Search results
1 – 10 of 29This article examines the experiences of women leaders and their challenges in Brunei Darussalam. Globally, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. Though the Brunei…
Abstract
This article examines the experiences of women leaders and their challenges in Brunei Darussalam. Globally, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. Though the Brunei government does not discriminate against any gender in delivering free education, medical facilities and healthcare, women in leadership positions are as well underrepresented. I try to understand the factors that challenge as well as motivate women to become leaders in Brunei. For this research, I conducted qualitative interviews with some respondents selected purposively. The study results show that women leaders in Brunei face challenges in obtaining financial support and accessing resources. Despite the challenges, there are some women who have been assuming and excelling in their leadership roles. The study identified that personal strengths have also been critical in contributing to their successful leadership.
Details
Keywords
The article seeks to provide an overview of 55 recent books (2009‐2011) on higher education, with special emphasis on the authoritative overview edited Altbach et al., American…
Abstract
Purpose
The article seeks to provide an overview of 55 recent books (2009‐2011) on higher education, with special emphasis on the authoritative overview edited Altbach et al., American Higher Education in the Twenty‐First Century (Johns Hopkins, 3rd Edition, June 2011, 511 pp.).
Design/methodology/approach
Books are grouped in nine categories: Global trends, Losing autonomy, Faculty, Students, Finance, Digitization, Curriculum, Diversity, and Moving forward. A concluding Coda discusses an important new paradigm of four types of scholarship, proposed in the seminal 1990 report on Scholarship Reconsidered, and the two types of scholarship that continue to be badly lacking in the academy, to the detriment of the world, the nation, and higher education itself.
Findings
American higher education is undergoing many changes and stresses, and all of the books considered here point to a “bleak horizon” in various ways, in part caused by the outdated structure of higher education. Altbach issues a timely call for a new “sense of academic mission,” which is discussed in the Coda.
Originality/value
This uniquely broad and up‐to‐date “frontier frame” overview, enabled by the GlobalForesightBooks.org web site on current affairs books, emphases the many perspectives on higher education, provides a broad frame to appreciate current thinking, and encourages more synthesis that seriously addresses the “Knowledge for What?” question.
Details
Keywords
Harry A. Harmon, Gene Brown, Robert E. Widing and Kevin L. Hammond
Observes that previous research on the value and effect of supervisory feedback has focused on the recipient of the feedback (the salesperson). The research reported in this…
Abstract
Observes that previous research on the value and effect of supervisory feedback has focused on the recipient of the feedback (the salesperson). The research reported in this article examines the feedback construct from the provider’s perspective (the sales manager). Explores the relationship between Sujan’s failed sales effort attribution model and the feedback provided typology developed by Jaworski and Kohli. The results confirm a direct relationship between failed sales effort attributed to poor strategy and positive feedback directed to salesperson behavior. A direct relationship is reported between the failed sales effort attributed to lack of effort (or intensity) and negative feedback provided by the sales manager that is directed to the salesperson’s output.
Details
Keywords
Mark C. Johlke and Rajesh Iyer
The purpose of this paper is to extend Zablah et al.’s (2012) findings regarding the proper way to treat customer orientation (CO) to the study of CO among B-B salespeople in one…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend Zablah et al.’s (2012) findings regarding the proper way to treat customer orientation (CO) to the study of CO among B-B salespeople in one of the most important emerging economies, India.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors of this study hired a professional market research firm based in Chennai, a large metropolitan city in Southern India, to manage data collection. The authors used a competing models approach to test the relationship between constructs.
Findings
CO among frontline employees operating in one of the largest emerging economies is best treated as a psychological construct that is both directly and indirectly related to performance via its ability to reduce stress and improve engagement. This finding strengthens the view of CO as a universal human work value and, more broadly, that such values operating across different cultural setting do exist. In addition, external customer mindset appears to offer a superior means to measure CO than does the widely used CO component of the SOCO scale. This conclusion is based not only upon the fact that it conceptually corresponds with the psychological nature of CO, but also that in this initial examination it exhibits a greater ability to explain employee job performance.
Originality/value
Managers who are able to screen and hire employees with greater CO work values should experience improved performance outcomes and also less customer ambiguity and greater satisfaction among their frontline employees. Since CO proscribes the proper way to deal with customers, greater levels of CO beliefs would counteract customer ambiguity among frontline employees operating in any environment. Accordingly, when filling frontline positions, managers should actively seek out employees who earnestly embrace the role of taking care of customers. Managers are advised to not only emphasize on salespeople whose foremost role is to take care of their customers but also to find ways to familiarize them with their products and to provide them with information regarding customer characteristics such as their background, the relationship history (especially past service and product failures), and unique preferences.
Details
Keywords
Plinio Pelegrini Morita and Catherine Marie Burns
Computer-mediated communication systems (CMCSs) have become the standard for supporting virtual teamwork. However, interpersonal trust formation though CMCSs is impaired due to…
Abstract
Purpose
Computer-mediated communication systems (CMCSs) have become the standard for supporting virtual teamwork. However, interpersonal trust formation though CMCSs is impaired due to limited media richness of the communication channels. The aim of this paper is to identify trust forming cues that occur naturally in face-to-face environments and are suitable to include in CMCSs design, to facilitate greater trust in virtual teams.
