The experience of tour reps in maintaining and losing control of holidaymakers

This paper focuses on accounts of the maintenance and loss of control of holidaymakers experienced by tour representatives working for a small British budget tour operator in Mallorca. It uses two major incidents of service breakdown to illustrate the problematics of sustaining control in different settings. The paper argues that tour reps working as front-line service providers experience a tension between protecting the company and giving sympathy to holidaymakers. The paper also argues that the nature of the space in which the service breakdowns occur is crucial to the maintenance of control of holidaymakers.     

Multiple common bond credit unions and the allocation of benefits

Credit unions are cooperatively owned financial institutions, where input suppliers (savers) are also the consumers of the outputs (borrowers). A key issue is the allocation of benefits between savers and borrowers. Additionally, credit unions can add unrelated groups to their membership. If the orientation of unrelated groups differs from the core group, the allocation of benefits could be altered. Empirical evidence suggests that both single and multiple bond federal credit unions are saver oriented. Single bond credit unions have a stronger saver orientation than multiple bond credit unions. The study provides mixed evidence on the existence of a clientele effect.     

The Effect of National Culture on the Adoption of Innovations

Studies on the adoption of innovations by companies generally include micro-level and meso-level variables. This study adds to the literature by investigating the role of national culture (i.e. a macro-level variable) to explain differences in adoption rates across countries. In particular, we investigate the effects of the five Hofstede culture dimensions and the culture dimensions proposed by Hall on country adoption rates. Hypothesized effects were tested using a large-scale empirical study concerning the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software by mid-size companies covering ten European countries. Results indicate that variables describing national culture have a significant influence on the country adoption rates.     

LGBTQs in the city, queering urban space

Since the 1960s, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) culture has developed in big cities and metropolises everywhere (not only in the West, but also in Asia, Latin America and indeed Africa). This essay examines how cities provide the spatial conditions necessary for the formation of such emancipatory movements based on identity politics and strategies which transcend binary gender dualism. The starting point of this investigation is my thesis that only urban life enables LGBTQ individuals to live their lives fully, realize their (sexual) identities, and furthermore organize themselves collectively, become publicly visible, and appropriate urban, societal and political spaces.     

The policy delphi method: contribution to policy and strategy within energy organisations: a 2013 Malaysian case study with global implications

The policy delphi method is a process that seeks to generate the strongest possible opposing views on the potential resolutions of a major policy issue, such as strategy and policy for infrastructure and engineering asset management within asset-intensive organisations. The objectives of the policy delphi method are to: ensure that all possible options have been tabled for consideration, estimate the impact and consequences of any particular option, and to examine and estimate the acceptability of all the individual options. The committee process is commonly used to address a wide range of issues and decisions within organisations at management and operational levels. Committees dominate governance and management within nearly all types of organisations, however, it has been argued that the committee approach no longer functions as effectively in the realm of policy formulation as it once may have due to a lack of adequate structure for discussion. Due to the disadvantages of the Committee process, this research investigated the relevance and effectiveness of the policy delphi method in 2013 within the leading Malaysian energy organisation, with the provision of this practical case study of a policy delphi to elaborate the efficacy of this method for asset intensive organisations to develop strategy and policy.     

Engaged and committed? The relationship between work engagement and commitment in professional service firms

Our study explores the relationship between employee engagement and foci-commitment of employees in professional service firms (PSFs). PSFs compete on the basis of their ability to encourage their employees to generate exceptional knowledge-based services and products, acting within and beyond the organizational boundaries. In order to achieve these outputs, the PSFs need to ensure that their professionals are engaged and committed. Drawing on 375 surveys from the employees of a global PSF, we compare two models to test the relationship between work engagement and multi-foci commitment: the organization, the client, the team and the profession. We first explore an overall positive effect of work engagement on commitment to all four foci. We then compare the overall impact to the independent effects of work engagement dimensions on four commitment foci. Our findings suggest that work engagement with three dimensions is a better-fitting model in the PSFs context.     

Anonymous and uninhibited: sexual encounters during the international sojourn

Previous research has focused on sex and romance tourism, but there has been little investigation into the relationships and sexual behaviour of international students, who constitute an important and growing segment of the international tourist population. This study used a narrative interview approach to explore international students’ sexual encounters during their sojourn. The findings show that participants made changes to their sexual behaviour and attitudes during the academic sojourn, which were understood to be temporary. Such change was encouraged by the group norms of the international friendship network and by the anonymity conferred by distance from the home culture. Of significance to participants was the challenge posed to gender roles: traditional conceptions of femininity were put aside for the duration of the year abroad.     

Who does what in enabling ambidexterity? Individual Actions and HRM practices

Abstract

In this paper, we explain how ambidexterity, the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation, is enabled at the individual level of analysis. Research on ambidexterity has been dominated by theoretical approaches focusing on the organisational level; however, we know little about how ambidexterity is enacted by employees. There is also limited work on the multilevel aspects of individual employee actions, for example, particular roles and specifically the level of seniority of the role. We address these gaps by asking: Which individual actions are undertaken by employees at particular levels of seniority in the organization to enable ambidexterity? In order to answer this question we draw on previous research to construct reliable measures of the individual actions that enable ambidexterity. The hypothesized mediation effect of these individual actions is confirmed on the basis of survey data from 212 employees from a UK-based Professional Service Firm. The findings indicate that senior employees are more likely to use ‘integration’, ‘role expansion’ and ‘tone setting’, whilst employees with specialist knowledge about their clients use ‘gap filling’ to enable ambidexterity. Finally, we draw together these findings with 35 interviews conducted to present the HRM practices which support ambidexterity.     

Greening the hospitality industry in the developing world: Analysis of the drivers and barriers

The implementation of sustainability agendas in the tourism and hospitality industry in developing countries has received little scholarly attention. Working to fill this gap, this paper provides a holistic analysis of the drivers of, and barriers to, sustainability initiatives in the Malawian hospitality industry. Drawing insights from the resource‐based view and institutional theory, it highlights that tensions between global and local norms and values are as important as tensions between internal organizational factors and the isomorphic forces within the organizational fields for implementing sustainability agendas. The paper further reveals the mediating role played by firm size and ownership. It, thus, makes a contribution to the understanding of the role of business in society by focusing on the complex dynamics associated with the adoption of sustainability agendas in an under‐researched context, and demonstrating how tensions between internal organizational factors and local societal expectations within the host countries can shape the nature and focus of the sustainability agenda itself.     

Why should I share my knowledge? A multiple foci of commitment perspective

Knowledge‐intensive firms need to leverage their individual knowledge assets via knowledge sharing to create collective knowledge resources. This process is, however, in the control of the knowledge worker. We explore this personal and emotive quality of knowledge sharing by asking: ‘How does employee commitment impact on knowledge sharing?’ We study professional service firms operating in cross‐boundary environments and examine the impact of commitment to the organisation, profession, team and client on knowledge sharing. The article contributes directly to our understanding of the interrelationship between (a) the types and foci of commitment and (b) bidirectional knowledge sharing.