This research is a pilot study on identifying the social initiatives that could potentially provide employment opportunities for female Sudanese refugees settled in western Sydney, Australia. An interpretative ethnographic approach was employed to analyse academic literature, government information and data gathered through in-depth interviews with a not-for-profit organisation working with this community. The outcome of this research emphasises three fundamental questions that relate to community value, customer need and opportunity risk that need to be considered with respect to the limitations that are framed by the social initiatives identified in relation to reducing unemployment for these women. This study revealed an interesting observation: programs that make use of existing skills create new opportunities in the employment market, whereas programmes that provide new skills or a combination of new and existing skills, were more inclined to link to existing opportunities in the employment market.

The Darwinian logic of evolution occurring via the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention provides a possible theoretical framework from which to further develop the dynamic capabilities view. Presently, criticized for lacking a theoretical foundation and featuring a degree of confusion concerning how it aligns with the resource-based view, the dynamic capabilities view would benefit from greater clarity concerning its assumptions, theoretical base and the development of a series of testable predictions. We test elements of a potential Darwinian style framework through variation-focused hypotheses using panel data for 190 Australian service firms. Our results highlight the importance of market development as a basis for variation, however, the impact of dynamic capabilities upon a likely antecedent of selection was not clear and highlighted a nuanced relationship between capability development, market development and sales growth in an small-and-medium-sized enterprise environment. We conclude that applying a Darwinian lens to the dynamic capabilities view is challenging without longer time series data and additional measures, but such an approach remains theoretically attractive and further investigation may help clarify how we conceptualize the relationship between the dynamic capabilities view and resource-based view.

We present a voice efficacy model to account for the effects of general self-efficacy, perceived team servant leadership, and perceived organisational support on voice behaviour. In particular, we predict that general self-efficacy, perceived team servant leadership, and perceived organisational support enhance voice behaviour via voice efficacy. We also examined the extent to which perceived organisational support moderates the effect of voice efficacy on voice such that the effect is stronger when perceived organisational support is high. Using data collected from 401 employees in 91 groups and 53 organisations in China and controlling for psychological safety, we obtained full support for our hypotheses.

This study investigates the effect of outside director experience on the performance of a firm's joint venture (JV) engagements, a type of strategic move where the influence of board remains under-investigated despite directors’ active participation in the decision-making process. By examining the direct linkage between director experience and strategic performance, our research presents the first direct evidence of the value outside director experience has for a firm's strategic engagements; this has previously been exclusively assessed by indirect indicators. We address this important issue in the following three ways. First, we explore what type of director experience contributes most to JV outcomes. Second, we investigate what circumstantial factors significantly influence the value of director experience. Lastly, we analyze whether incentive mechanisms moderate the relationship between director experience and firm performance. The results confirm the value of director experience gained from JV engagements but not from relevant industries. In addition, executive experience and the industry affiliation of the JV significantly moderate the value of director experience. Finally, experienced directors with large shareholdings outperform those with experience but limited stakes in the firms’ equity, justifying the necessity to motivate directors’ governance efforts despite their existing fiduciary obligation to shareholders. Our study contributes to agency theory by indicating that director experience holds a significant influence on a firm's strategic performance, an issue which has long been neglected in agency-based governance research. It also contributes to resource-dependence theory by providing a direct measurement of directors’ experiential assets, which have so far been exclusively assessed by indirect indicators. Finally, findings from this study can elucidate the long-standing question of how a firm can realize the purported benefits JVs provide by introducing a vital yet rarely explored factor: board experience.

We examined the influence of human resource practices on interpersonal deviance at work through job satisfaction. A survey was carried out among 372 manufacturing employees of various occupational levels in manufacturing companies in the northern region of Malaysia. We collected data by distributing questionnaires to participants, with the assistance of human resource department. We asked them to indicate how often they know whether any of their workmates engaged in different types of interpersonal deviance. Regression analysis showed that human resource practices of job description, employment security, and internal career opportunities have significant relationships with interpersonal deviance. Hierarchical regression indicated that the dimensions of job satisfaction have a direct relationship with interpersonal deviance. The dimensions also mediated the relationship between human resource practices and interpersonal deviance. Implications to managers and practitioners are discussed.

We examine the manner in which South African-owned multinationals devolve power to their international subsidiaries in Africa, and the resulting effects of the interaction between strategy and structure. The research suggests that a dynamic process of power distribution may develop, in terms of the following: (1) the performance of the subsidiary, its expertise and experience to adapt to local market demands; and (2) the multinational’s need to manage the risks propagated by the African operating environment in which it operates. There is a dual facet to power devolvement, one in which South African multinationals opt for risk mitigation through long-standing control, often at the expense of operational adaptation. In contrast with the literature, which sees multinational corporations as differentiated networks, in the South African case we find a more traditional approach with clear headquarters and ‘miniature replica’ subsidiaries. This suggests that South African multinational corporations are still emerging and that it will take time to develop differentiated networks.

The psychological contract is used to examine the dynamics of the employee–employer exchange relationship. The dominant contract conceptualisation is that it is constituted by beliefs about ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ promises; however, there is a dearth of conceptual investigation regarding how other research fields understand promising and reconciling this with how the notion has come to be used in psychological contract theory. In particular, the notion of implicit promising remains conceptually and empirically underdeveloped, despite forming a key plank of the contemporary account of the contract. This paper explores these issues by presenting a cross-disciplinary review of promising and applying this to how the notion is used in the contract literature. A conceptual model is also developed to provide avenues to investigate how promise beliefs form in a contract context and their outcomes. Finally, research directions are outlined regarding the roles that beliefs other than promises can play in contract theory.

The New Zealand electricity industry is not new to change. However, decision of the New Zealand government to implement a Mixed Ownership Model have resulted in commotion. Stakeholders have reacted and one powerful stakeholder group had the potential to stop the sale of state assets. In this case study we examine how different stakeholders have responded as the future of the New Zealand electricity industry remains uncertain.