Yvette Blount

Association between performance measurement systems and organisational effectiveness

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of performance measurement systems in organisational effectiveness in the context of the financial services sector within a developing country. Design/methodology/approach – Using the mail survey method data were collected from 69 financial institutions operating in Nepal. Multivariate analysis, in particular multiple regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results suggest that non-financial measures and feedback are tightly intertwined with organisational effectiveness. While institutions are focused on using the performance measures concerning internal business process perspective, less emphasis is placed on using customer and employee-related performance measures because they are considered less significant to organisational effectiveness. The findings also reveal that strategy-related feedback is considered more critical by management, as opposed to performance and staff. The study also provides evidence tha...

E-Commerce, Human Resource Strategies, and Competitive Advantage: Two Australian Banking Case Studies

Service organizations need to consider in depth the human resource management (HRM) strategies that will enable them to achieve sustained competitive advantage in the e-commerce era. This paper analyzes the HRM strategies developed to accommodate the changing customer service practices associated with B2C e-commerce in the retail banking sector. Based on case study data, it describes how two banks in Australia, one large, the other small, have linked their e-commerce strategies with their overall business strategy, and the extent to which their HRM strategies have helped them to utilize their e-commerce capability to achieve sustained competitive advantage.

Fostering Independent Learning and Engagement for Postgraduate Students: Using a Publisher-Supplied Software Program.

Purpose – As educational technologies are more widely adopted in higher education teaching and learning, publishers often include online resources to accompany their textbook offerings. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study forming part of a larger ongoing evaluation of the third party software product WileyPLUS.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the integration of the publishers tools into a specific curriculum context and takes a critical look at the pedagogical effectiveness of the software in this context. A mixed‐methods approach is taken in the study, using a small postgraduate accounting unit as a case study.Findings – While many students reported positive experiences with the third party resources, technical issues were a barrier to their effectiveness and many students did not engage with the optional resources. The unit convenors experience was largely positive.Practical implications – Although it may be tempting for unit convenors to adopt these tools an...

Employee management and service provision: a conceptual framework

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a way of thinking about the technical and social subsystems in the context of e‐commerce adoption., – An interpretive research approach was used to investigate the employee management issues in service industries as they implemented B2C e‐commerce. Two case studies were selected, both retail banks in Australia. One case study was a major bank, the other a smaller bank in a niche market., – Employees who interact with customers using B2C technologies require different levels of skill and capability than those required in face‐to‐face interactions. This has implications for human resource management processes such as job design, recruitment and retention, performance management and training., – The study was small in scale and therefore limited in scope. Other service organisations and industries may have quite different information ecologies and business strategies., – The coactive commerce system provides a concrete way for researchers and practitioners to better align technology, customers and employees to achieve competitive advantage., – This research shows that it is important to understand B2C e‐commerce technologies in conjunction with business practices and in their broader context. It is important to understand how a service organisations business strategy, technology strategy, business processes and employee management work together to provide an appropriate level of service to customers and achieve sustainable competitive advantage and strategic positioning. This is a complex set of factors., – The coactive commerce system extends the socio‐technical framework to provide a more explicit way to analyse both the social and technical subsystems in an organisation by integrating the human resource management aspects into the theoretical mix in the electronic commerce and information systems literature. This is important because the employee interaction with the customer is the way the customer perceives the organisation.

Pondering the Fault Lines of Anywhere Working (Telework, Telecommuting): A Literature Review

Anywhere working (other terms include telework and telecommuting) has been of interest to researchers, policymakers and practitioners for over 40 years. The predicted uptake of anywhere working as a flexible working option has not eventuated to the extent expected. This monograph reviews some of the key areas of research on anywhere working. Achieving the proposed benefits while mitigating the limitations of anywhere working is complex, requiring consideration of many factors including government policy, technology, management and service quality (customer service). The purpose of this monograph is to evaluate the anywhere working research on themes in the literature that provide insights into sustainable anywhere working. Stakeholders including government, researchers, organisations and their employees need to understand how the adoption of anywhere working can provide quantifiable organisational, societal and individual (employee) benefits. This review ponders the fault lines (that is, the tensions and contentions) of anywhere working including a critique of the implications for employees. On the one hand, the proponents of anywhere working argue that the technological advances inevitably lead to this way of working becoming business as usual. On the other hand, detractors of anywhere working point to the limitations, like social and professional isolation, as barriers to full-scale adoption. The monograph concludes by proposing a longterm research agenda to develop a sustainable framework for anywhere working.

