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Employee engagement in a digital environment
No full textDigital transformation is the process of integrating digital technology in all areas of the business to achieve its strategic goals. The focus of digital transformation projects often tends to be on the technology rather than on the human aspect. But when asked, 74% of executives cite cultural and organisational changes as the biggest challenges to a digital transformation journey, with only 26% mentioning technological changes. Now, cultural and organisational change requires employee engagement. And, as research confirms, employee engagement is indeed critical to the success of any digital transformation, which is why we discussed it as the subject of our previous webinar organised by the Vlerick Centre for People in the Smart Digitised Supply Chain: Engaging supply chain employees in a digital environment. Moderating the webinar was Vlerick Professor Karlien Vanderheyden. Christian Wöllenstein, Project Manager at OMP and Colja Bönnemann, Digital Transformation Lead at Exxon Mobil, shared their views and experiences as practitioners. A digital transformation has a profound impact on employees and their jobs. How do you ensure their engagement throughout the entire process
Tracking individual trajectories of perceived shared mental models: A 12-week longitudinal study
No full textDrawing on the shared mental model literature and interdependence theory, this study aims to analyse whether individuals perceive similar or distinct trajectories of shared mental models over time and test whether those trajectories relate to different individual antecedents and outcomes. This study questions the common (implicit) assumption that individuals perceive and develop shared mental models uniformly.Successful teamwork is crucial to solve many of today’s key problems. Yet, to effectively perform the tasks assigned to the team, team members have to build and be aware of a shared mental model (i.e., a shared understanding about who does what, when, and with whom) successfully and in a timely manner. Within the shared mental model literature, the idea that each individual team member can perceive the shared mental model that consists of several dimensions has taken root in recent years. The state-of-the-science is that there are five dimensions of perceived shared mental models, namely equipment, execution, composition, interaction, and temporal. However, most research has focused on one or a few of these dimensions and has focused on aggregated (team level) conceptualizations of shared mental models. Therefore, research has overlooked the possibility that individuals might have different perceptions of the various shared mental model dimensions. Furthermore, individual-level longitudinal studies on shared mental models have never been attempted. Therefore, it is currently unknown whether and how individual perceptions of shared mental models change over time, and whether the development of perceived shared mental models is similar or dissimilar for the five dimensions.We collected data across six-time points from more than 300 participants who assessed their perceived shared mental models in their first 12 weeks of working in a new project team. Initial latent class analyses showed there are distinct trajectories for each of the shared mental model dimensions. This showed, for instance, that individuals can have different starting points as well as ending points and that those can differ per shared mental model dimensions. Moreover, the temporal process between these starting and ending points also had different shapes, as, for instance, some lines stayed uniformly high or low, whilst others grew or declined and then stabilized, whilst yet other lines first raised and then fell down again. We will analyse the antecedents and outcomes of the trajectories and share the updated results during the EAWOP 2023 Congress.Although individual beliefs and perceptions are the foundation of shared mental models, in this study we focus only on the individual trajectories of perceived mental models, and not on the trajectories within teams. Overall, this study advances the shared mental model literature, as our analysis of the individual trajectories of perceived shared mental models show that the common assumption that individuals develop shared mental models uniformly needs to be revisited. Thus, our work provides a starting point to develop new theoretical and empirical knowledge on how the different dimensions of shared mental models start and develop by taking a more fine-grained look at the individual level of analysis.Overall, this study is relevant to the Congress Theme “The future is now: The changing world of work” and to the UN SDG “Decent work and economic growth”, as this study contributes to the development of a sustainable workforce from a bottom-up micro perspective by providing managers, 1066team members, and team leaders – as well as consultants and other decision-makers – with knowledge and competences that aim to increase cooperation and collaboration, which ultimately contributes to individual and team effectiveness
