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1 – 10 of over 39000Sara Kahrobaei and Saeed Mortazavi
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of leader–member exchange quality on creative involvement of teams in creative work through the mediating role of collective…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of leader–member exchange quality on creative involvement of teams in creative work through the mediating role of collective energy comprising of affect, cognitive and behavioral energies.
Methodology/approach
In total, a sample of 298 participants in 71 teams working for manufacturing companies producing different auto parts in the eastern part of Iran was examined. A conceptual model was developed, and the hypotheses were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Finally, the direct and indirect effects of variables were acquired by a path analysis technique.
Findings
The results revealed that, in teams, leader-members exchange indirectly impacts involvement in creative work via affective, cognitive and behavioral energies. Furthermore, affective energy play the most mediating role and behavioral energy my negatively affect involvement in creative work.
Originality/value
First, this paper makes a significant contribution to the literature of energy through considering a more panoramic view of it at work. This is the first study in which collective energy functions as a mediating factor in teams. Second, it helps to broaden the scope of research on the relationship between leaders and individuals through multi-level analysis.
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Patrícia Lopes Costa, Ana Margarida Passos and Arnold B. Bakker
– The purpose of this paper is to test whether work engagement can be predicted by two core dimensions, energy and involvement, both at the individual and team levels.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test whether work engagement can be predicted by two core dimensions, energy and involvement, both at the individual and team levels.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the circumplex model of affective well-being (Russell, 1980), the authors propose the work engagement grid and collect data on individual and team work engagement (TWE) from two different samples (n=1,192 individuals).
Findings
Results show a significant positive relationship between the individual engagement grid and individual work engagement. However, only the energy dimension significantly predicted TWE. The authors also provide evidences for the relationship between the engagement grid and related variables (e.g. adaptive performance, team cohesion, satisfaction), and show that the combination of energy and involvement present smaller correlations with those variables than the complete engagement scales.
Research limitations/implications
Data were collected from simulation samples, therefore generalization of the findings must be done with caution. The findings allow for developing a brief measure of work engagement, particularly useful for longitudinal or diary study designs.
Practical implications
When teams are the work unit, the displays of energetic behaviors ought to be fostered in order to boost collective engagement.
Originality/value
The authors add to the existing literature on work engagement, concluding that individual and team-level work engagement have structural differences between them, with the collective construct being dependent on external manifestations of energy, and that individual work engagement needs a cognitive component of absorption in order to foster performance.
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Jane McKenzie and Sharon Varney
This paper aims to consider middle managers’ influence on organizational learning by exploring how they cope with demands and tensions in their role and whether their practice…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider middle managers’ influence on organizational learning by exploring how they cope with demands and tensions in their role and whether their practice affects available team energy.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 43 managers from three large organizations involved in major change assessed their group’s energy using a tested and validated instrument, the OEQ12©. This generated six distinct categories of team energy, from highly productive to corrosive. Thirty-four of these managers, spread across the six categories, completed a Twenty Statements Test and a follow-up interview to explore their cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to coping with resource constraints and tensions in their role.
Findings
The research provides preliminary insights into what distinguishes a middle manager persona co-ordinating teams with highly productive energy from those managing groups with less available energy to engage with knowledge and learning. It considers why these distinctions may affect collective sensitivities in the organizational learning process.
Research limitations/implications
Informants were not equally distributed across the six team energy categories; therefore, some middle manager personas are more indicative than others.
Practical implications
This research suggests areas where middle manager development could potentially improve organizational learning.
Originality/value
This study offers early empirical evidence that middle managers’ orientation to their role is entangled with the process of energizing their teams in organizational learning during change.
