With the aim of drawing valuable lessons for the management and planning of similar business transformation initiatives, this paper critically evaluates a change project at an organization in South Africa, from three ...With the aim of drawing valuable lessons for the management and planning of similar business transformation initiatives, this paper critically evaluates a change project at an organization in South Africa, from three inter-woven dimensions: creating the climate for change, engaging and enabling the organization, and sustaining change. Firstly, a key achievement demonstrates that attempts to create a conducive climate for change should recognize that the unit of change in any organization is, ultimately, the individual. Levers for such initiatives should navigate the macro-organizational change narrative and translate change generalities into specific individual actions and behaviors. Secondly, learning from an implementation gap, similar efforts would gain better traction in engagement and empowerment by leveraging on an influential cross-functional team made up of enthusiastic supporters of the required change, to foster ownership and to embrace change across the organization. Key characteristics that should be represented on the team include leadership skills, expertise, credibility, effective communication, and a sense of urgency. Thirdly, in terms of sustaining change, twin lessons surge to the fore. On a positive note, by progressing its values-set into an annual staff award, there is a pointer to the potential of innovatively encouraging and rewarding employees to live the value qualities. And, on the flip side, a need is underscore of the critical role of seamless executive leadership, providing ongoing co-creating windows for instilling positive attitudes and creating synergies among related strategic initiatives.展开更多
The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on firms' financial performance with reference to a sample of companies operating in the European Union (EU) area during the period from ...The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on firms' financial performance with reference to a sample of companies operating in the European Union (EU) area during the period from 2006 to 2013. The analyses are further differentiated by country of domicile, industry sector, and historical period (pre-crisis and crisis). We investigate whether the value of the components of IC is a relevant factor that influences firms' performance, proposing and testing a modified version of the value added intellectual capital (VAICTM) model which also considers country-specific differences in terms of default risk. The empirical results evidence the relevance of the information on IC disclosed by companies. Differences arise depending on the reference country, industry, and historical period examined. The main limitations of the research are the unbalanced structure of the sample among countries and industries and the specificity of the examined sample (listed firms applying IAS/IFRS system). The main implication of the study is that, since we demonstrate the value relevance of IC, our findings could be of interest for standard setters for defining a standard (qualitative and quantitative) level of information on human resources to be disclosed by companies in their financial statements. Our contribution to the literature is the proposal of some relevant modifications to the original VAICTM model and providing new evidence on the influence that IC had in recent years on business performance in the EU.展开更多
文摘With the aim of drawing valuable lessons for the management and planning of similar business transformation initiatives, this paper critically evaluates a change project at an organization in South Africa, from three inter-woven dimensions: creating the climate for change, engaging and enabling the organization, and sustaining change. Firstly, a key achievement demonstrates that attempts to create a conducive climate for change should recognize that the unit of change in any organization is, ultimately, the individual. Levers for such initiatives should navigate the macro-organizational change narrative and translate change generalities into specific individual actions and behaviors. Secondly, learning from an implementation gap, similar efforts would gain better traction in engagement and empowerment by leveraging on an influential cross-functional team made up of enthusiastic supporters of the required change, to foster ownership and to embrace change across the organization. Key characteristics that should be represented on the team include leadership skills, expertise, credibility, effective communication, and a sense of urgency. Thirdly, in terms of sustaining change, twin lessons surge to the fore. On a positive note, by progressing its values-set into an annual staff award, there is a pointer to the potential of innovatively encouraging and rewarding employees to live the value qualities. And, on the flip side, a need is underscore of the critical role of seamless executive leadership, providing ongoing co-creating windows for instilling positive attitudes and creating synergies among related strategic initiatives.
文摘The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on firms' financial performance with reference to a sample of companies operating in the European Union (EU) area during the period from 2006 to 2013. The analyses are further differentiated by country of domicile, industry sector, and historical period (pre-crisis and crisis). We investigate whether the value of the components of IC is a relevant factor that influences firms' performance, proposing and testing a modified version of the value added intellectual capital (VAICTM) model which also considers country-specific differences in terms of default risk. The empirical results evidence the relevance of the information on IC disclosed by companies. Differences arise depending on the reference country, industry, and historical period examined. The main limitations of the research are the unbalanced structure of the sample among countries and industries and the specificity of the examined sample (listed firms applying IAS/IFRS system). The main implication of the study is that, since we demonstrate the value relevance of IC, our findings could be of interest for standard setters for defining a standard (qualitative and quantitative) level of information on human resources to be disclosed by companies in their financial statements. Our contribution to the literature is the proposal of some relevant modifications to the original VAICTM model and providing new evidence on the influence that IC had in recent years on business performance in the EU.