Retention of Generation Y employees through high performance work systems, change management and employee engagement

PURPOSE: The aim of the present paper is to examine high skilled Generation Y employee retention in knowledge-intensive services by focusing on various effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS), change management practices and employee engagement.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A research model is proposed which investigates the causal effects between the above factors. Data were collected from 499 employees in six European countries who are between 21 and 40 years old with at least a higher education degree.FINDINGS: Empirical findings revealed that high-performance work systems and change management practices have a direct positive impact on the engagement of highly skilled employees that belong to Generation Y, which in turn influences their intention to stay in the same company. Moreover, the impact of HRM on turnover intention is both direct and indirect (mediated through employee engagement). The negative impact of high-performance work systems on turnover intention was also highlighted by the empirical results. Finally, the significant mediating role of employee engagement is underlined, since it mediates the impact of high-performance work systems and change management practices on turnover intention.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: HR professionals in knowledge-intensive services should take into consideration that they can effectively retain their high skilled ‘Generation Y’ employees by enhancing their abilities, increasing their motivation, and providing them with opportunities to participate in the decision-making process while at the same time support them with managing change.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: A central issue in this line of research refers to the limited empirical examination regarding talented employees in knowledge-intensive services, mainly in European countries.This research is carried out/funded in the context of the project “Talent retention in the era of change and knowledge: enhancing employee engagement” (MIS 5048310) under the call RESEARCH SUPPORT WITH EMPHASIS ON YOUNG RESEARCHERS PHASE B. The project is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) by the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020”.peer-reviewe

