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This study aims to explore how health-care organisations learn from failures, challenging the common view in management science that learning is a continuous cycle. It focuses on understanding how the context of a health-care organisation and the characteristics of failure interact.

Systematically collected empirical studies that examine how health-care organisations react to failures, both in terms of learning and non-learning, were reviewed and analysed. The key characteristics of failures and contextual factors are categorised at the individual, team, organisational and global level.

Several factors across four distinct levels are identified as being susceptible to the situational impact of failure. In addition, these factors can be used in the design and development of innovations. Taking these factors into account is expected to stimulate learning responses when an innovation does not succeed. This enhances the understanding of how health-care organisations learn from failure, showing that learning behaviour is not solely dependent on whether a health-care organisation possesses the traits of a learning organisation or not.

This review offers a new perspective on organisational learning, emphasising the situational impact of failure and how learning occurs across different levels. It distinguishes between good and bad failures and their effects on a health-care organisation’s ability to learn. Future research could use these findings to study how failures influence organisational performance over time, using longitudinal data to track changes in learning capacity.

Consumers often prefer sustainable goods and services but fail to follow through with purchases that reflect these espoused values. The green intention–outcome gap is studied in many contexts but has yet to inform deathcare decisions. Industry reports suggest that most Americans prefer sustainable deathcare options, yet unsustainable corpse dispositions dominate the market. The purpose of this paper is to understand how history informs this phenonea.

This study looks to the past – using historical narrative analysis of deathcare trends and influential intermediaries – to understand the future of sustainable deathcare and the prospective role that marketers can play in bridging the gap between decedents’ preferences and survivors’ purchase outcomes.

Historical ritualization, medicalization and commercialization have resulted in the monopolization of traditional deathcare services. Mortuary professionals remain unresponsive to consumer preferences for sustainable alternatives.

Socioeconomic shocks can allow humanity to reflect and transition from consumerism to sustainability. COVID-19 has led to greater awareness of self-mortality, and death has become less taboo. The slow market penetration of sustainable deathcare services suggests a lack of communication between a decedent and their survivors. Marketing scholars need to help marketing practitioners bridge the preference-outcome gap.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is amongst the first to examine how history informs the sustainable action–outcome gap for deathcare preferences in a post-COVID environment and the role that marketers can play in perpetuating change.

At the virus' US epicenter, New York City, teachers experienced the impact of the pandemic firsthand in real time. Consistent with intensification (Apple, 1986), as school struggles to adapt to a rapidly changing social and educational landscape, socioemotional stressors and occupational responsibilities increase. Through the metaphoric (Craig, 2018) image of a candle, and using the tools of narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) – broadening, burrowing, storying, and restorying – we surface four teachers' lived experiences in a year filled with incredible grief and loss, socio-political-cultural trauma, racial strife, and personal-professional challenges to show their resolve and resiliency to persevere through and beyond burning out.

As the novel virus was declared a pandemic, Korean schools quickly transitioned to remote schooling based on its advanced IT system, government-operated digital learning platforms, and an abundance of pre-existing online teaching materials (Byun & Slavin, 2020). Unfortunately, this story of “successful” educational responses to the pandemic was of little relationship to physical education (PE) partly because of the sparsity of supportive resources for online teaching of the hands-on subject area but mainly because of the incompatibility between the nature of the online classroom and the essence of PE (Baek & Yoon, 2020; Oh, 2021). As its name implies, physical education is inseparable from physical movements, bodily dialogue, close physical contact, and active, direct interactions between engaged individuals. Accordingly, PE teachers, dwelling in either online or blended classrooms where bodies are absent, and touch is unthinkable, are experiencing diminished room to implement their pedagogical repertoires and, in turn, affecting their deconstruction and reconstruction of their teacher identities (Kamoga & Varea, 2022). In a nutshell, PE subject matter and PE teachers' identities are being challenged and experiencing unexpected metamorphoses amid this global crisis.

With the growing concern for environmental and sustainability issues, especially in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, organizations feel compelled to pursue green sustainability in their operations. In this regard, the active involvement of employees in pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is crucial for achieving organizational environmental sustainability goals (Saeed et al., 2019). To shed light on this important issue, this study aims to investigate the impact of interacting/engaging environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication strategy on employees' PEBs through the mediating effects of communal relationship and employee empowerment.

A total of 443 full-time USA employees working across various industries participated in an online survey.

The interacting/engaging environmental CSR communication strategy fosters employees' perceived communal relationship with their organizations and empowers them to support their organization's environmental initiatives, which, in turn, positively influences employees' PEBs at work.

This study advances CSR and internal communication literature through the lens of relationship management and self-determination theories. The findings theoretically suggest the effectiveness of the interacting/engaging environmental CSR communication strategy in nurturing favorable employee–organization relationships (EORs), employee empowerment and PEBs at work. The practical implications of CSR communication are also elaborated.

Using the lens of upper echelons theory, this study examines the degree to which National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic department performance outcomes are associated with the personal characteristics and experiences of the athletic director leading the organization.

The authors match organizational performance data with athletic director and institutional characteristics to form a robust data set spanning 16 years from the 2003–04 to 2018–19 seasons. The sample contains 811 observations representing 136 unique athletic directors. Fixed effects panel regressions are used to analyze organizational performance and quantile regression is used to analyze organizational revenues.

