Vicenc Fernandez

Organizational forgetting and its causes: an empirical research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of organizational forgetting on knowledge‐intensive firms and the circumstances in which the loss of distinctive knowledge takes place.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical research in this paper consists of a qualitative proposal based on two case studies in higher education involving situations of organizational forgetting.Findings – A framework for conceptualizing organizational forgetting. Moreover, the results of the case study analysis include a categorization of organizational forgetting and a set of propositions about their causes.Originality/value – Scientific research on knowledge management has focused on the processes of knowledge creation, use and transfer, but has devoted little attention to the processes of knowledge degradation and destruction.

Career attitudes and subjective career success: tackling gender differences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of gender upon the relation between protean and boundaryless career attitudes and subjective career success, in todays dynamic and changing organizational context.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a questionnaire conducted on 150 graduate and post‐graduate distance learning students. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.Findings – The analysis indicates that womens career success is positively related with self‐direction and negatively related with their reliance on their own values. Furthermore, the authors found a negative relation between organizational mobility preference and mens subjective career success.Research limitations/implications – A potential limitation of this study is that all participants were distance‐learning students, thus limiting the generalizability of the findings to other populations. Furthermore, cross‐sectional designs do not permit drawing conclusions regarding the causal...

Organizational commitment within a contemporary career context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relation between the underlying dimensions of protean (self-direction and values driven) and boundaryless (boundaryless mindset and organizational mobility preference (OMP)) career attitudes (Briscoe et al., 2006) and organizational commitment, within todays unstable and uncertain business scenario. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 167 professionals attending graduate and postgraduate distance learning courses. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis. Findings – Research results suggest that protean career attitudes contribute significantly to individuals’ emotional attachment to their employing organization. Furthermore, OMP was found to be significant in predicting both affective and continuance commitment. Research limitations/implications – First, cross-sectional correlational designs impede conclusive inferences regarding causal relationships among the variables. Second, the use of a sample of professionals attending distance learning business courses could limit the generalizability of the study findings, because the majority of the respondents were homogenous in terms of age and educational background. Practical implications – Fostering individuals’ self-direction results in enhanced affective commitment to their employing organizations. Workshops oriented at clarifying and communicating organizational values, philosophy and principles can be all beneficial for strengthening employees’ commitment to the organization. Originality/value – This is the first paper to test the relationship between boundaryless and protean career attitudes and organizational commitment on a European sample.

Evolution of online discussion forum richness according to channel expansion theory: A longitudinal panel data analysis

The selection and use of communication media has been the center of attention for a great number of researchers in the area of organizational communication. The channel expansion theory combines elements of the main theories in this area; however, these investigations have a static cross-sectional design rather than a longitudinal analysis. With the objective of filling this gap, we research how the perception of media richness varies over time with a longitudinal study. The results suggest that the perception of richness of a channel by different individuals is different but that those variations due to a change in acquired experiences, are influenced in a similar and significant way by all individuals over time. Highlights? How the evolution of the richness perception on discussion forums vary over time. ? Uncommon study due to its longitudinal design rather than the traditional design. ? The time factor has a significant effect on the richness perception. ? The time factor has a significant effect on the usefulness of a communication media.

Framework for the analysis of executive information systems based on the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use

The acquisition and use of information are key factors in successful executive performance. Although there are various and different media that executives use to obtain information, in the last decade the academic research has emphasised computer-based systems. Inside this group of systems, we can find the Executive Information Systems (EIS), which are tools that can help executives to obtain relevant informationmore efficiently.Recently, EIS have been analyzed through the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with significant results. A deeper review of these results, the existing literature, as well as our own experience, suggest there are some factors that affect to the use of EIS indirectly or as moderating variables, instead of directly as recent studies suggest. The objective of our research is to propose a framework based on the TAM, which shows the different types of factors that affect to the Perceived Usefulness (U) and Perceived Ease of Use(EOU) of EIS, as well as how the kind of influence of these factors on U and EOU. ©© Intangible Capital, 2009 – 5(4):370-386 – ISSN: 1697-9818 doi: 10.3926/ic.2009.v5n4.p370-386 Framework for the analysis of executive information systems based on... 371 J.L. Cano Giner – V. Fernandez – M. Díaz Boladeras

