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It is reasonable to assume that levels of business excellence will vary considerably amongst a group of organisations; two recent studies of organisations in north east England support this hypothesis. Draws on these benchmarking data. Relates to 28 business excellence practices and 19 operational performance measures covering strategy, human resources, service delivery and quality, service design and innovation, service value and measurement and business performance. Identifies the extent of any significant differences in overall practice and performance attainment levels between service leaders and their counterparts. Also considers combinations of attributes that best discriminate between levels of attainment. Derives a subset of measures that have the potential to provide an insight into a service organisation’s level of practice adoption and corresponding performance. Also considers additional characteristics to ascertain what association, if any, they have with the level of practice adoption and operational performance amongst the service organisations. All significant differences are highlighted at the 5 per cent significance level unless otherwise stated.

This chapter seeks to advance the neglected debate on the ethical issues between formal organization and practice arising from innovation in an organization. To that end, the chapter discusses the sources of possible moral dilemmas for practitioners who belong to a practice with a shared identity, values, and standards of excellence, and who need to conform to new rules of formal organization. While formal organization ideally strives for generalized fairness principles for all organizational members when introducing an innovation, the contextualized nature of practices may lead to particular needs and goals of the practice which can only be recognized as such by practitioners and not by formal management, and to which procedural justice cannot respond. The chapter proposes how practitioners may interpret moral dilemmas, aligned with their practice-based identity and ethical values, and what options for action they may seek. The discussion is illustrated with examples of innovation in the field of information systems design.

This study is focused on achieving operational resilience through the practices of kaizen across the operational structure. The research is based on a case study of a commercial livestock farm in Nigeria. The study views the practice of kaizen from the perspective of the commitment of the members of the case study organisation who are directly involved with the operations of the organisation.

The study applies a qualitative approach to explore the topic, engaging members of the case study organisation in the research to gather relevant data on the implementation of kaizen practices and the drive to attain resilience in the case study organisation. Semi-structured personal interviews and workshops were used for data collection. The study adopts systems theory to explore the topic, identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders.

Parts of the findings relating to kaizen are the issues with the livestock production process, aggressive leadership and the issue of livestock mortality in the case study organisation. These were discussed based on extant literature. The study affirms the importance of organisational members' commitment and adequate leadership support to achieve sustainable kaizen practices. The study highlights the need to align kaizen practices with relevant organisational practices, such as reward systems and contextual requirements for its implementation in an operational process. The study suggests that further study can focus on the dynamics of the legal system on the implementation of kaizen, especially from a developing economic background like Nigeria, where this study was conducted.

The study projects learning about the spatial factors that can affect the practices of kaizen in critical sectors like livestock management.

This study aims to understand how reporting practices act as drivers of change in situations of conflicting institutional logics in a public sector organisation.

The findings are based on a case study of a German federal authority, where management accounting reports were introduced as part of a “new” managerial logic of control.

In the case organisation, management accounting reports were intended to change the behaviour of executives but were still guided by an “old” logic of justification. Nevertheless, over time, the addressees of the reports used the reports and reconciled different logics. This documents a process from decoupling to compromising and, finally, reconciling different institutional logics.

By examining the practices of management accounting reporting, this study elaborates the tensions placed on individuals by conflicting institutional logics and provides insights into how organisational practices are used to handle and reconcile conflicting logics in a public sector organisation. Therefore, this paper contributes to the discussion on how organisational practices act as drivers of organisational change.

This paper aims to introduce a joint DEMATEL and NK methodology to develop a process model for introducing and implementing relational supply chain practices for low-carbon supply chains. Using this process model as a guide, insights into specific practices and how to implement these relational practices to achieve competitive advantage across organizations are introduced.

Low-carbon cooperation practices framework based on the relational view is developed. A methodology based on DEMATEL and the NK model is used to construct a sequential process model for introducing and implementing these relational practices. Empirical data from three manufacturing organizations in China are utilized to validate the model.

Initial results provide a sequence of relational practices for guiding those organizations and their suppliers for healthy and low-carbon development. Interdependencies between relational practices are analyzed and evaluated from four aspects. Insights into the broader application of the methodology and initial results from both a research and managerial perspective are presented, especially with consideration of the China, an emerging economy, context.

The methodology remains relatively abstract in nature, yet the tool can provide very useful interpretations and information for both researchers and practitioners.

This paper stipulates that in addition to internal operational practices, the relational practices between buyer and supplier may be equally important to achieve a low-carbon outcome, especially in supply chain setting. This paper also shows that not only the relational practice itself but also the implementation sequence of the relational practices can relate to performance. According to the authors’ initial results, organizations in this study should first develop product development cooperation, then exchange carbon knowledge and implement effective governance and last build a trust relationship with its suppliers for low-carbon cooperation.

