Marie Wilson

Putting the "Team" into Teamwork: Alternative Theoretical Contributions for Contemporary Management Practice

This paper establishes that teamwork is a function of how team members perceive the team and their role in it. Social identity theory (Hogg & Abrams, 1993; Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and self-categorization theory (Turner, 1987) offer explanations for the cognitive, evaluative, and emotional processes which motivate individuals to join a social group and enhance their ability to contribute to the maximum of their ability, which would be desirable for many team tasks. Social identity theory posits that the motivation for thinking, feeling, and thus working as a cohesive unit is socially constructed. Highly productive teamwork requires that team members recognize the team as a unit and as an attractive work arrangement. Fundamental assumptions of contemporary management, and management research, are challenged to integrate social identity findings.

Exploring the development of quality in higher education

This paper uses a developmental perspective to characterise quality initiatives in the higher education systems of four countries: Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and North America. Each country demonstrates variety in its practices, as well as consistent patterns of environment, policy and institutional response. Survey data support a continuum of quality evolution from a low quality, low organisational learning environment toward organisational learning capabilities. The three stages of learning proposed by both Senge and McKay and Kember are also reflected in the study’s findings. Drawing on these findings, implications for managers are outlined focusing on areas of key organisational transformation such as leadership, culture and infrastructure.

Shift work interventions for reduced work‐family conflict

Purpose – This research aims to investigate the efficacy of family involvement in shift work training targeting both physiological and social coping strategies.Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized repeated surveys of work‐family conflict (WFC) and family‐work conflict (FWC) in a naturally occurring field experiment. Three small process manufacturing sites introduced training for shift workers, with or without family involvement, and with or without training on managing relational aspects of shift‐work.Findings – The inclusion of social coping strategies combined with family involvement significantly reduced work‐family conflict. Open response categories on the survey suggest that these reductions were due to the facilitation of a joint problem solving approach by family members. In contrast, employee focused training on physiological coping alone appears to increase family conflicts.Research limitations/implications – As a field study, this paper cannot control for the particularities of famil...

“It's the situation I'm in”: the importance of managerial context to effectiveness

Most research in managerial effectiveness, or competence, focuses upon personal attributes of the individual. This understates the impact of context, which can assist or hinder job performance. A national (New Zealand) survey assessed the impact of 16 environmental variables, four management development variables and two variables reflecting personal skills and abilities, on the ability to be effective as a manager. Analysis revealed eight factors explaining the majority of perceived management effectiveness. The results suggest that support in a variety of forms is a key influence on the ability to be effective as a manager, with particular emphasis on the role of supervisors and subordinates, as well as organisational culture. Organisational level and organisational size interacted with contextual factors. The overall results suggest that, like other employees, managers are more likely to see both their success and hindrances as a function of their environment.

Modeling OCB for hotels: don't forget the customers.

Most research examining organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has focused on employees’ efforts that benefit the organization or the individuals’ coworkers. A third dimension that is critical for the hospitality industry is behavior above and beyond the specific job description that is directed at customers. While most OCB studies have considered what behaviors are essential to corporate citizenship, but specific behaviors might be culturally bound. To avoid cultural issues, a more effective approach is to analyze the targets of citizenship behavior, that is, the organization, coworkers, and customers. A study of 240 hotel workers in China found support for a three-leg model of OCB, combining behavior aimed at these targets: at the organization itself, at coworkers, and at customers. Citizenship behavior aimed at the organization includes such activities as promoting a hotel’s products and making favorable comments about the property outside of work. Citizenship behavior in support of coworkers includes assisting them as needed and taking time to listen to coworkers’ concerns. Customer-focused OCB includes such activities as maintaining a positive attitude at work and performing duties carefully and accurately. Although this study did not expressly measure the results of such actions, previous work has shown increases in guest satisfaction and company revenue when OCB activities are high.

Employment systems in small firms: A multilevel analysis

This exploratory study draws upon the perspectives of employees and managers from 50 small Australian firms to build a more complete and nuanced view of the interaction of human resources and capabilities with firm performance. Specifically, it uses a mixed methods multilevel design that elicits employee perspectives of employment systems and chief executive officer (CEO) assessments of firm performance. Results show that higher performing firms had better rated employment systems, with a cluster of human resource practices which included greater informality, employee engagement and participation. The views of employees were more discriminating and diagnostic than those of CEOs. The article discusses the implications of these findings for the study of employment systems and human resource management in small firms.

The interaction of market and technology in radical transformation: The case of Telecom New Zealand

Purpose – This study aims to demonstrate the interaction of the regulatory environment and market forces with rapid technological change in the transformation of SOEs, as exemplified by Telecom NZ.Design/methodology/approach – This case study analysis explicates resource dependency and institutional forces in the process of SOE privatisation, in the first ten years of transformation, through textual analysis of data collected from company annual reports and interviews.Findings – It is demonstrated that resource dependencies on technology and capital, market forces, and the institutionalization of new structures and relationships, are as important as regulatory changes in the analysis of SOE restructuring. It is also documented that the regulatory transitions are not as clear‐cut as the legislative dates and economic analyses suggest.Research limitations/implications – The research focuses on a single exemplar to explicate key interactions. While generalizable to theory, the use of in‐depth case studies is...

Dynamics of decision power in the localization process: comparative case studies of China-Western IJVs

International HRM has focused on the MNC and its control and compliance mechanisms, particularly the tension between ‘internationalizing’ practices and normative host-country practices. This contingency approach does not capture the complexity of MNC interactions in the local environment, however, particularly with regard to international joint ventures (IJVs). Partners to the IJV may wish to impose their own practices, and use contractual and non-contractual resource power, internationalization expertise and operational consistency requirements to gain relative decisional advantage. Case studies of four Sino-Western IJVs illustrate the dynamics of IHRM development under conditions of weak socio-legal constraint and high cultural distance between partners.

TQM implementation in New Zealand service organizations

Studies various approaches used in total quality management (TQM) implementation in four mid to large service organizations in New Zealand. The research was conducted through a qualitative field study, using in‐depth interviews of in‐house trainers and internal and external quality consultants, as well as structured questionnaire responses from employees within the service organizations. Finds the existence of certain unique New Zealand workplace variables that influence the effectiveness of TQM implementation when foreign‐based implementation literature is followed. The extent to which Deming’s philosophies and principles are practised in New Zealand is decreasing as more prescriptive and contemporary approaches to TQM implementation have become available. In practice, the role of training is not the main tool for implementation in the organizations studied, however, it does have a key role to play. Finds that experiential applied learning methods are predominant in New Zealand TQM implementations, as opposed to the traditional classroom‐style training.

The Affective and Dispositional Consequences of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Study

Despite its known impacts on organizational effectiveness, few studies have investigated organizational citizenship behavior’s (OCB’s) impact on the individual employee. This study explored the affective and dispositional consequences of OCB for hotel employees and their relationships with turnover intention. A cross-cultural comparison of U.S. and Chinese hotel employees was incorporated into the survey-based research design. The results supported positive emotion, continuance commitment, and workplace social inclusion as consequences of OCBs and mediators in the OCB–turnover relationship, with significant differences by OCB targets. The results also supported culture’s moderating role in the relationship of OCB and its consequences. The implications of the findings and directions for future research were discussed.