Quantitative Analysis of Strategic Human Resource Management and Organizational Learning

It is crucial for business organizations to maintain sustainability within the globalized market environment. However, the organizational ability of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is inadequate to generate sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, strategic management theories are developed based on large business organizations which cannot be fully applied in MSMEs. From this knowledge gap, this research study addressed the core question of “Does strategic human resource management (SHRM) and organizational learning impact the sustainability of service-based MSMEs in Brunei Darussalam, with competitive strategy as mediator?” From a questionnaire survey of 275 service-based MSMEs, this research study confirmed SHRM and organizational learning to yield significant impact on organizational performance of service-based MSMEs. These results are partial significantly mediated by competitive strategy. From these findings, this research study extended the knowledge on resource-based view, contingency theory, and organizational alignment theory within the MSME context.

Introducing the Contextual Ambidexterity Scale for Public Organizations (CASPO): Scale development and initial evidence

Contextual ambidexterity describes the organizational capacity of being simultaneously able to adapt and change in the face contextual requirements while keeping alignment and predictability. Contextual ambidexterity has been recognized as an appropriate explanation of organizational performance, and its influence has already permeated accounts of public organizations’ dynamics. We join this line of reasoning by suggesting that some specific characteristics of public organizations call for refinement of the contextual ambidexterity concept, and the correspondent evolution in measuring this organizational ability, thus introducing the Contextual Ambidexterity Scale for Public Organizations (CASPO). We suggest going beyond the original measure of alignment and adaptability created by Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004), to include psychological safety, reflexive spaces, and flexibility as sub-dimensions of adaptability and imprinting, rulefollowing and shared vision as sub-dimensions of alignment. On the basis of a sample of civil servants (n=200), we used exploratory factor analysis to identify a six-dimensional solution covering alignment and adaptability. Using another sample of civil servants (n=200), we used confirmatory factor analysis to test CASPO’s construct validity and regression analysis in testing the criterion validity. The results reveal that CASPO shows appropriate metric qualities and that it surpasses Gibson and Birkinshaw’s (2004) scale in predicting both their measure of generic organizational performance and a measure of performance specific for public organizations. This study contributes to the creation of sound measures of relevant concepts explaining the performance of public organizations.

A-198 An Examination of the Equivalence of the in-Person and Remote Administration of the Identi-fi: A Test of Visual Organization and Recognition

Objective As psychologists rely more on technology while navigating the digital world, we must adapt existing assessment tools. In response to this need, a process was designed for conducting remote administration of the Identi-Fi: A Test of Visual Organization and Recognition (Reynolds & McCaffrey, 2020), which measures visual organizational ability through Visual Recognition and Visual Matching tasks. Our current study evaluates the equivalence between remote, online administration and traditional, in-person administration of the Identi-Fi. Method This is a paired case control study in which 106 participants were administered the Identi-Fi in an online, remote format over a videoconferencing platform, following a specific procedure to retain the validity of scores. These individuals were matched based on sex, age group, and race/ethnicity with participants from the standardization sample of the Identi-Fi, which was administered in-person. Results Independent-samples t-tests were conducted and determined there were no significant differences in the subtest T scores between the in-person and remote administration formats. Additionally, index scores between the in-person (M = 99.74, SD = 10.32) and remote (M = 97.18, SD = 12.54) administrations were similar and not statistically significant, t(210) = −1.621, p = 0.11. Effect size estimates (Cohen’s d and omega squared) for all t-tests were small, indicating no significant effects across the remote and in-person administration of the Identi-Fi. Conclusions The present study suggests that all subtests on the Identi-Fi, when given in the remote, online format in the specified procedure evaluated in this study, are generally equivalent, and examiners can use the norms of the traditional test.

Competitive Organizational Competences of the University

The purpose of this article is to reveal the author’s definition of competitive organizational competencies and to offer a tool for its practical perception – a matrix of perception of competitive competencies. For this, the article reveals the terminological difference between competence and competence and confirms the existence of such a difference in relation to not only the individual, but also the university. With regard to the organization, it is also possible to distinguish the knowledge-resource-expert aspect of the organization’s activities and the functional-active aspect. The organization develops collective, distributed, internal abilities (organizational competence) to perform actions that constitute a specific, specific direction of activity (organizational competence). The work describes a matrix of perception of competitive competencies, specially developed by the author, and proposes to use it as an analytical tool for university leaders. The properties of competence, which, on the one hand, reflect its activity content (i.e., the connection with a specific professional activity), and, on the other hand, have a competitive value and make sense in the context of competitive confrontation, are of priority importance. The matrix reflects the degree of proximity of the competence to the core of the business and the degree of uniqueness and specificity of the competence. The matrix of perception of competitive competencies proposed by the author makes it possible to clearly clarify the key, competitive, sectoral, auxiliary (additional), unique competencies of the university. When defining competitive organizational competence, the author discloses two methodological ways to combine competitive and competence-based approaches: to understand competence as a means or as a goal of competition. The author defines competitive organizational competence as a unique organizational ability that cannot be copied by competitors, which allows it to withstand competition at a high level of competitiveness. In this understanding, competitive competencies are not the goal of competition, but a means of competition, an instrument of competition.

Multidexterity—A New Metaphor for Open Innovation

Open innovation will have an important role to play in recovering from the aftermath of the coronavirus and it has already made a crucial contribution. The prism of COVID-19 (“COVID” hereafter) has made more vivid both the complexity and unpredictability of managing innovation. This article considers why today’s open, intrinsically unpredictable business environments require updated theories for managing innovation. Concept formation lies at the heart of all social science progress and in this paper, we propose a new concept to accurately reflect the turbulence and complexity of managing open innovation in a post-COVID world. We argue that the innovator’s dilemma—a still influential argument that suggests exploiting current resources necessarily reduces the likelihood of successful exploration for new resources—is an increasingly problematic theoretic anchor. Furthermore, the prescription based on this line of thinking that organizational leaders should foster ambidextrous capabilities is increasingly suspect as leadership is more broadly shared and organizational processes become less easily dichotomized and controllable. We argue that the operating context for organizations is now so complex and ambiguous that it is time to revisit and revise the widely accepted concept of “ambidexterity” and we describe the updated and expanded construct as Multidexterity. “Multidexterity” is the organizational ability to simultaneously carry out multiple search and selection activities based on diverse strategic logics and levels of knowledge to generate a portfolio of innovative outcomes. We describe a number of case studies of extreme and unique collaboration to underpin our revised concept. Our paper reveals the advantages of the updated view, outlining the fresh insights it can generate. We conclude by setting out an agenda for future research and suggesting that joint empirical research by academics and practitioners is needed to further develop this approach to innovation.

Teleworking during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy: Evidence and Tentative Interpretations

The paper investigates the determinants and discusses the consequences of the switch towards Italian high-tech firms’ teleworking due to the COVID-19 crisis. Teleworking is important to reduce traffic congestion and increase the sustainability of cities, and as such, it is important to understand what helps the successful transition of firms to telework. COVID-19 crisis represents a natural experiment that allows studying organizational ability to adapt to unexpected environmental changes rapidly. The study is based on a survey conducted in mid-April 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown among Italian manufacturing firms’ managers in high-tech sectors. The final sample is composed of 179 observations. Using path analysis, we model the organizational e-readiness as a mediator of the firm’s technological and organizational characteristics in the rate of adoption of teleworking. Teleworking is also modeled as dependent on human resources and from the exogenous shock represented by COVID-19 lockdown. While teleworking has been imposed by COVID-19, organizational readiness plays a key role in shaping the rate of teleworking adoption during emergencies.