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This paper aims to examine the use of Cross-Functional Bridge (CFB) in dyadic relationships towards enhancing organisational performance. Prior research has flagged conflict in interfunctional relationships. Research on managing such conflict context is, however, limited.

Analysing 20 in-depth interviews conducted in UK financial services organisations, this study explains how the CFB is used to manage interfunctional relationship conflict and enhance performance.

This study underlines three core insights about intragroup working relationship: cultural and disciplinary differences and boundary fencing are core features of, and conflict drivers in, the accounting – marketing interface; CFB is a tool for analysing and managing these conflict drivers; and organisations that use this tool achieve improved organisational performance, an outcome that is enhanced and sustained through the team psychological enhancement factor of the conflict management strategy. Also, this study underlines the need to ensure a fit between conflict management strategy and conflict types.

This research has several limitations. It explores only accounting – marketing working relationship in UK financial services organisations. Also, it explores only relationship conflict and cultural and disciplinary diversity and boundary fencing factors. Finally, this study suggests a mediating influence of psychological well-being on the CFB – performance link, a conclusion that is based on a methodologically inadequate tool: causes and effects associations are better assessed quantitatively (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

The paper highlights insights for analysing and resolving conflicts towards harmonious dyadic relationships. Importantly, managers who use the flagged CFB tool would achieve psychological enhancement in team, and extendedly enhanced organisational performance. Managers are reminded of the need to adequately address the emotional substances in relationship conflicts, as failure to do this will lead to conflict escalation, transformation and negative performance.

The paper offers theory testing and theory building knowledge. The CFB insight is a major highlight, one that lays a brick for future development, especially concerning its modus operandi, motivators and how to maximize its performance value.

The study explores the perceptions of graduates on their employability and future of work, in light of the challenges thrown upon by new vicissitudes in the work environment. The study intends to assess the preparedness of management graduates in facing the challenges and uncertainties of the actual job market.

Semi-structured and informal interviews with 65 management graduates from UK, Canada, Italy and India. The thematic analysis uncovered the concerns and areas to develop for management graduates regarding their future employability perceptions.

The authors benefited from a unique opportunity to capture the views and experience of graduates who are undergoing management education during this ambiguous period. Three major themes were developed on how to develop oneself for an ambiguous future of work which includes Psychological strengths, Skill enhancement and Future mindset. The study also unearthed the major focus areas for better employability from a graduate perspective.

Practical contribution comes from strategies to prepare university graduates for sustainable careers. Study hints at the importance of work experience, adaptability and skill enhancement in meeting the challenges of the future.

From a global approach this is one among the first studies to look into the graduate perspective of their preparedness for future work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of leaders’ life goals on their work related wellbeing. Self‐determination theory (SDT) asserts aspirations (life goals) pursued in terms of personal growth, health, affiliation and community support psychological wellbeing, while aspirations of wealth, image and fame thwart wellbeing. However, little is understood about the influence of life goals towards leaders’ wellbeing at work, specifically job burnout.

The study explores seven dimensions of aspirations on a sample of 386 New Zealand leaders towards emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Data were collected in two waves (1=predictors and 2=outcomes) and structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships between variables.

The study found that all extrinsic aspirations were significantly and positively correlated with job burnout, while mainly the intrinsic aspirations were significantly and negatively correlated. The structural model showed that wealth and image aspirations were positively related to emotional exhaustion and cynicism, while health aspirations were negatively related. Finally, relationship aspirations were negatively related to cynicism.

This study shows the importance of life goals and the role they play towards leaders’ job burnout. Leaders focussed on extrinsic aspirations are more likely to burnout at work than those focussed on intrinsic aspirations. Hence, what leaders focus on in terms of overall life objectives matter for their workplace wellbeing.

Findings are significant because, for the first time, relationships between the SDT dimensions associated with (a leader's) life goal orientations and job burnout has been established.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of Scottish schoolchildren on active travel to school and their ideas about promotion strategies for school‐based interventions.

