When innovation in education works: stimulating teachers' innovative work behaviour

The twenty‐first century labour market requires employees that proactively shape innovations and solve complex problems. Professionals in the education sector are expected to perform innovative behaviour that not only entails the generation, but also the realization and sustainable implementation of new ideas. In a sample of 458 employees in Dutch secondary and higher vocational education (abbreviated in Dutch to MBO and HBO, respectively), this study investigated the relation between environmental factors (namely task variety, management support and exposure to innovation) and Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB) across the different phases of the innovation process, including a sustainability phase. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that management support and exposure to innovations served as a predictor for all phases of IWB. Teachers with supportive managers and a high degree of exposure to innovations showed higher scores on innovative behaviour across all phases. Linear regressions revealed a significant relationship between task variety and IWB. In the hierarchical model, only management suport and exposure to innovations showed significant relations. Background characteristics, such as gender, age, tenure, number of working hours and type of education, for which we controlled during the analyses, played a role in how much IWB is displayed. It can be concluded that a work environment, in which employees are exposed to innovation and are supported is crucial. Additionally, in view of the role background characteristics play, it is recommended to select teachers with specific profiles for the different phases of the innovation process.     

Managing organizational culture in a Japanese organization in Hong Kong

The issue of how MNCs manage the organizational culture in their overseas subsidiaries is one of the central questions for managing overseas employees. The study explores how a Japanese MNC in Hong Kong manages its organizational culture across cultures. The results imply that a company will not be effective if it uses artifacts only, such as ceremonies to convey the desired culture to the local employees. The more important mechanism is the human resource management system which is considered as the statement of the company's values, beliefs and assumptions. Since the case company uses a dual human resource management system and a dual control practice for the Japanese and local employees, these practices send out mixed messages and signals to the local employees who cannot project the desired state culture. Furthermore, because local employees bring along with them their values derived from national culture, they tend to adhere to these values rather than those of the company.     

Management and Legal Issues Regarding Electronic Surveillance of Employees in the Workplace

Since the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, and on the Pentagon in the United States, concerns over security issues have been at an all-time high in this country. Both state and federal governments continue to discuss legislation on these issues amid much controversy. One key concern of both employers and employees is the extent that employers, espousing a “need to know” mentality, continue to expand their capability and implementation of surveillance of employees in the workplace. With the technology typically growing faster than the speed of legislation, protective or permissive, the management and legal issues involved in electronic monitoring of employee communications in the workplace, are and well should be on the agenda for discussion of every management and legal team in American business today. Companies have a legitimate right to protect their trade secrets from disclosure by disgruntled employees. Similarly, companies also have a duty to protect their good names and reputations from unauthorized employee communications with outside parties, and even other employees, that may damage them. It is also a prime duty of management to ensure, in their direction of their workforces, that the employees execute their responsibilities by working full time on their stated objectives. In this regard, any management that fails to oversee its workforce to ensure that employees are not expending valuable company time, for which they are being compensated, on personal business, including unauthorized communications, is remiss in its responsibilities to its shareholders. The company may see a reduction of the price of its shares in the marketplace if it does not protect the economic interests of its shareholders.     

Strategy in motion: Using motion pictures to illustrate strategic management concepts

A company is more likely to enjoy excellent organizational performance if its employees understand the importance of strategic management and are actively engaged in helping the company pursue its strategies. Many employees view strategy as disconnected from their jobs, however, and getting them to embrace strategy can be challenging. Using a series of vivid examples, we describe how motion pictures can bring strategic management concepts to life for employees. By making strategic management concepts more relevant and less abstract, movies can lead employees to enjoy thinking about and discussing strategy.     

The impact of Enterprise 2.0 in organizations

Many organizations have embarked on Enterprise 2.0. However, not many have successfully implemented it. Availability of inexpensive tools does not guarantee their usage by organizations and their employees. To have Enterprise 2.0 implemented widely and effectively by organizations, it is important that both managers and employees benefit from using it. It is expected that the level of congruence of management–employees perceived benefits would affect the level of adoption of Enterprise 2.0 in organizations. Testing this is the purpose of this research. Using the case study of two large global organizations, this study analyzed the use of Enterprise 2.0 by both employees and managers. The results showed that even though both employees and managers believe that Enterprise 2.0 usage does have a positive impact on communication, collaboration, community building, and employee engagement, the level of belief is different: managers’ perception of Enterprise 2.0 benefits is less than that of employees. There was a greater degree of congruence though between both the groups on the perceived benefits of Enterprise 2.0 on knowledge management and organizational outcomes. The size and the type (not-for-profit) of organization was a disadvantage in adopting such tools. The not-for-profit organization was more at loss when applying Enterprise 2.0 as its employees are less aware of the type of tools and of their benefits, and there is less managerial support.     

