Search results

1 – 10 of over 5000
Case study
Publication date: 15 June 2023

Fernando Garcia, Stephen Ray Smith and Marilyn Michelle Helms

Data used to develop the case included primary data from employees and supervisors of a commercial floorcovering manufacturing plant in Northwest Georgia. The case company is not…

Abstract

Research Methodology

Data used to develop the case included primary data from employees and supervisors of a commercial floorcovering manufacturing plant in Northwest Georgia. The case company is not disguised.

The survey was developed using existing instruments from the Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Literature. Instruments were listed in Exhibits 2 through 7. The survey administration had the support of the Vice President for Resources and Facilities, and employees and their supervisors were given time to complete the surveys. The data gathered was analyzed by the researcher using SPSS statistical software.

Case overview/synopsis

Established in 1957, J&J started as a family-owned business but had grown and diversified its product offerings by focusing on commercial flooring. It survived several economic downturns and remained competitive in a market dominated by more prominent flooring manufacturers. J&J Industries strived to empower its 800 employees with various incentive programs. Employees remained loyal to J&J; many had worked for the company for over 15 years. However, management wanted to measure the impact of empowering and initiatives on employee performance and satisfaction to determine the real power of employee incentive programs. The Resources and Facilities Vice President employed Professor Lopez, a Management Professor, to develop a survey to measure these constructs and analyze the data to guide future incentive programs. Data from the employee and supervisor survey was provided along with the statistical analysis results for interpretation and recommendations for VP Fordham.

Complexity academic level

The target audience for this case is primarily students in a research methodology course and students studying quantitative regression analysis and interpretation. The focus is predominantly on graduate-level students in Master of Business Administration or Master of Accounting programs in business. Graduate students should have completed courses in management or organizational behavior, business statistics or quantitative methods or data visualization and cleaning as background knowledge for this case. Specifically, students should understand regression analysis and know when and how the tool is used for managerial decision-making.

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1997

James E. McNulty, George E. Morgan, Craig K. Ruff and Stephen D. Smith

The common view of many regulators and practitioners is that the minimum risk maturity gap is equal to zero. However, because of the interest sensitivity of such non‐gap items as…

Abstract

The common view of many regulators and practitioners is that the minimum risk maturity gap is equal to zero. However, because of the interest sensitivity of such non‐gap items as the average spread between asset and liability rates, lending activity, fee income and prepayments, the minimum risk gap could be significantly different from zero. We formulate and test a model for a sample of four hundred and twenty six thrift institutions. The results strongly suggest that the minimum risk maturity gap is positive for the average firm in the sample and that there is substantial cross‐sectional variability in the ratio of the minimum risk gap to assets. This suggests that attempts to regulate interest rate risk using a uniform gap as a benchmark are misdirected. Finally, we provide some evidence that there is, in fact, a positive cross‐sectional relationship between measured maturity gap positions and our estimates of the minimum risk maturity gap.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Article
Publication date: 5 July 2024

Hassan Hessari, Fatemeh Daneshmandi, Peter Busch and Stephen Smith

In the evolving digital work landscape, where cyberloafing has become a notable challenge, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms through which organizations can…

Abstract

Purpose

In the evolving digital work landscape, where cyberloafing has become a notable challenge, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms through which organizations can effectively reduce such behaviors. Specifically, the research explores the role of employee adaptability in mitigating cyberloafing, taking into account the influences of temporal leadership, teamwork attitudes, and competitive work environments.

Design/methodology/approach

Utilizing the broaden-and-build theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we analyzed data from 245 employees through structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate how various factors influence cyberloafing.

Findings

The results indicate that employee adaptability significantly mitigates cyberloafing and serves as a mediating factor between temporal leadership, teamwork attitudes, and the impact of competitive work environments on cyberloafing. Temporal leadership and teamwork attitudes positively correlate with increased adaptability, thereby reducing cyberloafing. Conversely, competitive work environments, while slightly enhancing adaptability, substantially increase cyberloafing.

Originality/value

The study contributes new insights into the dynamics of cyberloafing, emphasizing the critical roles of adaptability, teamwork attitudes, and temporal leadership in reducing such behaviors. It underscores the need for organizations to foster a supportive culture that minimizes competitive pressures and promotes teamwork and leadership strategies conducive to high productivity and minimal cyberloafing. This research offers practical implications for designing workplace strategies aimed at boosting productivity and curbing undesirable online behaviors during work hours.

Details

Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-4323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 January 2023

Patrick Gallagher, Stephen Christian Smith, Steven M. Swavely and Sarah Coley

Against the backdrop of a competitive hiring market and historically high rates of quitting, the current research examines a factor that could support talent retention in…

Abstract

Purpose

Against the backdrop of a competitive hiring market and historically high rates of quitting, the current research examines a factor that could support talent retention in organizations: employees’ feelings of connectedness to their top executives. The authors examined the relationship between workers’ feelings of executive connectedness and job attitudes relative to other antecedents and its predictive power for quitting over and above manager and team connectedness.

Design/methodology/approach

In Study 1, the authors measured the relative predictive power of executive connectedness, along with 14 other antecedents, for the outcome of job attitudes in ten samples totaling over 70,000 observations, including two longitudinal samples. In Study 2, the authors used path analysis to test the relationship between executive connectedness and actual quitting, controlling for workers’ feelings of connectedness to their manager and teammates, in two (related) longitudinal samples.

Findings

Executive connectedness was robustly related to concurrent and future job attitudes, and it outranked manager variables in all samples. Executive connectedness predicted quitting, even when controlling for manager and team connectedness; this effect was mediated by job attitudes in one of two samples.

