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1 – 10 of over 5000Liam P. Maher, Aqsa Ejaz, Chi Lan Nguyen and Gerald R. Ferris
The purpose of this paper is to review the scholarship on political skill and political will so that the authors might inspire future work that assesses these constructs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the scholarship on political skill and political will so that the authors might inspire future work that assesses these constructs individually and in tandem.
Design/methodology/approach
The “political skill” and “political will” concepts were introduced about 40 years ago, but they only have been measured and produced empirical results much more recently. Since that time, substantial research results have demonstrated the important roles political skill and political will play in organizational behavior. This paper provides a comprehensive review of this research, draws conclusions from this work and provides a meta-theoretical framework of political skill and political will to guide future work in this area.
Findings
Scholarship in this area has developed quite rapidly for political skill, but less so for political will. The authors hope that recent developments in a political will can set the stage for scholars to create a theoretical and empirical balance between these two related constructs.
Originality/value
The authors corral the vast and widespread literature on political skill and will and distill the information for scholars and practitioners alike.
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Diane Lawong, Gerald R. Ferris, Wayne Hochwarter and Liam Maher
Researchers have identified various recruiter and organization characteristics that individually influence staffing effectiveness. In extending contemporary research, the purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers have identified various recruiter and organization characteristics that individually influence staffing effectiveness. In extending contemporary research, the purpose of this paper is to address a straightforward question unexamined in previous research, namely, does recruiter political skill interact with organization reputation to influence applicant attraction in the recruitment process? Specifically, the authors hypothesized that for recruiters high in political skill, as organization reputation increases, applicant attraction to the organization increases. Alternatively, for recruiters low in political skill, as organization reputation increases, there is no change in applicant attraction to the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies were conducted to create the experimental manipulation materials, pilot test them and then conduct tests of the hypotheses. Study 1 created and tested the content validity of the recruiter political skill script. Study 2 reported on the effectiveness of the recruiter political skill experimental manipulation, whereby a male actor was hired to play the part of a recruiter high in political skill and one low in political skill. Finally, Study 3 was the primary hypothesis testing investigation.
Findings
Results from a 2×2 between-subjects experimental study (N=576) supported the hypotheses. Specifically, high recruiter political skill and favorable organization reputation each demonstrated significant main effects on applicant attraction to the organization. Additionally, the authors hypothesized, and confirmed, a significant organization reputation × recruiter political skill interaction. Specifically, findings demonstrated that increases in organization reputation resulted in increased applicant attraction to the organization for those exposed to a recruiter high in political skill. However, the effect was not for a recruiter low in political skill.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the single source nature of data collections, the authors took steps to minimize potential biasing factors (e.g. time separation, including affectivity). Future research will benefit from gathering multiple sources of data. In addition, no experimental research to date exists, examining political skill in a laboratory context. This finding has important implications for the growing research base on political skill in organizations.
Practical implications
First impressions are lasting impressions, and it is very costly to organizations when recruiters lose good candidates due to the failure to make a memorable and favorable impression. This paper supports the use of political skill in the recruitment process and highlights its capability to influence and attract job applicants to organizations successfully.
Originality/value
Despite its scientific and practical appeal, the causal effects of political skill on important work outcomes in an experimental setting have not been formally investigated. As the first experimental investigation of political skill, the authors can see more clearly and precisely what political skill behaviors of recruiters tend to influence applicant attraction to organizations in the recruitment process.
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Mary Dana Laird, James J. Zboja and Gerald R. Ferris
Although reputation is important to career success, little is known about how individuals develop their personal reputation at work. This study seeks to investigate the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
Although reputation is important to career success, little is known about how individuals develop their personal reputation at work. This study seeks to investigate the role of work relationship quality and citizenship behavior as partial mediators of the political skill‐personal reputation relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 145 triads from a manufacturer in the Midwestern USA provided data for the study. Employees rated their political skill and citizenship behavior, supervisors rated their relationship quality, and coworkers rated the employees' personal reputation. Based on the complementary theories of signaling and social exchange, the relationships between the constructs were analyzed with structural equation modeling.
