پژوهش نامه مدیریت تحول
سال چهاردهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 28، پاییز و زمستان 1401)

The study of business transformation trends in current organizations, especially in knowledge-based ones, indicates new trends in the business environment in which innovation is considered the main factor of advancement, power, and competitiveness. Meanwhile, the human capital of organizations, which is one of their intangible values, plays a key role in realizing and promoting innovation. With regards to employees of organizations as the initiators of the innovation process, the implementation of innovative policies in organizations seems to depend largely on their employees’ characteristics. Meanwhile, cognitive styles are proven to be the cause of differentiation in individuals. Since innovation is the result of having problem-solving insights in individuals, taking individual perspectives among the various factors affecting organizational innovation, this study is aimed to recognize and investigate the relationship between the employees’ decision-making style and their innovative work behavior.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

Innovative work behavior is the intentional behavior of employees to create, introduce, and implement new ideas to reach shared organizational benefits. This behavior is a multidimensional construct at the individual level consisting of exploring, producing, supporting, and implementing an idea by employees. Among potential affecting factors, cognitive decision-making styles are of most important ones that affect employees’ innovative behaviors. Few studies in this field examined individual factors like employees' characteristics as a basis for innovative work behavior. Cognitive styles are made up of employees' physical and psychological characteristics that determine their individual and organizational behaviors. Studies indicate that styles for performing complex tasks such as problem-solving, decision-making, learning, and causal explanations of life events are compatible with changing work routines. Kirton's adaptive-innovative style is comprised of three dimensions of originality, efficiency, and rule governance, based on which employees analyze and solve the problems considering the two ends of adaptation and innovation. Originality shows employees' creativity in problem-solving; efficiency refers to accuracy, reliability, and discipline; rule governance deals with respect for regulations and legal authorities.

Employing a quantitative research method and a researcher-made conceptual model, the relationships between innovative work behavior and its components (exploration, generation, advocation, and implementation of ideas) with cognitive decision-making style and its components (originality, efficiency, and rule governance) were examined. Also, the moderating effects of age, gender, and organizational position were analyzed. The needed data was gathered by distributing questionnaires among 950 employees working in 12 different departments of a knowledge-based IT firm. Linear regression analysis was conducted in SPSS v.27 and Minitab v.20 software to test the research hypotheses.

All the components of the decision-making style did not affect the innovative work behavior. In fact, decision-making style was only a good predictor for two components of innovative work behavior, including exploration and generation of ideas. Research results also indicated that the variables of age, gender, and organizational position moderate the relationship between decision-making style and innovative work behavior. In addition, pieces of evidence were found for the association of originality with idea generation and efficiency with idea implementation. It was also determined that, among various components of decision-making style, rule governance has a strong relationship with the advocation and implementation of ideas.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

The relationship between decision-making style and innovative work behavior has been rarely studied. This study would thereby enrich the literature by extending the current knowledge because suggested that having decision-making insights play a significant role in the emergence of innovative behavior. Given the strong relationship between rule governance and advocating and implementing ideas, it is concluded that both the organizational and individual factors have an important role in accomplishing innovativeness in organizations. Therefore, future researchers are recommended to consider individual and organizational factors simultaneously to better percept organizational innovation.

The invention of the Internet and the use of this phenomenon in organizations greatly helped business affairs. In addition to the role it can play, it may create major problems for organizations. For example, the Internet can provide an opportunity for employees to engage in non-work-related activities. Although non-work-related tasks were possible for employees before the invention of the Internet (such as reading newspapers, reading books, and talking on the phone), the Internet has increased this possibility by providing new conditions at the workplace. In other words, cyberloafing, a product of the age of communication technology, is an anti-productive deviant behavior against organizational norms that ultimately costs the organization.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK :

Aimed at clarifying the reasons for it, previous studies have been mainly focused on Internet browsing behaviors. Therefore, the current research emphasizes important points such as how cyberloafing occurs, how it spreads, and the consequences of this phenomenon for employees and organizations. This is an important topic for research because of the recent increase in per capita internet usage in the country. Accordingly, the main purpose of the current research is to identify the antecedents and consequences of employees' cyberloafing in the Academic Jihad Organization of Tehran.

