Purpose This study examines the relationship between exploitative leadership and workplace incivility, focusing on the mediating role of psychological distress and the moderating role of perceived organizational support within the frameworks of social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory. It aims to deepen understanding of how negative leadership behaviors impact employee well-being and interpersonal conduct within organizational contexts. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from employees in Bangladesh’s garment industry using validated scales to measure exploitative leadership, workplace incivility, psychological distress, and perceived organizational support. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data and test the hypothesized relationships among the variables. Findings The results revealed that exploitative leadership significantly and positively predicts workplace incivility. Psychological distress was found to play a strong mediating role in this relationship, indicating that leaders’ exploitative behaviors increase employees’ psychological strain, which in turn fosters incivility. Furthermore, perceived organizational support demonstrated a significant moderating effect, buffering the positive relationship between exploitative leadership and workplace incivility. These findings emphasize the crucial role of supportive organizational environments in mitigating the adverse outcomes of exploitative leadership. Originality/value This study extends the application of social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory by incorporating psychological distress as a mediating mechanism and perceived organizational support as a buffering mechanism in the linkage between exploitative leadership and workplace incivility. By focusing on Bangladesh’s garment industry, the study provides novel empirical evidence from a developing-country context and offers valuable insights for enhancing organizational health and leadership practices.
Purpose This paper explores the use of agile responses in organizations at three different management levels: CEO, executive team and enterprise wide. The authors compare and contrast three different case examples to highlight that each organizational level involves different goals, processes, skill sets, challenges and solutions. These cases underscore the need to define agility more precisely across different levels, business functions and contexts. Design/methodology/approach The authors examined the growing literature on strategic agility and developed a bespoke agility survey via an executive program with supply chain managers in Asia, as fully shown in the Appendix. The survey itself, plus the pilot data that the authors collected and summarized, underscore the need to customize survey-based agility measures to specific organizational or functional settings. The authors’ three main business cases illustrate this further at different levels in an enterprise. Findings The authors’ analysis shows that strategic agility can differ greatly from operational agility and that each type can vary markedly across situations and organizational levels. The lack of clear definitions of agility in the academic literature complicates attempts at general taxonomies or prescriptive guidance that is invariant across cases. Research limitations/implications The three cases the authors selected for comparison and contrast were based on their own familiarity with the respective situations. Each was also widely covered in general business news when the authors wrote this paper. In the absence of an agreed taxonomy for business situations involving agility, these practice-based cases helped to illustrate the conceptual points the authors wanted to make. Practical implications The best remedy in practice would be for leaders to examine how agility is currently defined in their own organization across level and functions, by means of surveys, interviews or external benchmarks. With that in hand, agility alignments can be better tailored and improved. Originality/value This paper contributes to the agility literature by highlighting its weak conceptual foundations in theory and by highlighting the contextual nature of agility in practice. By separating agility into CEO, executive-team and enterprise-wide levels, the authors offer a framework for resolving the concept’s persistent definitional ambiguity. This multi-level perspective also helps practitioners clarify which type of agility they are trying to deploy. It also helps avoid one-size-fits-all prescriptions and improve the practical value of agility oriented initiatives.