A multiproject scheduling and resource management model in projects construction
No full textPurpose This research presents a multiproject scheduling and resource management (MPSRM) model that includes an M/M/c/n queue system, a p-hub median model, a parallel machine scheduling and a hub location problem solution method. This research aims to design a project network and then sequence raw materials delivery to hub factories. Design/methodology/approach This research is implemented as a case study in construction and industrial company. It considers several mines to supply raw materials for production in hub factories. In the sequencing phase, a parallel mine scheduling problem specifies the delivery of raw materials to hub factories. Furthermore, a multisource project scheduling model is studied and designed for building project-oriented companies. Findings The results suggest that the proposed MPSRM model in this study significantly reduces project transportation costs. Therefore, creating accurate planning in projects, especially in construction projects where transportation plays an important role, can help reduce time and costs. Researchers, project managers and those dealing with projects can use this model to exploit their projects. Research limitations/implications When the number of construction projects in a construction company increases in a region, choosing an appropriate strategy to supply resources and raw materials becomes very important in terms of profit and loss and project completion as scheduled. An increase in transportation demands alongside the economic development on the one hand and providing competitive transportation services, on the other hand, have increasingly spotlighted the significance of hub networks in transportation systems. In addition, in this research, there is no suitable access road from the mines to the project sites, and considering the workload, if any of the projects become a hub, a proper road should be built. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, there is no outstanding research in which a p-hub median location problem by considering queuing model and different transportation modes and a parallel machine scheduling problem are studied simultaneously
Acquisitions by Financial Versus Strategic Buyers: Interest, Competition, and Persistence During the Private Bidding Process
No full textWe explore how target firm attributes affect the interest of financial versus strategic bidders in the private stages of a corporate takeover process. Using a unique set of hand-collected data from 606 US public deals from 2005 to 2016, we demonstrate the difference between strategic and financial bidder attraction from deal initiation onwards, as such unaffected by deal process characteristics or pricing strategies. Our results indicate that the target firm’s sales growth rate, cash flow generation, and technological innovation are found to influence financial versus strategic bidder interest from the start of the private process, whereas industry outperformance, market-to-book, and leverage seem to particularly affect the persistence of financial bidders throughout the deal process. In general, targets with stand-alone value-improving potential and opportunities to exploit financial leverage benefits are more likely to attract financial buyers while targets with probable synergy gains appeal more to strategic bidders
Unravelling bidding strategies in M&A transactions: Evidence from the private phase of the deal process
No full textDigital twins in the supply chain
No full textLaunched on 11 April 1970, the Apollo 13 was nearly 56 hours into its flight to the Moon when an oxygen tank in the spacecraft’s service module exploded, forcing the crew to abandon their planned lunar landing and focus instead on finding a way to return safely to Earth. Thanks to the combined efforts of the astronauts on board and the Mission Control team at NASA, they made it: the proposed workarounds and recovery solutions were all first validated on the ground using simulators – copies, or twins, of the actual spacecraft and its components. But these twins were physical twins. Today, with the advancement and proliferation of digital technologies, digital twins are all the rage. What are they and how can they be used? These and other questions were answered in the webinar ‘Beyond the traditional supply chain: exploring the potential of digital twins’, organised by the Vlerick Centre for Smart People in the Smart Supply Chain
RDEA Glass: remaining vigilant in a digital world.
