Customer power is an ever-increasing phenomenon, particularly in relation to service failure. Service failures not only elicit strong emotional reactions from disgruntled customers, but may ultimately lead to a severing of the service provider–customer relationship. A significant but overlooked area of research relates to the behavioural processes which shape customers' perceptions of service failure and recovery. As front-line staffare frequently the customer's only contact in the service encounter, they act as the key referent point in the literature with regard to service quality, speed and convenience. However, it is asserted that as employees of the organisation, senior management also plays an important role. This conceptual paper draws from research in the field of services marketing and organisational behaviour to provide evidence which suggests that customer responses to a service crisis are likely to be affected by perceptions of senior management behaviours and character attributes as generally just. We propose a cumulative effect of these justice perceptions on customer emotions and trust. In the wake of exceptional service failure, we argue, these factors play a vital role in shaping how customers may respond to such events.

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) plays a pivotal role in organisational success. This research explored factors hypothesised to facilitate OCB within a primary school context. Two studies using questionnaire survey’s explored: (i) OCB relative to personal differences and psychological contracts; (ii) the relationship between OCB and principals’ leadership frames. Primary school teachers were recruited and responses analysed from 547 and 488 respondents, respectively. Results from both studies combined suggest that the leadership style of the principal and the employee’s expectations of their role within the school strongly influence their OCB. This study identifies factors that influence the prevalence of OCB in primary school teachers and confirms that the new theoretical framework provides a useful heuristic for managers, human resource management policy makers and academic researchers alike.

This paper examines one type of negative work behaviour, work harassment, using two theoretical frameworks: Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Similarity-Attraction (SA). SET explains work harassment as a product of poor management practices, whereas using SA theory explains it as a result of the growing normalisation of high workloads. The study undertakes latent mean and path model comparison analysis using structural equation modelling of data from 189 nurses in the UK and 401 nurses in the USA. The findings indicate a good model fit showing a significant path from Leader Member Exchange (LMX) to work harassment, wellbeing and subsequent turnover intentions, with LMX fully mediating the path from LMX to wellbeing for UK nurses, but only partially mediating the same path for nurses in the USA. The findings suggest SET provides a better explanation for work harassment for UK nurses, whereas SA theory better explains the US nurse experience.

Our paper examines whether the impact of abusive supervision on on-the-job embeddedness (JEM) is stronger than on job satisfaction (JSAT), affective organizational commitment (AOC), and turnover intentions. We also examine whether the mediation impact of on-the-JEM in the linkage between abusive supervision and turnover intentions is stronger than the mediation impacts of JSAT and AOC. Data gathered from restaurant service workers in three waves in Ghana were used to test the abovementioned linkages via structural equation modeling. The findings illustrate that all hypotheses are supported. Specifically, the influence of abusive supervision on on-the-JEM is stronger than on traditional attitudinal variables. Additional findings demonstrate that the mediation effect of on-the-JEM in the relationship between abusive supervision and proclivity to quit is stronger than the mediation effects of JSAT and AOC. Implications for theory and managers are offered in our paper.

An exploratory study of workplace experience in the public sector investigated the tension that employees face in their attempts to meet both organisational and customer expectations. This paper provides an illustration of participant experience that describes: the sense of justice that drove their actions; the innovations that resulted from attempts to fulfil the psychological contract with the customer; and the protection of what employees perceived to be their own and their workmates' deviant behaviour. The ethic that emerged locally through employee–customer interaction and which framed employee decision-making in this study resulted from the role conflict that emerged when the organisation's focus on a consistent application of the rules confronted customers' diverse and pressing need for treatment as individual human beings at the organisational boundary.

The present study investigated the role of temporal flexibility on three conceptualizations of person–environment fit and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 320 full-time employees in Canada and America. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that temporal flexibility was directly related to increased job satisfaction and indirectly related to job satisfaction through supplementary fit, demands–abilities fit, and needs–supplies fit. Moreover, supplementary fit and demands–abilities fit were influential on perceptions of needs–supplies fit, although we acknowledge that additional research is required to further explore our novel findings of the relative relationships between the three conceptualizations of person–environment fit. The present research supports the idea that giving employees greater control over their schedule increases their autonomy, thus helping to satisfy a core psychological need. Organizations that provide employees with the opportunity to choose their own schedules may be more likely to retain satisfied and committed people who believe they fit well with their employer.

