From Contractual Flexibility to Contractor’s Cooperative Behavior in Construction Projects: The Multiple Mediation Effects of Ongoing Trust and Justice Perception

The flexible contract is an important mechanism for owners to govern contractors in construction projects. Given the limited explanatory power of the justice mechanism and the important role of relational factors, this study explored the role of ongoing trust and justice perception in the relationship between contractual flexibility and the contractor’s cooperative behavior and aimed to further reveal the potential influence paths through an empirical analysis. We found the following: (1) apart from justice perception, ongoing trust is another crucial mediation factor in the relationship. (2) Together with the former, ongoing trust plays significantly multiple mediation effects and constitutes the main indirect influence paths, among which the parallel one is strongest and the chain one comes third. (3) Moreover, both factors are more likely to be impacted by contract executing flexibility, compared with contract content flexibility. These findings enrich relational mechanism research and provide some guidance for the owner to build contractual flexibility to govern contractors’ behavior.

Capture coproduction behavior in networking alumni communities: Progress from platform belongingness, knowledge sharing, and citizenship behavior

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate coproduction behavior in networking alumni communities via the progress from platform belongingness, knowledge sharing and citizenship behavior. Alumni networking communities have emerged as valuable assets for conserving institutional resources, supporting members and contributing new resources for alumni-institutional professional development. However, the previous literature has not yet captured the explicit processes by which these contributions are made. Design/methodology/approach Data from 711 respondents selected from an alumni collaboration network were subjected to structural equation modeling analysis. Findings The study explored resource conservation (belongingness) as the primary relational mechanism for alumni to share their instrumental resources (knowledge sharing), supporting resources (citizenship behavior) and competent resources (coproduction behavior). Knowledge sharing and citizenship behavior act as intermediate agents to trigger coproduction behavior. The authors show how subjective norm, group norm and trust is regarded as a tool to reduce bonding intrusiveness (i.e. the intrusive side-effects of a bond) and moderate the indirect effect of belongingness on coproduction and the direct effect of citizenship on coproduction. Research limitations/implications By applying attachment theory, conservation of resources theory and digital platform networking perspectives, this study describes major implications for designing inspiring and compatible community platforms. Practical implications Guidance is provided for improving sustainable alumni communities through citizenship-sharing and coproduction behavior. Social implications Online alumni communities are regarded as resource conservators, which can result in valuable coproduction, via the sharing of knowledge, expertise and skillsets to create profit for a range of institutions and industries. Originality/value Alumni networking platforms encourage alumni cohesiveness, stimulate knowledge exchange and improve professionalism.

The Impact of Narcissistic Leader on Subordinates and Team Followership: Based on “Guanxi” Perspective

Studies have shown that narcissistic individuals are more likely to become leaders in uncertain situations, while few studies paid attention to the relational mechanism, linking a narcissistic leader with subordinates and team attitudes and behaviors. Based on the “guanxi” and dominance complementarity theory, we examined the influencing mechanism of narcissistic leaders on subordinates and team followership (TF). Two-wave data collected from 326 employees in the manufacturing and technology industry in China supported our hypothesized model. We have found that narcissistic leaders have a negative impact on followership (F) and TF of subordinates; Supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG) and team leadership relationship identity play a partial mediating role between narcissistic leadership and subordinates and team followership. Furthermore, individual and team values play a moderating role in the process of influencing a mechanism. In other words, the higher the individual tradition and team power distance (PD), the less negative impact of leader narcissism on SSG and team leadership relationship identity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We also offer several promising directions for future research.

The Evolutionary Role of Higher Education in Sustainable Development: Pandemic 2020–2021

This article investigates the role of higher education in the economic development of the country. The research aims to investigate the theoretical and methodological basis of the role of higher education and human capital in economic growth, evaluate the current state of higher education within pandemic COVID-19, and develop scientifically and applied recommendations to strengthen capacity and improve the competitiveness of human capital in the developing countries. An analysis of the existing researches and debates is made. We defined the state of higher education in Kazakhstan and considered the changes in education within the context of COVID-19. We made multiple correlations and regression analysis based on the education coverage index and GDP(mln KZT), where defined the moderate correlation between two variables. Statistical data is studied in a period from 2000 to 2019. This paper contributes to the literature by fulfilling a theory of human capital development in the knowledge economy, revealing the relational mechanism between higher education, sustainable development, and the economic boundary of this relationship. It also contributes to the further understanding of the role of higher education in economic development. This study result implies to strengthen capacity and improve the competitiveness of human capital, draft human capital development policy. Keywords: SDG; COVID-19, human capital, higher education

Networks as “Islands of Meanings”

Why do activists’ minds differ from one commitment site to another? And why are people’s minds synchronized when they are engaged in the same commitment community? Chapter 6 proposes an explanation of the findings advanced in the previous chapters by adding a relational layer to the cognitive mechanisms. We show how conversational interactions shape the meanings about common good and politics that activists construct. The chapter also shows that not every interaction shapes the activist’s mind but that specific relational mechanisms are at work behind the synchronization of understandings. First, we demonstrate that face-to-face interactions are the key to the construction of socially shared meanings. By contrast, mediated interactions (through discursive outcomes of the organization like newspapers or newsletters) are insufficient to shape an activist’s mind. Second, we highlight how face-to-face interactions in interpersonal networks allow passive members to construct socially shared meanings with fellow activists. Third, we show that the redundancy and abundance of interactions are not essential to the nourishment of the activist’s cognitive map. Finally, we claim that the density of interactions is a crucial relational mechanism for cross-committed activists. This chapter ultimately shows the importance of conversational interactions to the synchronization of the activist’s mind.

