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11 – 20 of 90The aim of the study is to identify the emotions that arise over issues of control over organizational change, to explore why they occur and what their consequences are for the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the study is to identify the emotions that arise over issues of control over organizational change, to explore why they occur and what their consequences are for the organizational member.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 24 people from different industries, organizations, hierarchical levels and functional departments were interviewed on their experiences of change and the emotional reactions they produced.
Findings
Negative emotions were evoked when members sensed a lack of control, a loss of control or the possibilities of mismanaging control in an organizational change. Positive emotions were reported for those able to exert control over processes and outcomes. The metaphor of the rollercoaster effect of positive and negative emotions was specifically used by a number of participants, while several others referred to an associated metaphor, the grief cycle.
Research limitations/implications
Participants were not asked what control over change they preferred, and dispositional and cultural issues were not specifically explored. The limitations of the rollercoaster metaphor are addressed. Research implications include examining the role of traits like locus of control and self-efficacy from a qualitative perspective and identifying the part ethnic or national culture plays in perceptions of control over change.
Practical implications
Management needs to allow participation in decision making wherever possible to fortify perceptions of control over change and to develop in members feelings of self-efficacy and well-being.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates how control over organizational change produces emotional responses that influence commitment and resistance to change.
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Strategic trends towards service operations have been widely reported in the recent literature, but organisational capabilities to support such service-centred strategies are less…
Abstract
Purpose
Strategic trends towards service operations have been widely reported in the recent literature, but organisational capabilities to support such service-centred strategies are less well understood. The purpose of this paper is to identify key organisational issues in managing complex engineering service operations throughout the lifecycle.
Design/methodology/approach
Using instruments developed from the product lifecycle management technologies and the network configuration concept, key organisational issues for engineering service operations were identified through case studies focusing on complex engineering products and services systems across a variety of industrial sectors.
Findings
The case studies demonstrated different organisational features and strategic priorities of engineering service operations along the whole lifecycle. A generic trend has been observed for engineering systems to move from being design, development and manufacturing focused to embracing support and end-of-life recycling matters.
Originality/value
This paper provides an overall framework for integrating key organisational issues in engineering service operations. It contributes to the service literature by highlighting the need of developing appropriate organisational capabilities to support service-centred strategies with engineering cases. It also provides guidance for companies to manage their engineering network operations throughout the whole lifecycle of complex products and services systems.
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GLASGOW was later by about one hundred and thirty years than some of the Scotch towns in establishing a printing press. Three hundred years ago, though Glasgow contained a…
Abstract
GLASGOW was later by about one hundred and thirty years than some of the Scotch towns in establishing a printing press. Three hundred years ago, though Glasgow contained a University with men of great literary activity, including amongst others Zachary Boyd, there does not appear to have been sufficient printing work to induce anyone to establish a printing press. St. Andrews and Aberdeen were both notable for the books they produced, before Glasgow even attempted any printing.
HASTINGS is now a memory of a conference in which the members of the L.A. heard papers of singular merit and one or two addresses of marked distinction. If we were to select the…
Abstract
HASTINGS is now a memory of a conference in which the members of the L.A. heard papers of singular merit and one or two addresses of marked distinction. If we were to select the Presidential Address of Mr. C. B. Oldman, the beautiful Annual Lecture by Mr. Bowen Thomas and the quite remarkable performance in English of Mr. Bengt Hjelmqvist, on the organization of his native Swedish libraries, as the highlights of the general sessions, and Nigel Balchin's model after‐dinner speech as another, we are not the less aware of the excellence of nearly all the papers submitted at every session; indeed, there was not really a bad paper throughout, although some were much too long. They averaged forty‐five minutes. Possibly the Conference Committee set this length; if so, we suggest respectfully that however long the written paper may be the time should be reduced by at least one third for which the audience is required to listen. One felt in several cases that even the authors of the papers grew weary, or were under a sense of hurry, before they reached the end. This was occasionally caused by extempore insertions, a most difficult performance in which few succeed. Fortunate is the reader who addresses a morning session; he escapes the afternoon somnolence.
