Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Society

In the fast-moving business environment, the companies want to find location for themselves, where the environment is supporting their businesses, not only in the traditional ways but also by supporting innovation processes of the companies. Because of these new criterions, the countries and regions are forced to rethink new ways to make areas attractive for new companies to settle. In this article is analyzed the development activities on the industry/logistics area of the growth corridor in Finland. The purpose of analysis is to improve the attractiveness for new business as a part of developing digital symbiosis. “Industry 4.0” gives the European framework for building industrial ecosystem.

Fashion marketing tactics often fall short due to unpredictable emotional consumer behavior. As a result, positive emotion elicitation towards products is well researched. However, temporary emotional states may have negative implications. Happiness is a stable emotional state, the impact of which as a pre-disposition on purchasing intentions has yet to be thoroughly investigated. In addition, fashion involvement has a known positive impact on purchasing. In this study, the mediating role of happiness as a pre-disposition on the relationship between fashion involvement and purchase intentions is evaluated. A model supported by empirical evidence is presented. Predicated on data gleaned from 849 respondents, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) followed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were employed. Results confirm that happiness constructs exhibit a multiple mediation effect on the relationship between fashion involvement and purchase intentions. While pursuit of pleasure and pursuit of engagement positively affect fashion involvement, pursuit of meaning negatively affects it.

One of the most important resource of successfully leaded and managed health care organization is a competent staff. As staff education requires resource investments such personnel’s’ and educators’ time, facilities and thus, typically it have to be funded somehow, money, it would be feasible to try to develop a new, more efficient and more motivating training methodologies and tools, in order to enhance learning outcomes. Health care has large amounts of employees, which gives border condition to tool to be also suitable for large amounts of people. As new digital technologies are available, they offer new ways to execute corporate wide professional training, e.g. serious games. This article presents a new approach to Lean training: a digital LeanGame. It is a digital serious game aimed to introduce basics of Lean Philosophy to health care professionals in hospital environment. Its future users, a group of health care professionals piloted LeanGame in Finnish hospitals in spring 2017. The results of this pilot study show that digital LeanGame can be used in a complementary way to achieve training goals in lean training. This article handles the results of lean game training and discusses of future research and development needs.

The Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation (Nuffic) conducted a study [1, 2] into institutional policy on internationalization in 2014 in the Netherlands. This study included most Dutch Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Of these, 27 (59%) had a central-level plan, eight (17%) were developing such a plan, whilst seven (15%) did not have a separate central-level plan. Only four of the HEIs (9%) in the study did not have a central-level internationalization policy. It can be concluded that the penetration of internationalization in terms of policy is high in the Netherlands. This article is a part of an extensive research project developed at HAN University of Applied Sciences and traces the recent institutional developments within the context of its strategic planning and internationalization policies. In particular, this article deals with the “Curriculum, Co-curriculum, and Learning Outcomes “dimension of the Comprehensive Internationalization CIGE model [3].

At present time, the special importance has the technological aspects of small business management in regions that differ by such criteria as level of socio-cultural development; the correlation between state, private and mixed elements of the economy; traditional and innovative activities; geographic, climatic and nationally original characteristics. The social component is also of great importance for the regional small business system, as it provides mobility of labor resources, the emergence of new subjects of innovative activity, support for the level of informal interactions in the region, and the rapid exchange of resources and information. Especially it becomes actual in connection with the implementation of the Digital (Electronic) Economy Development Program in the Russian Federation until 2035. The purpose of the research is to develop scientifically founded mechanisms for the small business management aimed at improving of the labor resources management and regional socio-economic tension reducing.

Changes in the business environment and in the nature of work itself require the implementation of integrated and flexible methodologies in competencies’ definition in order to valorize the human capital and achieve organizational targets in a future-oriented perspective. However, extant research suggests that the available approaches to competency definition are more focused on describing past behaviors than on anticipating future requirements. Therefore, this study endeavors to provide a competency-based model that supports the top management in the identification of the competencies employees should posses, highlighting crucial competencies that can translate the strategy and vision of the organization into behaviors, skills, and terms that people can easily understand and implement. The results of our explorative case study led us to identify a set of competencies (digital/analytical/technical/adaptive/combinative/proactive), classified following the Knowledge Skills Attitudes (KSA) model, that collectively lead to a successful definition of future-oriented competencies.

Sales competitions are an interesting education method to train negotiation and sales skills of students. Different European sales competitions exist on European and national level, where the competitor must sell a standard product to a buyer in a given lapse of time. These competitions do not well correspond to the sales process for technically complex products or services sales engineers are used to. Therefore, the Academic Association of Sales Engineering AASE developed the European Sales Engineering Team Competition ESETC, where international teams of students compete in a 4-step approach including two written and two oral stages. This article presents the genesis of ESETC and compares this innovative team competition with existing European sales competitions.

The world is changing. The global growth of population increases the demand for resources, the prices of raw material are rising, and availability will be weaker. We cannot continue the way we are consuming today, because of the globe’s limits. Consumers will require more sustainable products and services. Circular economy can provide a key for the better future, not by limiting the consumption but keeping materials in use as long, as possible. The old linear production-consumption-waste model losses value. The goal of circular economy is to streamline material use in order to keep the value and materials in use better than earlier. This will give positive impact to energy efficiency, low carbon and costs.One way to implement circular economy is industrial symbiosis, where two or more partners exchanges by-products in a way that benefits each other. Nevertheless, the emergence of industrial symbiosis needs political, financial and societal support.

This study tests the hypotheses that flight attendants’ emotional labor aspects moderate the decreasing propensity of organizational trust in the changing industrial climates where the role ambiguity is likely perceived by the employees. The questionnaire surveys were administered to a total of 827 flight attendants, 414 for a European and 413 for an Asian airline. A 5-point Likert-type scale was employed to assess the aspects of role ambiguity and emotional labor. The results indicate that, first, role ambiguity perceived by the human service employees decreases trust toward the employer. Second, emotional labor aspects moderate or repair the decreasing propensity of trust, when the level of role ambiguity perceived by the employees is low. In the competitive industrial environment, emotional labor aspects practiced by the human contact employees may help the employees harmoniously work with the automated machines and IT in the competitive and stressful workplace.

