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Article
Publication date: 15 November 2018

Hairuddin bin Mohd Ali and Inas Binti Zulkipli

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize, validate and confirm a structural equation modeling (SEM) hypothesized model of strategic leadership practices of Malaysian…

1201

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize, validate and confirm a structural equation modeling (SEM) hypothesized model of strategic leadership practices of Malaysian vocational college educational leaders.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a quantitative survey approach. The data were collected from 500 educational leaders of 65 Malaysian vocational colleges throughout Malaysia using a five-point strategic leadership scale. The gender composition of the sample was almost equivalent. The study embarked on descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and full-fledged SEM for the data analyses.

Findings

The findings revealed that the Malaysian vocational college educational leaders had high tendency and inclination of practicing strategic leadership at their workplace. Besides, there was also evidence that the educational leaders of the Malaysian vocational college exhibited high levels or degree of strategic leadership practices. The responses to the survey items were consistent with seven distinct practices of strategic leadership such as strategic orientation, strategic alignment, strategic intervention, restlessness, absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity and leadership wisdom. The use of SEM procedures had confirmed that the hypothesized model of strategic leadership practices for Malaysian vocational college educational leaders was empirically valid and reliable.

Practical implications

The findings highlighted the importance of planning and development of a specific-context training program for Malaysian vocational college educational leaders in strategic leadership. The training was considered fundamental in pursuit of effective leadership and positive institutional outcomes for such colleges in Malaysia.

Originality/value

The study had successfully formulated, tested and validated a model of strategic leadership practices for Malaysian vocational college educational leaders. The model was believed to be the first of its kind in the Malaysian vocational education context.

Details

European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 43 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-9012

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 January 2012

Hairuddin Mohd Ali

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nine‐point strategic leadership characteristics of Malaysian Quality National Primary School Leaders (QNPSL) and to indicate the…

1132

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nine‐point strategic leadership characteristics of Malaysian Quality National Primary School Leaders (QNPSL) and to indicate the implications of these findings for the current educational management and leadership practices in their quest for Malaysian quality education.

Design/methodology/approach

The study selected 600 senior management team members from 150 schools to complete a seven‐page questionnaire survey and eventually managed to collect back 420 completed survey questionnaires. The study employed SPSS 15.0 and a full‐fledged Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) software Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) version 16.0 to confirm the dimensionality and the psychometric properties of the scale, as well as to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

Despite what Davies and Davies suggested, the results confirm that the Malaysian QNPSL do not possess three out of nine predetermined characteristics of a strategic leader such as wisdom, strategic intervention point and strategic competence which are pertinent for efficient and effective leadership in realizing the objectives of the National Education Master Plan.

Practical implications

The findings from the study provide useful information to senior management team members of the respective schools, District and State Education Departments in improving the quality of Malaysian education.

Originality/value

As this is the first research of its kind in Malaysia, the findings to a certain extent will be able to contribute to the efforts in achieving the accessibility, equity, quality and enhancement of management goals stipulated in the National Education Master Plan (2006‐2010).

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 August 2020

Vanessa Ratten

The sport system is currently changing to take advantage of more entrepreneurial forms of business ventures. Sport start-ups have emerged as a new type of sport venture that can…

Abstract

The sport system is currently changing to take advantage of more entrepreneurial forms of business ventures. Sport start-ups have emerged as a new type of sport venture that can quickly enter the marketplace based on demand. The reason for this growth is due to innovation and knowledge capabilities being needed in sport organizations. This chapter examines the role of sport start-ups in the knowledge economy by focusing on the role of sport technology. This enables a better understanding about how sport entrepreneurship is leading to the formation of different types of businesses that can utilize entrepreneurial finance.

Details

Sport Entrepreneurship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-836-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 March 2019

Tina Ollgaard Bentzen

Public organizations are constantly offered new ideas and concepts that involve a substantial investment of resources when it comes to translating them into organizational…

Abstract

Purpose

Public organizations are constantly offered new ideas and concepts that involve a substantial investment of resources when it comes to translating them into organizational practice. An especially powerful group of such concepts in the discourse of organizations comprises so-called “magic concepts” that both pose opportunities and challenges for public leaders trying to translate them. Although critical discussion about the value of popular concepts has been intense in existing research, there is still little knowledge about the factors that determine why some magic concepts have a pervasive influence, while others quickly go out of fashion and leave little trace in organizational practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

By combining insights from public leadership theory, implementation theory, institutional theory and organizational psychology, this paper outlines four dimensions that are central to the robustness of the organizational translation of magic concepts. The paper develops a conceptual model labeled “The Translational Diamond,” which suggests that the robust translation of organizational concepts depends on the level of both strategic and local anchoring, as well as the interplay between reflection and experimentation in the translation process. The Translational Diamond is applied in two embedded case studies, which offer insight into the variance between two organizational departments attempting to translate the same magic concept.