Purpose This study examines how business owners (BOs) interpret institutional uncertainty and how such interpretations shape small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) financing behaviour. Focusing on Brexit in the United Kingdom, it investigates how sensemaking and behavioural mechanisms generate discouragement and self-rationing in accessing external finance. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a constructive grounded theory approach, the study draws on twenty semi-structured interviews with UK SME owners conducted between December 2021 and January 2023. An abductive analysis was employed to develop a process-based explanation linking institutional uncertainty, entrepreneurial sensemaking, and financing behaviour. Findings The findings show that institutional uncertainty does not simply constrain credit but reshapes entrepreneurial behaviour through interpretive and structural mechanisms. BOs translate uncertainty into heightened perceived risk, leading to precautionary sensemaking and consequent self-rationing even where credit remains available. Discouragement emerged as a multi-mechanistic process shaped by anticipated rejection, vicarious experiences, procedural burden, higher costs, imposter-related doubt, and perceived discrimination. Gender differences under uncertainty are not uniform in magnitude but mechanism-specific, with women experiencing stronger relational and identity-based barriers and men exhibiting more mindset-driven conservatism. Fintech-enabled lending mitigates discouragement by reducing relational and procedural barriers. Originality/value This study extends discouragement theory by conceptualising it as an emergent and dynamic process of sensemaking under institutional uncertainty. It further integrates sensemaking and behavioural finance to offer a behavioural explanation for credit market disengagement. Additionally, it extends pecking order theory by identifying a behaviourally constructed pecking order, where sensemaking and self-rationing emerge endogenously through cognitive, social and identity-based mechanisms.
PurposeThis paper aims to explore how individual resilience contributes to organizational resilience through a processual perspective. While resilience is widely recognized as a multi-level construct, limited research has examined how personal experiences of individuals influence the resilience of organizations they lead. Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a qualitative analysis of secondary data, focusing on the life trajectory of Steve Jobs, widely regarded as a resilient individual who led a resilient organization. This biographical case study approach allows for the identification of individual and entrepreneurial resilience factors and traces how these factors are transferred and adapted at the organizational level. FindingsOur analysis suggests that resilience developed in personal life can be transferred to the entrepreneurial context and subsequently integrated into organizational dynamics. This transfer occurs through the adaptation and transposition of individual resilience behaviors into organizational practices. The study highlights the critical role of personal experiences in shaping durable organizational resilience. Originality/valueThe paper contributes to resilience literature by proposing a dynamic approach that explicitly links individual and organizational resilience. It offers a conceptual framework demonstrating how personal and entrepreneurial resilience factors can be mobilized to enhance an organization’s adaptive capacity and performance. By bridging the gap between individual and organizational resilience, this research provides novel insights into the mechanisms through which personal resilience informs and strengthens organizational resilience.
PurposeIf purpose represents an organization’s reason for being, it should have significant implications for everyone involved, from top executives and leadership teams to employees and external stakeholders. Yet, how purpose connects the critical human and institutional components of an organization remains insufficiently addressed in the literature. The aim of the current text is to advance a circular model of organizational purpose focused on internal stakeholders, namely employees, managers, and leaders. Design/methodology/approachAt the corporate level, purpose is typically conceptualized as an organizational attribute, akin to vision, mission, and values. This anthropomorphic framing is useful because it helps scientists and managers understand what purpose is, where it originates, and why it matters. However, attributing individual-level characteristics to an organization has limitations when explaining how purpose is created and how it is intended to influence employees and managers. The current text advances a conceptual model aimed at addressing these limitations. FindingsThe text first integrates individual purpose with organizational purpose, arguing that the closer the fit between the two, the greater the likelihood that the organization will generate value. It then introduces a cycle that connects organizational actors in the design and implementation of corporate purpose. This circular model seeks to enhance alignment between the purpose of the company’s founders and/or top management team and the individual purposes of employees and other stakeholders. Originality/valueAs rapid technological change and shifts in the world of work create new complexities for individuals, companies, and society, organizational purpose is emerging as a critical theme; this text contends that a well-defined purpose can offer meaning and direction to all stakeholders, from employees to top management.
