The literature highlights two main approaches to designing an effective complaint management system: the mechanistic and the organic. The mechanistic approach emphasizes the establishment of guidelines for the correct processing, attention and resolution of complaints received. In contrast, the organic approach relies on creating a supportive internal environment for correct customer attention, made possible through training and empowering employees responsible for complaint management and by promoting extra-role behaviour among them. The present research aims to study the antecedents of adopting these two approaches. From a strategic perspective, we analyse the influence of organizational culture variables (the extent to which the firm is customer and innovation oriented) and the nature of the objectives pursued by complaint handling (defensive vs. improvement objectives). The proposed model is tested on a sample of 140 manufacturing firms. Findings indicate these antecedents shape the complaint management system in a diverse and significant manner.

This study examines whether a responsible downsizing strategy and employee-oriented leadership are complementary in strengthening firm performance after downsizing. This study investigated 154 firms that have used an organizational downsizing strategy with surveys and follow-up focus groups. Results of both the empirical evidence and qualitative data demonstrates that for firms adopting an employee-oriented leadership style, the level of responsible downsizing strategy is high and firm performance is significantly increased. Specifically, the results of the focus groups indicate that a responsible downsizing strategy deepens the loyalty and faith of employees to their employer. These theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

The power of stories to persuade in infl uencing the process of change is the focus of this article. Attention is given to the importance of stories in making sense of past experience, of unifying groups, and in presenting options for future engagement and action. Unlike the narrative concern with sequencing, coherence and the need for a beginning, middle and end, it is argued that stories are often partial and ongoing, occur at multiple levels compete, complement and redefine positions. The plurality and political nature of stories are illustrated in an analysis of data drawn from a longitudinal study of six health care sites in remote and rural Scotland. The study concludes by arguing that stories are a powerful political vehicle in influencing sense-making and a critical component in maintaining choice and defl ecting the imposition of a single simple solution (hegemonic influence) over various interpretations of what are complex context-based issues.

The case method of teaching and learning is prominent in management education. We know little about the processes involved in writing and learning through cases. One element that may help the beginning of a theoretical understanding of these processes comes from an experiment with students entering organisations and writing cases for use with other management students. Students not only gain more knowledge related to management and organisations than in using prepared cases, but they also gain substantial additional process skills that are far more generalisable and to do with life-long learning – than those developed using traditional case learning.

Employer perspectives on work–life balance are under-developed and under-represented within the context of public debate on work and family. The current state of policy debate on work and family is grounded in the value of ‘choice’ and implicitly suggests that expanding the range of programs available will inevitably deliver a superior program for employees and employers. While diversity in program design is obviously an important priority for both parties, the current debate has not substantially increased knowledge or awareness of how best to assess program ‘fit’ nor evaluate program effectiveness for either party. This paper presents the experience of two organisations which have implemented successful work-life programs by focusing exclusively on workplace and workforce need, rather than policy rhetoric. Comparing the experience of these two organisations demonstrates that the needs of employers may be better served by a shift in the policy debate toward program ‘appropriateness’ and improved program evaluation techniques, and away from ‘choice’. Government rhetoric on ‘choice’ may actually serve to confuse rather than assist employers in the formation of an integrated and effective organisational wide work and family policy and program.

This paper examines the learning process within collaborations from a political perspective and explores the implications of power for the process of learning. The central argument is that the processes of collaboration and collaborative learning are inherently influenced by dynamics of power that occur at the organisational, collaboration and collaboration-environment levels. These power dynamics develop as a consequence of the interactions among collaborating organisations and their power bases. The paper presents a theoretical basis for considering the nature and impact of power dynamics at the various levels on the collaborative learning process and outcomes and sets forth some propositions that provide an agenda for future research.

