Followership practices as determinants of national innovativeness: a study across 56 cultures

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roshni Das

PurposeThere is a dearth of literature on what are the factors in terms of leaders’ and followers’ characteristics that impact innovation at the country level. The purpose of this paper is to build theoretical argument and provide empirical evidence of these factors using a cross-cultural mode of study across 56 nations.Design/methodology/approachThe Bayesian modelling technique is used on data from the GLOBE survey.FindingsInnovation at the individual, team and organisational levels has generally been associated with the relationship-motivated leadership, as opposed to task-motivated leadership. This study confirms that this premise holds at the societal level of analysis as well. The second finding is that in terms of followers’ cultural characteristics, out of three variables (power distance, collectivism and performance orientation) tested, only power distance orientation is found to have a predictive relationship with aggregate innovation. The moderator slope analysis unveils a nuanced understanding of how the interaction between leadership styles and followers’ cultural traits impact national innovativeness.Research limitations/implicationsCulture and leadership configurations that bolster innovation need to be studied more thoroughly.Practical implicationsThis study has implications for multi-country teams involved in research and development activities.Originality/valueTo our knowledge, this is the first study to unpack leader−follower relationships as predictors of national innovation. A leadership-culture fit perspective is advanced.

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Rita Silva ◽  
Helena Cristina Roque ◽  
António Caetano

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the cultural values – how things should be – and the cultural practices – how things are – of Angolan society. The authors expected to find: a gap between practices and values; high levels of power distance, institutional and in-group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, future and humane orientation; and low to medium levels of performance orientation, gender equality and assertiveness. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 235 employees in Angola responded to a questionnaire using GLOBE’s cultural scales. Findings – There is a gap between cultural practices and values. Within Angola, humane and performance orientations are the most valued cultural dimensions. Power distance and in-group collectivism are the most prevailing cultural practices. Compared to other countries, Angola has high levels of humane orientation, institutional collectivism and uncertainty avoidance values and high levels of assertiveness and performance orientation practices. Practical implications – Higher than desired levels of assertiveness and power distance, on the one hand, and lower than desired levels of humane orientation and uncertainty avoidance on the other, are key aspects that should be taken into account by HRM in this context. Originality/value – These results may have important implications for HRM in Angola. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of Angola’s culture from a business research perspective.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 816-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin C. Williams ◽  
Besnik Krasniqi

Purpose Recently, a small but burgeoning literature has argued that tax non-compliance cannot be fully explained using the conventional rational economic actor approach which views non-compliance as occurring when the pay-off is greater than the expected cost of being caught and punished. Instead, a social actor approach has emerged which views tax non-compliance as higher when “tax morale”, defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, is low. To advance this social actor model, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the individual and national heterogeneity in tax morale, which is crucial if tax compliance is to be improved. Design/methodology/approach To do this, the authors report data from the 2010 Life in Transition Survey on tax morale in 35 Eurasian countries. Findings Logit econometric analysis reveals, on the one hand, that there is higher tax morale among middle-aged, married, homeowners with children, with a university degree and employed, and on the other hand, that there is higher tax morale in more developed countries with stronger legal systems and less corruption, and higher levels of state intervention in the form of both taxation and expenditure. Research limitations/implications Rather than continue with the rational actor approach, this paper reveals that how an emergent social actor approach can help to more fully explain tax non-compliance and results in a different policy approach focused upon changing country-level economic and social conditions associated with low tax morale and thus non-compliance. Practical implications These results display the specific populations with low tax morale which need targeting when seeking to tackle tax non-compliance. Originality/value This paper provides a new way of explaining and tackling tax non-compliance in Eurasian countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 1301-1329
Author(s):  
Ali Raza ◽  
Moreno Muffatto ◽  
Saadat Saeed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between entrepreneurial cognition and innovative entrepreneurial activity (IEA) across countries using an institutional perspective. Design/methodology/approach The paper tests theoretical model using data collected by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness study and the Index of Economic Freedom (IEF). A multi-level analysis is performed based on set of 1,004,620 observations from 49 countries spanning 13 years (2001–2013). Findings The results suggest that in terms of formal regulations; the relationship between entrepreneurial cognitions and IEA becomes stronger when there is an increase in intellectual property right and business freedom regulations in a country. On the other hand, in terms of informal institutions the relationship between entrepreneurial cognitions and IEA becomes stronger when the level of institutional collectivism and uncertainty decreases and performance orientation increases. Originality/value The study indicates that entrepreneurship by innovation increases when the individuals possess high level of entrepreneurial cognition under suitable institutional conditions (e.g. intellectual property right, business freedom, institutional collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and performance orientation).


