an example of a post-transition economy. While the characteristics of this economic environment may be unique, the authors discuss how the surprising findings may add to the understanding of the general succession processes present in private enterprises.
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