No full textBernhard Harding, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at RDEA Glass, needs to convince the executive team to double down on digital transformation. The CEO agreed to spend time on the matter in the next executive meeting. Harding believed his colleagues didn't see things clearly and needed to break free of the current focus. He looks back to how the meeting went, assessing whether the executive team was able to show the required strategic vigilance, to then make up his mind as to how to address the CEO's call for input for a next meeting
Alternative pathways for independent workers’ success in the gig economy
No full textThis dissertation takes an identity- and behavioral-based approaches to understanding the different ways through which individuals who work on task/project-basis outside the boundaries of organizations (i.e., independent workers) deal with the challenges of the gig economy. Prior research has shown that independent workers lack having a clear sense of self at work due to work precarity and transience, which has negative consequences on their wellbeing and overall thriving. It also suggests that workers may overcome such challenges by developing connections to people, places, purpose, and routines. While this research enriched our understanding of the phenomenon of independent work, we know little about the cognitive and behavioral resources that workers use to survive in the gig economy. To account for this gap in our knowledge, in this dissertation, I theorize about the different cognitive, emotional, and behavioral resources that independent workers utilize to survive and thrive in the gig economy. I took an identity-based approach to theorize that an individual’s not-me identity narrative (i.e., stories around who they are not) and possible feared selves (i.e., stories around who they dread becoming in the future) provide cognitive resources that contribute to shaping individuals’ work identities and their experiences of independent work. Additionally, I employed a behavioral-based approach to theorize how specific proactive behaviors, such as workers’ voice behaviors, may contribute to building a relationship with clients through enhancing their level of satisfaction and loyalty intentions. To this end, this dissertation employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. In Study 1, I took a narrative approach, and analyzed 59 accounts gathered in semi-structured interviews with independent workers to understand how they develop and utilize their not-me narratives in constructing their work identities. Findings from this study demonstrated that workers developed four not-me narratives; “I am not a victim;” “I am not an employee;” “I am not a pawn;” and “I am not a certain role”. Specifically, independent workers who developed such narratives enhanced their sense of identity clarity (i.e., their work beliefs and values are clearly and confidently defined). In Study 2, I build on the findings of study 1 that showed how workers use their current self (i.e., who they currently are or are not) as a cognitive resource, and I investigate the role of workers’ future possible selves, specifically, their feared selves as a cognitive resource in their work identity construction. Through semi-structured interviews with 80 independent workers, I show that workers developed four feared selves narratives; the idle narrative (the fear of becoming idle); the failed narrative (the fear of failing at work); the dependent narrative (the fear of having to go into full-time employment); and the unfulfilled narrative (the fear of being stuck doing work they do not find meaning at). Based on whether workers appraised their feared selves as an opportunity or a threat they developed narratives of identity security and resilience respectively. Employing a behavioral-based approach, in Study 3, I used structural equation analyses with a sample of 239 worker-client dyads to test whether holding multiple jobs would encourage workers to engage in voice behaviors at their client organizations and the extent to which clients would reward workers for such behaviors though increased levels of satisfaction and loyalty intentions. I found support for my hypotheses indicating that holding multiple jobs can in fact encourage workers to voice ideas (i.e., promotive voice) and concerns (i.e., prohibitive voice) and that clients are likely to reward voicing ideas with higher levels of satisfaction and voicing concerns with higher levels of loyalty intentions. Taken together, these three complementary studies demonstrated that even when there were no codified roles and preset resources provided to individuals, they managed to cultivate their own cognitive and behavioral resources to face work precarity and navigate the growing complexity of their world of work
HR Barometer 2023. HRM trends and challenges in Belgian organisations
No full textRecruitment and selection continues to be the top priority for HR professionals in a very tight, competitive labour market, along with a stronger focus on current talent retention. At the same time, there is also an increasing push to prioritise diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). According to 78% of participants, while DEI is enshrined in their company’s mission statement, this very often is not reflected in the company’s strategy and only 36% have been allocated a separate, dedicated DEI budget. Concrete action is thus necessarily limited to ad hoc initiatives
Financial stress and commodity price volatility
No full textWe examine the impact of financial stress on commodity price volatility using Markov-switching models.
A financial stress shock that arrives during a highly volatile period has more destabilizing effects.
The impact of financial stress is stronger on the energy futures volatility than other futures volatility.
The high volatility regime is short-lived and reflects major economic events as well as the outbreak of COVID-19.We use a Markov-switching vector autoregressive model to examine the impact of financial stress on the volatility of commodity prices, including energy volatility. An increase in financial stress leads to a persistent increase in the volatility of the commodity index and of individual commodity prices. We confirm the existence of three volatility regimes, with the volatility of the commodity index and of individual commodity prices in the high volatility regime being more than 25 times larger than that in other regimes. A financial stress shock that arrives during a highly volatile period has more destabilizing and persistent effects than when the shock arrives during a low volatility period. The impact on energy volatility in the high volatility regime is over 60% larger than that on the volatility of the commodity index. The high volatility regime is short-lived and reflects major economic events as well as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic