The increasing globalisation, the multiculturality of workplaces and the current challenges for organisations generated the need for researchers to support them to manage the workforce. Although the relevance of employee voice for these themes, a lack of shared understanding about this topic results in fragmented literature across and within research fields that limits theoretical advancement and deep comprehension of the phenomenon. Our first aim is to offer a literature review of employee voice by combining systematic and bibliometric methods; the second aim is to understand voice's main issues and implications by considering different research streams. The results present an integrated framework of the leading intellectual knowledge and reveal the main research focuses on voice in domestic contexts. The discussion underlines the cultural issue and context as critical elements for future research by proposing avenues for scholars and some implications for organisations to benefit from the contributions of their members.

In recent times, an increasing number of writers have noted the important contribution that the management competency movement is making to contemporary organisations. However, there is widespread evidence to suggest that a comprehensive framework for understanding managerial competencies has not yet been established in Australia. This paper reports the results of a survey on a sample of 234 managers drawn from private and public sector organisations into the perceived importance of 99 managerial competency elements. Findings indicate a substantial number of competency elements are perceived to be generic across occupations and situations, but they also indicate in some instances differing levels of importance attached to these competencies across hierarchical levels and between sectors. Evidence of a range of significant competency groupings is presented along with a proposed framework to interpret competency elements. Additionally, this study provides assistance in developing a platform for further research into the competency field.

In this paper, we report the frequency that family business research has been published by year and by discipline in top-tier journals as listed in the Journal Quality List (JQL) (Harzing 2008) to argue that family business research has reached a tipping point threshold. We suggest that the acceptance of family business research in top-tier journals is the tipping point that will enamor the field to a wider researcher audience and thereby further contribute to paradigmatic development.

This paper uses a strategy—structure—performance-based model of marketing channel relationship structure to conduct an empirical examination of the involvement of four external stakeholder groups in manufacturing firms' product innovation. The results show that firms' stakeholder orientation (strategy), involvement of stakeholders in product innovation (structure) and quality of stakeholder relationships (performance) are intrinsically linked. Also, the way in which multiple stakeholder groups were involved in manufacturing firms' product innovation was more similar than different.

Organizations often face the challenge of institutional complexity, which involves incompatible prescriptions from multiple institutional logics. To deal with this challenge, prior researchers have proposed several strategies to tackle conflicts within and between organizations. The success of these solutions fundamentally hinges on achieving clarity. However, while clarity often brings further conflicts for both internal and external stakeholders, I argue that ambiguity logic is an alternative approach to deal with institutional complexity as it creates space for negotiations and potential solutions. As such, this paper proposes five research propositions that examine when ambiguous language and behavior can be better used to deal with institutional complexity. In general, the use of ambiguity logic is associated with power. Specifically, ambiguity logic is better applied in organizations when power is more evenly distributed among the stakeholders.

In this article we will argue that leaders facing complex challenges can learn from the arts, specifically that leaders can learn by examining how theatre directors direct creativity through creative constraints. We suggest that perceiving creativity as a boundary phenomenon is helpful for directing it. Like leaders who are caught in paradoxical situations where they have to manage production and logistics simultaneously with making space for creativity and innovation, theatre directors need to find the delicate balance between, on the one hand, renewal of perceptions, acting and interaction and on the other, getting ready for the opening night. We conclude that the art of directing creativity is linked to developing competencies of conscious presence, attention and vigilance, whereas the craft of directing creativity concerns communication, framing and choice.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study proposes two levels of resource action: shedding resources and adding resources as the main two turnaround approaches. Since firms differ in the way they manage their resources over stages of organizational development, this study further analyzes the link between the RBV and organizational life-cycle model to investigate the contingency role of life stages in the turnaround context. The study sample consists of 72 Taiwan firms had ever experienced a successful turnaround. The results indicate that cost-cutting and investment in training and R&D, which represent respectively a shedding and an adding resource action, enable firms to turn around their deteriorating performance. The results also show that R&D investment is more effective for early-stage firms, while cost-cutting is more useful to firms in the late-stage.

This paper discusses how transnational knowledge intensive firms manage complexity across multiple locations, integrating various functional specializations and catering to multifaceted customer demands. Practice theory is used to help us understand collaboration among experts across national borders. By exploring what experts do and analyzing their practices transnationally, different configurations to provide services were found. In total, six configuration types are identified: bilateral, trilateral, chain, star, network and co-location. These configurations differently relate to three interdependent axes: coordinated actions, interaction modes and spatial dimensions. The configurations expose the relevant integrative and responsive settings. The paper contributes to the international organization literature by extending, elaborating and providing examples of transnationality; and to practice theory by exposing shapes and qualitative complexity of transnational collaboration and service provision.

This study explores attitudes towards employability among a small group of individuals who were in career transition as a result of taking voluntary redundancy. Contemporary models of career suggest that much of the responsibility for career and employability has been transferred from the organisation to the individual. This study indicated that, in general, mid-career individuals were yet to recognise this transfer and to take ownership of their employability. When moving from a stable career within a paternalistic organisation to an uncertain job market they were unsure what they had to offer an employer, how to approach job search or how to market their skills and experience. The majority did make a successful career transition but more in the absence of, rather than because of, individual career management strategies.

