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The COVID-19 pandemic has produced disruptions to the employment and higher education contexts, exacerbating complexities involved in one's assessment of their opportunities of employment in these contexts. The career literature has largely overlooked a vulnerable population of potential job candidates (i.e., final-year MBA students) who are at a critical juncture in response to COVID-19 career shock. Drawing from the challenge-hindrance appraisal framework, this research aims to theorize and test a moderated-mediation model in terms of how COVID-19 career shock associates with self-perceived employability. We use a simple random sampling procedure to collect data from 301 final year MBA students in Australia at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that COVID-19 career shock can be perceived both as a challenge and a hindrance, which in turn associates with self-perceived employability differently. Results further demonstrate that the extent to which COVID-19 career shock is perceived as a challenge or hindrance is moderated by one's career networking behavior. This research is a timely response to research calls for understanding how the COVID-19 has an impact on people's work and career with a particular focus on a vulnerable yet under-studied group of labor force in the career literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees remaining silent about ethical aspects of work or organization-related issues, termed employee ethical silence, perpetuates misconduct in today's business setting. However, how and why it occurs is not yet well specified in the business ethics literature, which is insufficient to manage corporate misconducts. In this research, we investigate how and when exploitative leadership associates with employee ethical silence. We draw from the conservation of resources theory to theorize and test a cognitive resource pathway (i.e., work meaningfulness) and a moral resource pathway (i.e., moral potency) to explain the association between exploitative leadership and employee ethical silence. Results from two studies largely support our hypotheses that work meaningfulness and moral potency mediate the effect of exploitative leadership on ethical silence contingent on performance reward expectancy. Theoretical and practical implications are thoroughly discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using digital technologies for work‐related matters during nonwork time is an increasingly common behavior in contemporary workplaces. Despite the prevalence of digital connectivity (DCON) in today's organizations, its implications for employee job performance remain under‐specified. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the "too‐much‐of‐a‐good‐thing" (TMGT) meta‐theoretical principle, we theorize that DCON has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with employee job performance through the mediation of social capital development (SCD) and emotional exhaustion (EE). The results of two studies with different designs support our theoretical expectations. Specifically, we found that increases in DCON associate with higher SCD, lower EE, and higher job performance up to an inflexion point, after which more DCON has detrimental effects. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are fully discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the processes by which firms, particularly knowledge intensive firms, can augment their overall knowledge stock by tapping into external sources of knowledge. It is argued that Top Management Teams' (TMTs') social intelligence is a critical learning capability in acquiring external knowledge that leads to strategic change. Social intelligence involves social awareness, social understanding and social skills. The study draws from the experience of 11 of the largest Information Technology Service Providers (ITSPs) in India and based on in-depth interviews. The findings show that TMTs' learning capability in the context of social intelligence to interact with external stakeholders is important to ITSPs in facilitating external knowledge acquisition and allowing new knowledge emerge within and across networks. The findings provide significant insights into ITSPs emerging in other developing countries such as in China. Research limitation and future research direction are also provided. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

This study identifies the change management processes involved in undertaking environmental sustainability (ES) initiatives within Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) and relate these to the main attributes of learning organisations. Using case study techniques, the study draws from the change management experiences of a sample of 12 ES champions in different industries. The findings suggest that the ES champions experience four distinct change management stages in undertaking ES initiatives; namely the design, internalise, implement and evaluate stages. Each stage is also found to relate strongly with a number of key characteristics of learning organisations. Overall, the findings suggest that SMEs with strong learning organisation attributes are more likely to be successful in implementing and managing ES change initiatives. The implications of the findings are also discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)