Search results

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) practices on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), in medical staff working in specialized units. In addition, we check the mediating role of work-related well-being, understood as engagement, trust and exhaustion, in the relationship between AMO practices and OCB. Furthermore, the moderating role of service leadership is analysed in the relationship between AMO practices and work-related well-being.

Using the AMO framework under the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, and based on a sample of 214 employees from public healthcare, a time-lagged moderation-mediation model was performed.

Results provide evidence that AMO practices have a positive effect on OCB. Further, work-related well-being mediated the effect of AMO practices on OCB. In addition, service leadership exerted a moderating role between AMO practices and work-related well-being.

Building on recent research which has emphasized the knowledge gap regarding how human resource practices might positively affect both employees and organizations, this is the first study that indicates that said practices positively affect both employee well-being and OCBs in the public healthcare context.

As marketization has gained ground in elderly care, satisfaction with care has come to play a crucial role in designing for high-quality care. Inspired by the service-profit chain (SPC) model, the authors aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the intricate interplay between supportive leadership practices, organizational climate, job satisfaction and service quality in predicting satisfaction with care.

A Swedish sample of frontline elderly care staff (n = 1,342) participated in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. Mediation analyses were conducted to test the proposed model.

As predicted, engaging in supportive leadership practices was directly and positively associated with satisfaction with care. In addition, as predicted, this relationship was partially mediated by organizational climate and job satisfaction. Moreover, job satisfaction predicted satisfaction with care with service quality explaining a statistically significant part of this relationship.

Managers in elderly care services may improve satisfaction with care in multiple ways but primarily by showing that they care about the staff and ensuring that they are satisfied with their working conditions. Employee job satisfaction seems to be particularly crucial for satisfaction with care, beyond what can be accounted for by care service quality.

The authors proposed a novel service-outcome model. Adding to the original SPC model, the model in this study suggested previously unexplored relationships including a direct path between leadership practices and satisfaction with service and a multiple-mediator model explaining this relationship. Also, new measures of organizational climate and supportive leadership were developed for which satisfactory reliability estimates were obtained.

Researchers have discovered that service learning affects students’ academic, personal, and social development. However, currently there is a gap in literature analyzing ways in which service learning affects students’ perceived leadership skills. This study examined the effectiveness of service learning on the perceived leadership skills of 74 sport management undergraduate students at a mid-sized, Midwestern, public university using Kouzes’ and Posner’s Student Leadership Practices Inventory instrument, which examines leadership practices in five areas: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. The results of this study may help faculty members and administrators to better understand the potential of utilizing service learning projects in their classrooms as a vehicle for their students to develop quality leadership practices. Recommendations for further research and practice are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify attributes and practices that are salient for effectiveness in middle- and senior-level service leadership positions.

Critical incident interviews were conducted with 17 key informants, who were service leaders in various service sectors in Hong Kong, and with ten stakeholders.

Grounded theory analysis generated a 7 Cs model with seven categories of service leadership attributes and practices: character, choreography, care, creativity, charisma, collaborating and competence self-improvement, and 24 constituent concepts. There was concordance between pairs of key informants and stakeholders.

Further research could investigate the impact on frontline service leaders’ performance if one or more of the 7 Cs are perceived to be absent or deficient among leaders at more senior levels, and whether there are acceptable substitutes for particular Cs.

The 7 Cs model identifies service leadership attributes and practices across diverse sectors.

The 7 Cs model provides a map for orienting the developmental preparation of individuals, who are aspiring to become middle- and senior-level leaders in economies that have become highly dependent on service.

The paper discusses the “narrative practices” utilised by women leading in a small sample of Early Years services in the North East of England. These Early Years settings are presented as an alternative site for studying women's experiences of leadership. It examines the way in which these women use narrative strategies and approaches to work in collaborative, community based services for young children and their families.

The study is drawn from a larger study into narratives of professional identity and their relation to interactional contexts. The study follows an interpretive paradigm, and used narrative and participative methodology and methods to work with a small number of participants purposively sampled from cohorts of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL). Participants were involved in reflective conversations about their leadership supported by interactive, visual methods in five extended sessions over the course of twelve months. Data from the larger study which related to the theme of “narrative practices” was subsequently coded and interpreted to inform this study.

Data coded as “narrative practices” led to the establishment of three high level categories of narrative practice found in the study. These are summarised in the metaphors of “tent making” (creating and using symbolic and narrative space with others), “skilled dancing” (improvising, and remembering with others) and “orchestration” (reflexive attuning). Data suggests that women involved in the study drew on their experience and values to develop sophisticated narrative practices that were particularly adaptive, ethically sensitive and sustainable – often in spite of “official” masculine leadership cultures.

