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Although many service organizations have adopted a productivity orientation to respond to increasing market challenges, the unanticipated downside effect of such an orientation is not well understood. For managers, it is interesting to know if this strategic initiative is working and how to implement it more successfully.

The theoretical model used in this paper is tested with a survey of 879 frontline employees from five different health-care organizations.

The authors find evidence of a trade-off when a productivity orientation is adopted. A productivity orientation improves frontline service employee productivity performance but indirectly harms quality performance and job satisfaction. The authors find further evidence that trust in management helps to mitigate these negative effects.

This paper suggests that a productivity orientation must be managed carefully. Efficiency improvements may be overshadowed by reduced quality and job satisfaction. Limitations arise from the self-reported survey data.

The results suggest that employees who trust their managers are better able to cope with the stressors arising from increased productivity demands.

To the authors’ best knowledge, no research has systematically examined the process and potential hazards of implementing a productivity orientation from a frontline employee perspective. The current paper reveals the mechanisms by which a productivity orientation influences frontline employees’ change perceptions and performance and shows that employee trust in management may buffer the downside effects of a productivity orientation.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of the service orientation on bank-employee behaviors; to empirically examine the moderating role of the productivity orientation in an effort to explain when and why the simultaneous pursuit of the service orientation and the productivity orientation negatively affect the financial service employee psychological empowerment; and to explore any contextual factors that can suppress or facilitate the bank–employee behaviors.

A single cross-sectional descriptive design was used for this study. Purposive sampling was used to identify the respondents who were bank employees in financial-service-sector organizations in South Korea. To analyze the data, a confirmatory-factor analysis (CFA) using LISREL 8.5 was employed. Conditional process modeling was performed to test the moderated mediation and the moderated-mediation hypotheses.

The results showed a significant relationship between the service orientation and the frontline-employee behaviors, thereby establishing the psychological empowerment as an intervening mechanism. The findings also suggest that the moderating role of the productivity orientation weakened the positive effect of the service orientation on the bank-employee psychological empowerment. This research identifies the positive interactive effect of the customer power upon the psychological empowerment of the employee extra-role behavior. The task interdependence enhanced the link between the psychological empowerment and the employee in-role behavior.

The specific service sector that was chosen is retail banking. The cross-sectional nature of the data is considered a limitation; furthermore, the self-reported nature of the completed questionnaires might have resulted in the common method bias. Further research should be conducted to collect longitudinal data from other service sectors to verify the hypothesized relationship. Extensions into other sectors that differ in terms of the customer power degree and the task interdependence level could lead to a contingency framework that shows if and how the hypothesized linkages can be changed according to the contextual factors.

For managers who want or need to pursue the strategic goals of the service orientation and the productivity orientation simultaneously, this study offers useful insights into the management of the strategic dilemmas that stem from service-setting multi-goal pursuits from an employee perspective. Second, the significant positive relationships that were observed between the values of the overt customer power and the extra-role behavior suggest that constraining and influential customer behaviors are likely to produce a structured working environment that encourages the bank-employee extra-role behavior. Third, the results also suggest that the task structure (task interdependence) may influence the employee in-role behavior. Thus, managers should encourage an organizational sense of belonging for their employees and an understanding of the essential nature of the employee work role in terms of a competitive organizational performance.

In banking circumstances, stickiness on product orientation by cutting cost will deteriorate the level of customer service and will then reduce customer revenues. In this case, disgruntled staff and unhappy customers perceive that their interests are being sacrificed in the pursuit of greater productivity. In this situation, revenues may fall faster than the reduction in costs. Thus, it may be proven that the cost of the dual demands from these two orientation types outweigh the benefit. Bank executives may perceive organizational productivity orientation as being an easier and more evident tool to use for reducing cost, especially with the existence of tough competition. Critically, in addition to poor service quality, this study indicates that there is a side effect of productivity orientation practice. Thus, managers should use caution in the concurrent employment of the two types.

This study identified the reason for the negative service outcomes that result from the simultaneous pursuits of the service orientation and the productivity orientation. From an employee perspective, it might be proven that the costs of the dual-service and production-orientation demands may outweigh the benefits. Thus, this proposed research model, in which the frontline autonomy acted as a key mediator and the customer power and the task interdependence were salient moderators, has been shown as crucial in the transmission of the impacts of the service and the quality orientation, and in the blunting of the service-productivity trade-offs that are due to the employee’s perceived multi-goal orientations.

