The role of perceived workplace development opportunities in enhancing individual employability

This paper explores the effects on workers’ employability of workplace development opportunities during employment as perceived by the workers themselves. Data was collected through a survey conducted in 2012 in Italy using a sample of 558 workers. The aim was to test the effects of participation in training courses, workplace learning opportunities and career development support on career development in 2013. Results show that the main predictors of subjective career success are related to the career development support provided by supervisors, including mentoring and career counselling, and workplace learning opportunities provided through processes of job enrichment, job enlargement and job rotation. By contrast, participation in training courses does not bring any significant effects. The study also reveals that employees’ opportunities for increasing their employability in the workplace depend on a number of personal and occupational characteristics. The study reaches the conclusion that firms can play a significant role in enhancing the career success of an individual and that employability can been encouraged by a mix of on‐the‐job workplace development opportunities.     

Employment Policies in the Service Sector: Training in Retail Distribution

This article presents in summary the results of the recent study by the Distributive Trades EDCs Part-Time Employment Group, which focussed attention on the training practices and career opportunities for this major and increasing component of the labour force of retail firms. There is no great certainty or unanimity about the training needs of retail staff, and differences in skill requirements are evident across the various retail trades and diverse organisational structures. Retailing is a dynamic and rapidly changing industry arid employers are not unaware of the training needs associated with labour intense operations yet the training implications of the industry's considerable dependence on part-time workers do not appear to be fully appreciated. In discussing the Report's findings in the context of the ongoing training debate in Britain, it is argued that the corporate strategies of retailers must comprehend the centrality of the training function, if effective use is to be made of all their employees.     

A Cultural Perspective of Relationship Orientation: Using Organisational Culture to Support a Supply Relationship Orientation

Relationship marketing theory maintains that firms can engage in a multitude of relationships oriented towards key stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. This study explores one type of relationship orientation from the viewpoint of the relationships firms have with their suppliers, referred to as a Supply Relationship Orientation (SRO). We take an organisational culture perspective positing that an SRO is manifested through the basic assumptions, values, artifacts and behaviours of the organisation and introduce a measurement tool for SRO. Based on a study of buyers' perceptions of their firms' relationship orientation towards suppliers, the results indicate that an organisational culture perspective of relationship orientation appears valid and enhances previous studies of relationship orientation by providing support for being culturally embedded     

Market-Based Organisational Learning - Theoretical Reflections and Conceptual Insights

As an area of academic inquiry, organisational learning has matured to such an extent that it can now be described as an institutionalisation of a body of knowledge. Nonetheless, underlying the apparent maturity of this literature lies the proliferation of disciplines that claim aspects of this theoretical territory, each with their own ontological premises and schools of thought resulting in frequently conflicting theories which often reflect a diverse pattern of phenomenological domains, interpretative issues, methodological predilections and conflicting operationalisations. The marketing literature is characteristic in detecting elements in cognate disciplines and introducing them within the guise of mainstream marketing thought. Consequently, it was a matter of time before marketing academicians became interested in exploiting seams of organisational learning research that are relevant to areas of marketing. Consequently, a recent announcement by the Marketing Science Institute finds that market-based organisational learning is now a 'second tier' research priority for 2002-2004, reflecting its developing attraction in organisational, conceptual, theoretical and empirical respects. In this paper, an attempt will be made to address the following: to delineate the organisational learning concept by reviewing multi-disciplinary contributions; to evaluate the intellectual roots to market-based organisational learning by considering its theoretical heritage; to propose a model of the theoretical properties of market-based organisational learning; to consider the extent to which market-based organisational theory satisfies criteria for theory construction in marketing and organisation science; to identify critical gaps in our knowledge of market-based organisational learning; and, to indicate the contextual issues surrounding the development of market-based organisational learning programs in firms.     

