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The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of centralization and formalization on the frequency of political tactics (FPT) used by employees. It also examines political will as the underlying variable that mediates the relationship between the focal variables.

The study uses data (n = 234) collected from a large public sector organization in India. The interrelationships are tested empirically using structural equation modeling.

The findings suggest that both centralization and formalization significantly influence the FPT used by employees. Also, political will partially mediate the relationship between centralization, formalization and FPT.

The study provides evidence of the influence of centralization and formalization as two organizational realities that lead to employee engagement in political tactics. It also elucidates the importance of political will and the need to develop social astuteness to maneuver through the maze of organizational politics. The study is conducted in a public sector organization in India and uses cross-sectional data. Therefore, generalizations must be made with caution.

The study establishes political will as an important mediator between centralization, formalization and political behavior, fostering in-depth research into the structural aspects of public sector organizations. It also establishes political will as an important individual disposition of employees that augments the engagement of employees in political behavior in highly centralized and formalized organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the older perspective on the nature of workplace politics and its disruptive role in organizations. In particular, this paper references the positive aspect of meaningful relationship building that is promoted by workplace politics and how the very politicking becomes a necessary tool for generating and maintaining social capital within the organizational boundaries.

The paper relies on presenting author’s viewpoint on positive workplace politics and its intertwined relationship with social capital.

In the process of politicking, the relationships built, the networks established and maintained and the social capital acquired are of immense value. To thwart the negative effects of organizational politics such as disengagement from work, intentions to quit, low job satisfaction, etc., we must look into the multidimensional nature of politics and the value that social capital adds to it.

The positive side of politics has long been in the shadows of its pronounced negative side. The paper presents the ground work for exploring the many colours of organizational politics and also delve into the factors that can thwart the negative effects of politics that may be experienced by the employees.

The paper contends that workplace politics is not just responsible for the disruptive and unwanted behaviours but is rather an important source of the positive and productive interpersonal relationships that are often useful in accomplishing individual and organizational goals.

The purpose of this research is to determine key behaviours to be efficient in identifying and developing employees' talent. The article aims to address the relationship between learning agility and job crafting, the influence between them, and how this relationship is built to improve performance and adaptability. For this purpose, the research has analysed which behaviours obtain the highest scores in both scales (job crafting and learning agility), designing the tool which allows Human Resources (HR) professionals an efficient identification and development behaviours to get the versatile talent that companies and professionals of the future need.

Using the questionnaire that has integrated the learning agility scale and the Spanish job crafting scale. Data were collected from a sample of business professionals in Spain. Factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used, using a classificatory variable with the 126 valid responses obtained.

In an ever-changing environment, continuous employee adaptation to his/her role within a company is a critical factor for its survival. However, there is a paucity of large-scale empirical research on which behaviours employees have to develop to increase their adaptative skills. Drawing on the outcome of extant literature, the authors identify learning agility as the construct that firms have to encourage in their employees to impact job crafting. The contribution of the paper is twofold: (1) the authors empirically explored the association and the effects of learning agility and its factor on the development of job crafting. Results demonstrated the association between the two constructs; further, higher scores in both learning agility and job crafting predict increased employability, and higher scores in job crafting are associated with higher scores in change agility; (2) this study provides a multidimensional instrument that provides HR departments with the key behaviours to recruit in order to develop talent to prepare employees to face future challenges, ensuring the right performance and sustainable impact in the environment.

A limitation of this study is that it is done exclusively within Spanish companies, even though from different industries and with different characteristics. Therefore, future research is necessary and should be conducted in other countries in similar industries to explore the empirical findings from this study in additional contexts.

This research has found a tool that might allow HR departments to measure what level of job crafting and learning agility their employees have and to identify what key behaviours they need to focus on in the recruitment or in their internal strategic HR action plan to overcome any future challenges in their organization.

In a scenario where artificial intelligence is modifying the professional landscape, generating uncertainty about which skills are best to develop, the results are a guide for enterprises as to where to focus plans for learning and training, as well as for business schools regarding the content provided in training programs.

The authors advance the literature by providing a theoretical base for understanding the relationship between job crafting and learning agility. This article offers some practical managerial recommendations that help the human resources department focus on behaviours that allow talent to be identified and recruited to ensure an effective organization.

This study aims to focus on assessing the influence of human resource development (HRD) interventions and learning agility (LA) on organizational innovation (OI).

