Using ATMs as Workload Relievers for Ghanaian Bank Tellers: The Customer Behavioral Challenge

This study explored the issue of whether the use of the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) as a service delivery tool in the banking industry of many developing countries has achieved its intended objective of increasing the effectiveness of customer service provision and reducing the workload of bank tellers. The purpose is to understand customers’ behaviour towards the use of ATM as a banking service delivery tool, and the influence of such customer-usage behaviour on the banks’ human resource capacity building, in terms of employee workload relief and performance. This is because most banks in subSaharan African countries have introduced the ATM in bids to satisfying customers’ service needs and making the work of employees easier. Data was collected using questionnaires that were administered to bank customers who use the ATM facility, as well as bank managers. The findings showed that though most bank customers who use the ATM services perceive the ATM as a convenient, reliable, accurate and suitable service delivery tool for their banking transactions; they still underutilize the ATM’s service capacity by choosing to go to the banking halls to make cash withdrawals of amounts that could be obtained from the ATMs. It is also found that by virtue of this customer behaviour of not using the ATM’s to their full potential, the relief that it is expected to provide bank tellers is not realized. It is concluded that because of customer behavioral challenges to the effective utilization of the ATM technology, banks in developing economies not benefiting from its full potential as a customer service delivery tool, and also as a strategic workload reliever for tellers who service customers inside the banking halls

Impact of value-based transformational leadership in privatizing government institutions in a developing economy: a case study / Mohammed-Aminu Sanda

The purpose of this study was to explore the kind of leadership that could infect positive changes in the work environments of government research organizations undergoing privatization in most developing countries in order to enhance the commercialisation of their production activities. An interpretive analytic framework was used as an appropriate platform to build a qualitative design. Qualitative data was collected through taped-recorded interviews with seventeen senior staff members identified as key actors in the organization’s privatization processes, and analysed using an interpretive description qualitative approach. The results showed that the organization’s managers used charismatic and values-based leadership approaches during the transition period of commercialisation process and was viewed by their subordinates as leaders who were true to their own values and who also went on to help those they led to articulate what they valued. It was concluded that an amalgamation of transformational and value-based styles of leadership approach could be used by managers of government agencies in most developing countries to infect positive changes in their work environments when managing the privatization of their organizations. The study has shown that value-based transformational leadership could be used by managers of challenged government research and development organizations in most developed countries to infect positive changes in their work environments and which could help facilitate their efforts towards the privatization of their organizations’ activities

Leadership and ‘tipping’ in workplace transformation : a critical review

The purpose of this is to critically appraise the idea of the “tipping point” from the perspectives of leadership in workplace transformation. It is argued that the desirability of any workplace transformations requires that we clearly understand the nature of the expected changes and the relationship between leadership and change. It is also argued that the sustenance of the regressive character of such transformation might be attributed to its “tipping” in the negative sense in contrast to Gladwell’s positive prescription of the “tipping point” in workplace transformation. It is concluded that the “tipping point” in workplace transformation should be a reflection of the performance indices based on the set objectives for the changes and the timescales and output measures ascribed to them. Keywords: Workplace transformation; Leadership; Transformation process; Tipping point.Validerad; 2011; 20110222 (mohami)</p

Dynamics of organizational change and employee identity retention in R&amp;D organizations

The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of employee identity retention and its impact on organizational change in a Research and Development organization. The role played by social embeddedness in enhancing employees’ retention of self-identities and shaping their attitudes in resisting an orientation shift of organizational values and norms from that of civil services to distorting new public management orientation was assessed. The findings showed that the employees’ resistance was influenced by their personal core values which were distrustful towards the organizations change process. Senior staff members were reluctant to forego their independence of working as individuals by adopting a teamwork culture. It is concluded that as a result of the employees holding tight to their self-identities and failing to relate to new organizational norms, the production that emerged from the commercialisation process was not in consonance to the organization’s transformation needs.Validerad; 2011; 20110427 (mohami)</p

Managerial self-efficacy and discretionary behavior improving work environment for small firm performance

This study explores the self-efficacies and discretionary behaviours exhibited by managers of small Ghanaian firms with the purpose of understanding how the interplay of these two attributes impacted on employee motivation and performances. The selection of participants was guided by the snowballing technique. Data was collected by distributing self-completion questionnaires entailing managerial self-efficacy and discretionary behavior items to 100 study participants who were managers of small firms in two Ghanaian metropolises. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using the statistical package for the Social Sciences software. The results show that the managers had strong senses of affective attachment to their firms due to the use of their self-efficacies to generate dynamic influences on their firms’ performances. They also exhibit discretionary behaviours that motivate their employees to work together to achieve organizational goals. The study concludes that the absence of interplay between the managers’ self-efficacies and their discretionary behaviours constrains the efficient and effective performances of their firms.Validerad; 2011; 20110630 (mohami)</p

Combined micro-ergonomics, macroergonomics and system study of the application and internationalization of WAITRO-developed best management practices by research and technology organizations