In recent years the Business Council of Australia (BCA) has drawn attention to the importance of the availability of a well-trained supply of employees for the Australian workplace. Specifically the BCA highlighted the benefits of a quality education imparting skills in the areas of collaboration, teamwork and leadership all of which greatly assist the effective practice of creativity, innovation and strategy. This paper makes a useful contribution to teaching practice in several ways. The paper links comments from the BCA to a significant and ongoing debate in the strategy literature on the best approaches to teaching the practice of strategy. The paper then demonstrates, with case studies from the RMIT University MBA and the Central Queensland University MBA programs, different approaches to how this can be done. This is followed by a critical discussion of the literature and case studies. Suggestions are made for future research and teaching practice.

The purpose of this paper is to build on personal engagement and role theory to develop a conceptual definition of engagement to different organizational roles (job, organization, supervisor, and coworkers) and create and validate the Role-Based Engagement Scale (RBES). Data were collected from four samples (n = 1,302) of employees, including three from multiple organizations and one from an aircraft manufacturer. Results across three studies consistently support the four dimension structure of the RBES, its internal consistency, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity based on a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The RBES is a psychometrically sound instrument that measures engagement to job, organization, supervisor, and coworkers. This instrument will provide more targeted information for human resource management (HRM) professionals tasked with developing training methods and processes to improve low-scoring dimensions of engagement, optimizing HRM interventions.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relative contributions of the CEO and other (non-CEO) top management team members to firm performance. Using data from ExecuComp, we analyze 2,687 CEOs and 11,501 other top management team (TMT) members, by industry, during the period 2004–2017 using variance decomposition methods. We find that other TMT member effects are important but are smaller than CEO effects. We also find that the effect of new TMT members appointed by the CEO on firm performance is larger than the effect of continuing TMT members and that this differential effect on performance increases with CEO tenure.

This study examines how maximum emotional intelligence (EI) members can contribute to the emergence of team-level organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). Based on integrating a strategic core role and multilevel theory, we developed and tested a model in which the maximum EI score in teams results in intrateam trust and consequently impacts team OCB and examined whether the indirect effect of maximum EI on team OCB through intrateam trust would be moderated by EI diversity and trust divergence in teams. The results from 129 project teams showed that the relationship of maximum EI with team OCB is mediated by intrateam trust and this relationship is stronger for lower levels of EI diversity and trust divergence than for higher levels of diversity and divergence. The findings advance our understanding of the role of EI in team settings. Our research has important implications for organizations attempting to develop the applied value of EI.

Local isomorphism constitutes the regulatory, cognitive and normative profile of a host country. The regulatory institutional setting reflects the rules and legislation governing collective bargaining agreements, trade unions, local content laws and employment relationships. The cultural or cognitive dimension supports the widely held cultural and social knowledge and the normative profile acknowledges the influences of social groups and organizations on acceptable normative behaviour. Earlier literature lends support to the importance of institutional profile and its influence on the design and implementation of multinational enterprises’ human resource management policies and practices. This paper seeks to advance the concept of local isomorphism and highlight the implications of local isomorphism for future research on the transfer of multinational enterprises’ human resource management practices across and between subsidiaries.

Arguing that it would serve scholars and practitioners better to view impression management (IM) from a coworker's perspective than from that of an actor's outcomes, this study demonstrates that IM by a coworker triggers a self-serving attributional process. The authors reason that denial of another's relative advantage leads the observing coworker to attribute this behavior to the actor's incompetence, consequently leading to counterproductive behavior toward them in efforts to reduce their own relative disadvantage. Data were collected at T1 and T2 from 142 service sector employees. Our results were consistent with our hypotheses. However, the moderated-mediation models for conditional effects of hostile attributional style were not supported. This study offers an integrated view of previously isolated domains of IM and attribution, suggesting future literature considers a similar perspective for more meaningful investigations.