Information systems development project risk management

The frequently observed positive impact of adopting risk management strategies onprojects’ overall outcome has led many software development organizations to appreciate itssignificant role in the pursuit of cost reduction, schedule overruns decrease and, generally,improved performance. In line with this issue, this study investigates a wide range of relevantliterature, proposes and tests a new conceptual framework for managing risk in softwaredevelopment projects, introduces new conceptual factors, brings out their interrelation, andsuggests new prospects and managerial implications for both practitioners and academics.The conceptual framework has two basic axes. Firstly, the determination of the impactof constructs such as Project Characteristics, Project Risk Management Team, RiskIdentification Approaches, and Project Quality on the level of Project Risk. The majority ofthe items used to measure these constructs are proposed for the first time in literature.Secondly, the assessment of the impact of Project Risk (and all of the dimensions thatcompose it), simultaneously with the estimation of the impact of the Residual PerformanceRisk on the final subjective and objective Project Performance. These assessments provideproject managers with a better picture of the effectiveness and adequacy of their riskmanagement practices.The epistemological orientation of the proposed research is that of an interpretive,longitudinal study that seeks the risk and their management behind software developmentprojects. A survey research strategy were selected as the most appropriate method to achievethe objectives of the thesis. 112 questionnaires from 63 software development organizations(local, national or international) were collected. The target group of the participants consistedof, but it was not limited to, project managers and developers. Hence a large pool of rich dataand information is collated.The results are analyzed and a rich set of information is presented in this thesis. Thisinformation confirms the impact of the aforementioned constructs on the project risk level andits influence on the overall project performance. The resulting instrument can serve as afoundation for further research on software development risk. Practicing project managers canuse the instrument to identify possible threats to the successful completion of a softwaredevelopment project.Η θετική επίδραση της υιοθέτησης της στρατηγικής διαχείρισης κινδύνου στησυνολική εικόνα των έργων, όπως προκύπτει από την πρόσφατη βιβλιογραφία, οδήγησεπολλές εταιρείες ανάπτυξης λογισµικού στην εκτίµηση του σηµαντικού της ρόλου για τηνεπίτευξη µειώσεων στο κόστος και τις υπερβάσεις χρονοδιαγράµµατος και γενικότερα για τηβελτίωση της απόδοσης των έργων. Η παρούσα διατριβή διερευνά τη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία,προτείνει και ελέγχει ένα νέο εννοιολογικό πλαίσιο για τη διαχείριση των κινδύνων σε έργαανάπτυξης λογισµικού, εισάγει νέους εννοιολογικούς παράγοντες, αναδεικνύει τις µεταξύτους σχέσεις και προτείνει µελλοντικές δυνατότητες και προοπτικές αλλά και διοικητικέςεπιπτώσεις, τόσο για τους επαγγελµατίες όσο και για την ακαδηµαική κοινότητα.Το εννοιολογικό πλαίσιο της έρευνας βασίζεται πάνω σε δύο άξονες. Πρώτον, στονκαθορισµό της επίδρασης παραγόντων όπως τα χαρακτηριστικά ενός έργου, η οµάδαδιαχείρισης κινδύνων του έργου, οι προσεγγίσεις αναγνώρισης του κινδύνου και η ποιότητατου έργου, στο συνολικό επίπεδο κινδύνου του έργου. Η πλειοψηφία των µεταβλητών πουχρησιµοποιήθηκαν για τη µέτρηση αυτών των παραγόντων, κατασκευάστηκε καιδοκιµάστηκε για πρώτη φορά στη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία για τις ανάγκες της παρούσαςδιατριβής. Δεύτερον, στην εκτίµηση της επίπτωσης του κινδύνου του έργου (και όλων τωνδιαστάσεων που τον συνθέτουν), παράλληλα µε την εκτίµηση της επίπτωσης τουυπολειµµατικού κινδύνου απόδοσης, στη συνολική υποκειµενική και αντικειµενική απόδοσητου έργου. Οι εκτιµήσεις αυτές παρέχουν στους διαχειριστές έργων µια ευκρινέστερη εικόνατης επάρκειας και της αποτελεσµατικότητας των πρακτικών διαχείρισης κινδύνου πουχρησιµοποιούν.Η επιστηµονική προσέγγιση που ακολουθείται στην παρούσα έρευνα είναι αυτή µιαςαιτιολογικής και διαχρονικής µελέτης η οποία διερευνά τον κίνδυνο αλλά και τη διαχείρισήτου σε έργα ανάπτυξης λογισµικού. Η ερευνητική στρατηγική της δηµοσκόπησης επιλέχθηκεως η πλέον κατάλληλη µέθοδος για την εκπλήρωση των στόχων της έρευνας. Συνολικά γιατους σκοπούς αυτής συγκεντρώθηκαν 112 ερωτηµατολόγια από 63 εταιρείες ανάπτυξηςλογισµικού (τοπικές, εθνικές ή και πολυεθνικές). Ως οµάδα έρευνας επιλέχτηκαν, κατά κύριολόγο, οι διαχειριστές και οι προγραµµατιστές των έργων. Με τον τρόπο αυτό συγκεντρώθηκεµια σηµαντική δεξαµενή σηµαντικών δεδοµένων και πληροφοριών.Μέσα από την ανάλυση των αποτελεσµάτων, παρουσιάζεται ένα πλούσιο σύνολοπληροφοριών. Από την µελέτη αυτών επιβεβαιώνεται η επίδραση των προαναφερθέντων εννοιολογικών παραγόντων στο επίπεδο κινδύνου των έργων, καθώς και η επακόλουθηεπίδραση αυτού στη συνολική απόδοσή των έργων. Το τελικό εργαλείο που προκύπτει µπορείνα λειτουργήσει ως θεµέλιο για µελλοντική έρευνα στο πεδίο της διαχείρισης κινδύνου έργωνανάπτυξης λογισµικού. Οι διαχειριστές έργων µπορούν να χρησιµοποιήσουν αυτό τοεργαλείο για την αναγνώριση και αντιµετώπιση των πιθανών απειλών που αναδύονται σταέργα τους για την επιτυχηµένη ολοκλήρωση αυτών

Business outsourcing and organisational performance: the case of the Greek hotel industry

