Belgheys Bavarsad; shadi jaldani; Hosein Ghezelbash
Abstract
Extended abstract
1-INTRODUCTION
Today’s situations have made entrepreneurial activities a necessary issue for organizations. social entrepreneurship includes innovative programs to improve the livelihoods of those who lack business and financial resources or who have limited access to ...
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Extended abstract
1-INTRODUCTION
Today’s situations have made entrepreneurial activities a necessary issue for organizations. social entrepreneurship includes innovative programs to improve the livelihoods of those who lack business and financial resources or who have limited access to social service opportunities. Human capital is the tacit or explicit knowledge of employees as well as their ability to produce knowledge from individual behaviors and attitudes, education, experiences, skills, and abilities. On the one hand, human capital is the most important capital for organizations. On the other hand, researches show that, by improving the employees’ attitudes and behaviors, the proper use of social and human capital has an impact on improving employees’ job performance. Accordingly, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of human and social capital on the operational performance of the shahid chamran university of ahvaz through its social entrepreneurship.
2-THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Social entrepreneurship is a concept derived from entrepreneurship but has different goals and objectives than entrepreneurship. The purpose of social entrepreneurship is to solve or encourage a social issue in order to create a sustainable solution. Social entrepreneurship refers to businesses that solve critical social problems in a sustainable and different way with charities and non-profit organizations. In other words, it creates products and services that improve the lives of low-income and disadvantaged people, while also earning an income to maintain and grow themselves. social capital is the sum of material and spiritual resources that allow employees to have a stable network of institutionalized relationships resulting in mutually beneficial cooperation. Social capital has three dimensions: structural, cognitive, and communicative. Human capital is a set of entrepreneurial and managerial skills like employees’ creativity and leadership. organizations with much human capital act more innovatively and solve customer problems faster. Operational performance is the basis for evaluating progress toward achieving predetermined goals and helping the organization identify its strengths and weaknesses and take effective actions. this approach potentially enables the organization to compete effectively in today's competitive business environment.
3-METHODOLOGY
The present research is a descriptive correlational study in regard to nature and is an applied study in terms of purpose. The library method was used to review related literature and theoretical basis, and a questionnaire was used to collect field data. The statistical population of the study was comprised of staff, experts, and managers of shahid chamran university. based on morgan's table, a sample size of 400 was calculated for distributing the questionnaires, among which 390 people returned the questionnaire.
4-RESULT & DISCUSSION
Research findings indicated that 73.9% of respondents were female. In terms of education, 5% of them had diplomas, 13.02% associates, 51.28% bachelors, 28.71% masters, and 1% doctoral degrees. Regarding the age, 8.7% of them were 20 to 25 years old, 17.17% were 26 to 30, 51.79% were 31 to 35, 12.5% were 36 to 40, and 9% were above 41. testing the relationship between variables confirmed all the direct hypotheses. in terms of indirect relationships, analyses indicated the mediating role of social entrepreneurship in the association of social capital and human capital with operational performance.
5-CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTION
Findings showed that social and human capital had positive and significant effects on social entrepreneurship. the other research findings were that social and human capital had significant effects on operational performance. Moreover, social entrepreneurship led to the improved operational performance of the shahid chamran university of ahvaz. Regarding the limitations of this research, it can be said that the current study has considered a limited number of influential variables. It is suggested that future research examine the other organizational variables such as creativity, innovation, etc. on the other hand, this study was conducted in one university and cannot be generalized to all universities. therefore, it is suggested to repeat the current research in several universities to increase the predictive power of the results. Additionally, it is suggested to repeat the present research in other governmental or non-profit organizations.
Maryam Tehrani; Fatemeh Alipour; Leila Shafeie
Abstract
Extended abstract1- INTRODUCTIONOne of the most important challenges of complicated environments for organizations is to make a balance between discovering and innovative activities called ambidexterity. Organizational ambidexterity has a positive relationship with organizational growth, technical innovation, ...
