Improving high lean team performance through aligned behaviour-value patterns and coactive vicarious learning-by-doing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to uncover the underlying drivers of sustained high performing companies based on a field study of 127 companies in Brazilian, Russian, Indian and Chinese (BRIC) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) emerging markets. Understanding these companies provides a complementary way of appraising the growth, development and transformation of emerging markets. The authors synthesize the findings in an overarching framework that covers six strategies for building and sustaining legacy that leads to the succession of intergenerational wealth over time: overcoming institutional voids, inclusive markets, deepening localization, nurturing government support, building core competencies and harnessing human capital. The authors relate these strategies to different levels of development using Prahalad and Hart’s BOP framework. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the underlying drivers of sustained high-performance companies based on field studies from an initial set of 105,260 BRIC companies and close to 500 companies in ASEAN. The methods employed four screening tests to arrive at a selection of the highest-performing firms: 70 firms in the BRIC nations and 58 firms from ASEAN. Following the selection, the authors constructed cases using primary interviews and secondary data, with the assistance of Ernst & Young and with academic colleagues in Manila. These studies were originally conducted in two separate time periods and reported accordingly. This paper synthesizes the findings of these two studies to arrive at an extended integrative framework. Findings From the cases, the authors examine six strategies for building and sustaining legacy that lead to high performance over time: overcoming institutional voids, creating inclusive markets, deepening localization, nurturing government support, building core competencies and harnessing human capital. To address the evolving state of institutional voids in these countries, the authors employ similar methods to hypothesize the placement of these strategies in the context of the world economic pyramid, initially formulated as the “bottom of the pyramid” framework. Originality/value This paper synthesizes and extends the authors’ previous works by proposing the concept of legacy to describe the emergence and succession of local exemplary firms in emerging markets. This study aims to complement extant measures of nation-growth based primarily on GDP. The paper also extends the literature on institutional voids in shifting the focus from the mix of voids to their evolving state. Altogether, the paper provides a complementary narrative on assessing the market potential of emerging markets by adopting several categories of performance.

Purpose – Continuous improvement (CI) is regarded as a powerful approach to achieve business excellence. However, the implementation is not simple as it involves managing a considerable amount of tangible and intangible factors throughout the whole organization. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by presenting first-hand information about how companies really implement and organize their CI processes. Design/methodology/approach – The study was based on semi-structured interviews in ten high performing companies in the Basque Country, a region in northern Spain well known for its business quality. The objective was to analyze the state of their CI processes, putting special focus on how the organizational structure integrates with the CI processes and what are the characteristics of the corresponding measurement system. Findings – The study shows a lack of company-wide focus on CI, little written evidence of previous improvement activities, unclear improvement process owner, and poor use of adequate measurement systems to monitor CI. Practical implications – Managers should understand that is not enough to guarantee their own commitment and provide the structure, since in order to become learning organization, a different holistic approach towards the CI process must be adopted. Originality/value – While most previous work on this field have focused primarily on how to implement different techniques in order to achieve better productive performance, this study presents empirical research from a more holistic approach, assessing the characteristics affecting CI by considering strategy, structure, and the measurement system.

Purpose The growing force of disruptive change is creating whitewater work environments across the profit and not-for-profit world. To help leaders overcome the challenge of achieving improvements in leadership performance, this study aims to outline research and case examples that illustrate a four-point roadmap for improving this performance at scale. Design/methodology/approach The study summarizes new research on leadership and organizational high performance and practices that drive high performance today. It relates these finding to trends evidenced in the work being done by HR organizations and the consulting firms that serve them. It then outlines an evidence-based roadmap for achieving improvements in leadership performance that HR organizations can adopt to achieve improvements in leadership performance. Findings Successful organizations intervene at four leverage points to meet the challenge achieving the shifts in leadership behavior needed for success in today’s permanent whitewater environments. These organizations are focusing on two types of leadership, leveraging two approaches to its development and are leveraging critical enablers that benefit from strong alignments within HR and between HR and their business leader colleagues. Originality/value The study highlights new research finding and research-based models of leadership performance that meet the demands of today’s workplace. It synthesizes a new four-point roadmap to success from trends discovered in recent research on leadership, technology-assisted behavior change and organizational effectiveness, as well as in the example of in high-performing organizations.