This article presents research where organizational change was carried out in the health care organization in Satakunta’s Health Care District. In the district's new strategy, Lean thinking was chosen to support a strategic goal, to increase employee’s and patients’ satisfaction towards the care they received. This development need has been reported in earlier studies to find enhancement ways for operations. LeanGame is an educational game, which combines two distinct elements: Lean, a philosophy and management system, and interactive game that let players get to familiarize themselves the Lean thinking through the game. The LeanGame is linked to the organization’s strategic approach for continuous development implementation. This paper introduces the LeanGame piloting in Health Care District. Article handles development of LeanGame and the LeanGame piloting. Article describes results of piloting, reveals the results of testing the educational game in professional development and gives future research suggestions as well as future development needs for Lean Game.

Time and innovativeness are crucial for organizations and human beings and are very hard to master. Without time management, this imperative resource is wasted or at least utilized poorly. Without innovativeness, there will be no new innovations, inventions, approaches or change to better. Even that these are commonly recognized to be very important, these issues are often still neglected. Time and innovativeness are quite similar also other ways. Both phenomena should be understood from a wider perspective in order to maximize their utilization. Both need to be approached from both personal and organizational point of views as well as understood human factor in both. Both phenomena can be utilized better by conscious awareness towards them and linkages between them should be understood. This paper presents research which shows that time and innovativeness development needs are behaving similarly. The correlation between these two phenomena was found and different development personalities are introduced as a conclusion. Future research aspects and recommendations are also discussed in this paper.

This paper reviews the concept of Industry 4.0 related challenges and basic requirements for successful implementation of it. It proposed that sociotechnical system theory (STS) and competence-based view (CBV) are best approaches towards implementation of industry 4.0 in the organizations. STS theory leads to such systems, which are more acceptable to end users and deliver better value. While competence-based view prepares those users to interact efficiently with new systems. To support competence-based view for industry 4.0 we argue that competence models of the Evolute approach need to be revised and updated, as well as, there is need for new competence models for emerging new job profiles. The combination of these three approaches will result into successful implementation of new industry 4.0 systems in the organizations.

Tourism in general is a hugely important source of export earnings (it is treated as a service export, even though it is consumed in the country in which it is provided) and a dynamic sector of the world economy. Earnings from tourism (receipts) reached $852 billion even in recession battered 2009 (World Bank). Between 2000 and 2015, the number of international tourists grew from 675 million to 1.2 billion (World Bank). Growth was led by tourist arrivals in developing and emerging economies, which far outpaced growth in tourism to advanced economies, although the latter still lead in absolute numbers. It is, therefore, no mystery why the main focus with regard to economic development of Kenya - classified as developing country, was put on the tourism industry, the merits of which are essentially in terms of increased foreign exchange receipts, balance of payments, government revenues, employment, and increased economic activity in general.

The integration of entrepreneurship education has changed the role of the university by creating a bridge between university and industry. The public university is facing now the internationalization environment, especially with the privatization of the higher education sector. Moreover, enhancing innovation and the entrepreneurial culture became the barrier entry for this public university. Unfortunately, this academic organization has to face new challenge instead to develop their position. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is a great opportunity to adopt a competitive behavior in the regional, national and international innovation system. In addressing this research gap, this paper provides a case study of Algerian public universities. The authors use a qualitative interview with facilitators implicated in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Those had organized and animated the startup competition within the Algerian universities. Thus, the paper offers insights into how the university enables actors to address the challenge of internal factors and external factors to use the best pedagogical practices in teaching entrepreneurship and enhancing innovation culture.

Using Granger causality test, the study finds the presence of unidirectional and bidirectional causalities between innovation and per capita economic growth. These results vary depending upon the types of innovation indicators that we use in the empirical investigation process. Most importantly, the study finds that all these innovation indicators are considerably linked with per capita economic growth. Both countries should recognize the differences in innovation and per capita economic growth in order to create policies regarding development.

European agricultural activity plays an important role in European and world food security through the agricultural production, supply and international trade. The main aim of this paper was analyses the agricultural sustainability of the twenty-nine Member States of the European Union in terms of economics, environmental, social and political activity. Information and data comes from FADN database from the European Commission. The methodology includes the min-max approach and multivariate methods, namely, Component Principal Analysis and Cluster analysis. The results confirm three groups of European countries, namely, the North and Central countries; the New Member States and the Mediterranean counties. The results also confirm that European agriculture firms and respective countries had a medium sustainability. The main conclusion highlines confirms the importance of the sustainability as a tool to better adjust agricultural policies among the European Member States.

The purpose of this research is to identify possible factors that strengthen the position of the small mining producer in the access to new financing mechanisms for exploration activities, and, evaluate the efficiency of the risk capital that National Mining Company (ENAMI) provides to this sector.For this purpose, a survey applied to small mining producers that have been benefited by ENAMI in the delivery of resources for the recognition of reservations. We analyzed possible factors that according to the literature affect the development of the sector and impact on their access to financial capital. The user satisfaction and the technical efficiency of the promotion program was analyzed. Is achieved determine that there are positive gaps (between attitude and expectations) that could be empowered to improve their current condition (knowledge and associativity). However, there are negative gaps (environment and risk), which can generate a further distancing between the sector and the financial market. The technical efficiency program analysis shows increasing returns for the different offices of promotion. The program is evaluated positively in terms of user satisfaction (from the evaluation of the project until its execution). It is corroborated that small mining, depending on the price of commodities, even though it presents problems of structural character that affect their development, cannot be solved only with improve financing conditions.

The paper discusses the issues of knowledge creation, knowledge security management and the impact it has on the generation of innovative ideas in an organisational environment. Knowledge security seems to be the key factor in building competitive advantage for businesses. In order to be competitive these days, one has to be constantly implementing innovative products and solutions. A number of companies that are involved in innovative activities yet do not always provide sufficient knowledge resources, which lay the foundations to further growth. The aim of this paper is to recognize the security gap that opens up during the dynamic, knowledge-based and innovation-driven development of a company. This gap can be created if a company fails to identify appropriately the stakeholders and their needs or their intentions when time is scarce. The reflections are based on research conducted on a group of companies developing a pro innovative approach with a focus on knowledge management.

