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The case is designed for students with prior knowledge of principles of management, particularly leadership theories. The case would also benefit bachelor students who already took an introductory course to leadership such as organizational behavior or graduate students who are familiar with the leadership and/or entrepreneurship literature. This case study may be used in the following academic courses: theories of leadership, leadership and leaders, organizational leaders’ roles, management skills, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial management.

This case study may be used in the following academic programs: Bachelor’s in Business Administration Master of Science in Business Administration MBA Programs.

Kamal Reggad is a Moroccan entrepreneur who created the company Menaclick, an online business that aims to sell and promote various products and services nationally and internationally at discounted prices. Goods and services are posted on Menaclick’s website www.hmizate.ma, which means “good deals” in Moroccan Arabic. The Hmizate platform operates a daily-deals and group-buying website offering discounted deals to Moroccan customers. The deals are mainly on goods and services such as traveling, food, esthetics, shopping, high-tech gadgets and recreational events (Eco, 2013). Menaclick is based in Casablanca, Morocco, and its website www.hmizate.ma is one of the most popular websites in the country with over 40,000 visitors per day. In the past few years, Kamal has been significantly contributing to building the groundwork of the e-commerce industry in Morocco, a course that has been changing the way Moroccan customers shop for goods and services. In fact, it is because of the merits of group-buying sites such as Hmizate that over 16 million Moroccan internet users navigate the net daily to buy products and services online with ease and facility (Maroc Numeric Cluster, 2014). Kamal Reggad is a fitting example of an innate leader who introduced a new leadership style to Morocco. Kamal took a colossal risk by targeting a new and unexplored market in Morocco which is the e-commerce business; his risks have paid off. As the case explains, Kamal’s success is because of his passion, perseverance and positive attitude.

In general, the objective of the case study is to further enhance the understanding of leadership in general and entrepreneurial spirit in particular. The case study will assist students in developing their leadership-related skills through the discussion of a real-life situation and experience and propose an example of the importance of participative leadership during the launching phase of a business venture. The case is designed to provoke and stimulate students’ personal reflections about a particular management style, especially in entrepreneurship.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This is the second of two linked articles on the question of union autonomy; the first appeared in the previous issue of this journal. It considers state control and approach to union autonomy in the wider context of state controls on unions′ bargaining activities including industrial action. Two questions are posed: whether there is any “balance” between state respect for union autonomy and state confidence that union collective bargaining activities take place within a legally prescribed framework; and how the state in the UK was able to shift so rapidly from the traditional, voluntary approach and the incipient neo‐corporatism of the 1970s, to the detailed and onerous regulation of union internal and external activities in the 1980s and 1990s.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the practices of the interim and current CEOs employed in managing a supportive environment conducive for learning as well as sustaining organizational change; and second, to describe the theory of practice guiding their efforts.

An action science approach, coupled with the case‐study data‐gathering method to enable a pragmatic grounding of the change processes and organizational learning.

A theory of practice defined as three process principles of power that aid in managing a supportive environment conducive for learning as well as organizational change.

The theory of practice set forth combines two advocated views in using power (position power and empowerment) into a framework of reciprocal‐relational power. The theory needs to undergo further research to test its applicable knowledge in an action context.

Potential guide in helping practitioners in recognizing and implementing processes of reciprocal‐relational power to improve organizational learning and the success of change.

The paper presents a new way to recognize and see reciprocal‐relational forces within a cultural‐social‐political context.

To research how the chief executive officers (CEO) and vice presidents (VPs) and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System (SRHS) developed into a highly collaborative enterprise in managing change on a daily basis.

A combination of research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, was used in gathering data. Archival records – meeting minutes, memos, internal and external diagnostic surveys, local and regional newspapers – enabled collecting data over an extended period, in addition to direct observation (April 2003‐May 2004) and interviews: retrospective and concurrent. Content analysis – a qualitative method employed through grounded theory (analytic induction) – generated the themes from the archival and interview data.

Quantitative data suggest for the years May 2000‐December 2003 a change in behavior toward more participation occurred at SRHS, on an organizational level and in the relations between the CEO and VPs; also during this period the hospital's patient satisfaction scores improved significantly from 50 to low‐to‐mid 90 percent. The collaborative work practices the CEO and VPs had assumed was not the norm for the VPs working at SRHS back in March 2000, under the former CEO's administration. Research shows by May 2004 the current CEO and VPs' social interaction had evolved into practices of reciprocal power relations and knowledge sharing that was more decentralized, lateral, team‐based, and participative than a strict bureaucracy would tolerate.

Findings from this study illustrates three principles leaders can use in establishing stakeholder power relations to guide practices that aid organizations in managing change on a day‐to‐day basis.

This paper argues that failing to grasp thoroughly the influence of power on the strategy‐making process can severely inhibit the potential of strategy making as a vehicle of organizational learning.

First the organizational learning perspective on strategic management is sketched and an attempt is made to show how it takes the social aspects of organizing more seriously than earlier perspectives on strategy. It is also noted how this iteration responds or at least has the potential to respond to some of the critiques directed at earlier thinking on strategy from critical management studies (CMS). Then CMS's critique of organizational learning theories is noted and the critiques to re‐conceptualize blockages to learning and knowledge creation are built on.

An attempt has been made to show that, as in earlier perspectives on strategy, there is still insufficient attention being paid to the role of power in strategic change. This places severe limitations on strategic learning that is possible.

Concludes by joining other writers in calling for a less managerialist research in strategy.

The paper seeks to focus on operationalising corporate social responsibility in the context of employee governance. Its purpose is to evaluate critically the ethics of “mainstream” human resource management (HRM) and to propose an alternative stakeholder systems model of HRM.

