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21 – 30 of 91Margaret Moussa, Mathew Bright and Maria Estela Varua
The purpose of this paper is to examine the suitability of job and work design theory for investigating knowledge workers’ productivity. The review is a response to recommendation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the suitability of job and work design theory for investigating knowledge workers’ productivity. The review is a response to recommendation and adoption of the motivational human resource management approach by a number of knowledge management researchers. The authors show that the existing literature on this topic overlooks key criticisms of HRM job and work design theory itself. The authors suggest modifications.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proceeds by outlining knowledge management researchers’ arguments rejecting the application of traditional measurement approaches to investigating knowledge workers’ productivity. The review develops to examine the various arguments for adopting work design theory and considers the key contributions and critiques in this field. Drawing on the insights of key HRM work design critics, the paper concludes by offering suggestions for a model suitable for examining the drivers of knowledge work productivity in process.
Findings
The principle finding is that Morgeson and Humphrey’s (2006) Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) stand as the most conceptually consistent and methodologically considered human resource management work design theory. However, this model must itself be modified to include a category of organizational contextual work characteristics. For application to the filed of knowledge management, WDQ must also be expanded to include knowledge sharing, role breadth self-efficacy and employee well-being as key work design mediators and outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
Greater consideration needs to be given to the distinction between knowledge sharing as a work design mediator and as a work design outcome. Morgeson and Humphrey themselves note that the “common method variance” problems arising in psychometric research have been reduced but not completely eliminated from their model.
Practical implications
Survey instruments based on the recommended model potentially provide a valuable means for understanding and enhancing productivity in a variety of knowledge intensive service industries. The pronounced benefit of this model is that it is applicable in cross-industry and cross-occupational contexts, unlike many existing knowledge worker productivity models. This is an advantage, given the centrality of the inter-connectivity of different types of activities and industries in knowledge work.
Social implications
Work design prioritizes employee motivation and support and links this to the quality of work and the well-being of clients. The benefits of well-designed knowledge work extend well beyond the generation of specific innovations and macroeconomic productivity improvements.
Originality/value
Job design and work design theory have been applied in the field of knowledge management. However, the applications have largely overlooked key critiques of the established models in the human resource management literature. The paper fills this gap. Its original suggestions for modifying Moregeson and Humphry’s (2006) WDQ reflect the authors’ in-depth analysis of the literature.
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Ilse Maria Beuren, Vanessa Noguez Machado and Alexsson Jr Dall Agnol
The perception of the relevance of risk management reports and the system of internal controls permeates the risk management of multinational companies. Shedding light on…
Abstract
Purpose
The perception of the relevance of risk management reports and the system of internal controls permeates the risk management of multinational companies. Shedding light on perceived relevance, on the one hand, can serve as a guide for improvements in communication between headquarters and subsidiaries; on the other hand, it can lead to greater involvement of subsidiaries in company policies. Thus, this study aims to analyze the relevance of internal controls for risk management in the perception of its executors and reviewers in a multinational company.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted with the executors and reviewers of the internal controls of a multinational company. To the collected data, structural equation modeling was applied.
Findings
The perceived relevance of internal controls by the subsidiaries directly and positively influences the perceived relevance of the reporting of their specific and standardized reports for all subsidiaries. In addition, the perception of the relevance of standardized reports for all subsidiaries demonstrates a direct and positive influence on the familiarity with the regulations regarding the reporting of internal controls.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the relevance of internal controls for risk management in the perception of its executors and reviewers of subsidiaries of a multinational company. In this way, it provides a useful contribution to the literature and insights to promote improvements in the communication process between headquarters and subsidiaries of different countries regarding risk management reports and the system of internal controls.
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This paper uses newly compiled data from two surveys of female home workers undertaken by the Women’s Industrial Council in London in 1897 and 1907 to investigate various issues…
Abstract
This paper uses newly compiled data from two surveys of female home workers undertaken by the Women’s Industrial Council in London in 1897 and 1907 to investigate various issues related to their work and wages. The reports detail the occupations, average weekly earnings and hours, marital status, and household size, composition, and total income of approximately 850 female home workers, offering a unique, and as yet unused, opportunity to explore the labor market characteristics of the lowest-paid workers in the early twentieth century. Analysis of the data reveals that the female home workers who were surveyed were drawn overwhelmingly from poor households. Home workers were older than female factory workers, most were married or widowed, and the majority of married workers reported that their husbands were out of work, sick, disabled, or in casual or irregular work. Weekly wages and hours of work varied considerably by industry, but averaged about 7–9s. and 40–45 hours per week, with many workers reporting the desire for more work. The relationship between hours of work (daily and weekly) and hourly wages was negative, and the wives and daughters of men who were out of the labor force due to unemployment or illness tended to work longer hours at lower wages, as did women who lived in households where some health issue was present. These findings lend support to contemporary perceptions that women driven into the labor force by immediate household need were forced to take the lowest-paid work, whether because they lacked skill and experience or bargaining power in the labor market.
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Manuela Gomez-Valencia, Camila Vargas, Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Indianna Minto-Coy, Miguel Cordova, Karla Maria Nava-Aguirre, Fabiola Monje-Cueto, Cyntia Vilasboas Calixto Casnici and Freddy Coronado
This study identifies measures to recover economic growth and build sustainable societies and markets in post-COVID-19 scenarios – with a perspective of resilience and…
Abstract
This study identifies measures to recover economic growth and build sustainable societies and markets in post-COVID-19 scenarios – with a perspective of resilience and adaptability to climate change and massive biodiversity loss. Additionally, this study uncovers the interventions implemented to address economic, environmental and social consequences of past crises based on a systematic literature review. Specifically, this chapter provides answers to the following six questions:
What has been done in the past to rebuild social, economic and environmental balance after global crises?