Purpose – Previous literature has recognized the variability of job performance, calling attention to the inter-individual differences in performance change. Building on Murphy’s (1989) theoretical model of performance, the purpose of this paper is to verify the existence of two distinct classes of performance, reflecting stable and increasing trends, and to investigate which personal conditions prompt the inclusion of individuals in one class rather than the other. Design/methodology/approach – Overall job performance was obtained from supervisory ratings for four consecutive years for 410 professionals of a large Italian company going through significant reorganization. Objective data were merged with employees’ organizational tenure and self-efficacy. Growth Mixture Modeling was used. Findings – Two main groups were identified: the first one started at higher levels of performance and showed a stable trajectory over time (stable class); the second group started at lower levels and reported an increasing trajectory (increasing class). Employees’ with stronger efficacy beliefs and lower tenure were more likely to belong to the stable class. Originality/value – Through a powerful longitudinal database, the nature, the structure and the inter-individual differences in job performance over time are clarified. The study extends Murphy’s (1989) model, showing how transition stages in job performance may occur also as a result of organizational transformation. Moreover, it demonstrates the essential role of self-efficacy in maintaining high performance levels over time.

Purpose Happiness at work (HAW) is receiving much attention in the literature, as HAW seems to have a positive effect on organisational performance, such as in increase of productivity, lower turnover of employees and less customer complaints. There is however no research into the relation between HAW and the attractiveness of an organisation. It stands to reason that people who are happier at work are also happier about their organisation and express this to their family and friends. Having an attractive organisation is becoming increasingly important as the world is currently experiencing an economic boom creating shortages of qualified personnel. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach A possible way of creating an attractive organisation is by transforming the workplace into a high-performing organisation (HPO). The study described in this paper is looking in this respect at three hypotheses: H1. Higher HAW will increase the attractiveness of the organisation; H2. Becoming an HPO will increase HAW; and H3. Becoming an HPO will increase the attractiveness of the organisation. A large-scale survey of Dutch managers and employees was undertaken in which the respondents were asked their opinion of the high-performance level and attractiveness of their organisation, and their happiness with their job and organisation. Findings The study results show that the three hypotheses are basically confirmed. Increasing the happiness of work of employees, in general, raises the feeling of how attractive the organisation is to the employees themselves and to the external world. However, this positive feeling is mainly true for the work itself but not so much for how committed employees feel to the organisation. Practical implications Organisations now have knowledge at their disposal about ways to promote happiness in their employees, thus raising their attractiveness to current and future employees. Originality/value The study results indicate that senior management has to make more effort to raise the quality level of the organisation, preferably towards the high performance level, in order for employees to start feeling more committed to their organisation. This is because the study results show that transforming an organisation into a high-performance entity increases happiness of employees at work significantly, especially about their work and in a lesser degree with the commitment they feel towards the organisation itself. This result has not been found before, so this research provides managers for the first time with a validated way to help their staff to become happier and more productive.

PurposeFailte Ireland argues that high performance work practices will provide the Irish tourist industry with the necessary competitive edge. The main focus of this study is to explore the extent of these practices in the Irish hospitality industry with particular emphasis on the practices of staff empowerment and participation.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was chosen as the most appropriate means of obtaining information from managers because respondents could be targeted in a cost effective method. A total of 71 questionnaires were mailed to managers in all three, four and five‐star hotels in the Dublin and greater Dublin area.FindingsThe data show that Dublin‐based hotels display some of the human resource practices associated with high performing work practices. There are, however, very low levels of employee participation, which many authors argue are the cornerstone of high performance practices.Practical implicationsThe Irish hotel industry is undergoing fundamental change, not least of which is the increasingly demanding and discerning clients. Customers are demanding quality products and services, speed and reliability of service, price competitiveness and innovation. If Irish hotels are to survive and remain competitive, the issue of staff representation, participation and the channels of communication will have to be addressed. Recognising, utilizing and developing their human resources may be the most significant challenge that management faces, and it is posited that those organisations that excel at this will be the industry leaders.Originality/valueThe paper offers insights into the realities of management practices in hotels in an Irish setting.

