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Article
Publication date: 30 October 2007

Elfriede Penz

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Internet's paradoxical nature from the perspective of consumers.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Internet's paradoxical nature from the perspective of consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

First, it is discussed that negotiations between companies and consumers about their respective shares of power lead to different models of consumer power. Second, the paradoxical effects of technology on social relations and an individual's sense of identity and responsibility are discussed. These changes have altered not only consumer behaviour but also the relationship between producers and customers, in the sense that power shifts to consumers. The case of the international music industry is used as an example. This case embodies many of the studied aspects of the paradox concept and proves useful in the development of implications for companies and their strategies.

Findings

The paper finds that while negotiations between companies and consumers about their share of power lead to different models of consumer power, the effects of technology on social relations and individuals' sense of identity and responsibility lead to changes in consumption behaviour.

Practical implications

The paper identifies how business practices have changed in response to the changes in intellectual property matters and the power constellations between companies and consumers. The theoretical models presented in this paper represent different positions that companies and consumers can take and are helpful in explaining the current power struggles, such as file sharing activities, which on a more individual level also correspond to paradoxical effects of the Internet (social relations, deindividuation effects).

Originality/value

This paper takes a fresh look at the Internet's paradoxical nature from a consumer point of view. It is argued that some of the Internet's paradoxical effects stem from socio‐political and socio‐cultural changes, for example, a power shift from companies to consumers, and normative and anti‐normative behaviours.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 May 2023

N. Chitra Devi

This study aims to explore the mediating role played by the contradictory behaviour of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding in the relationship between paradoxical leadership…

1145

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the mediating role played by the contradictory behaviour of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding in the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted with 276 employees working in information technology firms in India. “To assess the relationship between the constructs, single and parallel mediation analysis of structural equation modelling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have been performed”.

Findings

This study found that paradoxical leadership is significantly associated with employee creativity. Besides, it has also been found that knowledge sharing has emerged as a mediator that explains the relationship between paradoxical leadership and creativity, while knowledge hiding has not been a mediator to explain the relationship between paradoxical leadership and creativity among employees. According to the study, it was found that discouraging knowledge-hiding behaviour can increase employee knowledge sharing, which in turn fosters employee creativity.

Research limitations/implications

Research has examined the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity in this paradigm, as well as the roles of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding as mediators.

Practical implications

The results of this study will help top management to create strategies for enhancing the relationship between a leader and their subordinates by using effective knowledge management strategies that foster employee creativity. Employee creativity would be facilitated effectively by the paradoxical leader who regulates knowledge-hiding behaviour among employees and promotes knowledge-sharing behaviour.

Originality/value

This study addresses the gap in prior research by investigating the role of paradoxical leadership in managing the contradictory behaviours of knowledge sharing and hiding and their impact on employee creativity. As the motivation for knowledge sharing and hiding are inherently distinct, leaders with paradoxical qualities foster a culture of openness and trust to encourage knowledge-sharing while discouraging knowledge-hiding behaviour. By controlling knowledge-hiding behavior empowers employees to make meaningful contributions to the organization’s success through effective collaboration and teamwork, allowing for a more innovative and creative workplace. Because preventing knowledge-hiding behaviour is a means to promote knowledge sharing and ultimately foster creativity in an organisation. Overall, this paper offers unique insights into the intricate dynamics of knowledge management and provides valuable recommendations for leaders managing employees exhibiting contradictory behaviours in the workplace.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Tobias Rötheli

This paper aims to analyze forecasting problems from the perspective of information extraction. Circumstances are studied under which the forecast of an economic variable from one…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze forecasting problems from the perspective of information extraction. Circumstances are studied under which the forecast of an economic variable from one domain (country, industry, market segment) should rely on information regarding the same type of variable from another domain even if the two variables are not causally linked. It is shown that Granger causality linking variables from different domains is the rule and should be exploited for forecasting.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper applies information economics, in particular the study of rational information extraction, to shed light on the debate on causality and forecasting.

