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Soft total quality management (STQM) is a requisite for the successful implementation of hard total quality management interventions. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the implications of adopting soft total quality management practices. Inter alia, little is known about the consequences of employee involvement in addressing organizational and management challenges. To fill this gap, the article investigates the effects of employees' involvement on their commitment to organizational excellence.

Secondary data were collected from the European Company Survey (ECS). A large sample of 15,958 European companies was involved in the analysis. A parallel mediation model was devised to investigate the effects of employee involvement on commitment to organizational excellence. Training and motivation were contemplated as mediating variables to investigate the indirect implications of employee involvement on commitment to organizational excellence.

Employee involvement contributed marginally towards establishing an increased individual commitment to organizational excellence. Training and motivation played a relevant and statistically significant mediating role, boosting the implications of involvement on commitment to organizational excellence.

Employee involvement is critical for establishing an organizational climate conducive to organizational excellence. However, its implications should be contextualized in light of the mediating role of training and motivation. On the one hand, training is expected to increase employees' participation in the enhancement of organizational excellence. On the other hand, motivation fosters employee engagement in the improvement of organizational dynamics.

The article investigates the implications of employee involvement on commitment to organizational excellence in a large sample of European companies, emphasizing that soft TQM interventions should be implemented according to a systemic perspective in order to pave the way for a viable commitment to organizational excellence.

Organizational innovation relies on the employees' active participation in improving extant processes and practices. In particular, it has been argued that employees' engagement triggers innovation-oriented behaviors at work. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of evidence of the implications of work engagement on the health professionals' innovation propensity. The article intends to push forward what we currently know about this issue, providing some food for thought to scholars and practitioners.

A path analysis based on ordinary least square (OLS) regression and 10,000 bootstrap samples was designed to investigate the direct and indirect implications of employees' engagement on innovative behaviors at work in a large sample of health professionals operating in Europe. The quality of employee–manager relationships and the organizational climate were included as mediating variables affecting the relationship between work engagement and propensity to innovation-oriented behaviors.

The research findings highlighted that being engaged at work fosters the willingness of health professionals to partake in the improvement of organizational processes and practices. The positive implications of employees' engagement on innovative behaviors at work are catalyzed by good employee–manager relationships and a positive organizational climate.

Healthcare organizations should uphold the health professional's engagement to enhance their innovation potential. Targeted interventions are needed to merge work engagement with the enhancement of the organizational environment in which health professionals accomplish their activities. A positive organizational climate enacts an empowering work environment, which further incentivizes innovation.

The article adopts a micro-level perspective to investigate the triggers of innovative behaviors among healthcare professionals, providing evidence which is relevant for theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine “how” the adoption of integrated reporting (IR), and the embedded multiple capitals framework, has influenced organisational reporting practice. In particular, the paper examines how companies report and integrate multiple capitals in various organisational reporting channels following the introduction of an “apply or explain” IR requirement in South Africa.

Using a qualitative case study approach based on discourse analysis, this paper examines various organisational reports including integrated reports, standalone sustainability reports, websites and other online materials of highly regarded, award-winning, integrated reporters in South Africa over a four-year period (2011-2014), following the introduction of IR requirement. The authors draw five impression management techniques, namely, rhetorical manipulation, thematic manipulation, selectivity, emphasis in visual presentation and performance comparisons to explain disclosure and integration of multiple capitals.

The authors find that companies are increasingly conforming to reporting language espoused in existing IR guidelines and multiple capital frameworks over time. For instance, it is found that the research cases have increasingly used specific grammars in existing IR guidelines such as “capitals” and “material” issues, with companies acknowledging the “interdependencies” and “trade-offs” between multiple capitals. Companies have also started to recognise that the capitals are subject to “increases, decreases, and transformations” over time. However, the disclosures are generic, rather than company-specific, and lack substance, often framed in synthetic charming aimed to showcase adoption of IR practice. In addition, the current discourse on multiple capital disclosures is one of the defending, even promoting, organisational reputation, rather than recognising how organisational actions, or inactions, impact multiple capitals. The paper concludes that the emerging IR practice, and the embedded multiple capital framework, has not really improved the substance of organisational reports.

