Continuous learning and employee performance: a moderated examination of managers' coaching behavior in India

PurposeBy integrating organizational support theory (OST) and social cognitive theory, this study investigates types of managers' coaching behavior as experienced by the employees. Furthermore, the study examines whether employees would exhibit greater task and contextual performance when organizational learning is blended with a specific coaching behavior of their manager.Design/methodology/approachUsing primary data from 298 software engineers working in select information technology companies across India, the current study attempts to assess moderating effect of managers' coaching behavior in two relationships, including continuous learning and employees' task performance (CL-TP) and continuous learning and employees' contextual performance (CL-CP).FindingsResult of exploratory factor analysis suggests that managers of select organizations exhibit two major types of coaching behavior: inspiration-based coaching behavior and facilitation-based coaching behavior. On the moderating role of coaching behavior, it is documented that facilitation-based coaching behavior significantly positively moderates both stated (CL-TP and CL-CP) relationships, whereas inspiration-based coaching behavior of supervisors has positive significant effect on CL-TP relationship but negatively moderates the CL-CP relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe extent to which the findings of this study can be generalized is constrained by the limited sample and organizational context.Practical implicationsThe most important managerial implication for all learning organizations is that both kinds of coaching behaviors help improving the task performance of the employees, but managers should prefer facilitation-based coaching style in order to generate higher contextual performance of employees.Originality/valueThis study contributes to practitioners and existing literature by explaining how individual performance of employees is affected by the investment made by organizations in facilitating continuous learning.

Online casinos: advertising and avoidance among Generation Y consumers in Sweden

Online casinos are one of Sweden’s largest gambling sectors. Increased advertising investment and advertising frequency have sought to attract Generation Y consumers to these casinos, yet it has been suggested that advertising can contribute to avoidance behaviours towards products and services, including online casinos and specific gambling brands. The various advertising aspects used in gambling advertising and their impact on behaviour have not been widely researched. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the use of creative strategies in casino advertising and how it contributes to the avoidance of online casinos, specifically among Swedish Generation Y consumers. As an exploratory study, qualitative methods were used. Initially, 13 casino advertisements were analysed to identify the strategies used in the advertisements. These were then presented to Generation Y consumers in three focus groups and six in-depth interviews. The analysis of the advertising shows the use of people and characters in presenting the casino brand. Male voice-overs were utilised in addition to music and other casino-related sounds. The advertising also used bright colours to attract attention. The impact of these advertisements is that the content, the auditory cues rather than just music, the emotional response, and the frequency of the advertising were found to contribute to the avoidance of casino brands. Furthermore, the ethics and general attitudes to the industry impact the decision to avoid these brands. The managerial implication of this research shows the impact of advertisements on the decision to avoid a brand, specifically a casino brand.

Analysis of Human Resource Needs Through the Workload of PT Telkom Indonesia (Case Study: Government Service Division)

Human resource planning is a series of activities carried out to anticipate business and environmental demands on the organization in the future and to meet labor needs that arise from certain conditions. This study aims to analyze the use of working time by employees in the Government Service Division; analyze the optimal number of employees based on the workload in the Government Service Division, and analyze the alternatives or managerial implications that can be offered to the Government Service Division. This study used the Workload Indicator Staffing Need (WISN) analysis method with work sampling technique. The population in this study are employees who work in the Government Service Division (DGS). The sample size was selected using the probability sampling method and the sample was taken using a purposive sampling technique. The results showed that the highest use of working time was found in the Legal 1 Bidding and Management sub-unit with a value of 84.32% and the lowest was found in the Complaint Handling Assurance and Delivery sub-unit with a value of 80%. Each Government Service Division unit requires additional employees, with the highest need being in the Assurance and Delivery unit as many as 19 people and the lowest need being in the Government Solution and Partnership unit as many as eight people. The managerial implication that can be given as input is that the company needs to re-evaluate the planning of all aspects both in recruitment, competence, and the development that will be carried out. Keywords: employee needs, WISN, workload, work sampling.