This is one of the few approaches that directly evaluates and identifies the interdependencies among relational practices and to construct a process model for introducing and implementing low-carbon supply chain cooperation. It is also the first time that the NK model has been integrated with DEMATEL. Focusing on Chinese supply chain carbon emissions concerns is also a unique perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for and outcomes of the rhetoric of disclosures of human capital (HC) management practices and to discuss how disclosures could be changed to be more meaningful and appropriate in practice. Thus, the research question of interest to this paper is “Is the rhetoric of HC disclosure achieved in practice?”

Using a case study approach, the paper utilises content analysis to examine the rhetoric of HC disclosures and the results of HC management practices utilising corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, newsletters, annual reports, and other publicly available information, with an emphasis on media reports. The case study organisation is Westpac Bank (Australia), chosen because of the transformation in its approach to HC management since 2001 and its reputation as a global leader in CSR practice and reporting.

The paper illustrates how highly exposed HC disclosures are to scrutiny by both internal and external stakeholders and if the rhetoric is not transformed into practice how the disclosures can be used as a weapon by adversarial stakeholders to attack the organisation and/or attempt to change the balance of power between management and employees. It is argued that it could be more beneficial if HC disclosures were to report on the ongoing struggles and conflicts that are inherent in HC management practice, rather than not admitting to or not mentioning them at all, in order to reduce information asymmetry and build trust in the disclosures so that that the disclosures are less likely to be seen as merely rhetorical arguments.

The paper is limited to one particular organisation from which generalisation is not possible. Since the research is undertaken from outside the organisation, and relies largely on secondary data sources, it thus also relies in part on conjecture about the change processes which occurred inside the organisation.

The paper adds to the emerging discussion of how organisations put their HC management rhetoric into practice and whether or not they achieve their intended outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to explore the contributing barriers to corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices. In particular, this study focuses on non-managerial stakeholders’ perceptions of the barriers to CSER practices in a developing country context. The study also investigates the current initiatives undertaken by the different stakeholders, such as government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and regulators.

The study takes a qualitative approach, undertaking semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 participants from NGOs, the media, regulatory authorities, government departments, shareholders, trade union leaders and customers.

The views of stakeholder groups were analysed to identify the contributing barriers to CSER practices. The findings of the study reveal that corruption and politics, lack of coordination, lack of government initiatives and unsatisfactory implementation of laws are perceived as the major barriers that hinder CSER practices in Bangladesh. The study also found a lack of awareness amongst various stakeholder groups regarding the influential role CSER plays in promoting sustainable development. The current initiatives undertaken by various stakeholders to improve CSER practices were limited but growing.

The study utilises the stakeholder theory to examine the role of stakeholders, rather than managers, in relation to CSER practice in Bangladesh. The findings may provide impetus for mitigating CSER barriers in a developing country context.

This study is one of the few engagement-based studies to explore the non-managerial stakeholders’ views on CSER in a developing country context.

To identify some psychological and social variables that could enhance employees' adoption of total quality management (TQM) in an organization that chooses to implement the management philosophy.

A survey research was conducted, using 418 middle management staff, randomly drawn from some TQM and non‐TQM courier organizations in Nigeria. Respondents received standardized scales measuring perception of their leaders' leadership styles, organizational reward system and self‐report of personality attributes (psychological variables), along with items measuring gender, age, job tenure and level of education (social variables). They also responded to questionnaire items measuring the extent to which they practice TQM.

Correlation analysis show that higher level of maintenance leadership style along with lower level of performance leadership style, low levels of extraversion and neuroticism, higher level of education and shorter job tenure enhance subordinates' practice of TQM. t‐test results show that Employees in TQM organizations were significantly higher on perceived maintenance and performance leadership styles and reward but significantly lower on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism than their non‐TQM counterparts.

All measures were based on self‐report of the respondents and data were from only service organizations, thus, limiting generalizations of the findings.

Implementers of TQM in organizations in Nigeria should endeavor to put in place appropriate leadership styles, consider personality attributes, level of education and duration of working in any non‐TQM organization among other personnel issues for selection and retention in a TQM practicing organization.

TQM is a management technique being adopted in Nigeria with some difficulties. The present study brings to focus psychological and social variables that could ease its implementation.

Organization change (OC) is increasingly important in today's volatile world. Understanding OC is a growing emphasis of management and organization (M&O) research and the singular focus of OC scholarship and practice. We show how selected M&O theories inform OC at the organization level. These theoretical perspectives diverge on issues central to OC. We explore what these conceptual differences mean for OC study and practice going forward.

Institutional complexity shapes what is perceived as possible by framing cultural debates about practices, but organizations in turn shape how logics interpenetrate fields, suggesting that we must consider both the degree of compatibility between logics and the degree of practice variation in a field. Our exploratory study of three entrepreneurial impact finance organizations considers how they situate their practices between the market and community logics. We offer a recursive view that considers how multiple institutional logics shape practices and how entrepreneurial organizations adapt and invent new practices that, through their continued use, can influence the institutional complexity of a field.