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1 – 10 of over 3000Aeli Roberts, John Kelsey, Hedley Smyth and Adam Wilson
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between health and safety (H&S) and organisational culture in project business, in particular to explore the validity of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between health and safety (H&S) and organisational culture in project business, in particular to explore the validity of current cognitive emphases of linear organisational maturity towards a “safety culture”, and normative models and prescriptions.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretative methodology is employed, informed by ethnography (Douglas' cultural theory) and clinical consultative (Schein's model) approaches, using case‐based analysis comprising seven project business organisations.
Findings
The cases were characterized by diverse organisational cultures and diverse H&S practices informed by habits and intuitive behaviour, as well as cognitive strategies and decisions for implementation. H&S was not the top priority for these cases. Good performance related to alignment with the prevailing culture rather than pursuit of a “safety culture”.
Research limitations/implications
The term “safety culture” is misdirected; greater attention on what is, rather than normative models and prescription, is necessary. Generalisation is limited by the case‐based approach.
Practical implications
Practitioners need to pay more attention to organisational culture and alignment of H&S practices, to the unintended consequences of prescriptions, and robust systems.
Social implications
The way activities are conducted requires awareness of the prevailing culture in order to align the structure and processes to the culture for effective operations. These implications are general, and within project business and management, Failure to do so carries increased risk of failing to satisfy business and broader stakeholder interests.
Originality/value
Anomalies in H&S research and practice are challenged, especially “safety culture” and normative approaches. The contribution is the combination employment of the Schein and Douglas models to understand organisational culture and H&S cultural alignment.
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This research is designed to answer questions: do Islamic teachings offer relevant perspectives on human resource (HR) issues? Are the treatments of HR issues in Islam compatible…
Abstract
Purpose
This research is designed to answer questions: do Islamic teachings offer relevant perspectives on human resource (HR) issues? Are the treatments of HR issues in Islam compatible with evolving organizational concepts? Do current HR practices in countries with Muslim majority (CMM) resemble Islamic prescriptions? It aims to address these and other questions in line with early Islamic instructions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper surveys Islamic texts and treaties. It then compares Islamic instruction to what prevails in Christianity and Judaism.
Findings
Islamic prescriptions view the interests of employees and employers as complementary. Workers are treated as the creators of value in the marketplace and by necessity the primary force for economic growth and prosperity. It is argued that the application of the philosophy of ehsan in the workplace offers a useful framework for positively safeguarding societal concerns.
Practical implications
This paper offers practitioners and researchers various avenues on how to address the issues of HR in Islamic societies. In contrasting Islamic and Western HR foundations, the paper identifies certain minefields.
Originality/value
This paper offers a unique insight on the nature of HR instruction and policies. In this paper, it is argued that Islamic prescriptions on HR, if internalized, may guard against violating human dignity and ensure a fine balance between organizational and societal interests.
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The authors test the effect of expenditure decentralization and fiscal equalization on short- and long-run economic growth and estimate two-step generalized method of moment (GMM…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors test the effect of expenditure decentralization and fiscal equalization on short- and long-run economic growth and estimate two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. The authors estimate two simultaneous equations: a growth equation and equalization equation and find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads the authors to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors estimate two-step GMM simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. To examine the effect of fiscal decentralization (FD) policies on economic growth in China and India, the authors estimate two equations: a growth equation and an equalization equation. For the growth equation, the authors adopt a production-function-based model that is widely used in the empirical literature on growth; however, the authors do make some compromises with this specification due to the unavailability of certain data. For the equalization equation, the authors include variables that economic theory and empirical evidence suggest influence fiscal disparities among subnational governments which in turn influence the demand for horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE). To the extent possible, the authors employ the same econometric specification, variable constructions and sample periods for both China and India. The authors believe this strategy provides a more rigorous test of the FD hypothesis.
Findings
The authors find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the importance of FD policies, especially to many developing countries that are currently pursuing decentralization reforms, future research should examine the effect of FD on economic growth for other countries. Furthermore, although it would be difficult to do so, future research should examine whether FD promotes political stability on ethnically diverse countries.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no one has examined the effect of FD policies on India's growth experience. What is more is that this is also the first of its kind to have a comprehensive empirical investigation into these two major developing countries with very interesting similarities and differences in FD policies. It is thus of great importance to examine the effect of expenditure decentralization and HFE on economic growth in China and India.
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An adequate study of leadership behaviour must take account of leader‐member encounters in routine meetings and in the more informal and spontaneous discussions with individuals…
Abstract
An adequate study of leadership behaviour must take account of leader‐member encounters in routine meetings and in the more informal and spontaneous discussions with individuals and groups. This comprehensive approach to leadership behaviour must relate the behaviour of the leader and member in interaction to the social system of the organization. The present discussion focusses on the relationship between general organizational values and normative role prescriptions on the one hand and behaviour in leader‐member encounters on the other. Particular use is made of the views of Talcott Parsons and Erring Goffman. It is concluded that the relationship between the constructs selected for discussion is subtle and difficult to test. However, there appears to be merit in the detailed study of the more informal leader‐member encounters which occur in the daily life of the organization.
