This paper discusses a lean instrumentation framework for guiding the introduction of the lean concept in condition monitoring in order to enhance the organizational capability (i.e. human, technical and management trichotomy) and reduce the complexity in the maintenance management systems of industrial companies. Additionally, decision-making, based on severity diagnosis and prognosis in condition monitoring, is a complex maintenance function which is based on large data-set of sensors measurements. Yet, the entirety of such decision-making is not dependent on only the sensors measurements, but also on other important indices, such as the human factors, organizational aspects and knowledge management. This is because, the ability to identify significant features from large amount of measured data is a major challenge for automated defect diagnosis, a situation that necessitate the need to identify signal transformations and features in new domains. The need for the lean instrumentation framework is justified by the desire to have a modern condition monitoring system with the capability of pruning to the optimal level the number of sensors required for efficient and effective serviceability of the maintenance process. It is concluded that there are methodologies that can be developed to enable more efficient condition monitoring systems, with benefits for many processes along the value chain.

The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges inhibiting professional female employees from maintaining good work-life balances, and also to develop a framework that organizations can use to understand such gender-oriented challenges towards the design of alternative work arrangements to enhance the retention of professional female employees. An exploratory approach was used with data collected through a survey. The study revealed that conflicts between work and non-work obligations, such as family responsibilities, are sources of stress which could motivate professional female employees to quit their jobs. Flextime, compressed workweeks and telecommuting were also identified as the most preferred types of alternative work arrangements. It is concluded that many professional female employees in Ghana have knowledge of work flexibility initiatives, such as alternative work arrangements, but these are not practiced effectively in their organisations. It is recommended that organizations adopt appropriate alternative work arrangements as a motivational tool to help retain their professional female employees, not only to improve the quality of their work-life balance, but also to enhance their productivity in their organizations.

Gender-oriented persons constitute majority of the Ghanaian population yet underrepresented in mining exploration, underground mining and mineral processing. In Ghana, the 2010 population and housing census figures on gender participation proportion in mining stood at 0.6% for females as compared to 2.0% for males. The purpose of this study is to create understanding on the politics of employing gender oriented persons in mine work, as well as identifying the organizational and socio-cultural challenges facing them. The study employed a meta-analysis technique for data collection. The results showed that some mining companies advertised their mining jobs openly expressing preferences for male employees due to general physical hardness of the conditions under which the mineworkers operate. In addition, the work demonstrates prevalence of organizational and socio-cultural barriers affecting effective participation of gender oriented persons in the mines. It is, therefore recommended the need to promote gender mainstreaming and gender equality as part of development strategies in Ghanaian mines, a situation that might enable gender oriented persons to earn a decent living from a decent workplace, allowing escape from poverty and improvement in their standard of living.

Writing from gender and organizational perspectives, this article reflects consciously with nuances upon varied effort working towards resolving the long existing binary barriers in the world of work. Working towards this goal, this article raises questions as to which organizational practices, processes, and procedures function to create participatory barriers to women in Ghanaian mine jobs. Adopting a mixed method design, the paper points to the culture of male dominance, gender biases, role models and mentorship constraints, unfriendly family work policies, and the relationship among women in male-dominated settings. These outcomes, according to the study, constitute a considerable concern for organizational development, with practical implications for industry, employment, labor relation practices, and public policy in Ghana. Therefore affirmative action among others is recommended for gender deconstruction, and promotion of gender democracy, an agenda for inclusivity, and a safety valve for poverty escapes and a compact for achieving gender equality in multinational Ghanaian mines. 

The paper assessed gender perceptions of science and engineering courses, gender differences in enrolment regimes in University of Mines and Technology; and how both translated to recruitment of females in the mines. Drawing from a mix methodological approach, it was evidenced that gendered perceptions and stereotypes on science and engineering courses accounted for few females pursuing science, engineering and technology courses in UMaT. These perceptions, the general dislike for engineering courses by most females for fear of mathematics and the knowledge of the fact that engineering is quite difficult, explain the phenomenon of female under-representation in the mines. Though the progressive feminine enrolment regimes, due to gender main streaming initiative in UMaT, whereby women are giving some leverage. The moment a woman gets aggregate 36, which is maximum aggregate or minimum point of qualification, and she chooses mining related course, she is admitted, whereas in some cases, their men counterparts with aggregate 10 or 14 may not be considered. This is gradually working towards achieving a 20 percent quota for women. Though this, of course, is translating into increased female recruitment into the mines, the pace still remains slow and relatively insignificant. By implication, female under-representation in mine work environment point to the fact that mines are missing such feminine values necessary for corporate sustainability, growth and development. Therefore affirmative action plan is recommended at all levels of mine work planning that will ensure inclusion of such feminine virtues to impact profitably and propel growth of the mining industry in Ghana.

This paper explores the influencing dynamics of psychosocial, cultural and organizational design factors on the non-gendered characteristics of employee recruitment in firms operating in the Ghanaian mining industry that constrains the employability of women. A conceptual framework linking psychosocial, cultural, and organizational design to recruitment processes was developed to guide the study. Quantitative data was collected in four mining firms in Ghana using a questionnaire. The collated data was firstly factor analyzed to establish the predictiveness of the conceptual model components’ indicators. This was followed by an analysis of the conceptual model for “model goodness fit” using the AMOS–based structural equation modeling approach. The results showed that the non-gendered characteristics of employees’ recruitment in mining firms in Ghana, constrains the employability of women, is influenced directly and positively by the firms organizational designs, which is in turn influenced directly by the firms’ psychosocial and sociocultural factors. The study also showed that the non-gendered recruitment characteristic of the firms is influenced indirectly, but positively by the firms’ psychosocial factors, and negatively by other sociocultural factors. By implication, the study provides knowledge that can be used to understand the rationale behind the non-gendered characteristics of employee recruitment in Ghanaian mines and the influencing roles of organizational design factors as well as psychosocial and cultural factors. Mining firms can use this knowledge in developing gendered recruitment policies to enhance future recruitment of all qualified human resource, irrespective of gender.