A comparative study was conducted to gain the perception of competition rule in the construction industry. A 4-category and 34-item market competition perception criteria were identified via qualitative approach - content analysis. This paper reviewed 217 bid documents and administrated 500 questionnaires to collect the opinions among both clients and contractors in China. It is found that the perception difference of the market competition rules between clients and contractors from the highest to the lowest were economic part, comprehensive part, commercial part and technical part. Moreover, clients and contractors had the largest perception difference in wage payment guarantee measures for peasant workers. This study contributes to an understanding of perceptions of competition rule in China. It may help to formulate guidelines to manage the unreasonable factors in market competition rules and improve construction market efficiency.

Innovation is the backbone of the product development in present era for the survival of the corporate organization in the respective market. Changing trends in every passing day are making the product development more competitive and innovative. This paper investigates the relationship between firm’s performance with respect to outsourcing innovations and factors affecting the selection of contract research organizations or innovation providers. The research is conducted by a self-designed instrument in the form of a survey form on 112 respondents internationally in 17 countries. The paper will give empirical relationship among firm’s performance, outsourcing innovations and six major factors, which play a vital role in the selection of CROs. Proposed hypotheses in this article are based on empirical relationship, which is validated by SPSS 24. The findings support the conceptual model and offer many managerial implications, which are described in detail at the end of the paper.

Digital business ecosystem (DBE) is a collaborative network of organisations, processes and technologies that collectively create value. Thus, value creation in DBEs is jointly undertaken by multiple human and digital agents. To aid appropriate apportionment of work and design of information systems, it is essential to understand behaviour of both human and digital agents. However limited attention has been paid to agents’ behaviour in the extant DBEs literature. Moreover, multi-agent research has also largely focused on technical issues while limited research exists on agents’ behaviour. As such, in this paper, we develop a framework to understand behaviour patterns of multi-agent in DBEs. This framework builds its foundation on the theoretical lens of Organisational Semiotics, a sociotechnical theory towards contribution to DBE research.

The Gravity Model of trade is a regression model for exchanges between countries. The model comprises a measure of exchange as its dependent variable, a measure of mass for each of the two exchanging parties, and a distance. Typically, the dependent variable represents exports, the measures of mass are the GDPs of two countries, and the distance is geographical distance. The analysis in this paper yields a number of simplifying assumptions, which if relaxed may yield a stronger model. The paper focuses on knowledge flows as measured through citations as a use case of a new convolutional gravitational model, which includes an element of delay in between the production of a good and its acquisition. The convolutional model further extends the concept of a distance between two entities to include a measure of affinity. These extensions clarify some limits of the basic model and conditions when it is appropriate.

This research aimed to develop mechanical properties of coconut husk paper and the products from coconut husk paper to assess the efficiency of design towards marketing needs and to create management guidelines for the coconut husk paper existing manufacturers. This study was performed at Kaset Lak Song Phattana Kaset Phopaing Yang Yun community, Ban Phaew District, Samut Sakhon. To develop mechanical properties of coconut husk paper, coconut husk was added with Saa pulp at different mixed ratio of 95:5 and 70:30. The results showed that, the tear index was increased with adding Saa pulp. The optimum ratio of coconut husk paper and Saa was 70:30. The production of developed coconut husk paper is extended for local business operation. The production capacity is 100 sheets per cycle for 5 days and it cost 9 Bath per sheet. The products made from coconut husk paper includes lamp, wall clock, and herb sachet.

Numerous educational institutions made efforts to provide their students opportunities to benefit from cross-cultural experiences in order to take advantages of multicultural and international interactions [1–4]. This study is looking at the specific challenge that is represented by the selection and use of the appropriate technology for Global Virtual Team (GVT) and virtual communication. This specific study evaluates the impact of GVT based experiential learning in business education at Arnhem Business School, the Netherlands. It tries to identify the major challenges global virtual teams face and existing frameworks for successful global virtual teams. It provides also evidence for the usefulness of GVT-based approaches and facilitates a better understanding of the challenges (use of technology and virtual communication in particular) and learning opportunities in using this type of experiential learning activity at Arnhem Business School.

Human resources strategy is very important for companies and need to be accepted by the employees. The human resources strategy is responsible for the success of the company. This paper investigates the opportunities to involve employees in the human resources strategy creation and to communicate the human resources strategies via different communication channels. The paper compares the different opportunities to present the human resources strategy e.g. online based and offline based channels and compares by the different options to involve employees in the creation of human resources strategy.

Innovations have become one of the contemporary economics key driving forces behind competitive advantages and have become socioeconomic category of their own. Diffusion of innovations, which is an integral part of the scientific and technological base of national economies, promotes structural changes in economy. Companies have to pay close attention to market trends and have to be able to identify and create new innovations, thus increasing their competitiveness and meeting consumer demands and expectations. The objective of this research is to evaluate the concept of different innovations in organizations and propose a complex approach to identifying innovations in the form of a matrix that would aid in creating new and competitive innovations, based on the study of scientific literature and expert surveys results theoretical evaluation of different innovation approaches in organizations and the scientific and practical approaches to identifying innovative ideas at the initial stage of the innovation process.

The aim of the research was to find out effective identification and prevention of ergonomics problems in industrial metal processing manufacturing plant, based on human factor workload analysis and LEAN failure mode and effect analysis. Creation of safe, effective work places, emphasizing human oriented approach and implementing ergonomics in business process management is one of the main conditions for sustainable development of an enterprise. For the research were chosen packaging, assembling and quality control manufacturing plant operations due to main complaints from workers about physical overload, intensive work pace and task complexity. Human factor analysis provides holistic understanding of work conditions that can save and avoid costs in long-term. If used in combination with LEAN methodologies, such as FMEA analysis, manufacturing operations can significantly be improved, by increasing productivity and save costs resulting in total efficiency of company, not only considering it as issue of health and safety.

