Organizational Mechanisms Research Articles

CREATION OF MECHANISM FOR INTENSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES’ EFFECTIVE INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT

In the article, the components of the organizational and economic mechanism for intensification of industrial enterprises’ innovative development are suggested. The model of creation of the economic mechanism for industrial enterprises’ innovation activity (IA) is improved. It is established that the difference between the economic mechanism (EM) and the organizational mechanism (OM) lies in the fact that the former aims to achieve goals by regulation of financial, production, technological, innovation and marketing activities, management of enterprise’s development, but it does not involve planning, organization, causes, IA strategy development, ownership form determination, implementation of measures to improve enterprise’s resource availability, methods and techniques of IA decisions-making and implementation.

A Conceptual Framework of Servant Leadership, Authentic Leadership and forgiveness on Employee Affective Commitment

The purpose of this study is to present a paradigm for authentic leadership, servant leadership, forgiveness, and employee affective commitment in the construction business, specifically. The literature research demonstrated the relevance of authentic leadership, servant leadership, and forgiveness in the construction sector, as well as how these characteristics influence employee affective commitment. Following a thorough examination of the literature, a conceptual framework and three hypotheses were developed. Authentic leadership, servant leadership, and forgiveness were the independent variables, while employee affective commitment was the dependent variable. This framework is well-suited for use in the construction industry, as demonstrated in this research. A follow-up empirical investigation will be conducted to see how the proposed framework and hypotheses affect the results. This paper provides a comprehensive framework that contributes empirical evidence to academicians, serves as a platform for the construction industries, aids policymakers in developing laws, regulations, and rules to develop the entire organization's mechanism, and is beneficial to the construction industries as a guide to implementing the new leadership system.

A Neighborhood-Assisted Framework for Differential Evolution

Differential evolution (DE), as a powerful and efficient evolutionary algorithm (EA), has shown its advantages in solving the complex optimization problems. In the literature, the utilization of neighborhood information has been attracting wide attention in the DE community due to its effectiveness in enhancing the search ability of DE. However, we have observed that no general framework is presented to provide a comprehensive way of studying the neighborhood-based DE variants. Therefore, this paper suggests a three-layer mechanism neighborhood-assisted (TLNA) DE framework to facilitate the utilization of neighborhood information. In TLNA, the mechanisms of using neighborhood information are generalized into a three-layer cooperative structure, i.e., the interaction mechanism (IM) layer, the organization mechanism (OM) layer, and utilization mechanism (UM) layer. Thus, TLNA is built to provide a synergistic effect of different layers of mechanisms for systematically utilizing neighborhood information. As a general framework, TLNA can be realized with different implementations of the three-layer mechanism. Furthermore, to demonstrate the practicality of the proposed framework, a TLNA instantiation (iTLNA) is given in detail. The performance of iTLNA is extensively evaluated on a suite of benchmark functions. The experimental results have confirmed the competitiveness of iTLNA to other DE variants and EAs, which shows that the proposed TLNA framework can pave an effective way to improve the performance of DE with neighborhood information.

Open innovation and firm performance: the role of organizational mechanisms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the use of open innovation (OI) practices and firm performance, and the role of organizational mechanisms (OMs) (formalization and decentralization) as moderator variables.Design/methodology/approachThe authors build a theoretical framework to define a set of hypotheses that are then verified in an empirical study. These theoretical propositions are tested by using the data gathered from a survey addressed to 244 firms in Spanish low- and medium-technology industries.FindingsWith regard to inbound practices, the practices oriented to cooperate with partners in a R&D context have a positive influence. The results show that outbound practices, either by direct generation of revenues from licensing payments or, more indirectly, through the indirect marketing and technical benefits that can stem from revealing have a positive effect on firm performance. Coupled practices, which are related to participation in clusters and innovation networks, have the highest impact on firm performance. In the industrial context examined, decentralization exerts a positive effect which enhances the effect of outbound practices meanwhile formalization reduces their positive effect.Practical implicationsThis study helps practitioners in low- and medium-technology firms to determine which OI practices are most beneficial to firm performance and how formalization and decentralization can influence the relationship between OI and firm performance.Originality/valueThis study helps determine the influence of OI practices in terms of inbound, outbound and coupled types through an analysis of low- and medium-technology firms. The OI literature is enriched by the types herein of the role of OMs, which includes an analysis of how formalization and decentralization moderate the influence of OI practices on firm performance.

The World Health Organization's mechanisms for increasing the health sector budget: The South African context.

