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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of affective commitment and empowerment as mediators in the relationship among high-performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational performance. Different inconsistencies found in the literature review shows the need to take into account certain mediating variables, such as employees’ behaviors and attitudes, to understand how human resource management (HRM) facilitates the achievement of organizational results.

A sample of 200 medium-sized Spanish organizations was examined through partial least squares modeling methodology.

As hypothesized, a proactive strategic HRM approach in an organization can be translated in a series of human resources practices systems of high-performance, which stimulate directly employees’ affective commitment and promote empowerment among them, getting to better results in employees’ performance and in organizational performance.

This research shows that affective commitment and empowerment play a determinant role as mediators in HPWS and performance relationship, providing a deeper understanding of the alignment of strategy and HRM practices for organizational success.

This study investigates the role of national culture on the implementation and effectiveness of quality management practices. Specifically, the authors examine the dual roles of two of Hofstede's national culture dimensions (individualism and indulgence) in driving the implementation of people management practices and in moderating the relationship between people management and product quality performance.

The authors’ dataset combines a survey of 976 firms from 22 countries with Hofstede's national culture index. A multi-level analysis, at firm and country levels, is used for investigating the interplay between two dimensions of national culture (individualism and indulgence) on people management practices and product quality performance.

The authors' findings show the negative relationship between indulgence (at country level) and people management practices (at firm level) while individualism (at country level) strengthens the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level). Furthermore, the finding shows that the joint interaction between individualism and indulgence (at country level) moderates the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level) where the relationship is strongest when individualism is high and indulgence is low.

Understanding the interplay between national culture and management practices is important for managers in making decisions on the practices managers should implement under different cultural contexts to gain the expected outcomes.

The authors' results challenge the universalist view that suggests that quality management practices (in this case people management practices) can be applied in any context effectively to achieve high product quality performance by showing that facets of national culture influence the implementation and effectiveness of people management practices and performance. The results also provide a fresh perspective on the role of indulgence, given that it is the newest dimension in Hofstede's framework. The authors also extend previous studies which commonly only examine the main and not interactive effects of different dimensions of national culture.

This study aims to investigate the effect of supply chain quality management on operational performance in Vietnamese manufacturing companies.

Questionnaire survey is conducted to collect data from Vietnamese manufacturing companies in the electronic/electric industry. Collected data were analyzed by using correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis.

This study points out the current situation of implementing supply chain quality management practices in Vietnamese manufacturing companies which are more focused on internal quality management practices than upstream and downstream quality management practices. Correlation and regression analyses that demonstrate the significant linkage between supply chain quality management practices and operational performance are confirmed in this study. Upstream and downstream quality management are found to be the significant predictor for high performance on quality, cost and delivery.

This study has some limitations that can be addressed in future studies. The first limitation is the relatively small sample size due to lack of time and resources. These constraint can be overcome in future works by collecting more data in diverse countries and industries to re-examine the framework. Furthermore, larger sample will allow researchers to apply other statistical methods such as path analysis and structural equation modelling, which would provide interesting results. Another limitation is that the collected data in this paper mainly rely on perceptions of the respondents, which may cause individual bias in analysis. To reduce this type of bias, both subjective and objective measurement of scales, especially performance measures, can be used in future studies.

This study provides empirical evidences that practitioners can use to improve a specific type of performance, especially in the context of emerging economies. In a turbulent and unpredictable business environment, it is emphasized that quality management should be extended at supply chain level to utilize the capabilities of external partners. In Vietnamese manufacturing firms, implementation of such practices as information technology links, information sharing, supplier involvement and customer involvement would lead to high level of operational performance.

Supply chain management and quality management are two fields of study that have gained much attention of researchers. However, the concept of supply chain quality management as well as its impact on business performance have not been fully studied, especially in context of a developing country. Through extensive literature review, this study proposes and tests an analytical framework that characterizes supply chain quality management into three elements: internal quality management, upstream quality management and downstream quality management. Subsequently, their impact on quality, cost and delivery are analyzed to provide better understanding of supply chain quality management in Vietnamese context.