This chapter investigates how normative beliefs attributed to insecure paid work and care responsibilities affect social understandings of the work–family boundary, and either…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter investigates how normative beliefs attributed to insecure paid work and care responsibilities affect social understandings of the work–family boundary, and either challenge or reinforce traditional links between gender and moral obligation.
Methodology
Within an interpretive approach and from a gender perspective, I present a discourse analysis of 41 interviews with Italian parents.
Findings
This chapter shows that women in the sample felt forced into blurred boundaries that did not suit their work–family normative beliefs. Men in the sample perceived that they had more boundary control, and they created boundaries that support an innovative fatherhood model. Unlike women, men’s boundaries aligned with their desires.
Research limitations
The specific target of respondents prevents empirical comparisons between social classes. Moreover, the cross-level analysis presented is limited: in particular, further investigation is required at the level of organizational cultures.
Originality
The study suggests not only thinking in terms of work–family boundary segmentation and integration but also looking at the normative dimensions which can either enhance or exacerbate perceptions of the work–family interface. The value of the study also stems from its theoretically relevant target.
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Shamindra Nath Sanyal, Saroj Kumar Datta and Asok Kumar Banerjee
The purpose of this paper is to examine the physicians’ attitude toward branded generic drugs in prescribing those drugs in some selective medical conditions and to identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the physicians’ attitude toward branded generic drugs in prescribing those drugs in some selective medical conditions and to identify the factors that influence physicians’ behavior toward prescribing branded generic drugs in the said selective medical conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was carried out across six major cities in eastern India with 301 physicians. The current study introduced some significant elements into the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) with title the extended tam for product usage (TETPU) to analyze the prescribing factors that influence physicians in five common yet serious medical conditions in India. Out of nine factors considered here, seven were selected from the previous literature studies of different product segments and two were proposed by the authors. Demographic factor was proposed as the confounding variable.
Findings
The results indicated that apart from the factors “perceived no need” and “physicians’ perception and need achievement” rest of the factors showed satisfactory to excellent results.
Practical implications
The current study findings may enable the pharmaceutical managers to revise or modify their current marketing communication and other brand-building strategies so as to achieve a superior performance that offers them a competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The paper fulfils a need for advancing the knowledge on the physician’s prescription influencing factors by introducing the newer aspects of the concept and offers a theoretical framework for the academia and practical framework for the managers who desire to implement the strategies to achieve competitive advantage.
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This research aims to provide a synthesis of the normative prescriptions from the scientific literature as it relates to customer loyalty tracking and an evaluation of how close…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to provide a synthesis of the normative prescriptions from the scientific literature as it relates to customer loyalty tracking and an evaluation of how close practice comes to these prescriptions. It offers a description of the landscape for how and why aspects of loyalty measurement and management converge and/or diverge.
Design/methodology/approach
Data is gathered through in‐depth telephone interviews with 92 senior level marketing managers across a variety of industries.
Findings
The overwhelming majority of firms view customer loyalty as a top strategic priority but only one in four has a formal definition of customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction and likelihood to recommend are the two most tracked measures. The findings also demonstrate that few firms are relatively sophisticated in their analytics capabilities and only half examine how loyalty influences business outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The current study uses single respondent per firm.
Practical implications
The results provide compelling evidence that managers need to determine more consciously what customer loyalty means in the context of their business. Furthermore, firms could benefit from the use of more sophisticated and advanced modelling approaches which have the potential to uncover patterns in customer data and link with business results.
Originality/value
This is the first study in the scientific literature that investigates how close what managers are actually doing in practice comes to scientific prescriptions for tracking and engaging with customers in an effort to engender customer loyalty.
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Krsto Pandza, Stuart Horsburgh, Kevin Gorton and Andrej Polajnar
The resource‐based view (RBV) and the dynamic‐capabilities approach (DCA) have emerged as two important frameworks in strategic management that seek to explain why firms are…
Abstract
The resource‐based view (RBV) and the dynamic‐capabilities approach (DCA) have emerged as two important frameworks in strategic management that seek to explain why firms are different. In recent years operations management scholars have sought to integrate both RBV and DCA within the field's epistemological orientation to provide normative frameworks for practising managers. This paper argues that the structure of resources and capabilities are such that they present impediments to normative prescriptions. Using ideas from complex systems it argues that any framework for thinking about resource accumulation and capability development must take account of uncertainty and knowledge imperfections in the system. The paper contends that the real options framework is an appropriate heuristic for managing the process of capability development and a case study of a manufacturing operation is used to illustrate our ideas.
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Using an institutional theory perspective this paper aims to examine the influence of multinational corporations (MNCs) on host country institutional environments.
Abstract
Purpose
Using an institutional theory perspective this paper aims to examine the influence of multinational corporations (MNCs) on host country institutional environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual piece that introduces the concept of the country institutional profile (CIP) as a useful theoretical framework for analyzing the host country institutional environment.
Findings
The existing model that describes the MNC as a social change agent within host country institutions is extended. This is accomplished by utilizing the CIP as a more formal conception of the host country institutional environment. The model is then used to examine a specific case of the MNC impact on the host country level of environmentalism.
Originality/value
The value of the contribution lies in the application of the CIP for analyzing the host country institutional environment. Furthermore, this framework is applied to the case of the MNC's impact on host country environmentalism.
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