Subhadip Roy and Subhalaxmi Mohapatra
The challenges and factors of household adoption and the use of alternative energy sources have been a point of discussion among researchers. The purpose of this study is to apply…
Abstract
Purpose
The challenges and factors of household adoption and the use of alternative energy sources have been a point of discussion among researchers. The purpose of this study is to apply a variant of the unified theory of adoption and use of technology (i.e. UTAUT 2) to explore the effect of various constructs that influence technology adoption on the consumers’ intention to adopt (and use) solar power generators (SPG) at the household level and the subsequent switching behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data collected from six cities in India (n = 1,246), factor analysis and structural equation modeling are applied for data analysis and testing the study hypotheses.
Findings
The results of the structural equation model found UTAUT constructs performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and hedonic to positively affect behavioral intentions to adopt SPG. However, facilitating conditions and perceived value was not found to affect behavioral intentions to adopt SPG. Behavioral intentions to adopt SPG was found to positively influence the switching behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The present study augments the domain of alternative energy usage behavior by applying the UTAUT 2 in the adoption of alternative energy sources (namely, solar) and subsequent switching behavior from traditional sources at the household level.
Practical implications
The findings from the present study will guide the marketers and policymakers on the consumer attitudinal and behavioral aspects of solar energy usage at the household level and subsequent switching behavior.
Originality/value
The present study is novel as it moves beyond household-level behavioral intention to use solar energy and includes the switching behavior to shift to solar power from traditional energy sources.
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So far as municipal libraries are concerned, by the time these lines appear librarians will mostly have faced the annual ordeal of the Estimates. It will not have been an easy…
Abstract
So far as municipal libraries are concerned, by the time these lines appear librarians will mostly have faced the annual ordeal of the Estimates. It will not have been an easy time for them; for 1921–22 will be the first year in which the high post‐war charges of all kinds have to be encountered as a whole; and the forecast, at a time when the public generally is crying for economy—by which it means retrenchment—has in many cases seemed a gloomy one. The times are serious, and unemployment and slack industries do not make for enthusiasm for library or other constructive expenditure. The phase is, we hope, a transient, transitional one, and while we may deplore retrenchment in any phase of our work, it may be better to face the facts squarely, and to acquiesce in a certain amount of restraint than to resist it, in the hope that our moderation may lead to a larger measure of money and moral support later. It is only a hope, but it is worth cherishing.
Sharmila Jayasingam, Safiah Omar, Norizah Mohd Mustamil, Rosmawani Che Hashim and Raida Abu Bakar
THE Library Association has begun the Centenary of the Public Libraries Acts' celebrations with an attractive booklet which, we suppose, is now in the hands of many, if not most…
Abstract
THE Library Association has begun the Centenary of the Public Libraries Acts' celebrations with an attractive booklet which, we suppose, is now in the hands of many, if not most, of our readers. We are to have, we understand, an official, documented history which should be worthy of the occasion; that may come later. The booklet, however, A Century of Public Library Service, should be made available in every library. To be effective it should go into every household—a manifest impossibility on any means at the command of the Library Association, since the booklet itself puts the registered borrowers alone at twelve millions, and if there are five people to a household, nearly two and a half million copies would be required. If it goes to every service point that will involve 23,000. These figures illustrate the difficulties of our publicity. The machine is too vast for all its parts to be reached. We suppose it will go to every librarian and every member of a library committee—about 6,000 copies—and that may be a good plan, although that would be sending it to those who are, we hope, converted. As for the book itself, it follows the lines of the paper read by Mr. L. R. McColvin at Eastbourne last year; it tells our history; shows by graph and figure the vast increase in supply to meet demand; deals successively with the various parts of the service; and surveys the future. Its value is as an assessment of book stock, staff and relative success and failure and the relation of these to the resources, financial and otherwise, of libraries. In 1949 we are spending £1,650,000 on books, if our calculation at 2s. 9d. per borrower is correct. This, for the whole population—say 45 millions—is not lavish. These and many other useful points are indicated. The work is for domestic consumption, to serve as a basis for self‐examination. On the physical side it is attractive, is printed on plate paper, which brings out brightly the twenty‐five illustrations and a graph, which show pleasant samples of libraries and readers. As a curious point we find no sign in any of the pictures that there are men librarians in public libraries.