PurposeThis study examines how different forms of strategic orientation – technology orientation (TO), entrepreneurial orientation (EO), and growth orientation (GO) affect the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Whilst prior research has demonstrated positive links between strategic orientations and firm performance, less attention has been paid to the role of digital technology (DT) adoption in shaping these relationships. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the direct effects of strategic orientations and the moderating influence of DT adoption, with particular attention to food-sector SMEs in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a qualified sample of 460 SMEs, derived from the merging of two data sources from the 2024 surveys conducted by the Vietnam General Statistics Office. The study employs the Extended Regression Model (ERM) to assess DT’s moderating role. FindingsThe findings validate the substantial positive impacts of TO, EO, and GO on SME performance. Furthermore, digital transformation enhances the positive correlation between each orientation and performance, indicating that firms utilizing digital tools derive greater advantages from their strategic orientations. Originality/valueThis study enriches strategic orientation literature by providing empirical evidence of DT’s role as a moderator in the orientation-performance nexus. The findings also offer practical insights by showing DT as a strategic enabler that amplifies orientation-performance links, guiding managers and policymakers in fostering digital adoption for sustainable growth.
PurposeThis study explores the opportunities and challenges of integrating artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into higher education, with a particular focus on their ethical, pedagogical, and institutional implications. It examines how academics perceive generative AI’s impact on teaching, learning, research, and assessment, and identifies the values and governance frameworks required for its responsible adoption. Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research was employed, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 academics from UK higher education setting. Thematic analysis was conducted following Braun and Clarke’s (2006, 2019) six-phase framework, with NVivo used to capture the nuanced ways in which staff interpret and respond to AI adoption. FindingsFive interrelated themes were identified. Participants reported a shifting sense of academic identity, with AI seen as challenging traditional expertise and authority. Concerns around ethics, integrity, and trust were pervasive, particularly regarding plagiarism, fairness, and transparency. In relation to teaching, assessment, and learning, AI was perceived as both a disruptor of established pedagogical models and a catalyst for innovation. Institutional culture and governance were highlighted as underdeveloped, with a lack of clear guidance creating inconsistency across practice. Finally, perspectives on AI’s future trajectories reflected ambivalence, combining fears of diminished integrity with cautious optimism for more personalized and efficient learning. Originality/valueThe study contributes to debates on digital transformation in higher education by demonstrating how AI adoption is understood through the lenses of academic identity, ethics, and governance. It underscores the need for adaptive institutional policies, embedded AI literacy, and equity-focused safeguards. The findings suggest that the desirable future is not AI-free but AI-literate: one in which universities harness AI responsibly while preserving the scholarly values that underpin higher education.
PurposeThis article examines how leaders of small firms in emerging markets can transform resource constraints into sources of competitive advantage. Using the case of a Brazilian sneaker customization startup, the study explores how co-creation, adaptive leadership and process discipline enable strategic innovation under conditions of limited capital, low technological infrastructure and supply chain instability. Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts an in-depth qualitative case approach supported by process mapping, interviews with entrepreneurs and analysis of customer interaction practices. The case was examined through a strategic lens to identify leadership decisions, adaptive mechanisms and organizational practices that enable innovation and differentiation under persistent constraints. FindingsThe findings show that co-creation operates as a strategic capability rather than a marketing tool. Specifically, leadership decisions to maintain open-ended customer involvement, selectively constrain product platforms, and introduce minimum viable process discipline enabled the firm to align customer expectations with operational capacity. These actions reduced rework and reputational risk while sustaining differentiation under severe resource constraints. Research limitations/implicationsBased on a single case, the findings are context-specific and invite future comparative research across industries and emerging economies to further examine leadership-driven innovation under constraint. Practical implicationsThe study offers actionable insights for leaders of small firms facing uncertainty, showing how co-creation, relational leadership and basic process discipline can enhance innovation, customer loyalty and strategic positioning without major investments. Originality/valueThe article contributes to strategy and leadership research by demonstrating how innovation in emerging markets is shaped by leadership choices that reframe constraints as strategic assets. It provides a rare, practice-oriented account of how co-creation and operational discipline jointly support competitive advantage in small firms operating under severe resource limitations.
