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Work–nonwork policies and practices provide support for employee well-being, as well as a competitive advantage that can help differentiate organizations. However, not all work–nonwork policies and practices are effective, utilized, or relevant. In this chapter, the authors introduce “organizational boundary management strategy” as a way to leverage these policies and practices, making them more widely adopted and more effective. Organizational boundary management strategy refers to how an organization as a whole tends to support workers’ work–nonwork boundaries (i.e., via segmentation, integration, or somewhere in between). Although boundary management has historically tended to focus on how individuals navigate distinctions between work and personal life, the authors extend boundary management to the organization to suggest how understanding and aligning the organization’s overall boundary management strategies can support worker well-being. To expound on this, the authors present a model suggesting how organizational boundary management can be used to support worker well-being.

Reports on an investigation of computer‐based support for developing marketing strategy. First, on the basis of a literature study, the nature of marketing strategy development is clarified. The needs for computer‐based support are identified. The status and underlying problems of existing computer‐based information systems for developing marketing strategy are then examined. Finally, a mail questionnaire survey on computer‐based support for developing marketing strategy is discussed. The major issues addressed in the survey were: managers’ needs for computer‐based support in developing marketing strategy; the current provision of computer‐based information systems; and the gaps between the identified needs and current provision. It is believed that this was the first study to use a large‐scale questionnaire survey to explore these issues. The findings provide important evidence and implications for both researchers and designers of computer‐based support for marketing strategy development.

Using dynamic capability theory, this study investigates how information technology (IT) support affects firms' online and offline cross-channel integration (CCI). In addition, it applies institutional theory to examine how the relationships between IT support and CCI are moderated by firms' institutional environments.

A sample of 308 firms in China that conduct business in online and offline channels was empirically tested through hierarchical regression analysis.

The results showed two types of IT support facilitated CCI: IT support for strategy and IT support for process. The relationship between IT support for process and CCI was stronger than that between IT support for strategy and CCI. The results further indicated institutional environment (i.e. dysfunctional competition and government support) played differing roles in these effects, such that the relationship between IT support for strategy and CCI was significantly weakened by dysfunctional competition yet enhanced by government support. However, neither dysfunctional competition nor government support had a significant moderating role in the relationship between IT support for process and CCI.

This study identifies different IT support types as antecedents of CCI. It is also one of the earliest attempts to explore the influence of institutional environment on the relationship between IT support and CCI.

The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.

This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.

This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

To improve humanized management of Chinese teachers, the aim of this study is to, first, investigate the stress of Chinese teachers, and, second, to examine the relationship of teacher stress with coping strategies and social support. Moreover, an attempt is made to examine the moderating role of coping strategies in the relationship between social support and teacher stress.

Participants consisted of 363 teachers from 6 public primary and secondary schools (both regular and vocational schools), who completed 3 self-report questionnaires examining teacher stress, coping strategies and social support. The methodology used was t-test, correlation analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

There are more than 50 per cent of primary and secondary school teachers suffering from mild to extremely severe stress. Working environment (regular or vocational schools), gender and age affect teacher stress. Social support and passive strategies have significant relationships with teacher stress, and passive strategies moderate the relationship between social support and teacher stress.

The study is based on a sample taken from public primary and secondary schools, and the character of the research was cross-sectional. Therefore, we must be cautious in generalizing the findings. An important implication for management of the findings of this study is the importance of humanized management for teachers. To reduce teacher stress, more social support should be provided by educational administrators, and teachers should be trained to avoid using passive strategies.

Through the investigation into the teacher stress in both regular and vocational schools, this study provides a new point of view for human resource managers to control and reduce teacher stress in China by improved humanized management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine coping strategies, social support, and psychological distress for comparable samples of unemployed (n=389) and re-employed (n=270) individuals. The authors hypothesized that problem-focused coping and higher levels of social support would be associated with lower levels of psychological distress for unemployed vs re-employed participants.

The cross-sectional design and the convenience sampling method were used in the study.

Although unemployed participants reported poorer coping, higher levels of psychological distress, and lower levels of social support compared to re-employed participants; social support and coping strategies predicted psychological distress. Multiple regression analyses suggest that emotion-focused coping strategies were related to higher levels of psychological distress, whereas social support and problem-focused coping strategies were related to lower levels of psychological distress. Social support accounted for more variance in participants’ psychological distress above and beyond all other variables. Single and unemployed participants of the study used less problem-focused, more emotion-focused coping, and perceived lower social support than married unemployed. Gender and marital status of the unemployed were also significantly associated with psychological distress. In addition, older and less educated unemployed participants perceived less social support and used emotion-focused coping more frequently.

The findings indicated that being female, single, older, and low educated are the potential sociodemographic risk factors for the psychosocial well-being of unemployed people.

