Mindfulness-based practices, psychological capital, burnout and performance anxiety

Purpose The study examined the role of classroom-based mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) on psychological capital, burnout, and performance anxiety among business executives. Design/Methodology/Approach 52 mid-level and senior leaders filled up a structured questionnaire on mindfulness, psychological capital, and performance anxiety before and after the intervention. They also participated in 2 week-long classroom-based mindfulness intervention programs for 1 hour daily. Findings The finding suggests that mindfulness-based intervention significantly improved PsyCap and reduced burnout and performance anxiety among the executives. Research limitations/implications Self-report measures, sample size, and programmed duration could be a limitation. We can plan long-term (4 weeks) intervention on cross-section data for better outcomes and generalizations. Research implications Mindfulness-based interventions can help save healthcare costs by reducing anxiety and burnout. Leaders can also quantify the value of such intervention for developing PsyCap. Practical implications Management should conduct mindfulness-based training programs, and leaders can practice it in their daily routine to improve psychological resources to reduce stress and better face workplace challenges. Originality/value The study's contribution was using the classroom-based mindfulness-based intervention to improve psychological capital and reduce dysfunctional outcomes in leaders.

Business executives’ perceptions of responsible leadership and corporate social responsibility for stakeholders’ health and wellbeing

Over the past decade, and especially after the scandals that occurred during the last economic recession, there has been a call for business leaders to pay attention not only to maximization of profit but also to corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is argued that responsible leadership can be an appropriate response to the diverse needs and challenges of a complex stakeholder society. The purpose of this explorative study was to investigate top business executives’ understanding of responsible leadership and their perceptions of CSR for stakeholders’ health and wellbeing. Key informant interviews were conducted with ten business executives representing a variety of sectors in East Central Sweden. Content analysis was conducted to detect patterns and categories in the data. business executives understood the role of a responsible leader to involve contribution, inclusiveness, and the creation of community and structure. They viewed CSR and stakeholders’ health and wellbeing largely from an organizational point of view, including their own.

Toward a Conceptualization of Big Data Value Chain

The generation of digital devices such as web 2.0, smartphones, social media and sensors has led to a growing rate of data creation. The volume of data available today for organizations is big. Data are produced extensively every day in many forms and from many different sources. Accordingly, firms in several industries are increasingly interested in how to leverage on these “big data” to draw valuable insights from the various kinds of data and to create business value. The aim of this chapter is to provide an integrated view of big data management. A conceptualization of big data value chain is proposed as a research model to help firms understand how to cope with challenges, risks and benefits of big data. The suggested big data value chain recognizes the interdependence between processes, from business problem identification and data capture to generation of valuable insights and decision making. This framework could provide some guidance to business executives and IT practitioners who are going to conduct big data projects in the near future.

The Financial Crisis on Trial: What Went Wrong

Americans demanded retribution from the mortgage lenders whose subprime loans defaulted and from investment bankers whose mortgage-backed securities sharply declined in value in 2007, leading to financial panic and the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2019, the federal government extracted hundreds of billions in fines from dozens of corporations, but few individual business executives were held accountable, and no senior banker was convicted of a crime. I use the trial court record of five government enforcement cases against individuals to explain this apparently anomalous result. I conclude that, in addition to a lack of funding, the prosecution effort was hindered by the government’s erroneous selection of cases to pursue. Further, the diffused nature of decision making in the mortgage finance market made it difficult to prove that any one senior-level participant had the criminal intent necessary for a conviction or a Securities and Exchange Commission civil fine or injunction. The trial results also support the argument that the growth and consolidation of investment banks from 1990 to 2008 created incentives for misconduct within the firms.

Sustainable Development of Employability of University Students Based on Participation in the Internship Promotion Programme of Zhejiang Province

In the context of severely restricted employment opportunities, undertaking an internship is an important way for students to enhance their employability and sustainable development. The aim of this study was to judge if the implementation of the Internship Promotion Programme (IPP) at universities in Zhejiang Province, China, could enhance graduates’ employability. We conducted surveys and interviews with 400 students and 100 business executives who participated in the IPP during the past 6 years. Based on the collected data and statistical analysis, the findings show that internships help students to improve their innovative thinking, interpersonal communication abilities (domestic and international), problem-solving skills, value creation and responsibility. Participants in the IPP were compared with students who did not take part. The results demonstrated that the IPP participants exhibited higher capabilities to perform important workplace tasks and that as a result, they became more attractive to employers. The analysis, therefore, demonstrates a positive correlation between the internship experience and employability. As a result, it can be concluded that the IPP improves students’ employability and is beneficial to enhancing the quality of higher education, and hence the sustainable development of students.

The Future on Love and Business Organizing. An Agenda for Growth and Affirmation of People and the Environment (AGAPE)

Business and love appear to have little to do with each other. We hold the opposite to be true if the concept of love in business draws from two corresponding grammars. This paper contributes to the ‘agenda for growth and affirmation of people and the environment’ (agape) in business. By focusing on the grammars of love and business we operationalize the concept of love in ways that business executives, managers and employees can understand, adopt, and implement. With references to the theory and practice of management and organizations, we aim to contribute to expanding the theory and practice of responsible organizations and their leaders caring for others.

