Search results

The purpose of the study is to investigate the differences between generational groups (specifically Generations X, Y and Z) in terms of variables that influence organisational commitment and intention to stay within an organisation. The aim is to fill the research gap in understanding how different factors influence commitment and retention across different generations.

This study follows a quantitative approach based on cross-sectional survey data. The respondents were employees of Generations X, Y and Z. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and multigroup analysis.

The results of the study indicate several relationships between variables and organisational commitment/intention to stay. Person-organisation fit is positively related to organisational commitment, and work-life balance is positively related to both organisational commitment and intention to stay. The mediation of organisational commitment shows a positive relationship with person-organisation fit and work-life balance. In addition, there are positive relationships between organisational culture and both organisational commitment and intention to stay, as well as a positive relationship between person-organisation fit and intention to stay. Furthermore, all three Generations (X, Y and Z) show positive relationships between organisational commitment and intention to stay.

The implications of the study are twofold. First, it provides theoretical contributions by uncovering the relationships between various variables and organisational commitment/retention. Second, it provides practical implications for organisations by highlighting the importance of person-organisation fit, work-life balance and organisational culture in fostering commitment and retention among employees of different generations.

The originality and value of this study lies in its exploration of the differences between generational groups in terms of variables affecting organisational commitment and intention to stay. By addressing this research gap, the study contributes to the existing literature on organisational commitment and retention. The detailed presentation of theoretical contributions, practical implications, limitations and suggestions for future research enhances the overall value of the study.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between product innovation and network and their export performance, particularly in trade fair context. Moreover, this paper conducts a comparative study among services/industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and considers the home-country context. Innovation and internationalization are stagnant themes in the recent literature on trade fairs, so they require to be renewed.

The empirical study includes a survey with 341 SMEs’ respondents separated into both industrial/producer and service/other. A conceptual model was developed and examined from three different perspectives: Model A encompasses all surveyed SMEs, Model B includes only industrial/producer SMEs and Model C comprises service/other SMEs. Data analysis happened in two steps. The first step included the structural equation model (SEM) and the assessment of hypotheses (from three different perspectives). Thus, it was possible to make a comparative analysis between the models. In the second step, the ordered logit model (OLM) is used to study relationships between control variables and the criteria variable export performance.

The SEM’s results confirm a conceptual model about a dynamic trajectory that SMEs, mainly industrial/producer, can take advantage of: innovate to networking and networking to export. The results allowed to verify when comparing services/industrial SMEs that the tangibility which characterizes the innovation of industrial SMEs' products contributed significantly to the performance of business networks and exports. The study also reveals, through the OLM, two catalysts for the success of the SME’s export performance: export experience and continued participation in trade fairs. The OLM results also reveal that the size of the companies is not relevant, so trade fairs are marketing tools accessible to any company, regardless of their size. Finally, the study considered home-country context of the surveyed SMEs, which allowed additional interpretations to be drawn.

The study does not reflect the individual's personality in his network capacity and the export performance was measured based on the level of satisfaction and not on real sales results. However, the study provides relevant practical implications and can support future studies.

The study offers important implications for SME. The results reveal that presenting product innovations at trade fairs is a useful tool for SMEs to create networks, which facilitates their export performance, especially for industrial SMEs residing in small economies such as Portugal. This study is also relevant for business associations of industrial SMEs and/or public or semi-public SME promotion agencies.

This paper contributes to the literature on trade fairs, suggesting a new innovation, networking, export (INE) framework to reflect on the participation in international trade fairs. So, this research especially combines product INE performance in a particular context – international trade fairs for SME. It also considers the home-country context of the SMEs, which adds depth to the study. Finally, the comparative study also provides insightful implications for industrial SMEs on how to improve the export performance from trade fairs by leveraging innovation and networking.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a maintenance programme for flat roofs in existing buildings, based on the inspection of 26 buildings in-service conditions, located in the Lisbon region, in Portugal. A proactive maintenance of flat roofs in existing buildings allows reducing their pathology, thus improving their performance and service life.

The maintenance plan was established based on the degradation state of the maintenance source elements (MSEs) analysed, the aggressiveness of the surrounding environment and the age of the roofs and maintenance actions carried out during the roofing systems’ life cycle.

The maintenance plan proposed in this study includes the prioritization of the interventions, the definition of the required maintenance operations and the definition of the frequency of the intervention, considering the service lives of the MSEs.

The study addresses only roofs located in the Lisbon area. Even though a relatively large sample of 26 roofs was used, the findings and conclusions can clearly be extrapolated for a much wider scope.

The maintenance plan proposed in this study considers a planning of proactive maintenance operations to continuously and effectively monitor all the relevant MSE.

This plan allows minimizing the incidence and spread of defects, thus enabling the optimization of resources, reducing the costs of the entire maintenance system and improving the quality of the built environment.

This paper aims to identify the determining factors for the financial performance (FP) of social enterprises in an emerging country, in this case Brazil.

This paper identifies the determinants of the FP of social enterprises in Brazil using the resource-based view as a theoretical lenses and the quantitative method (n = 601) of logistic regression, analyzing the importance of nine variables related to SEs.

The findings refer to practical contributions (which show how SEs should focus and allocate their resources to maximize FP) and theoretical contributions linked to entrepreneurship literature (by differentiating the results of this work from the literature on commercial entrepreneurship in terms of resources), social entrepreneurship literature (by presenting the resources that determine their FP), business literature, entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurship in emerging economies.