The authors fail to uncover statistically significant evidence that athletic director personal characteristics, functional experience and technical experience are associated with organizational performance. Rather, the empirical modeling indicates organizational performance is primarily driven by differentiation in the ability to acquire human capital (i.e. playing talent). The results also indicate that on average, women are more likely to lead lower revenue organizations, however, prior industry-specific technical experience offsets this relationship.

In opposition to upper echelons research in numerous settings, the modeling indicates the personal characteristics and experiences of the organization's lead executive are not an economically relevant determinant of organizational performance. This may indicate college athletics is a boundary condition in the applicability of upper echelons theory.

We examined who is more likely to use flexible work arrangements (FWAs) to alleviate work-family conflict (WFC) and under what conditions the use of FWAs actually reduces WFC.

We tested the model using survey data collected at two time points from 217 employees.

Proactive employees are more likely to use flextime to alleviate WFC (b = −0.03; 95% biased-corrected CI: [−0.12, −0.01]) and this mediation relationship is not moderated by their level of low work-to-nonwork boundary permeability. In addition, only when proactive employees have a low work-to-nonwork boundary permeability does their use of flexplace alleviate WFC (b = −0.07, 95% bias-corrected CI: [−0.1613, −0.0093]).

We expand our understanding of who is more likely to utilize FWAs by identifying that employees with proactive personality are more likely to use flextime and flexplace. We also advance our understanding regarding the conditions whereby FWA use helps employees reduce WFC by identifying the moderating role of work-to-nonwork boundary permeability on the relationships between both flextime and flexplace use on WFC.

This research aims to understand employers' views and preferences on the assessment of holistic competencies (HCs) in graduates, a topic with existing gaps in literature. With the disparities between higher education practices and employer expectations concerning HC assessment, the study focuses on what employers wish to see in graduates' resumes. As resumes play a pivotal role in recruitment, influencing who gets shortlisted, this research seeks to discern how graduates can optimally make a good first impression. In essence, the study endeavours to enhance knowledge on employers' inferences about a candidate’s HCs and employability skills based on resume content.

A comprehensive 12-item survey was devised to collect employers' perceptions and expectations of holistic competencies (HCs) assessment. The survey was informed by a synthesis of discussions with employers, teachers and a critical review paper. It aimed to understand employers' HC assessment expectations and bridge the teachers' understanding gap of students' HC achievements. Questions included demographic data, and specifics about employers' perceptions of graduates’ resumes. The survey was hosted on Qualtrics and disseminated via the authors' networks, social media and university departments in Hong Kong, with responses gathered from April to June 2021.

This study reveals that employers value holistic competencies (HCs), especially those developed through work placements and extracurricular activities, as indicators of job readiness in graduates. It is imperative for students to highlight these competencies in their resumes, potentially also demonstrating them through digital portfolios. The research underscores the need for higher education institutions to systematically document and report students' HC attainments. They can support students by informing them about employer expectations, offering writing workshops and resume samples. Integrating experience-based opportunities into the curriculum can also enhance HC development, preparing students for job market competitiveness and readiness.

The research limitations include the lack of a widely accepted, standardized method to document and evidence students' holistic competencies (HCs). The implications, however, stress the necessity for students to effectively communicate their HCs to employers, requiring awareness of expectations and adaptability to evolving technologies. Educators and higher education institutions must provide resources and opportunities to students to develop, demonstrate and document these HCs. In the absence of a standardised method for HC reporting, alternative solutions like e-portfolios and platforms like YOCLE can help students gather feedback and present evidence of competencies to prospective employers.

The study’s practical implications revolve around enhancing job readiness in graduates. Universities need to bolster their support, helping students understand employer expectations, offering writing workshops, resume templates and resources. Incorporation of platforms like YOCLE can help gather and retain evaluations, while promoting internships and extracurricular activities enhances HC development. Graduates must include work experiences, HC achievements and extracurricular activities in their resumes, even exploring digital portfolios for broader evidence presentation. They should also prepare for digital interactions like Zoom calls or video resumes, adapting to the technological advancements propelled by recent global disruptions.

This research provides original insights into employer preferences regarding job candidates' holistic competencies (HCs) in resumes, an area not deeply explored in past literature. Focusing on how resumes can best demonstrate HC attainments, it offers practical guidance for higher education institutions preparing students for the job market. Although the study’s scope is limited by geographical and industry-specific sampling, it provides a foundational understanding of employers' recruitment expectations influenced by resumes. Its value lies in its potential to spur further research into varying contexts and industries, leading to broader implications for graduate employability and resume building practices worldwide.

Work–nonwork policies and practices provide support for employee well-being, as well as a competitive advantage that can help differentiate organizations. However, not all work–nonwork policies and practices are effective, utilized, or relevant. In this chapter, the authors introduce “organizational boundary management strategy” as a way to leverage these policies and practices, making them more widely adopted and more effective. Organizational boundary management strategy refers to how an organization as a whole tends to support workers’ work–nonwork boundaries (i.e., via segmentation, integration, or somewhere in between). Although boundary management has historically tended to focus on how individuals navigate distinctions between work and personal life, the authors extend boundary management to the organization to suggest how understanding and aligning the organization’s overall boundary management strategies can support worker well-being. To expound on this, the authors present a model suggesting how organizational boundary management can be used to support worker well-being.