The relationship between HRM practices and service behaviour in South African service organizations

This paper reports on findings from research conducted in South African service organizations that frontline employees' perceptions of HRM practices have a direct influence on their service behaviour. Specific HRM practices have more impact than others and this was attributed to the influence of external factors such as the socio-political situation and national culture and to internal factors linked to the way managers implemented the HRM practices in the organization. Organizational commitment was found to play a mediating role in the relationship between frontline employees' perceptions of HRM and their service behaviour.

Theorizing about board governance of nonprofit organizations : surveying the landscape

Leading scholars on nonprofit governance have urged that future research be more informed by theory in order to promote more rigorous analysis. The aim of this paper is to survey the major theories on board governance, including those based in the disciplines of economics, management, sociology, psychology, politics, history and theology, in order to respond to this challenge. In addition, the relevance of these theories to a critical set of board behaviors - that is, how boards monitor, judge and influence organizational performance - is examined. Gaps in the theoretical literature are identified, and implications for public policy are explored. We conclude that a multi-theory and multi-disciplinary perspective is needed if research on governance of nonprofit organizations is to be complete in scope, rich in content, and relevant.

Organizations as intergroup contexts: Communication, discourse, and identification

wenty-eight international scholars contribute 11 chapters on the key role of communication in intergroup relations. Following an introductory essay on intergroup theory and communication processes, the text focuses on specific intergroup contexts, examining communication within and between cultural, disability, age, sex and sexuality, and language groups. The remaining chapters explore the communicating of identity across communication contexts, including small group, organizational, mass, and Internet communications. The text is designed for scholars in the fields of communication and intergroup social psychology, and is also suited for use in upper- division undergraduate and introductory graduate courses in those areas. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Workplace Equality in International Organizations: A Way Forward

In this contribution, I am interested in how discrimination issues are manifested in employment relations in the United Nations (UN), a public forum to all states political leaders to advance their concerns, the World Bank, a financial organization that promotes economic development, mainly in developing countries, and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the eldest and largest global public program of the World Bank with a strategic network of diverse stakeholders that harnesses the best in science to produce more and better food, reduce poverty and sustain environments. Considering the immunity and privileges granted to international organizations, what are the current available legal procedures, at the national or international level, for workplace equality? How accountable and transparent are they, based on the practice of these organizations? Can discrimination biases that go beyond the known individual-based discrimination claims be identified? If so, how can they be challenged and changed? Based of the special position of international civil servants in international organizations and the duty to protect their fundamental rights, I claim that the limitation of opportunity by discriminatory biases and the psychic burden on the individual staff member, on daily basis, qualify for a workplace wrong and call for independent and impartial legal procedures that would ensure due process and fair treatment.

The impact of gender diversity on performance in services and manufacturing organizations

We present three competing predictions of the organizational gender diversity-performance relationship: a positive linear prediction, a negative linear prediction, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear prediction. The paper also proposes a moderating effect of industry type (services vs. manufacturing). The predictions were tested using archival quantitative data with a longitudinal design. The results show partial support for the positive linear and inverted U-shaped curvilinear predictions as well as for the proposed moderating effect of industry type. The results help reconcile the inconsistent findings of past research. The findings also show that industry context can strengthen or weaken gender diversity effects.

The gender diversity-performance relationship in services and manufacturing organizations

Empirical findings on the link between gender diversity and performance have been inconsistent. This paper presents three competing predictions of the organizational gender diversity-performance relationship: a positive linear prediction derived from the resource-based view of the firm, a negative linear prediction derived from self-categorization and social identity theories, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear prediction derived from the integration of the resource-based view of the firm with self-categorization and social identity theories. This paper also proposes a moderating effect of industry type (services vs. manufacturing) on the gender diversity-performance relationship. The predictions were tested in publicly listed Australian organizations using archival quantitative data with a longitudinal research design. The results show partial support for the positive linear and inverted U-shaped curvilinear predictions as well as for the proposed moderating effect of industry type. The curvilinear relationship indicates that different proportions of organizational gender diversity have different effects on organizational performance, which may be attributed to different dynamics as suggested by the resource-based view and self-categorization and social identity theories. The results help reconcile the inconsistent findings of past research that focused on the linear gender diversity-performance relationship. The findings also show that industry context can strengthen or weaken the effects of organizational gender diversity on performance.

