Business Commons^™

Voices Unheard: Employee Voice In The New Century, Adrian Wilkinson, Paul J. Gollan, Senia Kalfa, Ying Xu

Sydney Business School - Papers

The concept of employee voice has attracted considerable attention in research since the 1980s primarily in the fields of Employment Relations/Human Resource Management (ER/HRM) and Organisational Behaviour (OB). Each of these disciplines focuses on different aspects of employee voice, the former examining the mechanisms for employees to have 'a say' in organisational decision-making (Freeman, Boxall, & Haynes, 2007; Gollan, Kaufman, Taras, & Wilkinson, 2015; Wilkinson & Fay, 2011) and the latter considering voice as an 'extra-role upward communication behaviour' (Morrison, 2014, p. 174) with the intent to improve organizational functioning. The purpose of voice is seen by each of these …

Training For The Coaching Leader: How Organizations Can Support Managers, Julia Ahrens, Grace Mccarthy, Trenton J. Milner

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose – The demand for leaders to coach their employees is increasing as the benefits become more and more evident. However, little is known about the training managers have received in coaching or what support is available/required from their organizations. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper encompassed a survey of 580 managers in Australian organizations with more than 200 employees. The authors used qualitative thematic analysis to examine the extensive free text answers.

Findings – The findings indicated that while some managers had received some form of training in coaching (30-40 percent, depending on training …

Continuance Of E-Textbook Use By Tertiary Students: A Qualitative Approach, John D'Ambra, Concepcion S. Wilson, Md Shahriar Akter

Sydney Business School - Papers

Textbooks are an important information resource for tertiary students. E-textbooks are now widely available and accessible to students offering them distinct advantages over print books at lower costs. However the uptake of e-textbooks has been slow and student preferences for either medium are not well understood. This study adopts a qualitative approach using an expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) lens and revealed causal mapping to understand from students participating in focus groups, their intentions to continue using e-textbooks. We extend ECT by including two new constructs: perceived quality and perceived value. The results assist in interpreting students' behavior regarding intentions to continue …

Turning Information Quality Into Firm Performance In The Big Data Economy, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Shahriar Akter, Laura Trinchera, Marc De Bourmont

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose: Big data analytics (BDA) increasingly provide value to firms for robust decision making and solving business problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore information quality dynamics in big data environment linking business value, user satisfaction and firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the appraisal-emotional response-coping framework, the authors propose a theory on information quality dynamics that helps in achieving business value, user satisfaction and firm performance with big data strategy and implementation. Information quality from BDA is conceptualized as the antecedent to the emotional response (e.g. value and satisfaction) and coping (performance). Proposed information quality dynamics are tested …

A Narrative Approach To Coaching Multiple Selves, Paul Lawrence

Sydney Business School - Papers

According to many philosophers and psychologists, we are each not one, but many. The origins of multiplicity theories are briefly outlined before several contemporary theories are described in more detail. In this conceptual paper, it is argued that a multiplicity perspective of self, challenges us to think differently about coaching. Six specific implications are considered, and a pragmatic link between multiplicity theory and post-modernist principles explored. It is argued that a narrative approach to coaching may be particularly useful for the coach interested in experimenting with multiplicity theory, and some initial approaches to applying multiplicity theory in practice are suggested.

An Exploration Into The "Over The Wall Handling" Phenomenon Of Aid And Development Supply Chain Systems, Mark Edwards, Lee Styger

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper provides some insight regarding the causes and implications of waste within Aid and Development programs and the impact on Aid effectiveness. In order to understand this better, a comparative case study analysis of three Aid and Development programs using a systems mapping process was used to identify major constraints within these supply chain systems. This work identified a complex matrix of nodal links within these systems that correspond to the flow of both funding and value creation. The findings point to Aid and Development supply chain systems being a closed loop system where much of the funding can …

Lessons Learned From Introducing Social Media Use In Undergraduate Economics Research, Martin J. O'Brien, Katharina Freund

Sydney Business School - Papers

The research process and associated literacy requirements are often unfamiliar and daunting obstacles for undergraduate students. The use of social media has the potential to assist research training and encourage active learning, social inclusion and student engagement. This paper documents the lessons learned from developing a blended learning model for undergraduate economics research incorporating social media blogging at a regional university in Australia. Student surveys, interviews with colleagues and students, in addition to a review of higher education literature highlight key issues associated with the choice of social media platform, need for clarity in assessment design, and assumptions of student …

Active Teaching Strategies And Student Engagement: A Comparison Of Traditional And Non-Traditional Business Students, Amir Arjomandi, Juergen Heinz Seufert, Martin J. O'Brien, Sajid Anwar

Sydney Business School - Papers

Using survey data, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of student engagement for different groups of students, many of which may be classified as "non-traditional". The analysis presented in this paper is based on Kahu's framework for student engagement. Both the antecedents as well as consequences of engagement are incorporated in the framework used in this paper. The research highlights the role that active teaching strategies may play in this engagement framework. An important contribution of this research is to show that non-traditional students generally display greater engagement than traditional students. However, while there is a strong connection between active …

A Pilot Study Into Mapping Atypical Supply Networks, Mark Edwards, Pauline J. Ross, Lee Styger

Sydney Business School - Papers

A system can only be improved if it is measured. In order to adequately measure a system, that system needs to be mapped and all key inter-nodal linkages, constraints and pathways recorded. Commercial supply chains demonstrate similar characteristics to other systems. Much has been written about mapping supply systems, where typically, the product or service is tracked from the originating source such as a raw materials supplier to the end customer of the product such as the consumer. There is however, another classification of supply system, where the payment for the product or service is not undertaken by the end …