Background

Although the concept of workload is important to nursing practice, only a few nursing researchers have focused on the issue of workload within the nursing context. Knowledge of how the dynamics of workload affects the job stress of nurses working in a specific unit or department in a hospital setting, and the influence of coworker support on this relationship, still remains limited. This study, therefore examined the effect of workload on job stress of Ghanaian outpatient department nurses and the moderating effect of coworker support on this relationship.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey design was used, and questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 216 outpatient department nurses from four major hospitals in Ghana. The data collected measured workload, job stress, and coworker support using National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Task Load Index, job stress scale, and coworker support scale, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and hierarchical regression.

Results

High levels of workload were associated with high levels of job stress of the nurses. Also, higher levels of workload were related to higher levels of job stress for nurses who received high levels of coworker support, but this was not the case for those who received low levels of coworker support (reserve buffering effect).

Conclusion

The finding reiterates the adverse effect of workloads on employees' health, and the reverse buffering effect implies that supporting a colleague at work should be conveyed in a positive manner devoid of negative appraisal.

This study explored the relationship between occupational stress and the perceived effectiveness of men and women managers in Ghanaian organizations. The exploration is underlined by attempt to understand the degree to which male and female managers in Ghanaian organizations experience occupational stress at the workplace. The purpose is to examine the sources and extents of occupational stress experienced by male and female managers in Ghana. Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using both descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results showed that female managers in Ghana are more likely to report of more stress experiences in the workplace than their male counterparts. The female managers are more likely to perceive role conflict and alienation as job stressors while the male managers perceived blocked career as a major source of workplace stress. It is concluded that despite the female managers experiencing enormous level of occupational stress, there was no significant differences between their managerial effectiveness and that of the male.

Managerial women experience a number of work-related stressors which roduce strain symptoms that function as predictors of their ill-health in organizations. This finding is made from a study that examined the existing relationships among job characteristics symptoms of stress, and the development of health outcomes (depression, anxiety and physical symptoms) among women in lower and middle management positions in some organizations in Ghana. The stratified and simple random sampling procedure was used to select the study participants which numbered 170 female managers. Data was collected using both questionnaires and interviews, and analyzed using the Occupational Stress Indicator, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, and the Beck's Anxiety Inventory. It is concluded that since work-related stressors are predictors of women managers' ill-health in the work environment, organizations should be aware of the stressors in order to be able to guard against the deterioration of job performances of their women managers.Relevance to Industry: This study highlights the high prices organizations pay for the work-related stresses their women managers experience at the workplace, which impact negatively on their mental health, and by implication their productivity. Recommendations made can be used to enhance the managerial capacity and productivity of female managers at the workplace.

This study assessed the relationship between social support and mental health (depression, anxiety and somatic anxiety) relative to its impact on managerial women in Ghana. The objective is to seek answers to the question as to whether the availability of social support in the work environment can help improve the mental health of women. This is because the lack of spousal support for working women is found to have a direct connection to diminished mental health. The findings show that spousal support provided women with a sense of security and stability at home and also reduced their possibility of being confronted with role conflict. It is thus, concluded that the career progression of women managers can be greatly enhanced when they receive spousal support, encouragement and guidance in addition to those from superiors and co-workers.

Although women managers in Ghana represent a unique set of human capital, the adverse consequences of job stressors on their performances make their sustenance in organisations a key human resource challenge. Similar to many developing countries, the gender orientation of managerial employees in Ghana has changed in the last two decades with many women breaking through the hierarchical glass ceilings to occupy management positions in their organisations. This category of women employees, who also retain their sociocultural roles as wives and mothers, represents a unique set of sustainable human capital that needs to be socially supported in their organisations. The dual roles played by these women managers generate added stress to their organisational performances with detrimental consequences, not only to their physical and mental well-being, but also to their sustenance as resourceful human capital. This added stress to the work of managerial women in the organisation represents a human resources management problem for which the appropriate support coping mechanism must be found. This problem was explored by examining the relationship between the job characteristics symptoms of stress and the moderating effects of social support among managerial women in some organisations in Ghana. The findings of this study indicate that the exposure of managerial women to many job stressors have harmful effect on their health and impact negatively on their productivity. The stresses of the managerial women was reduced and their career progressions enhanced by the supportive relationship that existed between them and their superiors.

This study explored the barriers to entrepreneurial development in Ghana with the aim of building a knowledge base for successful entrepreneurship development initiatives in a developing economy context. An exploratory approach was used with both retrospective and qualitative data collected through a survey. The results showed that the functionalities of the numerous schemes initiated to support individual entrepreneurs‟ growth were constrained due to the inherent constraints in the design of the guiding frameworks for such schemes. The study also showed that the several policies and structures initiated differently by various governments since Ghana's independence in March 1959 could not help enhance entrepreneurial development, because the entrepreneurial environment created for entrepreneurship development was not very friendly to the individual entrepreneurs, By implication, the study provides learning on the need to bridge the distance that exist between the designers/implementers of entrepreneurship development policies/frameworks and the individual entrepreneurs (humans).

