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The purpose of this study is to understand how a salesperson’s preset goals, customer satisfaction levels and past performance affect the extent of goal achievement, as well as how job-specific attitudes and emotions affect the relationship between preset goals and goal achievement.

This study uses a modeling framework with both main, moderating and mediating effects, using transaction data and survey results from a telecommunications firm.

The results indicate that preset goals and customer satisfaction, interestingly, have an inverted-U relationships with goal achievement. Further, attitudes and emotions regarding workplace conduciveness and workplace ethics and diversity, reduce the effect preset goals have on goal achievement. However, attitudes and emotions regarding workplace philosophy strengthens the effect preset goals have on goal achievement, whereas with disagreement, this relationship diminishes.

Two of the primary limitations of this study are: one, because of the cross-sectional nature of the study, there is limited opportunity to control for unobserved heterogeneity; and two, performance goal achievement, though is important for the firm, is one of many potential goals that affect a salesperson. For example, customer satisfaction goals or a one-time special event goals could play a role. Therefore, only using performance goal achievement could be a limitation of this study.

This study contributes to academic literature in three ways. First, it demonstrates the diminishing effect of customer satisfaction on goal achievement. Second, it identifies an inverse U-shaped relationship between preset goals and goal achievement. Finally, it examines how attitudes and emotions regarding workplace culture (conduciveness, ethics and diversity and philosophy) affect the relationship between preset goals and goal achievement.

Organizational success in a dynamic environment demands leadership and agility. The extant literature on employee agility needs more empirical evidence and appropriate theoretical explanations. This study aims to contribute to the literature by bringing empirical evidence to understand the intervening mechanisms through which empowering leadership influences employee agility and to suggest alternate theoretical explanations.

The mediating role of knowledge-sharing behavior and psychological safety is examined using quantitative data from a sample of 924 employees working in India's information technology industry.

Findings reveal that empowering leadership contributes to psychological safety at the workplace, promoting employees' knowledge-sharing behavior and leading to employee agility. The findings are globally relevant and theoretically consistent.

The phenomenon is explained in two ways. Firstly, by combining the structural empowerment and motivation perspectives, and secondly, by combining the conservation of resources and social exchange perspectives.

The findings imply that psychological safety and knowledge-sharing behavior can be used as leading indicators to prepare the organization for success in a dynamic and volatile environment.

This study is one of the earliest attempts to explain the mediating mechanism between empowering leadership and employee agility using serial multiple mediations. Further, this study combines different theoretical perspectives to present the findings more logically.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether person-related bullying, work-related bullying, and physically intimidating bullying predict three forms of job strain: physical exhaustion, work-related depression, and interpersonal counterproductive work behaviour (CWB-P).

The study surveyed a wide cross-section of employees across a number of private sector organisations in a small developing country in the Caribbean region.

The prevalence rate of workplace bullying in the current Caribbean sample was 54 per cent. The regression results revealed that person-related bullying and work-related were positively related to work-related depression, whereas physically intimidating bullying and work-related bullying were positively related to CWB-P. None of the three forms of bullying predicted physical exhaustion. When the overall workplace bullying composite was used, all three job strains were significantly predicted.

The study utilised a cross-sectional self-report survey research design which does not permit causal inferences to be made. Common method variance is a possible limitation due to the use of self-report measure but this was ruled out by a Harman’s single factor test. Longitudinal research using a mixture of subjective and objective measures is needed to further investigate these relationships reported here.

First, social and interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence training and development opportunities should be provided to both managers and employees as a means of developing individuals who are socially aware, interpersonally competent, and emotionally intelligent in their interactions with each other at work. Second, a zero-tolerance approach should be communicated throughout the organisation evidenced by clear and explicit organisational policies against these acts. Third, it would be of good practical value to establish health and safety committees to identify, assess and tackle various psychosocial and other hazards at work (e.g. workplace bullying).

The study utilised a three-dimensional model of bullying at work (as well as a composite form of bullying) for predicting three forms of job strains among employees in various Caribbean workplaces.

Female entrepreneurship is a growing segment in the context of developing countries and has the potential to become a driving force for economic development. However, research suggests that females are less inclined toward entrepreneurship when compared to their male counterparts. This fact is related to a complex mix of causes such as the belief that entrepreneurship is a male domain, certain conditions within the economic and social environment and a general lack of confidence with regards to succeeding in such activities. Barriers to female entrepreneurship are prevalent in the patriarchal Arab world. The purpose of this paper is to measure the perceptions of female Jordanian business students with regards to the socio-cultural barriers to entrepreneurship. It also looks at the conduciveness of the education they are receiving in terms of new venture creation.

A sample of 254 female business students from two universities in Jordan was asked to evaluate various factors within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including the business education they are currently receiving. A factor analysis has been performed to show which relevant elements may prevent young women from engaging with entrepreneurial activities. A comparison of perceptions about the educational system has also been presented to understand how a supportive educational environment may affect the previous analysis.

The results indicated that a strong supportive education system to some extent may reduce the perception of potential barriers for entrepreneurship but the overall impact can be limited. Conversely, an educational system lacking a supportive environment and concrete initiatives can deeply affect and worsen the fears of engaging in entrepreneurship amongst female students.

The role of women in the Arab world is quite marked and the reluctance of women to take a more decisive engagement in entrepreneurship may be reinforced by conservative, societal traditions. A supportive education system has the potential to act as a catalyst to encourage active female participation in the entrepreneurial domain, thus helping to spur economic development in the region.

The purpose of this paper is to review and analyse current research in the field of women leadership. It deals with fundamental changes observed in the past 20 years and tries to establish any common traits and tendencies. The question of whether changing leadership styles, emotional intelligence and different organisational requirements have favoured the emergence of women leaders is addressed. Attention is then switched to France to determine whether this country is in line with the general trends or not.

Current research in the field is reviewed and it is demonstrated that, with the advent of globalisation and changing leadership styles, there are some encouraging signs for the female graduates of the 21st century's international business schools, although progress is painstakingly slow. Concerning women leaders in France, 12 in‐depth, semi‐directive interviews were performed with women occupying leadership positions in medium‐sized to large companies. A cluster and content analysis is applied and conclusions drawn.

Leadership styles have changed dramatically over the past 20 years. We can say that there is a male and female leadership style. Emotional intelligence has facilitated the emergence of women leaders as have changing societal factors. The situation in France has changed drastically since the milestone date of 1968. Although there are certain aspects which are peculiar to French culture, no evidence was found to suggest that France is in any way a “cultural exception”. On the contrary, patterns observed in French companies were very much in line with the findings in the review section.

The sample of 12 women interviewees was obviously a little limited and a more extensive survey might be conducted in the near future. There was however a large degree of convergence in the responses. The two parts of the article demonstrate that the situation for women is definitely improving even if progress is slow and painstaking. The research should be extended to a more pan‐European study as a follow‐up.

In view of the employment crisis predicted in 2040, more efforts will have to be made to integrate women into the workplace especially at top management level in business and engineering; emphasis should be placed on effective team management and better management training for women in general. Networking and child care facilities will have to be improved in order to keep women leaders in the system and thus avoid the “gender drain”.

The paper illustrates how a country born in the spirit of social justice has managed, although belatedly, to come to terms with changing gender roles and to provide the necessary infrastructures for women to attain higher levels of career advancement. In the latter case they have certainly progressed quicker than their European counterparts.

As posited by the ecological model of health, improvements in the nutrition and physical activity environments of worksites may facilitate healthier dietary intakes and physical activity patterns of employees. This cross-sectional study describes current policies and practices targeting these environments in five large Texas-based hospitals employing approximately 40,000 adults. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The environmental assessment tool survey, an observation tool, was used to assess these policies and practices in August and September 2012.

Results demonstrated major policy and practice deficiencies, including a lack of policies supporting on and offsite employee physical fitness, no healthy catering or healthy meeting policies, minimal subsidizing of healthy food and beverage options, few health-promoting vending services, and no performance objectives related to worksite health improvement. Hospitals having an active employee wellness staff consistently performed better on implementation of policies and practices supporting healthy eating and physical activity.

This study supports practice recommendations including engaging executive leadership to prioritize worksite wellness and using policies to create an infrastructure that promotes healthy eating and encourages physical activity among employees.

This study is the first to compare and contrast the nutrition and the physical activity environments of large hospitals, allowing for the identification of common environmental barriers and supports across multiple hospital and foodservice systems.

This study was conducted as a result of the declining numbers of Diploma in Accountancy (DIA) students obtaining a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 2.75 and above in the Sarawak Campus of UiTM. The reason why CGPA 2.75 was identified as the cut‐off point was because this is the minimum entry requirement for students to enter the degree program in Accountancy. A questionnaire survey was carried out at UiTM Sarawak Campus with the hope of finding the root cause(s) of this problem by focusing on DIA students who were in their final semesters. A total of 65 questionnaires were distributed to selected respondents in Parts 6, 7 and 8 of the DIA program. In addition to that, these students were observed without much interference to their ordinary situation, so that a more reliable outcome could be obtained. From the survey, the researchers found that the factors that caused the decline in the numbers of students achieving a CGPA of 2.75 and above can be categorized into avoidable and unavoidable. The avoidable factors include students’ attitude, study skills and peer influence. These factors are considered avoidable because they are within the students’ control. Final exam paper difficulty is an unavoidable factor, because it is not under the students’ control. The findings show that the university, lecturers and students all have significant roles to play in helping these students obtain a CGPA of 2.75 and above. They should complement one another so that their joint effort can be optimized. Based on the above findings, the researchers conclude that the university, lecturers and students should work together to produce better results not only in terms of the CGPA outcomes but also to improve the students’ attitude.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms can enhance feedback systems by studying the effects of offering junior auditors an opportunity to provide upward feedback and acknowledging their voice has been heard and will be considered for evaluation purposes.

This study uses a 2 × 1 + 1 (voice confirmation × opportunity + no opportunity) between-subjects experimental design that manipulated upward feedback opportunity (i.e., opportunity or no opportunity) and voice confirmation for those that do receive upward feedback opportunity (i.e., receive indication upward feedback was heard and will be considered or receive no indication upward feedback was heard). Within the no upward feedback opportunity condition participants did not have a chance to receive voice confirmation.

Through analysis of 117 upper-division undergraduate accounting students, the authors find the receipt of upward feedback opportunity and voice confirmation positively influence justice perceptions. Furthermore, the authors find interactional justice is positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), negatively associated with counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) and mediates the association between upward feedback voice confirmation and both OCB and CWB through indirect-only mediation. The authors also find distributive justice facilitates competitive and indirect-only mediation between upward feedback opportunity and OCB and CWB.

This is the first study to examine the influence of giving staff auditors the opportunity to provide upward feedback and informing upward feedback providers (e.g., staff) their voice has been heard and will be considered for evaluation purposes.

Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.