One for All and All for One? A New Generation of Co-operatives Emerges

Business owners who traditionally organised their marketing and supply activities through co-operatives are changing their strategic orientation with increased frequency. The result is a “new generation” of co-operatives sweeping through several industries. This article examines how traditional co-operatives differ from the typical investor-owned firm and some of the motivating factors leading to the emergence of the new generation of co-operatives. These new generation co-operatives (NGCs) appear to be organisational hybrids combining aspects of investor ownership and co-operative ownership structures. The article describes differences between the traditional and new generation co-operatives with the objective of providing implications for managers who are faced with the movement toward more entrepreneurial organisations in their industries.     

Risk Management and the Business Environment in South Africa

Risk management involves tracking market and non-market long-range risks, understanding their adverse impact on the business environment, and managerial responses to reduce risk exposure. As an emerging market, South Africa poses a challenging array of long-term political, economic, financial and operational risks to investors. Risks such as concerns about increased costs, lack of transparency, limited capacity to enforce the rule of law, government intervention, a volatile currency, regional contagion and the HIV/Aids pandemic heighten uncertainty about the business environment. Managerial responses to anticipate and mitigate risks include matching mode of entry with risk tolerance, superior intelligence and lobbying, maintaining low tolerance for corruption, selecting appropriate financial instruments and balancing shareholder and stakeholder interests.The risk management framework presented, consisting of three elements: type of risk, impact of risks and managerial response to counter adverse risk impacts, may be refined and expanded for potential application to other emerging markets.     

Virtually Embedded Ties

The Internet and other communication and information technologies have not only increased the efficiency and effectiveness of existing forms of interorganizational connection, but have also made possible the emergence of a new form - “virtually embedded ties”. Such ties have two essential features: first, they utilize electronic communication and information technologies; second, the use of those technologies allows them to overcome the exchange-related problems previously addressed through the formation of socially embedded ties. We argue that virtually embedded ties offer an important alternative to socially embedded ties in industries that are characterized by high levels of dynamism.     

Telework: What Does it Mean for Management?

This article develops the first resource-based analysis of telework impacts on large organizations. We adopt an ‘integrative’ approach that goes beyond the immediate and easily quantifiable effects of telework adoption. This approach takes into account both top-down considerations (managerial preoccupations with strengthening the organization’s competences) and bottom-up demands (employee needs). We identify several telework impacts on a variety of resource-domains, including effects on the strategic development and operational functioning of the human capital resource-base, the organization’s broader productive efficiency, the external linkages of the organization, and finally, a number of externalities. We observe that the teleworkers themselves do not experience the negative effects on job satisfaction observed in earlier research, with the exception of a reduction in professional interaction. Broader human resource management practices appear to have adjusted well to the specific requirements of telework adoption.We also observe a strong divergence between the views of adopters and non-adopters, with the latter having less positive expectations across the board, as compared to the former. We thus demonstrate that broader strategic considerations, beyond immediate impacts on the bottom-line, do influence the choice to adopt this practice. The difference in employee perceptions between adopters and non-adopters suggests that the latter lack confidence in their firm’s broader HRM practices to adapt appropriately to the requirements of effective telework implementation.     

The role of organizational facilitators in promoting job-related mental health and group service effectiveness: a two-wave analysis

This study aimed to add to knowledge by providing a more systematic integration of work characteristics, workers’ health and performance. The two-wave multi-source study was conducted to test the relationship over time between the healthy states of groups of service-oriented workers and their service effectiveness when their organizations provide facilitators such as training, technical support and autonomy. The study takes healthy states to be a composite of affective-motivational and competent collective states (collective vigour and service competence) and service effectiveness. Service effectiveness was a combination of service quality as assessed by customers and their loyalty intentions. Data from 53 hotels and restaurants in Spain were aggregated from 256 boundary workers (i.e. workers in direct contact with customers) and 530 customers at Time 1 and from 470 customers at Time 2 six month later. Structural equation modelling showed that organizational facilitators at Time 1 were related to the service effectiveness reported by customers at Time 2, and also that there was a relationship between service effectiveness at Time 1 and the healthy states reported by the groups at Time 2. That is, contrary to what is widely believed, there was an influence of performance on well-being.     

Adapting for Innovation: Including Divestitures in the Debate

Existing literature argues that divested units are unwanted and poor performers - yet evidence suggests that companies do divest well performing units, and often retain a relationship with them, especially in the quest for innovation. This article presents an exploratory case study to examine how a company structures the divestiture of an innovative unit and how it can benefit from the innovation the unit generates. The analysis focuses on how an established company can use divestiture as a strategy to enhance the innovation of its units, and capture its value, by structuring, maintaining and nurturing a special relationship with the unbundled unit. Under new organizational arrangement, resources can be transferred from the parent to the unit, while the parent retains access to the innovation developed within the unit. This study proposes a framework that offers corporate change agents and strategists a new perspective on how to integrate innovation and corporate strategy.