This research investigates how employees' perceptions of role ambiguity might inhibit their propensity to engage in organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), with a particular focus on the potential buffering roles of two personal resources in this process: political skill and organizational identification. Survey data collected from a manufacturing organization indicate that role ambiguity diminishes OCB, but this effect is attenuated when employees are equipped with political skill and have a strong sense of belonging to their organization. The buffering role of organizational identification also is particularly strong when employees have adequate political skills, suggesting the reinforcing, buffering roles of these two personal resources. Organizations that want to foster voluntary work behaviours, even if they cannot provide clear role descriptions for their employees, should nurture adequate personal resources within their employee ranks.

Successful buyer/seller relationships have become recognised as essential for firms to remain competitive in the marketplace. Today's business climate encourages firms to not just compete on product or service attributes, but also on their ability to differentiate themselves from other firms. Supply chains provide firms this point of differentiation ensuring firms better competitive positioning as a result of being able to leverage themselves on the strengths of the supply chain, not just on the individual strengths of the firm. However, to maintain an effective role as a participant in a supply chain, firms must be able to develop and maintain cooperative relationships with other firms. In order to develop these relationships, firms need to be able to distinguish between different levels of relationship and be able to understand which relationships are worth developing further and which ones are not.

Whilst supply chain literature acknowledges firm progression from transactional to relational exchange, there is less agreement of the number of levels of both buyer/seller relationships in this theoretical continuum. This article proposes a theoretical continuum of relationship levels based on cross discipline literature and identifies objective classification criteria for relationship levels from both the buyer and the seller. Economic, behavioural and relational research is collectively used to explain the complexity of the ever evolving nature of inter-firm relationships. The article concludes by establishing a research model that proposes these levels of relationships are identifiable for both the buyer and the seller.

Mixed methods is a youthful but increasingly robust methodological movement characterised by: a growing body of trans-disciplinary literature; prominent research methodologists/authorities; the emergence of mixed method specific journals, research texts, and courses; a growth in popularity amongst research funding bodies. Mixed methods is being utilised and reported within business and management fields, despite the quantitative traditions attached to certain business and management disciplines. This paper has utilised a multistrand conversion mixed model research design to undertake a retrospective content analysis of refereed papers (n = 281) from the 21st Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) Conference 2007. The aim of the study is to provide a methodological map of the management research reported at the conference, and in particular the use, quality and acceptance level of mixed methods research within business and management fields. Implications for further research are discussed along with a call to the ‘first generation’ of business and management mixed method researchers to instigate mixed methods research training and capacity building within their respective business schools, relevant academies and associated professional forums and publications.

Existing change management models have been developed from research undertaken largely within the for-profit sector, with little reference to the unique challenges of the nonprofit sector. This article identifies a number of characteristics of change management that may be unique to the nonprofit sector. The research sought to understand change from the perspective of those within the sector who experienced it using Grounded Theory in a rich single case study as the methodology, applying an inductive reasoning approach to the development of theory. Results point to the impact of four key characteristics that require a more substantial focus in planned change models when applied to nonprofits. These include formal reflection for change agents and change recipients, development of trust, and confidence in the organisation before the actual change, focussing on the individual experience of change, and the sequencing of events from a planning perspective.

This paper explores the role played by a Human Resources (HR) department orchestrating culture change during the merger of two large State departments with dissimilar cultures. A 2-year case study determined what HR strategies were having the greatest impact on embedding new organisational values to produce a more flexible culture and how these practices could be accelerated. This paper indicates how a more strategic approach by HR departments can support and develop relational managing capability that accelerates cultures change towards a more flexible work environment.

This paper describes the context of the change process, the relevant literature, and outlines the research process. The findings from the phases of the data collection are summarised revealing the traumatic perceptions of the change process, but also the instrumental actions of some managers, working creatively with their teams to tackle new tasks and projects. The evidence suggests that these informal practices of task allocation were at the core of change agency in this case study and put the new flexible organisational values into action. The findings illustrate how the organisation moves from valuing managers for their technical competence to valuing managers for their relational competence.

The paper then discusses what strategic HR actions were accelerating this process and illuminates the critical role of building managers as change agents. The paper concludes by confirming the need for a strategic approach by HR during organisational change. Building manager capability and supporting informal change agency practices is presented as a core focus for HR during such organisational cultural change programmes.

Supplier–buyer exchange relationship and quality of that relationship (supplier satisfaction and commitment) have been examined from various angles in the extant literature. Yet, there is a paucity of research investigating the influence of supplier characteristics – especially supplier resilience – on relationship quality. Driven to fill this gap, this study aims to develop theory of the influence of perceived benefits from supplier–buyer exchange relationship and supplier resilience on relationship quality. Data drawn from 97 supplier–buyer dyads were used. Hierarchical regression analyses showed the positive influence of both perceived benefits from supplier–buyer exchange relationships and supplier resilience on relationship quality. Further empirical and theoretical implications, as well as the limitations of the study, are discussed.

