Organisational innovation: A Proposal for measurement

In spite of the prominence assigned to innovation in the strategic marketing literature particularly in the area of competitive strategy there have been several inadequacies in the conceptualization and measurement of the innovation construct. Responding to the need for a comprehensive measure, this paper attempts to develop and validate a measure for organisational innovation. Addressing the need to capture both the degree and type of innovation, as well as the synergistic influence of innovation types on performance outcomes, this paper proposes operationalising organisational innovation as a multidimensional construct. The proposed measure has a complex higher order structure that captures the variance in its dimensions that are different forms manifested by the construct. The measure also captures the synergistic impact of different innovation types on competitive advantage. The implications for theory, limitations and directions for future research are presented.

Trust and psychological strain experienced by employees during organisational change

Most modern models of personality are hierarchical, perhaps as a result of their development by means of exploratory factor analysis. Based on new ideas about the structure of personality and how it divides into biologically based and sociocognitively based components (as proposed by Carver, Cloninger, EUiot and Thrash, and ReveUe), I develop a series of rules that show how scales of personality may be linked from those that are most distal to those which are most proximal. I use SEM to confirm the proposed structure in scales of the Temperament Character Inventory (TCI) and the Eysenck Personality Profiler. Good fit is achieved and all proposed paths are significant. The model is then used to predict work performance, deviance and job satisfacdon.

The role of different sources of communication and trust in reducing change-related uncertainties during organisational change

The current paper presents a qualitadve study of the role of different sources of communicadon in reducing change-related uncertaintj' experienced by employees during organisadonal change. The paper examines the role of trust in influencing how employees' appraise informadon from different sources within organisadons. Interviews with 19 employees from a range of organisadons idendfy the different types of change-related uncertaindes experienced during change. In addidon, the different sources of communicadon utilised by employees are idendfied and the role each source plays in reducing the different t}'pes of uncertaint}' invesdgated. From employee responses it is evident that t)'pically supervisors are the best source of change informadon, while communicadon from senior management usually focuses on strategic issues. Employees indicate that communicadon with coworkers operates as a support mechanism providing an avenue to share grievances arising from the change. Finally, trust is idendfied as playing an important role in influencing who employees go to for informadon when experiencing uncertainty'. ImpUcadons for change management research in addidon to pracdcal implicadons are discussed.

Accommodative communication as a mediator to the negative effects of cultural identity on perceptions of foreign management practices and perceptions of organisational climate

This Study examines whether cultural identity has an impact on perceptions of foreign management practices and perceptions of organisational climate. Based on social identity theory as a conceptual framework, it is assumed that the salience of cultural identity leads to in-group bias in interpreting organisational events. This study also examines whether managers' accommodative communication behaviour mediates these relationships. In a multinational organisation, employees see the foreign company as a symbol, and the person that deals with them in everyday working relationships in the organisation is their direct leader. It is argued that the salience of cultural identity wiU depend on employees' perceptions of the way managers attach meaning to foreign managerial practices and communicate it to them. Interaction with managers who create a distance with their employees and who fail to Usten to what employees need may be a socially appropriate way to invoke the salience of cultural identity in the working relationship. The participants were 206 Indonesian employees from three multinational organisations. Using a questionnaire, this study shows that participants with strong cultural identity had more negative perceptions of foreign management practices and organisational climate. Furthermore, this study indicates that managers' accommodative communication behaviour mediated these relationships.