In the current digital era where online content is riddled with fabricated metrics and rankings, this research aims to investigate the underpinning mechanisms of the calculative practices which actors engage with to evaluate digital platform content in the absence of well-defined performance measures.

The paper focuses on the online, photo-sharing platform Instagram which is devoid of common performance measures such as rankings, ratings and reviews. The authors applied netnographic methods to capture users' actions and interactions at the Greek Instagram community. The authors adopt a practice lens as informed by Schatzki's ‘site ontology’ to capture actors' calculative practices as organised by rules, teleoaffective structures and general and practical understandings.

Platform actors engage in aesthetic and palpable evaluations of other user profiles and their posted content. They employ permissible (e.g., using third-party apps) and illicit (e.g., lobbying and procuring engagement) tactics to measure and manage digital platform performance, fabricate metrics and blur others' evaluations, in pursuit of prestige and material teleologies. Their calculative practices are conditioned by an implicit social etiquette, which permeates the platform both horizontally and vertically.

First, the paper captures and theorises the mechanisms which underpin actors' calculative practices for performance measurement in the absence of robust judgement devices. Second, it demonstrates how ambiguous assemblages of material and prestige teleologies, aesthetic and palpable evaluative regimes and implicit rules and practical expertise collectively invoke platform actors' calculative practices and the construction of performance measures. In doing so, it contributes to performance measurement literature via demonstrating how management accounting is implicated in the evaluation of digital platform outputs.

The paper provides insight on how platform actors fabricate performance metrics, what they perceive as ‘good’ online content and what constitutes an ‘impactful’ user account or a ‘successful’ social media campaign. Such findings are valuable to management accountants, entrepreneurs and practitioners who seek to evaluate digital platform performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the emotional intelligence (EI) of the person in charge of making human resource management (HRM) decisions on the adoption of high-performance human resource (HR) practices in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This study takes evidences from 157 HR decision makers in SMEs who autonomously make the decisions in the HR area and were responsible for the HR practices in their firm. The authors used multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

Results show that both the EI and the different EI competencies of which it is comprised affect the adoption of various HR practices. Thus, the main theoretical contribution of this work stems from the incorporation of a psychological variable (EI) as an antecedent of HRM. Managers of the SME will find guidance about which emotional competencies are the most important for them to be more successful in their roles and for improving HRM.

First, the sample of firms the authors studied is limited to a specific geographic area in one country – Spain (Canary Islands) – that will necessarily limit generalisation of the results obtained to other populations of SMEs. Researchers should replicate the current model in other geographic areas. Second, and with regard the methodology, researchers could explore other tools to measure EI and emotional competencies. It would be interesting to measure this construct using qualitative analytical techniques, with 360 – or 180 – degree tools. Finally, the current study is cross-sectional in nature, which limits our ability to draw causal inferences from the data. This cross-sectional design prevents us, for example, from analysing EI’s influence on the continued development of high-performance HR practices over time. Future research using longitudinal methodologies to study these variables could provide additional advances in this area. This work makes important contributions to both the literature and the business world. With regard to the theoretical implications, results confirm that EI as a whole, as well as in terms of its specific emotional competencies, affects the decision making related to the adoption of high-performance HR practices, which is known to contribute to the organisational performance.

With regard its practical implications, SMEs’ owners-managers and HR practitioners may find our results and conclusions interesting. Indeed, recommendations in business management have often been accompanied by new approaches in HRM (Kent, 2005), as this study proposes. In particular, managers will find evidence of how a decision-maker’s higher EI propitiates the adoption of high-performance HR practices, thus being able to improve HRM in their SMEs. Moreover, managers will obtain guidance on which emotional competencies are the most important for adopting each HR practice, and so find greater success in their HRM roles. SMEs could organise programmes to develop the HR decision-maker’s emotional competencies, as large firms do for their executives.

Thus, the main theoretical contribution of this work stems from the incorporation of a psychological variable (EI) as an antecedent of HRM. Managers of the SME will find guidance about which emotional competencies are the most important for them to be more successful in their roles and for improving HRM.

The purpose of this paper is to ask why poor performance management practices persist in Portugal, in the middle of claims to increase productivity.

An inductive micro-practice analysis is used to understand barriers to management practice that do not require massive institutional changes.