Findings

A central argument in the “translational diamond” is that bigger, balanced diamonds reflect more robust translations than smaller, warped diamonds. The results support this assumption. Although the translation of trust involves challenges in both departments, there are much more severe difficulties in the social department, which is characterized by a notably smaller and much more warped diamond than the health and care department.

Research limitations/implications

While this paper argues that strategic and local anchoring and the interplay between reflection and experimentation play a crucial role in the translation of magic concepts, there may be other factors at stake in the process. For example, Røvik argues that the skill of the individual translators engaged in the process is important for creating a robust translation (Røvik, 2007). In addition, magic concepts are potentially involved in a power battle with other magic concepts that are constantly competing for organizational attention (Hood, 2005). Such power dynamics may substantially influence actors’ engagement in translation, but are not within the scope of this paper.

Practical implications

For public leaders, the translational diamond may serve as a conceptual framework that can spur their understanding of, and reflection about, how to support the translation of magic concepts in their organization. For example, archetypically warped diamonds can illustrate the problems that might occur if translation is not sufficiently anchored in all four dimensions. Translating organizational concepts involves respect for the inherent dilemmas of securing a balance between strategic and local perspectives, as well as the strengths of securing feedback loops between reflection and experimentation. These dimensions will not necessarily be equally balanced at all times in the process of translating magic concepts. The conceptual model of the translational diamond may help leaders to understand the current status of a translation and guide them in their endeavor to support a better balance.

Originality/value

While symbolic change may serve other organizational purposes than effectiveness, this paper addresses the under-studied question of how organizational concepts are translated robustly into practice. The originality of the “translational diamond” is its focus on “how” rather than “whether” the translation of magic concepts should be attempted. In addition, the diamond’s integration of theoretical constructs from leadership theory, implementation theory, institutional theory and organizational theory offers a more nuanced understanding of central dimensions impacting organizational translation at a practical level.

Details

International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4929

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2015

Minna Logemann and Rebecca Piekkari

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to previous research on intraorganizational power in multinational corporations (MNCs). It shows that a subsidiary manager may use…

2979

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to previous research on intraorganizational power in multinational corporations (MNCs). It shows that a subsidiary manager may use language and acts of translation to resist control from headquarters and to (re)define his and his unit’s power position in a headquarters-subsidiary relationship. It also uncovers the interplay between natural languages and “company speak” as a specialized language.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a single case study of a European MNC undergoing strategic change. The data were drawn from company documents, personal interviews and focus group discussions.

Findings

The findings show that actors at both headquarters and in the focal subsidiary employed language and translation to exercise power over meanings; headquarters exerted control over “mindsets” and practices, while subsidiaries responded by resisting these meaning systems. The authors argue that the crossing of language boundaries offers a window onto shifting power positions and micro-politics in the MNC.

Research limitations/implications

The study was limited to a single translation act in a focal headquarters-subsidiary relationship.

Practical implications

From the managerial perspective, any process of communication in a multilingual context needs to be sensitive to power (re)definitions associated with language and translation.

Originality/value

This study sheds light on translation as a political act and hidden activity in the MNC.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 April 2008

Maria Pinto and Dora Sales

Since every community of practice generates, seeks, retrieves and uses information resources and sources related to the cognitive structure being researched or studied and the…

1396

Abstract

Purpose

Since every community of practice generates, seeks, retrieves and uses information resources and sources related to the cognitive structure being researched or studied and the tasks being performed, the need arises to undertake studies focused on real user communities, which in the case of this paper is the group of translators. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

In this arena of application, it is important to remember that translators are not only information users, but also information processors and producers. Thus, their documentary competence has to evolve in three dimensions: the informational, the methodological and the strategic. The conceptual model proposed in the paper is based on information literacy (INFOLIT) standards and also the authors' knowledge of translation practice and the competencies it demands, where INFOLIT plays a starring role. This paper is part of a broader research currently in progress, whose main goal is to provide translators and interpreters with a solid instruction in information literacy.

