Managing organizational change in emerging markets

Managing organizational change in emerging markets

The twenty-first century is known as centuries of emerging markets (EMs) countries which are geographically and culturally spread over across the globe. The challenges and opportunities in the business environment of the EMs are exciting ones as they comprise of organizations which are truly multinational and global in character as well as many local organizations with dreams to go global. The EMs provide them with a set of unique and threatening business challenges to fix but many-a-times they miserably fail to provide relevant solutions while leveraging management architectures as designed and tested by them, especially in the developed world markets. Such a scenario puts pressure on to the organizational abilities to effectively manage emerging challenges faced in both internal and external environments of the firms in operations in the EMs. Hence, it becomes pertinent for the researchers, the practitioners and the management thinkers to share their research-based papers which if leveraged will help these organizations to get into continuously renewal mode and become smart enterprise in a boundary less world. It is in this context that a special issue (SI) on “Managing organizational change in emerging markets” in Journal of Organizational Change Management was conceptualized.

The SI starts with paper entitled “In sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth?: economic crises and CSR change management in difficult times”. This paper is contemporary wherein issues related to CSR have been dealt at length and offers insights to practitioners and policy makers to help solve challenges being confronted by them.

The second paper titling “Outsourcing decision: do strategy and structure really matter?” throws lights on to typical outsourcing practices in the current world order and the role of strategy and structure. The findings of the study are insightful for academics and practitioners to leverage while making outsourcing decisions.

The next paper titling “Human resource management and performance at the Indian Railways” discusses challenges faced by Indian Railways during change management. It has discussed at length about how HRM practices help solve typical change management issues, especially in the public sector undertakings in the Indian context.

The fourth paper entitled “Managing university-industry collaborative innovation in China – the case of Zhejiang NHU company” is situated in the Chinese context. This paper has dealt with innovation-related issues through academia-industry collaboration. It offers significant insights on to how the industry and academics should leverage competency of each other to deal with management of innovation at workplace.

The next paper entitled “Organizational, technological and extrinsic factors in the implementation of cloud ERP in SMEs”. This paper deals with organizational and technological factors and other related factors which are of concerns to the performance of cloud service provider. It offers sound theoretical contributions and managerial implications as well.

The sixth paper titling “Coal saving in China: from Pareto-Koopmans to Kaldor-Hicks criterion” which offers interesting and thought-provoking insights on change management. The findings in this paper have been discussed in details and it offers contribution to theory as well as practice.

The special issue moves to next paper titling “The ethical gap of firms’ marketing practices: a comparison between the Brazilian and French markets” brings out change management issues from developing and developed markets in the domain of marketing practices. The findings of this paper can be leveraged to handle ethical issues generally faced by firms during the marketing practices.

The eighth paper entitled “Managerial support for development and turnover intentions: roles of organizational support, work engagement and job satisfaction” is situated in the Indian context. The findings of the study have been discussed in the lights of the past research works and it discusses about sound theoretical as well as practical implications.

The next paper titled “Change management in Indo-Japanese cross-cultural collaborative contexts: parallels between traditional Indian philosophy and contemporary Japanese management” is a treat to read. The paper brings together Indian traditional philosophy and Japanese management practices to handle challenges faced in Indo-Japanese collaborative contexts. The findings of this paper can be leveraged as guidebook by practitioners, especially, to fix change management issues in Indo-Japanese enterprises.

The tenth paper “Life enrichment for workers in contemporary China” is a delight to read. It has deals with developing an organizational policies, practices and overall climate to tie together employees across divisions and layers to feel good at work. The paper offers theoretical and practical implications in the context of China.

The next paper titled “Tacit and explicit knowledge management and assessment of quality performance of public R&D in emerging economies: an Indian perspective” deals with management of knowledge at workplace. There is huge churning into the strategy, structure and culture of public sector firms in India and this paper has discussed about key challenges and solutions to fix them for organizational excellence.

The penultimate paper titling “Engagement of family members, corporate governance and social responsibility in family-owned enterprises” is in the Middle Eastern context wherein family-owned business is growing like anything. The findings of this study as mentioned in this paper if utilized properly, the family-owned businesses will be hugely benefited.

The last paper titling “From resistance to readiness: role of mediating variables” is situated in the Indian context. The paper discusses inhibitors and drivers of managing organizational change in organizations in India. The findings of the study have significant business value to practicing managers, leaders, consultants and the likes.

The special issue on “Managing organizational change in emerging markets” will be received well by the readers. It has 13 papers which provide varied perspectives and insights to practitioners, policy makers, consultants and academics on how to manage organizational change in the EMs.