This specific study only draws on narrative accounts of three women leaders in Early Years services and as such is not intended to generate generalizable theory. The intention of the study is to conceptualise women's leadership as narrative practice, and in so doing to direct further study into these practices as aspects of effective leadership.

The study develops new ways of conceptualising and interpreting women's leadership practices and opens up opportunities for further study in this field. Access to this material also provides individuals (including women leading in UK Early Years services) and opportunity for reflection on their own leadership practice.

This study is unique in using a form of highly participative, reflective methodology to consider women's use of narrative in leadership interactions in the UK Early Years sector. The study is the first in this sector to look at this specific topic using aspects of Ricoeur's (1984) narrative hermeneutics and in so doing generates new questions about women's narrative practices.

A system of evidence‐based periodic service review (PSR) was implemented in specialist health services for people with challenging behaviour, to support the adoption of a positive behavioural approach. The extent and accuracy of PSR implementation, its impact on staff knowledge and attitudes, and its value as a practice leadership tool were assessed. The results indicated that PSR was implemented regularly, scoring was based accurately on tangible evidence, and increased scores over time indicated service improvement in line with PSR principles. Staff generally welcomed PSR as a quality monitoring tool, and greater knowledge of the rationale and process for PSR was associated with more positive attitudes. Managers regarded PSR as a valuable aid to practice leadership and had used innovative implementation methods to maximise its acceptance by staff teams. The style of management and need for support from the wider organisational structure are discussed as critical factors in successful implementation.

As background information, the authors describe the Service Leadership Initiative (SLI), which provided pump-priming funding for government-funded universities in Hong Kong to develop educational programmes preparing students to become service leaders. The universities were expected to create opportunities for students to develop requisite task competencies, character strengths and caring dispositions through experiential learning. The authors also describe how, prior to the SLI, Lingnan University (LU) had already been building networks and systems for service-learning projects to benefit the community while furthering academic development, and this platform was helpful for service leadership development.

In the core of this chapter, the authors explain how faculty and staff members at LU have designed, structured and supported course embedded service-learning projects that were undertaken by teams of undergraduate students as vehicles for developing their attributes as emerging service leaders.

Based on our prior research into students’ accounts of negative and positive experiences, the authors identify and explain some unfavourable and favourable contextual factors for undergraduates’ development as emerging service leaders. The favourable factors are based on three preconditions: genuine service leadership responsibilities; community partner representatives as co-educators; and the students’ own readiness to practice as service leaders (as opposed to learning passively).

Based on students’ descriptions, the authors provide illustrations of how students practiced ten service leadership attributes in the context of service-learning projects conducted at local kindergartens, and about the further self-developmental needs they identified. This chapter concludes with the observation that the discrete service leadership attributes the authors identified appear in practice to be mutually supporting.

Presents the findings from a study of 48 Colleges of Further Education (FE) who have participated in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the learning probe methodology. Learning probe has been developed from the established service probe tool (developed originally by London Business School and IBM Consulting) to support colleges of FE in their pursuit of excellence. Examines five main areas of business practice and performance consisting of business leadership; service processes; people; performance management and business results. Goes on to highlight the key strengths of the FE sector and their main areas for improvement (as defined by the sample of participating colleges). Although there are a number of practice and performance areas that need attention in particular practices relating to service processes, the sample also identifies that a number of colleges demonstrate strengths in these same areas. These issues are discussed and compared with experiences and anecdotal evidence collated from working with the FE sector over a number of years. Additionally, a comparison is made with a separate, regional benchmarking exercise that considered a number of educational organisations. Using the findings, the paper suggests a way forward for colleges to use the information which has grown out of this research. It is intended that the database will continue to grow as an information resource as learning probe becomes more widely adopted within the FE sector.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between service orientation, customer service training and employee engagement of firms in the hospitality sector of the tourism industry.

A total of 231 responses from 13 large all-inclusive hotels in Jamaica are analyzed by using structural equation modeling.

Overall, service orientation positively affected customer service training and employee engagement. In addition, customer service training positively affected employee engagement. Furthermore, the results indicate that customer service training mediates the relationship between service orientation and employee engagement.

This study builds on the conceptual literature of engagement and adds to the limited empirical studies to date to highlight the importance of service-oriented culture and training activities on employee engagement.

The findings of the study generate an increased understanding of the importance of an engaged workforce and of specific customer service training practices that can foster engagement. This study also highlights that managers should be supportive of training and development activities within a broader context that considers specific desired workplace performance from employees.

The knowledge gap related to many frequently used organizational practices reported as having an impact on engagement is addressed. Addressing this problem extends existing literature and provides an evidence base for human resource managers and professionals in service organizations, specifically in hospitality firms.