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Facilities management (FM) as a strategic management tool has been an attractive research topic among scholars and practitioners alike for decades. The primary purpose of this paper is threefold: to assess the extent of use of FM roles (strategic, tactical and operational); to examine user satisfaction of service quality performance; and to analyse the influence of FM roles on service quality performance using data from Nigeria’s banking sector.

Relying on exploratory cross-sectional survey, 350 copies of a structured questionnaire were purposively distributed to senior management staff, bank staff, FM supervisors and bank customers in Lagos, Nigeria. One hundred and forty valid responses were returned to give a response rate of 40%. Data collected were analysed using descriptive, Spearman rank correlation and Kruskal–Wallis tests.

It was discovered that strategic facilities planning, IT planning strategy and real estate decisions are the most important FM roles at the strategic level; resource management, data control and planning change at the tactical level; and implementations, building operations and emergencies at the operation level. Findings equally revealed that visual appealing of materials associated with services (tangibles), insisting on error-free records (reliability), willing to help (responsiveness), having the knowledge to answer questions (assurance) and giving individualised attention (empathy) were the most important service quality performance indicators. Furthermore, the study revealed that strategic FM roles significantly influenced tangibles, reliability and responsiveness of staff and the services. Besides, tactical FM roles significantly influenced all service quality indicators except assurance, while operational FM roles had significant influence on tangibles, responsiveness and empathy.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study has provided first ever insight into the extent of FM strategic roles in the banking sector and influence of FM roles on service quality performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique and challenging relationship between the chief financial officer (CFO) and chief information officer (CIO) in the public sector.

In this paper, the authors operationalize the CFO–CIO relationship using upper echelon theory (UET) and propose an extension to it by introducing relationship effectiveness and role perception constructs. Applying a configurational approach to paired survey data, the authors use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to examine both joint and individual role paths to success.

The CFO is ultimately responsible for financial reporting, disclosure and financial decision-making; however, regulatory changes in the accounting domain have resulted in the increased use of information technology (IT) thereby bringing the CIO to the forefront of the accounting information discussion. Thus, an improved understanding of the CFO/CIO relationship can have a direct impact on how accounting information is captured and analyzed. The authors find that CFO and CIO proximity can often increase the likelihood of an effective relationship. On an individual level, an ambidextrous approach to strategic value and cost-effectiveness is key to both CFO and CIO success.

This study extends current models of top management team relationships by examining work proximity and role perception in the context of UET. It was conducted within the context of Canadian government and post-secondary education. The authors believe the findings can be generalized for the public sector in general; however, its applicability in the private sector, where the role of the CFO is broader, is uncertain.

The findings identify an opportunity for both accounting (financial) and IT communities to develop education within the context of their respective professional bodies to enhance this special relationship.

Recent regulatory changes in the accounting domain have brought an increased need for IT and therefore increased interaction between the CFO and CIO. This study focuses on the unique relationship between the CFO and CIO, which has a direct impact on accounting functions and highlights the importance of both the CFO and CIO having an ambidextrous approach to strategic value and cost-effectiveness if they want to be successful. In addition, it demonstrates that the relationship between the CFO and CIO is important, but more important for the success of the CIO than the CFO.

This monograph reports on the strategic and operational roles of learning and development (L&D) professionals in Irish, UK European and US organisations including multinational corporations, small to medium enterprises, the public sector and not for profit organisations. This paper aims to investigate the contextual factors influencing L&D roles in organisations, the strategic and operational roles that L&D professionals play in organisations, the competencies and career trajectories of L&D professionals, the perceptions of multiple internal stakeholders of the effectiveness of L&D roles and the relationships between context, L&D roles, competencies/expertise and perceived organisational effectiveness.

The study findings are based on the use of multiple methods. The authors gathered data from executives, senior managers, line managers, employee and L&D professionals using multiple methods: a survey (n = 440), Delphi study (n = 125) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30).

The analysis revealed that L&D professionals increasingly respond to a multiplicity of external and internal contextual influences and internal stakeholders perceived the effectiveness of L&D professionals differently with significant gaps in perceptions of what L&D contributes to organisational effectiveness. L&D professionals perform both strategic and operational roles in organisations and they progress through four career levels. Each L&D role and career level requires a distinct and unique set of foundational competencies and L&D expertise. The authors found that different contextual predictors were important in explaining the perceived effectiveness of L&D roles and the importance attached to different foundational competencies and areas of L&D expertise.