South Africa (SA) has limited scope for raising income taxes, and the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme will necessitate growthin the health sector budget. The NHI White Paper suggests five funding scenarios to meet the expected shortfall. These scenarios are a mixtureof a surcharge on taxable income, an increase in value-added tax and a payroll tax. Five alternative options, suggested by the World HealthOrganization, are interrogated as ways to decrease the general taxation proposed in the White Paper. The five mechanisms (corporate tax, financialtransaction levy, and taxes on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods) were chosen based on their fund-raising potential and their mandatoryelement. A literature review provides the information for a discussion of the potential costs of each mechanism. Within specific assumptions,potential budgetary contribution is compared with the requirement. First, raising corporate tax rates could raise enough funds, but the losses dueto capital flight might be too much for the local economy to bear. Second, a levy on currency transactions is unlikely to raise the required resources,even without a probable decrease in the number of transactions. Third, the increase in the tax on tobacco and alcohol would need to be very large,even assuming that consumption patterns would remain unchanged. Lastly, a tax on unhealthy food products is a new idea and could be exploredas an option - especially as the SA Treasury has announced its future implementation. Implementing only one of the mechanisms is unlikely toincrease available funding sufficiently, but if they are implemented together the welfare-maximising tax rate for each mechanism may be highenough to fulfil the NHI scheme's budgetary requirement, moderating the increases in the tax burden of the SA population.

Iran's Basij: Membership in a Militant Islamist Organization

The Basij militia is a central component of Iran's clerical regime and a supporter of hard-line conservative interests. It is a security organization that also engages in social and political activism. This study focuses on the group's rank-and-file members and looks at the organization's mechanisms for recruitment, participation, and training. Based in part on interviews with current and former Basij members, the article concludes with general observations about the organization and its internal practices.The Basij militia is an omnipresent feature of life in many Iranian cities. The orga- nization is one of the regime's largest social enterprises, encompassing somewhere between 1.5 to 15 million members, and has steadily evolved over the last two decades into a pillar of Iran's security establishment.1 There are seventeen separate Basij subor- ganizations (e.g., for university students, factory workers, government workers, engi- neers, etc.) and three types of Basij memberships: regular, active, and special. Regular members comprise the vast majority of the organization and are the lowest ranking, having undergone a minimal amount of training. Active members comprise a middle level and receive complete basic ideological coursework, and some military training. Special members are full-time Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) soldiers who have been assigned to Basij units.2Although the Basij has steadily gained the attention of scholars, relatively little has been written about those who join the organization.3 To that end, this article explores general experiences of Basij members and specifically looks at how the organization's rank-and-file (both regular and active) members are recruited, what sort of incentives drive their participation, and what types of training and instruction they receive. The ar- ticle concludes with observations on three issues - the importance of social networks, the role of ideology in recruitment and retention, and the informality in leadership and structure - that give shape to the Basij, its membership, and its operations.This study is primarily based on interviews with former and current Basij mem- bers, conducted mainly in Tehran between November 2009 and July 2010. Due to the acute political tensions in Iran during that period (and since), the researchers and the subjects they interviewed requested to remain anonymous.4 Also for this reason, the in- terviews consciously avoided sensitive political topics (such as opinions on the regime's legitimacy and the Basij's role in suppressing popular unrest following the contested 2009 presidential election), and focused instead on less controversial aspects of general life in the Basij. Each interviewee was asked around fifty questions that covered non- political topics. These questions were divided into several broad categories that were designed to learn more about why individuals joined the Basij, the process of becoming a member, what sort of training they experienced (or were offered), what aspects of being a part of the organization they enjoyed, the types of activities that they took part in, and their general relationship with commanders. Although these interviews form a small data set, they nonetheless provide valuable glimpses into the internal dynamics of the Basij organization and the experiences of its members.SECURITY FORCES AND REGIME LOYALTYThe tsunami of popular unrest that has swept across the Middle East since 2011 has seriously challenged - and perhaps forever altered - some of the region's authoritarian regimes. While this turmoil has amplified the need for political reform in the region, it has also highlighted the risk of deploying security forces against spirited mass dissent. The extent to which governments deploy their security forces against popular protest often de- pends on a government's assessment of a particular force's loyalty to the regime against its members' sympathies for popular grievances. …

La potenciació dels mecanismes d'ordenació del temps de treball com a via per contenir la destrucció de l'ocupació

La Reforma Laboral de 2012 va augmentar de forma notable el marge de maniobra atorgat a l'empresari per incrementar o disminuir el volum d'hores inicialment contractat amb la finalitat d'adaptar-ho a les noves exigències del procés productiu. A aquest efecte, es van introduir diversos canvis en la regulació de la suspensió per causes empresarials que han disparat la seva utilització. Paral·lelament la Reforma Laboral suposa un increment de les possibilitats de distribució flexible de la jornada de treball des de la perspectiva empresarial. Aquest increment de la flexibilitat, en atenció a interessos empresarials, contrasta amb les majors limitacions que s'estableixen quan l'adequació persegueix la conciliació de la vida personal i familiar i el temps de treball.