Purpose Despite increasing scholarly attention to digital transformation, limited research has examined how digital leadership translates into organizational performance through employee behavioral mechanisms and organizational capabilities. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates the direct and indirect effects of digital leadership on organizational performance through innovative work behavior and examines the moderating role of digital transformation capability in Industry 4.0 manufacturing organizations. Design/methodology/approach A time-lagged survey design was employed to collect data from 400 employees working in manufacturing organizations located in Gujarat and Pune, India. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structure Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed relationships, mediation, and moderation effects. Findings The findings reveal that digital leadership positively influences both innovative work behavior and organizational performance. Innovative work behavior significantly enhances organizational performance and partially mediates the relationship between digital leadership and organizational performance. Furthermore, digital transformation capability strengthens the positive effect of digital leadership on organizational performance. However, the moderated mediation effect was not supported. Originality/value This study advances the digital leadership literature by integrating Social Exchange Theory and Dynamic Capabilities Theory within a multilevel framework. It contributes to existing knowledge by identifying innovative work behavior as a key behavioral mechanism and digital transformation capability as an important contextual enabler through which digital leadership enhances organizational performance in Industry 4.0 manufacturing environments.
Purpose This article introduces leadership dispensability capital as a capital-based way of assessing leadership-created organizational value. It argues that leadership should be judged not only by what a leader delivers while central, but also by what the organization retains when that centrality reduces. The article addresses a governance blind spot: organizations may praise indispensable leaders while accumulating dependency risk. Design/methodology/approach The article is developed as a practitioner-facing conceptual framework paper. Drawing on leadership, governance, succession, distributed leadership, upper echelons, authority, knowledge management, and intellectual capital thinking, it defines Leadership Dispensability Capital as the organizational asset created when leadership transfers judgment, relationships, legitimacy, and execution capacity from person-bound advantage into system-bound capability. Findings Concentrated leadership is not inherently problematic and may be necessary in early-stage, crisis, founder-led, or turnaround settings. The strategic risk appears when concentration continues after leader-held value should have been converted into wider organizational capability. Under those conditions, strong current performance may coexist with a dependency discount. Organizations that build Leadership Dispensability Capital may earn a replaceability premium because decision quality, stakeholder confidence, legitimacy, and execution reliability survive without recurring re-centralization around one person. Research limitations/implications This conceptual article develops Leadership Dispensability Capital as a new construct rather than testing it empirically. Future research can operationalize the four dimensions, examine whether they develop together or unevenly, and test whether weak Leadership Dispensability Capital predicts transition disruption, stakeholder anxiety, strategic drift, or valuation concerns. Longitudinal studies could also examine when productive leader centrality becomes costly dependence, especially in founder-led firms, professional service organizations, family businesses, social enterprises, public agencies, and AI-enabled organizations. Practical implications The article gives boards and senior leaders a practical way to assess whether strong performance rests on retained organizational capability or continuing leader dependence. The proposed scorecard helps directors examine whether judgment, stakeholder trust, legitimacy, and execution quality can survive reduced leader centrality. It can be used in chief executive evaluation, succession planning, founder-scaling reviews, post-crisis reviews, and major growth transitions. The article also encourages leadership development to reward not only present performance, but also the leader’s ability to transfer, embed, and institutionalize value. Social implications The article highlights continuity risks in organizations that serve wider social purposes, including public, civic, educational, charitable, and community organizations. When trust, authority, purpose, and service quality rest too heavily on one individual, beneficiaries, employees, volunteers, donors, and communities may become exposed to avoidable disruption. Leadership Dispensability Capital encourages socially consequential organizations to build institutional trust, shared purpose, distributed legitimacy, and reproducible service quality so that essential work can continue even when a central leader steps back. Originality/value The article makes three contributions. First, it introduces Leadership Dispensability Capital as a leadership-specific form of retained organizational value that connects leadership assessment with intellectual capital thinking. Second, it develops a capital-conversion model explaining how person-bound leadership value becomes system-bound capability. Third, it offers a board-facing scorecard for distinguishing healthy centrality from costly dependence before succession, crisis, growth, or AI-enabled acceleration exposes the weakness. Dispensability refers to reduced organizational dependence, not leader disposability.
