New causes to be on the alert for misrepresentation in academic research?
Strategy & Leadership, 43(2), 50-52.
C-Suite Advisory

Are refereed business journals at growing risk of manipulation by governments with hidden agendas or of misrepresentation by individuals who have exaggerated or counterfeited their credentials? There are hints that serious threats exist, and if they do they would be of concern to the Strategy & Leadership community.

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Key corporate sustainability drivers: Engaged boards and partnerships.
Strategy & Leadership, 43(3), 44-48.

Abstract

Purpose
– This article reports on a whitepaper showing the key success factors involved in driving corporate sustainability, and illustrates them using mini-case studies.

Design/methodology/approach
– Results from a 2015 whitepaper published by Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review in association with the United Nations Global Compact are discussed. The findings are based on interviews conducted globally with 2,587 business managers, experts and practitioners. Best practice examples are provided of what three leading corporations are doing to achieve their sustainability strategies.

Findings
– Two key drivers of corporate sustainability emerged. First, successful corporate sustainability involves collaborations with a range of other organizations. Essentially, the more partners in a particular project, the more successful the initiative is judged to be. Second, boards drive successful corporate sustainability where directors are interested in setting the sustainability strategy, its implementation and the outcomes.

Research limitations/implications
– The findings open many research questions and hypotheses to sustainability researchers and academics.

Practical implications
– Guidance is provided for senior executives seeking to improve and/or increase corporate sustainability initiatives, namely, to collaborate with other parties and engage the board.

Social implications
– The planet and its inhabitants will benefit if obstacles to successfully tackling wicked problems such as hunger, poverty and the effects of climate change can be reduced using the power of collaborations between business, government, NGOs, and academe.

Originality/value
– This paper provides insight into the perceived current state, obstacles and drivers of corporate sustainability, along with examples of successful approaches.

You may be able to get access to the full-text via your institution.

Leadership practices influencing stakeholder satisfaction and in Thai SMEs.

Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 6(3), 247 – 261.

Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the leadership and management practices that positively affect stakeholder satisfaction, an under-studied area important for both academic researchers and leaders. Relationships between 23 leadership and management practices and overall stakeholder satisfaction (OSS) were examined.

Design/methodology/approach
Avery and Bergsteiner’s (2010, 2011a) sustainable leadership (SL) model provided the theoretical framework for a cross-sectional survey research design used to gather empirical data from 439 managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand.

Findings
Results show all SL practices except financial market orientation were significantly related to OSS, and the more an organisation adopts significant SL practices, the higher the OSS is likely to be. The particular SL practices that positively predicted enhanced OSS were amicable labour relations, staff retention, strong and shared vision, strategic and systemic innovation, and high staff engagement and quality.

Research limitations/implications
Future research should further examine relationships between SL practices and a range of organisational performance outcomes in different contexts, as well as the relationship between SL practices and sustainable human resource management (SHRM), and between SHRM and stakeholder satisfaction.

Practical implications
The findings provide guidance on which SL practices to adopt for managers of SMEs in Thailand and possibly in other countries, who wish to improve their stakeholder satisfaction and sustain their business success.

Social implications
Policy makers may gain insights into practices that drive performance in SMEs, a strong force in many economies.

Originality/value
This study extends current knowledge of leadership and management practices that positively predict enhanced stakeholder satisfaction, an area in which empirical evidence has to date been largely lacking.

You may be able to get access to the full-text via your institution.

Do follower characteristics moderate leadership and employee engagement?

Journal of Global Responsibility, 5(2), 269 – 288.

Abstract
Purpose
– This study aims to, given that most research focusses on leaders and ignores the influence of follower characteristics on either leadership or engagement, investigate whether employee characteristics moderate the relationship between perceived leadership styles and employee engagement. Recent research has shown that visionary and organic leadership paradigms positively influence employee engagement, compared with classical and transactional leadership environments (Zhang et al., 2014).

Design/methodology/approach
– Questionnaire data from 432 sales assistants, collected from retail shopping malls in Sydney, Australia, were analyzed.

Findings
– Structured regression analysis confirmed that the employee characteristics of need for achievement, equity sensitivity and need for clarity moderate the relationship between four leadership paradigms and employee engagement. The nature of the moderation varies in complex ways.

Research limitations/implications
– There is scope to confirm this study in different contexts, to include additional employee characteristics and reconfirm some scales and to remove common method variance.

Practical implications
– The findings suggest that to improve employee engagement: employers should recruit staff exhibiting characteristics predicted to generate high employee engagement; organizations should develop supervisors to ensure that they adopt leadership styles found to drive employee engagement; and recruiters should consider matching the characteristics of employees to the prevailing leadership paradigm(s) in the organization.

