Micropolitics of middle managers in influencing centre-led change initiative: case study of a Malaysian based MNC

The purpose of this article is to explore the micropolitics of middle managers in influencing the development and outcome of a centre-led change initiative. This study was empirically based on a novel context in a Malaysia based multinational company (MNC) and four of its Asian subsidiaries. This qualitative study was conducted through a multiple embedded case study approach. The findings demonstrate that middle managers have within their powers to influence the development and eventually the outcome of change. This was achieved through control of middle managers on resources such as business knowledge and networking in influencing the meaning of change itself. This article allows the authors to investigate an in-depth exploration of how subsidiary managers operate. It contributes to the change literature by expanding the knowledge about the tight coupling between power and politics of organizational sensemaking

EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEES' ETHICAL BEHAVIOR: THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AND EMPLOYEES' MORAL IDENTITY

This paper investigates the role of organizational justice and moral identity of employees on the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' ethical behavior. It examines the mediation effect of organizational justice on the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical behavior of employees. This study also explores the moderating role of employees' moral identity on the relationship between organizational justice and ethical behavior of employees. Data is obtained from a sample of 230 employees from the banking industry in Iraq. The theoretical and practical contribution as well as recommendations for further research are also presented

The impact of cultural industries on national economy / Herwina Rosnan and Mohd Nazari Ismail

The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of cultural industries in general and film industry in particular on national economy. Globally, cultural industries have contributed to economic development of many developed and developing countries. For example, in the United States, film industry (which fall under the category of cultural industries) contribution is greater than its aerospace industry. In the case of third world countries, film industry has been neglected in the academic literature despite its huge potential contribution to the economy. Based on the reviews of earlier studies, it was found that little attention has been given by scholars to study the impact of cultural industries and national economic development. Most studies on economic development focused on other industries deemed significant, especially manufacturing industry. Hence, this paper highlights the importance of cultural industries and its potential contribution to national economy. It also highlights some important points that need to be considered by national government in their effort to benefit from the development of their national film industry

A Sensemaking Study of Change Initiative: The Case of a Malaysian Multinational Enterprise

Empirical evidence has emphasized the need for more research to uncover why does change fail and what can organizations do to improve their success rate. The purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth assessment on the implementation of centre-led change initiative in a novel empirical study in a Malaysian-based multinational enterprise (MNE). This study is based on multiple embedded case studies of four subsidiaries of a Malaysian-based MNE. This study urges centre managers tasked with implementing strategic change initiatives to emphasize the behavioral aspect of those involved in change throughout the entire development stage of the change. Any negative cues from change recipients need to be addressed and attended to as quickly as possible. This study is based on a section within the larger context of the MNE which is being researched. The study contributes to the literature of organizational sensemaking in change by extending the knowledge of new sensemaking forms namely communication intensity and resolution to barriers. This study also contributes to the empirical literature in change by providing an in-depth account of a Malaysian based MNE journey in implementing centre-led change initiatives

Could the Great Depression Repeat Itself in the 21St Century?

By 2031, it will be a century since the Great Depression, touted as the most dreadful depression in the history of U.S. and the rest of the world, had taken place. In the final decades of last century and in the early years of this century, numerous financial crises and economic depressions, not as severe as the Depression, have occurred, particularly but not limited to, developing countries. Looking at the Depression and today's arrangements, will a major global depression be looming? This paper begins with a refresher on the events of the Depression, which is followed by the Friedman and Schwartz hypothesis, criticisms against it, other contributing factors to the Depression, a reconciliation of the theories and finally ends with an assessment of the possibility of a return of the Depression in the 21st century based on today's economic, financial, political, social, and technological considerations

Designing and developing a sport entrepreneurship course: an educational design-based study.

