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"Prastacos, Gregory"
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Leadership through the classics : learning management and leadership from ancient East and West philosophy
The complex socio-economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century must be tackled by placing faith in the power of mankind to integrate established wisdom and new knowledge, and in our ability to collaborate for a sustainable future. Departing from this, a global 2011 conference debating papers devoted to the impact of ancient philosophy, focusing on Confucius and Aristotle, in modern leadership and management was organized by Hanban, the Athens University of Economics & Business, and the University of International Economics & Business, Beijing, China. This volume presents the wide array of conference contributions by international thought-leaders.
Book
Espoused Values of the \Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For\: Essential Themes and Implementation Practices
This study identifies and describes the values espoused by the 62 companies that have consistently (2014-2018) appeared on the \"Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For\" (FBCWF) list. We identify 24 separate values and offer an analysis of the keywords and phrases used to promote them. We confirm that these values fall within the categories of four well-accepted theoretical frameworks of corporate values and culture. We then provide evidence for three underlying dimensions transcending all four models. They are values that guide relationships and self-regulation; values that describe desired outcomes and performance; and values that inform learning and change. Next, we present the results of a qualitative study describing how these companies put their values into practice. Finally, using publicly available information from the Great Place to Work® Institute, we show how the espoused values we identified relate to: (1) what employees report about their experiences and (2) company self-descriptions. Our findings highlight connections between leadership and values and they offer guidance to those seeking to understand keys to values-based cultures.
Journal Article
Market-, Firm-, and Project-Level Effects on the Innovation Impact of Collaborative R&D Projects
This study determines the factors that exert important influences on the success of collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. The study uses data from a cross-European sample of collaborative R&D projects under EU Framework Programs, supported with relevant qualitative evidence from a series of case studies, and focuses on three levels of possible factors: market, firm, and project levels. The results indicate that partnering firm innovation experience, innovation protection mechanisms, effective management of rules and regulations, and the existence of commercially driven projects that open up new technological areas are the factors with the strongest significant effect on product and/or process innovation. The findings contribute to understanding of how and under what conditions innovation can be developed in collaborative R&D projects.
Journal Article
Competency management in support of organisational change
Purpose - Competitive advantage depends largely on the ability to activate and use organisational resources. As a result, the focus in the strategic management, organisational behaviour and human resource management literature has turned to the internal capabilities of organisations including a particular focus on employees' competencies. This paper seeks to analyse and discuss a forward-looking, dynamic and proactive approach to competency modelling explicitly aligned with strategic business needs and oriented to long-term future success.Design methodology approach - This paper is based on a longitudinal research project sponsored by a leading Greek bank, currently undergoing fundamental corporate restructuring. This paper describes how the competency model was developed and how it facilitated strategy implementation and change by supporting communication, employee understanding of business goals, and the incorporation of new behaviours, roles and competencies in operations.Findings - A forward-looking and proactive approach to competency modelling is presented and discussed in the context of a large-scale organisational change. The organisational core competencies required for a business to compete successfully in the banking sector are defined and discussed. The right mix of skills and behaviours that the individuals would need to possess in order to produce and support those core competencies is also analysed and discussed.Originality value - Traditional approach to competency management, which is analogous to job analysis, focuses on competencies of successful individuals, rather than on competencies that are needed to support an organisation to meet its short- or long-term objectives. It is important to realise that there is a need to shift toward a forward-looking and proactive approach to competency modelling and present a competency methodology that supports this need.
Journal Article
Knowledge effectiveness, social context and innovation
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to conduct an investigation into knowledge-sharing mechanisms by empirically testing the role that context plays in the transfer of actionable knowledge, and, in turn, for innovation.Design methodology approach - A multiple-respondents survey was performed in 72 business units of companies belonging to the ICT, pharmaceutical and food industries in Greece. In total, 295 useful questionnaires were collected using a multiple respondent strategy. All constructs were measured with multi-item scales and validated using exploratory factor analyses. A total of seven hypotheses were generated following a literature review on the key determinants of context for effective knowledge sharing. The hypotheses were tested using ordinary least squares regression.Findings - The research shows that when units pursue knowledge transfer between their different actors, contextual factors such as trust, motivation to transfer knowledge, management support and learning orientation are crucial for fostering knowledge transfer and innovation. This contribution is important since the need for developing an organizational context where knowledge transfer and innovation flourish is constantly put forth in the business press, while the empirical and research based evidence for its importance has been scarce.Research limitations implications - There is a research need in knowledge sharing theory to define and identify an integrated model concerning the contextual factors that enable the knowledge sharing process. Having established a firm relationship between organizational context and innovation, the research also sets a foundation for further exploring the organization-environment link in terms of leveraging organizational knowledge dynamics.Originality value - The research is a first attempt to show that the construct \"perceived usefulness of knowledge\" is a critical proxy of knowledge transfer effectiveness, as well as to find support for its positive relation to innovation.