Findings

The paper introduces a model for information literacy specifically intended to develop the information competence of this community of users, it reveals that the model is a gathering of skills, competences, knowledge and values, and it is based on the cooperation between the authors' expert knowledge of information science and professional translation practice.

Originality/value

This paper puts forward the first proposal for information literacy applied to translation training.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 64 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 12 December 2023

Kerstin Sahlin and Ulla Eriksson-Zetterquist

Over the past few decades, university reforms in line with management and enterprise ideals have been well documented. Changes in the ideals underlying the missions of…

Abstract

Over the past few decades, university reforms in line with management and enterprise ideals have been well documented. Changes in the ideals underlying the missions of universities have led to changes in their modes of governing and organizing, which in turn drive further transformation of their missions. One set of reforms in Swedish higher education has been the dissolution of collegial bodies and procedures. At the same time, in recent years, we have witnessed an increased interest in collegiality and a reintroduction of collegial bodies and procedures. New translations of collegiality appear not only in how universities are organized, but also in other core aspects of research and higher education. We review examples of peer reviewing, research assessment, and direct recruitment of professors and ask: Can these new translations of collegiality be understood as a revitalization of collegiality, or is it – to draw a parallel with greenwashing – rather a matter of collegiality-washing?

Details

Revitalizing Collegiality: Restoring Faculty Authority in Universities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-818-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Lise Degn, Miriam Madsen and Katja Brøgger

The purpose of this paper is to explore how Danish higher education institutions (HEIs) navigate the demands and expectations of accreditation procedures, and how the limited…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how Danish higher education institutions (HEIs) navigate the demands and expectations of accreditation procedures, and how the limited freedom posed by accreditation schemes is used by HEIs by way of translation.

Design/methodology/approach

Through document studies of policy documents and the institutional self-assessment reports, the paper follows the concept of quality from the international level to the Danish national level, and onwards into the individual HEIs, where the authors examine how notions of quality are constructed through the translation of national regulation, guidelines and procedures of accreditation into the self-narratives of the self-assessment reports.

Findings

The authors find that the national guidelines for accreditation represents a complex translation of supranational guidelines by minimizing certain aspects and enhancing others. This national translation is then analyzed as the frame for the institutional translations where the analysis reveals how HEIs exercise a great deal of agency, within a quite narrow frame constituted by regulations and guidelines.

Originality/value

By using the Olivers (1991) typology of organizational responses, the authors discuss how the HEIs not only imitate and abide to institutionalized norms and concepts of quality but also reformulate, edit, omit and enhance certain elements of quality. The authors demonstrate that when accreditation meets the HEIs, it is clearly the national agendas that are most pervasive and offer the most relevant vocabulary for the HEIs.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 10 October 2022

Dania Salamah

The current study set out to examine the recruitment practices and job-market readiness of translators in Saudi Arabia in light of the Process in the Acquisition of Translation

Abstract

Purpose

The current study set out to examine the recruitment practices and job-market readiness of translators in Saudi Arabia in light of the Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation (PACTE) model of translation competence (TC). The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the outcomes of translator training programs are aligned with job-market requirements.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was conducted adopting a mixed-methods research design to collect qualitative and quantitative data using interviews and a questionnaire. Data were also collected from the analysis of 28 translation job advertisements. The questionnaire targeted employers, while the interviews were conducted with employers and professional translators.

Findings

The findings indicate that there is a gap between the outcomes of translator training programs and the needs of the job market with a particular emphasis on the importance of developing trainee translators' job-market skills as well as their awareness of the professional practice of translation.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the current study are limited to the sample from which data were collected.

Practical implications

The study has significant implications for translators and translator training in Saudi Arabia. Although the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission and the Saudi Translators' Association were established in 2020, additional measures are needed to support the translation profession in Saudi Arabia. Such support may take the form of specialised accreditation for translator training programs as well as licensing requirements for practitioners. Implementing these measures will play a significant role in establishing benchmarks for translator training programs and promoting the integration of job-market requirements into translator training.

Originality/value

Although TC has been examined in the Saudi context before, examining it in light of the PACTE framework sheds new light on the job-market readiness of translation program graduates and enriches the literature on the training of translators in Saudi Arabia.

Details

Saudi Journal of Language Studies, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-243X

Keywords

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