This is one of the few studies to have investigated the L&D professional role in organisations from the perspective of multiple stakeholders using multiple research methods.

Projects are an inherent part of implementing strategies. Still, the challenge is to connect a long-term strategy for larger ecosystem development to the individual projects being undertaken. The purpose of this paper is to test the ability of seven project management office (PMO) roles to achieve strategic planning in large society development public organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The questionnaire survey that was employed for data collected from 450 project members in 19 project-based public organisations having PMO unit had a response rate of 60 per cent. The received data analysed quantitatively by using multiple regression.

The survey data revealed that PMO enhanced the achievement of the strategic plan for better development of the business ecosystem. The analysis outputs, as expected, have indicated that 95 per cent of the targeted organisations established their own PMO for developing business ecosystem.

Despite there are PMOs hosted by private organisations, the study is limited to the PMO within the context of the government and semi-government organisations in the UAE.

These findings further utilised in developing the conceptual PMO model that would be flexible to be applied to similar project management methodology in various business settings, as well as pave the way for further scholarly investigations.

This work is both exploratory and causal study, which concentrates on investigating the effectiveness of seven proposed PMO roles (as independent variables) in carrying out the strategic plan (as the dependent variable) of the public-sector organisations in the UAE for the development of business ecosystem.

Based on the human resources (HR) role framework (Conner and Ulrich, 1996), the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore why HR practitioners differ in their strategic partner role positioning. The present study suggests and tests a descriptive model regarding occupational and organizational characteristics associated with strategic HR role positioning.

In all, 100 questionnaires were collected from Israeli HR practitioners. Hierarchical regressions were used to test the association between occupational and organizational characteristics and the strategic role perception among HR practitioners.

Although the findings only partially supported the suggested model, significant associations between occupational and organizational characteristics and HR strategic positioning were found. HR practitioners in volatile organizational environments adopt a strategic role perception. Moreover, years of experience are also associated with an HR strategic role perception. Specifically, the major predictors of attaining a strategic partner role amongst HR practitioners are location of organizational activities mainly in the metropolitan area, and involvement in major organizational changes.

The sample had a positive bias of respondents. Questionnaires were delivered mainly to highly educated HR practitioners in notably professional HR departments. Data were based on self-reported one-time questionnaires.

The research has implications for the processes of academic education and professional training of HR practitioners and also their recruitment in organizations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, recent studies aimed at exploring sources of variance in the strategic role perception amongst HR practitioners are rather scarce. This research helps to address this gap, while also broadening the literature regarding HR communities in the Middle East.

Combining the punctuated equilibrium theory with the faultline theory, the purpose of this paper is to focus on member change of strategic core role holders in teams.

The authors test the model using data from 30 National Basketball Association teams covering 11 regular seasons, carrying out regression analyses.

This research illustrates how different types of job-related skills of core role holders that involved in member change might influence the team performance loss, and how team demographic faultlines would serve as a moderator.

This research demonstrates that punctuational change in a team is not always bad, flux in coordination and team performance loss could be avoided by staffing strategic core role based on specific job-related skill levels and manipulating team composition based on demographic attributes.

The research model initially provides an integrated perspective of member change, core role and faultline theory to explain the team process for punctuational change.

The challenges facing industrial enterprises include coping with an increased distribution of activities and the related need to deal with task interdependencies, as well as coping with uncertainty and complexity. This opens for a discussion of current thinking and practices of manufacturing and its strategic role. The aim of the paper is to explore future changes in strategic roles of manufacturing.

A review of the literature on manufacturing strategy has focused on different ways of positioning manufacturing as a means for identifying and defining the strategic roles of manufacturing in an industrial company. To understand how industrial companies have dealt with some of the global challenges and have changed their strategic roles of manufacturing over a period of 3‐7 years, interviews are carried out in six small and medium‐sized companies, representing different industries, such as textile, mechanical and electronic industries. The case stories form a basis for identifying issues for future manufacturing strategic roles in the form of research propositions and implications.