The current research is an applied study in terms of purpose, and in regards to the method, was a mixed study. In the qualitative phase, a 7-step meta-synthesis method was used to identify the antecedents and consequences of cyberloafing. Qualitative data were gathered from domestic and international databases, which were sampled using the criteria-based purposeful sampling method. Within-subject agreement strategy of two coders was used to determine the reliability of the qualitative data. In the quantitative phase, a multi-stage Fuzzy Delphi technique was used to screen and confirm the findings of the meta-synthesis. In this phase, the statistical population was comprised of the experts of the Tehran Academic Jihad Organization.

Thirteen basic and 44 primary themes were identified and categorized into three components for antecedents of cyberloafing. Cyberloafing consequences were placed in four categories from 11 basic and 31 primary themes. Then, the fuzzy Delphi method was used to obtain the opinions of experts and specialists to confirm the identified components. The factors of confronting the organization, finding friends, and having few interactions with colleagues were confirmed as antecedents, while the factor of improving work relations was removed due to low importance. The second round of fuzzy Delphi reaffirmed the components of the first round. The antecedents of cyberloafing have been classified into three categories of structural, behavioral, and environmental factors. The negative consequences of cyberloafing were divided into two categories of organizational and personal damage. However, at the same time, the results showed that internet browsing could sometimes bring positive outcomes for organizations. If cyberloafing happens temporarily during long and exhausting working hours can recover the employees' strength and energy.

 CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS :

The results of the current research indicated that the expansion of social networks, the ease of employees' access to the Internet, and the lack of adequate monitoring and accurate evaluation of employees can increase cyberloafing. However, surfing the Internet during working hours can be a way to escape from the employees' mental conflicts caused by the economic pressures governing society. Moreover, the mismatch of working conditions with the physical and mental characteristics of employees, which is the result of the lack of meritocracy in recruiting employees, can cause a lack of motivation in performing assigned tasks. Another important factor is employees' extremism in cyberloafing, which may be the result of the lack of appropriate socialization or an undesirable organizational culture. On the other hand, the employees' desire to increase information and self-awareness can be considered a positive motive for surfing the Internet during working hours that increases their abilities and creativity. In summary, the research results helping organizations' managers in dealing with employees' cyberloafing are as follows. First, the structural, behavioral, and environmental aspects of cyberloafing can increase managers' awareness of this phenomenon. Second, the cyberloafing consequences are not necessarily harmful to the organization but may lead to personal growth, development, and recovery. Third, managers should examine and analyze the factors affecting this phenomenon in the environment of their own organization based on their employees' emotions and feelings.

In modern communities, the importance of women’s participation is to such an extent that achieving development is unexpected without their presence. Women play a remarkable role in the success of organizations due to a set of personality and innate characteristics, including a broad vision of the future, high administrative discipline, and their ability to motivate their colleagues and communicate with them as the life of an organization depends on the accurate performance of its personnel. Another critical factor in the success of organizations is the existence of employees who go beyond their job descriptions to help their colleagues. Though studies have shown that women are more likely than men to be involved in helping behaviors others argue that helping behaviors bring about challenges like the risk of emotional exhaustion or the reduced power of the helpful party to complete their official duties. Nonetheless, investigations have shown that employees who achieve success in their work may have more cognitive resources to participate in social behaviors and perform their occupational duties in a better way. Thus, job success can be considered an effective factor in helping behaviors and performance at work. However, some studies have shown that women experience lower levels of energy and enthusiasm at work. One of the most basic causes of that situation is the unfair interference of biological differences between men and women in occupational fields in addition to stereotypical attitudes and prejudices. an important consideration that should not be overlooked is that the feelings of security, justice, self-sufficiency, and autonomy matter a lot for women and increase their efficiency at work. Consequently, female employees’ mental security is a matter that requires urgent attention. On the other hand, knowledge is one of the main resources that each organization can utilize to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage, and the role played by women should not be overlooked in that regard. Though managers expect their employees to freely share their knowledge, it should not be forgotten that knowledge hiding is a common phenomenon, as well, and can significantly harm relationships in workplaces. Based on the above discussion, the present study contributed to the literature on organizational behavior and human resources in the field of women. First, it referred to the role of mental security as it could create a positive atmosphere and reduce the negative consequence of knowledge hiding, with a remarkable role in enhancing the efficiency of individuals and their colleagues at work. Another contribution of the present study concerned the role of female employees’ attitudes in professional relationships.