Findings
Political skill demonstrated both direct and indirect effects on the development of personal reputation. In particular, work relationship quality and citizenship behavior partially mediated the relationship between political skill and personal reputation.
Research limitations/implications
Personal reputation was evaluated by a randomly selected coworker, but a collection of perceptions would be helpful.
Practical implications
Political skill training and/or mentoring relationships may help individuals manage their personal reputation at work, thus benefiting their careers.
Social implications
This study focused on personal reputation in a work environment. However, the results also may be useful to individuals in different types of organizations.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to investigate how individuals develop their personal reputation at work. Unlike previous research that used self‐evaluations of personal reputation, this study used peer evaluations, which is more appropriate for the construct.
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Min Tian, Baofeng Huo, Youngwon Park and Mingu Kang
The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the effects and interaction effect of human resources and digital manufacturing technologies (DMTs) on supply chain integration…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the effects and interaction effect of human resources and digital manufacturing technologies (DMTs) on supply chain integration (SCI) and how their roles are influenced by competition.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, this study builds and tests a holistic model based on the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) project database.
Findings
The results show that human resources and DMTs have significant positive effects on three dimensions of SCI. Competition positively moderates the effects of human resources on customer integrations, negatively moderates the effects of human resource on internal integration, but does not moderate the effects of human resources on supplier integration. Besides, the moderating effect of competition has not been found in the relationships between DMTs and three SCI dimensions.
Originality/value
By investigating the effects of human resources and DMTs on SCI practices in the context of competition, this study contributes to the literature on SCI, DMTs and the TOE framework as well as offers practical insights that help manufacturing firms to promote SCI more effectively and efficiently.
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Gregory S. Jelf and James B. Dworkin
We present a comprehensive literature review and critique of union decertification research, and develop a theoretical framework that should prove useful for future research. The…
Abstract
We present a comprehensive literature review and critique of union decertification research, and develop a theoretical framework that should prove useful for future research. The framework incorporates three theoretical viewpoints from several research traditions: the expected utility, social‐political, and workplace voice perspectives. We provide suggestions for how each viewpoint can be modeled in future research. Additionally, although some previous decertification research was theoretically rich, the empirical findings across prior studies were ambiguous and inconsistent. We analyze the reasons for the ambiguous and inconsistent prior findings, and note how future research can avoid or minimize the empirical problems of the past.
The burden social theorists must be willing to accept, respond to, and act upon pertains to the difficulties that predictably accompany all efforts to convey to nontheorists the…
Abstract
The burden social theorists must be willing to accept, respond to, and act upon pertains to the difficulties that predictably accompany all efforts to convey to nontheorists the unwelcome fact of heteronomy – that as actors, we are not as autonomous as we were told and prefer to assume – and to spell out what heteronomy in the form in which it has been shaping the developmental trajectory of modern societies means for professional theorists. I introduce the concept of “vitacide,” designed to capture that termination of life is a potential vanishing point of the heteronomous processes that have been shaping modern societies continuing to accelerate and intensify in ways that prefigure our future, but not on our human or social terms. Heteronomy pointing toward vitacide should compel us as social theorists to consider critically both the constructive and destructive trajectory that social change appears to have been following for more than two centuries, irrespective of whether the resulting prospect is to our liking or not. In this context, the classical critical theorists of the early Frankfurt School, especially Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, pursued what turned out to be an evolving interest in rackets, the authoritarian personality, and the administered society – concepts that served as foils for delineating the kind of theoretical stance that is becoming more and more important as we are moving into an increasingly uncertain future.
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Structural sociological framework suggests that sociopolitical and economic factors exert independent effects on variations in family status attainment (FSA) across the…
Abstract
Purpose
Structural sociological framework suggests that sociopolitical and economic factors exert independent effects on variations in family status attainment (FSA) across the social/ethnic groups. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and predict how social-political-economic factors exert effects on disparity in FSA between the majority and minority ethnic groups in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used the cross-cultural survey design to analyze the research objective. In doing so, 585 men (Muslim n=150, Hindu n=145, Santal n=145, and Oraon n=145) who were randomly selected through cluster sampling from the Rasulpur union of Bangladesh were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire.