The literature review has resulted in a grouping of the strategic roles of manufacturing. The first group of contributions relates directly to the extent and selected objectives of manufacturing contribution to competitive advantage. The second group positions a company in a value chain or a supply chain. The third way of classifying strategic roles focuses on the mutual interplay between functions leading to a primary role and four supporting roles. The fourth classification identifies different roles that a plant can play in a network of manufacturing plants of a company. To a large extent, the groups are mutually exclusive which suggests that an industrial company may use several classifications to find a configuration of strategic manufacturing roles that is in line with the environmental challenges and internal strength. The empirical findings form a basis for developing research propositions about the roles of manufacturing in the future: an important issue for an industrial firm will be to combine the various typologies into a configuration of strategic manufacturing roles; the strategic roles of manufacturing supporting other functions will become increasingly important, emphasizing the importance of strengthening the interplay with other functions and development of holistic competencies and knowledge sharing across functions and disciplines; a company's development over the next years may be seen as a sequence of moves similar to a game of chess, suggesting a capability to develop scenarios for the next series of moves.

The paper suggests that management of industrial companies: develops a combination of classifications of manufacturing roles appropriate for the company's specific situation; identifies supportive strategic roles of manufacturing leading to explicit focus on the interplay with other functions and strengthening of holistic competencies and knowledge sharing across functions and disciplines; views the pursuit of a global manufacturing strategy as a series of adaptive moves, instead of a once‐for‐all decision.

The findings open for a discussion of current thinking and practice of manufacturing and its strategic roles pointing to a new perception of manufacturing and to future challenges and development patterns.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this article is to outline the role of human resource development (HRD) in Lean strategy as the context for assessing interactions with internal customers. Identifying the perceived gap in role expectations and fulfillment emphasizes important priorities and offers tangible measures for assessing HRD contributions. A focus on business strategies such as Lean enhances HRD's strategic value. Central to the study is the proposition that HRD value and effectiveness revolves around the perceptions of key internal stakeholders in the organization.

This study explores internal customer perceptions of HRD in a select organization using a qualitative case study method. Key stakeholders responsible for Lean implementation were identified as internal customers. Further, the focus on Lean helped to narrow the scope of the investigation. Interactions between key stakeholders and HRD professionals during Lean implementation were assessed.

The findings from the study suggest that effectively performing transactional responsibilities (reducing employee relations incidences, errors in processing routines) not only strengthen transactions effectiveness, but also enhance HRD's capacity for strategic involvement in the organization. Involvement in Lean strategy was considered critical as it highlights opportunities for increased strategic involvement for HRD. A new finding from the study suggests that a focus on HRD's strategic value also enhances transaction effectiveness. Further, ignoring, excluding or undervaluing HRD role and involvement in business strategy adversely affects organizational effectiveness.

Communication of role expectations between organizational group members (HRD and internal customers) would reduce the level of disagreement, reduce potential conflict and enhance the value and effectiveness of HRD. In order to pursue this line of thinking in practice, the study recommends HRD practitioners to become intentional about the selection and development of potential business partners in the organization.

The study suggests that HRD's transactional responsibilities influence customers' perceptions of HRD's capacity for a strategic role in the organization. Effectively performing transactional responsibilities not only enhances HRD effectiveness but also offers opportunities for increasing HRD's added value to the organization. A new finding from the study also suggests that a focus on the strategic value enhances HRD effectiveness in organizations.

A place in the boardroom is often considered a necessary if not sufficient condition for HR directors to exercise strategic influence on business decision‐making. The purpose of the paper is to explore the perceived importance of HR boardroom representation, both in a formal and symbolic sense, and to what extent HR directors can exercise strategic influence without it?

Evidence is explored from a survey of 1,188 UK HR practitioners, including 255 board members, and a series of follow‐up interviews with 16 HR directors.

Analysis of the survey findings suggests that boardroom versus non‐boardroom representation of HR appears to matter in four key areas: board members believe they have greater involvement and influence in business planning processes; they have more positive perceptions of the overall performance of HR; they give higher ratings of CEO perceptions of the HR function; and they believe they achieve greater integration of HR strategy with business strategy.

While there are increasingly other formal mechanisms and forums (e.g. executive committees, personal networks) outside the boardroom for HR directors to exercise their influence, it appears that the “symbolic capital” of boardroom recognition and esteem still retains enormous significance and rhetorical appeal for the HR profession.

The paper seeks to reframe the debates on the relative importance of HR boardroom versus executive committee representation as forums of strategic influence, by focusing on the continued symbolic significance of boardroom representation. It is concluded that a reworking of Bourdieu's concept of “symbolic capital” (i.e. professional esteem, recognition, status, or respect) as board capital may be useful in reframing future research on HR boardroom representation.