Globally, organizations have little insight into mechanisms that enable them to leverage their resources and capabilities successfully. In that endeavor, this study demonstrates that organizations can achieve competitive advantages through resource transformation and capability reinforcement. Using a conceptual framework grounded in the resource-based view and the dynamic capabilities theory in combination with Miles and Snow typology, we show how different types of organizations can succeed in the currently evolving competitive landscape by developing mechanisms that match the strategic performance measures of the organizations, such as return on assets or Tobin's Q. Notably, analyzing data obtained from 114 firms with seemingly unrelated regression, the findings reveal central roles of alternating mechanisms that drive differential organizational performance and enable the organizations to successfully deploy resources and capabilities.

Most international students entering RMIT's MBA program have relatively limited work experience and lack self-presentation skills. Some shortcomings in self-confidence in a western culture, job-seeking skills, networking experience and personal presentation skills are also evident. In these qualities the international students are notably different from the older Australian part-time students with whom they study. This visible diversity provided the catalyst for developing several “internationalising components” to better meet the needs of international students to enable international students to present themselves as informed, capable, culturally aware and desirable graduates. This paper describes how program changes were made with the objectives of building team interaction and problem solving skills, as well as cross-cultural awareness, building self-awareness of “me as a manager in the global marketplace” and exploring cultural diversity in business practices. In addition, the “competencies” stream was modified, with emphasis being placed on students' ability to assess the appropriateness and cultural fit of western models and theories in their own countries.

Adoption of management innovations like the balanced scorecard is generally a complex process. Many subdecisions are involved and customization is often required before firms can enjoy the benefits of these innovations. Consequently, firms tend to experiment before finally implementing such complex innovations. We develop a framework differentiating between antecedents of experimentation with and actual implementation of the balanced scorecard, a distinction that has largely been neglected in the literature. Focusing on a small set of firms that experimented with the balanced scorecard, we provide initial empirical evidence. The results support the framework showing that top management involvement, innovation-contingent departments and organizational-context factors play a significant positive role in the experimentation stage, while interdepartmental communication and formalization are important variables with positive and negative influences in the implementation stage. We discuss the findings and their managerial implications.

Over the last twenty years management courses offered in Australia have undergone considerable change. Most notable is the number of different programmes available and the varied content of these. However, in an environment which is changing rapidly, management education and its provision are under continuous review. Data gathered recently to examine the perceptions of academics in relation to management education, has drawn attention to an issue that warrants consideration. Should management academics be agents of change or should they simply make changes in response to new demands? The answer to this question has significant implications for the future development of management education. This paper seeks to examine the role that the management academic has in a situation of continuous change.

This article presents a conceptual framework that participants in cooperative ventures may use to protect core competencies and proprietary information, while allowing the cooperative venture to benefit from these. While strategic alliances, in various forms, are becoming more common (Beamish and Delios, 1997), a potentially issue that often remains unresolved is how to protect your core competencies, while still cooperating openly with your partner, particularly when advanced technology is involved. It can be difficult for partners in an alliance to cooperate and openly share strategic know-how. Cooperation and openness are necessary, however, if a joint venture is to succeed. Since the success of any strategic alliance is based on cooperation, trust and an open sharing of competencies, potentially sensitive knowledge might be exposed through the joint venture. This is why many executives regard strategic alliances with reservation (Lorenz, 1992). They resist giving away core strategic competencies that might be misused in other contexts.

Re-visiting the ideas of some key educational thinkers and critical management theorists, this paper re-affirms the need for a critical pedagogy of organizational power and politics to foster deeper levels of reflection and ethical attitudes among undergraduate management students. While prescriptive pedagogical approaches can impart knowledge that may be useful to future managers, they often encourage a shallow and instrumental view of power in which profits are placed above ethics, and expediency above morality. As argued here, a critical pedagogy will encourage a more productive analysis of power-related phenomena in organizations, and will nurture attitudes and behaviours that can humanize management practice. The first part of the paper examines the key theoretical concepts of the proposed approach, the second discusses a set of themes emerging from a critical analysis of organizational power and politics in a management subject, and the third discusses common challenges encountered by academics committed to critical approaches.