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Article
Publication date: 20 April 2023

Sylvie Michel, Sylvie Gerbaix and Marc Bidan

This paper aims to study the dimensions and subdimensions of humanitarian supply chain resilience through the case of an non-governmental organization (NGO) logistics organization…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study the dimensions and subdimensions of humanitarian supply chain resilience through the case of an non-governmental organization (NGO) logistics organization facing the international COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology of this empirical research paper is based on a qualitative study using semistructured interviews with key actors of the Médecins Sans Frontières Logistique (MSF Log), NGO during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and 2021.

Findings

The data analysis highlighted four main dimensions of humanitarian supply chain resilience: organizational capacity, collaboration, flexibility and humanitarian culture. The transversal importance of the information system and that of the humanitarian culture were also pointed out. Furthermore, the authors have identified the subdimensions of each dimension; these subdimensions further elaborate the main dimension and provide a more detailed understanding of the concept. These dimensions require both proactive and reactive actions to be effective. Finally, based on these empirical results, a conceptual model of humanitarian supply chain resilience is proposed.

Research limitations/implications

Additionally, further research can be done to explore the impact of digital technologies on the humanitarian supply chain resilience and how these technologies can be used to improve the resilience of humanitarian supply chains. Additionally, future research can also be conducted to explore how to measure the resilience of humanitarian supply chains and how to develop methods to improve the resilience of these supply chains.

Practical implications

The dimensions and subdimensions of resilience that have been highlighted may provide a guide for managers to target their actions, both responsively and proactively, to act on resilience over time when facing a crisis such as an international pandemic.

Originality/value

The value of this research is linked to the findings that result not only from literature about resilience but are also founded on an empirical and qualitative study of an NGO logistics organization facing an international crisis. The research provides an in-depth understanding of the practical application of supply chain resilience in a humanitarian context and the specific challenges and opportunities that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic for MSF Log. It also highlights the importance of information systems and humanitarian culture in maintaining the supply chain resilience. The findings of this research can be used as a guide for other humanitarian organizations to improve their supply chain resilience in times of crisis.

Details

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-8546

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 February 2018

Holm-Detlev Köhler and Sergio González Begega

This paper aims to examine the reaction of a local workforce to global restructuring in a transnational company (TNC), which entailed the closure of a manufacturing plant (La

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the reaction of a local workforce to global restructuring in a transnational company (TNC), which entailed the closure of a manufacturing plant (La Monroe) in Northern Spain. The article explores the micro-political nature of the corporate decision to close the plant, the workforce reaction to relocation and the discourse legitimizing global restructuring. It also delves into the contra-hegemonic potential of labour as a main stakeholder in TNCs.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodological approach is qualitative. The article presents a theoretically informed and analytical case study based on the literature on micro-politics and power relations in TNCs. Fieldwork is based on semi-structured interviews carried out with relevant stakeholders and other external actors to the TNC.

Findings

The findings substantiate the dynamic role of micro-politics within TNCs. The article presents and discusses evidence of the formation of a broad multi-level political network of resistance to a plant closure plan.

Research limitations/implications

More case study analysis would further support the findings in the paper and provide for a comparative approach.

Originality/value

The article substantiates the dynamic role of micro-politics and power relations in the reification of social norms and discourses on production relocation. It offers an empirical appraisal of the micro-political approach to global restructuring in TNCs. The article also puts labour strategies at the forefront of the analysis in corporate relocation.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2015

Oday Kamal, David Brown, Prabhu Sivabalan and Heidi Sundin

– The purpose of this research is to understand how accounting information mobilises stakeholder salience at an industry level.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to understand how accounting information mobilises stakeholder salience at an industry level.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study method using an explanation building approach was applied to gather information surrounding dairy industry stakeholder uses of accounting information to communicate their salience, in the historical context, leading to, and the events surrounding the milk price “war” in Australia. The Mitchell et al. (1997) stakeholder salience framework was used to advance our understanding of the different ways accounting can be mobilized by stakeholders with different types of salience attributes, at an industry level.

Findings

This empirical analysis produces two insights into the relation between accounting and stakeholder salience. First, there is evidence as to how accounting information impacted on stakeholder salience at an industry level by demonstrating how accounting information (in)directly communicated and justified the increase of a stakeholder’s level of salience. Second, the Mitchell et al. (1997) model is extended by attributing levels of importance to each stakeholder attribute. It was found that, in this setting, power was the most salient attribute of the three, usurping legitimacy and urgency, leading to the outcomes observed.

Research limitations/implications

This paper acknowledged the usual method limitations related to this style of qualitative research, including investigator bias and lack of statistical generalization. In addition, a second set of limitations critiques the paper’s operating framework. While the Mitchell et al. (1997) stakeholder salience model proved to be a suitable choice for this research, it is limited in the way in which stakeholder attributes are presented and used to identify stakeholders. In addition, further light may be provided on the distinctions between the different magnitudes of power, legitimacy and urgency between stakeholders after suggesting that they are not equally weighted.