How Organizational Culture Moderate the Effect of Total Productive Maintenance Practice on Organization’s Operational Performance? Evidences from Indonesian Mining Industry

The industry needed a system to support its operation when most of the processes were done by equipment or machines. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) was a system to ensure all equipment or machines run in optimal performance for long period by fully supported by top management until the bottom level. Implementation of this system in the mining industry was still seldom due to some factors and organizational culture was one of the reasons. The purpose of this research was to analyze the influence of TPM implementation on operational performance by moderating the effect of organizational culture in the mining industry by using a two-step approach of structural equation model (SEM). The research type was under explanative research with hypothesis testing from primary data that was obtained from distributing questionnaires and direct interviews in the field which was analyzed by using Lisrel 8.7. This research showed that the construct of TPM has a significant impact to influence operation performance directly in the mining industry with a t-value of 3.54 and organization culture also increases the significance by moderating effect with t-value of interaction 5.28 was higher than 1.96 while organizational culture was not significant to influence operational performance directly that was showed by t-value 1.22. This research had a novelty for studying TPM practice in Indonesian mining by using SEM to analyze the moderating effect of organizational culture. The managerial implication of this research was a guideline for decision-makers to implement TPM by considering developing, group, hierarchical, and rationale culture to improve operational performance in the Indonesian mining industry.

Organizational Politics and Work Outcomes: Moderating Role of Top Management Political Skills

This quantitative research was conducted to investigate the direct effects of Organizational Politics and moderating role of Top Management Political Skills on job outcomes such as Job Satisfaction and Employee Job Performance. The data was collected from 151 employees working in a private multinational tobacco manufacturing organization Phillip Morris Swabi Pakistan. Organizational Politics with others job outcomes were also studied in Pakistani context but the moderating effect of Political Skills needs to study for minimizing the negative consequences on employees and organizational goals. Self-administered questionnaire on 5-pointLikert scale was used for data collection. SPSS 21 was used for analysis and Descriptive Statistics, Pearson Correlation and Regression analysis were run for hypotheses testing. A letter was forwarded to IR manager for questionnaire filling assuring the confidentiality of the responses made by individuals and the reason choosing their organization for the study. The results revealed negative significant positive between Organizational Politics and Employee job performance and job satisfaction. The results also revealed that there is positive significant effect between the relationship of Organizational Politics and job outcomes i.e. Job Satisfaction and Employee Job Performance for the moderating role of Top Management Political Skills. Managerial implication and future research directions are suggested for further research.

Evaluate the locations for smart waste bins using BWM and WASPAS methods under a probabilistic linguistic environment

The decreasing resources of the earth and the deterioration of the environment are offering new challenges for handling waste management practices. The establishment of the smart waste bins plays an important role in promoting the development of waste classification and treatment fundamentally. We developed the evaluation system for the location selection problem of smart waste bins. Considering the uncertainty in the location selection of smart waste bins, the probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) are selected to express the evaluation information. Because of the excellent performance in weight-determing, the best worst method (BWM) is chosen to get the weight of criteria. While the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method could handle both the qualitative and quantitative information, which are considered to derive the final ranking of the alternatives. This paper proposed a new group multi-criteria decision making approach integrating the BWM and the WASPAS with probabilistic linguistic information. Finally, in the empirical example, a sensitivity analysis shows that the proposed method is stable, a comparison analysis with PL-TOPSIS, PL-VIKOR, and PL-TODIM reflects its effectiveness and rationality, and the managerial implication verifies its usefulness and practicability, which also give guide to the company, government and resident.

The application of artificial neural network for quality prediction of industrial standard water

Industrial Standard water is a source of water before being distributed in industry and household in a certain area. For the sake of health, quality water is a must to fulfill and control. Quality of water having several variables as indicators. One indicator, namely, Turbidity. It is defined as the level of cloudiness of water due to the presence of particles, mud or microorganisms. The highest of turbidity value meaning the index of water quality is low. In this study, we apply the Artificial neural network method for predicting the turbidity value. Three input variables are engaged, PH level, color spectrum, and electrical conductivity. As much of 827 data were collected during six months. Seventy percent are used for training and the rest thirty percent were used for testing. The ANN architecture consists of 3-6-1 configuration, 3 input variables, 6 hidden layers, and 1 output variable. The training was set into 1000 epoch and the MSE shows 0,0013, meaning that the ANN has the power of prediction. The prediction of turbidity level has a managerial implication as supporting information for purchasing decision of material in water processing

The impact of sustainable supplier selection to supplier performance in mining industry: ethical culture as moderating variable