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Ruoyu Jin, Tong Yang, Poorang Piroozfar, Byung-Gyoo Kang, Dariusz Wanatowski, Craig Matthew Hancock and Llewellyn Tang
The purpose of this paper is to present a pedagogical practice in the project-based assessment of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) students’ interdisciplinary…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a pedagogical practice in the project-based assessment of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) students’ interdisciplinary building design work adopting BIM. This pedagogical practice emphasizes the impacts of BIM, as the digital collaboration platform, on the cross-disciplinary teamwork design through information sharing. This study also focuses on collecting students’ perceptions of building information modeling (BIM) effects in integrated project design. Challenges in BIM adoption from AEC students’ perspective were identified and discussed, and could spark further research needs.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a thorough review of previous pedagogical practices of applying BIM in multiple AEC disciplines, this study adopted a case study of the Solar Decathlon (SD) residential building design as the group project for AEC students to deliver the design work and construction planning. In total 13 different teams within the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, each group consisting of final year undergraduate students with backgrounds in architecture, civil engineering, and architectural environmental engineering, worked to deliver the detailed design of the solar-powered residential house meeting pre-specified project objectives in terms of architectural esthetics, structural integrity, energy efficiency, prefabrication construction techniques and other issues such as budget and scheduling. Each team presented the cross-disciplinary design plan with cost estimate and construction scheduling together within group reports. This pedagogical study collected students’ reflective thinking on how BIM affected their design work, and compared their feedback on BIM to that from AEC industry professionals in previous studies.
Findings
The case study of the SD building project showed the capacity of BIM in enabling interdisciplinary collaboration through information exchange and in enhancing communication across different AEC fields. More sustainable design options were considered in the early architectural design stages through the cross-disciplinary cooperation between architecture and building services engineering. BIM motivated AEC student teams to have a more comprehensive design and construction plan by considering multiple criteria including energy efficiency, budget, and construction activities. Students’ reflections indicated both positive effects of BIM (e.g. facilitating information sharing) as well as challenges for further BIM implementation, for example, such as some architecture students’ resistance to BIM, and the lack of existing family types in the BIM library, etc.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations of the current BIM pedagogy were identified through the student group work. For example, students revealed the problem of interoperability between BIM (i.e. Autodesk Revit) and building energy simulation tools. To further integrate the university education and AEC industry practice, future BIM pedagogical work could recruit professionals and project stakeholders in the adopted case studies, for the purpose of providing professional advice on improving the constructability of the BIM-based design from student work.
Practical implications
To further integrate the university education and AEC industry practice, future BIM pedagogical work could recruit professionals and project stakeholders in the adopted case study, for the purpose of providing professional advice in improving the constructability of the BIM-based design from student work.
Originality/value
This work provides insights into the information technology applied in the AEC interdisciplinary pedagogy. Students gained the experience of a project-based collaboration and were equipped with BIM capabilities for future employment within the AEC job market. The integrated design approach was embedded throughout the team project process. Overall, this BIM pedagogical practice emphasized the link between academic activities and real-world industrial practice. The pedagogical experience gained in this BIM course could be expanded to future BIM education and research in other themes such as interoperability of building information exchange among different digital tools.
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Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to reveal how chief executive officer (CEO) transformational leadership affects business model innovation (BMI) by exploring the serial mediating role of top management team (TMT) collective energy and behavioral integration and the moderating role of TMT-CEO value congruence.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample of 520 TMT members from 127 enterprises in North China was collected through a two-wave questionnaire survey. Hierarchical regression and bootstrapping were used to test the hypothetical relationships proposed in this study.
Findings
The results indicate that TMT collective energy and behavioral integration play a serial mediation role between CEO transformational leadership and BMI. TMT-CEO value congruence positively moderates the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and TMT collective energy as well as the serial mediation effect.
Practical implications
The results suggest that CEOs can stimulate TMT collective energy by demonstrating transformational leadership behaviors, thereby promoting TMT behavioral integration and ultimately achieving BMI. In addition, to enhance the effectiveness of CEO transformational leadership, enterprises should take measures to ensure that TMT members hold values that are consistent with those of CEOs.
Originality/value
Based on social cognitive theory, the mediating mechanism and boundary conditions of CEO transformational leadership that affect BMI are revealed by this study, thus opening the “black box” of the relationship between the two. It also supplements research on the role of TMT among the antecedents of BMI.
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Carrie Dossick, Laura Osburn and Gina Neff
Through the study of visualizations, virtual worlds and information exchange, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the complex connections between technology and the work of…
Abstract
Purpose
Through the study of visualizations, virtual worlds and information exchange, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the complex connections between technology and the work of design and construction. The authors apply the sociotechnical view of technology and the ramifications this view has on successful use of technology in design and construction.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a discussion paper reviewing over a decade of research that connects three streams of research on architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) teams as these teams grappled with adapting work practices to new technologies and the opportunities these technologies promised.
