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The purpose of this paper is to explore the patterns of service strategy changes in manufacturing firms and indicates how each pattern is interrelated with modifications in organizational design elements.

The paper draws on a longitudinal study using a survey of 97 manufacturers of capital goods. In addition, 15 case studies have been conducted. Survey and qualitative data are obtained in 1997, 2001, and 2004.

The findings highlight four patterns of service strategy changes: from customer service strategy to after‐sales service provider, from after‐sales service provider to customer‐support service provider, from customer‐support service provider to development partner, and from customer‐support service provider to the outsourcing partner. Evidence of specific alignment between service strategy and organizational design elements is provided.

The main limitation of this paper is the purposive sample.

Managers should follow the patterns of service strategy changes by extending the service offerings and modifying the organizational design elements.

Previous studies investigate service strategies and organizational design elements only at a specific time, which leads to a static perspective. This paper offers insights into interrelations among service strategy changes and organizational design elements.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a specific set of management practices and policies and policies (organizational behavior modification, the management principles, and the management process) on human resource outcomes and on individual employee performance. A comprehensive management practices and policies performance model is theorized and empirically assessed.

Data collected from a sample of full-time employees working in the Southern USA are analyzed using a partial least squares/structural equation modeling methodology.

Considering the direct and indirect links among the constructs the authors conclude the following: organizational behavior modification, the management principles, and the management process combine to improve organizational commitment and job satisfaction; organizational commitment and job satisfaction combine to improve employee engagement and workplace optimism; and employee engagement and workplace optimism combine to enhance individual performance.

The model tested reflects the synergy created though the implementation of the management practices and policies and policies and the impact of that synergy on human resource outcomes and individual employee performance. This is the first assessment of this comprehensive model. Replication and verification of the model are suggested.

Practitioners are provided with a framework for assessing the synergistic impact of the management practices and policies on human resource outcomes and individual employee performance. The theorized model and results provide practicing managers with a blueprint for the systematic implementation of the management practices and policies.

A comprehensive management practices and policies performance model is proposed and empirically assessed. The results support the proposition that implementation of the management practices and policies leads to improved human resource outcomes and individual employee performance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how organizational knowledge interacts with artifacts and what determinants, driving processes and outcomes govern these interactions in organizational contexts.

A case study is used and data collected is from a US engineering and consulting company.

Findings suggested three major driving processes specifically initiating, challenging and improving and several related determinants and outcomes that governed the interaction between organizational knowledge and artifacts over time.

This study has limitations related to the nature and dimension of the case selected.

This study provides a means to explain how organizations hold existing knowledge and what determinants, driving processes and outcomes govern the interactions between knowledge and artifacts to assist managerial practices and improve performance.

This paper contributes to the current debate on organizational knowledge and provides some empirical evidence of how knowledge interacts with artifacts in organizational contexts.

Describes an evolving dynamic relationship between protégé and mentor, which strongly impacts on the entire organization and those microcomponents associated with organizational behaviour in general. These include individual processes, interpersonal and work group processes, and organizational structure. Pays specific attention to leadership, corporate culture, gender differences, job satisfaction and performance. Finds that mentoring is related to organizational behaviour in general.

The new realities of the healthcare marketplace are forcing healthcare decision makers to implement innovative operational philosophies, techniques, and tools that were proven in other industries to enhance the effectiveness of their organization. This study examines the acceptance and effectiveness of these philosophies, techniques, and tools in a hospital operational setting. The impact of implementation on operational and strategic outcomes is examined for 108 hospitals. Overall, the results of this study appear to indicate that certain quality improvement philosophies, techniques, and tools have been successful when applied in a hospital operational setting.

Inter‐firm learning, or dyadic learning, has been studied extensively in recent years: however very little attention has been devoted to extending the concept to an international context and no formal definition exists. The purpose of this paper is to propose “cultural adaptation” as a special form of international dyadic learning and link it to supply relationship performance.

Case studies were conducted in four Chinese‐Western buyer‐supplier relationships, providing cross‐case replication, employing qualitative and quantitative methods. Data were triangulated by questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews, and documentation.

Qualitative and quantitative evidence shows that cultural adaptation can lead to mutual benefits (relationship rents) and inbound spillover rents for both parties in a supply relationship.