PurposeThere is a paucity of research into high-performing virtual teams. This study aims to design and test a model of virtual team performance and to produce a profile of high-performing teams.Design/methodology/approachThe main constructs found to have influenced virtual team performance in business were trustworthiness, commitment, communication characteristics, cross-cultural communication style and structure effects. New or revised scales to measure these and a new performance measure, based on five performance criteria, were developed. A research model was designed and tested, and a profile of high-performance teams produced. The sample from a global telecoms company comprised 108 global virtual teams. Two senior managers rated performance independently.FindingsHierarchical regression results explained 75.7 per cent of the variance of performance. Analysis of variance revealed that model fit was highly statistically significant. Trustworthiness was identified as the predominant factor, explaining a majority of the dependent variable’s variance, while interpersonal communication, commitment and cross-cultural communication style were also identified as important. The 52 items differentiating high- and low-performing teams are reported and discussed.Originality/valueThe research model makes a contribution to team performance theory and understanding, especially the relative importance of constructs for explaining performance. The profile of high-performing teams adds greatly to our knowledge and provides valuable guidance for team management, selection and development.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and reflect on the experience as corporate ethnographers working in (and for) a large, multinational company with a remit to study and articulate “the culture of the firm.” Design/methodology/approach – The research relied heavily on interviews and some (participant) observation carried out periodically – in North America, Europe and Asia – over an eight-year period. Findings – The authors discuss how the studies were produced, received, and occasionally acted on in the firm and the realization over time of the performativity of the work as both expressive and constitutive of firm’s culture. Research limitations/implications – The increasing entanglement in the organization raises questions regarding emic and etic perspectives and the possibility (or impossibility) of “enduring detachment” or “going native” and the associated, often unintended consequences of being both outsiders and insiders. Practical implications – The authors start with the premise that ethnography is about producing a written text and conclude by arguing that ethnography is not fully realized until the writing is read. Social implications – The ethnographic reports, when read by those in the company, made visible a version of Trifecta culture that was interpreted, framed and otherwise responded to in multiple ways by members of the organization. Originality/value – Corporate ethnography is a growing pursuit undertaken by those inside and outside firms. This paper focusses on how and in what ways corporate ethnography sponsored by and written for those in the company shifts the positioning of the ethnographer in the field, the kinds of texts they produce, and the meanings that readers take away from such texts.

PurposeThis study offers a critical inquiry into accountability vis-à-vis organizational identity formation. It investigates how accountability evolves in the transformation of an NGO operating in the field of migration management from an informal grassroots group into a fully-fledged organization.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is the outcome of a participatory action research project on Welcome Refugees (WR), a UK-based NGO. The project involved documentary analysis, focus group and semi-structured interviews, field notes, and participant observation. The analysis draws from poststructuralist theorization to explain the interplay between organizational identity and different forms of NGO accountability over time.FindingsThe study shows how different forms of accountability became salient over time and were experienced differently by organizational members, thus leading to competing collective identity narratives. Organizational members felt accountable to beneficiaries in different ways, and this was reflected in their identification with the organization. Some advocated a rights-based approach that partially resonated with the accountability demands of external donors, while others aimed at enacting their feelings of accountability by preserving their closeness with beneficiaries and using a need-based approach. These differences led to an identity struggle that was ultimately solved through the silencing of marginalized narratives and the adoption of an adaptive regime of accountability.Practical implicationsThe findings of the case are of practical relevance to quasi-organizations that struggle to form and maintain organizational identity in their first years of operation. Their survival depends not only on their ability to accommodate and/or resist a multiplicity of accountability demands but also on their ability to develop a shared and common understanding of identity accountability.Originality/valueThe paper problematizes rather than takes for granted the process through which organizations acquire a viable identity and the role of accountability within them.

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper concerns itself with the relationship between taking-charge behavior, task-oriented leadership behavior, leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships, and employee performance. The results gleaned from the sales team members at pharmaceutical companies revealed that these employees positively take more charge of their performance when they experience higher LMX, which comes from them outperforming their baseline role expectations in the first place. High performance breeds more high performance through the relationship these employees develop with leaders, and through the reciprocity principle. Task-oriented leaders successfully developed LMX-fueled relationships with high performing employees across three identified stages. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.