Supervisors' overtime hours,abusive supervision and leader–member exchange: How supervisors' long work hours harm their relationships with subordinates

The current research examines the consequences of supervisors' overtime hours on subordinates. Drawing upon the stressor-emotion model of counterproductive behaviors, we argue that supervisors' overtime hours positively relate to abusive supervision behaviors through negative emotions, which in turn undermine leader–member exchange relationships. We further posit that this process is exacerbated among subordinates with a strong relational self-concept. Multisource multilevel data collected from an organizational sample of 181 employees and longitudinal data from 416 employees from multiple organizations support our predictions. This research indicates that the consequences of working overtime extend beyond supervisors, as subordinates may be negatively affected when their supervisors work long hours. We discuss implications for both theory and practice.     

Ethical Organisational Culture as a Context for Managers’ Personal Work Goals

The aims of this study were to investigate what kinds of personal work goals managers have and whether ethical organisational culture is related to these goals. The sample consisted of 811 Finnish managers from different organisations, in middle and upper management levels, aged 25–68 years. Eight work-related goal content categories were found based on the managers self-reported goals: (1) organisational goals (35.4 %), (2) competence goals (26.1 %), (3) well-being goals (12.1 %), (4) career-ending goals (7.3 %), (5) progression goals (6.8 %), (6) prestige/influence goals (4.2 %), (7) job change goals (4.2 %) and (8) employment contract goals (3.9 %). Ethical organisational culture operated as a context for personal goal setting: Those managers who evaluated their organisational culture as more ethical were more likely to report organisational goals (e.g. goals toward the success or performance of the organisation). However, if managers gave lower ratings regarding ethical culture, then they named job change and career-ending goals in more cases. Therefore, investing into ethical virtues of the organisational culture can promote managers’ personal work goals, which also benefit the organisation.     

Unfolding executive coaches' identity work through the social constructivist lens: Coach–coachee–organisation

This study responds to a recent call on coaches' professional identity work through a socially contextualised lens. Coaches, as the freelancer, encounter complex working relationships with clients due to multiple contracting entities; yet coaches' identity work has been neglected in the extant training and development courses. A total of 36 semi-structured interviews with coaches and relational others (e.g., coachees and organisational stakeholders) were conducted to understand how coaches develop professional identity as part of their career development in responding to interactions with relational others. The research findings identify that learning facilitator is the core identity of coaches regardless of varied stages of the coaching process. Three layers of sub-identity are distinguished for them to handle a multi-level working relationship with clients. Coaches often ‘travel’ in-and-out between layers of these sub-identities to incorporate micro-personal career interests, meso coaching dyadic working relationships and the macro-level organisational scope into their identity development and negotiation. Accordingly, coaches' learning agility is required to remain identity flexibility for coping with varied coaching scenarios. This study outlines a conceptual framework which illustrates coaches' identity work as a conscious cognitive learning process embedded social and psychological exchanges. This framework offers coaching professional development courses a groundwork to facilitate coaches' identity development.     

Internationalization of Organizational Behavior:

The global structure of today's business environment mandates that business students acquire an awareness of cultural issues that have an impact on the social and business components of organizational life. Emphasizing the need to develop cross-cultural competence, an integrated communication framework is presented as a model for restructuring collegiate organizational behavior to facilitate experiential learning. Consistent with Brislin's (1989) training model, revision of course content can be structured to provide students with opportunities to internalize a set of skills that may facilitate cognition, affect, and behavior to enhance multi-cultural interactions.     

Knowledge is not Enough: Organisational Attention and Replication Strategies

The replication strategy – sometimes called the ‘McDonald's strategy’ – requires efficient transfer of massive amounts of knowledge to be successful. While it is generally agreed that knowledge is a crucial organisational resource, less is understood about how an organisation may use its knowledge for strategic success. We propose a model that uses ‘organisational attention’ as an explanatory factor of knowledge transfer and exploitation in chain-store organisations implementing a replication strategy. The proposed model examines the influence of organisational attention on exploiting knowledge as a strategic resource; and specifically on three indications of the success of the replication strategy, namely accuracy, uniformity, and distinctiveness. These three variables help us understand the nature of templates and the processes involved in transferring the explicit and tacit knowledge contained therein. Based on the model we then develop several research propositions, and conclude with some thoughts on implications and limitations of this work.     

The missing link? Understanding the relationship between individual and organisational learning

This article recognises that individual learning plays a key role in organisational learning. It identifies that there has been little empirical research to date exploring the interaction between individual and organisational learning. New research is presented from a company engaged in organisational learning, by a case study investigation utilising qualitative and quantitative research methods. The article explores key issues in training and development related to the interaction of individual and organisational learning, and concludes that individual learning is related to organisational learning through a range of factors including positive learning climate, active informal learning by individuals, and effective communication of skills and knowledge.     

British Business History: A Review of the Periodical Literature for 1998

Japanese economic success has been built upon the establishment and development of key manufacturing sectors, and the perspectives of business history can especially reveal that complex interaction of companies, markets, business networks, and state which has over time created a globally competitive industrial system. Long-term economic growth was capped in the 1950s and 1960s by growth rates that were unprecedented in their scale and duration. Similarly, the process of industrial transformation accelerated in the years between 1918 and 1950, important developments finally coalescing during the post-war period into the so-termed ‘Japanese industrial system’. Debates over the timing of economic development in Japan are intertwined with debates on the contribution of a pre-industrial national culture to business success. The historical record suggests that the acquisition of organisational capabilities within Japanese manufacturers has been shaped by the timing of the country's industrialisation and by its consequent development needs. The nature of Japanese management and Japan's industrial system, although influenced by cultural attributes, was shaped by organisational and economic objectives attuned to the circumstances of the country's industrialisation, and competitive advantage followed from the unavoidably nationally specific process by which potential was ultimately matched by capability.     

Corporate response to an ethical incident: the case of an energy company in New Zealand

The ethical behaviour and social responsibility of private companies, and in particular large corporations, is an important area of enquiry in contemporary social, economic and political thinking. In the past, a company's behaviour would be considered responsible as long as it stayed within the law of the society in which it operated or existed. Although this may be necessary, it is no longer sufficient. In this paper, we examine an energy company's response to an ethical incident in New Zealand which prompted different responses across the country about the role of business in society. Thus, we argue that when a corporation is accused of unethical behaviour, executives of the company are usually compelled to offer responses to defend their actions and corporate image. Further, we use communicative response model, social issue life cycle theory, and organisational learning, to analyse the incident and how the company responded. Using social issues life cycle theory and organisational learning theory, we demonstrate that sustained pressure can potentially trigger a change of strategy that may serve to improve the ethical posture of a corporation and thereby improve the corporate image long term. We conclude that, although corporations may understand the significance of social issues to the performance and success of their business, this same understanding does not always translate into meaningful social action.     

Machines augmenting entrepreneurs: Opportunities (and threats) at the Nexus of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to machines that are trained to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, interpret external data, learn from that external data, and use that learning to flexibly adapt to tasks to achieve specific outcomes. This paper briefly explains AI and looks into the future to highlight some of AI's broader and longer-term societal implications. We propose that AI can be combined with entrepreneurship to represent a super tool. Scholars can research the nexus of AI and entrepreneurship to explore the possibilities of this potential AI-entrepreneurship super tool and hopefully direct its use to productive processes and outcomes. We focus on specific entrepreneurship topics that benefit from AI's augmentation potential and acknowledge implications for entrepreneurship's dark side. We hope this paper stimulates future research at the AI-entrepreneurship nexus.Executive summaryArtificial intelligence (AI) refers to machines that are trained to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, interpret external data, learn from that external data, and use that learning to flexibly adapt to tasks to achieve specific outcomes. Machine learning is the most common form of AI and largely relies on supervised learning—when the machine (i.e., AI) is trained with labels applied by humans. Deep learning and adversarial learning involve training on unlabeled data, or when the machine (via its algorithms) clusters data to reveal underlying patterns.AI is simply a tool. Entrepreneurship is also simply a tool. How they are combined and used will determine their impact on humanity. While researchers have independently developed a greater understanding of entrepreneurship and AI, these two streams of research have primarily run in parallel. To indicate the scope of current and future AI, we provide examples of AI (at different levels of development) for four sectors—customer service, financial, healthcare, and tertiary education. Indeed, experts from industry research and consulting firms suggest many AI-related business opportunities for entrepreneurs to pursue.Further, we elaborate on several of these opportunities, including opportunities to (1) capitalize on the “feeling economy,” (2) redistribute occupational skills in the economy, (3) develop and use new governance mechanisms, (4) keep humans in the loop (i.e., humans as part of the decision making process), (5) expand the role of humans in developing AI systems, and (6) expand the purposes of AI as a tool. After discussing the range of business opportunities that experts suggest will prevail in the economy with AI, we discuss how entrepreneurs can use AI as a tool to help them increase their chances of entrepreneurial success. We focus on four up-and-coming areas for entrepreneurship research: a more interaction-based perspective of (potential) entrepreneurial opportunities, a more activities-based micro-foundation approach to entrepreneurial action, a more cognitively hot perspective of entrepreneurial decision making and action, and a more compassionate and prosocial role of entrepreneurial action. As we discuss each topic, we also suggest opportunities to design an AI system (i.e., entrepreneurs as potential AI designers) to help entrepreneurs (i.e., entrepreneurs as AI users).AI is an exciting development in the technology world. How it transforms markets and societies depends in large part on entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can use AI to augment their decisions and actions in pursuing potential opportunities for productive gains. Thus, we discuss entrepreneurs' most critical tasks in developing and managing AI and explore some of the dark-side aspects of AI. Scholars also have a role to play in how entrepreneurs use AI, but this role requires the hard work of theory building, theory elaboration, theory testing, and empirical theorizing. We offer some AI topics that we hope future entrepreneurship research will explore. We hope this paper encourages scholars to consider research at the nexus of AI and entrepreneurship.     

The influence of the training environment on trainee motivation and perceived training quality

To examine the relationships between the training environment and employee responses to training provided by their organisations, 105 managers employed by different 12 Australian organisations completed measures of the personal aspects of organisational commitment, job involvement, self esteem, and personal control, as well as of the organisational aspects of social support from work, social support outside work, training incentives, training resources, and training needs. The trainees also indicated how motivated they were for the training, and how they judged the quality of the training provided by their organisations—the two outcomes of the study. Eight of the 10 relationships between the organisational aspects and outcomes were significant, but only three of the eight relationships between the personal aspects and outcomes. It is argued that the results suggest that it is how organisations go about managing training, especially how many resources they provide, what training incentives they make available, and how much the training is needed that counts, rather than the personal attributes of the trainees.     

Barriers to implementing e‐learning: a Kuwaiti case study

The paper reports on a research project that encompasses two key objectives: (1) finding out about the barriers affecting or preventing e‐learning from being adopted by companies as an integral part of their workforce's training and learning processes and (2) establishing a comparison between the barriers and the e‐learning implementation models found in Kuwait and in the practice of Western companies. The practices from Western countries are used as a benchmark for the Kuwaiti experience. The collection of the primary data was carried out through the use of semi‐structured questionnaires with human resources managers as well as IT managers in charge of the e‐learning of 11 of the largest companies in Kuwait. The research results show that the key implementation barriers in Kuwait are (1) lack of management support; (2) language barriers; (3) IT problems; and (4) workload and lack of time. From these, two are common to Western countries (technology and time). The remaining two (management support and language barriers) are specific to Kuwait. Regarding the comparison between the two implementation models, the key finding was that the usual e‐learning development cycle (plan–design–integrate–improve) was not followed in Kuwait. The planning, designing and improving stages were largely ignored, with the emphasis resting almost completely on integrating the e‐learning tools and processes in the rest of the organization. This finding was found to be in line with barrier number one – lack of management support. The key lesson learned from this research is that the problem of e‐learning implementation in Kuwait is not so much one of knowing what the barriers are but one of knowing what the appropriate management processes should be for companies to achieve business success. The paper also provides recommendations for an e‐learning development plan to fit the current business environment in Kuwait.     