Sustainable supplier selection during tender is one of the critical factors in the supply chain management to maintain sustainable procurement in an organisation. Many factors contribute to the success of sustainable supplier selection practices, and ethical culture is one of the factors because it would influence supplier selection. This study aims to determine the effect of implementing sustainable supplier selection on supplier performance by moderating the effect of ethical culture in the mining industry. This type of research is explanatory research with hypothesis testing of 104 respondents by distributing questionnaires. The data analysis is conducted by Structural Equation Model (SEM). The research shows that the construct of sustainable supplier selection with economic, social, and environmental aspects as dimensions has a direct and significant impact on supplier performance in the mining industry. This research also shows that ethical culture has a significant moderating effect in the relationship between sustainable supplier selection and supplier performance. The managerial implication of this research is providing guideline for decision-makers to implement sustainable supplier selection by considering economic, social, and environmental aspects while maintaining an ethical culture as a part of work professionalism to maintain sustainable performance in the mining industry.

Threshold capital structure and predictors of choice between distribution strategies

Orientation: The determination of a threshold capital structure and company specific attributes as predictors of choice between distribution strategies is crucial in the creation of shareholders’ wealth.Research aim: To investigate whether the change in regimes given a threshold capital structure maximises distribution strategies over the period 1990–2017 and 1999–2017. In addition, the study examined how the capital ratio and company specific attributes were used in the process of choosing between distribution strategies.Motivation for the study: The need to determine the impact of the capital ratio within different regions on distribution strategies motivated this study. In addition, the majority of studies on predictors of choice between distribution strategies have ignored the dual and the no distribution policy alternatives relative to share repurchases.Research approach/design and method: all the data used in this research were sourced from the Iress data bases. The research employed an advanced panel threshold regression estimation and a multinomial logistic regression (pooled and fixed effects using the generalised structural equation model).Main findings: Firstly, over the period 1990–2017 the empirical results revealed the existence of a single threshold effect between the debt-to-equity ratio and the dividend payments, and a double threshold effect between the total debt based on the book value and the dividend payment. Secondly, the choice between distribution strategies was driven by company specific attributes.Practical/managerial implication: These findings provide useful insights to South African managers for formulating and maximizing pay-out decisions.Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the scant body of knowledge on the effect of threshold capital ratio and company specific attributes on distribution strategies.

Fintech, base of the pyramid entrepreneurs and social value creation

PurposeFintech is having a profound impact in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because it offers more financial inclusion. In this paper, the authors examine the interrelationship of Fintech, base of the pyramid (BOP) entrepreneurs and social value creation, particularly in the SSA context.Design/methodology/approachThe current paper uses a qualitative research design with open-ended, in-depth interviews as the main data sources. The authors interviewed respondents from the Sierra Leone Fintech Association and four BOP entrepreneurs operating in different sectors.FindingsThe authors find that Fintech services, specifically mobile money, play a significant role in reducing uncertainty surrounding business operations. FinTech also offers growth possibilities for BOP entrepreneurs and creates social value by providing transactional security, convenience and reducing physical cash robberies. At the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing BOP entrepreneurs as well as consumers' skills development.Research limitations/implicationsThis study highlights the importance of context-specific theorization when analyzing the interlinkage between BOP entrepreneurship, social value creation and Fintech. For example, the possibility of safety from a street robbery may not appear to be part of social value creation by a technological development like Fintech. However, in a country like Sierra Leone, which has experienced both a civil war and Ebola outbreak, insecurity has been one of the biggest concerns expressed by BOP inhabitants. Hence, scholars need to incorporate contextual elements of risk, uncertainty and volatility while theorizing on Fintech's application in BOP contexts.Practical implicationsA key managerial implication relates to micro-firm entrepreneurs and information specific benefits. Fintech offers entrepreneurs the possibility to be in regular contact with customers and evaluate their purchasing patterns as well as emergent needs. Fintech offers BOP entrepreneurs a possibility to further develop their technological skills as learning to use such apps can be used as a basis for further skills development. From a policy perspective, our study highlights the importance of regulating Fintech charges so that the affordability is increased, which is expected to result in significantly more BOP entrepreneurs using these services.Social implicationsThe authors find that at the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing skills development of BOP consumers who interact with case firms.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the first studies that specifically focuses on BOP entrepreneurship and social value creation by Fintech services in an SSA context. It is also one of the few studies that incorporates views from both entrepreneurs and the country's Fintech association, rather than focusing solely on either entrepreneurs or Fintech firms. Finally, there is a specific focus on BOP entrepreneurs engaging in micro-entrepreneurship.