The application of sharing economy in developing countries has the potential to increase the social capital and economic growth. It can assist with economic development and enable entrepreneurship. However, there are still some barriers to the sharing economy in developing countries. They include a lack of trust, social and cultural norms regarding ownership, inadequate technology, lack of electronic payment systems, insufficient assets, skills, and inappropriate regulations. The aim of this research is to better understand the differences between the ride-hailing value co-creation process typically found in developing countries, and prevailing ride-hailing value co-creation process in developed countries. The insights provide useful information, which allow harnessing sharing economy for the benefit of developing countries.

The research details out an integrated framework for construction business marketing that is comprehensive and has capabilities of bridging the gaps in extant models and structures on construction marketing. The paper is descriptive. It uses literature review as the method and draws on models of strategic management and construction specific marketing models as the theoretical lens to achieve its objective. Findings reveal that existing models of construction marketing are mere replica and reminiscence of strategic management process/planning models and lacks acceptance and behaviour constructs that are reported as impediments to commercialisation as a management function in construction. The paper justifies the need for combine human related factors with strategic management process/planning factors to create an integrated construction marketing framework capable of holistically dealing with construction marketing challenges. Human related factors are both complement and indispensable to strategic management approach to marketing management in construction to archive successful outcomes. A merger of strategic management factors and associated human factors provides a comprehensive framework for study marketing related issues in construction. Construction management researchers will find this framework useful.

The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual approach for an integrated human-centered performance management on shop floor level. Existing practical and theoretical approaches to both performance management and shop floor management in the context of production are commonly based on managerial driven key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics neglect a worker-oriented preparation and visualization, thus being detrimental to the motivation of workers. With our concept we address this shortcoming by (1) considering and aligning both strategy and operations, (2) directing on the shop floor level, (3) considering explicitly the perspective of workers, and (4) integrating motivational gamification elements. The development of the approach included extensive literature review to identify existing research deficiencies. Subsequently, we derived requirements for an integrated human-centered approach to performance management on the shop floor. Finally, the results were used to define an overriding research framework and to conceptualize the aspired performance management approach. Central to this are digitalized data collection, intelligent KPI calculation and consolidation as well as motivating visualization and presentation of information dedicated the needs of shop floor workers.

In the current study, we examine the connections linking employee age and intrapreneurial behaviors (entrepreneurs inside the firm), and their effect on employee performance. We also investigate whether intra-personal social capital (ISC) and personal social capital (PSC) mediate the connection between age and intrapreneurial activities. A paper-based survey was conducted among 539 participants. The findings show that while age had a positive direct connection with employee performance, age also moderated the connection between intrapreneurial activities and performance, i.e., older workers who engage in intrapreneurship evaluate their performance higher than younger employees. However, workers with low intrapreneurial behaviors evaluate their performance lower compared to younger employees. We also found that intrapreneurial activities was negatively connected to age, but was mediated by both ISC and PSC. The results have both theoretical and practical implications, which can aid HR managers in their attempt to establish a positive age-diversity climate.

Recent discussions on digitalization, and autonomous ships provide a disruptive picture of how the maritime industry may be transformed in this process. The magnitude of this digitalization trend is very different from the one of implementing e-Navigation initiated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2006 to harmonize, integrate, exchange, present and analyze marine information on board and ashore by electronic means. A rapid speed of digitalization of ship operation is causing controversy. For example, the maritime industry has not yet come to a consensus about agreed definitions of “autonomous ship”, “unmanned ship” and a “remote-controlled vessel”. Some pioneering industry developers, invest in the digitalization of ship operation to make the maritime transport more reliable, safe and efficient. Whilst such technological developments promise safe and efficient business models to a greater extent, it has not been much discussed how people on board will be affected by digitalization with a particular attention to the notion of leadership. Command of vessels has been traditionally considered as a human domain. The ways in which leadership is displayed on board and how each task is dedicated to the members of a shipboard organization will be radically different in the era of digitalization. Based on the qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews, group interviews and participant observation with maritime experts in Norway, the paper discusses the impact of digitalization on organized work in ship operation, implications of digitalization for leadership, and leadership required in the era of digitalization. It concludes that human-automation coordination as well as human-human coordination are the key to support the future operation of ships.

The functioning of the organization is related to the implementation of its mission and vision and the pursuit of specific goals set in the strategy. Regardless of the branch of production, sector of service or public administration, the strategy defining aims to be achieved and indicating the manner of their implementation it determines the path of development and survival in the turbulent times of change. The formal structure of the organization is also related to the functioning of the organization, regulating the level of dependence between the units inside it, creating a network of mutual connections in the form of an organizational scheme. The publication covers the features of the strategy as an obligatory document for public higher education institutions and the types and functions of the organizational structure specific to the sector of higher education in Poland. The article will present the relationships that occur between the organization’s strategy and its structure in the area of higher education in Poland. The authors will seek answers to the question which of the two-factor system in public universities is an element that is more often subject to changes and whether the change of one of them always involves updating the other.

This study, an applied research, presents results of continuous improvement strategy implementation, deployed during ten years, into electrical motors manufacturing enterprise. Strategies substantiated on work teams, lean manufacturing production system and information system. The company started with two work teams, one in production, and another in the maintenance area. Up to last days’ count with 62 work teams. The evolution of the work teams started since traditional teams up to interdependent self-designed teams, comprising specialists and multidisciplinary leader. This continuous improvement philosophy impact has been reflected in the creation of high-performance standards manufacturing process, organizational culture transformation, customer satisfaction level, zero defect philosophy implementation, and 100% continuous productivity flow. New concepts and techniques were implemented during the evolution of work team strategy, having a clue support: Information and communication technology, professional training, recognition and rewards, and continuous improvement.

The objective of this research is to test the relational coordination model in the context of footwear value chain of the province of Tungurahua, Ecuador. For this purpose, a sample of 47 footwear producers obliged to keep accounting has been analyzed. By using a structured questionnaire, a survey has been applied for the collection of data. Pearson correlation coefficient has been used to test the relationship between relational coordination and the quality of relationships between footwear producers and clients and between footwear producers and suppliers. The relationship between relational coordination and footwear producer sales and the level of delays in suppliers’ deliveries has also been analyzed. The results show that there is a significant statistical relationship between relational coordination and the quality of relationships. However, a significant statistical relationship between relational coordination and sales or suppliers delays has not been found.