Using four cases and a small sample of key informants completing the questionnaire limits generalisability of findings.

The paper develops the causal relationship between cultural adaptation and mutual benefits motivating managers to adapt culturally. It emphasizes that the current relationship performance measures should include guanxi quality in order to adapt to the Chinese context.

Building on extended resource based theory, stating that strategic resources may lie beyond a firm's boundary and that relational and inbound spillover rents may be obtained from the relationship, the research contributes to dyadic or inter‐organisational learning literature by empirically building causal relationships between cultural adaptation (as a form of international dyadic learning) and associated mutual benefits (relational and inbound spillover rents), using multiple data sources and methods and tentatively redefining the dyadic learning concept.

As Czech apparel and textile firms have moved towards privatization following the 1989 revolution, they have reduced their dependence on the state‐owned export organization, Centrotex, and they have introduced in‐house marketing activities, departments and strategies. Discusses the evolving marketing strategies at Jitex, a major formerly state‐owned vertical knitting firm. Jitex employs 3,000 people and produces knitted underwear, T‐shirts, jogging suits, and bathrobes. To strengthen their export and domestic market position, Jitex responded with product development, pricing, distribution and promotional strategies in the transforming economy. These included the introduction of computer‐assisted design, fashionable screen printing and appliqued knits, cotton/lycra knits and a new shrinkage finishing process. Jitex also consolidated domestic retail channels and established Western export markets. Concludes that Jitex′s size and lack of marketing structure and experience appears to be a disadvantage. However, apparel marketing strategies adopted by Jitex, such as capital investment for product development, fewer CMT (Cut, Make, Sew) orders, and identification of volume and Western customers, position Jitex for a successful future.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the implementation of a performance management system comprising some traditional management practices (management process and organizational behavior modification) lead to an ethical organizational environment and improved employee performance.

A structural model is theorized and assessed using data from samples of full-time employees in the USA and Brazil. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling is used.

The findings of this study suggest that management process and organizational behavior modification directly and positively impact the ethical environment, and the ethical environment directly and positively impacts employee performance. The management process and organizational behavior modification indirectly impact employee performance through an ethical environment.

Although this theorized model was tested and provided significant results for implementing the management practices suggested, it is strongly recommended that other random data samples be used to analyze the theorized model and assess to reconfirm the results. In addition, incorporating the ethical environment construct within a larger model that includes other potential antecedents, such as management principles, and other potential outcomes, such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction and workplace optimism, is recommended.

This study provides management practitioners with empirical evidence that implementing a performance management system consisting of the management process and organizational behavior modification will enhance both the ethical environment and organizational trust, which, in turn, will lead to improved individual employee performance. Based on the theoretically and statistically supported framework, managers can improve the performance of their subordinates. The results further support the assertions that managers must implement the management process along with organizational behavior modifications to improve employee performance through an ethical environment and organizational trust

The general conclusion from this study is that good management practices in the form of the management process and organizational behavior modification are inherently ethical. Furthermore, when implemented and consistently maintained by managers, these practices will result in an organizational environment that supports ethical behavior and engenders a high level of trust. The results of this study demonstrate a significant contribution to the existing literature, in that good management is tied, in fact, directly to ethics and trust.

The results provide evidence that good management in the form of the management process and organizational behavior modification yields both a positive ethical environment and improved employee performance. Practitioners are provided with evidence that reaffirms the need to define expectations for employees and to provide the necessary resources and positive reinforcement to fulfill the expectations. This study is one of the first to directly assess the impact of traditional management practices on an ethical environment.

Organisational culture has become a phenomenon increasingly demanding attention from responsible managers. This article provides a framework for understanding organisational culture, and describes three roles restaurant managers must perform in order to develop culturally sensitive and competent organisations: cultural spokesperson, cultural assessor, and facilitator of cultural modification. Extensive illustration of these three roles is provided from a study of restaurant chains.

Organizational culture determines much of what we can do as we attempt to manage change. Effective change strategies and interventional practices will both reflect culture and eventually modify it. Change occurs in and by culture. Change, therefore, must be culturally sensitive. Practitioners need to not only appreciate what organizational culture is and is not, but also to appreciate how alternative types of change are related to culture and the roles that can be performed. This is the thrust of this article.