Organizational Scholars Research Articles

Faculty engagement, quality of work-life, organizational commitment and spiritual leadership – examining the mediation and moderation effects

PurposeBased on positive organizational scholarship, this study aims to examine the role of faculty engagement in mediating the relationship between quality of work-life (QWL) and organizational commitment. The paper also analyses how spiritual leadership moderates the relationship between QWL and faculty engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe data was collected through structured questionnaires from undergraduate and postgraduate teachers working in various business schools across major cities in India. The sample was selected through the snowball sampling technique. The sample size was 486, and analysis was done through the structural equation modelling approach using the bootstrapping method.FindingsFindings indicate that faculty engagement mediates the relationship between QWL and organizational commitment among teachers. Furthermore, results show that educational institutions that practice spiritual leadership support higher positive psychological and emotional states of engagement.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper provides an integrated model of engagement, commitment and QWL through a study of mediation and moderation effects and adds value to the psychology and workplace spirituality literature. There is the future scope for further generalizations of the model in different geographical contexts to analyse the influence of other leadership styles.Practical implicationsFurthermore, it would help educational institutions to design QWL strategies for engaging teachers psychologically, emotionally and cognitively by accelerating employees’ positive emotions and behaviours. Finally, the paper shows implications for developing the QWL strategies to create a committed and engaged workforce through spiritual leadership.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the academic literature by investigating interrelationships among variables from a positive organizational scholarship perspective. The paper would help practitioners to comprehend the importance of spiritual leadership in educational institutions.

Indonesian Mid-Career EFL Teachers’ Depersonalization and its Impact on Their Well-Being: A Narrative Inquiry

Well-being is an important aspect for EFL teachers that indicate their psychological and physical wellness state both in their professional and personal life. However, depersonalization that contextually happened in the workplace can negatively affect how they teach and work in the school, causing the feeling of indifference and threatening their well-being in return. On the other hand, depersonalization has been reported to be a contagion to other people, further exposing other colleagues to experiencing and feeling burned out. Questions emerged from this phenomenon, that is, how Indonesian mid-career EFL teachers’ depersonalization affects their motivation and how they employ the coping strategy to sustain motivational well-being. Using a narrative inquiry methodological approach, this study explores this phenomenon through a narrative frame with three Indonesian mid-career EFL teachers. Extensive thematic analysis showcased that Indonesian mid-career EFL teachers experienced depersonalization originating from poor colleague work ethics and inadequate leadership, causing their motivation well-being to plummet. However, the depersonalization was overshadowed by their respective sources of motivation to work as an EFL teacher. Strategies to mitigate such depersonalization were reported to be: (1) involving oneself in continuing professional development, (2) spiritual reflection, and (3) recreational rest. The study implies an indication that contextual factors such as organizational scholarship and interpersonal-collegial relationships are playing a critical role in shaping EFL teachers’ overall well-being.

School Accountability and Student Social-Emotional Learning: Evidence From the OECD's Survey on Social and Emotional Skills

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of accountability mechanisms on the social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies of students in schools in Suzhou, China. Design/Approach/Methods The study utilized survey data from schools in Suzhou, China, to explore how various inspection schemes and accountability measures differentially influence students’ SEL competencies. The study employed multilevel statistical analysis to examine the relationship between accountability measures and SEL outcomes. Findings The study's results suggest that while some accountability measures are associated with improvements in certain SEL skills, most have no effect on or negatively impact SEL competencies. Originality/Value This study is one of the few existing studies on the impact of accountability mechanisms on SEL competencies in schools. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, organizational scholars, and practitioners. Notably, the findings challenge the assumption that accountability mechanisms necessarily improve educational outcomes and suggest the need for more nuanced approaches to educational accountability policies.

Translating, co-creating, and performing: Reflections on a 15-year journey for impact into the grand challenge of disaster insurance

The grand challenges society faces compel strategy and organization scholars to engage meaningfully with practice and contribute toward solution development. As global complexities escalate, the importance of addressing these challenges intensifies. While the notion of “impact” in organization theory remains elusive, a recent surge in scholarly work highlights the tensions and challenges associated with conducting impact-driven research. In this essay, we reflect on our 15-year program of research into financial responses to disasters, illustrating the process of doing impact through activities of “translating, ‘co-creating,” and “performing.” We show how these activities fostered the emergence of new research questions, new collaborations, and novel impacts. Based on our journey, we generate four reflexive insights. First, translating, co-creating, and performing are an iterative, rather than sequential, process in which these activities partly overlap and build cumulatively on each other. Second, a flexible yet robust impact object is crucial. Third, while co-creation is indispensable, it is also, often, contentious. Finally, impactful research necessitates humility, courage, and persistence.