Focus group discussions were conducted with 66 students from four primary and three secondary schools.

The most common perceived barriers to active school travel were personal safety, weather conditions and time/distance. To a lesser extent, image, physical discomfort and aspects of the physical environment also prevented children from walking or cycling to school. Perceived benefits centred on health and fitness, environmental and social factors. Enjoyment, confidence and social influences were all discussed, with the latter appearing to have the most significant impact on active travel behaviour. Students suggested a number of potential promotion strategies, including incentives and reward schemes to enhance motivation. Practical exercises such as a group walk or cycle were more popular than classroom‐based activities.

Findings are limited to Scottish schoolchildren aged 10‐13 in rural and semi‐rural locations. Further research covering younger and older children, as well as more urban locations will broaden understanding of the impact of age and geographical location.

The findings identify a number of influences on active travel behaviour among young people. Advancing understanding of determinants of context‐specific physical activity is important for the development of effective interventions.

This paper draws on students' own ideas about the ways in which active travel should be promoted and, as such, has important implications for the development of appropriate and acceptable school‐based active travel programmes.

The proliferation of non-fungible token (NFT)-based crypto-art platforms has transformed how creators manage, own and earn money through the creation, assets and identity of their digital works. Despite this, no studies have examined the drivers of continuous content contribution behavior (CCCB) toward NFTs. Hence, this study draws on the theory of relational bonds to examine how various relational bonds affect feelings of psychological ownership, which, in turn, affects CCCB on metaverse platforms.

Using structural equation modeling and importance-performance matrix analysis, an online survey of 434 content creators from prominent NFT platforms empirically validated the research hypotheses.

Financial, structural, and social bonds positively affect psychological ownership, which in turn encourages CCCBs. The results of the importance-performance matrix analysis reveal that male content creators prioritized virtual reputation and social enhancement, whereas female content creators prioritized personalization and monetary gains.

We examine Web 3.0 and the NFT creators’ network that characterizes the governance practices of the metaverse. Consequently, the findings facilitate a better understanding of creator economy and meta-verse commerce.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in the context of Chinese organizations, especially the mediating role of psychological expectations and the moderating role of political skill.

The study sample comprised matched surveys from 252 supervisor-subordinate dyad in the People’s Republic of China. The subordinate managers completed measures of SSG, performance enhancement expectations, impression management expectations and political skill. The supervisors were asked to rate managers’ feedback-seeking behavior.

Result show that SSG was positively related to managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Performance enhancement expectations and impression management expectations partially mediated supervisor-subordinate guanxi’s influence on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Political skill positively moderated the relationships between SSG and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in such a way that the relationships were stronger for managers higher in political skill than lower.

The paper not only helps for deeper understanding of managers’ feedback-seeking behavior but also provides a new perspective for exploring effective governance of Chinese local managers.

This study provides preliminary evidence of the mediation effect of psychological expectations and the moderating effect of political skill in the relationship between SSG and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Additionally, the findings highlight the necessity of study on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in the context of China to help advance the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the effect of SSG on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between perceived investments in employees’ development (PIED) on work engagement and the moderating effects of psychological capital on this relationship for liquid knowledge workers, employed in the Indian cutting and polishing of diamond industry (CPD).

A questionnaire composed of established scales was administered to 134 liquid knowledge workers. Having established convergent and discriminant validity using structural equation modelling, the model was further analysed using the Process macro to check for direct and moderating effects.

The research findings suggest that the perceived investment in employee development and psychological contract enhancement (relational and transactional) made by CPD units for liquid knowledge workers positively influenced their work engagement level. The study also finds that relational contract (not transactional contract) positively moderates the relationship between perceived investment in employee development and work engagement.

This is a cross-sectional single source study; future studies could look at longitudinal and multisource perspective.

The study presents a “star matrix of engagement” that guides the application of the two strategies of perceived employee development and psychological contract enhancement for liquid knowledge workers. This has implications for design and implementation of human resource management practices and policies for employee management.