Based on the social exchange theory, the theoretical research model was developed in this study. This study used cross-sectional data to test the research hypotheses. In addition, partial least square structured equation modelling was used to analyse 413 sample responses from Indian managerial professionals.

The findings suggest that HRD interventions and LA have an effect on OI. Additionally, age as a control factor also influences OI.

The study’s findings show that an organization must use HRD interventions effectively to improve innovation. Additionally, learning agile employees also helps in bringing innovation to an organization.

This study is one of its kind in exploring LA for OI by using the existing LA scale. Further, this study is a significant contribution to the existing literature by using HRD interventions, LA and OI in an extensive research model.

Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has emerged as a key component at national and international policy-making agendas. The purpose of this paper is to examine and validate the antecedents of WEE for urban working women.

This study used a descriptive and exploratory research design. A total of 286 responses from women working in the formal sector of Delhi-NCR were collected through self-administered questionnaires on a five-point Likert scale using non-probability quota sampling technique. The sample was controlled for the employment sector, that is, healthcare, education and information technology. Exploratory factor analysis has been performed in the first step to test the data’s dimensionality with the goal of producing a set of items that reflect the meaning of the relative construct. Thereafter, confirmatory factor analysis has been used for data analysis.

Digital banking usage (DBU) has been identified as the most significant contributor to WEE.

Besides digital banking, government support has also emerged as a key indicator of WEE, necessitating a government policy review to improve WEE. Research findings indicate that, if WEE initiatives are to reach their full potential, they must individually address the extracted factors. This study offers a new framework for understanding and enhancing WEE for urban working women in India.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to use factor analysis to explore the multi-dimensionality of WEE using the novel dimensions of DBU, women’s agency and government support, in addition to the established variables of financial literacy, social norms and workplace human resource policies.

Fashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige fashion brands from the purview of emerging markets. This study deciphers three components of masstige fashion brand promise through the lens of hedonic identity, uniqueness and expected social gains for the affluent middle-class consumers. The model is complemented by the impact of environmental and society’s well-being.

Empirical evidence was obtained through an online survey in India. Total of 222 complete responses were used to test hypotheses by fitting a model with the partial least squares algorithm.

Fashion brand love is triggered by consumers’ hedonic identity and expected social gains. Brand hate is fuelled by environmental and societal well-being concerns, expected social gains and uniqueness. Theoretical contribution is threefold: First, the relevance of social and environmental consequences reflecting consumers’ accepted responsibility for their masstige consumption is introduced. Second, the study deciphers the emotions related to masstige brand love and brand hate for emerging market’s affluent middle-class. Third, empirical results contribute to the ongoing discussion on whether brand hate and love are two distinct concepts or collapse to be two extremes of one and the same continuum.

Middle-class consumers in India are strict in their avoidance and rejection of the lower classes’ preferred fashion brands. Targeting must consider the social classes hierarchy. Marketing-mix design, particularly prices and distribution networks, need to enable a distinction between the social classes.

Masstige fashion brand love and hate turn out to be two distinct constructs that co-exist rather than being two extremes of one and the same dimension.

Indian middle-class consumers satisfy their need of environmental and social caretaking by avoidance and brand hate but continue to choose masstige brands to demonstrate social status and are not modernizing their traditional accumulative materialism.

The purpose of this paper is to study the experiences of middle-class working mothers from the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) sector in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences of work from home are studied in the backdrop of the ideal worker model at work and the adult worker model at home. Further, the study aims to identify the need for sustainable, inclusive practices for working mothers in Indian organizations to break the male breadwinner model in middle-class households.

A qualitative approach to collect data from 39 middle-class mothers working in MNCs in four metro cities in India. The semi-structured, in-depth interviews focused on their experiences of motherhood, care and work before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic made it evident that the ideal worker model in organizations and the adult worker model at home were illusions for working mothers. The results indicate a continued obligation of the “ideal worker culture” at organizations, even during the health crisis. It made the working mothers realize that they were chasing both the (ideal worker and adult worker) norms but could never achieve them. Subsequently, the male breadwinner model was reinforced at home due to the matrix of motherhood, care and work during the pandemic. The study concludes by arguing the reconstruction of the ideal worker image to make workplaces more inclusive for working mothers.

The study is placed in the context of Indian middle-class motherhood during the pandemic, a demography less explored in the literature. The paper puts forth various myths constituting the gendered realities of Indian middle-class motherhood. It also discusses sustainable, inclusive workplace practices for mothers from their future workplaces' standpoint, especially in post-pandemic times.