According to the World Association of Industrial and Technology Organizations (WAITRO), it had become obvious over the years that the key impediment to successful performance of Research and Technology Organizations (RTO) is often not technology, but management. Hence, WAITRO benchmarked 10 management practices for application by the RTOs (Mengu and Grier, 1999), but which most of them could not successfully use and internalise. Thus this study was conducted with the purpose of identifying the environmental factors, which constrained the RTOs’ benchmarks implementation efforts, and also ways to remediate them, using a combined micro-ergonomics, macroergonomics and systems study approach. A two-way experimental design approach was used. Mail survey, using “self-completion” questionnaire was carried out among RTOs in 8 industrially developing countries. Activity analysis, based on observations, interviews, and “future workshops” was also carried out on 3 RTOs in Ghana. The results showed that the external environmental factors which constrained the RTOs’ efforts in using and internalising the WAITRO benchmarks included the prevailing socio- economic and legal frameworks, influence of consumer and market forces, the political atmosphere, the operating climate, the subsystem (operating system) stability, the existing communication interfaces within the RTO’s organizational structure, as well as between the RTO and the surrounding environment, the educational background (qualification) of its staff, and the decision-making approach. Influences of these environmental factors were also found to exist, irrespective of whether the benchmarks are adopted, adapted or were implemented using other processes by the RTOs. The extent to which these external environmental factors inhibited the efforts of individual RTOs was also found to be dependent on the level of contradictions existing in the RTO’s activity systems, from the perspectives of some or all of its historical and environmental contexts, goals and objectives, institutional rules, divisions of labour instruments and materials, as well as its social dimensions.Validerat; 20101217 (root

Conceptualization of actors’ emerging-object-of-activities as hidden exploitative resource for managing organizational change

This paper discusses the concept of an “actor’s emerging-object-of-activity” and its potential use towards increased understanding and learning of the complexity of organizational change management in organizations. The argument that organizations, as activity systems, offers managers of organizational change an antidote to simplistic interpretations of the nature of individual knowledge and action, and organizational cultures and competencies was critically appraised. Paths for understanding the hidden challenges posed by actors’ emerging objects of activities” in the management of new organizational practices are hypothesized. It is concluded that by recognizing the importance of human interpretive activity to organizational change, the role of organizational influences in conditioning such interpretive activity will be understood and managed.<p>Validerad; 2011; 20110102 (mohami)</p

Activities enhancing the productiveness of maintenance process for high technology equipment in deep mines

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to find out whether in the course of task performances, miners engage in activities influenced by their tacit knowledge to enhance the quality of the maintenance process for high technology equipment in deep mines. Guided by an organizational activity theoretical framework, data was collected by observing and interviewing four different mineworkers engaged in rock drilling and roof bolting activities in an underground mine. An interpretive descriptive analysis was conducted to understand the mineworkers activities when engaged with their work. It is found that the miners use their acquired experiences to find ways of maintaining and managing the machines they use for optimum work performance. It is concluded that an employee’s tacit knowledge, when made visible, can help determine the horizon of possible actions that can influence either positively or otherwise on the maintenance process.Godkänd; 2011; 20111214 (mohami)</p

Four case studies on commercialisation of government R&amp;D agencies : an organizational activity theoretical approach

In this study, it was established that internal environment factors that seemed to have constrained the attempts by most Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) in the developing countries to implement and internalise a best management practices (BMP) model (i.e. as an instrument of change) towards commercialisation were rather unidentified contradictions caused by conflicts and disturbances which served, not only as sources of troubles, but also sources of innovation in the RTOs' organizational activity systems. This observation provided an insight into the phenomenon that; despite the successful use of the BMP model by companies in the developed countries, especially in Europe, the efforts of most RTOs in the developing countries to implement and internalise the model were constrained by some undetermined environmental factors. The question of how factors internal to the RTOs' operating environments impacted on their attempts to implement and internalise the BMP model was explored, based on the proposition that; existing tensions in the RTOs activity system serve as internal environment constraints which influence the extent to which external environment factors negatively affect their efforts to implement and internalise the BMP model in their attempts to commercialise. Thus the goal of the study was to create an understanding with both practical and academic values (i.e. from the perspectives of organizational learning) on how the RTOs in developing countries can learn to deal with factors constraining the attempts by most of them to implement and internalise the BMP model (i.e. as an instrument of change) in their efforts to commercialise. The aim was to use organizational activity theory as a platform to provide an understanding of the possible internal factors preventing the RTOs from being successful in their implementation and internalisation efforts, with the objective of developing the requisite tools to guide future remedial actions. A multiple-case study was carried out with four RTOs in four countries (i.e. South Africa, Trinidad, and Botswana) as cases. Qualitative data on how each case's commercialisation process impacted on the sub-activity systems of its agents and/or groups (i.e. either as management teams or staff members, or collectively as workforce) were collected through structured interviews with key actors, problem-identification workshops, and surveys (using closed-ended self-completion questionnaires). Both historical and actual-empirical analyses were carried out for each case using the "analysis of contradiction" approach, with the actions of identified groups in each case (i.e. management team, senior staff, and junior staff) as the sub-unit of analysis, and the actions of the collective group (i.e. workforce) as the main unit of analysis. The contradictions that existed within the organizational activity system of each case were identified, and the findings interpreted at the single-case level. Results from these analyses showed that the case in South Africa was able to manage the contradictions that emerged in its organizational activity system, and hence was successful with its implementation efforts. The case in Trinidad was found to have experienced some constraints in its institutional rules and communities which generated some contradictions in its activity. Though not significant, the inability of the organization to fully manage it affected its implementation efforts, resulting in a moderate success. The case in Ghana was found to have been constrained in its institutional rule, community and division of labour. Due to its inability to manage the contradictions that emerged in its activity system, its commercialisation effort yielded a relatively poor outcome. The case in Botswana was found to have been highly constrained in its institutional rule, community and division of labour. Contradiction was thus high in its activity system, resulting in relatively failed implementation efforts. These analytic outcomes from the individual cases (i.e. analysis of contradiction) were then crossed analysed using the pattern-matching approach. Based on the analyses outcome, an understanding was made on factors internal to the organizations' operating environments which impacted on their implementation of the best management practices. This understanding provided the premise upon which the conclusion stated in the opening paragraph was derived.Godkänd; 2006; 20061206 (haneit)</p