 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK :

Knowledge hiding refers to a conscious attempt by people to hide or prevent expressing knowledge that has been requested by someone else. Mental security indicates the feeling that people can present and utilize their abilities without any fear of losing their faces or positions or experiencing other negative consequences. The relationship between knowledge hiding and mental security can be illustrated using Bem’s Self-perception theory. The theory argues that people are involved in a process of self-attribution after carrying out a certain behavior and contemplating the action and the conditions leading to it. Scholars believe this can be attributed to the area of hidden knowledge in which the lack of mental security or similar conditions (for the individuals themselves or other people) extensively specifies the conditions under which hidden behaviors occur.Success is defined as a psychological condition where people experience both feelings of liveliness and learning in their workplaces. Liveliness and joy can be considered the energy coming from job attachment, while learning is the result of acquiring new skills and knowledge. In other words, when employees are provided with working conditions having certain resources like communication and knowledge resources or social structure characteristics like information sharing and an atmosphere of respect, they are likely to experience job success.The existence of mental security reduces employees’ likely concerns and allows them to concentrate on their duties. Moreover, it drives them toward active participation in communicative acts and the collection of feedback from others and boosts dynamic social interactions among employees. Thus, it can be claimed that mental security is a prerequisite for employees’ success at work.Helping behaviors are defined as voluntary assistance offered to colleagues to fulfill one’s goals or prevent the emergence of problems, while job performance can be considered the intended values of an organization that people carry out within a specified period. Employees who experience job success are more likely to develop in their jobs, have more enthusiasm toward their positions, and, at the same time, improve their relationships with their colleagues. Thus, they are expected to show more helping behaviors. In this way, job success makes employees keep away from egocentrism and help others out of altruism. Job success is accompanied by feelings of liveliness and learning, which in turn result in improved performance. Thus, job success is a significant factor influencing the emergence of helping behaviors and the improvement of individual performance.Organizational pessimism is a negative reflection of one’s attitudes and beliefs toward an organization. People who have pessimistic views toward their organizations are more likely to hide their knowledge due to risky or uncertain conditions so that they may preserve their sense of mental security.

The present research was an applied study in terms of purpose, and in terms of method, it was a survey. The variables were investigated using the statistics standardized in the previous studies. Moreover, the validity of the constructs of the utilized questionnaires was evaluated using the confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS, and the significance of the items relevant to the intended constructs was confirmed. The level of analysis in the study was individual. The statistical population was comprised of all female employees in the public offices of Mashhad, Iran, out of whom 386 questionnaires were collected. The data were analyzed using various statistical procedures, including Pearson’s correlation coefficient to calculate the zero-order correlation coefficients and Structural Equation Modeling to investigate the fit of the structural equation model with the collected data.

