In this study, we tested part of the resource-based view of the firm by examining two `soft' resources, firm culture and top leadership, as predictors of `hard' or bottom-line firm performance. Transformational top leadership was found to predict firm performance directly while the link between firm culture and firm performance was indirect: via transformational top leadership. Firm culture was operationalized as the employees' views about the degree of optimization of four organizational practices (job autonomy, external orientation, interdepartmental orientation, and human resource orientation). We conclude that, rather than strong cultures, firms need best organizational practices and transformational leadership.

This paper draws on the need to understand how mobile technology is implemented and used at the organisational level. IT is a general-purpose technology and therefore its use involves a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity. Moreover, IT vendors and system developers tend to be very unambiguous in their rhetoric about mobile technology opportunities. Therefore, managers have trouble to identify the real scope, the functionality and the impact of new mobile applications. However, these three types of uncertainties need to be handled in change management projects where new information technology is involved. Gradual uncertainty reduction at these three different levels, i.e. what technology can do; will technology work; and will users adopt it, is studied in this paper. This is achieved through an analysis of the implementation process of an information system where mobile terminals are used to give service technicians access to the ERP system at BT Europe, a leading supplier of forklift trucks. The analysis shows how the three levels of uncertainty interact, and how the computerised parts of the information system are complemented by mindful intertwining with the non-computerised communication and manual data processing, in order for the information system to work.

While often used in everyday exchanges, feeling vigorous at work, that is individuals ’ feelings that they have physical strength, emotional energy, and cognitive liveliness, has hardly been subjected to any conceptual inquiry or empirical research. In this chapter, I pursue the following objectives: (a) to review the range of behavioral science literature in which vigor has been considered as a distinct affect; (b) based on this review, to present a conceptual framework of vigor at work; (c) to explore the antecedents of vigor and its consequences, including vigor’s possible effects on individuals ’ mental and physical health, and job performance; and (d) to describe a proposed measure of vigor at work and the results of an effort to construct validate the new measure. I conclude by pointing out a few

Within the last decade, the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has come to gain currency within practitioner literature relating to, among other areas, leadership, training, workplace assessment, and human resource management. The concept has already begun to inform practice within these and cognate fields. This article centrally examines the sociological significance of EI as a nascent managerial discourse. Through developing a three-way dialogue between the writers Richard Sennett, Daniel Goleman, and George Ritzer, it is contended that EI can be understood to signal ‘new rules ’ for work involving demands for workers to develop moral character better attuned to the dynamics of the flexible workplace — character which is more ‘intelligent’, adaptive, and reflexive. Furthermore, it is argued that while EI appears in some important respects to open the scope for worker discretion, when viewed in the context of recent debates about the corporate colonisation of workers ’ affects and subjectivities, it might also signal diminished scope for worker resistance. However, ultimately, the case of EI is used to problematise recent discussions of worker resistance — to suggest the possibility of ‘resistant ’ worker agency exercised through collusion with, as well as transgression of, corporate norms and practices. Key words: emotional intelligence; moral character; resistance; management control. 1 Introduction: Emotional Intelligence as The New Rules

What can an organization do when it has an opportunity to innovate with IT and faces pressure to improve operations – but lacks the capabilities necessary to conduct IT-related organizational change efforts? In this paper, this challenging situation is explored with the help of the resource-based view of the firm. A case study of digital radiology implementation in a healthcare organization was conducted. In the case, the change process did not follow the canonical view of how IT-related change should be conducted. Instead of a socio-technical, balanced change approach, where technology, processes, organizational structures and people change in concert, this case exhibited successive, focused change efforts targeting one organizational resource or capability at a time. The unorthodox change approach – a resource/capability re-balancing act rather than a case of balanced, socio-technical change – proved successful. The paper finds that pushing organizational change with technology may be a successful emergent strategy for IT-related change under difficult conditions. It also finds that by focusing one organizational resource or capability in each phase of a change effort, both short-term small wins and longerterm improvement of the organization’s dynamic capabilities may be possible.