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Extended abstract1- INTRODUCTIONOne of the most important challenges of complicated environments for organizations is to make a balance between discovering and innovative activities called ambidexterity. Organizational ambidexterity has a positive relationship with organizational growth, technical innovation, and financial performance. Generally, those managers who have failed in implementing ambidexterity seem to be unable to utilize their capacity and provide needed resources. Of most important affecting factors, one can refer to domination of organizational silence and the lack of employees’ participation in decision-making processes. Nowadays, leading is considered as the most important role of managers, and organizations seek those managers of having ability to lead as well as integrate different organizational activities, coordinate subsidiary units, and control deviances. Therefore, studying and utilizing the ambidextrous leadership style is of special importance. Despite the importance of ambidextrous leadership in achieving organizational goals, no study has yet investigated its increasing effect on employees’ silence and the mediation role of psychological empowerment and social capital. Therefore, the current research was aimed to study the effect of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ silence considering the mediation of psychological empowerment and social capital in Pars Oil Company. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKAmbidexterity is the ability to simultaneously utilizing the activities of exploration and exploitation and coordinating them in a flexible manner. Ambidextrous leadership is known as the ability to create explorative and exploitative behaviors in employees through providing the possibility of flexible improvement and adjustment of these two behaviors. This leadership style consists of three elements: 1) open leadership behaviors, 2) close leadership behaviors, and 3) the ability to flexible shift between them. Social capital is defined as a set of resources embedded in the relationship between an employee and the organization or those resources which are accessible because of this relationship. Psychological empowerment is defined as a process of increasing employees’ self-efficacy by identifying the situations that cause power instability or loss of power. Finally, employees’ silence is defined as a refusal of stating the reality about the emotional appraisal of the organization to those managers and employees who seem to be capable of change or compensate the situations.3- METHODOLOGYThe current research was an applied study in terms of purpose, and in terms of data collection method, it was a descriptive survey. According to Cochran's formula, a total of 132 people were selected as the statistical sample by conducting simple random sampling. The data collection tool was a 52-item questionnaire of having 5-point Likert scales and 133 questionnaires were finally collected. Obtained data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in SmartPLS software.4- RESULTS & DISCUSSIONResearch findings showed that ambidextrous leadership had a positive and significant effect on psychological empowerment. In this regard, it can be said that, by providing freedom for employees to do things and providing them with feedback in the case of problems, the ambidextrous leadership style can improve employees’ behaviors and increase their capabilities. The decreasing effect of psychological empowerment on employee silence was not confirmed. The reason for this insignificance may be the absence of other intervening variables. On the other hand, ambidextrous leadership significantly affected the social capital and social capital reduced the employees’ silence. Therefore, social capital creates a common language for emotional relationships between employees, in which they can easily express their opinions and suggestions and are less inclined to remain silent.5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONSAccording to research findings, the understudy organization should focus on improving the leadership ability of managers in different organizational levels by approaching the ambidextrous leadership style. Furthermore, future researches are suggested to study a bigger statistical population and consider moderator variables (such as age, gender, education, and organizational climate and culture) or mediator variables (such as job satisfaction, commitment, and motivation) that have the potential to affect the ambidextrous leadership-psychological empowerment relationship.
Seeyd Mohammad Tafreshi; ali Hosseinzadeh; mehdi nafti; m abdollahi
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTION
Today, rapid changes in the environment and shortened life cycle of products along with increased competitiveness have led organizations to seek new solutions for survival in the environment. In such circumstances, greater regard for factors such as innovation speed, knowledge sharing ...
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1- INTRODUCTION
Today, rapid changes in the environment and shortened life cycle of products along with increased competitiveness have led organizations to seek new solutions for survival in the environment. In such circumstances, greater regard for factors such as innovation speed, knowledge sharing and knowledge management help companies to adapt themselves to a changing environment and remain competitive. Alis Co. has been an active player in food (beverage) industry for about 15 years. At the beginning, this company was less experienced than its rivals in some aspects and therefore it put greater efforts to attract new customers and maintain its existing customers. The achievement of both goals called for the implementation of a fundamental plan such as using organizational knowledge (knowledge sharing) and taking lead in its industry, which constitutes the main subject of this study. Hence, given the above-discussed points and the paucity of relevant studies in this area, this paper attempts to investigate the effect of knowledge leadership and social capital on innovation speed through the mediating role of knowledge sharing in Alis Co. in the city of Mashhad.
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Innovation speed is defined as the time interval between the initial expansion including conceptualization and definition of innovation and final commercialization of a product or service in the market, which reflects the ability of a company to expedite activities in order to obtain competitive edge over rivals in an industry characterized with shortened life cycle of products.