Purpose This study examines the mediating roles of resource adequacy and perceived institutional constraints in the relationship between social strategic decision speed and sustainable performance in social enterprises operating in emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the Dynamic Capabilities Theory, Resource-Based View, and Institutional Theory, the study employs a quantitative research design using survey data collected from 351 social entrepreneurs in an emerging economy. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is applied to test the proposed relationships. Findings The results reveal that social strategic decision speed has a significant positive effect on sustainable performance. Additionally, both resource adequacy and perceived institutional constraints significantly mediate this relationship, indicating that rapid strategic decision-making enhances sustainable performance by improving organizational access to critical resources and strengthening managers’ capacity to respond effectively to institutional challenges. Practical implications The findings provide important insights for social enterprise managers, policymakers, and development organizations seeking to enhance the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of social businesses, particularly in resource-constrained and institutionally challenging environments. Originality/value This study advances the social entrepreneurship and strategic management literature by integrating the Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Institutional Theory into a unified framework that highlights how social strategic decision speed improves sustainable performance, with resource adequacy and perceived institutional constraints serving as complementary mediators. It offers empirical evidence from social enterprises in Ghana, contributing to the scarce literature on strategic management and sustainability in emerging economies.
Purpose This paper develops the concept of Fractional CEO Architecture as a strategic leadership response for resource-constrained firms that need senior executive capacity before they can justify a full-time chief executive officer. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual and uses phenomenon-based theorising with a theory-adaptation design. It integrates strategic leadership, dynamic managerial capabilities, sensemaking and trust-in-leadership scholarship to specify the fractional CEO as a multidimensional leadership architecture. South Africa’s World Bank Enterprise Survey 2020 country profile is used as contextual grounding to illustrate the business environment pressures that make executive bandwidth strategically salient. Findings The paper argues that fractional CEO arrangements shape outcomes only when the surrounding governance architecture converts limited executive presence into strategic coherence, transformation momentum and stakeholder confidence. The fractional CEO construct is specified across six dimensions: temporal allocation, decision authority, embeddedness, accountability, governance coupling and transition pathway. Executive bandwidth is also specified as the senior leadership capacity to interpret signals, decide, coordinate, manage stakeholders and sustain confidence at the pace required by strategic complexity. Research limitations/implications The paper is conceptual and does not empirically test fractional CEO performance or adoption. South Africa’s Enterprise Survey is used only as contextual grounding, not as direct evidence of fractional CEO demand. Future research can test the proposed architecture through comparative surveys, longitudinal case studies and mediation models examining whether strategic coherence and transformation momentum explain stakeholder confidence in fractional CEO arrangements. Practical implications The paper offers a Fractional CEO Architecture Diagnostic to help boards, founders and investors design, govern and review fractional CEO engagements before they drift into ambiguity. Social implications Fractional CEO arrangements may widen access to senior strategic leadership for resource-constrained firms that cannot yet afford full-time executive capacity. Better-designed leadership architecture can support growth, employment stability and organisational resilience, particularly in constrained markets where infrastructure, finance and regulatory pressures absorb senior management attention. The model also encourages clearer accountability and more responsible governance. Originality/value The paper reframes fractional CEO arrangements as a strategic leadership architecture rather than part-time staffing. It advances eight propositions and shifts attention away from hours worked towards the governance architecture that makes partial executive presence effective.
Purpose In the present study, we develop and validate the Power Addiction Scale (PAS), a reliable and valid scale to assess the compulsive and excessive tendencies to seek, maintain, and exert power among managers and leaders in organizations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scale to measure power addiction in the field of organizational behavior. Design/methodology/approach The study included 435 employees from Turkey. The scale was developed based on literature review, grouping open-ended responses, expert content validity, pre-testing, administration of the survey, and analysis of data. Analysis methods included exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability analysis using internal consistency, determined by Cronbach’s alpha, and validity analysis using average variance extracted and discriminant validity. Findings The final 29-item scale consisted of two dimensions: Power Addicted Behavior and Power Addicted Attitude. The proposed model showed good fit. Reliability, measured through coefficients alpha, was achieved with scores between 0.869 and 0.976. Convergent validity was established through average variance extracted scores greater than 0.50. The power addiction scale also achieved discriminant validity with Machiavellianism, narcissism, and personal need for power. Originality/value The study developed and validated the first psychometrically sound measure of workplace power addiction, the Power Addiction Scale, thus filling a critical gap in power addiction research. The scale can be practically applied in leadership development, organizational development, and human resource management but needs studies to test cross-cultural validation.