The study makes significant contributions to existing literature on antecedents of work engagement of liquid knowledge workers by examining the direct and moderating influences.

This study aimed to test Early and Ang’s (2003) proposition that self-enhancement hinders successful cross-cultural adjustment. The literature on self-enhancement is reviewed, and the overclaiming technique as an unobtrusive measure of self-enhancement is introduced for use in global mobility contexts.

Using the overclaiming technique, an international-cultural overclaiming test was developed. Expatriates in Singapore stated their familiarity with international-cultural knowledge items, with some of them being foil items, and rated their cross-cultural (general, interaction, work) adjustment. Supervisors rated the expatriates on their work adjustment and performance.

Overclaiming was not related to self-rated cross-cultural adjustment. However, overclaiming was negatively related to supervisor rated work adjustment and performance. Additionally, the results showed that international-cultural knowledge accuracy was positively related to self-rated general adjustment and to supervisor rated work adjustment and performance.

The small sample size with a majority of expatriate teachers from international schools in the sample makes it necessary for the results to be replicated with larger and more varied expatriate samples.

While further validation is needed, this research indicates that the overclaiming technique could be a valuable tool for assessing self-enhancement in candidates for expatriate positions in order to gauge potential cross-cultural (mal)adjustment, as perceived by others.

This study was (likely) the first study that has applied the overclaiming technique in a global mobility context. An international-cultural knowledge overclaiming test is provided to academic researchers for future use.

Drawing on the self-congruity theory and customer engagement literature, this research accounts for the influence of the three dimensions of customer self-congruity on customer engagement with global brands by uncovering the mediating mechanism of brand psychological ownership and moderating mechanism of global connectedness. The research framework is tested across developed and developing country contexts to highlight any cultural differences in the drivers of customer engagement with global brands.

Data were collected from developed (USA; n = 270) and developing (India; n = 273) countries through two online surveys and tested, employing structural equation modeling, across the two markets to investigate cross-cultural variations.

Social self-congruity has the strongest influence on customer engagement for USA consumers, while all three forms of self-congruity are equally important in India. Psychological ownership consistently works as the mediating mechanism across both contexts. While global connectedness accentuates the relationship between self-congruity and brand psychological ownership for Indian consumers, it attenuates the relationship amongst USA consumers.

While prior literature mainly establishes a direct link between self-congruity and customer engagement, this study provides a deeper understanding of the self-congruity–customer engagement relationship by: a) investigating the mediating role of psychological ownership; b) examining the moderating role of global connectedness and c) studying all three forms of self-congruity (i.e. actual, ideal and social) simultaneously. The study, testing the framework in developing and developed country settings, highlights cultural nuances in forming customer engagement with global brands.

This study aims to investigate the impact of emotional intelligence on work engagement by exploring the mediating roles of self-efficacy and psychological empowerment in this relationship.

Using the survey method, data were collected through both physical and online means. The final sample comprised 304 teachers working in elementary, middle and high schools. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, utilizing IBM Amos version 26, was employed to assess the hypothesized model.

The study's results revealed that emotional intelligence does not exert a direct impact on work engagement. Additionally, self-efficacy was not found to mediate the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement. However, psychological empowerment emerged as a mediating factor in this context. Furthermore, self-efficacy and psychological empowerment concurrently demonstrated significant mediation of the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement.

The findings underscore the significance of teachers' emotional intelligence, suggesting that it can have profound implications for their work engagement through the mediating mechanisms of self-efficacy and psychological empowerment. Educational principals and administrators are encouraged to prioritize the enhancement of teachers' psychological empowerment, recognizing it as a pivotal link between teachers' emotional intelligence and work engagement.

This study contributes to the field by comprehensively examining the mediating roles of self-efficacy and psychological empowerment, addressing prior empirical gaps, and enriching the understanding of how emotional intelligence influences work engagement within the educational sphere.