There is an evident gap in the studies that provide a systematic process of designing sport entrepreneurship courses. This study employed an educational design-based approach to design a sport entrepreneurship course. The ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’ and Gagné’s ‘nine events of instructions’ were used as the theoretical foundation and teaching strategy guidelines of the course. The study included three main phases, namely needs analysis, course design, and reflection. Needs assessment phase resulted to the design of outline for an introductory sport entrepreneurship course. The completed design was instructed to sport students in a public university in Malaysia. The post-test results showed a significant increase in students’ entrepreneurial intention. The classroom observations showed more attention must be paid to opportunity recognition topic and cultural contexts for an introductory entrepreneurship course. In addition, using the nine events of instruction as the basis for teaching strategy provided a clear structure and solid framework for the teaching and learning process and classroom experience

Managerial virtues: Perspectives of future knowledge workers

Virtues are essential moral attributes of successful managers in the knowledge economy. Business ethics and moral virtues facilitates the development of intellectual capital which are the most important resources of organizations today. Many have even argued that the lack of moral virtues of business executives is one of the root causes of recent financial crises.Virtues are character traits or qualities that are deemed to be morally good. However, there is a general lack of agreement on what virtues are as well as the types of virtues a good manager should possess. Cross-national studies have found that managers from different countries accord varying degree of importance to different virtues. Previous research have also found that there are differences in values between trainee managers and experienced managers.In this study, managerial virtues are assessed using the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS).This study which was conducted on Malaysian management undergraduates yielded a different factor structure for the VIA (Virtues in Action) Inventory and provides an indication on the types of moral virtues that are regarded as important in a Malaysian manager from the lens of budding millennial managers.According to Malaysian management business undergraduates, the three most important moral virtues in a manager are collaborative leadership, benevolent philomathy and innovativeness

Ethical leadership and employee ethical behaviour: exploring dual-mediation paths of ethical climate and organisational justice: empirical study on Iraqi organisations

Due to ethical lapses of leaders, interest in ethical leadership has grown, raising important questions about the responsibility of leaders in ensuring moral and ethical conduct. Research conducted on ethical leadership failed to investigate the active role that the characteristics of ethical climate and organisational justice have an increasing or decreasing influence on the ethical leadership in the organisation’s outcomes of employees’ ethical behaviour. Thus, this study examined the dual-mediations of work ethical climate and organisational justice on the relation of ethical leadership and ethical behaviour of employees. A total of 620 full-time employees from five Iraqi provinces working at 33 Iraqi organisations in the field of manufacturing, retailing, medical, insurance, information technology, legal, finance, and telecommunication responded to the questionnaire survey. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the model and data analysis was carried out using structural equation modelling-partial least square (SEM-PLS). The results revealed that there is a significant relationship between ethical leadership behaviour and the ethical behaviour of employees. Primarily, the study also found that ethical climate and organisational justice play a very significant mediating role between ethical leadership and employees’ ethical behaviour

Factors Influencing Sexual Harassment In The Malaysian Workplace

This study examined the potential risks factors associated with sexually harassing behaviors within the framework of the four-factor model of sexual harassment. The factors examined are unprofessional work environment, skewed gender ratio in the workplace, knowledge of grievance procedure for sexual harassment, sexist attitudes among co-workers, privacy of workspace, physical attractiveness, dress manner of victims, job status, and sex roles. The dependent variable is incidence of sexual harassment which was evaluated using the Sexual Experience Questionnaire developed by Fitzgerald, Shullman, Bailey, Richards, Swecker, Gold, Ormerod, and Weitzman (1988). Data were collected from 657 women employees working in Malaysian organizations. The findings showed that the predictions of the four-factor model are also largely true in the case of the Malaysian workplace. The study also found that sexual harassment behaviors are fairly widespread in Malaysi

How Productive Are the Microfinance Institutions in Bangladesh? An Application of Malmquist Productivity Index

The poverty reduction and financial inclusion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030 can be significantly facilitated by the microfinance industry. However, it is pertinent to assess the sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in serving this purpose. The estimation of productivity of MFIs in Bangladesh gives a glimpse of their ability to fulfil the dual objectives of financial sustainability and social outreach. Hence, this study aims to measure the productivity of MFIs in Bangladesh using secondary data obtained from the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) market. The study employs Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI), which is an extension of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate the overall, social and financial productivities of 26 MFIs in Bangladesh during the period from 2009 to 2018. In general, this study revealed that majority of the MFIs’ overall productivity score varies between 0.9 and 1.20. Moreover, we observed that the social and financial productivities of MFIs in Bangladesh progressed during the entire study period, except for the years 2011 and 2017. This development may be attributed to the average growth in catch-up and technological effect witnessed during the study period. The study has also applied sensitivity analysis by changing the output to evaluate the robustness of the overall productivity results; consequently, the new estimates followed a similar pattern (mostly) and further corroborate the outcomes of this study