Purpose This study aims to examine how green human resource management influences low-carbon behavior and sustainable performance, while assessing the moderating and moderated mediation role of sustainable leadership within the context of Vietnam’s steel industry. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach was employed using survey data collected from 260 employees, managers and business owners in steel enterprises in Vietnam. Stratified sampling was applied, and hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings The results indicate that green human resource management significantly promotes employees’ low-carbon behavior but does not directly improve sustainable performance. Low carbon behavior fully mediates the relationship between green human resource management and sustainable performance. In addition, sustainable leadership strengthens the relationship between green human resource management and low-carbon behavior and exerts a significant moderated mediation effect on the indirect relationship between green human resource management and sustainable performance through low-carbon behavior. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by integrating ability motivation opportunity theory and social cognitive theory to explain the mechanism linking green human resource management, employee behavior and sustainable performance. It also provides empirical evidence from a high emission industry in an emerging economy, highlighting the critical role of leadership in translating green practices into sustainable outcomes.
PurposeThis study examines the velocity trap in which organizations optimize execution speed while strategic relevance deteriorates, and introduces the Strategic Event Horizon and Velocity Gambit as a structured rescue maneuver for senior leaders. Design/methodology/approachConceptual, practice-grounded article drawing on the Standish Group’s CHAOS Report (n = 50,000 projects), dual practitioner surveys (n = 105), and case study (n = 25, 12 interviews), interpreted through Red Queen competition theory, Boyd’s OODA Loop, and Lean Startup literature. FindingsA 36-percentage-point gap separates projects hitting targets (57%) from those achieving strategic goals (21%), illustrating systematic velocity-value decoupling. The supporting case material surfaces the work vs improvement dichotomy as a recurring constraint, while the Velocity Gambit organizes Boyd’s OODA Loop into a four-phase managerial decision protocol. An illustrative cloud-native platform case shows how the protocol can be applied in practice. Research limitations/implicationsThe evidence base is illustrative rather than confirmatory: the case evidence is single-site, the surveys are convenience-sampled, and the CHAOS data remains proprietary. Future work should test the framework across industries and with longitudinal designs. Practical implicationsThis study provides diagnostic indicators for velocity-value decoupling, a four-phase OODA-mapped intervention, organizational readiness prerequisites, and governance guardrails. The velocity trap extends beyond financial costs to burnout and talent attrition. Originality/valueThis study formalizes the Strategic Event Horizon, operationalizes Boyd’s OODA Loop for established firms, and bridges Red Queen theory with Lean Startup pivot protocols, providing decision architecture where psychological substrates prevent incremental self-correction.
Purpose This paper explores how remote Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) quality impacts employees’ openness to change; it also describes how remote employees perceive and describe high-quality LMX, especially as it relates to organizational change. Design/methodology/approach An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted using semi-structured interviews with remote employees across multiple industries and countries, exploring their lived experiences of relationships with supervisors, particularly in times of organizational change. Findings Analysis highlighted a core dialectical tension for remote employees: they valued transparent communication and information, yet simultaneously valued autonomy. High-quality remote LMX, perceived through autonomy, information, and connection, supports the idea that remote LMX quality impacts resistance to organizational change. Research limitations/implications Findings are based on a small, purposive sample of eight remote professionals and are not statistically generalizable, but they offer transferable insights and perspectives into the lived experiences of remote workers – all of which can serve as a conceptual basis for future comparative studies across cultures, sectors, and hybrid versus fully remote arrangements. Practical implications For change leaders, the results highlight the need to intentionally design remote relationships that balance negotiated autonomy with proactive information sharing, emphasizing connection points for increased LMX quality to better support employees’ perception of and navigation through change efforts. Originality/value This study extends research focused on LMX and resistance to change by situating both in remote contexts; beyond context, it conceptualizes remote LMX as constituted through a dialectical tension, showing how information transparency, intentional connection, and perceived autonomy are key mechanisms through which remote LMX quality influences remote employees’ openness to change.