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 872-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongli Wang

Purpose Creativity itself does not necessarily lead to idea implementation. The purpose of this paper is to deeply understand the impact of the individual culture value orientation on employees’ motivation on whether they want to push creative ideas into implementation. Design/methodology/approach In this study, drawing on socially desirable responding (SDR) theory, the author reasons that individual value on power distance and superficial harmony and that these two factors interact to influence employees transform their creativity into implementation. The author argues that prevalence of the failure where creativity cannot be transformed into implementation results from the lack of understanding for two elusive individual culture value orientations: individual superficial harmony orientations (ISHO) and individual power distance orientations (IPDO). Data from 66 middle managers and 301 members of five high-tech firms provide a considerable support for the hypothesized model. Findings The results showed that individuals were able to improve the possibility of putting their creative ideas into practice when they are both lower in IPDO and ISHO. Originality/value Such findings help the author to understand how individual cultural value orientation complements each other to generate joint impact on the relationship between their creative ideas to idea implementation.


Kybernetes ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon-Arild Johannessen ◽  
Hugo Skaalsvik

Purpose – One problem that many organisations face today in the global economy is that too few ideas are turned into innovations. The purpose of this paper is to show how innovations in organisations may be obtained by means of creative energy fields. Design/methodology/approach – The design employed in the research represents a holistic, change oriented approach to innovation, and the methodology is conceptual where an analytical model is used. Findings – The paper provides arguments that organisations need to develop creative energy fields in order to enhance their innovative capacity and performance. In the paper the construct creative energy field is conceptualised as “a spot in an organisation where a Group of creative individuals collaborate and work together in order to bring to surface new ideas which may fuel innovation processes and Development in organisations”. The paper shows that creative energy fields are influenced by five distinct components; those of making a clear purpose, planning after the results have become apparant, an organisation’s rule breakers, drawing a map that changes the landscape, and igniting the flame of innovation. Furthermore, the findings encompass three conditions which need to be present in an organisation in order to make creative energy fields work. Research limitations/implications – The carried out focuses on the individual organisation which aims to enhance innovation performance. Practical implications – In relation to practical implications, the paper shows, in particular, how an organisation may move into areas of innovation by means of a Lego system of organising. Originality/value – To the authors’ knowledge, the creation and use of a novel construct, that of creative energy fields, represents newness and originality in innovation research at the level of the individual enterprise. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the extant management knowledge of innovation by showing how a Lego system of organising may foster innovation at the enterprise level.


Author(s):  
Peter Gloor ◽  
Kai Fischbach ◽  
Julia Gluesing ◽  
Ken Riopelle ◽  
Detlef Schoder

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show that virtual mirroring-based learning allows members of an organization to see how they communicate with others in a visual way, by applying principles of “social quantum physics” (empathy, entanglement, reflect, reboot), to become better communicators and build a shared “DNA” within their organization. Design/methodology/approach E-mail based social network analysis creates virtual maps of communication – social landscapes – of organizations, similar to Google Maps, which creates geographical maps of a person’s surroundings. Findings Applying virtual mirroring-based learning at various mulitnational firms has significantly increased their organizational efficiency and performance, for instance increasing customer satisfaction by 18 per cent in a large services organization, increasing retention, making sales forecasts, and improving call center employee satisfaction. Research limitations/implications To address concerns of individual privacy, the guiding principle is to give individual information to the individual and provide aggregated anonymized information to management. Originality/value Virtual mirroring-based learning offers a unique way of creating collective awareness within an organization by empowering the individual to take corrective action aligned with collective action, and improves their own communication behavior through analyzing and visualizing their e-mail archive in novel ways, while giving strategic insight to management and improving organizational culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobei Li ◽  
Lu Xing