In this paper, five items of rapid formulation of new ideas, production of new products, development of new products, improvement of processes and improvement of management compared to competitors to study innovation speed.
Knowledge leaders consist of official leaders with unofficial authority, who may also have a position of official authority. They are responsible for linking natural barriers to knowledge sharing. In addition, they have a significant impact on knowledge management activities. They utilize knowledge leadership for creating an environment of trust where acquisition and sharing of knowledge are encouraged and essential. To explore knowledge leadership, this paper adopts three dimensions including leadership skills, cooperation with sincerity and knowledge and innovation integration.
Social capital theory posits that social capital is a set of resources embedded in social relations between social actors, which can be considered as a valuable asset that retains the benefits of social actors. In this study, three dimensions including social interaction, trust and shared vision and perspective were adopted for the study of social capital.
Knowledge sharing is the ability to exchange knowledge and encourage creativity, which naturally leads to higher performance of intellectual capacity and intellectual capital in two dimensions of implicit and explicit knowledge sharing. In this study, the latter dimension, i.e. explicit knowledge, has been studied based on sharing reports and administrative documents, sharing reports and official documents collected by members of the organization, collecting administrative documents and reports from others, encouraging members to adopt methods of knowledge sharing, training and development programs and facilitating the use of IT systems.
3- METHODOLOGY
This is an applied research that employs a descriptive and survey method for data collection. The study population consisted of all employees of Alis Co. in the city of Mashhad in the year 2016 (n=1350). Using Cochran formula, a sample size of n=300 was achieved. The questionnaire was a combination of all variables used in previous studies and its content validity had already been approved. The questionnaire was close-ended with a 5-point scale for answers, which ranged from very low to very high. The face validity of questionnaire was assessed by three university professors specialized in marketing and organizational behavior. The construct validity was also evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis techniques by Smart PLS software.
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
The results of the study on the first hypothesis, namely the effect of knowledge leadership on innovation speed, suggested that knowledge leadership did not affect innovation speed directly, but it did so through the variable of knowledge sharing. In other words, the main hypothesis, i.e. the indirect effect of knowledge leadership on innovation speed through the mediating role of knowledge sharing, was confirmed, despite the direct effect on knowledge leadership on innovation speed.
Since this is the attribute of an individual intending to play assume the role, it ensures continuous implementation of knowledge management. As for the second hypothesis, given the standard coefficient for the effect of social capital on innovation speed (α=0.796), the significant and positive impact of social capital on innovation speed was confirmed.
With regard to the third hypothesis, given the standard coefficient for the effect of social capital effect knowledge sharing (α=0.446), the positive and significant effect of social capital on knowledge sharing was confirmed. This clearly demonstrated the important role of social capital in knowledge sharing and improvement, implying that interaction based on mutual trust between members encouraged knowledge sharing.
In the fourth hypothesis, considering the standard coefficient for the effect of knowledge leadership on knowledge sharing (α=0.464), the significant and positive effect of knowledge leadership on knowledge sharing was confirmed.
5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
Researchers recommend to the company under study and other companies to provide the necessary ground for discussion of new ideas so that new venues can be opened up for increasing market penetration. Companies spearheading the production of new and innovative products have been able to absorb new customers and then retain them all way along. It is essential for these companies to improve organizational processes to accelerate innovation and overcome challenges.
In addition, executives of Alis Co. are recommended to set up marketing units for permanent monitoring of the market and customer needs, so that demands are properly identified and opportunities are exploited.
In this way, technological innovations are applied to products, and products and services tailored to the needs of customers are distributed in the market. Moreover, by adopting innovative marketing methods such as developing a creative and innovative brand, acquiring new markets, employing new sale techniques through advertisement and using appropriate distribution channels, products are recognized in the market. Besides, drawing on executive initiatives such as changes in organizational structure and the deployment of flexible structure, these marketing units help improve working environment and the company's overall performance.
Executives should also nurture foresight and a culture of preparedness for the future so that employees feel a sense of ownership and therefore responsibility towards the company. To this end, executives can determine future goals and visions of the company in the presence and in consultation with employees so that their sense of accountability is fostered and they dedicate themselves to exploring opportunities and proposing new ideas.