Findings

It is shown that the rational generalization of information across domains can lead to effects that are hard to square with economic intuition but worth considering for forecasting. Information from one domain is shown to affect that from another domain if there is at least one common factor affecting both domains, which is not (or not yet) observed when a forecast has to be made. The analysis suggests the theoretical possibility that the direction of such effects across domains can be counter-intuitive. In time-series econometrics, such effects will show up in estimated coefficients with the “wrong” sign.

Practical implications

This study helps forecasters by indicating a wider set of variables relevant for prediction. The analysis offers a theoretical basis for using lagged values from the type of variable to be forecast but from another domain. For example, when forecasting the bond risk spread in one country, introducing in the time-series model the lagged value of the risk spread from another country is suggested. Two empirical examples illustrate this principle for specifying models for prediction. The application to risk spreads and inflation rates illustrates the principles of the approach suggested here which is widely applicable.

Originality/value

The present study builds on a probability theoretic analysis to inform the specification of time-series forecasting models.

Details

foresight, vol. 19 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 July 2022

Jun Yin

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of how paradoxical leadership cultivates subordinates' paradox mindset.

1001

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of how paradoxical leadership cultivates subordinates' paradox mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the grounded theory approach. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and observations from eleven top managers and their six subordinates in five Chinese organizations. Managers and their subordinates were asked how they perceived and dealt with tensions in the workplace.

Findings

Paradoxical leadership promotes subordinates' paradox mindset by helping them learn to face, cope, and live with tensions. First, paradoxical leaders acted as role models for their subordinates and directly influenced followers' attitudes, motivation, and positive psychological states towards tensions. Moreover, when managers help their subordinates reduce stress and anxiety and build confidence, followers learn to cope with tensions. Consequently, subordinates' capacity to live with tensions is increased and they develop the paradox mindset.

Practical implications

The results imply that reducing subordinates' stress and anxiety and building their confidence can be integrated into work practices and training, which provide insights for managers to cultivate their subordinates' paradox mindset.

Originality/value

This paper investigates how paradoxical leadership impacts and cultivates subordinates' paradox mindset in a tension-setting work environment. The findings not only provide fresh insights into the detailed process of developing employees' paradox mindset but also deepen the understanding of the leader–follower relationship.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 43 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 July 2009

Ella Miron-Spektor and Anat Rafaeli

Most anger research has adopted a within-person view, focusing on the effects of experienced anger on a person's feelings, cognition, and behavior. Less research has examined the…

Abstract

Most anger research has adopted a within-person view, focusing on the effects of experienced anger on a person's feelings, cognition, and behavior. Less research has examined the effects of anger expressed by one person on other people in the workplace. We review available literature on the interpersonal effects of anger and propose a theoretical framework that addresses two main questions (1) What mechanisms can explain the effects of observed anger on other people? and (2) What factors may strengthen or attenuate these effects? We propose that observed anger affects observers’ performance via emotional and cognitive routes that are interrelated, and that this effect depends on the properties of the expressed anger, the situation in which the anger occurs, and the task being performed by the observer.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-056-8

Article
Publication date: 23 June 2018

Joshua Keller, Erica Wen Chen and Angela K.-Y. Leung

The purpose of this paper is to examine how national culture influences individuals’ subjective experience of tension when confronting paradoxical demands that arise during their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how national culture influences individuals’ subjective experience of tension when confronting paradoxical demands that arise during their day-to-day organizational experience. The paper further explores two types of paradoxical demands (task oriented and relational oriented) and two mediating mechanisms (tolerance for contradictions and harmony enhancement concerns) that exhibit contrary cultural effects.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from a sample of white-collar workers in China and the USA, the authors first inductively generated scenarios with task-oriented and relational-oriented paradoxical demands and then conducted three studies where participants rated the perceived tension from the scenarios. In Study 1, they examined cross-cultural differences in perceived tension and the mediating role of tolerance for contradictions. In Study 2, they primed Americans with proverbs that promoted tolerance for contradictions. In Study 3, they examined the indirect effects of harmony enhancement concerns in China in relational-oriented paradoxical demands.

