Search

Employee Suggestion Schemes have been used in organizations for a long time due to the fact that they enable fostering of creative ability of employees. However, they must be used effectively and in a sustainable manner to better the creativity and innovation capacity of organizations in order to improve competitive advantage. Therefore there is a need to understand the maturity of Employee Suggestion Schemes. This paper proposes a new, structured evaluation tool for assessing an organizational Employee Suggestion Scheme maturity. It suggests five building blocks: Leadership and Work Environment, System Capability, System Effectiveness, Organizational Encouragement and System Barriers, each of them characterized by several relevant indicators and an assessment/grading scale in order for an organization to be able to determine the maturity level of their Employee Suggestion Scheme as: Initial stage, Development stage or Advanced stage. Organizations should apply this tool to assess the maturity level of their Employee Suggestion Scheme and draw a roadmap for its improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intends to clarify the understanding of the role of the contingency factors (i.e. long-term orientation, competitiveness and uncertainty) in the relation between sustainability practices (sustainability exploitation and sustainability exploration) and organizational performance. Using empirical data based on a large-scale survey among European organizations, this paper utilizes the regression analysis to gain insight into the relationship between sustainability practices and organizational performance. In general, the results support the contingency view of the relationship between sustainability practices and performance rather than relying upon “universal” view of sustainability practices. Particularly, the results show that in moderate environmental contexts (moderate competitiveness and uncertainty) sustainability exploitation practices seem to be a predominant predictor of organizational performance. Further, it appears that sustainability exploration practices are the most important predictor of innovation performance, especially when organizations are faced with high levels of competitiveness, uncertainty and long-term orientation. In contrast, sustainability exploitation practices seem to dominate in explaining the effects on quality performance. In this regard, we can argue that organizations with similar characteristics (capabilities, performance, and activity) may develop different and customised approaches for managing the interface between business and natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate sustainability challenges organisations with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. We draw on concepts in the innovation literature—namely exploration and exploitation—to examine corporate sustainability practices as well as the ensuing tensions between efficiency and innovativeness in achieving organisational performance. In particular, this paper draws upon institutional theory to enhance the understanding of sustainability-related phenomena, mainly from a perspective that has not yet been widely investigated in prior empirical studies. Therefore, the paper addresses the research question of whether sustainability exploitation and sustainability exploration practices are characterized by an organisation's country of origin. The target respondents of a large-scale web-based survey were manufacturing and service industry targets distributed across five countries: Germany, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain. Multiple regression with categorical predictors (dummy variables) was utilized to examine country effects on each of the performance measures. The outcome of the regression analysis provides some evidence that organisations based in different countries may have substantially different perspectives regarding the achieved levels of organisational performance as a consequence of deploying sustainability practices. In general, the results suggest that organisations in different countries show more differences in relation to sustainability practices and organisational performance compared to organisations within the same country. The findings of this paper contribute to the research on corporate sustainability by differentiating two aspects of corporate sustainability practices, namely exploitation and exploration, and by suggesting that institutional mechanisms may be a plausible explanation for differences in the deployment of sustainability practices and the effects of sustainability practices on organisational performance. Therefore, the paper contributes to the literature by providing more clarity and better understanding of how organisations may pursue sustainability practices to gain performance benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical and empirical research often points to a positive relation between corporate sustainability and organisational performance; however, attempts to conceptualise the multi-dimensional nature of sustainability practices are rare in the current literature. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework to aid in understanding and explaining the relationship between sustainability practices and organisational performance. The concepts of exploitation and exploration are adopted to distinguish between different types of sustainability practices. The research model is then analysed in terms of different outcomes related to sustainability performance, quality performance and business performance. Based on an interdisciplinary perspective, this paper suggests a new approach for the discussion of corporate sustainability and its implications for the organisational context. The results of the research suggest that the organisation may place a stronger focus on developing new sustainability-centred competencies when it is faced with an uncertain and rapidly changing environment. In contrast, efficiency and responsiveness to various stakeholders' expectations and demands might dominate in highly competitive environments. The primary conclusion of this paper is that the alternative relationships between sustainability practices (exploitation and exploration) and organisational performance depend on different factors, including environmental uncertainty, competitiveness, long-term orientation and institutional approaches. These arguments indicate that managers in resource-constrained contexts may benefit from focusing on the management of trade-offs between sustainability exploration and sustainability exploitation demands; however, for long-term success, the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation is both desirable and necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]