As a prerequisite for the utilization of latent variables in structural equation modeling is the existence of a correlation between variables, Pearson’s correlation analysis was carried out. The obtained coefficients indicated that the pairwise relationship between all variables was significant at p<0.01. Moreover, the factor loadings of the items of the questionnaire were calculated using the confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS. As all factor loadings were significant in the fit model of confirmatory factor analysis, no item was eliminated from the analysis stage. Furthermore, all fit indicators were investigated, and it was shown that they enjoyed convenient fit. The hypotheses were investigated using p-value and t-value, and it was shown that, for all hypotheses in the study, the values obtained for the first and second indicators were below 0.05 and beyond the range of ±1.96, respectively. The moderating role of organizational pessimism was investigated using the adjusted regression analysis, and the hypothesized moderating impact was confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS :

The present study aimed to investigate causal relationships between knowledge hiding, mental security, job success, and employees’ pessimism toward their organizations, and the data were collected from female employees in public offices in Mashhad, Iran. As predicted by the first hypothesis, it was shown that knowledge hiding negatively affects the mental security of female employees. In this way, it could be argued that hiding prevented organizational development due to its negative impacts on mental security. Concerning the second hypothesis, it was shown that knowledge hiding reduces job success. To reduce knowledge hiding, managers of human resources are suggested to establish contexts like work groups so that employees can both express their views and get familiar with what they should and should do at work. The third finding of the study showed that mental security had a significant impact on employees’ job success. Thus, it could be argued that as the positive resources created at the workplace increase, employees are more likely to actualize their capabilities toward effective behaviors. Concerning the fourth and fifth hypotheses, the effect of job success on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior was confirmed. Testing the mediating variables showed that mental security mediated the relationship between knowledge hiding and job success. Moreover, the mediating role of job success in the relationship between knowledge hiding and job performance and helping behaviors was confirmed. Ultimately, the moderating role of organizational pessimism was confirmed. The results showed that increasing organizational pessimism exacerbated the negative impacts of knowledge hiding on mental security. As employees’ pessimistic views indicate that justice and honesty are missing according to them (or may reduce in the future), managers need to ensure their employees that such basic principles will never be violated and take steps toward the expansion of justice and equity in their organizations.

In recent years, the development of information and communication technology infrastructures, has equipped banks with online information and communication resources and led them from traditional space to a banking platform based on centralized and multi-branch infrastructures. Relying on promotion of technology and data orientation, social banking has provided a new space to the country's banking industry. Adopting a digital transformation approach, the current research is to identify factors affecting the innovation process of social banking.

 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

According to research institutes, digital innovations in the banking industry have created various opportunities and threats for banks. These institutions introduce digital transformation as a double-edged sword, one side of which will increase the bank's profitability by creating a competitive advantage and reducing costs. On the other hand, with the empowerment of competitors and the pressure to reduce the profit margin and increase some operational risks, it may lead to a decrease in profitability. In the path of digital transformation and implementation plans, it is necessary to be realistic and then proceed to develop a strategy and carry out the necessary activities. One of the major challenges of digital transformation is that we cannot reach the highest level of digital maturity at once and should go through a series of intermediate steps. In the field of fintech digital transformation, open banking and mobile technology are of great importance and are considered as the main drivers of the development and realization of digital transformation.

In this research, fuzzy Delphi method has identified and prioritized the factors affecting innovation process in social banking with an approach to digital transformation. This was accomplished based on 377 questionnaires. To analyze the data and to check the research model fitness, structural equation modeling was conducted in Amos software. The opinion of industry experts confirmed the validity of the questionnaire, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficients of greater than 0.7.

The results showed that 36 out of 43 indicators affect the innovation process of social banking in the form of six distinct factors. Based on obtained results with a digital transformation approach, the key affecting factors were as follows respectively (in terms of their effect size): digital transformation infrastructure, laws and policies, innovative approach, banking industry structure, security, and social factors.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

