Investigating modifiable organizational factors relating to workability: a focus on gendered culture

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between workability, organizational factors and psychosocial factors related to worker health and wellbeing. The cross sectional study involved participants from a general worker population (N = 305). Surveys were distributed through participants' organizations. and completed online. Findings of this study. suggest that many of the factors that predict workability are in fact modifiable organizational factors. Findings suggested whilst individual factors remained important predictors of work ability, organizational nurturance values, leadership effectiveness, occupational stress and job satisfaction were significant organizational factors.

Agency theory, national culture and management Control Systems

Management control system of an organization is the structured facet of management, the formal vehicle by which the management process is executed. In most organizations, systems exist for planning, organizing, directing, controlling and motivating. Depending on the level of appropriateness and quality of the management control systems, the task of management is either facilitated or hindered. The end goal of a management control system is achieving organizational objectives. Because employees (agents) do not always give their best efforts for achieving organizational objectives, management control systems need to strive for aligning goals of agents (e.g., employees, subordinates) with that of principals (e.g., senior management, owners). Agency theory and its extension, principal agent model, provide insights to the problem of goal congruence and suggest remedies, at least in the Western cultural context. Whether the agency theory presumptions, predictions and prescriptions are universally applicable is an important issue in management. Their validity in different cultural contexts is largely unknown. The available literature to date indicates the possibility that agency theory may not be valid in non-western cultures. However, further empirical research is needed in non-western cultures to shed more light to this issue.

Leadership that promotes organizational learning : both sides of the coin

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how leadership has the capacity to both positively influence learning processes and negatively inhibit organizational learning.

Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper that brings together an analysis of leadership and organizational learning literature. The argument is centered on transformational leadership and the responsibility for creating an organizational learning culture.

Findings – There is a conventional belief that leaders have solitary control and influence when it comes to setting up organizational learning processes. However, a top-down approach to facilitate and implement learning in organizations is not always an effective method because learning should be a collaborative practice. Thus, to rely fully on leaders to initiate and sustain the learning processes can be counter-productive.

Practical implications – Good and effective leadership is the key to organizational learning. Learning is the only sustainable method of achieving competitive advantage for contemporary organizations because of rapidly changing environmental forces. Corporations with aspirations for long-term survival must facilitate, through their leadership, “the impulse to learn” amongst their members.

Originality/value – Knowledge is lacking in the area where leadership is linked to learning. Such knowledge is important because leaders play a central role in the learning framework and leaders also offer the required guidance for organizations to integrate and sustain learning processes through policy and practice.

Total safety culture by behavior-based safety approach

Safety is a social responsibility and providing a safe working environment is the obligation of a responsible employer. Working safely can generate direct financial benefits. However, poor safety planning and management may lead to tremendous adverse effects on cost, time and quality of a project. Statutory liabilities and heavy fines directly increase project cost; losing working hours as a result of safety incident impacts on the project programme. When tradesmen are working in an unsafe site environment, the project quality may be affected. Therefore, promoting "safety" is always the very first and utmost priority in any large scale projects. Bodley (2000) argues that culture involves what people think, what they do, and what they produce. In order to provide a safe working environment, one of the best ways is to create a safety culture within the organization, because organizational-cultural factors play an important role in safety management. Geller emphasises the importance of safety culture and further states that behaviour-based safety (BBS) is a useful approach to uphold organizational safety culture. The basic premise of BBS is self-perception and the degree of self-perception will lead to pleasant safety outcomes. This degree can be measured by level of workers' involvement. When everyone in the project is accountable to safety, they will contribute positively. This paper is a case study reviewing how BBS approach fosters safety culture leading to ultimate success. The model illustrated by the case study will be useful to analyze the organizational safety culture quantitatively.

Enabling organizational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management – a longitudinal case study

Researchers report that successful cultural change in an organization is difficult to achieve. This research contends that it is more likely to be successful when a systemic approach to strategic human resource management (SHRM) is used to facilitate the change. The contention was tested in an action research case study and longitudinal assessment of change in a large Australian public sector agency. A clear finding from this research is that the cultural change had been sustained through the systemic application of SHRM.