Executives of small firms in developing economies have the competences to make their firms competitive. Their inability to use their competences to simultaneously attain efficiency and effectiveness in managing their workplaces render them noncompetitive. This observation is made following a study that examines the competence challenges of executives of small firms and their non-performance in the Ghanaian industrial environment. Data were collected by surveying 72 executives using questionnaires. The result shows that executives of small firms in Ghana possess the managerial competences and behaviors to enhance the performances of their firms. The executives show a high level of autonomy and influence on the work they manage by appreciably combining their operant competences and their organizational citizenship behaviors. Yet still, despite the executives exhibiting competence and organizational behavior attributes, these characteristics appear not to have positive impacts on their performances toward making their firms competitive. For the executives to be efficient, they should have the capability to use their managerial competences for conducting research optimally (i.e., without wastage) in order to achieve organizational goals. Also, for executives to be effective, they should have the capability to use their requisite competences in carrying out research to complement their other managerial competences toward attaining the firm’s set goals.

This paper explored the constraints to business practices implementation by Research-Oriented Organizations in Developing Economies. Guided by organizational activity, sociotechnical and macroergonomic theories, data was collected from four research-oriented organizations in four developing countries, and analyzed using actions of identified groups in each organization’s activity system as the unit of analysis. It was found that the emergence of multivoicedness in the organizations’ activity systems created misfits among the organizations components which created systemic problems, ruptures, and breakdowns which constrained the effectiveness of the organizations’ business practices implementations. It is concluded that in the process of business practices implementation, an activity in the organization must be understood not as one activity with its peculiarities, but rather as a real aggregate of several activities and relations arising from the interacting components of the organization. A framework for understanding effective business practices implementation in research-oriented organizations is thus formulated.

In the past two decades, changes in the industrial environment of most developing countries and the increasing competition among firms has greatly influenced executives’ attitudes and behaviours in the effective management of their firms. There is evidence in the extant literature that the sustained superior performances of most firms is attributable to the unique capabilities used in managing their human resources, and which capabilities are rare, valuable, non-substitutable and imitable. This study therefore, explored the requisite self-efficacies that are exhibited by executives of small firms in Ghana in their day-to-day management of their businesses that leads to increase firm performance, since such self-efficacies are human-oriented capabilities that are rare, valuable, non-substitutable and imitable. This was necessitated by the observation that most executives of small firms in Ghana have not been able to achieve much for their firms, in terms of increasing their businesses productive efficiencies and effectiveness, because the requisite self-efficacies required of such executives for improved performances are unknown and unexplored. Guided by the self-efficacy theorization, data was collected from executives of seventy-two small firms in Ghana using a standardised questionnaire. Factor analysis was conducted to identify the plausible factors with the requisite weight to predict the executives’ self-efficacy, and the attribution of such factors. The factor analyses, with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin as well as Bartlett’s tests, were initiated to measure the factorability of the data, using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) as the analytic tool. Principal Component Analysis was then used as a data reduction technique using the Rotation Method (Varimax with Kaiser Normalization). Indicator predictiveness was interpreted using Schumacker and Lomax’s (2004) recommendation that estimated factor loading must be 0.7 or higher. Based on the analysis, it is found that the executives of small firms in Ghana exhibit self-efficacies which they manifest variously as charismatic influences and organizing capabilities. The executives showed high levels of organizing capabilities and charismatic influences on the work they manage as a result of their self-efficacies. It is also found that the self-efficacy indicators reflecting the executives’ exertion of charismatic influences on their employees correlated significantly with their self-efficacy indicators reflecting their capabilities to organize their firms’ activities. It is concluded that the executives’ use of their charismatic influence-oriented and organizing capability-oriented self-efficacies has a positive influence on their abilities to manage their small firms. It is also concluded that, the executives ability to handle the time demands and the paper work required of their managerial jobs, on the one hand, and their ability to maintain control of their personal daily schedule, and cope with the stress aspect of their managerial job, on the other, had a direct positive impact on their abilities to carry out the following functions. The findings in this study contribute to knowledge in the management of small firms. Specifically, for Ghana, this research provides a platform for the development of a database that will help inform policy-makers on the requisite self-efficacies to be required of small firms’ executives in the daily management of their businesses.

This paper examines challenges to the implementation and internalization of benchmarked management practices by research organizations in developing economies as transformative tools towards commercialization. The purpose is to understand the contributing influence of internal organizational factors from both situational and historical perspectives towards the practice implementation constraints, and also to provide theoretical understanding on how systemic formations and transformations in the organizations’ activities influenced the level to which their desired needs are attained. The results showed that the variability in the outcomes of the organizations’ transformation processes was indicative of their (in)ability to deal with the impacts of cumulated tensions in the systemic interfaces of their organizational activity systems. It is concluded that the functionalities of the systemic interfaces influence the functionality of the organizational activity system.

This paper explores competencies that managers of small firms in Ghana use to enhance operational flexibility towards the attainment of higher productivity. This is because the requisite competence required of such managers to be effective performers continues to be a challenge. Data was collected from managers of three hundred small firms using a standardized self-completion questionnaire and analyzed using the Amos-based structural equation model approach. Findings from factor and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the only competence exhibited by managers toward effective performance is realistic practices evident at the workplace. It is concluded that a manager’s self-confidence andinvolvement in areas that he/she is good at, and his/her possession of skills that enables performance at high capacity are indications of the manger’s effectiveness. The study outcome provides a knowledge base helpful to policy-makers, especially in Ghana, in determining the requisite managerial competences required by small firm managers for effective performance.