This analytical survey-based article aims to explore options linked to the process of effective change management in a European public-sector healthcare organization. The aim of the research is to suggest collaborative innovative options combined with leadership solutions to effectively finalize corporate reformation process targeting the regions of Vaasa, Laihia and Vähäkyrö, (i.e., areas situated in the northern part of Finland). This review-based analysis offers multi-perspective approach by covering the knowledge linked to the concept of innovative healthcare business research in addition to highlighting the aspects of the ADKAR model as a prominent source to evaluate and highlight healthcare change management process by identifying the resistance points.The findings of the paper offer extensive foresight into the change management process to pinpoint the areas that require change management process improvements to harness the public-sector healthcare process reformers to rectify the change barriers in the light of respondent’s experiences as well as the Health care change management model’s recommendations to strengthen quality health and social care solutions.

A new round of worldwide science and technology development and industrial change is forming a historic intersection with the economic development mode in China, meanwhile, the structure of global industry is being reshaped. As one of the core approach to China innovation development, design, needs to carry out advanced design innovation strategy, which could realise the co-creation of research institutions, design consultancies and companies. However, the unbalance regional development of creative industries is still a prominent problem. The “Design for County” project (DFC) is in order to promote the integration of the front, middle and the back end of the design innovation. The project is connecting design talents and resources in Shanghai with traditional industries in second and third class cities, which could enhance traditional enterprises’ innovation capability, activate the vitality of local market, and accelerate regional economic transformation and upgrading. Through the practice of DFC, researchers concluded six values that the project conducts for cities, including regional resources connection, industrial value promotion, creative knowledge spread, entrepreneurship opportunity, intellectual property mining and platform value.

The purpose of this paper is to sketch a taxonomy describing various team leader interventions, as a consequence of interferences occurring at group meetings. The taxonomy is intended to serve as foundation for future research, methodology and test development. Sixteen Swedish business organisation leaders participated in the case study. The study consisted of ten fictitious scenarios, implying interferences concerning goal achievement. The participants were to propose interventions to the different situations. Based on the results, six categories of interventions were identified: control, inform, initiate, await, support, and explore. The categories corresponded to classical leadership theories. Furthermore, fictitious group scenarios seem to provide information about leadership thinking and interventional styles concerning team work. Scenarios also seem to measure something different than traditional assessment instruments do. This is in accordance with social personality theory, emphasising that personality assessments should not be decontextualised by excluding information concerning the situations in which people are acting.

Agile project management (APM) has recently emerged as a new and different way of managing projects. Some experts are already voicing the opinion that APM will become the project management of the 21st century. However, so far APM has not impacted project management as much as it should have. Its focus was mainly on IT projects. The literature on APM is still in its early stages, and more research needs to be done in areas other than software development. Therefore, the present paper provides a review of the existing literature in the agile project management domain. It compares traditional to modern project management, specifically APM, and discusses the influence of project complexity factors. Further, it reviews different frameworks of project success and critical success factors. Finally, it recommends APM dimensions irrespective of project types, which potentially could impact the success of a project.

The digital transformation is more and more penetrating our world of working. Enterprises expect more productivity and opportunities for optimized performance by increasing use and integration of innovative technologies. But – it’s not only about intelligent algorithms and autonomous systems, but also about employees’ autonomy. Technology can support, but not replace specific human abilities and needs. Some aspects of high relevance in this regard are for example emotion and experience, problem solving and communication skills as well as the ability for quick adaption to environmental influences. Nowadays cognition, flexibility and creativity rule. Employees and customers demand individualized solutions, suitable tools and task-oriented working methods and environments. The way people are going to do their business and work in the future is advancing from rigid value chains to dynamic value networks. This also means that the nature of cooperation is no longer a clear stable dictum, but rather more flexible, dynamic and agile with many different and changing stakeholders and within a global context. Prior to that, well-established structures dissolve, working hours and spaces are getting flexible true to the slogan: »Work whenever and wherever and with whom you want«. Non-territorial work and sharing concepts are the new normal. Designing the future of work and building an agile enterprise requires an intelligent combination of innovative working concepts, agile organizational architectures and modern technologies enabling exploitative and explorative innovation simultaneously – and it’s the task of management and leadership to support these abilities. But how to get there? The study examines central characteristics and milestones in the key enabling fields and presents a transformation roadmap towards the agile enterprise.

Scholars in Human Resource Development (HRD) are debating that HRD should have bigger role that is beyond training and should strategically be linked to business planning in order for HRD to help organization implement its business strategies. However, HRD has not been regularly practiced and the inconsistent understanding of its roles has also contributed to the disparity in the HRD field. This paper aims to discuss some empirical evidences on how HRD is viewed and used according to strategic HRD model. The perceptions of 58 MNCs practitioners in Malaysia are valued to report the findings.

Setting an organisational structure is a human-based concept that calls for all the elements making construction organisations better in management operations. This paper establishes organisation structure elements for construction project cost control practice by revealing the appropriate constructs for setting organisation structure for controlling and managing construction project cost. This paper employs the Delphi technique approach for collecting data after extracting sixteen (16) constructs from literature. A consensus was reached at the third round. Delphi experts comprised professionals practising in the construction industry. The findings reveal that organisational structure elements assist in controlling and managing of construction cost. High consensus elements include centralisation of authority, number of layers in the formation of corporate structure, patterns of communication, specialisation of members, among others. Contractors and project cost managers can, therefore, use the organisation structure constructs to establish good organisation structure for cost control practice.