Typically most studies of individual employees perceptions of the work place adopt multiple regression models (ordinary least squares [OLS]) which ignore inherent clustering in their data. However, such an approach does not supply unbiased and accurate answers to research questions. This study intends to simulate three data alternatives – weighted, disaggregated (individual level), and aggregated (organizational level) using the OLS and multilevel models to compare the results of different research designs. To answer the research questions, the current study investigates the impact of individual and organizational factors on job satisfaction, using a 2000 USA National Partnership for Reinventing Government survey. This study presents the methodological misuse and measurement errors of the previous research and presents guidelines for future research.

As a firm prepares for initial public offering, the Securities and Exchange Commission mandates that top managers must record risks to their firms’ survival or performance in the prospectus. More specifically we propose that external risk factors (market risks, legal risks, and government regulations risks) have a more negative effect on investor optimism and initial public offering valuation, while internal risk factors (management risks, operational risks, technical risks) have a more negative effect on post-initial public offering long-term firm survival. This study illustrates a major gap between risk factors that investors initially focus on and the true determinants of long-term success.

With women representing nearly half of the workforce in Western countries, it is likely that a woman will have a woman manager and/or employees at some point during her working life. In our research, we worked collaboratively with 13 New Zealand women to develop personal and organisational responses when hierarchical relationships between women become strained. We identified four interlinked strategies at the personal and organisational level: developing awareness of the existence and nature of the conflict, enhancing personal and relational skills such as confidence and communication, building support networks within and outside the organisation, and finding acceptance when change is needed. Taking a gendered relational perspective, we propose that responses to a strained relationship need to be considered within the broader personal, organisational, societal and temporal context within which the relationship is situated. Therefore, we propose a more holistic relational and context-focussed framework to create an environment more conducive to understanding and positive change.

The study determined whether psychological empowerment and work–life balance jointly mediate between transformational leadership and in-role performance of employees in Nigerian not-for-profit (NFP) universities using data collected through a 360-degree performance review of employees. Data were collected from the employees, their supervisors, colleagues, and customers. A sample of 360 comprising 36 faculty finance officers (the employees), 36 assistant faculty finance officers (colleagues), 36 deans of faculties (supervisors), 36 finance supervisors (supervisors), 108 undergraduate and 108 postgraduate students (customers) from Nigerian universities were surveyed using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, employees' in-role performance questionnaire, four dimensions of psychological empowerment questionnaire, and work–life balance questionnaire. The reliabilities of the questionnaires were estimated using Cronbach's α technique. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations at the preliminary level, while three separate Hierarchical Multiple Regression and 5000 re-samples BC bootstrapping method on PROCESS macro were used to test the hypotheses to determine the total, direct, and indirect effects of the study variables. The study established that psychological empowerment and work–life balance jointly and significantly mediated the high relationship between transformational leadership and the in-role performance of the faculty finance officers. The implications for researchers and organizational practitioners, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.

In two experiments, we examined the function of procedural justice in signaling individuals’ value to the group by arguing that individuals treated fairly are more likely to engage in proactive preventive behavior, a behavior that involves proactively revising or correcting the mistakes and intentional deceptions of coworkers. In addition, we extend Staw and Boettger’s (1990) work on task revision and demonstrate that procedural justice and goal setting have compensatory effects, such that procedural justice can be combined with performance goals to reap the valuable aspects of goal setting while minimizing some of the unintended side-effects. Our findings also contribute to the ongoing discussion of the mixed effects of goal setting, as well as the effects of multiple goal assignment.

Extant literature remains inconclusive with regard to optimal structural designs for sustaining effective knowledge flows, boosting innovativeness, and achieving superior performance in organizations. We contribute to the ongoing debate on formal, informal, and ambidextrous configurations in the specific context of small high-tech innovators. Adopting an inductive approach to theory building, we explore the factors that account for the variation in knowledge-focused designs across sample firms. In our study, innovative ventures rely on pure formal and informal organizational designs but also attempt to mix both, suggesting that gains from ambidexterity are not ubiquitous. Our analysis unveils that the pursuit of a given structural configuration results from a set of operating contingencies and a deliberate managerial effort to align firm idiosyncrasies with desired strategic outcomes. We advance a grounded theory of knowledge-focused organizational design in small high-tech innovators and formulate propositions that may be tested in future inquiries in the field.

The literature suggests that improving the management skills of owner-managers of SMEs contributes to their survival and growth and that there is considerable scope for further improvement in skills. However, evidence suggests that current support for management development (MD) does not meet the needs of SMEs. Nevertheless, there have been few changes on the supply side with policy makers continuously being concerned about low take-up of training. This study contributes to an understanding of how existing MD activities in SMEs can be better supported. Using Mumford's (1987) typology of MD activities to classify our interview data, findings from interviews with 25 owner-managers suggest two approaches to providing learning support: (1) incorporate structured opportunities for individual reflection and reflection within groups; and (2) address participants' concerns about training and mentoring. These findings have implications for policy makers and are timely given the current economic situation, where previous patterns of growth are being challenged and new ways of supporting MD in SMEs need to be found.

The increasing integration of digital technologies in business processes calls for a deeper understanding of their impact on business model efficiency. This study explores how digital alignment, composed by strategic decision support and operational support, affects business model efficiency, while also examining the extent to which strategic flexibility moderates this relationship. To test the proposed hypotheses, we adopt a quantitative approach on a sample of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry. In particular, a regression analysis, complemented by a necessary condition analysis, is performed. We find that digital alignment, both in terms of strategic decision support and operational support, fosters business model efficiency. Strategic flexibility strengthens the relationship between strategic decision support and business model efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to operationalise digital alignment as composed of strategic decision support and operational support. Accordingly, this study contributes to the extant literature on digital alignment and business models.