Changing role of women in the Irish society: an overview of the female consumer

The changing role of women in the Irish society has attracted significant attention within the sociology literature; however, there has been little discussion within the field of marketing. This paper aimed to synthesise existing research and literature in the area to outline the key changes in the role of women in the Irish society since the 1920s, highlighting the impact of such changes on consumer behaviour patterns in Ireland. It specifically focused on key landmarks in the transformation of women in the Irish society, including the participation of women in the labour force, Ireland's economic growth since the mid-1990s and the current economic recession. These changes provide the backdrop for the emergence of female consumer patterns in Ireland, which were then discussed under the following themes: changing attitudes towards family life, representations of women in the media and the recession.

Whistle-blowing and the employment relations implications of the ‘Protected Disclosures Act 2014’ in the Republic of Ireland

This article explores the introduction of the 2014 Protected Disclosures Act in the Republic of Ireland. It does so by using a justice theory lens to examine the potential for the Act to protect workers who may feel the need to blow the whistle on employer wrongdoings. Data is collected from public records and documents, along with interviews with senior representatives from ‘all’ the social partner agents involved in drafting or contributing to the Act. The evidence suggests that the Act may have limited utility in ensuring fairness and justice for the whistle-blower. In particular, employers appear reluctant to embrace the idea of more legal protections, while cultural stigmas attached to the idea of ‘blowing the whistle’ may inhibit people coming forward. The article contributes to justice theory and employment regulation, as well as whistle-blowing practices, and some recommendations are suggested to improve awareness of whistle-blowing rights for workers.

Equity versus equality norms of justice and organisational commitment: the moderating role of gender

In the current study, using a sample of 467 employees from Ireland, we examined the effects of distributive justice perceptions, based on equity versus equality principles, on two forms of employee commitment: affective and normative. Furthermore, we also tested whether employees’ gender moderated the relationships between these two distributive justice perceptions and the two forms of commitment. Results indicated that equity perceptions positively influenced both forms of commitment and equality perceptions positively influenced only normative commitment. Additionally, results revealed that women reported greater affective and normative commitments than men when equity perceptions were higher than when they were lower. Gender did not moderate the relationship between equality perceptions and normative commitment. Women, however, reported lower affective commitment than men when equality perceptions were lower; there were no differences between men and women on affective commitment when equality perceptions were higher. Implications are discussed.

What’s love got to do with it? Employee engagement amongst higher education workers

Employee engagement is an important construct in management research as engaged employees not only perform better in their jobs but also feel happier and more fulfilled in the workplace. Employee engagement is a function of the job resources employees have in coping with their job demands. This paper makes a threefold contribution to the existing engagement literature by: (1) exploring this construct with a sample of third-level academics in the Irish public sector – a relatively unmapped sample in engagement research, (2) identifying organisational support as a key job resource that enables academics to cope with their job demands and (3) proposing that employee engagement reflects how strongly an employee puts his or her heart into work – suggesting a reconceptualization of engagement as love. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Pension provision by small employers in Ireland: an analysis of Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) using bounded rationality theory

This paper applies a model of bounded rationality to study small employers’ decision-making on pension provision in Ireland. Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) pension products were intended to provide inexpensive, flexible pension options, particularly targeted towards small enterprises. After 10 years of their introduction, evidence suggests that the PRSA pension product has little impact on pension coverage in Ireland and the employees of small organisations are least likely to be the members of pension schemes. Drawing on the theory of bounded rationality and a review of the legislative and institutional context within which small employers in Ireland make decisions on pension provision, this paper presents a pension decision-making model of small employers based on the work of Simon (1983). A range of propositions are set out for empirical research to examine pension provision practices of small employers relating to whether they have a tendency to organise rather than sponsor PRSAs for their employees. The implications for theory, research and policy are explained.

Critical success factors for build–operate–transfer (BOT) projects in China

This study aims to create a list of CSFs for China’s BOT projects to help organizations achieve project success. We first describe the role of CSFs in terms of three broad categories of whether BOT projects adopt strategies for risk transfer, the degree to which BOT projects foster the ‘whole- life approach’ to project design and management and extent to which BOT projects ensure timely delivery and supplies good-quality products and services. Based on an initial CSF list, a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the relatively important CSFs for BOT projects in China. Our initial assessment shows that the key CSFs corresponded to our defined categories of BOT projects’ success factors. We then provide an updated list of CSFs with the top ten factors in ranking analysis. This list of CSFs could play a useful role in the phases of preparing, bidding, constructing, operating and transferring of BOT projects.

A conceptual stages-of-growth model for managing a social media business profile

There is little understanding of how organisations manage social media. Stage-of-growth (SoG) models represent a picture of evolution, where the current stage can be understood in terms of history and future, providing an opportunity to identify the stages, paths of evolution, benchmark variables, and dominant problems experienced by organisations at each stage. Following a review of 4 decades of SoG model research, as well as a review of existing social media research and practitioner insight across multiple domains, the authors adopt Gottschalk and Solli-Sæther’s (2010) five-step stage modelling process as a research methodology to develop a SoG model for managing a social media business profile (SMBP). The paper develops and validates Step 1 (suggested stage model) and Step 2 (conceptual stage model) of the stage modelling process. A number of key contributions to theory and practice are identified, and ongoing research to further refine the model is outlined.

Psychological contract breach and turnover intention: the moderating effects of social status and local ties

The aim of this study is to examine whether social networks reduce the effects of psychological contract breach on an employee’s intention to leave the organisation. This paper focusses on two particular elements of the social network in an organisation: (1) social status and (2) local ties/connectedness. Using a sample of 242 responses from officers in the Irish Defence Forces, the results provide empirical evidence of the impact of psychological contract breach on officer turnover intentions. The results also demonstrate that perceptions of social networks moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and turnover intentions through social status. Contrary to expectations, strong connectedness with senior officers was also found to be a moderator but not in the direction that was hypothesised. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

In defence of the case study methodology for research into strategy practice

This paper aims to illustrate how the case study methodology may be used in novel and productive ways for research into strategy practice. Instigated by the quest for a research design that could target the ‘practice’ of strategic information systems planning (SISP), a review of the strategy-as-practice (SAP) literature uncovered parallels with the SISP domain from a methodological standpoint. A SAP perspective was employed in conjunction with the case study methodology to investigate SISP (the strategy practice) on the part of senior managers (the practitioners) at the meso level (the level of praxis). Ultimately, this approach was found to offer original insights and uncover valuable new directions for future academic enquiry.