The results of this study have a number of implications for regulatory authorities, public and private sector organisations as well as academic researchers. For regulatory authorities, the results inform relevant regulatory authorities how IR practice is taking shape over time, particularly within the context of a regulatory setting. Second, the empirical analyses, which focused on highly regarded, award-wining, integrated reporters, draw the attention of regulatory bodies as well as users of corporate reports to concerns related to a growing number of rating agencies of organisational reports. Finally, for academic researchers, the theoretical implications of this study is that, given the pervasive use of multiple impression management techniques in various organisational reports, the authors support the notion that corporate disclosure practices should be examined through the lens of multiple theoretical perspectives to enhance our understanding of the nature of organisational reporting practice.

This study provides a more focused preliminary empirical account of the implications of IR practice, and the embedded multiple capital frameworks, on the quality of organisational reporting practice following the adoption of mandatory IR requirement in South Africa.

Team autonomy involves empowering employees to achieve greater control over organizational dynamics. Such empowerment may augment the employees’ vigor, dedication and absorption at work. However, there is limited evidence on the contents of the relationship between team autonomy and work engagement. This paper aims to fill in this gap, shedding light into the manifold implications of team autonomy on employees’ work engagement.

A serial mediation analysis was designed to collect evidence of the effects of team autonomy on work engagement. Drawing on self-determination theory, social comparison theory and social facilitation theory, team member-supervisor exchanges and organizational climate were contemplated in the analysis as mediating variables. An ordinary least square regression-based model relying on 5,000 bootstrap samples was implemented. The study focused on a large sample of Europeans employed in the manufacturing sector (n = 4,588).

Team autonomy had tiny, but statistically significant effects on work engagement. Good relationships between team members and supervisors positively mediated the effects of team autonomy on work engagement. Conversely, the organizational climate did not have a significant mediating role. A statistically significant serial mediation effect linked team autonomy and work engagement via team member-supervisor exchanges and organizational climate.

Team autonomy contributes to increasing the employees’ vigor, dedication and absorption at work. The enhancement of team member-supervisor relationships fosters the engagement of team members who experience a greater autonomy at work. The effects of team autonomy on organizational climate are ambiguous and mediated by an improvement of the relationships between team members and supervisors.

The paper originally investigates the implications of team autonomy on work engagement, emphasizing the importance of social exchanges at work to realize the full potential of team autonomy.

As the world looks ahead to the possibilities of creating a new normal post COVID-19, organisations are examining the implications of extended remote work. A central piece here is redefining the organisational culture which has been impacted by a distributed workforce during this time. Many leaders have voiced concern over maintaining a strong organisational culture during this pandemic. This chapter reviews research that shows the relationship between remote work and organisational culture and its subsequent impact on key outcomes of interest, such as organisational identification, socialisation, knowledge sharing, employee turnover, and productivity. It also includes contingent conditions to examine the impact of multiple factors that moderate the relationship between remote work and organisational culture. These include social, technological, and normative conditions. Based on existing knowledge drawn from the experiences from voluntary as well as mandatory programmes for remote work, this chapter offers a model and propositions. This is followed by a set of research implications and practice guidelines for introducing an organisational culture that is consistent with the new reality of increased technological utilisation and altered workforce expectations.

Does staffing contribute to organizational effectiveness and sustained competitive advantage, or are many of staffing’s implications merely cross-level fallacies? This article provides a critical examination of staffing research and practice, and proposes a multilevel model of staffing that ties together micro (e.g. personnel selection), meso (e.g. team staffing), and macro (e.g. organizational strategy, Human Resources practices) theory, research, and practice. The model is both integrative and prescriptive, providing a basic organizing structure for examining staffing research within and across levels. The article begins with a review of multilevel theory, followed by a review and critique of the dominant staffing paradigms from a multilevel perspective. It is shown these single level paradigms cannot answer many of the primary questions of interest to staffing specialists. In contrast, the multilevel staffing model not only addresses these limitations, but also prompts a variety of new predictions that oftentimes run counter to prevailing wisdom. Staffing specialists are challenged to show how our science and practice contribute to better functioning organizations.

