Even though mission statements are standard tools in organizations, their effectiveness is subject to substantial skepticism. This review integrates hitherto published research based on a broad range of objective and subjective effectiveness criteria above and beyond financial performance in for-profit as well as not-for-profit organizations. We conclude that the distal outcome effectiveness of mission statements depends on the following antecedents and intermediate outcomes: (1) the rationale underlying their development; (2) the process of their development and implementation; (3) their content and form; and (4) individual attitudes toward the mission statement. We thereby clarify preconditions of mission statement effectiveness in organizations, and reveal shortcomings in current research.

Existing research on a board-of-director–sustainability performance relationship have largely examined inside directors, outside directors, and gender diversity – yet empirical results have yet to offer any definitive answers. I posit that this previous research lacks a thorough examination of the role of boards and the means and mechanisms by which they influence performance. Drawing on the board capital perspective and the role of boards, this paper develops a model that highlights the influence of board capital on the future sustainability performance of firms. The model takes into account specific types of human and social capital of outside directors which have previously been unexamined. Beyond the board capital perspective, an argument is put forth that values are largely neglected in the examination of boards of directors, but are necessary in the study of sustainability because of its normative implications. I therefore account for the value attunement concept as a moderating variable in the model. The paper draws on corporate governance and business ethics' literature to generate propositions and offer original insight into the drivers of sustainability performance in organizations.

Does transformational leadership have a positive relationship to organizational culture and innovation propensity in business organizations of Pakistan? Transformational leadership has been associated with a variety of positive organizational outcomes in a number of studies. However, the outcomes of transformational leadership in Pakistan are still underexplored. The current study examined the specific relationship between transformational leadership, organizational culture, and innovation propensity among a sample of 523 organizational members in Pakistan. Our findings showed that transformational leadership is positively related to organizational culture and innovation propensity. Results also indicated that organizational culture mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation propensity. Furthermore, ANOVA analyses identified differences in ratings of transformational leadership across employees' education level and company size. Also, correlation analyses found no relationship between employees' ratings of transformational leadership and employees' age and organizational tenure. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

Partnerships are increasingly important to firm product innovation. They also increasingly involve parties that are attached to different institutional logics. We examine the effect of firm and partner attachments to the same and different institutional logics. Findings suggest that when partners are attached to the same institutional logic, new product development performance is positively influenced. However, when partners are attached to different institutional logics, new product development is negatively influenced. When controlling for attachment to different institutional logics, partnerships with private companies are more beneficial than partnerships with government research institutions.

This article examines skills shortage in rural Australian mining and food and beverage processing industries by analyzing the concept of skill and differentiating between gaps in skills and skill shortages. Drawing on Acker's sociological concept of inequality regimes, we analyze workforce profiles informed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, and qualitative interview data with human resource personnel. Emphasis is given to gender and Indigeneity, and the recruitment and retention practices by place and organization. We argue that the term ‘skill shortage’ is contentious as current workforce profiles are narrow and thereby exclude segments of the rural labor market. We also argue that underlying assumptions about gender and race in organizations need to be addressed for rural-based organizations to more fully utilize the available workforce.

We analyze the effects of four different types of firm legitimacy – managerial, technological, local community legitimacy and business press endorsement – on the choice of alliance governance structure in partnerships with newly public biotechnology firms. We expand current research to differentiate between non-equity, minority equity and joint venture alliance structures. We find that initial public offering of stock (IPO) firms with higher levels of managerial legitimacy and local community legitimacy are more likely to enter into joint ventures than minority equity alliances and non-equity alliances. IPO firms with higher technological legitimacy and business press endorsement are more likely to use a less hierarchical governance structure.

In this research, I apply and extend Kohli's (2004) state-directed development framework to better understand country-level factors influencing cross-national differences in job characteristics and job satisfaction. Prior research has indicated that the nature of work has changed dramatically in recent years in response to economic shifts and an increasingly global economy. However, there is little agreement on whether the overall quality of work has improved or declined over that period and little is known about the overall comparative quality of work and job satisfaction across the global economy. In this study I use non-panel longitudinal data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP 1989, 1997, 2005 – survey questions on job characteristics and job quality) and various country-contextual variables. This article explores the impact of state-directed development on job satisfaction, first identifying and explaining the foundations of the statist literature, and then using various statistical methods to test for statistically significant impact and variation across countries.

This research is an attempt to explore the impact of an innovative case assessment technique on a deep versus surface approach to learning as adopted by a large cohort of undergraduate management students studying in a reputed University. Specifically, a case assessment incorporating peer assessment in the form of a Case Challenge was introduced by the researchers to enhance deep learning, as an innovation to compartmentalized approaches to case assessment that may foster surface-level approaches to learning. Data collected through structured interviews suggest that inclusion of a challenge component in case analyses, directed and led by a peer group, substantially increased the level of preparation and ownership assumed by both the presenting team and challenging team in their own learning as also learning for the rest of the class. Results are discussed in the context of contemporary literature on learning-oriented assessment in general and the impact of peer assessments on deep versus surface approaches to learning in particular.

Despite a prolific research literature on the question of what makes teams effective, the literature is still limited on the role that team level emotions play in this process. In this article, we argue that the construct of workgroup emotional climate (WEC) provides a useful perspective from which to examine this matter. Following a discussion of the importance of considering emotions in organizational studies generally and team research, specifically, we draw on evidence of cultural differences in emotional experience and expression to develop a model explicating how cultural orientation can impact on the relationship between WEC and workgroup effectiveness. The model presented in the paper represents a significant development in our understanding of the role of cultural differences, specifically the influence of the individualism–collectivism identity orientation, in WEC and its relationship to workgroup effectiveness. Future directions for research and practice arising from the model are also presented.