Digital transformation infrastructure: Developing countries such as Iran must take the necessary local measures to implement the appropriate technical infrastructure for electronic commerce. For the successful implementation of digital transformation, banks need strong infrastructures to support data. Laws and policies: Regarding digital transformations, legislators and upper bodies can implement and facilitate the process of digital transformation by formulating laws in the field of entrepreneurship.Innovative approach: The digital economy creates unique opportunities for entrepreneurs who have an innovative approach to the environment and new entrepreneurial activities. Banking industry structure: Customers prefer personalized services. Banks, to be successful, should switch to platforms that can offer a variety of capabilities to a larger ecosystem of specialized providers. Security: Electronic banking, like any other Internet-based service, is one of the favorite fields for cybercriminals. Maintaining information security is one of the important topics of electronic commerce and banking. Social factors: Digital banking allows customers to take advantage of IT benefits when using their banking processes that increase their intention to use onlinbanking.Based on research results, the following practical suggestions are presented to the banking industry managers and practitioners: Government institutions and legislators are suggested to formulate and implement new laws and regulations for the effective use of technology in this industry. Banks should identify and exploit the opportunities existing in the environment by creating a strong expert group. Banks should utilize powerful support systems to protect information and customers. Banks should change their organizational structure for deploying new technology. Banks should empower their employees by exploiting up-to-date knowledge based on information technology. Managers should digitize the banks' environment and climate to internalize digital procedures in employees' habits and behaviors.

The unpredictability and uncertainty of working conditions have necessitated mechanisms of flexibility and change in current applications of job design theory. Organizations should be able to use their existing capabilities and at the same time acquire new and basic capabilities; In fact, they become ambidextrous. For organizations to become ambidextrous, they need leaders with ambidextrous characteristics who manage changes and simultaneously improve creativity and innovation. In this way, the organizations become adaptable and explorative to realize their mission. The organization's entrepreneurial orientation empowers the workforce and encourages them to redesign their duties actively. On the other hand, social exchanges in organizations highlight the socio-emotional aspect of job relationships, such as feelings and attention.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

One of the solutions to provide an outstanding performance is to be explorative and innovative simultaneously with the aid of the organization's structure and design, its human resources, and leadership styles. These issues can be incorporated into a distinct concept called entrepreneurial orientation. Previous research showed that ambidextrous leadership increases the entrepreneurial orientation of an organization. In an organization with high-quality social exchanges, employees are more capable of redesigning their work activities, and thus, the social exchange may moderate the effect of ambidextrous leadership on job crafting.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation and the moderating role of organizational social exchange for ambidextrous leadership-job crafting association. The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population was comprised of active manufacturing companies located in the industrial towns of Rasht, Lahijan, and Bandar Anzali, among which 121 companies were sampled using the convenience method. The needed data was gathered by distributing questionnaires in the form of an in-person survey. Obtained data were analyzed in SmartPls v.2 and Spss v.28 to test the research hypotheses.

The results of structural equation modeling indicated that entrepreneurial orientation fully mediated the effect of ambidextrous leadership on job crafting. The results of hierarchical regression analysis confirmed the moderating role of social exchange. In other words, the interactional effect of ambidextrous leadership and social exchange and job crafting was also statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

Job redesign in the form of job crafting is like a white canvas on which employees can determine their work content to have meaningful jobs. Therefore, an organization of high entrepreneurial orientation provides an environment to foster such proactive and creative behaviors in line with job crafting. Ambidextrous leaders create a synergy between explorative and exploitative activities to facilitate entrepreneurial orientation, which in turn leads to job crafting. In an organization of having high-quality social exchanges, employees are more committed to the organization and tend to engage in entrepreneurial behaviors and changes. Therefore, job crafting can be a more likely process for ambidextrous leaders of an organization that has entrepreneurial orientation and high-quality social exchanges.

 Based on theories of social exchange and leadership substitutions, if there are necessary infrastructures, human resource management strategies can be replaced by servant leadership in promoting employees' emotional commitment and psychological empowerment. The present research seeks to examine the possibility of the replacement of servant leadership with the high-commitment human resource management system in the Fars Governorate Organization.

 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

To achieve a competitive advantage, managers are constantly looking for ways to increase employees' commitment and empower them. In this regard, the question is how human resource management and leadership interact. Previous research suggests that, in certain conditions, human resource management and leadership can substitute and complement each other. Therefore, the current research seeks to investigate how servant leadership can be replaced by high-commitment human resource management to affect employees' emotional commitment and psychological empowerment. If the socio-emotional needs of employees are met by human resource management practices, organizational leaders need less ability and effort to meet them. For this reason, it is proposed that the high-commitment human resource management system and servant leadership can moderate the effect of each other on employees' emotional commitment and psychological empowerment.