Understanding the role of Personal Social Capital in selection and promotion of managers is important. Nevertheless, a research gap exists in evaluating the antecedents and mechanisms of the effect of Personal Social Capital on managerial positions. The aim of this study is to assess effects of three sources of Personal Social Capital on managerial positions. These are: connections with colleagues at work; connections with people who possess social capital assets such as wealth, high status, or reputation; and connections with neighbors. 2230 Israeli respondents answered a Personal Social questionnaire, Results confirm that connections with colleagues at work and with people with social capital assets directly affect managerial positions. the relationship between Personal Social Capital and connections with neighbors was found significant through the mediation of age. Understanding the social resources that affect managerial positions is beneficial for managers and important for organizational insight into factors that affect managers.

The paper provides a comparison of two growth strategies for businesses, based on case studies. Both refer to organisations that have been merged into a multinational corporation that applies multiple approaches in investment proceedings. Such acquisitions result in expansion of corporate activities, nevertheless, they produce a number of social, financial and market risks for the acquired companies. The companies mentioned are based in Germany and the production is relocated to Poland and Croatia. Some of the processes are moved to these new locations while others remain within the acquiring group. Thus social aspects seem to play a significant role.The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of the different approaches used in the acquisition process and the implications they carry for the staff of both the acquirer and the target company. The paper presents the results of an investigation into strategic mergers and acquisitions of production companies in the context of multinational enterprises.

This study explored the influencing dynamics of tellers’ emotional exhaustion on their job satisfaction necessitated by the increased customer demand of direct teller service in the banking halls, as against the usage of automated teller machines in Ghana. Using a cross-sectional design, quantitative data was collected from five banks with similar institutional arrangements for teller work. Results from factor analysis identified seven factors that are indicative of the tellers’ emotional exhaustion, and four factors that are indicative of their job satisfaction. Results from correlation and regression analyses showed that a rise in the tellers’ emotional exhaustion reduces their satisfaction with the teller job. It is concluded that tellers become emotionally exhausted and dissatisfied with their jobs due to the absence of human resources management mechanisms that could have enabled the efficient design of the teller task and work environments that are conducive with bonded relationships between tellers’ and their supervisors.

This paper examined literature on emotional intelligence, commitment to change and the role of regulations in change management. Empirical and theoretical literature were analysed, together with secondary data from the Ghana Revenue Authority. Commitment levels of employees is a key determinant of the success of any change action. However, to achieve this success, those leading the change effort together with those affected by the change must all exhibit high levels of emotional intelligence. Drawing on institutional theory, the study found that regulations serve as both catalyst and vanguard of any change program. The study contributes to the basket of literature examining the link between institutional regulations and commitment to change, and the role of emotional intelligence in such link. Regulations play a very significant role in any change effort.

Constraints to the implementation of projects are characterised in varies nature within the construction sector in Ghana. These constraints have associated results which affect most building projects within the corridors of public universities in Ghana to be delayed, and in some cases, projects get abandoned. The prime aim of this study is to determine the fundamental constraints to the successful implementation of building projects among public universities in Ghana. The study was exploratory and adopted existing literature of similar themes via desktop. Findings from the study revealed that budgetary control, effective communication, leadership mechanisms and effect stakeholder management are critical features that depict the successful implementation of a project. The study concludes that for a project to be successful with minimised constraints in its implementation, the budget of a project must be controlled, communication must be free from barriers, and leadership mechanisms must address employees’ challenges, and needs of stakeholders must be integrated into the project. Therefore a significant level of consideration must be provided to decrease implementation constraints.

The study has focused towards agile enterprises and the main focus is on studying the SMEs of Pakistan. Agile systems are the need of the modern era as the business environments are changing with the increasing trends of competitiveness, therefore, it is important for the firms to understand the importance of agile systems. The agile systems forms the agile enterprises and those enterprises are the ones that gain competitive advantage in the market. The existing paper is focused on literature and secondary data which will help readers and scholars in analyzing the impact of agility in the performances of SMEs in Pakistan.

The Textile Industry is the biggest manufacturing Industry at Pakistan that has great notoriety in global businesses. Alike lots of other organizations, job stress has become a major concern in textile organizations as well. The goal of this study is to identify effects of stress among managers belonging to lower and middle level of textile sector organizations. In this cross-sectional study, information was gathered from 125 participants. Exploratory factor analysis was deployed and five components, namely: Physical, Psychological, Behavioral, Performance, and Physiological were identified as the areas where stress is impacting the managers of textile industry. ‘Internal Consistency’ for the components is around 0.7 through beyond 0.8 whereas ‘Total Variance Explained’ by the components is above 72% with ‘Physical’ being more significant. In order to affluence the circumstances, organizations are obliged to deploy interventions for prevention and control of the job stress among their employees in order to assure their wellbeing.

The literature on human resources (HR) in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) has often discussed the challenges faced by universities due to the impact of globalization and internationalization. There are a lot of discussions and debates on how the HR department should play its role. Several metaphors have been used to describe the role of the HR department, such as partner, creator, facilitator, business partner, strategic partner, change agent, employee champion, and administrative expert. In this paper, we discussed empirical evidence from research-based university (RU). The study assesses 119 HR practitioners’ response from five universities that participated in a survey.

This paper reports on an exploratory study utilizing data mining techniques to predict leadership constructs based on game play data. The learning objective of the game is (1) to become aware of devilish dilemmas during crisis situations, and (2) to understand ones’ leadership style in dealing with these dilemmas. Do player’s act like a People person, as an Administrator, or more like a Figurehead. We evaluate several data mining techniques to predict scoring on these ‘classes’. Our data set consists of 21600 instances. This data was captured over the last 4 years over the course of numerous training sessions for professionals in crisis management organizations in the Netherlands. We found that some algorithms perform significantly better than others in terms of predicting scoring on our test data. Our aim is to develop robust predictive models on the basis of which learning instructions could be given to the trainees during game play to increase their learning journey. However, we conclude that fit for purpose predictive models depend on domain knowledge in the specific field of application.

