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This paper explores how INGOs communicate their activities and achievements. In doing so, the study seeks to increase our understanding of INGOs' accountability practices.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how INGOs communicate their activities and achievements. In doing so, the study seeks to increase our understanding of INGOs' accountability practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses thematic analysis to analyse 90 ‘leaders’ letters' (the letters that many charities include at the beginning of their Annual Reports and Accounts), published by 39 INGOs between 2015 and 2018.
Findings
This paper argues that within the Annual Report letters under consideration, INGOs' accountability practices focus on quantitative, process-driven, output reporting. In doing so, it is the actions and agency of INGOs that are primarily emphasised. INGO constituents are largely excluded from representation. Donors are presented only as contributors of financial capital. Drawing on field theory, the paper argues that this representational practice means INGO constituents are almost irrelevant to INGOs' representational and accountability communication practices.
Originality/value
This paper is indebted to previous important work and, building on such scholarship, seeks to contribute to the ongoing conversation about INGO accountability. While reinforcing some prior knowledge, the findings here also differ in the understanding of how donors are portrayed. The paper extends previous analyses by using field theory to show that the INGO field as considered here is a space in which representations of accountability are based on organisational and transactional factors, and does not value the humanity of INGOs' constituents. This connects to operations of power, between donors, INGOs, and constituents, and reinforces inequitable power within the development system.
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Shuai Han, Tongtong Sun, Izhar Mithal Jiskani, Daoyan Guo, Xinrui Liang and Zhen Wei
With the rapid low-carbon transformation in China, the industrial approach and labor structure of mining enterprises are undergoing constant changes, leading to an increasing…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rapid low-carbon transformation in China, the industrial approach and labor structure of mining enterprises are undergoing constant changes, leading to an increasing psychological dilemma faced by coal miners. This study aims to reveal the relationship and mechanism of factors influencing the psychological dilemma of miners, and to provide optimal intervention strategies for the safety and sustainable development of employees and enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
To effectively address the complex issue of the psychological dilemma faced by miners, this study identifies and constructs five-dimensional elements, comprising 20 indicators, that influence psychological dilemmas. The relational mechanism of action of factors influencing psychological dilemma was then elucidated using an integration of interpretive structural modeling and cross-impact matrix multiplication.
Findings
Industry dilemma perception is a “direct” factor with dependent attributes. The perceptions of management response and relationship dilemmas are “root” factors with driving attributes. Change adaptation dilemma perception is a “susceptibility” factor with linkage attributes. Work dilemma perception is a “blunt” factor with both dependent and autonomous attributes.
Originality/value
The aforementioned findings offer a critical theoretical and practical foundation for developing systematic and cascading intervention strategies to address the psychological dilemma mining enterprises face, which contributes to advancing a high-quality coal industry and efficient energy development.
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Qiang Yang, Jiale Huo, Hongxiu Li, Yue Xi and Yong Liu
This study investigates how social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech affects broadcast viewers' purchasing and gift-giving behaviors and how broadcaster…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech affects broadcast viewers' purchasing and gift-giving behaviors and how broadcaster popularity moderates social interaction-oriented content's effect on the two different behaviors in live-streaming commerce.
Design/methodology/approach
A research model was proposed and empirically tested using a panel data set collected from 537 live streams via Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), one of the most popular live broadcast platforms in China. A fixed-effects negative binomial regression model was used to examine the proposed research model.
Findings
This study's results show that social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech has an inverted U-shaped relationship with broadcast viewers' purchasing behavior and shares a positive linear relationship with viewers' gift-giving behavior. Furthermore, broadcaster popularity significantly moderates the effect of social interaction-oriented content on viewers' purchasing and gift-giving behaviors.
Originality/value
This research enriches the literature on live-streaming commerce by investigating how social interaction-oriented content in broadcasters' live speech affects broadcast viewers' product-purchasing and gift-giving behaviors from the perspective of broadcast viewers' attention. Moreover, this study provides some practical guidelines for developing live speech content in the live-streaming commerce context.