Organizational Socialization in Professional Sport: The National Basketball Association’s Rookie Transition Program

Launched in 1986, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Rookie Transition Program (RTP) is the longest running program of its kind in U.S. professional sports. Jointly administered by the NBA and National Basketball Players Association, the RTP is designed to ease the transition of first-year players to the league. Over the course of 4 days, RTP participants engage with current and former NBA players, coaches, administrators, and other league stakeholders on topics that range from personal finance, to mental health, to social justice advocacy. Organizational scholars might describe the NBA RTP as an element of the league’s onboarding, or organizational socialization, strategy. In this case, students will reflect on their own socialization experiences as organizational newcomers before analyzing the components of the NBA RTP. Finally, students will apply what they learn through this case to design the agenda of a future NBA RTP.

Employee Commitment and the Manager-Employee Relationship. An International Work Environment Leadership Model

Aim: The primary objective of this article is to thoroughly explore the issue of employee commitment within the context of the manager-employee relationship and proposing a model of the process of preparing manager to build superior-subordinate relation and form employee commitment in the organisation’s foreign branch. Methodology: The qualitative method of research was implemented in the form of individual in-depth interviews (IDIs) conducted with top managers of internationally operating organisations. Results: Manager-employee relationships evolve. To make the process more satisfactory for both sides, the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory and Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) concept should be integrated in it. Both concepts are inherently linked to employee management in the international environment. Furthermore, LMX is evolving towards relational leader-member exchange (RLMX). The process of adaptation to a new work environment is connected not only with the cultural, but also personal characteristics of managers and their experience in operating in international organizations. Cultural differences can significantly affect supervisor-superior relation and employee commitment. Nevertheless, it also seems that universal virtues such as respect and trust, shape the dynamism of the process, which consists of stages described in the conceptual model. Implications and recommendations: To reduce or actually minimise the impact of cultural factors on relations between managers and employees, it is necessary to find the appropriate style of leadership and adjust it to each individual. What makes the process successful is the recognition of local employees’ needs as well as the implementation of positive motivation methods. Originality/value: The article aims to contribute to the discourse on LMX and POS in the context of leadership style in international work environment (IWE). Both approaches should be studied in parallel to identify the key determinants of a manager’s success, reaching beyond the cross-cultural dimension. Contrary to the models presented in the literature, the proposed model is based on managers’ perception of the process of adaptation to the host country’s culture.

The Machine Hums! Addressing Ontological and Normative Concerns Regarding Machine Learning Applications in Organizational Scholarship

The Machine Hums! Addressing Ontological and Normative Concerns Regarding Machine Learning Applications in Organizational Scholarship

Sensemaking through the storm: How postpartum depression shapes personal work-family narratives.

Many women experience psychological and emotional challenges during their transition to becoming a working mother. Postpartum depression (PPD) is one common, salient aspect of motherhood that can serve as a work-life shock event and profoundly shape women's work and nonwork lives yet has evaded discussion in the organizational sciences. Taking a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 41 women who experienced PPD as well as key informants who provided additional insights about PPD (e.g., an obstetrician, women working for organizations that support postpartum health). Our analysis highlights how being diagnosed with PPD activates a complex sensemaking process in which women process an imposing identity-a concept we introduce to the identity and work-family literatures reflecting an unexpected, undesirable identity that imposes upon existing (e.g., work) and/or provisional identities that may or may not be fully elaborated (e.g., motherhood), ultimately shifting how women think about the intersection of work and family. We also delineate how supports and antisupports (i.e., overt acts dismissive of women's PPD) shape the aforementioned processes. Combined, our research aims to advance the discussion of PPD within organizational scholarship, rendering significant implications for both theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A Vector Space Approach for Measuring Relationality and Multidimensionality of Meaning in Large Text Collections

In this article, we develop a methodological approach for organizational research regarding the construction of multidimensional and relational similarity measures by using the vector space model in natural language processing (NLP). Our vector space approach draws on the well-established premise in organizational research that texts provide a window into social reality and allow measuring theory-based constructs ( e.g., organizations’ self-representations). Using a vector space approach allows capturing the multidimensionality of these theory-based constructs and computing relational similarities between organizational entities ( e.g., organizations, their members, and subunits) in social spaces and with their environments, such as the organization itself, industries, or countries. Thus, our methodological approach contributes to the recent trend in organizational research to use the potential inherent in big (textual) data by using NLP. In an example, we provide guidance for organizational scholars by illustrating how they can ensure validity when applying our methodological contribution in concrete research practice.