The current business environment has been constantly changing, dependable on different conditions and requirements. The dynamics of business changes are the result of globalization, market development and other factors. Positive development and business sustainability requires responding to opportunities, but with limited potential threats, which occur with those changes. A natural feedback to negative impacts reduction (or even increasing opportunities) in enterprise management in this environment is a new approach implementation. Risk-Based Thinking (RBT) appears as a basis platform of all management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 140001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, etc.). Information security was the first management system, where RBT was implementing as a part of the management system. Industry 4.0 requires a change in human-machine-environment area, resulting from the ability to flexibly response to customer and stakeholder demands. Reliability of information, limitation human mistakes limitation in the process, data protection and knowledge in Smart factory is not possible without the creation of effective preventive tools resulting from risk analysis. Current methods and tools for risks identification and its assessment require the development of new system logic processes based on mutual relations. RBT creates a risk management framework, as a part of the management approaches is one of the basic pillars for managing the Smart factory. The aim of the paper is to introduce the new approach of modern management thinking affected by changes made in new revision of ISO 9001. Through a new “Global Risk-Based Management” (GRBM) we try to suggest on the necessity of managements integration using RBT (Risk Register), and possibility to design an effective Risk Map to manage the external and internal risks in a modern enterprise.

Each human activity carries a range of risks, which include in its classification intermediate steps to identify them. As the economy is affected by global competition and globalization requirements of current policies, it is exposed to many risks and problems, which ultimately lead to investment failure or failure to achieve the desired results. Risk management as a science is based on the realistic analysis of economic phenomena, and as a shroud of the art of standard modeling. It is the scientific approach or approach to dealing with pure risk by anticipating possible losses to the investment by designing and implementing procedures that reduce the possibility of loss or minimize the financial impact of losses to the minimum. Risk management identifies and measures manages the risks to which the financial institution is exposed, for the sake of caution and control, neutralizing or minimizing the impact thereof. Therefore, risk management is a process of measuring and evaluating risks and developing strategies to manage them so as not to negatively affect the rates of stability and economic balance, as well as the rates of growth and economic development.

In Europe, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are key economic driver in terms of GDP, employment as well as the overall societal uplift. However, the critical point in the SME sectoral survival and success is linked to the effectiveness of the business transfer process handling by the new entrepreneurs. Hence, this paper pursues the effectiveness and authentication of a training program supported through a newly established tool to educated the new entrepreneurs to effectively handle business transfer process and ensure business growth and survival. A survey method was implemented to collect data from Finland, a pilot partner in the second phase of a European Union project focusing on seven selected European countries. The study data was evaluated and analyzed by employing structured questionnaires and implementing several descriptive statistical methods to obtain authentic analytical findings. The study results revealed that in SMEs where resources and capabilities are scarce, new entrepreneurs get effective assistance through the newly established tool to ensure smooth business transfer process for the survival and sustainability of Finnish Small and Medium Enterprises.

The importance of mergers in the sector of higher education is increasing in many countries. Public universities are involved in the consolidation process for their ability to: implement public policy, promote national and international rankings, rationalize the science and education network, and strengthen economies of scale.The barriers to mergers can be divided according to different criteria. Known typologies include: the type of barrier, the source of the constraint, their relationship with the fusion stages and so on. Barrier analysis can be started from a more general perspective and based on the experience gained from business mergers and then move on to the constraints specific to university mergers and analyze the methods of overcoming them.The aim of this article is to identify the key barriers to conducting strategic university mergers. The article discusses the complexity of the consolidation process and the barriers to mergers in higher education.

The goal of Crystal Cube is to create an automated capability for the prediction of disruptive events. In this paper we present initial prediction results on six prediction categories previously shown to be of interest in the literature. In particular, we compare the performance of static classification models, often used in previous work for these prediction tasks, with a gated recurrent unit sequence model that has the ability to retain information over long periods of time for the classification of sequence data. Our results show that the sequence model is comparable in performance to the best performing static model (the random forest), and that more work is needed to classify highly dynamic prediction categories with high probability.

Japanese or eastern countries’ attitude toward safety was reviewed from mindset toward safety, approach for addressing safety, and attitude toward investing for safety. This was compared with that of U.S. or western countries. It was assumed that such a difference leads to a major gap between the safety approach based on hazard detection and that based on firm safety confirmation. An attempt was made to explain why the gap arises from the standpoint of cross-cultural difference, cognitive biases, and the relationship between scarcity and slack. Based on the discussion, we demonstrated that we should recognize and accept cross-cultural difference, cognitive biases, and the risk of the state with less slack for safety due to scarcity (especially, economic one). The attitude toward safety in line with such properties should be modified to control the unacceptable risk to a minimum so that we can further enhance safety and cut off the vicious circle of repetition of similar disasters, collisions, or crashes.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the problems recognized by Indonesian nurses after returning to work in Indonesian health and medical facilities after work experience in nursing or nursing care work in Japan.The Root Cause Analysis (RCA) with the theme of “Issues of my own workplace” was conducted on three people including two Indonesian nurses and one Japanese nurse as a facilitator. The issue tree as the result of RCA was an analysis subject. As a result, a series of eight events emerged in the issue tree. Four root causes were extracted. Problem consciousness emerged when subjects became culturally aware of the difference in standards between their home country and Japan which was then identified as cultural awareness.

We analyze naturally occurring social media data that derive from Twitter messages posted over a 24-h period in immediate reaction to the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015. We separately examine patterns for tweets with first-person singular pronouns (I) and first-person plural pronouns (WE), the corresponding variations in valence, arousal, proportion of words in various LIWC categories, and diversity of word choices within those categories. Negatively valenced word choices revealed greater mean differences between I and WE than did positively valenced words. Novel was that tweets with I exhibited a more uniform distribution of word choices and greater linguistic alignment, for most of the LIWC categories and for both positively and negatively valenced word choices, relative to tweets in WE. Greater diversity differences associated with pronoun choice when valence is negative than when it is positive suggest less self-disclosure when tweeting with first-person singular than plural pronouns.

In an experimental study, cultural differences in preferences of interface layouts between Japanese and Europeans were examined. Participants could freely arrange a selection of buttons on an interface and layouts were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Participants preferred symmetrical layouts with horizontally arranged buttons. Data suggest that participants considered usability as well as visual aesthetics in their layouts. Main differences were found in the choice of prominent buttons and their position in the layout. Furthermore, differences in way of thinking and communication appeared to be related to interface preferences.