Findings

The results found that for task-oriented paradoxical demands, Chinese participants were less likely than American participants to experience tension and the effects were mediated by a higher tolerance for contradictions. Americans exposed to proverbs that promoted tolerance for contradictions also experienced less tension. For relational-oriented paradoxical demands, on the other hand, the authors found no cross-cultural differences, as the indirect effects of a tolerance for contradictions were mitigated by negative indirect effects of greater harmony enhancement concerns.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates that culture can influence the tension that individuals subjectively experience when they confront paradoxical conditions, suggesting that individuals learn implicitly how to cope with tensions associated with paradoxes from their broader cultural environment. However, the authors also found different cultural effects within different paradoxical conditions, suggesting that the knowledge that individuals acquire from their broader cultural environment is multifaceted.

Details

Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5794

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 July 2020

Haifen Lin, Tingchen Qu and Yanfang Hu

This paper aims to address how organizational routines paradoxically affect the process of organizational innovation based on a new construct of routines or to investigate the…

1008

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to address how organizational routines paradoxically affect the process of organizational innovation based on a new construct of routines or to investigate the coexistence of both hindering and promoting effects from routines and their differentiated affecting paths.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts an interpretive and exploratory case study on the business model innovation of Yimu Technology Company Limited (Yimu Tech) from product standardization to customization. Considering that this innovation reflects a successful down-up rather than traditional up-down innovation, this paper focuses on it to explore how the most micro routines affect the whole process of innovation. Almost two years were spent in collecting data from Yimu Tech and in following the innovation through approaches of semi-structured interviews, archival data and observation; the data were analyzed through a five-step process before a framework showing the paradoxical effects was finally set up.

Findings

This research specifies the construct of organizational routines and promotes a five-dimensional concept covering the organizational, collective and individual levels of an organization. It confirms the interaction between the performative and ostensive aspects of routines, by showing that the ostensive aspect may not only guide tasks performing but also allow multiple changes, and the performative aspect may affect the ostensive aspect through the down-up or up-down path. Also, it finds that routines may paradoxically affect all three phases of innovation, with a strong up-down hindering effect but a weak down-up promoting effect in the preparation phase, a strong down-up promoting effect but a weak hindering effect in the emergence phase and both significant effects in the consolidation phase.

Research limitations/implications

This research is constrained by several limitations. The set up framework of routines and their paradoxical effects on innovation need a further confirmation in more contexts or organizations; more elements should be considered in exploring the evolution of routines and their effects on innovations; little attention has been paid to the relationship between these two types of effects, conflicting with each other, joining together or working independently.

Originality/value

The findings offered some valuable insights for further research on organizational routines and organizational innovation and hold important implications for management practices. This research enriched the two-aspect view of routines by constructing a five-dimensional framework; further research studies on routine dynamics by showing the interaction between the performative and ostensive aspects can contribute to the study on effects of organizational routines on innovations by showing how routines promote and hinder innovation simultaneously throughout the whole process. It reminds managers of the strong power from the microlevel of an organization in innovation.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2023

Wei-Yuan Lo, Yu-Kai Lin, Hsiang-Ming Lee and Tsui-Yau Liu

This study aims to use “both–and” thinking of Yin-Yang philosophy to extend the field of leadership literatures and explore the influences of paradoxical leadership and emotional…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to use “both–and” thinking of Yin-Yang philosophy to extend the field of leadership literatures and explore the influences of paradoxical leadership and emotional intelligence on organizational identification and turnover intentions of nurses.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted a cross-sectional survey completed by 285 nurses in Taiwan. SPSS 22, PROCESS and AMOS 21 were used for data analysis.