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Tyler N.A. Fezzey and R. Gabrielle Swab
Competitiveness is an individual difference variable that incorporates factors generally associated with the desire to excel in comparison to others and the enjoyment of…
Abstract
Purpose
Competitiveness is an individual difference variable that incorporates factors generally associated with the desire to excel in comparison to others and the enjoyment of competition. There is still much debate on whether it is helpful or harmful, which may stem from the scattered ways in which it is studied. Thereby, this study aims to properly synthesize the literature concerning the prevailing correlates, underlying theory and frequent applications of competitiveness and to set forth an outline of domains in need of further research and exploration.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors do so by using two methods of analysis on a representative sample of 546 peer-reviewed publications.
Findings
The authors find that competitiveness research has and will continue to grow expeditiously, but its complexity and cloudiness have not yet been attenuated.
Originality/value
The study uncovers opportunities for pertinent future research on competitiveness to grow more productively and collaboratively by highlighting salient works and identifying the fragmentations that have led the literature into a state of disarray.
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Urmila Jagadeeswari Itam and Uma Warrier
Teleworking, working from home and flexible work have gained popularity over the last few years. A shift in policies and practices in the workplace is required owing to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Teleworking, working from home and flexible work have gained popularity over the last few years. A shift in policies and practices in the workplace is required owing to the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating current trends in work-from-everywhere (WFE) research. This article presents a systematic literature review of WFE research from 1990 to early 2023 to understand the transformation of the field.
Design/methodology/approach
The Web of Science database was used to conduct this review based on rigorous bibliometric and network analysis techniques. The prominence of the research studied using SPAR-4-SLR and a collection of bibliometric techniques on selected journal articles, reviews and early access articles. Performance and keyword co-occurrence analysis form the premise of cluster analysis. The content analysis of recently published papers revealed the driving and restraining forces that help define and operationalize the concept of WFE.
Findings
The major findings indicate that the five established and accelerated trends from cluster analysis are COVID-19 and the pandemic, telework(ing), remote working, work from home and well-being and productivity. Driving and restraining forces identified through content analysis include technological breakthroughs, work–life integration challenges, inequality in the distribution of jobs, gender, shifts in industry and sector preferences, upskilling and reskilling and many more have been published post-COVID in the restraining forces category of WFE.
Practical implications
A key contribution of this pioneering study of “work from everywhere” is the linking of the bibliometric trends of the past three decades to the influencing and restraining factors during the pandemic. This study illustrates how WFE could be perceived differently post-COVID, which is of great concern to practitioners and future researchers.
Originality/value
A wide range of publications on WFE and multiple synonyms can create confusion if a systematic and effective system does not classify and associate them. This study uses both bibliometric and scientometric analyses in the context of WFE using systematic literature review (SLR) methods.
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The author presents new estimates of the probability weighting functions found in rank-dependent theories of choice under risk. These estimates are unusual in two senses. First…
Abstract
The author presents new estimates of the probability weighting functions found in rank-dependent theories of choice under risk. These estimates are unusual in two senses. First, they are free of functional form assumptions about both utility and weighting functions, and they are entirely based on binary discrete choices and not on matching or valuation tasks, though they depend on assumptions concerning the nature of probabilistic choice under risk. Second, estimated weighting functions contradict widely held priors of an inverse-s shape with fixed point well in the interior of the (0,1) interval: Instead the author usually finds populations dominated by “optimists” who uniformly overweight best outcomes in risky options. The choice pairs used here mostly do not provoke similarity-based simplifications. In a third experiment, the author shows that the presence of choice pairs that provoke similarity-based computational shortcuts does indeed flatten estimated probability weighting functions.
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Thanduxolo Elford Fana and Jane Goudge
In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after the revelations of large-scale corruption, the authors ask whether their case studies provide lessons for how public service institutions might re-make themselves, under circumstances of austerity.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative qualitative case study approach, collecting data using a combination of interviews with managers, focus group discussions and interviews with shop stewards and staff was used.