The main goal of this research is to investigate cross-cultural differences in communication with Mobile Instant Messenger (MIM). A survey was conducted to ask German and Japanese students about how they usually communicate via MIM. The results of the survey indicate that German students had the tendency to use a direct communication style that is typical for low context cultures, such as voicing their opinion directly or creating clear and easy to understand messages. On the other hand, Japanese students were more likely to use an indirect communication style typical for high-context cultures by incorporating images into messages that could be interpreted in different ways. The results of the survey suggest that cultural differences in communication also affect how people communicate in MIM. Implications for future research and MIM applications are discussed.

As networked and computer technologies continue to pervade all aspects of our lives, the threat from cyber attacks has also increased. However, detecting attacks, much less predicting them in advance, is a non-trivial task due to the anonymity of cyber attackers and the ambiguity of network data collected within an organization; often, by the time an attack pattern is recognized, the damage has already been done. Evidence suggests that the public discourse in external sources, such as news and social media, is often correlated with the occurrence of larger phenomena, such as election results or violent attacks. In this paper, we propose an approach that uses sentiment polarity as a sensor to analyze the social behavior of groups on social media as an indicator of cyber at-tack behavior. We developed an unsupervised sentiment prediction method that uses emotional signals to enhance the sentiment signal from sparse textual indicators. To explore the efficacy of sentiment polarity as an indicator of cyber-attacks, we performed experiments using real-world data from Twitter that corresponds to attacks by a well-known hacktivist group.

In modern society, it is important to build mutual understanding between people of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Media can play a major role in such a society to materialize the intangible aspect of cross-cultural understanding. To achieve this aim, a place-oriented audio guide system was designed and implemented; the fieldwork experiment with 11 international and 5 Japanese participants was conducted in Tokyo. From the experimental result, the “Cross-Cultural Understanding Model” focusing on recognition of the difference, oneself, and a certain culture itself, was developed.

The data about body height and weight is the basic data information in anthropometric study. Firstly, this paper gave the direct comparison among these countries based on analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of ANOVA showed that gender and country were both significant factors for analyzing body height or weight in these countries. No interaction effect exists between the two factors. Based on the average data and percentile values of weight we can conclude that these eight countries fall into three groups: The Netherlands and United States had significantly larger weight than the other six countries; China and India had the smallest weight. As expected, men are taller than women. In general, the rank order of samples with regard to height was similar in men and women. Men and women in The Netherlands were the tallest and people in India the shortest. There was a strong linear association between height and weight in men and women. Secondly, height and weight inference were conducted based on the ergonomic data in these countries. The relation between human height with the main body indexes was established using classical regression analysis. The obtained results could be a reference for designing the export clothes and food to these countries.

This study explored and summarized cognitive biases and distorted decision making that prevent rational and efficient sports management in markets of professional athletes, in particular, baseball. In addition to this, cross-cultural difference between MLB and NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) was pointed out to avoid inefficiencies in baseball markets and reach rational decision making in sports management.First, a variety of cognitive biases and distorted decision making commonly observed in both MLB and NPB were identified. It was demonstrated that cognitive biases and distorted decision making in home field advantage, draft picks, team organization, or judgment or feeling about the game itself such as momentum shift were ubiquitous in both professional baseball leagues. Throughout the comparative study of MLB and NPB in particular paying emphasis on the concentration (MLB) and the spiritualism (group harmony) (NPB), it is suggested that the cross-cultural difference potentially leads to different decision making in baseball management such as the contracting money, draft picks, or contraction with no promising players.Cross-cultural difference between MLB and NPB is also a cause to give rise to cognitive biases or behavior in sports management or decision making. Until now, the biases that stem from cross-cultural differences have not been fully explored and identified. The biases in decision making and behavior in draft picks or making a continued contract with players peculiar to NPB and not observed in MLB have been summarized in this study.

The multi-contextual social changes, expressed in the permanent creation of the contemporary society, contribute to difficulties in the attempt to capture and unequivocally define the factors which determine them. A strictly “global” theoretical reflection refers to the complexity, heterogeneity, progressive interdependence of the world’s societies and the awareness of its totality. The complexity and temporal multidimensionality of the contemporary globalizing society (its ambiguity, ambivalence, transience, diversity) and the transformations of the socio-cultural reality which is subjected to constant fluctuations, make it difficult to grasp the description and standardization of the heterogeneity of the society which is undergoing objectivization in its actions. This fact is not without significance for the development of a new configuration of global policy, market structures and new patterns and models of careers. The issue of identity crystallizes the problem of individual career trajectories and the construction of the subject’s professional identity. In this sense, it is a narrative which has to be developed and which requires the creative contribution of the individual and their reflective approach to their own biography. Identity is shaped in the context of social and cultural influences of a reality which is subject to permanent change. The identity styles determined by the socio-cognitive processes relate to the individual preferences in the processing of information concerning the subjective “I”, in making decisions, in the selection of strategies of constructing or avoiding the crystallization of own identity and the quality of career decision-making in the world of “boundaryless careers”. In a situation where no career scenario adopted a priori provides a guarantee of success, investing in a career identified as the “property” of the subject, pursued “in one’s own case”, becomes a necessity and enforces the proactive planning, directing and management of a career.

Engineering designs are multi-objective and contain more than one design goals, comprising many design variables to be optimized at the same time making the design problems more complex. These design objectives theoretically inflict differing requirements on the technical performance of system design. In this study, firstly, we analyze the tolerances among multi-objectives and conflicting engineering CAD design and explored optimum design solutions for that matter an optimization problem with multi objectives has been mathematically modeled in this paper. The present work, proposes a new methodology that allows supplementing the nets design in order to support large scale water distribution system. The design solutions guarantee that the obtained results after optimization process are practicable and feasible. For this the design methodology, the understudy engineering systems is analyzed, in a systemic way, the problem of aqueduct design task is formalized mathematically considering all it complexity and constraints. In our study the “Stochastic Search Variable Code” algorithm allows to iteratively explore the solutions space and, in a systematic way modifies the interval limits of the possible variable code solutions values, that avoids to be caught in local minima and reaches global optimum minima with more computational efficiency.