PurposeThis study's purpose is to examine benevolent leadership's effect on employee silence, as moderated by perceived employee agreement on leader behaviors and cultural value orientations.Design/methodology/approachTwo-wave survey data were collected from 240 Chinese employees working in various industries. Hierarchical regression and simple slope analysis were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsBenevolent leadership was negatively related to employee silence. When perceived employee agreement on leader behaviors was high, employees with high power-distance orientation or low vertical individualism were more sensitive to benevolent leadership and engaged in less silence.Practical implicationsManagers are advised to exhibit benevolent behaviors to mitigate employees' tendency to remain silence. Organizations and managers can also design interventions to encourage employees with low power distance or high vertical individualism to speak up.Originality/valueThis study advances the understanding of the relationship between benevolent leadership and employee silence. By highlighting the moderating role of employees' perception of leader behaviors and their cultural value orientations, this study helps explain the conditions that when employees choose to keep silence or not.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
Christian Grund ◽  
Dirk Sliwka ◽  
Krystina Titz

PurposeWe analyze the role of works councils for the use of performance appraisals (PA). We distinguish between the incidence of PA systems as intended by the firm and their actual implementation on the level of the individual employee.Design/methodology/approachWe draw on two complementary data sets. These are the German Linked Personnel Panel (LPP), which combines firm-based information with information provided by several of those employees, and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which is a representative longitudinal study of persons living in Germany.FindingsWe find that works councils tend to promote rather than restrict PA. Employees working in establishments with a works council are more likely to face a formal PA procedure. Works councils also act as a transmission institution for the actual use of an existing PA system – i.e. among the firms that claim to implement PA for all their employees, the likelihood of their employees actually having regular appraisals is substantially larger when works councils are in place. Moreover, the existence of works councils is positively related particularly to PA systems, which affects bonus payments.Research limitations/implicationsWe contribute to the understanding of the work of works councils in firms. In more general, we shed light to the relation of industrial relations and human resource management in firms.Practical implicationsThis result hints at a higher acceptance of PA systems in firms with works councils. It seems likely that the stronger formalization of such systems necessitated by codetermination laws increases the likelihood of supervisors consistently carrying out such appraisals.Originality/valueWe are the first who complement the analysis of the existence of HR practices (PA system) with its actual use for employees.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 871-888
Author(s):  
Pietro Beritelli ◽  
Stephan Reinhold ◽  
Christian Laesser

Purpose Overnight taxes are controversial. They affect tourists’ consumption behavior and hotels’ profits. This potentially generates undesirable industry practices such as underreporting overnights to evade overnight taxes. The aim of the paper is to understand the conditions and outcomes of underreporting. This is important because underreporting affects destinations’ tax income, which in turn may have further effects on tourism or other public services. Design/methodology/approach This study uses qualitative comparative analysis to identify what specific combinations of conditions motivate managers of hospitality businesses to evade overnight taxes. Findings While potential economic gain seems to be the obvious answer, this study finds that different configurations of causal conditions account for non-compliance. Four different configurations combining six conditions explain the logics behind hotel overnight tax evasion behavior. The conditions refer to both utilitarian affordances and the individual tax morale of hospitality managers. Certain utilitarian conditions in combination can overrule moral objections to non-compliance. Originality/value The study provides a nuanced understanding of overnight tax evasion motives and suggests how to connect work on tourism taxes with destination governance issues and destination management organization funding.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran Hussain ◽  
Surendra Kumar Sia

Deviant behaviour in workplace has become an issue of concern in today’s corporate world. As a result of hard costs, the negative impact of deviant behaviour leaves a devastating effect on overall productivity and performance of the organization. We assumed that abusive supervision will be positively related to employee’s interpersonal and organizational deviance. Moreover, we also hypothesized that this relationship of abusive supervision with both interpersonal and organizational deviance will be moderated by power distance. We verified the formulated hypotheses using data collected from 256 mid-level managerial employees working in IT and software companies based in Delhi (India). Data analysis was done through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and moderated regression analysis. Results reveal significant and positive contribution of abusive supervision towards employee’s workplace deviance. Power distance orientation significantly moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and employee’s interpersonal and organizational deviance. The implications for the result obtained are discussed.


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