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to find out whether in the course of task performances, miners engage in activities influenced by their tacit knowledge to enhance the quality of the maintenance process for high technology equipment in deep mines. Guided by an organizational activity theoretical framework, data was collected by observing and interviewing four different mineworkers engaged in rock drilling and roof bolting activities in an underground mine. An interpretive descriptive analysis was conducted to understand the mineworkers activities when engaged with their work. It is found that the miners use their acquired experiences to find ways of maintaining and managing the machines they use for optimum work performance. It is concluded that an employee’s tacit knowledge, when made visible, can help determine the horizon of possible actions that can influence either positively or otherwise on the maintenance process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the possible formation of wildfire activities in an actor's subconsciousness and which goes unnoticed in the conduct of drilling/bolting activity in deep mines is we understand. It also sought to understand how the dynamics of this subconscious wildfire activity influences the mediation process between miners, as subjects of activity, and the objective for the drilling/bolting activity. The systemic structural activity theoretical approach is used to understand the different ways of knowing the world of mine work, in terms of the generation of new knowledge, and also in ways of helping stakeholders understand how to incorporate results or lessons learned from the systemic tasks entailed in drilling/bolting activity. Using qualitative data from interviews and video observations of bolting/drilling operations in a deep mine, parametric and morphological analyses were conducted to unearth miners’ innovation in the world of work. The paper concludes that the functional efficiency and effectiveness of drilling/bolting activities in deep mines could be enhanced by understanding the interrelationship between miners’ internal and external activities. That is, understanding miners’ practical-external activity and the corresponding external tools they might need to enhance their mental activities towards developing successful performance enhancing strategies for negotiating problematic task scenarios in rock drilling/bolting activity.

This paper explored online shoppers perspectives of the quality of their systemic interactions with digital transaction platforms provided by e-commerce firms to excite their shopping experiences, especially during this period of Covid-19 pandemic, with a corresponding significant impact on consumer behaviour. Guided by a survey research design, quantitative data was collected from 304 online shoppers and analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The results showed that digital platform factors that excite clients shopping experiences include senses of care, flexibility, community, customization, character, and interactivity. Female clients were found to found relate more to such enablers than male clients, even though, the differences in their premium ratings the factors were not insignificant. It is concluded that the increase in clients usage of digital platforms for shopping and subsequent excitement is influenced by the quality of the platforms’ interactivenesses derived from feelings of care, customization, community, character and flexibilities provided by its design. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The aim of this paper was to understand the influence of cognitive and emotional-motivational aspects of task complexity on workers performances in high-technology driven drilling activity in a deep mine. Data was collected by observing and video recording miners’ engaged in two separate production drilling activities, using two Boomers simultaneously. Based on the analysis, it is found that the workers encounter cognitive challenges in their ability to process information marked on rock surfaces for the positioning of the boomers, resulting in added complexity to their drilling tasks. The workers’ were also found to have issues with the quality of their designed job environment, and which emotional-motivational challenge also added to their tasks complexity. It is concluded that by understanding the emerging cognitive and emotional-motivational aspects of task complexities, future design processes of a friendly and performance enhancing work environments and technologies could evolve for efficient and effective human work.

This study explored and empirically determined the influence of gender in the goal classification and goal formation processes of individuals, as well as on their considerations of activity strategy and decision outcome expectations in an exam organizational activity. Data was collected from male and female graduate students preparing for end-of-semester examinations and comparatively analyzed inferentially. It is found that by segregating gender, the cognitive dynamics of male and female students when preparing for an exam organizational activity, in terms of their individual goal classification and goal formation processes, as well as their considerations of activity strategy and decision outcome expectations, differ in perceptual orientation. It is concluded that the cognitive dynamics of male and female individuals’ when preparing for an organizational activity, in terms of their individual goal classification and goal formation processes, as well as their considerations of activity strategy and decision outcome expectations differ in their perceptual orientations.

This paper discusses the concept of an “actor’s emerging-object-of-activity” and its potential use towards increased understanding and learning of the complexity of organizational change management in organizations. The argument that organizations, as activity systems, offers managers of organizational change an antidote to simplistic interpretations of the nature of individual knowledge and action, and organizational cultures and competencies was critically appraised. Paths for understanding the hidden challenges posed by actors’ emerging objects of activities” in the management of new organizational practices are hypothesized. It is concluded that by recognizing the importance of human interpretive activity to organizational change, the role of organizational influences in conditioning such interpretive activity will be understood and managed.

This study examined how the historicity of individuals’ organizational activity and subjective perception of task complexity influence individuals’ activity goal formations, strategies and decision outcomes considerations. The findings showed that conscious goal-directed processes of individuals are influenced by the dichotomy of historicity and their subjective perceptions of task complexity. It is concluded that; when “highest goal” is desired for an impending task, the dichotomous relationship of historicity of the individual’s self-regulation activity and his/her subjective perception of task complexity will have direct influence on both his/her Activity Goal Formation and decision outcome processes, while his/her activity strategies consideration will be directly influenced by only the historicity of his/her self-regulation activity. Also, when “best goal is desired, the dichotomous relationship will directly influence only the individual’s consideration of decision outcomes, while both his/her Activity Goal Formation and strategies consideration will be directly influenced by only the historicity of his/her self-regulation activity.

This paper discussed how the digitization of human work affect human performance of digitized work entailing both physical and mental activities, as well as the human’s social interaction entailing collaboration between the human’s and the digitized work system. It is posited that in the digitization process of the industrial work environment, the digitized system designer’s lack of knowledge about the external world of the embedded humans may result in the designer’s inability to accurately predict the outcomes of his/her decisions on work organization, especially the creation of positive collaboration and social harmony between digitized systems and humans towards enhanced productivity. It is concluded that analytic strategies for understanding the interactive work dynamics between humans and digitized systems, which can serve as key for identifying both the innovative and constraining characteristics of effective and efficient association between humans and digitized work systems towards collaborative work organization design should be developed.