Findings

The results reveal that paradoxical leadership has a significant positive relationship with nurses’ organizational identification and a significant negatively relationship with their turnover intentions, and organizational identification partially mediated the relationship between paradoxical leadership and turnover intentions. The results further show that emotional intelligence strengthens the effect of paradoxical leadership on organizational identification, and paradoxical leadership had a stronger indirect effect on turnover intentions through organizational identification under strong emotional intelligence.

Originality/value

Paradoxical leadership can strengthen managers’ abilities in dealing with interrelated and substantial issues and correspond to organizing and belonging paradoxes in holistic thinking processes. Health-care organizations must shape a coordinated institution and offer training initiatives to increase managers’ ability and attitude to control organizational rules and procedures while allowing employees’ flexibility and autonomy according to the requirements of the situation, which will maintain both organizational short-term benefits and long-term growth.

Details

Leadership in Health Services, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1879

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 June 2021

Jianfeng Jia, Zhi Liu and Yuyan Zheng

This study aims to explore the antecedents of bootlegging from the perspective of paradoxical leadership. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), it examines a multiple…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the antecedents of bootlegging from the perspective of paradoxical leadership. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), it examines a multiple mediation model with harmonious innovation passion, role breadth self-efficacy and perceived error management culture as mediators, to interpret why paradoxical leadership influences employee bootlegging.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the theoretical model, data were collected from 218 full-time employees from enterprises in Chinese cities using a three-wave time-lagged design. Path-analysis and a bootstrapping approach in Mplus7 were used to examine the hypotheses of the theoretical model.

Findings

The results show that paradoxical leadership has a positive influence on bootlegging. In the multiple mediation model, the effect paths of harmonious innovation passion and role breadth self-efficacy are significant but there is an insignificant difference in their power, while the effect path of perceived error management culture is insignificant, although it has a significant simple mediating effect and sequential mediating effect.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to show the influence of paradoxical leadership on bootlegging, responding to the research call to use the paradoxical factors to capture the antecedents of innovative behaviors. Second, this study enriches the outcomes of paradoxical leadership, that of bootlegging. Third, this study provides a TPB-based mechanism of how paradoxical leadership promotes bootlegging by increasing employees’ harmonious innovation passion, role breadth self-efficacy and perceived error management culture. This provides a new theoretical perspective to explain the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee bootlegging. It also responds to the call for exploration of the multiple pathways of leadership.

Article
Publication date: 9 June 2023

Ziwei Yang, Wenjin Hu, Jinan Shao, Yongyi Shou and Qile He

The highly uncertain and turbulent environments nowadays intensify the paradoxical effects of supply base concentration (SBC) on improving cost efficiency while increasing…

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Abstract

Purpose

The highly uncertain and turbulent environments nowadays intensify the paradoxical effects of supply base concentration (SBC) on improving cost efficiency while increasing idiosyncratic risk (IR). Digitalization is regarded as a remedy for this paradox, yet digitization's potentially curative effect has not been empirically tested. Leveraging the lenses of paradox theory and information processing theory (IPT), this study explores how two distinct dimensions of digitalization, i.e. digitalization intensity (DI) and digitalization breadth (DB), reconcile the paradoxical effects of SBC.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a panel dataset of 1,238 Chinese manufacturing firms in the period of 2012–2020, this study utilizes fixed-effects regression models to test the proposed hypotheses.

Findings

The authors discover that SBC enhances a firm's cost efficiency but induces greater IR. More importantly, there is evidence that DI restrains the amplifying effect of SBC on IR. However, DB weakens the enhancing effect of SBC on cost efficiency and aggravates the SBC's exacerbating effect on IR.

Originality/value

This study advances the understanding of the paradoxical effects of SBC on cost efficiency and IR from a paradox theory perspective. More importantly, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the authors' study is the first to untangle the differential roles of DI and DB in reconciling the paradox of SBC. This study also provides practitioners with nuanced insights into how the practitioners should use appropriate tactics to deploy digital technologies effectively.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 43 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

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