Employees often improve at work by learning from others who have been successful. They learn by hearing their stories. However, the number of stories, task type and context all affect learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of stories they hear, the type of task they are learning to perform and their performance in the task to date all affect performance improvement.

The authors examine how task complexity and recent performance relative to others influence the relationship between the number of success stories a person reads and their subsequent performance. The authors used a sample of order processing employees from a label manufacturing company to test our hypotheses.

The authors find that in complex tasks, subsequent performance is highest when people read a small number of stories, and lowest when people read no stories or too many stories. In simple tasks, the authors find that when people have average recent performance, more stories leads to lower performance, but when recent performance is high or low, more stories increases subsequent performance.

The authors move beyond research that shows that people do not learn as much from success as they could and that success primarily promotes reinforcement to examine contingencies that enhance or detract from learning from success stories. This adds nuance to existing theory.

This study suggests access to others’ success stories is an alternative that can provide employees with ideas for how to improve their own performance. But care and consideration must be taken to limit the number of success stories based on the complexity of the task.

There is little research on either the vicarious learning of simple tasks in organizations or on how employees learn from others’ success stories. This matters because vicarious learning can enable employees to avoid missteps and create opportunities that would likely not happen if they only learn from their own experiences.

Effective leadership is a key factor in successful international joint ventures, especially in Vietnam. Compatibility and complementarity of the leadership styles are the foundation for such partnerships. Based on a research study of international managers and their Vietnamese counterparts, an appropriate profile of compatible and complementary leadership characteristics and effective skills and behaviors for successful joint ventures in Vietnam is suggested. A multi‐cultural approach with focus on the mutual understanding of the cultures involved, adapting the styles of the partners and relationship building is necessary for successful joint ventures. Building shared values in the joint venture is critical to performance, to creating an appropriate organizational culture, and to accomplishing effective organizational change.

To determine the key reverse logistics variables, which the top management should focus so as to improve the productivity and performance of computer hardware supply chains.

In this paper, an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) based approach has been employed to model the reverse logistics variables typically found in computer hardware supply chains. These variables have been categorized under “enablers” and “results”. The enablers are the variables that help boost the reverse logistics variables, while results variables are the outcome of good reverse logistics practices.

A key finding of this modeling is that environmental concern is the primary cause of the initiation of reverse logistics practices in computer hardware supply chains. For better results, top management should focus on improving the high driving power enabler variables such as regulations, environmental concerns, top management commitment, recapturing value from used products, resource reduction, etc.

In this research, an interpretation of reverse logistics variables in terms of their driving and dependence powers has been carried out. Those variables possessing higher driving power in the ISM need to be taken care on a priority basis because there are a few other dependent variables being affected by them. Variables emerging with high dependence contribute to productivity and performance of green supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to study the role of organizational forgetting in the impact of strategic thinking on the implementation of an organizational excellence model. Furthermore, the factors with main effects on the implementation success of the organizational excellence model are investigated. The two main causes of organizational forgetting, including purposefulness and randomness, along with the three main factors of strategic thinking (vision, creativity and systematic thinking) also are explored. Enablers and results, which are the two key parts of an organizational excellence model are considered as well.

A model based on structural equations is designed, in which organizational forgetting factors, strategic thinking measures and main parts of a business excellence model are incorporated based on the literature. A total of 297 Iranian companies in which an organizational excellence model had been implemented are selected for investigation. A questionnaire is designed and distributed among the experts, middle managers and top managers of these companies. Based on Cochran’s formula, the sample size of 168 is obtained, for which the response rate is 100 percent. Main statistical measures such as χ² ratio to degree of freedom, non-soft fitness index (RMSEA), fitness index (GFI) and modified fitness index (AGFI) are used to assess the performance of the proposed model.

According to the results of the statistical significance tests, the role of organizational obsessive mediators in the establishment of the organizational excellence model has been largely confirmed. Furthermore, the mediator role of organizational forgetting in the final impact of strategic thinking on implementing an organizational excellence model has been widely endorsed. Failure to use knowledge from learning, the inability of a company in coding and documenting knowledge and lack of incentives to share it are the most important factors in the forgetting of knowledge in companies.

As top managers, middle managers and experts are hard to reach due to the wide geographical spread of the organization under study, a questionnaire is designed and distributed among them. The impact of organizational forgetting on other quality management systems such as ISO 9001 and ISO 4001 needs another research to be conducted in the future.