Purpose This paper reconceptualizes ethical AI governance as a leadership problem of legitimacy production rather than technical compliance. Existing frameworks presume stable infrastructure, coherent institutions, and baseline trust − assumptions that frequently fail in volatile environments. Drawing on Africa as a theory-generating extreme context, this paper reframes ethical governance as a legitimacy infrastructure required for governable AI deployment, addressing the question of who legitimizes the AI algorithm. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops an analytically grounded conceptual framework supported by illustrative vignettes. It specifies volatility as three-dimensional: infrastructural, institutional, and socio-political, showing how each generates distinctive governance breakdowns. Building on legitimacy theory and algorithmic accountability scholarship, the paper derives a Sensing–Stabilizing–Legitimizing (SSL) leadership capability model and three falsifiable propositions that explain how organizations sustain contestability and accountability amid instability. Findings In times of volatility, ethical AI governance succeeds only when leaders institutionalize legitimacy infrastructure rather than relying on principles alone. Infrastructural volatility produces exclusion-by-fragility; institutional volatility generates compliance theater; socio-political volatility amplifies legitimacy shocks. The SSL capability chain is decisive for sustaining governable algorithmic authority. Practical implications Leaders should establish clear decision rights, escalation pathways, and recourse mechanisms calibrated to volatility conditions. Organizations should build redundancy into monitoring, prioritize safeguards for vulnerable groups, and treat impact assessments as living governance instruments rather than one-time compliance deliverables. Originality/value The paper makes an integrative-conceptual contribution by theorizing volatility as an explicit governance condition and positioning ethical AI governance as a strategic leadership capability rather than a delegated technical task. It positions Africa as an extreme context that reveals hidden assumptions in dominant governance models and generates transferable insights for rising global volatility.
Purpose This study explores the impact of Green HRM Practices and Environmental Sustainability on Employer Branding. It investigates how incorporating Green HRM practices promotes Environmental Sustainability, which creates a positive Employer Brand that attracts younger, environmentally concerned employees. Design/methodology/approach Based on a quantitative analysis, data was collected from employees working in the Textile and Renewable Energy Sector firms in Pakistan. The data was analyzed using SMART PLS and SPSS. Findings The findings reveal that Green HRM practices are not significantly related to Environmental Sustainability. However, Environmental Sustainability is positively related to Employer Branding, with a moderation effect of generational differences between Environmental Sustainability and Employer Branding. Practical implications Managers in the textile sector can attract individuals through employer branding. They can advertise and focus on sustainability practices like waste reduction and energy conservation. Managers can integrate environmental criteria into recruitment, training and performance evaluation that will motivates employees to prioritize sustainability in their roles. Top management support for GHRMP builds competencies that foster eco-friendly actions across the workforce and enhance organizational performance. Originality/value In today’s strategically competitive age, organizations aim to have the best talent onboard to ensure optimized performance and productivity while building a sustainable competitive advantage in the long run. On the other hand, sustainability has become a growing concern for organizations, as the young workforce consisting of Millennials and Gen Z prefers organizations that indulge in eco-friendly business practices. The current emphasis on sustainability has had a considerable impact on organizational strategy, especially in the field of green HRM. This study seeks to further advance the previous research. By addressing the gaps in existing literature, the research seeks to provide insight into how Green HRM practices and environmental sustainability initiatives can influence Employer Branding for the companies in the textile and renewable energy sectors in Pakistan.