The frequency of the dyadic influence tactics according to communication media

One of the most important determinants of managerial effectiveness in achieving organisational objectives is the success in influencing subordinates, lateral peers and supervisors through influence tactics. However, little attention has been paid to the use of a communication medium in the context of influence tactics. Our objective is to study the frequency of these dyadic influence tactics on diverse communication media. The study involves a questionnaire-based survey conducted on Spanish post-graduate students who had been working in medium-sized or large companies during the last 2 years or more. The results suggest that the richness of the medium explains most similarities and differences in the frequency of influence tactics for different communication media. Furthermore, in the study of hard influence tactics in communication media with similar richness, it is necessary to introduce social aspects and the level of surveillance in order to explain it fully. This study helps managers to understand the relationships between influence tactics and the use of communication media in order to improve their communication effectiveness.

Past, Present, and Future of Podcasting in Higher Education

Podcasting has become a major phenomenon within both our society and our educational system, as is evidenced by the large quantity of scientific publications on the topic. However, the study of podcasting in higher education remains in its initial phase of study. The results of research on podcasting are notably diverse and are even occasionally contradictory. Thus, this chapter performs a thorough review of the literature with the objective of developing a podcasting model that can establish the necessary guidelines for the study of podcasting. This model is key to defining control variables for sharing and incorporating research results on podcasting. Finally, the chapter proposes a list of future lines of podcasting research based on the literature review and the proposed model for creating podcasts.

The opportunity of tracking food waste in school canteens: Guidelines for self-assessment

Reducing food waste is one of the key challenges of the food system and addressing it in the institutional catering industry can be a quick win. In particular, school canteens are a significant source of food waste and therefore embody a great opportunity to address food waste. The goal of our research is the development of guidelines for audit and self-assessment in measuring and managing food waste produced at school canteens. The purpose of the tool is to standardise food waste audits to be executed either by scholars, school staff or by catering companies with the objective of measuring and reducing food waste at schools. We performed a research among public and private schools and catering companies from which we obtained the key performance indicators to be measured and then pilot-tested the resulting tool in four schools with over 2900 pupil participants, measuring plate waste from over 10,000 trays. This tool will help managers in their efforts towards more sustainable organisations at the same time as the standardisation of food waste audits will provide researchers with comparable data. The study suggests that although there is low awareness on the amount of food wasted at school canteens, managers and staff are highly interested in the topic and would be willing to implement audits and reduction measures. The case study also showed that our tool is easy to implement and not disruptive.

Relations between organizational commitment and focal and discretionary behaviours

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relations between organizational commitment (OC) dimensions and two focal and discretionary behaviours (intention to stay and organizational citizenship behaviour). Drawing on a sample of 310 Spanish employees of small services firms, this research reveals that in contrast to recent findings that detected a nonlinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between continuance commitment and intention to stay, the form of the relationships between OC dimensions and the proposed outcomes is linear rather than nonlinear. Furthermore, when dividing continuance commitment into two subcomponents, the research results indicate that the dimension associated with commitment based on few existing employment alternatives is significantly, negatively and linearly related to intention to stay and organizational citizenship behaviour. This suggests that the three-component model of OC suffers from a conceptual inconsistency, which is further discussed.

An Examination of the Effects of Self-Regulatory Focus on the Perception of the Media Richness The Case of E-Mail

Communication is a key element in organizations’ business success. The media richness theory and the channel expansion theory are two of the most influential theories regarding the selection and use of communication media in organizations; however, literature has focused little on the effects of self-regulation by managers and employees in these theories. To analyze these topics, this study develops an empirical investigation by gathering data from 600 managers and employees using a questionnaire. The results suggest that the perception of media richness is positively affected when the individual shows a promotion focus or strategy.