Excellence in leadership in the Arab world: Islamic principles and tribal values. Evidence from Jordan

While leadership is one of the most studied areas among organisational scholars, research interests in the impact of cultural values on leadership perceptions and behaviours remains ongoing. In fact, most studies adopt a universal or rather Western viewpoint on leadership. As such, the literature is largely unaware of the cultural differences in leadership perceptions, such as those in the Arab World. Drawing on implicit leadership theories (ILTs), our study aims to develop and validate a research model in which Islamic leadership principles ( shura, al-amanah, and itqan) and Arab tribal values ( ayb, wasta and karam) are associated with leadership behaviours. Data were collected from 544 managers from Jordan and analysed using structural equation modelling. Based on our findings, we present empirical evidence detailing how cultural values are related to leadership behaviours. Results show that Islamic principles encourage relation and task leadership orientations, but negative practices derived from the Arab values of ayb and wasta provide obstacles.

Uncovering paradoxes of compassion at work: a dyadic study of compassionate leader behavior.

In today's business world, organizations tend to overlook that employees face suffering caused by work and non-work-related events that can negatively impact business organizations in the long run. One way to address this challenge is through leadership acknowledging and alleviating employees' suffering to ensure a company's success. However, research on compassion and leadership in business settings is still relatively scarce. In this study, we aim to extend the organizational compassion literature by addressing our research question: "What are paradoxes induced by compassionate leader behavior in the workplace in the context of social hierarchy?". We conducted a qualitative exploratory study based on 12 semi-structured interviews with six dyads of leaders and their direct subordinates from small, medium, and large firms representing different industries. The findings of our study indicate that compassionate leader behavior goes hand-in-hand with paradoxical situations that both leader and member face in the workplace, supporting the proposition that compassion as a social, interpersonal process is complex and multi-faceted. Our analysis identified 6 compassion paradoxes that spring from compassion from a leader towards a member. Our study differentiates from other research of compassion paradoxes in the sense that it also focuses on the interplay between leader and member. From that perspective, the findings of our study indicate that social hierarchy is playing a crucial role and exacerbating some paradoxical tensions. This consideration implies that to be effective, compassionate leaders need to have or develop the ability to continuously transcend those compassion paradoxes, as well as support their members in transcending the paradoxes they find themselves dealing with. Thus, the findings of our study contribute to management literature in the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) by highlighting compassion as a critical element of dyadic leader-subordinate relationships that could be reinforced by systematically building more competence in leaders and members to navigate the tensions emerging from the identified compassion paradoxes. Additionally, we provide limitations and recommendations for further research, along with several theoretical and practical implications of the results, which are particularly relevant for practitioners such as managing directors, leaders, employees, human resource managers, academics, and business and HR consultants.

Linking proactive personality to proactive customer-service performance: a moderated parallel mediation model

Drawing on the job demands-resources model and positive organizational scholarship, this study examines proactive personality as an antecedent of frontline employees’ proactive customer-service performance (PCSP). It also investigates the potential mediating role of positive psychological states on the relation between proactive personality and PCSP and the potential moderating role of the service-failure recovery climate (SFRC) on the relation between proactive personality and positive psychological states. To test our hypotheses, we used a moderated parallel mediation model and data obtained from 62 branch managers and 358 frontline branch employees of three well-known appliance households and 3C (computers, communications, and consumer electronics) chain stores in Taiwan. The results of multiple-regression and SPSS PROCESS macro analyses indicate that proactive personality was positively related to manager-rated PCSP via employees’ work engagement and perceptions that their work was meaningful. Further, the positive relationship between proactive personality and PCSP through both work engagement and meaningful work perceptions was moderated by SFRC. These findings shed light on the effect of frontline employees’ proactive personality as a personal resource driving their PCSP; the roles of positive psychological states as mediators that help explain the potential intermediary mechanisms; and a boundary condition of SFRC that may weaken the positive relationship between employees’ proactive personality and psychological states. The implications, limitations, and future research directions are included.

