Organisational commitment of financial planners in Australia

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the demographic variables of age, gender and length of service can be shown to be related to the organisational commitment (OC) of financial planners in Australia. The financial planners were surveyed using an instrument derived from established questionnaires. It was mailed nationally to 312 financial planners. A response rate of 36% was achieved, equating to 113 useable responses. The analyses revealed statistically significant results at the 90% confidence level (p=0.10), that respondents over the age of 35 demonstrated a significantly higher level of OC than did those under the age of 35, and at the same level of confidence, females demonstrated a statistically significant higher level of OC than did their male counterparts.

Such findings contribute to our understanding of the organisational commitment of Financial Planners, and have implications for employers in terms of hiring and retention of employees. The analyses are also important from a public policy perspective in an era of increasing attention given to, and likely increased regulation of, the financial planning industry.

Understanding the impact of organisational downsizing on knowledge sharing

Careful consideration by managers of the potential impact of the popular strategy of economic restructuring (downsizing) on organisational structure and culture could improve the quality of organisational knowledge sharing, however this influence has not yet been addressed in the knowledge management literature. This paper explores how a strategy of downsizing may reshape organisational structure and culture and inhibit organisational knowledge sharing, drawing on an interpretive case study of knowledge sharing in an information technology services function at a large Australian education service provider. Key findings indicate that when specialised teams are downsized, subcultures may develop where teams become mistrustful and insular, and knowledge sharing is constrained across teams. Further, when a hierarchical structure is present and downsizing occurs, managers may become more cautious about sharing knowledge with subordinates. The study also suggests that Internet technologies may play a key role in helping to compensate for the shortfall in knowledge stock resulting from downsizing. In conclusion, this paper highlights an important need for companies to consider the potential negative influences of downsizing on organisationalknowledge sharing.

An examination of the organisational commitment of financial planners

This paper sets out to determine whether the demographic variables of age, gender, length of service can be shown to be related to the organisational commitment (OC) of financial planners in Australia. The financial planners were surveyed using an instrument derived from established questionnaires. It was mailed nationally to 312 financial planners. A response rate of 36% was achieved, equating to 113 useable responses. The analyses revealed statistically significant results at the 95% confidence level (p=0.05), that female respondents demonstrated a statistically significant higher level of OC than did their male counterparts.Such findings contribute to our understanding of the organisational commitment of Financial Planners, and have implications for employers in terms of hiring and retention of employees. The analyses are also important from a public policy perspective in an era of increasing attention given to, and likely increased regulation of, the financial planning industry.

Do repatriate support practices influence repatriate experience, organisational commitment, turnover intentions and perceptions of career success?

The focus of this paper is the development of a model for the effective management of repatriation in multinational enterprises (MNEs). It reviews the literature associated with the relationships between repatriate support practices in relation to repatriation experiences, organisational commitment, turnover intentions, and perceptions of career success. A model has been developed where it is hypothesized that the perception of the provision of important and higher quality practices will result in positive repatriation experiences A positive experience will be positively related to organisational commitment, and perceptions of career success, and negatively related to turnover intentions. These relationships are based on the concepts of social support, uncertainty reduction theory, and psychological contract theory.

Organisational decline and renewal in an Australian voluntary association

Voluntary associations are an integral fonn of social capital in democratic societies. These associations make vital contributions to community life. Many associations are successful in meeting the needs of their constituency and thrive over many decades. These long serving associations are not static vehicles, like all organisations, they are subject to internal and external pressures for change. It is a significant challenge for volunteer associations to maintain 'a watch' on the external environment whilst responding to the needs of their stakeholders. Previously vibrant associations may experience a decline in membership and social standing as a result of significant changes in society and technology. We track a nonprofit voluntary association from its inception in the 1960s through it responses to major environmental turbulence during the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s when the survival of
the organisation was in doubt. We outline the changes that took place from 2003 that reorientated, revitalised and reshaped the association including a major shift in focus from services to members to services to the community. This study provides academics and practitioners with an appreciation of the forces of organisational decline and a case study of successful change in a voluntary association.