Journal Article
An assignment-based heuristic for vehicle routing with time windows
In this paper, we consider the typical vehicle routing problem with time window constraints (VRPTW). The problem is approached via mathematical decomposition and solved using a three-stage method. First, we formulate the generalized assignment problem, which provides an approximation to the sequencing of customers that partially respects the time windows and apply the Hungarian method to obtain optimal solutions. Subsequently, we address the split of infeasible routes resulting from the assignment solution using a simple, time window-based decomposition heuristic. The best of these routes, in terms of traveling and vehicle waiting times, form part of the final solution, which is completed by the routes provided by a look-ahead heuristic applied to the remainder of the customers. The proposed method is applied to a standard literature data set, and provides very good results with respect to both the number of vehicles and the total travel time. Furthermore, the approach offers useful insights on the effect of employing optimal travel time solutions resulting from the assignment relaxation to derive partial route sets of VRPTW.
Journal Article
From task‐based to competency‐based
Purpose - Organizational effectiveness today depends largely on the ability to activate, share and transform the intellectual capital of the company into sustainable and difficult-to-imitate competitive advantage. This paper seeks to develop a competency typology that integrates previous definitions and frameworks from the literature and to propose a methodology for identifying competencies to aid the transition from a task-based to a competency-based logic for human resource management. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a longitudinal research project. The paper outlines a methodology and presents the findings from the implementation of a competency model in two case companies. It illustrates how the systematic use of the identified competency categories can support the identification and coding of competencies, which will facilitate the critical organizational transformation from a task-based to a competency-based approach. Findings - The experience from the deployment offers potential challenges of implementing this framework in a specific cultural context. It identifies critical enablers that will contribute to successful implementation, whilst also providing insights concerning predicaments that have to be met. Originality/value - The particular competency typology integrates previous definitions and frameworks from the literature, thus providing a holistic solution for supporting the implementation of a competency-based approach. Furthermore, through the analysis of the implementation of the competency framework in two case companies it serves as the basis for illustrating the main steps, as well as the critical success factors that characterize such projects. Finally, it demonstrates the advantages of integrating the proposed competency framework and offers managerial insights and guidelines for similar implementations. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Journal Article
Blood Inventory Management: An Overview of Theory and Practice
Blood Inventory Management has attracted significant interest from the Operations Research profession during the last 15 years. A number of methodological contributions have been made in the areas of inventory theory and combinatoric optimization that can be of use to other products or systems. These contributions include the development of exact and approximate ordering and issuing policies for an inventory system, the analysis of LIFO or multi-product systems, and various forms of distribution scheduling. In addition, many of these results have been implemented, either as decision rules for efficient blood management in a hospital, or as decision support systems for hierarchical planning in a Regional Blood Center.
In this paper we attempt a review of the recent Operations Research contributions to blood inventory management theory and practice. Whereas many problems have been solved, others remain open and new ones keep being created with advances in medical technology and practices. Our approach is not to present an exhaustive review of all the literature in the field, but rather to address several important issues from a unified perspective of theory and practice, and point out new areas for further research.
Journal Article
Towards New Public Management in Greek Public Organizations: Leadership vs. Management, and the Path to Implementation
In the beginning of the 21st century, when the notion of constant transformation is so frequently invoked, organizational change in the public sector is gaining increased attention. Responding to regulatory, economic, competitive and technological shifts, the challenge of reorganization is universal for all public organizations. This paper aims to explore the shift from Traditional to New Public Management (NPM), as well as the driving forces (such as the information economy, the need for better public performance, the opening of global markets, greater knowledge intensity etc.) that lead to the formulation of transformational programs to Greece. A presentation of a transformational program called Politeia, will be provided, analysed and compared to previous efforts. Finally, we address the important role of leadership and management in Greek public organizations that want successful to implement any change effort successfully.
Journal Article
Understanding organizational capabilities: towards a conceptual framework
Despite the theoretical and managerial importance of the notion of organizational capabilities, it is still not entirely clear what capabilities are and how they are created. With this aim, building on the extant literature, we propose a conceptual framework that accounts for both the constituent elements and the creation of organizational capabilities. Constituent elements refer to the knowledge underlying the firm's capacity to act, and to human actors as the subjects of knowledge creation and application. Much like a weaving process, the creation of organizational capabilities entails the synthesis and integration of constituent elements within the realm of a behavioral \"place\" that represents a particular condensation of actors and knowledge flows within the broader organization. The capacity of the firm to build organizational capabilities, by itself a meta-capability, is affected by the institutional qualities of its socio-cultural environment. Within the context of this framework, the question of what constitutes a firm's unique competence, compared to its normal activities, equates with the question whether a particular group of organizational actors exist with the requisite resources (basically the knowledge and skills of its members) and socio-cultural configuration so as to perform value-adding activities that cannot be imitated by rivals.
Journal Article