Integrating enterprise resource planning (SAP) in the accounting curriculum: a systematic literature review and case study

ABSTRACT This study investigates how an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package SAP was integrated into the curriculum of an accounting information systems (AIS) course in an Australian university. Furthermore, the paper provides a systematic literature review of articles published between 1990 and 2013 to understand how ERP systems were integrated into curriculums of other institutions, and to inform the curriculum designers on approaches for adopting SAP, the benefits and potential limitations. The experiences of integrating SAP into an AIS course from both the students and teaching staff perspectives are described and evaluated. The main finding was the importance of resourcing the instructors with technical and pedagogical support to achieve the learning outcomes. The paper concludes by proposing critical success factors for integrating ERP effectively into an AIS course.

E-commerce and human resource management: theortical approaches and issues for the banking industry

Electronic commerce technologies are changing the way that work tasks are conducted and thus has significant implications for the way organisations manage their human resource functions. Although the impact of IT on work and employment has been the subject of research, little attention has been paid to electronic commerce and its effect on work organisation and HR management. This paper examines existing literature on how eCommerce technologies have shaped workplace management, with particular attention to the banking industry. It proposes a conceptual framework for identifying and understanding these changes in the context of the business pressures faced by banks in the highly competitive retail banking environment.

Adoption of ICT Enabled Telehealth Services in the Australian Context: Implications of Technology Use for Telehealth Workers

This study investigated the major issues and challenges associated with ICT enabled telehealth service delivery from the point of view of workers engaged in telehealth delivery in Australia. Through intensive interviews with telehealth workers across three case study organizations, the study examines the types of technology employed to deliver ICT enabled health care, as well as implications of technology use in the health care environment, particularly as they relate to workers.

Diffusion of corporate social responsibility in the airline industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how and why corporate social responsibility (CSR) is diffused within the organisation and investigate the factors that influence the diffusion of CSR in the context of a developing country. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the diffusion of innovations theory, data were collected from a Nepalese airline company through semi-structured interviews supported by relevant documentary scrutiny. Findings The findings of this study indicate that the airline company’s CSR practices are aimed at enhancing organisational performance. The adoption of CSR is also seen as a proactive strategy to avoid any future risk associated with their environmental impact. The findings reveal that organisations’ strategy, cultural values and beliefs and top management support are important predictors of the adoption of CSR. Practical implications The empirical findings of this study provide valuable insights into how CSR can enhance organisations’ performance if CSR is used in a strategic way. The study also highlights the important role of cultural values and beliefs in the secondary stage of adoption (or internal diffusion), as successful implementation of CSR is highly unlikely to happen without focusing on appropriate culture within the organisation. Originality/value This study extends research on diffusion of innovations literature by focusing on both the initial and post-adoption process (primary and secondary stage of diffusion) of CSR within a single airline company operating in a developing country, Nepal.

Social media adoption framework for aged care service providers in Australia

The aged care sector has been a late adopter of social media platforms for communicating, collaborating, marketing and creating brand awareness. There is little research that examines the adoption of social media by aged care service providers for these purposes. This paper reviews the status of social media adoption in the Australian aged care industry, to understand in what ways social media can serve older peoples needs, and to develop recommendations for aged-care service providers to adopt social media applications to empower older people. Through a review of the literature and interviews with Australian experts, this paper suggests aged care providers use a three-phase framework when adopting social media in the aged care sector. The first phase is to adopt a popular public social media platform such as Facebook followed by Instagram and Twitter. The second phase supports interaction by encouraging posts and feedback by locally hosted member forums. The third phase is the adoption of specialised social applications for closed groups and specific functions. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the framework and proposes directions for future research