The influence of job, team and organizational level resources on employee well-being, engagement, commitment and extra-role performance : test of a model

Purpose – Worker well-being continues to be fundamental to the study of work and a primary consideration for how organizations can achieve competitive advantage and sustainable and ethical work practices (Cartwright and Holmes; Harter, Schmidt and Keyes; Wright and Cropanzano). The science and practice of employee engagement, a key indicator of employee well-being, continues to evolve with ongoing incremental refinements to existing models and measures. This study aims to elaborate the Job Demands-Resources model of work engagement (Bakker and Demerouti) by examining how organizational, team and job level factors interrelate to influence engagement and well-being and downstream outcome variables such as affective commitment and extra-role behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach – Structural equations modelling of survey data obtained from 3,437 employees of a large multi-national mining company was used to test the important direct and indirect influence of organizational focused resources (a culture of fairness and support), team focused resources (team climate) and job level resources (career development, autonomy, supervisor support, and role clarity) on employee well-being, engagement, extra-role behaviour and organizational commitment.

Findings – The fit of the proposed measurement and structural models met criterion levels and the structural model accounted for sizable proportions of the variance in engagement/wellbeing (66 percent), extra-role-behaviour (52 percent) and commitment (69 percent).

Research limitations/implications – Study limitations (e.g. cross-sectional research design) and future opportunities are outlined.

Originality/value – The study demonstrates important extensions to the Job Demands-Resources model and provides researchers and practitioners with a simple but powerful motivational framework, a suite of measures, and a map of their inter-relationships which can be used to help understand, develop and manage employee well-being and engagement and their outcomes.

Australia’s strategic culture: constraints and opportunities in security policymaking

 This article draws on fourth generation strategic culture debates to show the gap between the rhetoric of Australian defence and the more modest reality. Our analysis shows that these limits derive from tensions between national strategic culture and organizational strategic subcultures. There are serious debates in the nation regarding the preferred course of the Australian military and security policy. This article frames these debates by examining the ‘keepers’ of Australia's national strategic culture, the existence of several competing strategic subcultures, and the importance of norm entrepreneurs in changing defence and national security thinking. Strategic subcultures foster compartmentalization, constraints, and bureaucratic silos that narrow national conceptions of security threats and opportunities, and impinge on the formation of coherent foreign and defence policy in relation to the Asia-Pacific region. This analysis shows that a distinct national strategic culture and organizational strategic subcultures endure beyond individual governments, placing potential limits on Australia's interface with other Asia-Pacific strategic cultures in the future.

Assessing the level of I.T. security culture improvement: results from three Australian SMEs

Transitioning towards an improved I.T. security culture that fosters desired I.T. security behaviour and attitudes in individuals is pertinent to any organizational I.T. security strategy. To improve the current I.T. security culture of an organization and its members, an initial assessment covering four core questions was necessary to determine how much of an improvement was needed. The assessments and data collection techniques and corresponding results and findings are presented and discussed. The implications of this research will be of great benefit to both practitioners wanting to improve I.T. security culture and awareness in their organization, and will help to fill the lack empirical research within the academic field of I.T. security. ©2009 IEEE.

Enabling construction innovation : The role of a no-blame culture as a collaboration behavioural driver in project alliances

A no-blame culture is widely accepted as a collaboration driver yet we see surprisingly scant literature on the theoretical underpinnings for the construction and project management context. A no-blame culture in project alliances, as conducted in Australasia, promotes innovative thinking in action. Innovation is dependent upon collaboration and true collaboration is inextricably linked with behavioural drivers. Foremost of these is a culture of openness and willingness to share the pain and gain from experimentation, one that requires that collaborators be protected from the threat of being blamed and held accountable for experimental failure. The Australasian project alliance procurement form has a unique 'no-blame' behavioural contract clause that can result in the type of breakthrough thinking crucial in developing a collaborative culture where innovation can evolve through a process of trial and error. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Organizational commitment in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises: the role of extrinsic, intrinsic and social rewards

This study investigates the relationship between organizational rewards and employee commitment in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to analyse survey data from 286 employees of 11 organizations. In line with what was hypothesized extrinsic rewards were found to be strongly related to both affective and continuance commitment, whereas satisfaction with supervision and role clarity positively influenced affective commitment. In contrast to previous empirical findings, autonomy and training provision were only found to influence continuance commitment. These findings have significant managerial implications regarding the utility of providing organizational rewards to enhance the commitment of Chinese employees. In order to promote employee commitment, SME managers could start by giving their employees greater autonomy and clarity regarding their role in the organization, as well as improving supervisor support. These are relatively inexpensive measures compared to the costly alternatives of improving extrinsic benefit packages and investing in employee training.