Using new experiences, increasing the competency of employees and managers experience through organizational learning, employee and managerial assessment and organizational strategy assessment are the main practical methods for considering organizational forgetting in the process of implementing organizational excellence models.

This research addresses organizational forgetting besides strategic thinking as joint main roles for implementing organizational excellence, whereas previous research works only considered strategic thinking as a factor. Furthermore, a structural equation model is developed for appraisal of effect of different factors.

This paper aims to investigate how different trajectories can be detected and classified in business models (BMs) at the level of their underlying product development value-structure (value-creation and appropriation), and what are the drivers. Such BMs are run by multinational firms to accommodate various technologies and innovations; however, this is stressful because of inherent incompatibilities and conflicts.

An explorative study of six product cases from Du Pont’s Textiles Fiber Division (DTFD), namely, nylon yarns, knits and wovens, DTFD blockbusters, Coolmax^®, MicroMattique™, filling materials and Supriva™, is conducted.

In value-creation, technology push or market pull yields resultant technology-forward or market-back trajectories. For value appropriation, new growth opportunities or continuous market expectations lead to breakthrough or continuous innovations. Consistent and inconsistent combinations of these trajectories yield four differential drivers: technological breakthrough, market-back technology, continuous technology and continuous market-back. This is supported by relevant supply chain strategies, either focused through joint ventures and licensees for commodities or vertically integrated for specialty products.

The paper adds to the analysis of ambidexterity in the value structure of BMs along constituent value-creation and appropriation, thus providing a logical lens to understand various complementarities that exist in terms of opposing technology trajectories and product innovation repertoire.

This study contributes to the knowledge of product innovation management in the textile industry, where both large-scale innovation and operational excellence are challenged over the past few decades.

The lessons learnt address the fundamental issue of higher value generation through configuration of multiple contrasting value-structure elements.

Purpose – This paper is intended to test for the model of commodities export performance (EP) in Aceh Province, Indonesia.

Design/Methodology/Approach – This research will focus on approach model of firms competency variable, customer relation, foreign environmental factor, and moderating variable of export competitive strategy which aims to improve firm performance in the export context.

Findings – The research framework models will give a new perspective to export activities conducted by exporting commodities in an emergent nation such as Indonesia and more specifically in Aceh.

Originality/Value – The improvement of EP.

Based on substitutes for leadership theory, the aim of this study is to examine followers' learning goal orientation as a moderator of relationships among transformational leadership, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and sales productivity.

Data came from 61 food and beverage attendants of a casino, and were analyzed using regression analyses.

Transformational leadership was positively related to both OCB and sales productivity. Learning goal orientation moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB, such that transformational leadership was more strongly related to OCB among followers with a low learning goal orientation than among followers with a high learning goal orientation.

Limitations of the study include the small sample size and cross‐sectional research design.

Organizations could train supervisors to practice a transformational leadership style and to take followers' learning goal orientation into account.

The findings of this study suggest that, with regard to OCB, a high learning goal orientation of followers may act as a “substitute” for low levels of leaders' transformational leadership.

In today’s global marketplace, the mantra of many service firms is enhanced efficiency and productivity. To increase their bottom line, firms must also expand revenue. They thus face the challenge of ways to increase revenue through customer satisfaction while also achieving productivity gains. The current study aims to offer insight into the role of various resources that encourage frontline employees (FLEs) to become engaged in the pursuit of achieving organisational goals, ultimately enhancing service productivity and customer satisfaction.

A total of 252 customer-FLE dyadic data were collected at a medium-sized retail bank in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Results show that personal (self-efficacy) and organisational resources impact FLE productivity directly and indirectly through employee engagement. Importantly, service productivity is then positively associated with customer satisfaction.

Extending previous investigations based on the job demands-resources model and theories of self-efficacy and conservation of resources, this study’s findings empirically support anecdotal accounts of the positive productivity–customer satisfaction relationship.

The results also highlight the importance of the management of human and organisational resources to attain this two-pronged goal.

Using dyadic data (customers and FLEs) collected at a medium-sized retail bank, the authors refute the trade-off effect between attaining employee productivity and customer satisfaction in the service industry. This paper further fills research need to study how various resources available to FLEs can achieve desirable organisational outcomes in service firms – the improvement of both service productivity and customer satisfaction.