Telework, human resource flexibility and firm performance

The results of a survey of 156 Spanish firms indicate that HR development practices are positively associated to the intensity of telework adoption and they moderate the relationship between telework and firm performance. The positive moderator effect of HR development practices indicates that their implementation is necessary not only to facilitate telework adoption but also to enhance the otherwise marginal contribution of telework at organisational level.     

Transformational leadership and gatekeeping leadership: The roles of norm for maintaining consensus and shared leadership in team performance

This study focuses on shared leadership in Japanese R&D teams. The effects of both transformational and gatekeeping leaderships of formal leaders on shared leadership are examined. Moreover, the effect of shared leadership on R&D team performance is examined. Hypotheses are tested with a sample of 654 researchers working in 119 R&D industrial research teams in Japan. Results show that transformational leadership has a negative effect on shared leadership through the norm for maintaining consensus such that it positively influences the norm, which in turn negatively influences shared leadership. In contrast, gatekeeping leadership has a direct as well as an indirect positive impact on shared leadership through the norm for maintaining consensus such that it negatively influences the norm, which in turn negatively influences shared leadership. In addition, this study finds that shared leadership positively influences R&D team performance. These results suggest that leadership displayed by team members and that by formal leaders significantly influences team performance. The results are discussed in the context of the unique Japanese work environment.     

The roles of service encounters, service value, and job satisfaction in achieving customer satisfaction in business relationships

Along with variables like the service process, perceived service value and customer satisfaction, job satisfaction of service employees plays a vital role in customer evaluation of service result. However, there has been little in-depth research into the nature of this relation, in particular in the context of B2B relations. In the sphere of an organization providing financial intermediation services to the banking sector and on the basis of a literature review, hypotheses are developed which establish the mediator role of service value and the moderator role of job satisfaction of service employees when delimiting customer satisfaction. Reliability and validity analysis give satisfactory results and our conclusions establish firstly that service encounter directly and significantly affects perceived service value which is the final antecedent to customer satisfaction and secondly, that the level of employment satisfaction moderates its effect on service value.     

Using influence strategies to advance supplier delivery flexibility: The moderating roles of trust and shared vision

This study explores trust and shared vision moderate the relationship between the manufacturer's influence strategies and supplier delivery flexibility. The major components of this study are based on reviews of marketing research that focus on influence strategies and literature regarding supply chain flexibility. The results show that the request strategy has a negative effect on supplier delivery flexibility. The model predicts that trust and shared vision have an asymmetrical effect across recommendations, information exchange, and promises influence strategies. When the relationship contains a highly shared vision, a manufacturer's use of the recommendation influence strongly promotes supplier delivery flexibility, whereas the use of a promise strategy depresses supplier delivery flexibility. In contrast, an information exchange strategy will have a negative effect, but the promise strategy will have a positive effect on supplier delivery flexibility when trust is high. This paper contributes to guidelines for management on how to align their suppliers for delivery flexibility to respond quickly to customer demands.     

Successful service retail channel expansions: The roles of technical and brand integration

Service retail channel (SRC) expansion is common in B2B markets, but expansions into high-tech channels involve substantial market failure risks. Successful expansions create questions about the best way to integrate new and existing channels. Should the firm use its existing brand to market the new channel, or should it develop a new brand? Should the technology for the new channel be developed in-house or outsourced? The level of integration of both marketing and technical assets determines the perceived consumer benefits and market acceptance of high-tech SRCs. Using the concepts of risk, resources, and control, this study proposes a theoretical framework, tested with data about Internet banking in the United States. The results show that integration decisions have important, counterintuitive consequences. Specifically technical integration leads to higher perceived consumer benefits and thus greater market acceptance, whereas brand integration lowers the market acceptance of a new SRC.     

The relationships among leadership,goal orientation,and service quality in high-contact service industries: An empirical study

High-contact service industries are characterized by close interaction between service employees and customers, and diverse customer needs. Such characteristics pose a great challenge to the delivery of services of superior quality. In this research we conceptually explore and empirically examine several attitudinal and motivational factors of customer-contact employees, and the management style of managers as antecedents to service quality in high-contact service sectors. Based on dyadic data collected from 230 service firms in Hong Kong, we examine the relationships among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, affective organizational commitment, learning goal orientation, performance goal orientation, and service quality. We find that learning goal orientation is more effective than performance goal orientation in fostering service quality in the high-contact service context. We also observe that transformational leadership tends to be more effective than transactional leadership in influencing employee attitude in high-contact service firms. This research pioneers theory-driven examination of service quality in high-contact service firms using data collected from service employees and shop managers for hypothesis testing.     