The favourable effects of certain coping strategies suggest the potential benefits of interventions to reduce reliance on emotion-focused coping and stimulate more problem-focused strategies in order to enhance psychological well-being.

This study investigates the relationship between lean manufacturing practices, management accounting and performance measurement (MAC & PM) practices, organizational strategy, structure, and culture, and facility performance. We extended past research by examining the relationships between lean manufacturing, MAC & PM practices and performance in a broader organizational context. Our study was performed using survey data provided by managers and executives at 368 facilities that had contacted the Shingo Institute for information or that had entered a Shingo Prize competition. Consistent with past research we found a significant positive association between lean manufacturing practices and lean MAC & PM practices. We found that greater employee empowerment, use of process performance measures, and use of lean accounting practices were driven primarily by lean strategy and secondarily by the extent of lean manufacturing practices. We also found that changes in organization structure to support lean are driven primarily by lean strategy and secondarily by lean manufacturing practices. Change toward lean culture, on the other hand, is driven by the extent of lean manufacturing practices. Further, we found that emphasizing process performance measures does not reduce emphasis on results performance measures and emphasizing results performance measures leads to improved financial performance. Process and results measures are being used in tandem and value stream costing has not replaced traditional accounting. The results of our study provide important insights for managers of companies engaged in lean transformation and for academics who teach or research lean accounting.

Most advanced durable industrial products need some kind of support to compensate for weaknesses in design or in product exploitation. Aims to examine different scenarios for product support and discusses approaches for development of product support strategy for conventional and functional products.

The paper is based on a case study of a manufacturer of advanced durable industrial production systems.

Traditionally, the customer buys, operates, and maintains equipment used in production systems. Alternatively, the customer can buy the performance, instead of the physical product. In such cases, the manufacturer is responsible for operating, maintaining, and supporting the product in addition to designing and making it. Thus, the long‐term profit for both user and manufacturer will depend on the product's designed‐in life cycle costs, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and supportability) characteristics, as well as on the effectiveness and efficiency of the product exploitation and support processes. In general, product support is a source of income for the manufacturer. In a functional product scenario, the need for product support is a liability and a cost driver for the manufacturer. Hence, delivery of performance requires a fundamentally different approach for product support strategy.

An examination of different scenarios and different approaches for manufacturers' product support strategies.

This paper aims to examine effective support strategies for facilitating the employment of autistic students and graduates by answering the following research question: What constitutes effective employment support for autistic students and graduates?

Data were collected using the method of empathy-based stories (MEBS) as part of a multinational European project’s Web-based survey. The data consisted of 55 writings about effective strategies and 55 writings about strategies to ]avoid when working with autistic students and graduates. The material was analysed using qualitative inductive content analysis. Narratives were created to illustrate desirable and undesirable environments and processes as they would be experienced by students, supported by original excerpts from the stories.

The analysis revealed that effective employment support for autistic students and graduates comprised three dimensions of support activity: practices based on the form and environment of support, social interaction support and autism acceptance and awareness. These dimensions were present in both recommended and not recommended support strategy writings.

The results add to the literature on autism and employment with its focus on the novel context of autistic university students and graduates. Effective strategies will be based on person-centred planning, to include not only the individual impact of autism but also individual career goals, workplace characteristics in the chosen field, employer needs and allocation of the right support. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, but rather an individualized process is needed, focused on the identification of strengths, the adaptation of employment and work processes and improved understanding and acceptance of autism by management, colleagues and administration in the workplace.

More than a decade of research on abusive leader behaviors suggests a consensus regarding its deleterious effects on employees’ contextual performance. Therefore, research on how to cope with abusive leader behaviors is both theoretically and practically important. The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals’ personality and appropriate coping strategy may jointly help in weakening the negative effects of abusive leader behaviors.

The study examines the relationship between social support coping strategy and agreeableness. Data collected from full-time employees and their reporting managers were used for analyses. Data were analyzed using moderated regression techniques followed by conditional indirect effects testing.

The study provides supports to the evidence that the relationship between abusive leader behaviors and contextual performance was weaker for employees high in agreeableness. Additionally, the use of social support coping strategy facilitated a negative relationship between abusive leader behaviors and contextual performance. Finally, the moderating effects of agreeableness were mediated by the use of social support coping strategy.

The study contributes to theories of abusive supervision, personality and coping strategies. The results offer insights into the joint roles of personality and the social support coping strategy that may weaken the negative influence of abusive leader behaviors and contextual performance.

Human resource practitioners may benefit from formally institutionalizing social support through mentoring programs and informally through “buddy” programs for newly joined employees, to understand the organization culture and voice their concerns.

While most studies on abusive leader behavior focused on the deleterious effects, this study is one of the few that explores the role of coping strategy while dealing with abusive leader.