Individual and organizational learning from inter‐firm knowledge sharing: A framework integrating inter‐firm and intra‐firm knowledge sharing and learning

Literature has highlighted but not explored links between knowledge sharing and learning at inter‐firm and intra‐firm levels. Using the single case of an aviation refuelling company as the basis for our research methodology and collecting data through 34 semi‐structured interviews, we develop a framework that integrates knowledge sharing and learning at inter‐firm and intra‐firm levels. We show that intra‐firm knowledge sharing capabilities facilitate the diffusion of inter‐firm learning within organizations. Moreover, inter‐firm trust manifests in different forms that affect individual and organizational learning. The purpose of collaboration determines what a firm learns or discards. The findings are important for organizations facing a shortage of skills. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supporting the Career Development of Older Employees: an HRD Study in a Dutch Company

Many organisations are confronted with an ageing workforce. Older employees are often seen as less flexible and open to HRD activities than their younger colleagues, yet rapid developments taking place within society and organisations require a flexible and responsive workforce. The necessary knowledge and skills demanded here can be taught through HRD activities. In 1995 a quantitative exploratory survey into the conditions considered important for the career development or mobility of older workers was carried out within a Dutch multinational chemical company. From a training and development viewpoint, these conditions are defined as demands made on corporate HRD policy, HRD activities and employees’ willingness to learn, as well as stimulating factors that promote the career development of older workers. Results show that while the company operated an age-awareness personnel policy, this still focused on younger employees so that participants in the career development process were insufficiently stimulated in their roles and traditional formal HRD activities had little effect on older workers’ careers. This article describes the survey, highlighting its major results, and offers recommendations.     

Organizational Sensemaking of Non-ethical Consumer Behavior: Case Study of a French Mutual Insurance Company

Researchers and managers alike are becoming increasingly interested in the topic of unethical consumer behavior. Where most studies view unethical behavior as something that is identifiable per se, the authors of the present article believe that it only exists because it has been constructed by people operating within a specific context. Hence the efforts made by this paper to explore, at the level of one specific organization, how interactions between employees and consumers might lead to the construct of unethical consumers. Based on a case study of France’s AMDM—a mutual insurance company set up to serve a client base comprising motorcyclists—the paper addresses how one group of consumers ends up being categorized as unethical by revealing the existence of a sensemaking process within the target organization. This process develops in three main phases: the nurturing of a shared ethos; the protection of employees’ recognized status; and the demonization of any group of consumers threatening this status. Managers incorporating this sensemaking process can avoid or mitigate the negative effects befalling organizations when these kinds of unethical consumer behavior are constructed.     

Sustainability reporting and corporate identity: action research evidence in an Italian retailing cooperative

Cooperatives are facing the challenge to be competitive in the market, without losing their traditional values of mutuality and democracy. To do that, they need to re‐construct open and participative dialogue with their employees and members based on more democratic forms of communication and engagement. From this point of view, the measurement and communication of sustainability aspects may allow a dialogue to be mobilized with shareholders and stakeholders without losing the attention on competitive factors. Based on these premises, the article analyses the experience of a 5‐year action research project (from 2006 to mid‐2011), carried out within Unicoop Tirreno, an Italian consumers' cooperative, and aimed to implement different tools for sustainability accounting and to embrace a more open dialogue with stakeholders, in particular with employees and members. In this process of change, the tools implemented for sustainability accounting played a key role in supporting the cooperative to reinterpret its own values and in stimulating a new and participative management approach. The results indicate a virtuous circle between the management and measurement of cooperative principles and the management and measurement of sustainability issues.     

Knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates and their organizations: Research propositions for managing SIEs

Knowledge management is increasingly recognized as a key aspect of international business and management. This paper offers research avenues for investigating knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) and their employer organizations. Building on the existing literature on expatriation and knowledge transfer, it offers a series of research propositions. It illustrates the knowledge transfer process in three phases: opportunity seeking, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application. We suggest that different characteristics of SIEs and their organizations can influence the knowledge transfer process. Furthermore, we advance that SIEs may be a source of sustained competitive advantage to their companies. Several implications for future empirical research are also discussed and the paper concludes with practical implications for SIE talent management.     

Individual career initiatives and their influence upon professional expertise development throughout the career

The present study describes the relationship between three individual predictor variables and the degree of professional expertise of higher level employees in three different career stages. Professional expertise is operationalised by means of five dimensions, i.e. knowledge, meta‐cognitive knowledge, skills, social recognition and growth and flexibility. The factors in question are: the degree of participation in social networks, the degree of participation in training and development programmes and the degree of initiatives that are taken by the individual employee to further career growth. Hypotheses have been tested with original survey data from 420 higher level employees and 224 direct supervisors. The results indicate that the focus of attention is, in general, restricted to the employee’s present contribution and to the familiar job domain. Activities aimed at enlarging the outlook are virtually non‐existent. That is to say, management is preoccupied with instrumental leadership, i.e. aimed at the here‐and‐now and less future‐oriented, instead of appropriate people management.     

Knowledge,Human Resources and Social Practice: The Knowledge-Intensive Business Service Firm as a Distributed Knowledge System

The knowledge base of firms is intrinsically linked to the knowledge of their employees. This is particularly the case in knowledge-intensive business services, where the production of services is almost entirely dependent on the ability of the firm to make use of the knowledge of the employees. Applying a distributed knowledge system view of the firm helps us understand that how knowledge is created is more important than what knowledge the firm and its employees have. This article presents findings from a case study of a large Danish knowledge-intensive business service firm. It turns out that knowledge not only resides in the minds of individual employees but also that it is constructed in the social interaction between members of teams.     