Where (geographical region) did the analysis on measures taken concentrate?
When have scholars analysed past measures to rebuild business and society after a global crisis?
How did the past measures to rebuild business and society after the global crisis take place?
Who promotes the measures to rebuild business and society after a global crisis takes place?
Why is it important to study the previous literature on past measures to rebuild business and society after a global crisis takes place?
What has been done in the past to rebuild social, economic and environmental balance after global crises?
Where (geographical region) did the analysis on measures taken concentrate?
When have scholars analysed past measures to rebuild business and society after a global crisis?
How did the past measures to rebuild business and society after the global crisis take place?
Who promotes the measures to rebuild business and society after a global crisis takes place?
Why is it important to study the previous literature on past measures to rebuild business and society after a global crisis takes place?
Finally, this chapter identifies future research opportunities to rebuild business and society after the past global crises.
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Caroline Emberson, Silvia Maria Pinheiro and Alexander Trautrims
The purpose of this paper is to examine how first-tier suppliers in multi-tier supply chains adapt their vertical and horizontal relationships to reduce the risk of slavery-like…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how first-tier suppliers in multi-tier supply chains adapt their vertical and horizontal relationships to reduce the risk of slavery-like practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Archer’s morphogenetic theory as an analytical lens, this paper presents case analyses adduced from primary and secondary data related to the development of relational anti-slavery supply capabilities in Brazilian–UK beef and timber supply chains.
Findings
Four distinct types of adaptation were found among first-tier suppliers: horizontal systemisation, vertical systemisation, horizontal transformation and vertical differentiation.
Research limitations/implications
This study draws attention to the socially situated nature of corporate action, moving beyond the rationalistic discourse that underpins existing research studies of multi-tier, socially sustainable, supply chain management. Cross-sector comparison highlights sub-country and intra-sectoral differences in both institutional setting and the approaches and outcomes of individual corporate actors’ initiatives. Sustainable supply chain management theorists would do well to seek out those institutional entrepreneurs who actively reshape the institutional conditions within which they find themselves situated.
Practical implications
Practitioners may benefit from adopting a structured approach to the analysis of the necessary or contingent complementarities between their, primarily economic, objectives and the social sustainability goals of other, potential, organizational partners.
Social implications
A range of interventions that may serve to reduce the risk of slavery-like practices in global commodity chains are presented.
Originality/value
This paper presents a novel analysis of qualitative empirical data and extends understanding of the agential role played by first-tier suppliers in global, multi-tier, commodity, supply chains.
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This chapter introduces a metaphor—the house—and applies Habermas’ philosophy to examine the environment where knowledge production takes place. The analysis shows the dominance…
Abstract
This chapter introduces a metaphor—the house—and applies Habermas’ philosophy to examine the environment where knowledge production takes place. The analysis shows the dominance of “the systemic paradigm,” which is characterized by increased bureaucratization and commercialization. This paradigm has severe consequences for two core features of universities: the open-ended search for deeper understanding and the principle of autonomy. The chapter advances the idea of reclaiming the political dimension of the epistemic endeavor and presents a series of initiatives which help to advance tourism scholarship by non-conforming to the steering conditions of this paradigm and instead reclaiming the personal and subjective; promoting multiple knowledges; and building alternative platforms of knowledge production, cooperation, and dissemination.
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Suchisweta Pradhan and Sasmita Samanta
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of scholarly literature on community-based enterprise (CBE) through a bibliometric analysis and to comprehend the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of scholarly literature on community-based enterprise (CBE) through a bibliometric analysis and to comprehend the qualitative dimensions of research in this specific field.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on scholarly papers indexed in Scopus from 1990 to 2021. The bibliometric analysis focuses on journals, documents, writers, organizations and countries. VOSviewer is used for network visualization mapping of citation, co-citation, bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence of keywords.
Findings
The analysis of the bibliometric aspects of CBE literature reveals an upward trend in publication of CBE documents, with a significant increase of research productivity in the past few years. This behaviour shows that CBE is becoming increasingly popular among academics and practitioners. The document “Toward a theory of community based enterprise” by Ana Maria Peredo is the most cited document. USA has so far published the maximum number of documents in this field.
Practical implications
This study provides an overview of the current state of research in the subject as well as the primary themes explored in this burgeoning discipline, with the potential to help the researchers identify new topics and gaps that need to be investigated further.
Originality/value
This work contributes to the literature by conducting a bibliometric analysis that has not yet been explored. It gives an overview of the field’s organization as well as specifics on the major issues explored in this discipline.
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Blanca A. Camargo, Tazim Jamal and Erica Wilson
Pressing sustainability issues face the 21st century, as identified by the Millennium Development Goals and its post initiatives, and ethical principles related to fairness…
Abstract
Pressing sustainability issues face the 21st century, as identified by the Millennium Development Goals and its post initiatives, and ethical principles related to fairness, equity, and justice are increasingly important to address climate change and resource scarcities. Yet, such ethical dimensions remain surprisingly little addressed in the tourism literature. Ecofeminist critique offers insights into this gap, identifying historical antecedents in patriarchal, Enlightenment-driven discourses of science where positivistic approaches facilitate the control and use of nature and women. This chapter draws from this critique to propose a preliminary, justice-oriented framework to resituate sustainable tourism within an embodied paradigm that covers intangibles such as emotions, feelings, and an ethic of care.
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