This work represents a novelty from a methodological point of view, filling the gap regarding the lack of studies that apply a quantitative methodology to a large sample and analyze several different variables when most studies analyze only one factor related to the performance of an organization. It also fills the gap in entrepreneurship studies that use some theoretical lenses. This work is also a pioneer in analyzing the variables involved, such as market orientation, technologies and impact measurement in social entrepreneurship. As this work uses data from a secondary sample, there is the limitation of not choosing the analyzed variables. Even though there were many variables in the sample, it was impossible to consider some variables, referring to various aspects of resources and performance. For this same reason, the social performance of SEs, which is of fundamental importance within the objectives of any organization of this type, was not analyzed and may be a suggestion for future work.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of external audit on the management of the Common Fund of the Mozambique National Institute of Statistics (INE).

This paper followed a case study approach of the INE Common Fund that was based on the qualitative evidence from the content analysis of the external audit reports, annual plans of activities and budget for the past seven years and interviews with middle managers of the INE.

The research found that external audit has a relatively significant impact on the management of the INE Common Fund. The authors attribute the positive impact to the high concern of management to implement the external audit recommendations, associated with the financial dependence between the agent (the National Institute of Statistics) and the principal (Fund Donors), explained through Laughlin’s Model of Accountability.

The results indicate that external audit associated with the financial dependence of the agent on the principal has a significant impact on the accountability. Thus, it contributes to assist in the formulation of public policies on external financing to developing countries.

Most of the studies on external audit and accountability are from countries with more developed economies than Mozambique’s, without heavy reliance on external financing, and these studies analyse the audits carried out by public audit institutions. This research explores the phenomenon in the context of external financing to the State Budget by governments and international organisations.

This research proposes the study of the pathology in floor finishes, focussing on proactive maintenance strategies to promote the durability of these elements. A model to assess the floorings' performance levels was designed to support decision-making regarding maintenance activities to be carried out, in order to prevent the defects and extend the floors' service life.

The model to measure the floorings' level of performance was developed based on the literature and applied in fieldwork, focussed on visual inspections of floor finishes. Photographs were taken and standardized inspection forms were used to collect the data about the defects in the floors.

This study provides a simple classification model to assess floorings' performance levels, capable to define priorities and help decision-makers in adopting maintenance activities. The model was validated through a case study, which showed that occasionally the choice of the floor finishes is incorrectly made only based on aesthetic criteria and not taking into account the main criteria, i.e. the use of space.

This work contributes to a development of methodologies to assess floorings' performance levels, to study the behavior of different floor finishes, to propose maintenance strategies to improve their performance in service and adopt better solutions in the buildings' design phase.

This study presents two ideas. The first is that schools supported by public funds are challenged to help ensure that all students, without exception, have opportunities to develop their skills, especially for those who are in more precarious situations and at risk of social exclusion. The second idea is that respecting the rights of all students is a prerequisite for achieving desirable social justice.

The content of the chapter communicates the process, results and conclusions of data obtained in four schools in Catalonia Spain. On the one hand, it is a study of the conceptions of directors, teachers and families on social justice and respect for rights in school, and on the other hand, it is an analysis of the professional practices of managers and teachers.

There were two fundamental conclusions. The first conclusion identifies the professional practices carried out in the schools to attend to the cultural and linguistic rights of the students. The second conclusion provided steps that could be taken to move towards social justice, especially in disadvantaged contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to review the management of air pollution in Mexico and strategies that have been considered to correct the issues, including potential future directions to further improve air quality for Mexico’s environment and people.

Different serious academic databases were searched for material regarding the issue of air pollution in Mexico, such as Scopus and Social Science Citation Index. Regional concern was an important factor that was considered in this review. Material was considered based on its recency, academic importance and veracity. The studies selected mainly ranged from the mid-1990s to 2018.

Air pollution in Mexico has been a primary issue for the country’s administration and that of Mexico’s North American neighbour, the USA. It has contributed significantly to climate change and has had detrimental effects on both the environment and on the health of Mexican citizens in various ways. While efforts to ameliorate the situation have been relatively strong, it is hoped that ongoing cooperation between Mexico, the USA and Canada will influence the development of stricter emissions standards.

This paper considers current circumstances and whether enough has been done to mitigate Mexico’s significant air pollution problem. It also considers several recommendations made by commentators as to potential future directions to rectify the issues, as no similar review has been made for a developing Country.

Given the complexity and difficulties of the health sector, the question that this study attempts to answer is as follows: what are the main results of studies on business process management (BPM) and lean in the health sector? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the results of studies that address the promotion of BPM and lean in the health sector.

To conduct a survey of published studies using the BPM and lean approach in healthcare, a search was performed in the Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases in two steps. The first step consisted of the collection and analysis of data related to the BPM approach in the health sector, based on a survey of published articles on this topic. The second step consisted of the collection and analysis of data related to the use of lean in the same sector, based on the survey of systematic reviews published in major databases.

The main results of the studies that address the promotion of BPM and lean in the health sector are as follows: a reduced length of hospitalization, increased patient satisfaction, increased patient efficiency and safety, a reduction in the time of notification of infection, help with organizational change, understanding the end-to-end process, increased motivation, understanding the importance of some handoffs for patient safety, improvements in quality indicators in the emergency department, and improvements in the organization’s focus on high-level processes. By contrast, a single study showed difficulties in promoting management focused on processes in which decisions are unique and difficult to model.

The results may help in the identification of research gaps in the promotion of BPM and lean healthcare and in the development of relevant research. In addition, by understanding how health organizations are promoting management focused on processes and the results obtained with this approach, managers from other organizations, especially in this sector, can reflect and develop similar actions that seek to improve the quality of services offered, increase productivity and customer satisfaction, and reduce costs, errors, and waiting times.