Preface: Developing an Organization Through Work Life Balance-Driven Leave

The Problem Employee leave amidst the Coronavirus pandemic brings about key questions regarding organizational support and development. Current corporate and public policies are written into employee handbooks where they are lauded as supportive economic, social, and sustainable policies for helping people (i.e., workers) achieve humane needs, but are proving to be lacking for truly providing support in the most troubling times. The Solution The field of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Development (HRD) provide unique perspectives on developmental, performance-enhancing, and supportive structures for organizations to thrive. This Issue examines methods for creating truly supportive policies amidst the fallout of the global pandemic not only supports organizational longevity but demonstrates how valued employees truly are within the organization while meeting the labor demands of the market. The Stakeholders This Special Issue reflects the strong correlation of work-life balance with HRD researchers, administrators and practitioners alike who recognize the value of employee leave and effective policy implementation.

The learning company: the learning organization the British way – its origins, present, and future directions. An interview with John Burgoyne

Purpose This paper aims to provide an overview of the history, the present and the future or the learning organization as a concept and a practical approach, from the perspective of Professor John Burgoyne. Design/methodology/approach This conversation piece follows the development of the concept from its early days into the current debates and the possible directions for future development. Findings The interview highlights an interesting path the learning organization took in the UK, stemming from a drive for more and better management education, and evolving into a systemic view on various aspects of organizational capabilities, concerned primarily with organizational longevity and adaptability. The thinking behind Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell’s model of a learning company is discussed. Several “hot” topics are identified, either overlooked in the past, or becoming more relevant in the modern world, precipitated by technological and societal changes. Originality/value The interview provides an insight into the thinking of one of the best known authors in the field. Understanding of the concept’s evolution path, as well as the influences from other fields such as innovation and CSR, could be useful for practitioners and academics working in the subject area, wishing to identify promising future directions for research and practice.

Terrorist Organizational Dynamics

Most terrorism is carried out by organizations with particular political motivations, mobilization issues, and other characteristics that affect their behavior, including their attacks. Group dynamics are often overlooked when research focuses on units of analysis such as countries or individuals. However, understanding the organizational dynamics of terrorism can shed light on this type of violence in important ways. This chapter begins by discussing definitions of key concepts, and then analyzes recent literature on several prominent topics: outbidding, internal group dynamics, and organizational longevity or failure. It concludes by noting potential avenues for future research, including more work on strategic interactions between terrorist organizations and states, as well as increased dialogue with research on related topics such as civil conflict.

Strengthening Quality Initiative for Organization Stability

The emerging trends of technology use should be prioritized in enabling the human abilities with the distinct facilities to utilize in improving their capacities in the digital information. Since information technology (IT) could shift the way we look at the world, it would also show some benefit for human communities and thus need to incorporate the number of values such as trust, care, friendship, and cooperative commitment. This case aims to explore the significant essence of the role of trust in the information to assure in building information quality for safe cyberspace. As a result, empowering both professional and ethical basis associated with the instructional strategy and application in the technology will demonstrate how the individuals with all the potential can contribute their significant potential performance in information quality to lead to the organization stability. Proposing the reference model specifically for building information quality, this case will contribute to the outcome that could lead to organizational longevity.

Gendered Social-Networking Organizations

Research has consistently documented that women are disproportionately represented in upper management and in positions of power and still continue to dominate traditionally female occupations. Hence, recognizing that effective efforts needs to be made to assist women in their career development, many organizations have adopted mentoring programs to address gender differences in advancement without having a grounded plan. Organizations often do so out of competing for and achieving organizational longevity, organizational competitive advantage, or for legal accommodations for marketing purposes. Organizations often implement mentoring program(s) with the goal of having mentors provide mentees with psychosocial support, career development support, sponsorship and coaching, setting up challenging assignments, fostering positive visibility, and protecting the mentee from adverse forces. Hence, the purpose of this article will be on mentorship (brief historical coverage and definition), stereotypes of gendered advancement based on gender, and cross-gender mentorship in the U.S.

Gendered Social-Networking Organizations

Research has consistently documented that women are disproportionately represented in upper management and in positions of power and still continue to dominate traditionally female occupations. Hence, recognizing that effective efforts needs to be made to assist women in their career development, many organizations have adopted mentoring programs to address gender differences in advancement without having a grounded plan. Organizations often do so out of competing for and achieving organizational longevity, organizational competitive advantage, or for legal accommodations for marketing purposes. Organizations often implement mentoring program(s) with the goal of having mentors provide mentees with psychosocial support, career development support, sponsorship and coaching, setting up challenging assignments, fostering positive visibility, and protecting the mentee from adverse forces. Hence, the purpose of this article will be on mentorship (brief historical coverage and definition), stereotypes of gendered advancement based on gender, and cross-gender mentorship in the U.S.

A long life after exploitation and exploration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the longevity implications of exploitation and exploration. It examines the main effect of exploitation, the main effect of exploration, and the interaction effect of exploitation and exploration on organizational longevity. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs Cox Proportional Hazard Model in analyzing 20-year data from the hard disk drive industry. Findings – Exploitation, independent of exploration, has a positive impact on organizational longevity. Exploration, independent of exploitation, has a curvilinear impact on organizational longevity. Jointly, exploitation weakens the curvilinear relationship between exploration and organizational longevity. Research limitations/implications – This study challenges the dualistic view that exploitation is for “current viability” and exploration is for “future viability.” It suggests that firms need to actively engage in (instead of compromise) both exploitation and exploration in order to prolong their lifespan despite the counter force triggered by the negative dynamics between exploitation and exploration. Practical implications – In order to prolong organizational longevity, firms need to fully engage in (but not compromise) their existing product-market domains, actively explore (but not over-explore) their new product-market domain, and to embrace (but not avoid) the tension between exploitation and exploration. Originality/value – This study is one of the few that systematically and empirically examined the longevity implications of exploitation and exploration. It adds specificity and precision to the understanding of how exploitation and exploration, independently and jointly, affect organizational longevity.