This study examined the influence of students ‘goal characterization on their goal-formation processes, as characterized by their goal-classification, the systemic consideration of their activity-strategies and decision-outcomes when preparing for an examination. Using the Structural Equation Modeling approach, a functional analysis underlined by systemic principles was conducted. Firstly, the issue of whether the influence of students’ considerations of activity strategies on their decision outcomes is truly moderated by their activity goal formations, if they set highest-goals, is determined. Secondly, the issue of whether the influence of students’ considerations of activity strategies on their decision outcomes is truly mediated by their activity goal formations, if they set best-goals, is also determined. Based on the findings, the conscious goal-directed processes associated to the emergence of an individual’s thoughtfully mastered learning activity and its consequence on future design of systemic structural activity of individuals will be established.

Firms operating in high growth sectors are known to face the challenges of hiring and assimilating large numbers of new employees, providing new knowledge and skills to existing employees, and addressing the need for a rapid expansion of leadership capability. In the Ghanaian situation, such a challenge is known to prevail, since the country implemented major financial sector reforms starting in the late 1980s as part of its broad market reforms, key of which is the deregulation of the financial sub-sector. The banking sector in Ghana is therefore, faced with human resource management challenges, which includes the finding of the right caliber of employees to employ, and how to ensure that employees get committed to their organizations in order to reduce their desire to switch to competitor firms, due to apparent dissatisfaction with their jobs. This study therefore, examined a conceptual model that sought to hypothesize the impact of national culture and employee characteristics on employees’ organizational commitment in retail banks in Ghana. The purpose is to understand the extent to which Ghanaian national cultural values and employee characteristics impact on employee organizational commitment in Retail Banks operating in Ghana. Quantitative data was collected from 282 bank employee across nine different retail banks in Ghana, and analyzed stepwise, using the analysis of moment structures (AMOS) program. Firstly, path analysis was conducted to test the individual measurement models that constitute the various components of the conceptual structural model. In this analysis, the factor score weights and model fit estimates for the indicator variables in the various latent variables (i.e. national culture, employee characteristics, and organizational commitment,) were appraised. Results from the path analysis identified four measurable indicators for organizational commitment. The analysis showed that all the measurable indicators tested for national culture and employee characteristics did not have significant loads to serve as measurable indicators. It is concluded that employees’ organizational commitment in retail banks in Ghana is neither influenced by the Ghanaian national culture nor the employee’s characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of employee identity retention and its impact on organizational change in a Research and Development organization. The role played by social embeddedness in enhancing employees’ retention of self-identities and shaping their attitudes in resisting an orientation shift of organizational values and norms from that of civil services to distorting new public management orientation was assessed. The findings showed that the employees’ resistance was influenced by their personal core values which were distrustful towards the organizations change process. Senior staff members were reluctant to forego their independence of working as individuals by adopting a teamwork culture. It is concluded that as a result of the employees holding tight to their self-identities and failing to relate to new organizational norms, the production that emerged from the commercialisation process was not in consonance to the organization’s transformation needs.

This study explored how personal social capital influences employee growth in different industrial sectors in Ghana. This is informed by the prevailing argument on the need for knowledge generation on the role of social capital on employee growth, and which dynamics continue to gain currency in human resource management research. Using data from the banking, telecommunication and media sectors, it was found that the social interdependence between workers and other colleagues, information from their personal social networks, their personal relationships with colleagues that encourage the prevalence of trustful work environments, and the personal relationships they develop with others during social gatherings are all predictive of workers’ personal social capital that contribute variously in enhancing their professional growth in the work environments of different industrial sectors. It is concluded that the incorporation of workers’ personal social capital in organizations’ human resource management systems will help add value to their productiveness.

This paper explored the consequences of employees’ perception on the digitization of financial management system in a Ghanaian public organization. Guided by the systemic-structural theory of activity, quantitative data was collected from 123 employees and analyzed morphologically to understand how employees perceived the implementation of the digitized system. The results show that while majority of employees perceived the digitization of the financial management system as useful towards improving the organization’s operational efficiency and effectiveness, a minority were skeptical. Such skepticism was cognitively translated into negative employees’ attitude towards the system’s digitization process, which negatively impacted on the successfulness of its implementation. It is concluded that the digitization of financial management systems in Ghanaian public institutions are constrained by minority employees’ skepticism, since such skepticism have cognitive implications that translates into employee’s negative perceptions of digitized systems, and which perceptions can have an impeding consequential effect on the system’s implementation process.

