Search results

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the potential of human capital development to predict commitment from an empirical perspective. This followed the fact that while organisations continue to invest a lot of resources into development of their human capital, a growing tendency of the trained staff to quickly abandon the organisation and move on to search for greener pastures has also been registered.

This study takes a positivistic approach. It is an explanatory, cross-sectional study that is based on a case study approach.

The findings revealed that developing human resources still leads to enhanced commitment among staff. The findings provide empirical support for the tenets of the human capital development theory.

Investment in development of human resources is still a worthy while cause for organisations as it positively and significantly contributes to commitment.

While organisations ought to keep watch of the costs that come with human capital development endeavours the practice of developing human resources should be continued as it contributes to the organisational performance of staff.

The paper deepens the understanding on how human capital development is currently enhancing the commitment of organisational staff in a typical developing economy and sector. Such knowledge provides a clear basis for allocating resources on people development endeavours.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which servant leadership behaviour as a non-financial mechanism influences changes in continuance commitment. Research that investigates effects on specific forms of commitment is likely to provide more tailored information, thereby enhancing the quality of resulting decisions.

This study used an explanatory approach to investigate the envisaged linkage between the study variables from a social-psychological perspective.

Findings revealed that servant leadership behaviour significantly influences the variations in continuance commitment.

The data used were sourced from organisations in the health sector. Results were more likely to be limited to organisations dealing in services like healthcare, education, hospitality and business sectors. Also, since the data used were cross sectional, the application of results could be limited by changes in business cycle effects. Nevertheless, the study provides a direction of thought and a platform for a longitudinal study by future researchers.

Organisations have the option of relaying upon servant leadership behaviour as a non-financial mechanism of enhancing continuance commitment. This is likely to relieve the pressure on financial resources, especially for organisations in developing economies that often operate under conditions of economic scarcity.

This work is the first of its kind to describe the effect of servant leadership behaviour on continuance commitment in the health sector within Uganda which is a typical developing economy facing challenges of high attrition rates.

This article examines the potential of increasing commitment of medical knowledge-workers (medical-KWs) in hospitals, particularly in handling deadly pandemics like COVID-19, through servant leadership behaviour. The authors hold that medical-KWs like doctors and nurses form the core team of knowledge-workers (KWs) at the forefront of fighting COVID-19 through seeking possible vaccines, treating patients and promoting behaviours that curtail its spread. Thus research directed towards enhancing their continued commitment is both timely and valuable.

The study uses an explanatory cross-sectional survey design.

Results reveal that servant leadership behaviour significantly explains changes in commitment of medical-KWs. Results further establish that perceived fairness – a key psychological factor – significantly explains how servant leadership enhances the commitment of medical-KWs.

Data used were sourced from medical-KWs in selected public hospitals only. Thus results may differ among medical-KWs in private hospitals, yet they have also championed the fight against COVID-19. Never the less these results provide a direction of thought to guide practice and other related studies on a wider-scale.

In their quest to eradicate COVID-19 and its negative effects on social-economic development, nations have to actively promote servant leadership behaviour in the hospitals (by establishing quality relationships, credibility and efficient processes for delivering the shared goal) as mechanisms for sustaining the continued commitment of medical-KWs towards fighting the pandemic.

Results portray events from an economy that has registered successes in combating pandemics like Ebola and currently COVID-19 and thus offer a plausible benchmark for practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which perceived leadership integrity influences changes in organisational commitment. The premise of the study is the argument that non-financial rewards alleviate the challenges associated with low levels of commitment in economies that are riddled with incessant situations of economic scarcity.

An explanatory study approach was adopted to investigate the envisaged linkage between the study variables from a socio-psychological perspective.

The results of the study establish that perceived leadership integrity significantly influences variations in commitment among organisational employees.

The study results provide a reason for firms to invest more resources towards promoting honesty among organisational leaders. The findings of the study support the idea that perceived integrity of an organisation's leadership generates a sustainable win–win position not only between the organisation and employees, but also among the leaders and subordinates.

Organisations must regularly consider the drivers of organisational commitment and pay sufficient attention to non-financial drivers. As advanced by this study, a very important yet economical way of effecting such a strategy is through instituting measures that sustainably create a perception among employees that organisational leaders execute their duties with the utmost integrity.

This article has both empirical and theoretical value. Empirically, this work is the first of its kind aimed at investigating the effect of perceived leadership integrity on organisational commitment within Uganda's hospitality setting. Theoretically, the study extends the versatility of the hierarchy of needs theory by clarifying that higher-level needs offer a basis for explaining the effect of psychological processes (in this case, perceived leadership integrity) on behavioural changes (in this case, organisational commitment).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as a predictor of internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The key research question is “to what extent do the dimensions of EO (innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking) predict internationalisation of SMEs?”

The study adopts a cross-sectional survey to collect data from 282 SMEs, with the use of a multi-dimensional self-administered questionnaire. All the measures in this study were adopted from existing instruments from previous studies and all showed a CVI above 0.8. Data were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics, correlations and hierarchical regression. The nature and strength of the relationships between the variables was tested using the zero-order bivariate correlation analysis.

The study establishes a significant relationship between the dimensions of EO and internationalisation of SMEs.

This paper contributes to the corpus of literature on internationalisation of SMEs. Future research should consider the major constructs from a longitudinal point of view given that cross-sectional studies sometimes fail to examine the interaction effect of the variables.

The paper illustrates how EO dimensions can influence an entrepreneur’s decision to go international especially handling the process of internationalisation and its dynamics.

The paper provides contextual evidence from a developing country to the effect that as local investors get more inclined to EO, they in the process ease their way to joining the international business arena.