A systematic approach to evaluate the process improvement in lean manufacturing organizations

Numerous tools and techniques have been developed to eliminate or reduce waste and carry out Lean concepts in the manufacturing environment. However, in practice, manufacturers encounter difficulties to clearly identify the weaknesses of the existing processes in order to address them by implementing Lean tools. Moreover, selection and implementation of appropriate Lean strategies to address the problems identified is a challenging task. According best of authors‟ knowledge, there is no method available to quantitatively evaluate the cost and benefits of implementing a Lean strategy to address the weaknesses in the manufacturing process. Therefore, benefits of Lean approaches cannot be clearly established. The authors developed a methodology to quantitatively measure the performances of a manufacturing system in detecting the causes of inefficiencies and to select appropriate Lean strategies to address the problems identified. The proposed methodology demonstrates that the Lean strategies should be implemented based on the contexts of the organization and identified problem in order to achieve maximum cost benefits. Finally, a case study has been presented to demonstrate how the procedure developed works in practical situation.

Managing knowledge for enterprise systems in indian organizations: Case study insights

Many Enterprise Systems (ES) projects have reported nil or detrimental impacts despite the substantial investment in the system. Having expected positive outcomes for the organization and its functions through the weighty spend, the effective management of ES-related knowledge has been suggested as a critical success factor for these ES projects in ES implementations. This paper suggests theoretical views purporting the importance of understanding on knowledge management for ES success. To explain the complex, dynamic and multifaceted of knowledge management, we adopt the concepts in Learning Network Theory. We then conceptualized the impact of knowledge management on ES by analyzing five case studies in several industries in India, based on the Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm that captures the performance of the system.

Population genetic structure and patterns of dispersal in the Giant Long-Armed Prawn, Macrobrachium lar (Fabricius, 1798) (Decapoda : Palaemonidae)

The Giant Long-Armed Prawn, Macrobrachium lar is a freshwater species native to the Indo-Pacific. M. lar has a long-lived, passive, pelagic marine larval stage where larvae need to colonise freshwater within three months to complete their development. Dispersal is likely to be influenced by the extensive distances larvae must transit between small oceanic islands to find suitable freshwater habitat, and by prevailing east to west wind and ocean currents in the southern Pacific Ocean. Thus, both intrinsic and extrinsic factors are likely to influence wild population structure in this species. The present study sought to define the contemporary broad and fine-scale population genetic structure of Macrobrachium lar in the south-western Pacific Ocean. Three polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to assess patterns of genetic variation within and among 19 wild adult sample sites. Statistical procedures that partition variation implied that at both spatial scales, essentially all variation was present within sample sites and differentiation among sites was low. Any differentiation observed also was not correlated with geographical distance. Statistical approaches that measure genetic distance, at the broad-scale, showed that all south-western Pacific Islands were essentially homogeneous, with the exception of a well supported divergent Cook Islands group. These findings are likely the result of some combination of factors that may include the potential for allelic homoplasy, through to the effects of sampling regime. Based on the findings, there is most likely a divergent M. lar Cook Islands clade in the south-western Pacific Ocean, resulting from prevailing ocean currents. Confirmation of this pattern will require a more detailed analysis of nDNA variation using a larger number of loci and, where possible, use of larger population sizes.

Knowledge management for enterprise systems: observations from small, medium and large organizations

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the lifecycle-wide management of Enterprise System (ES) related knowledge is critical for ES health and longevity. At a time where many ES-vendors now offering solutions to Small and Medium size organizations, this paper investigates the ability of Small and Medium size organizations to maintain a lifecycle-wide knowledge management strategy. The paper explores the alleged differences in the knowledge management practices across 27 small, medium and large organizations that had implemented a market-leading ES. Results suggest that: (1) despite similar knowledge creation efforts in all three organizational sizes, small organizations struggle with retaining, transferring and applying the knowledge. The study also reveals that, (2) the overall goodness of the knowledge management process in larger organizations remains higher than their small and medium counterparts.