Leader psychopathy and organizational deviance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between leader psychopathy and organizational deviance. In particular, the authors introduce employee’s psychological safety as the mediator. Furthermore, the moderating role of moral disengagement in the relationship between leader psychopathy and organizational deviance is also considered. Design/methodology/approach The data of this study include 611 certified nurses from 9 university hospitals in Turkey. The proposed model was tested by using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Findings The results of this study supported the positive effect of leader psychopathy on organizational deviance along with the mediating effect of employee’s psychological safety. Furthermore, when the level of moral disengagement is low, the relationship between leader psychopathy and organizational deviance is weak, whereas the effect is strong when the level of moral disengagement is high. Practical implications The findings of the study recommend that administrators in the healthcare industry ought to be sensitive in treating their subordinates, since it will result in positive organizational relationship, which, subsequently, will certainly reduce organizational deviance. Furthermore, they have to pay more focus on the buffering role of moral disengagement for all those subordinates with high distrust and displaying organizational deviance. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature about workplace deviance by uncovering the relational mechanism between leader psychopathy and employee organizational deviance. Furthermore, it includes practical assistance to healthcare employees and their leaders interested in building trust, increasing leader–employee relationship and reducing organizational deviance.

Entropy Balance in the Expanding Universe: A Novel Perspective

We describe cosmic expansion as correlated with the standpoints of local observers’ co-moving horizons. In keeping with relational quantum mechanics, which claims that quantum systems are only meaningful in the context of measurements, we suggest that information gets ergodically “diluted” in our isotropic and homogeneous expanding Universe, so that an observer detects just a limited amount of the total cosmic bits. The reduced bit perception is due the decreased density of information inside the expanding cosmic volume in which the observer resides. Further, we show that the second law of thermodynamics can be correlated with cosmic expansion through a relational mechanism, because the decrease in information detected by a local observer in an expanding Universe is concomitant with an increase in perceived cosmic thermodynamic entropy, via the Bekenstein bound and the Laudauer principle. Reversing the classical scheme from thermodynamic entropy to information, we suggest that the cosmological constant of the quantum vacuum, which is believed to provoke the current cosmic expansion, could be one of the sources of the perceived increases in thermodynamic entropy. We conclude that entropies, including the entangled entropy of the recently developed framework of quantum computational spacetime, might not describe independent properties, but rather relations among systems and observers.

A dyadic perspective of socially responsible mechanisms for retailer-manufacturer relationship in an apparel industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritise social responsible mechanisms in apparel supply chains to extend social responsibility from large retailers in developed countries to producers in developing nations. Design/methodology/approach A framework that consists of supplier qualification and supplier relational mechanisms as two socially responsible mechanisms, with five factors and 18 dimensions is proposed. To prioritise the dimensions, analytic hierarchy process is employed by using a case study methodology of a major Australian retailer sourcing from Bangladesh manufacturers. Findings Results indicate that at the mechanism level, both retailer and manufacturers perceive qualification of manufacturer as by far the most critical element compared to the relational mechanism. However, substantial differences exist at the factor level; namely, that the social factor is critical for the retailer, whereas the economic factor is critical for the manufacturer. Within the relational mechanism, evaluation helps retailers to enforce social responsibility, while manufacturers believe collaboration helps. Research limitations/implications The major limitation of this study is the generalisation of the findings. The results obtained by focusing on a particular context in the Australian retail sector importing from Bangladesh, may not be applicable to other nations. Practical implications By highlighting the difference of opinion, this study assists managers in developing guidelines to better understand the socially responsible mechanisms in the retailer-manufacturer dyadic relationship and to propose strategies to address the differences. Originality/value This study advances the literature on inter-organisational relationship to retailer-manufacturer dyad for the implementation of social responsibility by including supplier qualification along with supplier relational mechanism.

How Emotional Dynamics Maintain and Destroy White Supremacist Groups

In this article, we explore emotions as a relational mechanism that affects the stability of political movement groups by activating or weakening identities, social ties, and movement boundaries. Our goal is to specify the dynamics by which personal emotional experiences are linked to wider group processes. In this way, emotion serves as an analytic bridge, connecting the micro levels to larger social structures. We draw on data from former violent white supremacists to understand the personal/interpersonal (micro) and group (meso) level emotional dynamics in this extremist movement, especially how emotional experiences affect social movement dynamics. We draw on our evidence to build models of how emotional dynamics create trajectories of development and decline in white supremacist group membership. To demonstrate the analytic leverage provided by a focus on emotional dynamics, we then examine three findings from our study that are difficult to explain through more common frameworks of individual cognitive processes or group structure.

Inter-organizational relational mechanism on firm performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how structural and economic issues of organising inter-firm relationships influence a supply chain (SC) performance, by using the insight of organisational theories and institutional economics. Design/methodology/approach The study is an exploratory field study in the Australian agri-food industries. Using a conceptual model and a set of semi-structured interview questions, data collection was done through in-depth interviews with eight agri-food firms from the agri-food SCs in Western Australia (WA). Findings The findings demonstrated the requirement of higher coordination and integration from the downstream industries to include upstream producers as the integral part of the SC. Research limitations/implications The study is based on eight in-depth interviews on cross-sectional food SCs in WA and generalises the result for the overall food industry in WA. Originality/value The study provides valuable information to the existing literature on industrial management and has important value to the users of agri-food SCs. It provides empirical evidence of the factors of SC performance for agri-food producers, processors and retailers, other stakeholders and government agencies for their planning and benchmarking.