The recent growth in self-employment has sparked scholarly interest in why individuals choose and remain in self-employment. Yet, relatively little is known about how self-employed workers enact their daily lives and what this means for their work–life interface. Self-employment is often presented as a means to enhance life choice and as enabling work and nonwork activities to be combined more satisfactorily. However, extant evidence on how self-employment is experienced is mixed, with some studies reporting long and irregular working hours and high levels of stress. Furthermore, the way in which self-employment is experienced may be influenced by national context – economic, institutional and cultural factors. In this paper, we develop a multi-level model which extends existing work on the Person–Environment Fit by incorporating factors relevant to self-employment. The model assists us to understand how contextual factors create both opportunities and tensions which impact the work–life interface of self-employed workers.

This paper investigates the underlying mechanism and boundary condition of the relationship between day-level supervisor developmental feedback (SDF) and day-level in-role performance (IRP) based on the framework of social exchange theory. The current study collects 290 matched surveys nested in 58 Chinese employees for five consecutive days, employing experience sampling method. Using hierarchical linear regression analysis, this paper examines the mediating role of perceived rapport with supervisors (PRS) and the moderating role of job control. Results show SDF has a positive effect on PRS and consequently enhances employee IRP. This indirect effect is moderated by employee job control. When job control is high, SDF helps supervisors develop a high-quality rapport with employees and is conducive to employees improving their IRP. However, when job control is low, the positive effect of SDF on IRP through PRS is not significant.

Using a sample of 21,628 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market during the period of 2008–2017, this study finds that the divorce–marriage ratio, the proxy for marital demography, is significantly positively associated with corporate greenwashing. This finding suggests that higher divorce–marriage ratio is associated with stronger individualistic social atmosphere, lower conformity to social norms, and more unfavorable attitude towards environmental conservation, abets firms to talk the talk rather than walk the walk, and foments corporate greenwashing. Moreover, China's Environmental Protection Law attenuates above positive relation. Lastly, our conclusions are robust to sensitivity tests using the divorce rate, alternative proxies for greenwashing, and individual-level divorce data, and further our findings are also valid after addressing the endogeneity issue.

This paper outlines a new approach to cultural awareness training, the Individual Differences Approach to Diversity Awareness (IDADA). IDADA is distinguished from other approaches in three ways: (a) it eliminates the need to characterise cultures, (b) it addresses unfair discrimination of any kind (e.g., weight, height, attractiveness), (c) it teaches employees to become aware of how their attitudes affect organisational performance, and (d) it focuses on job requirements. Initial evidence supports the validity of the model. The paper also introduces a new measure of diversity-openness called the Ideal Employee Inventory. Preliminary reliability and validity evidence for the measure is provided.

Ethical leadership has been widely identified as the key variable in enhancing team-level organizational citizenship behavior (team-level OCB) in western economic and business contexts. This is challenged by empirical evidence in China and findings of this study. Our study examined the relationship between ethical leadership, organizational ethical context (ethical culture and corporate ethical values) and team-level OCB. Team-level data has been collected from 57 functional teams in 57 firms operating in China. The findings suggest that although ethical leadership is positively associated with team-level OCB, ethical context positively moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and team-level OCB. The higher ethical context is found to be, the greater is the (positive) effects of ethical leadership on team-level OCB and the opposite holds true when ethical context is low. Key implications are discussed on the role of contextual ethics for team-level OCB, while managerial implications include how non-Chinese firms could improve team-level OCB in the Chinese business context.

This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of women small business owners’ networking behaviours and structures. The study examined whether business start-up motivations and phase of the business (prestart-up, start-up and established) influenced women’s networking behaviours and structures. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 28 women. Interview data were used to categorise participants into classic, forced, and work–family owners. Analysis of the interviews found no marked differences in networking behaviours and network structures of participants during prestart-up phase. During start-up and established phases differences began to emerge. Given that classic and forced owners had established their businesses for financial reasons, a diverse network was more relevant for them. However, work–family participants established the business for family/work balance, thus a small network of close ties was sufficient to achieve their business goals. Theoretical, practical and research implications of the findings are outlined.

This paper shares some findings from the initial, qualitative stage of a larger, national study currently being undertaken in Australia, exploring the experiences of parents who are working full-time and caring for a child with chronic illness. The findings highlight the limited support that most parents receive in their workplace, especially from employers. In-depth interviews revealed the negative and unsupportive attitude that employers had towards these parents. The provision of flexible work arrangements and leave entitlements, which were critical supports for these parents, were rarely offered by employers. Respondents reported high levels of frustration and difficulty balancing their dual roles.