Findings
Management in two hospitals relied on their financial power, divisions between unions and employees' loyalty. They lacked the insight to manage different actors, and their efforts to outsource services and draw on the Extended Public Works Program failed. They failed to support staff when working beyond their scope of practice, reducing employees' willingness to take on extra responsibilities. In the remaining hospital, while previous management had been removed due to protests by the unions, the new CEO provided stability and union–management relations were collaborative. Her legitimate power enabled unions and management to agree on appropriate cost cutting strategies.
Originality/value
Finding an appropriate balance between the new reality of reduced financial resources and the needs of staff and patients, requires competent unions and management, transparency and trust to develop legitimate power; managing in an authoritarian manner, without legitimate power, reduces organisational capacity. Ensuring a fair and orderly process to replace ineffective management is key, while South Africa grows cohorts of competent managers and builds managerial experience.
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Graham H. Lowman, Peter D. Harms and Dustin Wood
Central to the fit concept is that congruence between individual and environmental attributes leads to improved outcomes. However, when discussing fit, researchers often describe…
Abstract
Purpose
Central to the fit concept is that congruence between individual and environmental attributes leads to improved outcomes. However, when discussing fit, researchers often describe congruence as alignment between distinctive or unique individual and environmental attributes. We suggest that current approaches to examining fit do not adequately account for this assumption of distinctiveness because they fail to consider normative expectations and preferences. As such, we propose an alternative theoretical and methodological approach to conceptualizing and measuring fit.
Design/methodology/approach
We introduce the normative theory of fit, outline how researchers can decompose fit into distinctive and normative components and identify areas for future research.
Findings
Management researchers have largely ignored the importance of decomposing fit into distinctive and normative components. This shortcoming necessitates additional research to ensure a more accurate understanding of fit and its relationship with outcomes.
Originality/value
We provide a clarification and critical examination of a pervasive construct in the field of management by introducing the normative theory of fit, identifying areas where researchers can employ this theoretical lens and suggesting a reevaluation of the importance placed on differentiation that is traditionally employed in practice.
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Omer Faruk Aladag and Mehmet Ali Koseoglu
This study aims to explore the intellectual connections of mission statement research to identify the influential domains of source knowledge and emergent areas of research for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the intellectual connections of mission statement research to identify the influential domains of source knowledge and emergent areas of research for future studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors deployed bibliometric methods, namely, citation, co-citation and network analysis. The authors collected data from the Scopus and Web of Science databases and analyzed the connections of the most influential articles.
Findings
The authors identified four knowledge domains that informed the mission statements literature: guidance on mission statement development, the value of mission statements, mission statements and organizational issues, mission statement content and communication. And the authors spotted four opportunities for knowledge advancement based on theoretical frameworks, performance measures, content and context.
Practical implications
Practitioners should think beyond the immediate benefits of mission statements, such as performance and legitimacy improvement. Instead, they should focus on long-term benefits, information advantages and democratizing the development phase of mission statements.
Originality/value
Mission statements have attracted scholarly attention over the past 40 years. Despite the formation of a considerable body of knowledge, intellectual connections of mission statement research have been largely neglected. Previous studies had a narrow focus or insufficient coverage of the literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first full-scale bibliometric study on the intellectual connections of the mission statements literature.
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Tom Pfefferkorn, Julian Randall and Florian Scheuring
This chapter explores the impact of equality, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) on internal change agents’ (ICAs) personal and professional development. We have surveyed 117 ICAs…
Abstract
This chapter explores the impact of equality, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) on internal change agents’ (ICAs) personal and professional development. We have surveyed 117 ICAs that undergo a four-year digital development programme at Edinburgh Business School (EBS). Our survey design draws from expectancy, surprise, sensemaking, and attribution theories to test four hypotheses using Spearman’s rank. We found that diversity features such as gender, age, sector affiliation, work experience, management responsibility, and programme stage do not strongly impact ICAs’ experience of personal and professional development. Surprisingly, some diversity features had a modest or moderate impact on ICAs’ experience of personal and professional development. This disconfirmed our basic assumption about the effectiveness of inclusivity practices in the digital development programme at EBS. We conclude that future research should further investigate the impact of evaluation on ICAs’ personal and professional development and how we can secure it in a digital Business School context.
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