Practical implications

The milk price “war” remains a high-profile discussion amongst the general public. This research contributes to a better understanding of how different players (stakeholders) have their salience claims mobilized through accounting information. Practitioners in the dairy industry might reflect on the findings to enhance their legitimacy pursuits in future negotiations with their counter-parties, and better deploy accounting to achieve the same.

Social implications

The findings speak more broadly to notions of social equity in stakeholder relations, for the production and distribution of a product that is ubiquitously used in society (dairy – milk). The findings from this study therefore have potential to assist policymakers better understand the strategies adopted by stakeholders to impose their influence and defend their claims in a public forum, using accounting information.

Originality/value

The authors contend that the article provides evidence at an industry level, that is lacking in extant management accounting research (Collier, 2000). To this extent, an original contribution is claimed. The paper is also valuable to management accounting and management researchers studying stakeholder salience, and is one of the first to investigate this issue at an industry level, as well as express how accounting mobilises this salience.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1986

Leslie S. Laczko

This article presents an empirical test of three hypotheses dealing with the modernisation of polyethnic societies. An hypothesis derived from the functionalist/developmental…

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Abstract

This article presents an empirical test of three hypotheses dealing with the modernisation of polyethnic societies. An hypothesis derived from the functionalist/developmental perspective and two hypotheses derived from the conflict/competition perspective are assessed using survey data on Francophone‐Anglophone relations in contemporary Quebec. The main conclusions are that 1) the cross‐sectional design using survey data allows a clear test of Hechter's (1975) reactive ethnicity hypothesis; 2) the reactive ethnicity hypothesis is supported in the analysis; 3) the resource competition hypothesis (e.g., Nielsen 1980) is also supported; 4) the reactive ethnicity and resource competition hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as some recent authors have claimed (Nielsen 1980; Ragin 1979), and can best be seen as two variants of the same communal competition perspective imbedded in the conflict theory tradition.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 4 October 2011

Miguel Martínez Lucio

The relative absence of worker occupations in recent years in a context of major restructuring and unemployment has raised issues in Spain as to the changing nature of specific…

Abstract

Purpose

The relative absence of worker occupations in recent years in a context of major restructuring and unemployment has raised issues in Spain as to the changing nature of specific forms of direct action. This paper seeks to argue that it is important, in the case of Spain, to discuss how worker occupations have been changing and developing over time if the changing pattern, character and impact of worker unrest and direct action is to be understood.

Design/methodology/approach

The research materials for this paper are based on a series of meetings and interviews with union officers and activists that draw on various projects on union development in Spain during the years 1983‐1988, 2000‐2002 and 2009‐2010, and the study of a range of secondary texts.

Findings

The paper suggests that, as well as discussing questions of motives, whether economic or political, accounting for the socio‐economic context and the changing nature of the workforce in terms of its degree of concentration, the changing nature of labour market stability, and the relationship of workers to “stable” workplaces and work is required. Additionally, there is a need to account for how workers reference and recall (or not) previous modes of mobilising and actions.

Practical implications

Discussing worker occupations should involve issues of political purpose, economic context, the changing nature of work and workers, and the role of memory and historical framing if an appreciation of their varying nature and presence within the landscape of labour relations is to be made. Hence, a multi‐dimensional understanding of the context of worker action is required.

Social implications

The implications of the paper are that conflict of work needs to be understood in broader terms, and that worker related activities can be highly innovative.

Originality/value

The paper examines union and worker responses to the current recession in Spain and focuses on the role and context of unofficial approaches, especially worker occupations, to the changing workplace.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 33 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 12 no. 4/5/6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 4 October 2019

Dae-seok Kang, Jeff Gold, Jeongeun Kim and Ilsoo Kim

The purpose of this paper is to examine the instrumental use of social capital regarding career growth within an organization, focusing on the mediating role of perceived…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the instrumental use of social capital regarding career growth within an organization, focusing on the mediating role of perceived competence mobilization and the moderating role of two situational variables: perceived external prestige and job insecurity climate.

Design/methodology/approach

Relationships among the constructs are predicted based on relevant literature, and are tested using survey results from 324 employees working in 14 leading corporations in Korea.

Findings

Results show that social capital positively influenced, via perceived competence mobilization, each of two career growth dimensions (i.e. the personal efforts to develop a career and the experience of being rewarded by the organization). In contrast, moderated path analysis indicated that perceptions of external prestige and job insecurity climate failed to moderate the indirect effect of social capital on career growth.

Practical implications

In light of the instrumental use of social capital and the ensuring mechanism of competence mobilization, a detailed understanding of this effect on career growth cannot only neutralize the fears of brain drain, but is also helpful in providing possibilities for building new career development strategies.