The adoption of the outsourcing strategy for services and products is expanding rapidly worldwide. The strategic character of outsourcing has led many hotels in Greece to appreciate its significant role in the pursuit of improved performance. This study empirically investigates the outsourcing strategy adopted by Greek hotels. The research models were validated, using data collected from 106 questionnaires, completed by Greek hotel managers. It is found that hotel managers believe that outsourcing has a clear, significant and positive influence on achieving operational objectives such as financial and flexibility improvements, access to new managerial and sourcing methods and quality improvements. In addition, the impact of outsourcing on organisational financial and non-financial performance, from the aspect of the strategic value of the activities, is also examined. Surprisingly, the results indicate that there is no evidence supporting the existence of a significant direct effect of outsourcing on the performance of hotels in Greece. Hotel managers, therefore, should realise that outsourcing is a tool that is used sensibly it can help hotels improve specific activities and achieve some, mainly non-financial, targets. Further research should attempt to led some light on the conditions under which outsourcing of specific activities can enhance hotels' performance

Total Quality Management implementation in Greek businesses: Comparative assessment 2009-2013

The competition in the Greek manufacturing sector has become very intense and the need for businesses to survive, under these very difficult conditions, forces them to find new ways to increase their profits, but also to attract new customers and to retain old.  A necessary condition for long-term business survival is to maintain a high product quality level. The implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) approach is a key factor to achieve this goal.The main objective of this research is to identify the current situation as far as the implementation of TQM by Greek manufacturing firms, and finally to compare the results between the current research and the previous research of 2009 (Vranaki et al., 2010). The research model that has been developed incorporates nine factors which are found in literature to influence Total Quality Management. A structured questionnaire has been developed and distributed to executives of 61 companies. Descriptive statistics as well as Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques were used to analyze the data

Outcomes of engagement: A systematic literature review and future research directions

This study aims to present a systematic literature review of high-quality contributions in the research area of engagement focusing on studies that examine engagement outcomes. More specifically, a systematic review of the relevant literature on engagement outcomes is conducted providing a broad range of knowledge regarding the overall scope and the extent of each peer-reviewed article. Moreover, the study takes into consideration three types of engagement, i.e., work, employee, and job engagement, categorizing individual-level as well as organization-level outcomes of engagement. Additionally, based on a thorough examination of engagement outcomes, a further purpose of this study is to classify each engagement outcome factor into more general categories in respect of individual- and organizational-level outcomes of engagement. The systematic literature review was conducted drawing on an evidence base of 50 articles published in high-ranking journals during the years 2000–2022. The final results provide quantitative data regarding the scope and the extent of each article and map the individual- and organization-level outcomes of work, employee, and job engagement through an in-depth overview of the literature. Finally, future research directions are identified by providing added value to scholars interested in the engagement field of research

Artwork Style Recognition Using Vision Transformers and MLP Mixer

Through the extensive study of transformers, attention mechanisms have emerged as potentially more powerful than sequential recurrent processing and convolution. In this realm, Vision Transformers have gained much research interest, since their architecture changes the dominant paradigm in Computer Vision. An interesting and difficult task in this field is the classification of artwork styles, since the artistic style of a painting is a descriptor that captures rich information about the painting. In this paper, two different Deep Learning architectures—Vision Transformer and MLP Mixer (Multi-layer Perceptron Mixer)—are trained from scratch in the task of artwork style recognition, achieving over 39% prediction accuracy for 21 style classes on the WikiArt paintings dataset. In addition, a comparative study between the most common optimizers was conducted obtaining useful information for future studies

Music Deep Learning: Deep Learning Methods for Music Signal Processing—A Review of the State-of-the-Art

The discipline of Deep Learning has been recognized for its strong computational tools, which have been extensively used in data and signal processing, with innumerable promising results. Among the many commercial applications of Deep Learning, Music Signal Processing has received an increasing amount of attention over the last decade. This work reviews the most recent developments of Deep Learning in Music signal processing. Two main applications that are discussed are Music Information Retrieval, which spans a plethora of applications, and Music Generation, which can fit a range of musical styles. After a review of both topics, several emerging directions are identified for future research