Citation
(2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 63 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-02-2014-0033
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Volume 63, Issue 3
An interesting aspect that stems from our journal's multi-disciplinary nature is the various perspectives that can be, and are, adopted by our contributors. In this issue we have three papers that are linked by their authors choosing to model the organisation as a human resource system. However, these papers are counter-balanced by other papers that take a different view of the organisation. For example, we have a paper where the organisation is modelled as a flow of cash; while yet another paper demonstrates an approach that is particularly relevant to a manufacturing company, where the authors model the organisation as a flow of materials through machines. On the other hand not all of our papers are narrowly focused on the organisation level. For instance, in the penultimate paper of this issue the author considers how a country's productivity is affected by the interactions between employers, trades unions and government within a country. Given this wide variety of topics, we believe you should find something to interest you in this issue's five academic papers and two reflective practice pieces.
Employee turnover can be a blessing and a curse. In our first paper the authors (Avanzi, Fraccaroli, Sarchielli, Ullrich, and van Dick) endeavour to build a model for better predicting employee decisions to leave or stay. They look to integrate two theoretical perspectives, namely social identity and social exchange. The data for testing the model comes from approximately 200 employees of a large food industry firm in Italy. Their study shows that the extent to which individuals identify with their employing organisation has a significant role in determining employee turnover through a complex set of connecting factors. Despite this complexity, a clear message for managers is that to reduce turnover they need to focus on enhancing the degree to which employees identify with their teams and with the organisation.
In the second paper Shahin, Shaabani and Pool create a structured equation model (SEM) that links organisational climate and organisational citizenship to organisational performance measured according to the four key elements of the balanced score card (BSC). Data were obtained from managers in small- and medium-sized firms in Iran. The authors find significant relationships between the three key variables of their study. Organisational climate is linked positively to organisational citizenship and both are linked positively to organisational performance. In essence a positive culture in the organisational leads to positive employee behaviour and these collectively lead on to positive performance. I guess that it might have been surprising if the variables were not linked in this way!
In our third paper on the topic of human resource activity, the author (Anitha) examines the factors that determine employee engagement and then looks to see how employee engagement is linked to employee performance. A multivariate analysis was performed using data from 383 lower and middle managers in India. The significant, and substantive, factors affecting engagement were found to be the working environment and team and co-worker relationships. A significant relationship was also established between employee engagement and employee performance.
The network view of the world has become increasingly influential, both in theory and practice. For instance, consider the growth of the internet and social media. This growing interest in networks has been accompanied by a growth in mathematical analysis and visualisation of networked systems. In this issue's fourth paper, Becker, Meyer, and Windt apply a network perspective to conceive manufacturing systems as flows of material through machine tools. They apply this novel network viewpoint to data from six manufacturing organisations and draw out some interesting observations, and common themes, that could signal the establishment of some practical insights into manufacturing as a network.
In the next paper Talonpoika, Monto, Pirttilä and Kärri extend our view of an important business process; that of the cash conversion cycle (CCC). This cycle is important when looking at the performance of individual organisations or supply chains of connected organisations. They argue that the conventional model of the CCC ignores some aspects that are particularly important when managing the working capital of some organisation types. In this paper the authors concentrate on situations where advanced payments are important. Data from 121 companies in ten industries are taken from the Helisinki Stock Exchange and used to demonstrate the relevance of the new perspective and its associated performance measure.
Kocer, the author of the first of our two reflective practice papers, reflects on the topic of national productivity by considering the interests of three key stakeholders " namely trades unions, employers and government " and their potential partnerships. At one time relatively poor national productivity was the subject of much concern for the UK government and resulted in them seeking to stimulate tri-partite initiatives to improve matters. More recently, although still concerned about national productivity, government has tended to leave dealing with the issue of deficient national productivity to the market, i.e. to bi-partite agreements between employers and trades unions. The author seeks to explore how tri-partite methods can be made more effective and sustainable from the point of view of the worker.
It is fairly common knowledge that the majority of management initiatives fail. In the final paper the authors (McLean and Antony) focus on continuous improvement initiatives in manufacturing and seek to review the literature on why such initiatives fail. To be specific they focus on the failure of TQM, Lean and Six Sigma initiatives by conducting a systematic review of the literature from 1995 to 2012. The authors isolate eight themes that explain failure and then move on to construct a three-stage model of how these themes might be addressed with a view to improving the implementation of improvement initiatives. This seems to be a very practical outcome arising from a distilling of the academic literature.