Learning through Play: A Serious Game as a Tool to Support Circular Economy Education and Business Model Innovation

Despite the increasing attention on circular economy at the policy level, the implementation of circular business models in companies is still limited. Many companies are put off by the apparent complexity to translate the general concepts of a circular economy into their business practice. This paper presents the development and testing of a simulation board game that aimed to address this gap between theory and business practice. The board game, Risk&RACE, was developed with the purpose of enabling students and business executives to experiment with circular economy business models. The gameplay was tested with 120 users, and cognitive learning outcomes as well as learning dynamics were assessed using a survey. The results of the game workshops demonstrated that the game advanced the participants’ awareness of the need for a circular economy, their understanding of basic circular economy principles, and their insight in opportunities and challenges of circular business models at the company level. When reflecting on the game as a learning tool, players highlighted its engaging and realistic nature and praised how it stimulated strategic thinking. Complementing the gameplay with a debriefing discussion afterwards encouraged players to reflect upon their newly gained insights, deepening their learning experience.

A Stakeholders’ Perspective of Reputation Dimensions for Service Organisations: Evidence from a Developing Country Context

Corporate reputation is widely acknowledged to contribute to business success by academics and business executives. Despite the importance of corporate reputation in all markets, we lack sufficient research into what reputation might mean in the context of companies in developing countries. This paper addresses this lingering gap in the literature by investigating the dimensions that make service organisations reputable from the perspective of four primary stakeholder groups of two large service organisations. The paper also sought to determine whether the same reputation dimensions apply to service organisations in general, or whether they differ according to the type of service organisation. Empirical data were sourced using the mixed-method approach, and analysis revealed 16 items across 6 dimensions that constitute the reputation of service organisations. The study also found that there is not much difference between the reputation dimensions of two organisations used in this study. However, it reveals major differences between the dimensions derived from the developing country context, and those derived from developed contexts. This illustrates that context-specific reputation measures can emerge which are important in understanding how reputation is created and can be managed. Consequently, it underscores the need for more scientific researches into reputation dimensions in different contexts (countries and organisations).

Reducing Waste in Healthcare through Occupational Safety and Health Measures: A Study of Manufacturing Industries in Taiwan

Occupational accidents and diseases cause the loss of valuable workers and lead to high healthcare expenses. Because occupational accidents and diseases are ascribed to inadequate working conditions and work environments, they can be prevented through a well-established occupational safety and health management system, which can ensure workers’ health and reduce the expense of healthcare. The study investigated the shortage of work-related occupational safety and health (OSH) measures in medium-sized manufacturing industries. This study mainly focused on qualitative interviews with 15 labor inspectors and 25 business executives from OSH participating to investigate the problems of occupational safety and health in the manufacturing industries in Taiwan. The results of a qualitative study show that the most important problems with OSH management are employers’ negligence and workers’ insufficient knowledge about OSH management. The research results revealed the following eighteen significant shortcomings of OSH management: employers care mostly about production profit and do not care much for OSH; OSH data collection and OSH planning are not suitable for the workplace; many managers of OSH affairs are not qualified, in terms of their professional or academic backgrounds; and the repair of workplaces’ roofs often results in falling accidents, especially before or after a typhoon, because of workers’ failure to use safety belts and/or to follow OSH guidelines. In order to address the shortcomings and bottlenecks, the study also presented recommendations for how to implement and revise the OSH Act and how to research and enhance OSH management. The results of this study will not only supply the Ministry of Labor (Taiwan) with data to plan the strategy of OSH management but also will allow employers and workers to improve OSH management in the workplace in order to prevent the occurrence of occupational accidents.

Fear of Backlash Moderates Female Senior Executives' Communion (but Not Agency) as Compared to Female Lecturers

Today, many women work in occupational roles that had once been dominated by men (e.g., senior business executives). However, expectations on senior executives to be agentic (e.g., assertive, dominant) may conflict with prescriptive stereotypes about women to be communal (e.g., helpful, warm). According to this double-bind dilemma, female senior executives get criticized for lacking either agency or communion as both dimensions can be perceived as posing a tradeoff. We hypothesize that female senior executives report higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than women in a more neutral role (e.g., lecturers) due to the perceived requirements of these occupational roles. In Study 1, N = 212 students rated adjectives on their desirability for men vs. women in Chinese society. They rated agentic characteristics as more desirable for men and communal characteristics as more desirable for women. Studies 2 and 3 used this material. Study 2 randomly assigned N = 207 female students to the role of a senior executive vs. lecturer. Study 3 was conducted with N = 202 female role occupants (96 senior executives, 106 lecturers). As expected, female senior executives reported higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than female lecturers in both studies. Some women may be particularly aware of the above-mentioned double-bind dilemma and may be more worried about the potential backlash than others. They may attempt to reconcile occupational demands (i.e., higher agency, lower communion) with prescriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., lower agency, higher communion). We, therefore, explored whether fear of backlash attenuates the effect of the type of role of women (senior executives vs. lecturers) on agency and communion. Indeed, we found that senior executives who were particularly worried about backlash reported almost as much communion as lecturers did. In contrast, senior executives consistently reported higher levels of agency than lecturers regardless of their fear of backlash. The present study documents prescriptive gender stereotypes in China, how women differ as a function of their occupational roles, and how fear of backlash may motivate female senior executives to reconcile having high levels of both agency and communion.