Practical implications

Executive connectedness could be an underutilized resource for understanding and possibly improving employee attitudes and retention. Executives should not delegate all responsibility for employee attitudes and retention to managers.

Originality/value

This research is to the authors' knowledge the first to systematically test the unique predictive validity of employees’ feelings of connectedness to executives for important outcomes. The results suggest that executive connectedness may be an important factor in employees’ workplace experience.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 March 2023

Fernando Garcia, Stephen Ray Smith, Amy Burger and Marilyn Helms

This study aims to provide a case example of two partner institutions and business faculty who creatively used a collaborative online international learning (COIL) experience…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to provide a case example of two partner institutions and business faculty who creatively used a collaborative online international learning (COIL) experience during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and transition to online learning to internationalize an undergraduate business class and use existing technology to offer a case study project to further students’ global mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

Using open-ended qualitative comments from an American college and a Peruvian university, researchers uncovered key themes from a virtual COIL-based learning experience offered as part of an international business class.

Findings

Student end-of-course evaluation comments from both countries validated the success of the learning experience and value of working together with other students and faculty in a virtual setting.

Research limitations/implications

Areas for future research are provided to extend these initial exploratory findings. However, the implications are clear that the methodology is also appropriate in nonpandemic situations and can quickly bring a global mindset to remote corners of the globe and ensure all students experience the “virtual” study abroad, even when there are travel limitations or budget restrictions for students or the institutions.

Practical implications

The implementation detail provided can be easily replicated by other institutions with a global mindset and internationalization goals.

Social implications

The proliferation of COIL-based experiences will impact how study abroad experiences are defined and offered in the future.

Originality/value

While researchers have documented COIL experiences in the academic literature, their use during the COVID-19 pandemic, as often the only solution for on-going internationalization, has not been thoroughly studied or documented. In addition, the class activities further used team-based international workplace pedagogy, authentic engagement and technology.

Details

Journal of International Education in Business, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-469X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2013

Anne Stephens

The purpose of this paper is to report on the product of a ten year study, the PhD thesis, “Feminist Systems Thinking: Principles and Practice”, conferred in April, 2012 by the…

757

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report on the product of a ten year study, the PhD thesis, “Feminist Systems Thinking: Principles and Practice”, conferred in April, 2012 by the University of Queensland, which contains a set of five practical principles, to assist in policy directions for enhanced community development and project management.

Design/methodology/approach

This research adapted Constructivist Grounded Theory to complete Part A, a theoretical imbrication of Cultural Ecofeminism and Critical Systems Thinking. Part B of the thesis is a set of four applied case studies utilising participatory action research.

Findings

The findings of Part A of this work established a meta‐theoretical framework in the form of five practical principles to guide project managers at various stages and scales of their work. Part B's evaluation of these principles found that the principles can make practitioners' work clearer, identify gaps to address the multiplicity of often overlapping social concerns, and flag implications for future research and practice.

Research limitations/implications

Embedding the principles in practice can help managers plan, guide and evaluate community development interventions. Further research to establish the principles in a wider number of settings would be advantageous.

Social implications

Embedding the principles draws in the voices of those on the margins of any project, helping to avoid superficial consultations and oversight of all (human and non‐human inhabitants) affected.

Originality/value

This work is entirely original. There is no known imbrication of the epistemologies selected for this study. In the recent examination of the thesis, the work was commended for its innovative methodological approach and original contribution to knowledge.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 10 October 2017

Adams Bodomo

Abstract

Details

The Globalization of Foreign Investment in Africa
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-357-1

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1988

Ronald H. Fritze

The Dictionary of National Biography (or DNB as it is commonly called and as it will be referred to in this paper) is a classic. Depending on whether a library owns an original…

Abstract

The Dictionary of National Biography (or DNB as it is commonly called and as it will be referred to in this paper) is a classic. Depending on whether a library owns an original edition published by Smith, Elder and Company or a reprint edition published by Oxford University Press, sixty‐three brown volumes or twenty‐two blue volumes and supplements loom bulkily from the shelves. It would be an odd, ill‐trained reference librarian, historian, or scholar of English literature who has never heard of the DNB, let alone used and perused it. But mere bulk does not explain the lasting fame and staying power of this reference work, whose first volume appeared in January 1885 over a century ago.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 20 August 1996

Abstract

Details

The Peace Dividend
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44482-482-0

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2017

Colin Post

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the preservation practices of new media artists, in particular those working outside of the scope of major collecting institutions…

2353

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the preservation practices of new media artists, in particular those working outside of the scope of major collecting institutions, examining how these artists preserve new media artworks in their custody.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper builds case studies of seven new media artists of differing practices and artistic approaches. For each case study, semi-structured interviews with the artists were conducted in conjunction with visits to the artists’ studios.

Findings

The study finds that new media artists face a number of shared preservation challenges and employ a range of preservation strategies, and that these challenges and strategies differ markedly from that of art museums and cultural heritage institutions.

Research limitations/implications

This study considers preservation practices for new media artists generally. Further research into specific communities of artistic practice could profitably build upon this overall framework.

Practical implications

The findings of this research pose a number of implications for art museums and cultural heritage institutions, suggesting new ways these institutions might consider supporting the preservation of new media artworks before works enter into institutional custody.

Originality/value

The literature on new media art preservation emphasizes the importance of working with artists early in the life cycle of digital artworks. This study advances this by investigating preservation from the perspective of new media artists, deepening the understanding of challenges and potential preservation strategies for these artworks prior to entering or outside of institutional custody.

1 – 10 of over 5000