The practice of performance management in Portugal typically displays three weaknesses: (1) insufficient planning (2) process and integrity issues, and (3) a non-meritocratic logic.

The paper discusses the important topic of persistence of bad practices, showing how institutionalized patterns might be difficult to eradicate even they are suboptimal.

The authors identity key issues in the functioning of performance management, therefore helping managers in developing remedies to improve the quality of their practice.

The paper explains the persistence of bad management practice whose continuity hinders not only organizations’ effectiveness but also that of their members.

This paper aims to advance the current debates on the effect of performance measurement (PM) in the operations management domain. In order to accomplish that, it investigates the contribution of business PM and human resource management (HRM) practices to business performance.

The paper is based on ten case studies conducted across both manufacturing and service organisations capturing evidence from both the human resource function and line management.

In the PM and HRM literatures, there is a debate about the contribution these practices make to the overall performance of the organisation. In particular, the results from the PM literature are inconclusive. This paper argues that performance is a result of employee engagement and that the PM system is a communication and guiding mechanism, which if implemented well and used appropriately, can channel the efforts of employees striving to perform.

This paper contradicts the performance drivers approach to PM by providing new insights into the roles PM and HRM practices play in delivering business performance. Additionally, the paper develops a set of propositions as a means of clearly stating the findings and for encouraging future research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of job involvement as high-performance work system (HPWS) on the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and employee performance in multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing economies using Ghana as a case study.

Using questionnaires to collect data from 317 employees and ten MNCs in Ghana, structural equation modeling (SEM), multiple regression and bootstrapping analysis were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that an HPWS proxy as job involvement fully mediates the relationship between HR practices and employee performance. The findings also showed that training and development and compensation and reward have a significant and direct positive effect on employee performance.

This paper provides a practical guide to management and corporations on the significance of training and compensation on employee performance in MNCs. The study, therefore, recommends managers of firms and corporations to take a serious look at their HR practices and institute an HPWS, which can positively improve both corporate and employee performance.

This paper enhances our understanding of micro-level HPWS in the form of job involvement as a positive mediator between training and development and employee performance on the one hand, and between compensation and reward and employee performance on the other hand in work organizations in a less-studied context.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how organizations can exploit performance management through reflective practice to foster innovativeness and performance.

A conceptual framework has been designed to link the studied concepts and to explicitly indicate current research gaps in the area. Moreover, the authors have conducted interventionist case studies to understand the interconnections between theory and practice.

This study showed that there are many possibilities with which to exploit performance management through reflective practice to foster innovativeness and performance. The study has three main implications. First, reflective practice can be learned and developed. Second, reflective practice is connected to innovativeness and performance. Third, performance management through performance measurement systems can assist in targeting the reflective practice.

New forms of performance measurement and management are receiving increasingly amount of attention, because the traditional forms of managing organizations do not fulfill the needs of rapidly changing environment. Prior studies maintain that a performance measurement and management supports the periodic execution of the same routines in organizations where changes are small or non-existent. In these forms, the role of reflection as an individual, collective or organizational practice is emphasized.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge base on how performance measurement drives improvements in healthcare practice.

The study is based on a single in-depth case study. The critical incident technique (CIT) has been applied in order to identify significant occurrences of performance measurement in terms of events, incidents, processes, and issues identified by respondents from the case organization. These critical incidents have been analysed and interpreted using a theoretical framework suggesting that performance measurement may be applied for exploratory or regulatory purposes as well as ad hoc or continuously in healthcare practice.

The study suggests that performance measurement may be a versatile method for driving improvement in healthcare organizations. Six types of activities directly or indirectly drive improvement in the clinical department: continuous follow-up in formal arenas and meetings; improvement work; professional efforts; goal deployment; reporting based on external demands; and creating awareness in everyday clinical work. Healthcare organizations that strive to practice performance measurement as a driver for improvement need to find infrastructures in which it is being integrated into the daily life of organizational healthcare practice.

The study provides an original account of the prerequisites and actions for driving improvement through performance measurement in a healthcare setting. Since the operations management perspective in healthcare is significantly lacking, the study offers a unique perspective which may be the basis for both practice development and further scholarly inquiry and theory development.