Learning from evaluation by peer team: a case study of a family counselling organization

This qualitative study explores how employees learn from Team Primacy Concept‐based employee evaluation and how they use the feedback in performing their jobs. Team Primacy Concept‐based evaluation is a type of multirater evaluation. The distinctive characteristic of such evaluation is its peer feedback component during which the employee's performance is discussed by peers in a face‐to‐face team setting. The study used Kolb's experiential learning model to describe the process by which employees learn from Team Primacy Concept‐based employee evaluation and the ways in which they use the knowledge to improve their job performance. The study found eight major dimensions that highlight employee learning as a result of the employees' engagement in the process of Team Primacy Concept‐based evaluation.     

Implementing on‐the‐job training: critical success factors

Post Offices Inc. in The Netherlands has developed and implemented a new instruction model for the training of desk employees. The quality of the new instruction model was assessed by means of the evaluation model of Jacobs and Jones for on‐the‐job training. It is concluded that the implementation of the training model has not been completely successful. Critical success factors, such as the performance of the mentors as well as the quality of the self‐study material, have to be improved. Mentors are expected to serve as a behavioural model, to provide feedback, arrange an adequate environment for self‐study, motivate trainees for self‐study and evaluate trainees’ progress on a regular basis. This study shows that mentors must be fully convinced of the benefit of a new instructional model, if not, the implementation will not be successful. Besides, the study shows that the quality of the self‐study material depends very much on the similarity between the knowledge needed in work and the knowledge presented in the self‐study material.     

Information Systems Ethics: A Practitioner Survey

Fortune 500 non-management employees who work in their company's information systems department were polled via a mail survey; of 191 surveys sent (one to a company), 123 (64%) were returned. Virtually all respondents (97%) indicated that management should define ethical computer use for employees. A majority of respondents (60%) reported that the method management uses to do this should be some form of consensus building. Almost two thirds of respondents (63%) reported that the definition of ethical computer use was well known in their organization. Finally, over half of the respondents (55%) had no personal knowledge that computer abuse occurred in their organization – a surprisingly favorable finding. Of responses indicating knowledge of computer abuse, only about a quarter (26%) indicated direct evidence of the problem.     

When union strategy meets business strategy: The union voucher at Axa

In the 1980s, the French reformist union CFDT and insurance company Axa tested the union voucher. This was a novel solution for the union branch inside the company to address financial difficulties, broaden its membership base and generate new resources. The union voucher is a tool that provides unions with company funding: the company distributes vouchers to employees on an annual basis; employees then allocate the voucher (or not) to the union branch of their choice. The voucher system thus combines company financing and individual employee choice. Axa adopted the system in the early 1990s. Axa’s decision can ultimately be explained by its external growth strategy and because it needed to preserve a favourable climate during a period of intense restructuring. This article traces the history of the union voucher and assesses Axa’s experience.     

Innovation,network services and the restructuring of work organisation in customer services

The information and communication technology revolution has had important qualitative effects on the manner in which the output of new products and services is managed. This is in part associated with leveraging the knowledge of a broader group of employees. Through a case study of customer services in a major telecommunications firm, it is shown that integrating broader groups of employees into the innovation process can be vital. However a case is made that transforming work-related institutions in the firm has proved a challenging process, particularly when management are required to broaden the powers of decision making granted to employees, allowing greater discretion at the workplace and changing the manner in which work tasks are enforced.     

When Organizational Justice Matters for Affective Merger Commitment

We investigate when organizational justice matters to employees’ commitment in the postacquisition process after a company is taken over in a cross‐border acquisition. Overwhelming evidence from the literature suggests that employees who are treated fairly during acquisitions are more committed to their new firms. We extend this finding by dividing organizational justice into three subdimensions: informational justice, interpersonal justice, and procedural justice. We find evidence that procedural justice is an important antecedent of affective merger commitment at an early stage of the integration period, while informational justice becomes important at a later stage. Further analysis on heterogeneity between the target firm's employees and the bidder firm's employees reveals that, immediately after the acquisition, target firm's employees value knowing where they will be at the new firm (procedural justice), while bidder firm employees are more concerned about communication and transparency (informational justice). Our results point to the importance of organizational justice in a cross‐border merger and acquisition (M&A) setting and the need for a separate study of issues related to bidder firms and target firms. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Weizhi Group of Xian: A Chinese Virtuous Corporation

Since China opened herself up to the world in the late 70s, privately-owned companies of different trades began to emerge along side with the state-owned enterprises. Among these successful private enterprises, a few have distinguished themselves from the rest by their distinct corporate cultures. Despite an increasing number of research on private enterprises in China, little has been done to unveil the ethical aspects of their corporate cultures. This paper attempts to fill the gap. This paper focuses on one company named the Weizhi Group in Xian. The Weizhi culture is indeed the basis of a company which I refer to as "virtuous corporation". An empirical survey on the values and perceptions of the employees of Weizhi Group was conducted to probe the values and perceptions of business ethics of its employees.