Originality/value
– This paper addresses a major gap in the literature by examining the moderating effects of follower characteristics on different leadership paradigms and employee engagement.

You may be able to get access to the full-text via your institution.

The relationship between leadership paradigms and employee engagement.

Journal of Global Responsibility, 5(1), 4-21.

Abstract
Purpose
– This study investigated whether the direct supervisor’s leadership style affects employee engagement using Avery’s classical, transactional, visionary, and organic leadership paradigms as the theoretical framework. The study also investigated how many and which components of employee engagement (“say”, “stay” and “strive”) contribute to the construct. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– A sample of 439 retail sales assistants in Sydney, Australia, responded to a mixed-mode questionnaire survey. Factor analysis, independent t-tests, analysis of variance and structural regression models were used in the data analysis.

Findings
– Both research questions were supported. Results showed that the visionary and organic paradigms are likely to enhance employee engagement, whereas classical and transactional styles negatively affect employee engagement. Furthermore, the data confirmed that the three behavioral-outcome factors all do contribute to the employee engagement construct.

Research limitations/implications
– One implication for researchers is that an employee engagement measure with demonstrably high reliability and validity, and known components has been developed. This study could be replicated in different national and occupational contexts, the leadership measures reconfirmed and expanded, follower characteristics included as moderating variables, and links to organizational performance investigated.

Practical implications
– The findings suggest that direct supervisors should be encouraged to use visionary and/or organic leadership wherever possible to drive employee engagement.

Originality/value
– This paper is original in several ways. It resolves an ongoing dispute in the literature about the components of employee engagement, namely whether all three components contribute to the concept. In answering this question, a valid and reliable questionnaire was developed. Using four leadership paradigms, including classical and organic leadership that are rarely investigated, this study demonstrates that employee perceptions of the leadership style used by their direct supervisor are linked to employee engagement.

You may be able to get access to the full-text via your institution.

Employee satisfaction and Sustainable Leadership practices in Thai SMEs.

Journal of Global Responsibility, 5(1), 160-173.

Abstract
Purpose
– Given previous findings that employee satisfaction contributes to firm performance and sustainability, this study examined the relationships between 23 leadership/management practices on employee satisfaction. It identified specific practices with significant effects on employee satisfaction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– Using a theoretical framework and questionnaire derived from Avery and Bergsteiner’s Sustainable Leadership Model, data were collected from 1,152 employees in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bangkok, Thailand.

Findings
– Overall, adopting sustainable leadership (SL) practices was related significantly to employee satisfaction, consistent with Avery and Bergsteiner’s model. Twenty of the 23 SL practices were linked to enhanced employee satisfaction, the exceptions being independence from the financial markets, self-management and environmental responsibility. Specific SL practices predicted enhanced employee satisfaction more than others, the strongest predictor being high staff engagement. Other practices associated with employee satisfaction were: valuing employees, ethical behaviour, considered organizational change, a strong and shared vision, an enabling culture, and quality in products and services.

Research limitations/implications
– Considerable scope exists for future research into the relationships between individual and bundles of SL practices with employee satisfaction in different national, industry and other contexts. Further limitations are discussed in the paper.

Practical implications
– Managers of SMEs in Thailand and possibly in other contexts should consider adopting the SL practices shown to significantly enhance employee satisfaction and in doing so help sustain their business success.

Originality/value
– This study pioneered research into a gap in the literature about the SL and management practices that positively predict enhanced employee satisfaction, an area of importance to both leadership practice and research.

You may be able to get access to the full-text via your institution.

The Twin-Cycle Experiential Learning Model: Reconceptualising Kolb’s theory.

Studies in Continuing Education. 36(3), 257-274.

DOI:10.1080/0158037X.2014.904782.

Abstract
Experiential learning styles remain popular despite criticisms about their validity, usefulness, fragmentation and poor definitions and categorisation. After examining four prominent models and building on Bergsteiner, Avery, and Neumann’s suggestion of a dual cycle, this paper proposes a twin-cycle experiential learning model to overcome identified problems and integrate the experiential learning field. In the model, an initial response to a learning stimulus or intent occurs at the intersection of a concrete/active/primary learning cycle and an abstract/passive/secondary cycle.

The model accommodates four classes of variables that describe six broad learning activity types (engage in, write about, observe, hear/see, read, hear), the three senses these activities predominantly engage (kinaesthetic, visual, aural), six learning modes (concrete, active, primary, abstract, passive, secondary) and four learning stages. Importantly, instead of assigning learning modes to stages of learning as Kolb does, the model assigns them to the two cycles as a whole.

You may be able to get access to the full-text via your institution.