In this study, it was established that internal environment factors that seemed to have constrained the attempts by most Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) in the developing countries to implement and internalise a best management practices (BMP) model (i.e. as an instrument of change) towards commercialisation were rather unidentified contradictions caused by conflicts and disturbances which served, not only as sources of troubles, but also sources of innovation in the RTOs' organizational activity systems. This observation provided an insight into the phenomenon that; despite the successful use of the BMP model by companies in the developed countries, especially in Europe, the efforts of most RTOs in the developing countries to implement and internalise the model were constrained by some undetermined environmental factors. The question of how factors internal to the RTOs' operating environments impacted on their attempts to implement and internalise the BMP model was explored, based on the proposition that; existing tensions in the RTOs activity system serve as internal environment constraints which influence the extent to which external environment factors negatively affect their efforts to implement and internalise the BMP model in their attempts to commercialise. Thus the goal of the study was to create an understanding with both practical and academic values (i.e. from the perspectives of organizational learning) on how the RTOs in developing countries can learn to deal with factors constraining the attempts by most of them to implement and internalise the BMP model (i.e. as an instrument of change) in their efforts to commercialise. The aim was to use organizational activity theory as a platform to provide an understanding of the possible internal factors preventing the RTOs from being successful in their implementation and internalisation efforts, with the objective of developing the requisite tools to guide future remedial actions. A multiple-case study was carried out with four RTOs in four countries (i.e. South Africa, Trinidad, and Botswana) as cases. Qualitative data on how each case's commercialisation process impacted on the sub-activity systems of its agents and/or groups (i.e. either as management teams or staff members, or collectively as workforce) were collected through structured interviews with key actors, problem-identification workshops, and surveys (using closed-ended self-completion questionnaires). Both historical and actual-empirical analyses were carried out for each case using the "analysis of contradiction" approach, with the actions of identified groups in each case (i.e. management team, senior staff, and junior staff) as the sub-unit of analysis, and the actions of the collective group (i.e. workforce) as the main unit of analysis. The contradictions that existed within the organizational activity system of each case were identified, and the findings interpreted at the single-case level. Results from these analyses showed that the case in South Africa was able to manage the contradictions that emerged in its organizational activity system, and hence was successful with its implementation efforts. The case in Trinidad was found to have experienced some constraints in its institutional rules and communities which generated some contradictions in its activity. Though not significant, the inability of the organization to fully manage it affected its implementation efforts, resulting in a moderate success. The case in Ghana was found to have been constrained in its institutional rule, community and division of labour. Due to its inability to manage the contradictions that emerged in its activity system, its commercialisation effort yielded a relatively poor outcome. The case in Botswana was found to have been highly constrained in its institutional rule, community and division of labour. Contradiction was thus high in its activity system, resulting in relatively failed implementation efforts. These analytic outcomes from the individual cases (i.e. analysis of contradiction) were then crossed analysed using the pattern-matching approach. Based on the analyses outcome, an understanding was made on factors internal to the organizations' operating environments which impacted on their implementation of the best management practices. This understanding provided the premise upon which the conclusion stated in the opening paragraph was derived.

The influencing role of students’ activity goal formation informed by their goal classification (i.e. highest or best) in their cognitive considerations of both activity strategies and decision outcomes for a pending task is examined in this study. Using data from a sample of 300 Graduate students preparing for an end-of-semester examination and the systemic structural activity analytical approach, it is found that actors’ cognitive classification of goals for pending activity as “highest” or “best” has no significant effect on the students’ goal formulation and the dynamic influence it has on their cognitive considerations for both activity strategy and decision outcome. Irrespective of goal classification, the students’ cognitive process of activity goal formation is found to significantly influence both their cognitive considerations of activity strategies and decision outcomes. It is concluded that the cognitive classification of goal has no direct significance on an students’ Goal formation process for a pending activity. 

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to preview contributions on leadership and organizational development in the African context, covered in this special issue of the African Journal of Business and Economic Studies.

Design/methodology/approach

Summaries of the underlying theoretical/conceptual and/or empirical frameworks, as well as key findings for each paper, were outlined in order to provide insights of each paper’s thematic contribution.

Findings

Paper 1 identified four basic modes of understanding organizational culture which provides a unique and expanded view on pursuing research in the field. Paper 2 found that managers use authentic and transactional leadership skills to cultivate and nurture the creativities of employees toward increased performances. Paper 3 found the interaction between authentic leaders and followers as inducing high levels of moral and ethical behaviors in followers. Paper 4 found that employee engagement and affective commitment minimize employees’ attrition, irrespective of leadership styles. Paper 5 found that, managers can enhance organizational development by creating an atmosphere for innovation development, and being involved in its implementation. Paper 6 found that leaders who are emotionally intelligent positively evoke subordinates’ citizenship behaviors. Paper 7 identified three distinct and interrelated archetypes of managerial role preferences (i.e. change agents, affective leaders, and result-oriented realists) needed by leaders in their administrative practices.

Originality/value

The papers provide new insights, in terms of thematic learning and knowledge, which add to the understanding of the contemporary Afrocentric perspective on leadership and organizational development, especially, the dialogue of management activities that promote the relational, critical and constructionist perspectives on leadership and organizational development

The purpose of this study was to explore the kind of leadership that could infect positive changes in the work environments of government research organizations undergoing privatization in most developing countries in order to enhance the commercialisation of their production activities. An interpretive analytic framework was used as an appropriate platform to build a qualitative design. Qualitative data was collected through taped-recorded interviews with seventeen senior staff members identified as key actors in the organization's privatization processes, and analysed using an interpretive description qualitative approach. The results showed that the organization's managers used charismatic and values-based leadership approaches during the transition period of commercialisation process and was viewed by their subordinates as leaders who were true to their own values and who also went on to help those they led to articulate what they valued. It was concluded that an amalgamation of transformational and value-based styles of leadership approach could be used by managers of government agencies in most developing countries to infect positive changes in their work environments when managing the privatization of their organizations. The study has shown that value-based transformational leadership could be used by managers of challenged government research and development organizations in most developed countries to infect positive changes in their work environments and which could help facilitate their efforts towards the privatization of their organizations' activities.

The purpose of this is to critically appraise the idea of the “tipping point” from the perspectives of leadership in workplace transformation. It is argued that the desirability of any workplace transformations requires that we clearly understand the nature of the expected changes and the relationship between leadership and change. It is also argued that the sustenance of the regressive character of such transformation might be attributed to its “tipping” in the negative sense in contrast to Gladwell’s positive prescription of the “tipping point” in workplace transformation. It is concluded that the “tipping point” in workplace transformation should be a reflection of the performance indices based on the set objectives for the changes and the timescales and output measures ascribed to them.

