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In a earlier debate, it was suggested that for many reasons, the decision by a retailer to source low‐cost clothing offshore from low‐wage suppliers may be ill‐advised. We were able to show that using lower priced textiles and apparel manufactured by foreign sources could be sub‐optimal operations strategy. In numerous cases, those relying upon this form of procurement failed to consider all the relevant information. Despite the obvious attraction of low cost, there were serious trade‐offs and disadvantages. We classified the latter as the hidden costs of importing (for example, delays, use of airfreight, administrative and quality costs, etc.) and the inflexibility costs. When properly attributed and quantified, these disadvantages often outweighed the benefits of low cost foreign supply. It was at this point that we proposed the need for an objective, axiomatic framework (widely accepted across the textile industry) to demonstrate the full implications of domestic versus offshore purchasing – a total acquisition cost model. Here, we expand this thinking, and begin to explore how such a model can be developed using the data obtained from a sample of international textile and clothing retailers and their suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to use a linked employer-employee data set, the National Employment Survey, to examine the determinants of organisational change and employee resistance to change and, specifically, to examine the influence of employee inflexibility on the implementation of firm-level policies aimed at increasing competitiveness and workforce flexibility. A key finding arising from the research is that while workforce resistance to job-related change often forces firms to seek alternative means of achieving labour flexibility, there appears little that firms can do to prevent such resistance occurring. The presence of HRM staff, consultation procedures, wage bargaining mechanisms, bullying and equality polices, etc. were found to have little impact on the incidence of workforce resistance to changes in job conditions.

The objectives of this paper are twofold: first, the authors model the determinants of a measure of workforce resistance to job-related change and, second, the authors assess the impact of workforce resistance on the probability that firms will implement various wider forms of organisational change using linked employer-employee data.

Workforce resistance to proposed changes in job conditions was found to be lower in organisations employing higher shares of educated workers and also in smaller firms. HRM and employee relations measures were found to have little impact on worker resistance to changing employment conditions, while trade union density was important only with respect to alterations to core terms and conditions. Resistance was found to be important for wider organisational change.

From a policy perspective, the key finding arising from the research is that while workforce resistance to job-related change often forces firms to seek alternative means of achieving flexibility, there appears little that firms can do to prevent such resistance occurring or mediating its impacts. The presence of HRM staff, consultation procedures, wage bargaining mechanisms, bullying and equality polices, etc. were found to have little impact on the incidence of workforce resistance to changes in job conditions.

The results support the hypothesis that the increased use of peripheral workers observed in many aspect of the economy is due, at least in part, to inflexibility among existing workers to take on additional roles and responsibilities.

The paper utilises a linked employee-employer data set in a novel way to investigate within firm relationships and tests a number of hypotheses using advanced econometric techniques.

Past research on transformational leadership in organizations has neglected the organizational context in which such leadership is embedded, and the significance of the disposition of followers. The purpose of the present study was to enrich and refine transformational leadership theory by linking it to organizational context and the self-esteem of followers. It was expected that organizational characteristics and subordinatesʼ self-esteem could moderate the effects of transformational leadership behavior on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. Results revealed that only organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE) significantly moderated the impact of transformational leadership behavior on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Within-and-between-analysis procedures (WABA) were used to determine the appropriate level of data analysis. Research finding suggests that managers should provide individualized performance feedback for high OBSE subordinates and spend more time coaching those subordinates with low OBSE on a one-to-one basis.

The purpose of this paper is to study the factors influencing the resistance of the employees of Tehran University libraries to technological changes. Through achieving this aim, it attempts to provide a suitable understanding of these factors for the managers so that they would be able to reduce the resistance to change among the employees of university libraries.

This study is a descriptive survey in its data collection method. Based on the review of the literature, a questionnaire on resistance to technological changes was devised (Cronbach’s α coefficient being 93 percent). The questionnaire was distributed among 128 of the employees in the technology section of Tehran University libraries, and the achieved data were analyzed using an SPSS and PLS.

The findings achieved through a confirmatory factor analysis showed 11 elements of ambiguity, threat of the current situation, habit, lack of interest, the need for relearning, unsuitable understanding, inefficient rewarding system, emotional reactions, lack of interest understanding, inflexibility of the beliefs and feeling of being a veteran in the organization, which influence the resistance of the employees of the university libraries, among them the inefficient rewarding system ranks first and the unsuitable understanding ranks last.

In this research, an attempt is made to identify the resistance to technological changes shown by the employees of Tehran University libraries, which can be a guide for library managers to improve the changing process in their libraries. Influencing factors of resistance to change which had been identified by other research works were examined here regarding the circumstances of Tehran University Libraries.

As long as the society continues to emphasise a woman’s basic role as that of mothering, working women will face role struggles. As married working women, many women entrepreneurs have to assume multiple roles in the family in addition to their careers. They must bear major responsibility for household chores and childcare. These responsibilities give rise to work‐family conflict, which becomes an obstacle in managing their business. This research studied the work‐family conflict among married Singapore women entrepreneurs. The work‐family conflict was divided into three parts: job‐spouse conflict, job‐parent conflict and job‐homemaker conflict. The data for this study came from 102 married Singapore women entrepreneurs who responded to a self‐administered questionnaire. From the discussion of the findings, several implications arose. There is a need for greater spouse support, flexible work schedule, and full‐day school in order to alleviate work‐family conflict. Maintenance of good marital relations are important in reducing spouse conflict and increasing well being in women entrepreneurs.

Internationally, and more specifically in South Africa, education is regarded as a guiding force to achieve a more humane and inclusive society by ensuring that human rights and social justice principles are embedded and implemented in all educational practices. Inclusive education policies encourage a growth mindset in asserting the belief that all children can learn. However, the implementation of a successful inclusive education system continues to be a challenge. Through an autoethnography, I have identified three main concerns that I believe contests the conceptualisation, philosophical framework and practice of inclusive education. These include understanding inclusion, a fixed mindset and curriculum inflexibility, i.e. stuck in a fixed mindset. I also make some suggestions on how to address these concerns.

The purpose of this review paper was identifying barriers to the use of telemedicine systems in primary health-care individual level among professionals.

This study used Scopus and PubMed databases for scientific records identification. A systematic review of the literature structured by PRISMA guidelines was conducted on 37 included papers published between 2009 and 2019. A qualitative approach was used to synthesize insights into using telemedicine by primary care professionals.

Three barriers were identified and classified: system quality, data quality and service quality barriers. System complexity in terms of usability, system unreliability, security and privacy concerns, lack of integration and inflexibility of systems-in-use are related to system quality. Data quality barriers are data inaccuracy, data timeliness issues, data conciseness concerns and lack of data uniqueness. Finally, service reliability concerns, lack of technical support and lack of user training have been categorized as service quality barriers.

This review identified and mapped emerging themes of barriers to the use of telemedicine systems. This paper also through a new conceptualization of telemedicine use from perspectives of the primary care professionals contributes to informatics literature and system usage practices.

The purpose of this paper is to present the existing forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector and to focus on co‐operatives, the dominant form of collective action in the agrifood sector of the North Aegean region.

The analysis is based on six contextual and behavioural conditions under which collective action may emerge.

This paper shows that very successful co‐operatives, according to the six contextual and behavioural conditions, co‐exist with unsuccessful ones, which are characterised by inflexibilities and inability to respond to a constantly changing market. Moreover, the legal status of some co‐operatives (obligatory co‐operatives) is of great interest.

This paper attempts to categorise existing forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector. Moreover, it gives information about the co‐operatives of the North Aegean region, based on three research programmes that were conducted in the region.

This paper reports on an empirical study to construct an objective and quantifiable method to assess the cost of sourcing from low wage, foreign suppliers. The work details development of a Total Acquisition Cost Model (TACM) that can be used to quantify the supply system costs associated with such sourcing strategies. In so doing, we explore the sourcing policies of a number of European and North American retailers operating in consumer goods sectors. A detailed case study demonstrates the potential inflexibility cost of offshore as opposed to onshore procurement. The research reveals how an understanding of these various metrics can be used to customize an operations strategy; reflecting the contingencies of the particular trading environment