Findings
The results of Pearson’s χ2 test have shown that FSA was significantly different (p<0.01) associated with social-political-economic factors between the majority and minority groups. The results of the linear regression analysis (coefficients of β) suggested that social, political, and economic factors were the best predictors (significant at p<0.01 level) to perpetuate disparity in FSA between the majority and minority ethnic groups in Bangladesh. In addition, the results of coefficients of determination (R2) suggested that unequal distribution of social-political-economic resources perpetuates 10-14 percent disparities in FSA between the majority and minority groups in Bangladesh.
Research limitations/implications
Although the findings of the study are suggestive to understand the disparity in FSA associated with social-political-economic factors, further cross-cultural research is needed on how the social psychological factor affects variations in FSA between the groups in Bangladesh. In spite of the limitation, social policymakers may apply the findings with caution to design social policy and practice to reduce the disparity in FSA between the majority and minority ethnic groups in Bangladesh.
Originality/value
The cross-cultural findings are original in linking structural sociological theory and comparative family welfare policy to reduce the disparity in FSA between the majority and minority groups in Bangladesh.
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Kenneth S. Rhee and Tracey Honeycutt Sigler
Motivation theory in the 20th century has evolved to meet the changing social, political, and economic environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the developmental path…
Abstract
Motivation theory in the 20th century has evolved to meet the changing social, political, and economic environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the developmental path of modern motivation theory from the perspective of the Tao and the cyclical nature of Yin and Yang. We review motivation theory from the Industrial Revolution to the present. The developmental path during the past 100 years consists of seven distinct stages, each stage representing a significant shift in theory as well as a shift in the social, political, and economic environment in the United States. The dominant theme that emerges from the analysis is the discourse between science and humanity, and the revolving cycle of these fundamental theories throughout the century.
Here Marx's philosophy is dissected from the angle of bourgeois capitalism which he, Marx, sought to overcome. His social, political and economic ideas are criticised. Although it…
Abstract
Here Marx's philosophy is dissected from the angle of bourgeois capitalism which he, Marx, sought to overcome. His social, political and economic ideas are criticised. Although it is noted that Marx wanted to ameliorate human suffering, the result turned out to be Utopian, contrary to his own intentions. Contrary to Marx, it is individualism that makes the best sense and capitalism that holds out the best hope for coping with most of the problems he sought to solve. Marx's philosophy is alluring but flawed at a very basic level, namely, where it denies the individuality of each person and treats humanity as “an organic body”. Capitalism, while by no means out to guarantee a perfect society, is the best setting for the realisation of the diverse but often equally noble human goals of its membership.
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Jesse F. Dillard, John T. Rigsby and Carrie Goodman
Institutional theory is becoming one of the dominant theoretical perspectives in organization theory and is increasingly being applied in accounting research to study the practice…
Abstract
Institutional theory is becoming one of the dominant theoretical perspectives in organization theory and is increasingly being applied in accounting research to study the practice of accounting in organizations. However, most institutional theory research has adequately theorized neither the institutionalization process through which change takes place nor the socio‐political context of the institutional formations. We propose a social theory based framework for grounding and expanding institutional theory to more fully articulate institutionalization processes. Specifically, we incorporate institutional theory and structuration theory and draw on the work of Max Weber in developing a framework of the context and the processes associated with creating, adopting and discarding institutional practices. We propose that the expanded framework depicts the socio‐economic and political context better and more directly addresses the dynamics of enacting, embedding and changing organizational features and processes. Expanding the focus of the institutional theory based accounting research can facilitate a more comprehensive representation of accounting as the object of institutional practices as well as provide a better articulation of the role of accounting in the institutionalization process.
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