Project team aging and performance: The roles of project and functional managers

The authors have explored further the effect of the tenure of an R&D group (that is, the length of time in which it has existed) on its performance. Several studies have shown that groups tend to reach a peak of productivity after a few years and decline thereafter. However, it seems that not all teams so decline and the aim of the authors' study reported in this paper was to see what could be learned from those groups that continued to be successful.
They therefore studied a sample of 181 teams comprising 2000 subjects drawn from a wide variety of R&D organizations. Their objectives were first to pick out those teams that remained effective and second, to discover the secret of their success. Group performances were assessed subjectively by senior members of each organization. Group tenures were measured by calculating the average time each individual member had spent in the group. Further information was obtained from questionnaires completed by participants.
Analysis of the results led to the surprising conclusion that there was no evidence whatever for the previously reported curvilinear relationship between performance and tenure. Nevertheless, some long-tenured teams per-formed much better than others and better than newly-formed teams, for which the authors have sought an explanation.
From information deduced from the questionnaires they conclude that the crucial factor is the extent to which the functional manager (department head) as distinct from the project manager nurtures individual researchers, especially in ensuring that they keep abreast of progress in relevant areas of expertise. The role of the project manager on the other hand is to maintain connection between the team and institutional objectives.     

放宽航煤生产限制 扩大航煤资源和生产灵活性

国外航煤质量标准普遍采用英国国防部标准,也有部分国家执行《航空油料联合作业质量要求》或美国材料与试验协会(ASTM)标准,中国民用航煤使用《3号喷气燃料》标准(GB6537-2006),中国的标准比国外标准更严格。中国对于航煤生产过程中的原料、添加剂以及原油品种都有限制性规定。随着技术进步、装置发展,并与国外同行业比较,这些限制已经没有必要。在保证航煤质量高标准的前提下,为了让生产企业高效灵活地充分利用航煤资源,降低生产成本,增强市场竞争力,建议取消加氢类装置生产航煤对原料的限制,放宽对航煤添加剂的限制,取消生产航煤的原油报批制。     

A stage-dependent model of resource utilization,strategic flexibility,and implications for performance over time: Empirical evidence from a transitional environment

It has long been recognized that there is a tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. How organizations utilize resources across time and space will affect firm survival and growth. In this paper, we examine resource utilization and performance implications over time in an environment undergoing fundamental institutional transformation. Based on a large archive of Chinese government data from 1988, 1992, and 1996, the study finds that (1) the impact of resource utilization is contingent on the degree to which different resources are committed to factors of production, (2) the impact is curvilinear and only valid within an “optimal” range, and (3) the performance implications change over time. As firms enter later stages of the transitional process, efficiency becomes less important as they shift their strategic focus from exploitation to exploration, which requires more flexibility. These findings have significant bearing on the issue of upgrading technological competitiveness in China as the country becomes increasingly integrated in the global economy. Such insights may also have implications for other emerging economies in Asia.

Linking business model design and operational performance: The mediating role of supply chain integration

Despite the increasing interest in the role of business model design (BMD) in improving performance, its influence on operational performance remains unexplored, as do the underlying mechanisms of such effects. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, we propose that supply chain integration (SCI), including external integration and internal integration, mediates the relationship between BMD and operational performance. Matched survey data and objective performance data were collected from 131 Chinese manufacturing firms in three waves to test our research model. The key results are that external integration fully mediates the effect of novelty-centered BMD on operational performance, and efficiency-centered BMD directly improves operational performance. Theoretical and practical insights on how BMD and SCI can be leveraged to support operational performance are discussed.     

The performance implications of resource and pay dispersion: The case of Major League Baseball

Research summary: Building on research in strategic management that has found that high levels of pay dispersion are detrimental to firm performance; we examine the potential dependence of those findings on similar dispersion in the latent potential of those resources to contribute to performance. We find that congruence between resource value dispersion and pay dispersion is positively related to organizational performance. Additionally, we find that this congruence moderates the effects of both organizational resources and organizational pay levels on organizational performance. These findings contribute to a growing line of research that explores the implications of key human resource value and pay combinations for organizational performance. Managerial summary: While differences in income between key employees (i.e., dispersed pay) can instill feelings of inequity and be detrimental to organizational performance, such differences may also increase the odds of attracting star talent and help performance. In the context of Major League Baseball (MLB), we find that performance improves when dispersions in pay are congruent with the dispersion in the contributions that team members make to their organizations. We also find that the positive effects on performance of higher total pay and of level of organizational talent are enhanced by congruent pay and contribution dispersions. These findings suggest organizations may benefit from consistent dispersions in pay and talent and that important contributions by key organizational members need to be visible when organizations have dispersed pay structures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-managing selling teams and team performance: The complementary roles of empowerment and control

This work is the first to examine systematically the influence of empowerment and control on the degree to which selling teams engage in desired self-managing behaviors. Further, this work is the first to propose the construct of desired self-managing behaviors in a selling team context, and empirically examine its influence on selling team performance. Our investigation indicates that control of team self-management provides a complementary positive influence to that of empowerment on the degree to which selling teams exhibit desired self-managing behaviors. In addition, we find a positive relationship between the degree to which teams exhibit desired self-managing behaviors and selling team performance; moreover, this relationship explains, to a large degree, selling team performance. These findings are consistent with our thesis that control of teamwork facilitates performance on the selling team level, just as control of selling skills facilitates performance on the individual sales rep level.     