Into the depths of the feminine: A Jungian perspective on postfeminist working life

How do women reject the feminine in postfeminist working life, and to what effects? Organisational scholars have long argued that the feminine is discouraged or reconfigured in neoliberal, postfeminist organisations that value masculine-oriented traits. But what the feminine encompasses, how it is rejected and to what effects is less clear. In this article, we draw on feminist post-Jungian theory, which understands the feminine as archetypal, emerging over thousands of years of human history and characterised by paradox, circularity, being and descent. Feminist Jungian thinkers agree that the archetypal feminine is neglected, if not denigrated, in neoliberal, capitalist cultures, much to our detriment. Reflecting on data from a qualitative, longitudinal study on early career formation and work experiences with 15 young women, we reflexively discuss how in postfeminist working life, disavowing the archetypal feminine manifests by: adhering to ascensionist ideals to the detriment of slowness and inactivity; engaging linear thinking to the detriment of cyclical, paradoxical being; and avowing rational objectivity to the detriment of embodied instinct. This engenders both collusion with postfeminist power structures and psychic effects such as dis-ease and anxiety, which we argue can be ameliorated by recognising and embracing the archetypal feminine within.

Theorizing as Mode of Engagement in and through Extreme Contexts Research

We explore how management and organization scholars theorize when undertaking research on extreme contexts, which are organizational settings where potential adverse events arise from risks, emergencies and disruptions. We propose that different ‘modes of engagement’ arise as researchers connect different aspects of the self to the extreme context; namely, personal self, professional self, moral self and vulnerable self. Each self-context connection plays out in different modes of engagement in the conduct of empirical research and enables different theorizing practices. We present these self-context connections as four ideal-typical modes of engagement. Adventuresome inquiry connects a personal self to the extreme context and theorizes by phenomenon-driven problematization. Instrumental scholarship expresses a professional self in the extreme context and theorizes by theory elaboration. Ideological improvement galvanizes a moral self in the extreme context and theorizes by change-driven abstraction. Reflexive labor exposes a vulnerable self and theorizes by dialectical interrogation. Our comprehensive framework of theorizing as mode of engagement contributes to extreme context research by elucidating how theorizing in and through such contexts is accomplished by researchers with multiple selves and by offering some guidance on how the four modes can be used dynamically to ensure generative theorizing. We also contribute to the broader literature on theorizing in management and organization studies by highlighting the need to consider the interplay between the researcher and the academic contributions they produce and by proposing a reflexive and dynamic framework of theorizing as modes of engagement.

The Islamic Organizations in Indonesia ‘Muhammadiyah and NU’: Social Perspective Explanation

Objectives: Islamic Organizations in Indonesia have created remarkable social change for almost a century. Since their establishment, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) are the main pillars in enhancing Islamic thoughts and representatives of the majority Muslim in the country. The aim of this research is to analyze the social impact and approaches of these two organizations on the Indonesian society. Methods: By adopting qualitative method and using social definition approach, seven leaders and scholars of both organizations were selected purposively and interviewed. Narrative approach was used to extract this research based on Giorgi module. Results: The results of the research reveal that Muhammadiyah and NU are leading social change through conducting social Islamic occasions, education, religious and cultural events and economic empowerment of the society. Every social aspect was analyzed in details in both organizations separately to illustrate their engagement and interaction in Indonesian society. Conclusions: Muhammadiyah and NU have significant impact in social life of Indonesian people and represent the Islamic culture of the country. Islamic organizations around the world are recommended to follow the same path of Muhammadiyah and NU to enhance society and support the country leadership based on the Islamic thoughts.