Organisational change and the management of training in Australian enterprises

This article presents the findings from a study of the impact of the introduction of new management practices on the organisation of training in Australian enterprises. The study investigated the impact of five common new management practices: teamworking, total quality management, lean production, business process re‐engineering and the learning organisation, as well as a number of other organisational factors. The incidences of these practices were modelled against eight measures of the organisation of training in enterprises. The results confirm that organisational change, as represented by the five new management practices, has had a significant impact on the organisation of training. However, the most significant impact on the way training is organised appears to be on the extent to which training and human resource policy are integrated with business strategy.     

Internal labour markets as a strategic tool: A comparative study of UK and Chinese hotels

This paper reports how internal labour markets (ILMs), operated by a multinational hotel chain in the UK and China, impact on a range of organisational outcomes. The study examines the effects of three main dimensions of ILMs: job security, training, and opportunities for advancement on the key organisational outcomes of job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and intention to leave, together with employee attitudes to work environment, co-workers, supervisor, service to guests, leadership, communication, and organisational goal achievement. The paper concludes that the operation of an ILM, underpinned by effective human resource management policies and actions, is associated with high levels of work commitment and job satisfaction together with reduced intention to leave. However, the importance of individual ILM variables differs between hotels in the UK and China.     

Project management practices: Then and now

This article uses the results of a survey of 56 American construction project managers to identify some risks and improvement opportunities pertaining to the practice of effective project management. In the process, the most and least important project management variables are identified and ranked. Next, the extent of knowledge, extent of use, and extent of relevance to project success are examined for project managers with and without international project management experience. Results of these analyses suggest improvement opportunity for business and higher learning in terms of training and educating future project managers. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that both higher learning and business must approach the art and practice of project management from a global open system perspective. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What makes a good citizen in service settings?

As service firms face intense pressure to improve service quality, contact employees have been asked to do more with less. It is important that managers understand the concept of organisational citizenship behaviours and attempt to motivate employees to exhibit such behaviours. This study developed and tested a model of how employees' perception of organisational support affects affective commitment (AC), which contributes to their citizenship behaviours in service settings. Questionnaire data from matched pairs of 318 contact employees and their supervisors demonstrated that both perceived organisational support (POS) and AC play strong, central roles in determining contact employees' exhibition of citizenship behaviours. In addition, AC was found to be an effective mediator linking contact employees' perception of organisational support to their citizenship behaviours.     

Parent control mechanisms,knowledge attributes,knowledge acquisition and performance of IJVs in Taiwan service industries

The study explores parent companies' use of control mechanisms in their international joint venture (IJV), IJV knowledge acquisition and IJVs' performance. Traditionally, control mechanisms are criticized for potentially limiting autonomous learning. However, we propose that knowledge-oriented control mechanisms used by the parent company on its subsidiaries could facilitate knowledge acquisition and learning. This study takes samples from 104 Sino-foreign joint ventures in service industries in Taiwan. The results of the study indicate that in IJV, parent companies require a ‘personnel training’ control mechanism as a guide for gaining codified knowledge from foreign partners. MNCs should apply ‘culture’ and ‘performance’ control mechanisms to gain non-codified knowledge. In turn, the tacit knowledge of IJV results in a better economic, competency-based performance, while explicit knowledge more significantly influences the synthetic performance.