This paper discusses workers’ perception of human-work and work-organization in a digitized production-drilling activity in mines and its associated learning that could lead to the creation of harmony between the technical and the social system in the design of the mining-work environment. Underlined by the systemic structural activity theory, data was collected in a digitized mine through interviews and observations of workers engaged in production drilling activities. Using the systemic analytic approach, the workers’ perceptions of their digitized-world of work were analyzed functional. It was found that the workers perceive the mutuality of the exchanges, interactions, and understanding with the human-work and work organization design as lacking quality inputs from them, but which knowledge remains tacit and are not shared. It is concluded that by understanding workers’ perception of the human-work and work-organization designs of their autonomized work environment, an optimized work-system, entailing sociotechnical systemic characteristics can be formulated.

This study explores the self-efficacies and discretionary behaviours exhibited by managers of small Ghanaian firms with the purpose of understanding how the interplay of these two attributes impacted on employee motivation and performances. The selection of participants was guided by the snowballing technique. Data was collected by distributing self-completion questionnaires entailing managerial self-efficacy and discretionary behavior items to 100 study participants who were managers of small firms in two Ghanaian metropolises. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using the statistical package for the Social Sciences software. The results show that the managers had strong senses of affective attachment to their firms due to the use of their self-efficacies to generate dynamic influences on their firms’ performances. They also exhibit discretionary behaviours that motivate their employees to work together to achieve organizational goals. The study concludes that the absence of interplay between the managers’ self-efficacies and their discretionary behaviours constrains the efficient and effective performances of their firms.

This paper critically reflects on the influence of historicity in self-regulatory activity towards mediating subjective task complexity in job design. This is based on the growing interest of using the ‘practice’ approach in overcoming the gap between the theoretical understanding of what people do and the realistic understanding of what people actually do at the workplace. The paper argued that since an objective analysis of the number of alternatives presented in any given situation will not always coincide with subjective perceptions, and the individual’s lack of knowledge about the external world may result in his/her inability to accurately predict the outcomes of his/her decisions, then it is important to understand how an individual acquire knowledge about his/her external world of work, and also if its consequential effect on the routine is acquired through the recollections of the subconscious mind’s daily encounters at the work situations.

In the middle and late 1960's, large numbers of Research and Development (R&D) firms were established in many developing countries to provide effective services to small and medium scale enterprises. But over the years, the ability of these R&D-oriented firms to provide such effective assistances was constrained due to management challenges. In this regard efforts were made by most of these firms to implement new management practices derived from successful business principles and practices of firms in the EU and elsewhere, in order to help strengthened their capability to provide effective client services. Yet, there was the realisation that the efforts of most of these R&D firms to implement and internalise the new management practices were constrained and as such not successful. The purpose of this study therefore, was to identify and understand the factors that constrained the R&Ds’ practices implementation and internalization efforts. Using a systemic structural activity theoretical framework and a qualitative approach, the implementation effort of an R&D firm in Trinidad was explored. The results showed that during the firm's practice implementation, the quality of its internal environment was diffused as a result of employees and management seeing things in different perspectives. This resulted in the emergence of a fuzzy understanding of the firm's corporate culture by employees, with individual interpretations and understandings of the firm's organizational values and norms. It is concluded that the R&D's effort to implement and internalize new management practices was not only constrained by factors relating to its external environment, but also by the prevalence of activity contradictions within its structural and activity system

This study explored the cognitive and workload demands of air-traffic control activity and the tacit knowledge used by air-traffic controllers to cope with the stress associated with such demands in ensuring air-traffic safety in Ghana. Guided by the systemic structural theory of activity, it was found that the air-traffic control activity entailed several challenges, whereby variety of tasks demand significant cognitive efforts, requiring use of tacit knowledge by the air-traffic controllers to augment their operational performances in order to enhance air-traffic safety. It is concluded that the functional efficiency and effectiveness of human work in the air-traffic control activity can be enhanced by understanding and integrating air-traffic controllers' tacit knowledge in the job design. By implication, this understanding can be incorporated in designing an operator-efficient and effective work system for air-traffic controllers in order to enhance management capacity of air-traffic safety in Ghana.

This study seeks to provide an understanding of how data security and trust is managed in the collaborative work between technology start-up firms in developing economies and third-party entities. Using qualitative data from Ghana which was analyzed thematically, it was found that the measures taken to ensure the security and privacy of client datasets vary in intensity among firms. Thus, in collaborating with third-parties, the firms largely depend on industry best practices, policies and service-level agreements, and thus do not attempt to integrate the policies of collaborators with their firm’s policies except in situations where the inclusion elimination of certain clauses are collaborative pre-requisites. The firms also have trust criteria which they use to pre-qualify third-party entities with whom they collaborate. It is concluded that technology start-ups possess attribute that show their core competencies and the quality of their deliveries, but might require a regulatory body to monitor their operations. 

This article looks at the constraining influence of internal organizational factors on the management of organizational change. The purpose of the study was to determine the individual and group behavioral-induced situational problems, conflicts and tensions that change managers can identify and also use as innovative tools to enhance their capacity to manage organizational change. Individual and group behavioral factors that constrained the implementation and internalization of a best management practice model in an organization were examined. It is argued that in the organizational change process, the inability of change managers to simultaneously identify the development of situational problems, such as conflicts and tensions induced by individual and group basedbehaviours, and exploiting them as tools to enhance management innovation, is a significant constraint. It is concluded that; by continuously examining individual and group based mediated actions, managers can understand, identify, isolate and manage situational problems in future implementation and internalization of new practices models in their organizations