This study sought to examine the extent to which outsourced contracts, buyer-supplier trust and supplier opportunistic behavior explain supplier performance in Ugandan Public Procuring and Disposing Entities (PDEs). This study was prompted by reports of long lead times, failure to match specifications, late deliveries, poor quality of services delivered, contract violations, and increased supplier cheating. Cross sectional data from 116 central government PDEs concerning outsourced contracts was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Hierarchical regression was used to indicate what happens to a model that was developed as part of this research as different predictor variables are introduced. The findings revealed that outsourced contracts, buyer-supplier trust, and supplier opportunistic behavior are significant predictors of supplier performance. The study has both managerial and policy implications which are discussed in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the human dimension of project management by establishing the extent to which social networks influence the commitment of project stakeholders. Up to date, project managers still identify inadequate stakeholder commitment to project undertakings as a key antecedent of project failure and so efforts aimed at addressing this challenge are highly valued. The paper therefore explores the use of social networks as one of the possible strategies to enhance project-stakeholder commitment.

The paper adopts a quantitative, cross-sectional study design. Based on responses from 172 project stakeholders who took part in a sample of 92 citizenship projects conducted by major commercial banks in Uganda, hierarchical regression was used to indicate what happens to a model as different predictor variables are introduced The use of specific type of projects minimizes bias in results due to the unique nature of specific projects hence enhances reliability of results.

The results from statistical analysis reveal that social network elements (network transitivity and network degree) are significant predictors of project stakeholder commitment. The results also suggest that network transitivity is a better significant predictor of project-stakeholder commitment than network degree

Project-stakeholder commitment has been widely studied in relation to project performance and the study makes a number of contributions to the theory and study of projects. First and foremost, the paper studied project social networks and project-stakeholder commitment in citizenship projects in commercial banks in Uganda which is a developing country. The study therefore contributes to an understanding of project social networks and project-stakeholder commitment in citizenship projects of commercial banks in a developing country. The implication of the findings is that it provides a different view point of understanding the aspects that affect project commitment. A lot of focus has been placed on improving project performance in Uganda, but none has specifically focussed on building project-stakeholder commitment through the use of project social networks.

Earlier attempts to investigate the impact of social networks on commitment in projects did not study commitment among individuals. Also, no previous empirical study in less developed countries has given special attention to the effect of social networks on project-stakeholder commitment especially in the domain of citizenship projects which have gained a lot of momentum around the globe. The study results indicate that getting concerned with the nature of social networks the project creates and the means it uses to maintain such networks has implications for project-stakeholder commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of project communication on project‐stakeholder commitment. Earlier studies have emphasized the significant influence of project‐stakeholder commitment to project success; and to date, lack of stakeholder commitment is still listed as a key cause of project failure. In an effort to improve project stakeholder commitment, the paper investigated project communication as a key antecedent of project‐stakeholder commitment.

The study adopted a cross sectional study design and results were drawn from a sample of 92 citizenship projects conducted by 16 commercial banks in Uganda. Data collection was based on a specific type of project in order to obtain context‐specific responses.

The results obtained after running a hierarchical regression indicated that intra‐project communication and extra‐project communication had a positive combined predictive potential of project‐stakeholder commitment with a Beta coefficient of 0.54. It was recommended that project management should create an atmosphere for effective project communication as one of the primary means of ensuring commitment of various project‐stakeholder commitment.

This is the first paper to document the effect of project communication on stakeholder commitment in Uganda. Many people in projects in Uganda have lacked commitment to projects due to inadequate information, attributable to gaps in the communication system. The results indicate that project communication has implications for project commitment.

The increased poor performance of National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) projects in Uganda has become a concern of many stakeholders. Many NAADS projects have been undertaken with an aim of developing the poor in the country but none of them were successful. This paper therefore aimed at examining the performance of NAADS projects which were set up by the government in 2001 to eradicate poverty in Uganda.

The study adopted a cross‐sectional and quantitative survey research design. Data was sought from farmers and coordinators of the projects. Mukono district was used as a case study and a sample of 323 NAADS projects were used, covering a wide range of agricultural activities.

The research findings showed low performance levels of the NAADS projects and raised pertinent questions on the influence of NAADS stakeholders’ commitment to the performance of the projects. It was there recommended that an urgent review of NAADS policy and practices be done to ensure that project managers and coordinators discuss with farmers the personal benefits of carrying out activities of NAADS such that farmers fill a great deal of personal meaning of the project to their lives.

This is the first study to document the effect of stakeholder commitment on the performance of National Agricultural Advisory Services projects in Uganda. The poor people in Uganda have really not been committed to the NAADS projects despite the willingness of the government to take them out of poverty. One of the reasons is that they don’t see themselves achieving any benefits from these projects, the projects require high costs of agricultural extension services which cannot be afforded by the farmers and also because the poor people lack farmer groups to participate in the NAADS projects. Rural farmers look as if they do not have technical or professional connections to participate and take advantage of the projects.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between leadership styles and Organizational commitment among academic staff in Ugandan Public Universities, mediated by Job Satisfaction.

The study was cross-sectional, quantitative, and used correlation and regression to test the hypothesis. A sample of 353 academic staff was drawn from five public universities in Uganda, of which a response rate of 66 percent was obtained.

Organizational commitment among academic staff in public universities in Uganda depends on the age of the academic staff, length of service, position level, leadership styles employed, and job satisfaction. Findings further show that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment.

Only a single research methodological approach was employed; thus, future research through interviews could be undertaken to triangulate.

In order to boost the organizational commitment among academic staff in Ugandan Public Universities, managers should always endeavor to employ a blend of leadership styles that leads to job satisfaction and can add value to the employee-employer relationship.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by finding further support on the relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment among academic staff in Ugandan public universities. It further demonstrates that job satisfaction partially transmits the effect of leadership styles on organizational commitment in public universities in Uganda.