Design/methodology/approach
To select cues that had a strong effect on fostering trust behaviour, a non-participatory ethnographic study was conducted. Two student teams at the University of Waterloo were observed for 6-12 months. Researchers identified mechanisms used for building trust and bridging team developmental barriers.
Findings
The paper identifies five trust tokens that were effective in developing trust and bridging team developmental barriers: expertise, recommendations, social capital, willingness to help/benevolence, and validation of information. These behavioural cues, or behavioural trust tokens, which are present in face-to-face collaborations, carry important trust supporting information that leads to increased trust, improved collaboration, and knowledge integration. These tokens have the potential to improve CMCSs by supplementing the cues necessary for trust formation in virtual environments.
Practical implications
This study identifies important mechanisms used for fostering trust behaviour in face-to-face collaborations that have the potential to be included in the design of CMCSs (via interface design objects) and have implications for interface designers, team managers, and researchers in the field of teamwork.
Originality/value
This work presents the first ethnographic study of trust between team members for the purpose of providing improved computer support for virtual collaboration via redesigned interface components.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to present a history and critical analysis of arms and armor collecting in America from the late 19th century until the present day.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to present a history and critical analysis of arms and armor collecting in America from the late 19th century until the present day.
Design/methodology/approach
The research draws from the literature on arms and armor, from primary written, visual and material evidence, and from the author’s long experience as an antique gun and sword collector.
Findings
American arms and armor collectors have included men of great wealth, museums and their curators and many enthusiasts of more modest means. Collectors, dealers and curators have created a substantial arms literature. Collectors have organized around various types of artifacts, historical periods and company brands. Dealers, auction houses and manufacturers have provisioned the market with period pieces and reproductions.
Originality/value
The history of antique arms and armor collecting is regarded as a social activity where enthusiasts have pursued “serious leisure” through consumption and brand communities. This history is further analyzed as a cultural practice wherein generations of collectors have interpreted the meaning of antique arms and armor.
Details
Keywords
Rebecca L. Gardner, Ellen Calhoun and Jeanne E. Boyle
In 1990 we compiled an annotated bibliography of official state lists of endangered, threatened, and rare species. In gathering information for that bibliography, which appeared…
Abstract
In 1990 we compiled an annotated bibliography of official state lists of endangered, threatened, and rare species. In gathering information for that bibliography, which appeared in Reference Services Review in Spring 1991, we found numerous unofficial sources of state lists, such as those developed by universities, institutes, and Natural Heritage Programs, which also provide valuable information on statuses of endangered, threatened, and rare species. A comprehensive search for unofficial lists results in this second bibliography.
Silvia Nelson, Yvonne Brunetto, Rodney Farr‐Wharton and Sheryl Ramsay
Small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to make a major contribution to the Australian economy. However, research into organisational processes within SMEs has been…
Abstract
Purpose
Small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to make a major contribution to the Australian economy. However, research into organisational processes within SMEs has been limited to date. This study aims to examine the links between communication processes and organisational effectiveness in SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
This quantitative study uses social capital theory as a framework to investigate whether employees' level of satisfaction with organisational communication processes affects organisational outcomes within three high growth manufacturing SMEs in one area of Australia.
Findings
Results indicate that organisational communication processes does affect employees' levels of ambiguity regarding customers, job satisfaction and commitment to their firms.
Research limitations/implications
While generalisability is limited because of the small number of SMEs participating in the study, the research indicates great potential for developing theoretical and practical insights into Australian SMEs that would assist industry and employees overall.
Practical implications
Implications for the growth strategies of SMEs, particularly in relation to the current skilled labour shortage, are discussed.
Originality/value
The paper contributes much needed theoretical development and research into SMEs.
Details
Keywords
Elizabeth Gammie and Bob Gammie
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moral awareness and ethical virtue of current university students with a view to identifying whether there are any gender differences.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moral awareness and ethical virtue of current university students with a view to identifying whether there are any gender differences.
Design/methodology/approach
The study analysed undergraduate responses from final year honours student cohorts, one from a degree in accounting and finance (n=51), the other from a programme in business studies (n=79), to a series of value statements and a number of academic and business‐related scenarios. The study employed a Kantian approach to ethics.
Findings
Accounting students who had been exposed to ethical educational interventions do not display a higher level of moral awareness or ethical intention than their business counterparts. Whilst gender differences were apparent, this was only evident for moral awareness not ethical virtue and only the case for business students, thus suggesting that gender id may have more explanatory power than biological gender.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size was small as the study was restricted to relevant class populations and hence may not be generalisable. In addition, a gap may exist between what students state they would do in a situation and their actual behaviour.
Practical implications
Further work is required which concentrates on gender id rather than biological gender and examines why feminine moral awareness would appear to be higher than the masculine but converges for ethical intention.
Originality/value
The study presents a comparative analysis of two different student cohorts which enables a more detailed investigation of gender differences, initially for moral awareness and then ethical virtue.
Details