This study explored workers engagement in involuntary cognitive intentionality leading to their circumvention of structured and routinized activities at the workplace. Guided by Bedny and Karwowski’s postulation that activities of individuals are realized by goal-directed actions, informed either by mental or motor conscious processes, as objects of the cognitive psychology of skills and performances, qualitative data was collected from documented interactions between graduate students engaged in research work and their supervisor, and analyzed morphologically to understand the significance of workers involuntary cognitive intentionality in different work setting. It was found that individuals assigned consciously designed and assigned structured activity in work-settings can think that they know how to do such activities better, and even understand everything about how to do the activity properly in their minds. It is concluded that workers involuntary cognitive intentionality makes them circumvent consciously designed and assigned routinized structured activity, yielding outcomes that deviate from expectations. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

This paper discuses the use of organizational activity theory to address concerns on the best way to digitized human work that can lead to the creation of a harmony between the human, technical and the social system, towards increased productivity in the deep mine industry. The aim is to develop the requisite knowledge on the use of social networking technologies (new communication models) to design highly digitised work activity in which open collaboration can be enhanced between the human and the technological functions of the work that will make cross value chain optimisation a reality. Data is collected using observation and video-recording of miners’ activities, as well as recorded interviews techniques. The systemic-structural activity theory (Bedny and Karwowski, 2007), which focus on both the sociocultural approach to activity study and the individual-psychological approaches to activity study, which are basic to the study of human work is used. The main unit of analysis is the mine production activity. The sub-unit of analysis is carried out at two levels. These are the “object oriented” activity level, and the “subject-oriented” activity level. The object-oriented activity is analyzed from the perspectives of individual miners using technological tools (highly mechanized equipments) in breaking the rocks (material objects). The subject-oriented activity is also analyzed from the perspectives of the individual miner and his subjective interaction with the communication models and the technological tools as social objects. It is argued that since organizations possess technologies for accomplishing work, organizational activity then emphasizes a work system design in which technology affects social relations in organizations by structuring collaborative processes which are important components of an organization. It is then concluded that the systemic-structural activity theory can help understand how to optimize a work system’s design, such as the digitized mine activity, in terms of its sociotechnical system characteristics.

The purpose of this study was to understand the degree to which employees’ satisfaction with merger-inducedorganizational changes impact on their productivity and the merged-firm performance. This is because, the introductionof market-driven business reforms in many developing economies has seen the emergence of growth-drivers that includesthe search for new markets, increasing competition in local markets, new investors’ interest in emerging markets, andhence the desire for firms to merge. The results showed that human resource issues are important aspects of mergerswhich, if it is not well handled, may impact negatively on employee satisfaction with consequent repercussions onproductivity and the success of the merger. It is concluded that employee satisfaction to a merger-induced organizationalchanges could be enhanced by instituting effective two way communication system and using participatory approachesin job redesign processes. By implication, merger-induced change has human factor challenges that merging firms needto understand.

This study explored the issue of whether the use of the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) as a service delivery tool in the banking industry of many developing countries has achieved its intended objective of increasing the effectiveness of customer service provision and reducing the workload of bank tellers. The purpose is to understand customers’ behaviour towards the use of ATM as a banking service delivery tool, and the influence of such customer-usage behaviour on the banks’ human resource capacity building, in terms of employee workload relief and performance. This is because most banks in sub-Saharan African countries have introduced the ATM in bids to satisfying customers’ service needs and making the work of employees easier. Data was collected using questionnaires that were administered to bank customers who use the ATM facility, as well as bank managers. The findings showed that though most bank customers who use the ATM services perceive the ATM as a convenient, reliable, accurate and suitable service delivery tool for their banking transactions; they still underutilize the ATM’s service capacity by choosing to go to the banking halls to make cash withdrawals of amounts that could be obtained from the ATMs. It is also found that by virtue of this customer behaviour of not using the ATM’s to their full potential, the relief that it is expected to provide bank tellers is not realized. It is concluded that because of customer behavioral challenges to the effective utilization of the ATM technology, banks in developing economies not benefiting from its full potential as a customer service delivery tool, and also as a strategic workload reliever for tellers who service customers inside the banking halls.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that constitute time pressure, mental stress and job satisfaction among Ghanaian nurses working in public hospitals. Factor analysis of the collated data showed that not all the standardized factors of time pressure, mental stress and job satisfaction could be used to predict nurses’ work in the Ghanaian public hospital work environment. Based on correlation analysis, it was found that by ameliorating the time pressure associated with the nursing work, nurses will experience improved relationship with both superiors and among themselves. It is concluded that by eliminating the time pressure, moderating the task pace and eliminating the emotional strain and mental stress associated with the nursing work, the mental stress associated with the nursing work will also be reduced. By implication, this understanding can be used in designing, convulsive and friendly nursing work environments in Ghanaian public hospitals.

The existence of a favourable organizational involvement, persistence and adaptability in transforming a state enterprise will lead to positive employees’ consumption of new work practices. This observation was made from a study that explored the challenges faced by the management of a Ghanaian state enterprise in managing conflicts and disturbances associated with its attempt to implement new work practices to enhance its capabilities of operating as a commercial entity. The purpose was to understand the extent to which organizational involvement, consistency and adaptability influences employees’ consumption of new work practices in transforming the organization’s organizational activity system. Using self-administered questionnaires, data was collected from one hundred and eighty (180) employees and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that constraints in organizational involvement and adaptability prevented the positive consumption of new work practices by employees in the organization. It is also found that the organization’s employees failed to consume the new practices being implemented, because they perceived the process as non-involving, and as such, did not encourage the development of employee capability, empowerment, and teamwork. The study concluded that the failure of the organization’s management to create opportunities for organizational learning constrained its ability to get employees consume the new work practices, which situation could have facilitated the organization’s capabilities of operating as a commercial entity.