The UK perspective: a review of research on organisational stress management interventions

There are an increasing number of studies that have monitored the impact of Stress Management Interventions (SMls) and the results of these studies can play a vital role in informing the development of more effective, evidenced-based SMIs. In this paper, the authors have undertaken a review of United Kingdom (UK)-based research that has tested the impact of SMIs. Sixteen studies were examined and the results revealed that the vast majority of interventions were targeted at the individual employee, although there was a tendency for more recent research to focus on organisational level interventions. While all intervention levels were found to have some human and/or organisational benefits, strategies aimed at the individual level were less likely to result in longer-term benefits. An examination of the research methods used in the 16 studies indicated that UK-based researchers are beginning to adopt more rigorous research methods. However, there was a tendency for researchers to evaluate interventions over a relatively short time-frame. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

Market orientation and organisational performance: the influence of moderators

The concept of market orientation has received a great deal of attention from marketing scholars, indicating its conceptual and practical importance. The concept has been investigated from many perspectives and examined in many ways. The current general understanding is that market orientation, in most cases, is positively related to some measures of organisational performance and that different internal and external situations moderate this relationship. This paper aims to (1) introduce a measure of market orientation effectiveness, which represents a synthesis of the influence of different internal and external moderators on market orientation, and (2) measure the association of market orientation effectiveness with (a) a marketing performance outcome and (b) the overall organisational financial performance. The results from a survey of 216 large Australian businesses indicated that some variables (an organisation’s strategy of cost leadership, market strength, implementation effectiveness, and market volatility) have positive contributions at different degrees to market orientation effectiveness, while anticipated competitive reaction contributes negatively. Results also indicated that in the sample studied, both market orientation and market orientation effectiveness were more strongly associated with a measure of marketing performance, than with the overall financial performance, which is a function of both marketing and non-marketing initiatives.

Using knowledge management processes to develop and implement organisational training strategies for virtual teams : an action learning approach

This paper develops a conceptual model of a knowledge management system that could be used to develop and implement organizational training strategies for virtual teams. An action research-based case is presented to support and illustrate the contention that action-learning methods can be effectively used to enable and tap into the knowledge generated by virtual teams. Virtual teams are an increasingly common response to changing organizational needs. However, the use of virtual teams has outpaced our understanding of their dynamics and unique characteristics. Practitioners are now offering virtual team training, but few organizations are making the effort to offer in-house training. Moreover, they are missing out on the opportunity to systematically capture the knowledge produced by virtual teams and cycle it back into virtual team training and support systems.

The mediating role of competitive advantage in the relationship between organisational capabilities and retail performance

This paper investigates the relationships between market, learning and brand orientation with competitive advantage and organisational performance in the context of the UK retail industry. The results indicate that competitive advantage contributes to strategic effectiveness and mediates the relationship between learning and brand orientation and strategic effectiveness. No significant relationship was found in relation to financial performance. Moreover, market orientation was not found to have a significant direct effect on competitive advantage or indirect affect on performance.

A model to enable organisational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management

Cultural change in organisations is both difficult to implement and hard to achieve. In this paper, theory from strategic human resource management, organisational cultural change, systemic thinking and practice, and punctuated equilibrium, is integrated in order to build a model for organisational culture change. Evidence is provided showing the capacity of the model to enable researchers and organisational change agents to improve the success of organisational cultural change programs.

The role of human resource management in moderating the relationship between organisational culture and TQM adoption

Culture has been considered as one of the factors that influences the TQM adoption process of organisations. Based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, we suggest that individualist organisations would find difficulties in adopting TQM, which tends to reflect a more collectivist than individualist culture. We, however, believe that individualist organisations can overcome this problem by establishing collectivist HRM policies by creating collectivistic TQM environment. This paper thus fills the gap between literature on culture, HRM and TQM. Notably, based upon the examination of the impact individualist versus collectivist culture have on HRM policies and TQM adoption, this paper proposes collectivist HRM policies as the significant moderating variable on the relationship between the culturally diverse members and the TQM adoption within the organisational context. Based upon the theoretical framework developed in this paper, implications for future research are outlined.