Purpose This study aims to advance a conditional theory of organisational path dependence by examining why firms starting from broadly similar positions may follow sharply divergent strategic trajectories over time. It argues that path dependence does not emerge automatically through reinforcing mechanisms alone, but depends on the degree of alignment within an organisation’s deep structure, comprising systemic, operational and cognitive elements. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on comparative historical analysis of two major European chemical firms, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF), the study analyses four decades of strategic development to explore how variations in organisational architecture shape susceptibility to self-reinforcing dynamics. The research synthesises historical evidence and organisation theory to develop a recursive model of strategic path formation linking deep structural alignment, strategic commitment, reinforcing effects and market feedback. Findings The analysis shows that organisations differ systematically in their vulnerability to path dependence. BASF’s highly integrated deep structure enabled reinforcing mechanisms such as coordination, complementarities, learning and adaptive expectations to become mutually amplifying, progressively narrowing strategic alternatives. By contrast, ICI’s comparatively loose and fragmented configuration moderated these dynamics, allowing persistence without full organisational lock-in. The study demonstrates that path dependence is best understood as a conditional and categorical organisational outcome rather than a ubiquitous feature of organisational persistence. Originality/value The study extends organisational path dependence theory by repositioning deep structural alignment as the conditioning architecture through which reinforcing mechanisms become organisation-wide and generative. It also contributes to business history and strategy research by showing how comparative historical analysis can generate theoretically portable insight into long-run strategic divergence, organisational persistence, and the boundary conditions of lock-in.
Purpose This study aims to understand how middle managers reconfigure time-space relations to articulate strategic intent and operational realities in decision-making practices within volatile organisational environments. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative methodology, this study conducted a single-case study in one of Brazil’s most prominent educational organisation dedicated to professional development. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation and documentary analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to the data. Findings The findings reveal that volatility disrupts established routines and decision modalities, prompting middle managers to reconfigure temporal sequences and spatial arrangements to articulate strategic intent with operational realities. This articulation process operates through adjustments in temporal rhythms, decision sequencing and spatial coordination across organisational levels, thereby expanding strategic possibilities and enhancing organisational adaptability under conditions of volatility. Research limitations/implications The main limitations include the restricted availability of interviewees and the fact that data were collected before, during and after the pandemic, which limited real-time observation in the post-pandemic period. The study advances research by explicating the process linking time-space relations to middle managers’ strategic agency. It extends role-based and processual frameworks of middle management by conceptualising the middle manager as a “time-space articulator”, whose agency emerges through the deliberate reconfiguration of temporal and spatial process in decision-making practices. Practical implications The study contributes to managerial practice by deepening the understanding of how middle managers reconfigure temporal and spatial dimensions in strategic decision architectures, conceptualised here as time-space decision architectures. By conceptualising middle managers as time-space articulators, the findings clarify how strategic adaptability can be enabled through the deliberate design of decision processes rather than solely through structural change. It offers actionable guidance for senior leaders by indicating how granting situational autonomy at critical temporal junctures and redesigning decision processes around temporal sequencing and spatial coordination can institutionalise articulation practices that enhance organisational adaptability while preserving strategic coherence. Social implications By reconfiguring temporal and spatial arrangements of decision-making practices, middle managers influence how organisations sustain service continuity, equity and quality in socially sensitive contexts such as education. These practices link micro-level decision processes to broader societal outcomes, including students’ access to education and alignment with Sustainable Development Goal 4. Originality/value While prior studies have examined multiple roles of middle managers or the micro-processes of strategising, this research advances the discussion by integrating a time-space structuration perspective with role-based theory. It introduces a process-based explanation of how middle managers reconfigure temporal and spatial relations to articulate strategic intent with operational realities, thereby positioning them as time-space articulators in volatile contexts.