经济效益与人力资源管理的关系

经济效益的大小是评定企业管理成果的主要标准,人力资源是一切生产资源中最重要的因素。因此,企业经济效益与人力资源开发管理之间的关系,相辅相成,相得益彰。＂人＂作为一种资源,如何最大限度地发挥员工的个性特长,提高人力资源效益,从而提高企业经济效益和社会效益就显得尤为重要。     

Corporate social responsibility,firm reputation,and firm performance: The role of ethical leadership

This study investigated the antecedents and outcomes of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating effects of ethical leadership. We collected two-wave, temporally lagged data from two sources (general and vice-general managers) in 199 tourism firms (hotels and travel agencies) in southeast China. We have two major findings. First, ethical leadership moderated its own indirect effect on firm reputation via CSR. It had an indirect and positive effect on firm reputation through CSR when ethical leadership was strong but not when it was weak. Second, ethical leadership also moderated the indirect effect of CSR on firm performance via firm reputation. There was an indirect and positive effect of CSR when ethical leadership was strong but not when ethical leadership was weak. This study highlights the role of ethical leadership in linking the antecedents and outcomes of CSR, and provides support for the stakeholder theory.     

The role of personality and motivation on key account manager job performance

Key account management (KAM) has strengthened its relevance as a managerial process in business-to-business (B2B) markets. In many companies, the success of KAM initiatives often rely on individual-level achievement, that is, the performance of key account managers. Despite the relevance of research on individual-level KAM, these topics are largely neglected. This research addresses the problem by developing and testing a structural equation model of personality, motivation, and key account manager job performance. Our results show that two motivational constructs—learning orientation and performance orientation—play major roles in key account manager job performance. In addition, relationships between personality traits and motivational constructs are observed: Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability are found to have significant relationships to motivational constructs. Two of the personality traits, extraversion and conscientiousness are linked to both learning orientation and performance orientation. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of our findings and finally provide future research directions.     

Strategic positioning,human capital,and performance in service organizations: a customer interaction approach

This study employs a customer interaction approach to examine how service organizations' strategic positioning relates to their human capital, and how the interaction between strategic positioning and human capital impacts organizational performance. Results from 234 service organizations in 96 different industries indicate very strong relationships between strategic positioning choices and human capital. We also find that certain combinations of strategic positioning and human capital result in superior performance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Addressing dual embeddedness: The roles of absorptive capacity and appropriability mechanisms in subsidiary performance

This study examines how subsidiaries can manage dual embeddedness with both local partners and a multinational enterprise. Specifically, we examine the role of absorptive capacity and appropriability mechanisms on subsidiary performance. We analyse how absorptive capacity and appropriability enable subsidiaries to successfully address knowledge challenges related to internal and external networks. We conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of 165 subsidiaries. Our results suggest that absorptive capacity has a direct, positive effect on subsidiary performance, which is greater in emerging countries. The study also found an indirect effect of absorptive capacity on subsidiary performance, which is mediated through appropriability mechanisms. These findings extend the literature on international networks, dual embeddedness and absorptive capacity.     

Psychological contract breach's antecedents and outcomes in salespeople: The roles of psychological climate,job attitudes,and turnover intention

Salespeople develop expectations of their organization based on actual and perceived promises. When the organization does not fulfill these promises, psychological contract breach occurs. This study investigates the association between psychological climate aspects, psychological contract breach, job attitudes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment), and turnover intention in salespeople. Using a sample of 308 respondents, results indicate that (1) psychological climate dimensions of autonomy, involvement, performance feedback, and clarity of organizational goals affect psychological contract breach, (2) psychological contract breach mediates the impact of autonomy, involvement, performance feedback, and clarity of organizational goals on job attitudes, and (3) job attitudes mediate the impact of psychological contract breach on turnover intention. Findings support psychological contract breach as a critical framework for understanding salesperson–employer relationships.     

The impact of leadership influence tactics and employee openness toward others on innovation performance

Despite the vital importance of leadership, employees, and their social interactions in the open‐innovation process, there is scarce evidence on the influence and connectedness of different sub‐firm levels related to open innovation. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of leadership influence tactics and employee openness toward others on innovation performance at the individual and team levels. We applied a multilevel analysis on a sample of 85 employees and their 15 direct supervisors/team leaders. We find that leaders’ building open‐innovation coalitions exhibits a positive cross‐level relationship with employee openness toward others and individual‐level innovative behavior, and also moderates the link between the latter two constructs. Additionally, the leaders’ building open‐innovation coalitions variable is positively related to the team‐level scope of innovations and the team‐level innovation implementation phase.