This research was a correlational survey with a statistical population of 1200 employees in the Fars Governorate Organization. A sample size of 320 people was investigated by conducting stratified random sampling. The data collection tool was a pre-made questionnaire with 35 items. To analyze the gathered data, a partial least square approach to structural equation modeling was utilized in SmartPLS software.

Employees’ opinions indicated that the use of high-commitment human resource management practices is less than average in the Fars Goveronate Organization (2.72 out of 5). It was determined that about 23 percent of the variance in emotional commitment was explained by servant leadership and high-commitment human resource management practices. Additionally, servant leadership was able to explain about 12 percent of the variance in psychological empowerment. Examining the moderating hypotheses indicated that none of the servant leadership and high-commitment human resource management can moderate each other's effect on outcome variables. Moreover, Comparing the two groups of male and female employees revealed that women feel less influence in the workplace.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

The low level of high-commitment human resource management practices determined that the conditions are not available for the replacement of servant leadership with the high-commitment human resource management system in the Fars Governorate Organization. Therefore, first of all, this organization needs to develop high-commitment practices. In terms of moderating hypotheses, non-significant effects can be attributed to the low levels of moderators and employees' maturity. Future researchers, of course, are recommended to investigate these issues. As the results indicated, the relationship between the high-commitment human resource management system and psychological empowerment was not statistically significant. Based on this, it can be said that servant leadership cannot be replaced by the high-commitment human resource management system in the Fars Governorate Organization due to the lack of necessary infrastructure.

Organizations are increasingly facing dynamic and changing environments. Due to more complexity for organizations to adapt to environmental changes, the education organization like the other ones should be able to adopt new technologies to give appropriate responses to environmental changes. This social institution plays a critical role in the management of society and the sustainable development of the country. Therefore, its continued growth can be guaranteed by promoting intellectual capital and moving towards innovative behaviors. accordingly, the purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of intellectual capital on organizational innovation.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

A brief look at intellectual capital literature shows that there exists no consensus on its definition between scholars. However, there is agreement on its economy-oriented and knowledge-oriented approaches to it and researchers consider the main three components of intellectual capital as human, structural, and customer capital. Intellectual capital is the total hidden assets of the organization that are not shown in the balance sheet. Therefore, it includes both what is in the brains of the organization's members and what remains after people leave the organization. On the other hand, organizational innovation which is an intangible and inimitable resource can be defined as the successful implementation of new ideas encompassing changes in the structure and processes of an organization to apply new management, work, and operational concepts.

A quantitative approach in the form of a survey-analytical strategy was used to conduct the research. The study population consisted of all managers and administrative experts of the General Department of Education of Razavi Khorasan province. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size was calculated to be 282 people. To collect data, a questionnaire with five-point Likert-type scales was utilized. Finally, Structural equation modeling was conducted in SmartPLS software to test the research hypotheses.

In terms of the components of intellectual capital, the findings showed that human, structural, and relational capital respectively has the highest mean. Regarding the components of organizational innovation, the components of technical and managerial innovation had the highest and lowest mean respectively. While all the path coefficients were significant, the component of relational capital had the strongest effect (β=0.532) on organizational innovation. This finding highlights the importance of relational capital. In total, intellectual capital was able to explain about 72 percent of the variance in organizational innovation.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

Since the effect of the three components of intellectual capital on organizational innovation was positive and significant, it can be recommended to investigate the affecting factors of these components separately in the organization of education. To facilitate the implementation of new ideas in this organization, we propose setting up a suggestion system using IT technology in line with promoting open innovation. Moreover, to implement more educational innovations, it is suggested to make strategic agreements and links with scientific centers such as universities, knowledge-based firms, and science and technology parks.