Originality/value

Although social capital has become an influential concept in social sciences, little evidence has been presented on the above relationship, particularly from the perspective of careerist orientation. This may be the first research examining how and when the influence of social capital becomes instrumental with respect to career attainment within an organization.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 41 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 November 2019

Renata Guimarães Quelha de Sá and Alessandra de Sá Mello da Costa

This paper aims to discuss the constitution of the Memorial of Resistance of São Paulo (MRSP) by adopting the ANTi-History approach, thereby providing greater transparency to the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the constitution of the Memorial of Resistance of São Paulo (MRSP) by adopting the ANTi-History approach, thereby providing greater transparency to the socio-political relations of multiple actors involved in the constitution of this place as a site of memory.

Design/methodology/approach

By adopting the principles of ANTi-History, the researchers focused on the socio-politics of different human and nonhuman actors to examine how this site of memory was constituted. The researchers sought to turn the process of constituting the MRSP more transparent, putting together one of the possible historical versions of this phenomenon. The data collected included oral and documental sources (interviews, videos, books, newspapers and websites).

Findings

The findings support the notion of history as a socially constructed narrative that emerges through associations of heterogeneous actors in a dynamic and continuous process of (re)configuration. Additionally, by exposing the power relations and negotiations manoeuvres used by multiple actors, it allowed the researchers to highlight the complexity of the Memorial’s history as a black box, contextualizing them in a period of intense social upheaval, re-democratization and transitional justice within Brazilian society.

Originality/value

The paper outlines the process of listing the DEOPS/SP building and the social mobilization movements during the 1980s and 1990s in Brazil, illustrating some of the results obtained from a more extensive research project that dealt with the MRSP’s constitution process. It offers an in-depth example of using the ANTi-History approach in Organizational Studies, allowing the researchers to remove the organization’s veil of apparent simplicity and to bring back to life voices and actors that have been erased, disguised and silenced by the dominant version of events.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 July 2008

M.H. Helal, G.H. Elgemeie, M.A. El‐kashouti, M.M. ElMolla, H.S. Elsayad and K.A. Ahmed

The purpose of this paper is to synthesise some disperse dyes containing a reactive group and study their applications on polyamide and wool printing by heat transfer and screen…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to synthesise some disperse dyes containing a reactive group and study their applications on polyamide and wool printing by heat transfer and screen printing.

Design/methodology/approach

To prepare these dyes, arylhydrazones of acetylacetone were reacted with cyanothioacetamide in boiling ethanolic sodium ethoxide. The resultant salt was collected by filtration and dried, then the salt was dissolved in ethanol and reacted with chloroacetylchloride with stirring for 3 h, where chloroacetylechloride was added dropwise. The final precipitated product was collected by filtration and crystallised with an appropriate solvent. These prepared dyes were used to print polyamide and wool fabrics by using synthetic thickener in the printing paste for all techniques.

Findings

The structure of the synthesised dyes were established and confirmed for the reaction products on the basis of their elemental analysis and spectral data (MS, IR and 1H‐NMR). The suitability of the prepared dyestuffs for either heat transfer printing or traditional printing on nylon 6 and wool fabrics was investigated. The prints obtained from dyes possess high‐colour strength as well as excellent overall fastness properties.

Research limitations/implications

The synthesised heterocyclic reactive disperse azo dyes were prepared from the reaction of arylhydrazones of acetylacetone and thiocyanoacetamide to form the corresponding pyridinethione salts which underwent further reaction with chloroacetylchloride. The obtained dyes were utilised in preparing a paste for polyamide and wool fabric printing. In addition, both of the variation of the substituents on the synthesised dyes and the fastness properties were also studied.

Practical implications

The synthesis and use of reactive disperse dyes provide practical solution to over come the low fastness on polyamide and wool, when they are printed with disperse dyes only.

Originality/value

The result of the work aimed to define the scope and limitation of the authors' procedures for the synthesis of novel reactive disperse azo dyes to improve the low‐fastness properties of polyamide and wool, the dyes were synthesised in a simple way.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. 37 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2005

Stephen Little and Stewart Clegg

This paper investigates how the learning trajectory of corporations utilising information and communication technologies has been matched by the labour movement and social…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates how the learning trajectory of corporations utilising information and communication technologies has been matched by the labour movement and social movements associated with it.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper investigates new communication dynamics of labour in the international setting. It then focuses on a broader and richer set of online practices by labour by drawing on material placed on the world wide web by members of and advocates for the Braceros (the strong arms) – migrant Mexican workers. These practices follow on a history of effective use of the new information communication technologies by the Zapatista movement in Mexico.

Findings

The paper places these activities in the context of globalisation and the global movement of capital and labour. It argues that the practices of online communication associated with the Braceros can be harnessed to move beyond the reactive shadowing of capital by labour. Instead innovative and proactive forms of monitoring policies and critiquing outcomes become possible.

Practical implications

Internet‐based counter‐coordination allows the construction and diffusion of a different understanding of the nature and consequences of the current mode of globalisation.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the ways in which information and communication technologies can be used to engage in thematic mapping and construction of memory by labour and provides an example of the electronic sampling and indexing of material.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 1 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

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