The Promise of Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions for Organizational Scholarship and Practice: Conceptual Development and Research Agenda

Organizational researchers are now making widespread use of ecological momentary assessments but have not yet taken the logical next step to ecological momentary interventions, also called Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs). JITAIs have the potential to test within-person causal theories and maximize practical benefits to participants through two developmental phases: The microrandomized trial and the randomized controlled trial, respectively. In the microrandomized trial design, within-person randomization and experimental manipulation maximize internal validity at the within-person level. In the randomized controlled trial design, interventions are delivered in a timely and ecological manner while avoiding unnecessary and ill-timed interventions that potentially increase participant fatigue and noncompliance. Despite these potential advantages, the development and implementation of JITAIs require consideration of many conceptual and methodological factors. Given the benefits of JITAIs, but also the various considerations involved in using them, this review introduces organizational behavior and human resources researchers to JITAIs, provides guidelines for JITAI design, development, and evaluation, and describes the extensive potential of JITAIs in organizational behavior and human resources research.

Industrial policy environments and the flourishing of African multinational enterprises

AbstractResearch on African organizations has focused on the influence of environmental factors in organizational effectiveness. However, increasing concerns about challenges in Africa and how they negatively affect organizational outcomes have necessitated leveraging the “positive turn” of organizational scholarship to advance a perspective of how industrial policies can permit Africa-originated multinational enterprises (A-MNEs) to flourish. We propose a multilevel model in which the industrial policy environment comprised of agency and policy development positively impacts A-MNE flourishing, a composite index of human, environmental, and economic flourishing. This relationship is mediated by industrial policies – labor, trade, infrastructure, and resources – and moderated by policy fit, relevance, and timeliness. Overall, we shift the old paradigm of organizational outcomes represented by organizational effectiveness to a new paradigm represented by organizational flourishing. This new paradigm seems more appropriate for Africa, which is bedeviled by unusual challenges that limit effectiveness. We discuss empirical testing of the model and implications for managers.

What Comes After Black Swans and Gray Rhinos? An Organizational Perspective of Disruption

The interface between organizations and their environments greatly interests organizational scholars. A key research stream—how changes in the external environment produce changes within organizations—is especially relevant in today’s turbulent economic and political context. We develop a theoretical model that considers external events and organizational routine changes as key components of disruption. We first draw on event system theory to derive and describe the external event dimensions of magnitude, coupling, clustering, and space, presented in a circumplex model. Then, we use an information-processing lens to theorize how those dimensions directly and contingently influence organizational routine change. We discuss our model’s implications for the effective management of organizations amid constant disruption.

Losing sleep over speaking up at work: A daily study of voice and insomnia.

Organizational scholars have examined a number of antecedents of insomnia in a search for ways to prevent insomnia and its negative implications for the workplace. However, most studies have focused on the antecedents that are beyond employee control. Therefore, our collective understanding of how employees can modify their workplace behaviors to reduce the symptoms of insomnia and prevent its adverse consequences has remained limited. In this study, we examined whether the expression of voice, as a prosocial yet psychologically costly behavior that is under employee control, affects employee sleep quality, and whether sleep quality affects the expression of voice on the next workday. Having surveyed 113 full-time employees twice a day for 10 workdays, we found that employees who express promotive voice at work experience higher positive affect at the end of the workday, more effectively detach from work in the evening, and are less likely to suffer from insomnia at night. We also found that employees who express prohibitive voice at work experience higher negative affect at the end of the workday, less effectively detach from work in the evening, and are more likely to experience insomnia at night. Our study further demonstrates that, while insomnia is not related to the expression of prohibitive voice on the next day, sleep-deprived employees are less likely to engage in promotive voice because of being psychologically depleted. The results of our study suggest that sleep problems might be mitigated if employees regulate their engagement in costly workplace behaviors, such as voice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

To Empower or Safeguard? How Novice Rape and Domestic Violence Victim Advocates Render Institutional Complexity Visible

Organizational life is patterned by shared meanings and practices known as “institutional logics.” Often, multiple logics exist within the same organization in a potentially tense state of “institutional complexity.” Extensive research examines how organizational elites and professionals (i.e., “experts”) manage this complexity by replacing, combining, or segregating contradictory logics. However, experts sometimes manage complexity tacitly, which obscures tensions between logics. This paper, drawing on an ethnographic study of an anti-gender-based violence organization, theorizes inexperience as a lens through which tensions become visible. Analysis of the data reveals that novice victim advocates noticed conflicts between directives to both empower and safeguard victims, practices originating from professional social work and bureaucratic state logics, respectively. In contrast, expert volunteers and staff members tacitly combined these competing logics by empowering victims to safeguard themselves. For organizational scholars, these data show how novices bring attention to contradictions that experts take for granted.