Findings
From studies of design and construction practices with building information modeling and energy modeling, the authors show that given the constructed nature of models and the loose coupling of project teams, these team organizational practices need to mirror the modeling requirements. Second, looking at distributed teams, whose interaction is mediated by technology, the authors argue that virtual world visualizations enhance discovery, while distributed AEC teams also need more traditional forms of 2D abstraction, sketching and gestures to support integrated design dialogue. Finally, in information exchange research, the authors found that models and data have their own logic and structure and, as such, require creativity and ingenuity to exchange data across systems. Taken together, these streams of research suggest that process innovation is brought about by people developing new practices.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors argue that technology alone does not change practice. People who modify practices with and through technology create process innovation.
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G. Schiuma, S. Mason and M. Kennerley
The energy of employees is recognised as an important factor in their performance and in maximising their overall contribution to the organisation. Organisational energy is…
Abstract
Purpose
The energy of employees is recognised as an important factor in their performance and in maximising their overall contribution to the organisation. Organisational energy is dynamic in nature; it is more than just the sum of the energy of its employees. It also includes the interaction and dynamics of teams and the organisation as a whole. This paper aims to provide an investigation of the role and relevance of energy in driving business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the relevance of assessing energy within an organisation in order to drive business performance. It examines the sources and dynamics of energy, in order to provide insights into the nature of energetic organisations, and how they can leverage the concept of energy to improve business performance.
Findings
Adopting a deductive approach, on the basis of a literature review, the paper proposes an explanatory framework for understanding the relationship between energy and performance – The Energy Performance Chain.
Research limitations/implications
The paper proposes a novel framework and approach for understanding the link between energy and organisational performance that can form the basis for further empirical research.
Practical implications
The paper provides a framework for practicing managers to understand the concept of energy at work and how they can leverage organisational energy to improve their organisational performance.
Originality/value
The paper provides a novel investigation of energy as a driver or organisational performance, providing a framework and approach to leveraging energy in organisations.
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Whitney Bevan, Shu-Ling Lu and Martin Sexton
The prevailing literature argues the need for “new” skills to deliver energy-efficient buildings. The concept of new skills, however, has not been subject to empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
The prevailing literature argues the need for “new” skills to deliver energy-efficient buildings. The concept of new skills, however, has not been subject to empirical investigation. This paper aims to provide insight on the required new skills, and their development and application, for the successful delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employed a case study approach of a school retrofit building project in the early stages of the adoption of energy-efficient measures. Through the application of the socio-technical network approach (STNA) as the data collection and analysis framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and a review of relevant organisational documentation and were analysed using thematic coding.
Findings
The findings reveal key actors (i.e. the local authority, energy contractors and school end-users), their principal interests and the required communication, project management, energy management, technical and research skills during their interactions in the successful delivery of the school retrofit building project. The results further reinforce the crucial role of the local authority in driving energy performance improvement of school buildings.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates empirical evidence of the principal actors and skills required for the delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings, contributes to new theoretical insights at the identification of key micro-level development of construction skills through the project network and evidences on how the STNA can be mobilised in construction skills research.
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This paper explains the concept of cultural synergy and provides a contrast of societies that could be characterized as having high or low synergy, as well as organizational…
Abstract
This paper explains the concept of cultural synergy and provides a contrast of societies that could be characterized as having high or low synergy, as well as organizational culture that reflects high and low synergy. Within organizations, the research insights reported here center on behaviors and practices that contribute to synergy and success among teams, particularly in terms of international projects. The concluding section describes people who are truly “professionals” in their attitude toward their career and work, and how they can mutually benefit from the practice of synergy. Real European leaders actively create a better future through synergistic efforts with fellow professionals. The knowledge work culture favors cooperation, alliances, and partnership, not excessive individualist actions and competition. This trend is evident, as well as necessary, in corporations and industries, in government and academic institutions, in non‐profit agencies and unions, in trade and professional associations of all types. In an information or knowledge society, collaboration in sharing ideas and insights is the key to survival, problem solving, and growth. But high synergy behavior must be cultivated in personnel, so we need to use research findings, such as those outlined in this paper, to facilitate teamwork and ensure professional synergy. In addition to fostering such learning in our formal education and training systems, we also should take advantage of the increasing capabilities offered to us for both personal and electronic networking. Contemporary global leaders, then, seek to be effective bridge builders between the cultural realities or worlds of both past and future. Cultivating a synergistic mind‐set accelerates this process.
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