2014 (Vol. 24, No. 1/2)

THE ORGANIZATIONAL ALIGNMENT-STRATEGY,STRUCTURE AND PROCESS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY REGARDING THE IMPACT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS(pp.3-22)

JOSÉ CASTRO PINTO
NUH ALTINSOY
and
NELSON SANTOS ANTÓNIO
ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the organizational alignment in terms of strategy, structure, process and their impacts on organizational performance through the utilization of Miles and Snow typology. It attempts to prove that attaining a fit between the organization and its target strategy contributes toward a better performance. Additionally, it tests the equifinality concept which expresses the idea that an organization can perform well with a variety of strategies. Based on the contribution of previous works, concerning the Miles and Snow typology and performance, this study should be seen as a replication regarding that issue, but here applied to the military industry. The study provides empirical support to the configurationally equifinality approach and fits the concept to the military environment. It also provides an alternative way to explain performance in this environment. To the best of our knowledge, no empirical studies exist where all these aspects were applied to military organizations.                                         

Keywords: Miles and Snow Typology (1978), Equifinality, Fit, Performance.

 

 

TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF MARKETING STRATEGIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS(pp.23-35)

WAIL ALHAKIMI
and
AAYED QASEM
ABSTRACT

Marketing has become a part of the routine activities of many higher education institutions. However, it has not yet become fully embedded within the strategic operations and vision of many higher education institutions especially in private universities of the Less Developed World. This study examined the level of utilization and effectiveness of marketing strategies in Yemen’s private universities in recruiting first year students. The results showed that marketing plan and resource analysis strategies were highly utilized and perceived to be highly effective, and market segmentation strategy was least utilized. A positive and significant relationship between usage and perceived effectiveness of all of the fifteen marketing strategies exists. Several challenges and recommendations in utilizing marketing strategies were highlighted and discussed in the study.
Keywords: marketing, marketing strategies, higher education institutions, universities.

 
 
 
CUSTOMER’S PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY TOWARDS MONOPOLY FIXED LINE MARKET: A RESEARCH NOTE ON COMPANHIA DE TELECOMUNICAÇÕES DE MACAU S.A.R.L. (CTM)(pp.37-55)
MATTHEW TINGCHI LIU
ZHU ZHENGHAO, COLIN
and
CHANG KIT KENG
ABSTRACT
 
The current research aims at examining the dimensions of customer’s perceived service quality of fixed line monopoly by taking into account the example of CTM, a telecommunications company based in Macau. Data were collected in 2012 by using (1) SERVQUAL questionnaire survey (with 95 CTM staff and 282 CTM customers) to measure their perception across five service dimensions, and (2) semi-structure in-depth interviews with seven CTM top management. Findings from the study indicated that both CTM’s customers and staff believe that there is a lot of room for improvement to enhance the overall fixed line service quality of CTM. Respondents rated ‘reliability’ as the most important service feature for a telecommunication company. CTM should put more efforts in enhancing service reliability to improve overall service quality perceptions. Further suggestions to improve the general fixed line monopolies worldwide have also been given.
Keywords: Service quality, SERVQUAL, Fixed line, Monopoly, Telecommunication, Macau
 
 
 
 

ATTITUDES TOWARD BRIBERY IN AUSTRALIA: A DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY(pp.57-91)
TERESA HERNANDEZ
and
ROBERT W. MCGEE
ABSTRACT
This study examined Australian attitudes toward bribe taking, using the data from the World Values survey. The sample size was more than 1300 and included a wide range of the Australian population in terms of age and other demographics. Nineteen demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, etc.) were also examined to determine whether certain responses differed by category. The findings indicate that many of the demographic variables did have a high level of significance. Women were found to be much more averse to bribery than were men. Older people were more averse to bribe taking than were younger people. The ethnic group most opposed to bribery was the English-speaking Australian group; east Asians were least opposed.
The importance of religion in their lives was not an important variable, although Hindus were the most opposed to bribe taking, whereas Jews and Buddhists were least opposed. Married and widowed people were the groups most opposed to bribe taking; single people were least opposed. Retired people were most strongly opposed to bribe taking; full-time, part-time employees and the unemployed were least opposed. Those in the lower social class were significantly less opposed to bribe taking than were members of the other social classes. Middle income taxpayers were the most opposed to bribe taking; people in the low income group were least opposed. Those who were least happy were significantly less opposed to bribe taking than were those from the other happiness groups. Those who placed confidence in the police were more opposed to bribe taking than were other groups. Education, institution of employment (workers in the public vs. private sector), size of town, health, extent of confidence in the government, and position on the leftright political spectrum were not important variables.
 
Keywords: bribery, ethics, rent seeking, demographic variables, gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, religion, religiosity, education level, employment status, occupation, social class, income level, size of town, health, happiness, confidence in the police, confidence in the justice system, confidence in government, left-right political spectrum, Australia.