Stakeholder theory is utilised to critique modes of employee governance, in the light of concepts of stakeholder accountability and organisational justice. Conceptual analysis attests to the need for a different philosophy of employee governance – in particular within knowledge‐intensive organisations.

The paper identifies the concept of “the responsible organisation” as a means of assessing organisational maturity in employee governance, and relates this to dimensions of organisational justice. Linkage enables employee perceptions of equitable treatment to be combined with effectiveness measures in the employee governance model proposed.

The paper demonstrates the significance and application potential of a stakeholder systems development of current modes of managing people. Conclusions confirm instrumental and ethical rationales for the greater involvement of and accountability to employee stakeholders.

The paper demonstrates a business‐based rationale for the adoption of ethical corporate governance and HRM.

The stakeholder systems model represents a holistic approach to human resource management by its incorporation of employee perspectives at HRM system design, operation and evaluation stages. It responds to the need for a new philosophy of HRM in an era of stakeholder‐accountable organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between positive perceptions of politics (i.e. positive politics) and decision creativity and propitiousness (i.e. reaching unforeseen advantages while limiting unexpected problems). In addition, drawing from threat-rigidity effect theory the authors argue that such relationships will be resilient to external environmental threats and specifically macro-economic uncertainty.

The database for the analyses consisted of 200 strategic decisions gathered from firms located in Dubai.

Positive politics significantly influence decision creativity and propitiousness. Also, macro-economic uncertainty moderates this relationship.

Although this research has tried to adopt a more neutral perspective on political behavior, much more work is required to better understand the role and implications of neutral politics in decision-making.

If decision makers ensure that the concern for the organization’s welfare remains a priority over the self-serving motives of the actors, then politics can enhance decision success.

This paper challenges the long held conventional wisdom that politics in organizations are an important underlying cause of unethical practices, poor decisions and organizational ineffectiveness.

The findings serve to further the understanding of complexities involved in the relationships between political behavior and its consequences.

Digital transformation continues to rapidly progress in higher education globally, spanning all aspects of higher education operations, values and culture. Despite expanding literature, guidance remains focussed on emergency application during pandemic lockdowns and/or on single organisational case studies. Digital transformation frameworks that move beyond these foci are heavily criticised for being commercially contextualised (outside of higher education) and are often too narrowly conceptualised. The purpose of this paper is to review the most common framework currently used in the UK, which takes a strategic and organisational perspective on digital transformation.

This is a technical review article that summarises key guidance for organisational digital capability and then reflects on its application in the UK (a developed economy and higher education system) and in Vietnam (one of the fastest-growing economies with a developing higher education committed to digital transformation) as an initial attempt to explore its applicability beyond the UK context. Vietnam has been chosen as a reference context, given its significant current digital transformation policy reform at the national level and as a collaboration partner with the UK in its digital transformation.

The guidance highlights six core areas to consider for digital capability: information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, content and information, research and innovation, communication, learning, teaching and assessment and organisational digital culture. Although the framework is normative, findings suggest it is sufficiently open-ended to enable its users to determine practical steps to drive digital transformation. However, complementary tools are suggested to deal with the rapidly developing digital transformation policy context of Vietnam.

This is the first time a review has been conducted from the perspective of different countries, with a view to supporting leaders, managers and policymakers in the UK, Vietnam and other Association of South Eastern Nations (ASEAN) networks in their own digital transformation transitions.

To demonstrate that stakeholder analysis has a significant contribution to make as a “middle ground” research method and as a means of organisational change.

A case study of performance appraisal in UK academic institutions uses stakeholder analysis to address issues of organisation performance and development in a way that bridges the divide between theory and practice. This approach is supported by locating stakeholder theory within modes of organisation enquiry, and by positioning it more specifically within its conceptual domain.

Demonstrates the integrity and value of stakeholder analysis as a “middle ground” research method via development of a stakeholder systems model that identifies design, operation and evaluation stages of the performance management process and links these to measures of effectiveness and equity.

“Joined up thinking” in organisation analysis implies incorporation of quantitative and qualitative research methods in a holistic method of organisation enquiry. Stakeholder analysis illustrates how different research philosophies and methods can be combined in a pragmatic but robust way.

The stakeholder systems model builds on the concept of multi‐source approaches to performance appraisal. Both broaden the basis of assessment by incorporating stakeholder perspectives but, while the former seeks stakeholder consensus at the evaluation stage, the later incorporates multi‐source (stakeholder) perspectives on design, process and evaluation stages and on the system as a whole.

The paper demonstrates how stakeholder theory can draw from the conceptual clarity and intellectual rigour of “objective” epistemologies while retaining acceptance of the “soft”, unstructured and value‐based nature of organisation problems.

Research has not fully recognised the significance of employee stakeholders to the design and effective operation of performance management systems. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the centrality of employees within the stakeholder systems model of performance management it proposes.

Stakeholder theory is utilised to critique current scorecard‐type performance management frameworks with a particular focus on the balanced scorecard as the most popular of these. Conceptual analysis is supported by case study evidence relating to the effectiveness of performance management systems in knowledge‐intensive organisations.

The paper identifies the concept of the responsible organisation as a means of assessing organisational maturity in performance management, and links it to dimensions of organisational justice. Linkage enables stakeholder perceptions of equitable treatment to be combined with effectiveness measures in the more holistic performance management framework proposed.

The paper demonstrates the significance and application potential of the stakeholder systems development of scorecard‐type performance management frameworks. Conclusions confirm the “why” and the “how” of a more participatory role for organisation stakeholders, and why employee stakeholders merit a “first among equals” status within these.

The paper shows that the stakeholder systems approach represents a holistic approach to performance management through its incorporation of stakeholder perspectives at system design, operation and evaluation stages. The paper responds to the need for a new philosophy of performance management in an era of stakeholder accountable organisations.