The field of Human Resource Management (HRM) has long recognized the importance of interpersonal influence for employee and organizational effectiveness. HRM research and practice have focused primarily on individuals’ characteristics and behaviors as a means to understand “who” is influential in organizations, with substantially less attention paid to social networks. To reinvigorate a focus on network structures to explain interpersonal influence, the authors present a comprehensive account of how network structures enable and constrain influence within organizations. The authors begin by describing how power and status, two key determinants of individual influence in organizations, operate through different mechanisms, and delineate a range of network positions that yield power, reflect status, and/or capture realized influence. Then, the authors extend initial structural views of influence beyond the positions of individuals to consider how network structures within and between groups – capturing group social capital and/or shared leadership – enable and constrain groups’ ability to influence group members, other groups, and the broader organizational system. The authors also discuss how HRM may leverage these insights to facilitate interpersonal influence in ways that support individual, group, and organizational effectiveness.

In view of dynamic and widespread economic transformation in emerging economies, managing organizational change and growth in this context deserves more research attention. The purpose of this paper is to examine how three organizations in different industries manage change, growth and transformation in their organizational ecosystem.

The authors conducted in-depth interviews with the leadership of three organizations in different economic sectors in India, a country representing an emerging economy. The authors also reviewed historical data from these organizations. Three case studies illustrating the evolution of these organizations were developed from the data collected.

Lessons and implications from the three case studies suggest the following key elements of effective organizational change mechanisms in an emerging economy: visionary entrepreneurial leadership; program quality excellence; scale growth and scope expansion; network capabilities; and sustainable stakeholders’ engagement. At the same time, this study also shows how these organizations manage change, growth and transformation in the context of a society with strong traditions and cultural norms.

Results and conclusions may be limited by the fact that the study is based on three case studies. Additional studies from a variety of industries with large numbers of participants will be helpful in more fully understanding the ways in which change, growth and transformation can best be developed and deployed in different organizational settings.

The proposed model of organizational change in an emerging economy may assist organizational leadership in designing and sustaining their change efforts.

This study highlights the role of visionary entrepreneurial leadership and the impact of organizational growth mechanisms on organizational value delivery capabilities and organizational reputation.

Lessons and implications of five growth steps of outstanding organizations in an emerging economy context provide valuable insight for organizational change, growth and transformation in other emerging contexts.

The aim of this paper is to explore if reflective inquiry and action learning have an influence on job and organizational effectiveness. A reflective‐action learning framework will be used as a prior theory to illustrate its link to organizational learning.

The case organization is a Singapore higher learning institution. In‐depth interviewing with 50 faculty members and the Deputy Director of academic affairs was employed to find out more about the practice of reflective‐action learning group (RALG) that had been established for over three years. Additionally, ethnographic observation was used to support and strengthen empirical evidence.

Key findings reveal that RALG is closely aligned to Kolb's experiential learning cycle where a series of learning dynamics is involved. For instance, the role of reflection motivates individuals to shift from single‐ to double‐loop learning, increasing their competence and capacity to undertake greater challenges. In addition, transferring new knowledge to a modified action increases the interaction of the learning loops. This way, triple‐loop learning may be engaged to enhance the competitive advantage of individuals and subsequently, the organization.

The study has shed light on two underlying principles that govern the RALG framework: cognitive and behavioral perspectives. These perspectives are closely linked to the nature of organizational learning, an area that has gained prominence in organizational research.

The linkage between RALG and organizational effectiveness has led to a gamut of practical implications. For instance, the role of purposeful communication encourages the divergence of individual learning issues and the convergence of shared thinking. In addition, the concretization of abstract generalization derived from reflection provides opportunities for greater team dynamics with a focus on innovation.

This paper offers an international perspective illustrating the progressiveness of an Asian higher learning institution with a global mindset. The study is a unique example of the success of RALG with specific implications for organizational learning practices in a wider array of professional contexts. It is believed that the findings will be of value to international researchers and practitioners in the fields of organizational and human resource development.