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Start date: 2022Subject: search.filters.subject.Corporate culture

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    The interface between ethical leadership and food safety culture in Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2025-05-20) Newport-Smith, Wendy
    Measuring, evaluating and improving food safety culture is a priority for Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses. This is driven by the desire to produce food of the highest quality that safeguards consumers, protects the reputation of New Zealand Inc., and meets the requirements of international standards and regulations. This is the first in-depth qualitative investigation into food safety culture and ethical leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses, including some of this country’s largest food exporters. Using a mixed methods approach this research has provided unique, contemporary understanding and insights, while simultaneously providing a novel contribution to the body of knowledge. Two research workstreams were used; the first a quantitative workstream involving a voluntary survey of manufacturing and distribution employees in New Zealand’s largest food business; a dataset of responses to food safety and ethical leadership questions from 1181 individuals. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) applied to Lickert-scale variables, combined with multivariable modelling, this research found a positive relationship between food safety culture and ethical leadership and evidence for differences in responses according to several respondee characteristics. These included associations between PCA coordinates that captured variation in individual responses to food safety and ethical leadership questions, and the supplementary variables: role (e.g. staff or supervisor), site and gender. Ethical leadership has been shown to improve effectiveness, performance and safety at an organisational and individual level. Therefore strategies to improve ethicality across Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses in order to improve food safety culture and ensure safer food outcomes are suggested: consultatively developing organisational values which are well communicated and lived; ensuring ethical considerations when hiring staff; ethical considerations when setting expectations, and in training and mentoring staff and managing performance processes including the use of consequences; and modelling good behaviour, making fair decisions, ensuring open, clear communication and giving employees a voice. While largely positive, the quantitative strand did reveal a level of dissatisfaction with both ethical leadership and food safety culture, suggesting room for improvement. Further research is needed to better understand management’s, supervisors’ and workers’ perspectives on both aspects. The second workstream involved one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 32 founders, owners and senior food safety and quality personnel from 31 Aotearoa New Zealand food companies with thematic data analysis resulting in five key themes: Values; Responsible Stewardship of Natural Resources; Māori Worldview; Ecosystem Pressures and Leadership. The issues identified to be important to Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses include: individual, managerial and organisational values; leadership and management commitment in influencing organisational, food safety and ethical climate and culture; inter-generational value-creation, sustainable practice and acting as kaitiakitanga meaning guardianship or protection. This research has also provided insight into the drivers for and primary challenges related to food safety for Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses. This research has contributed to an up-to-date understanding of the characteristics of ethical leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand, who, according to this study, are humble, honest, respect indigenous Māori values, and are not corrupt. They have a degree of relatedness, care about our natural environment, have a strong sense of identity or place, are collaborative, are fair, and are accountable. Our size, Indigenous Māori worldview, and our geographical isolation contribute to the unique interpretation and application of these leadership characteristics in Aotearoa New Zealand. Several limitations are acknowledged, not the least of which was the context for this research which began at the outset of the global pandemic, with both positive and negative consequences. The use of one, albeit large food business in the quantitative workstream is noted, as is the focus of the participants in the qualitative workstream. Broadening this research to all hierarchical levels in several food businesses would be of benefit, and this is one of a number of research recommendations for the future. The positive correlation between ethical leadership and food safety culture found in this research suggests that maintaining and improving the ethicality of leaders within Aotearoa New Zealand food businesses may positively influence food safety culture and therefore, the production of safer food.
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    Reprint of: Corporate culture and carbon emission performance
    (Elsevier Ltd on behalf of the British Accounting and Finance Association, 2025-02-12) Hasan MM; Bhuiyan MBU; Taylor G
    Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2002 to 2020, we investigate the relationship between corporate culture and the extent of carbon emissions. We provide evidence that the quantum of carbon emissions is negatively associated with corporate cultural attributes manifested by integrity, teamwork, innovation, and respect. These results hold after controlling for potential endogeneity issues using several identification techniques. We also document that the negative culture–emissions relationship is magnified in firms with weak corporate governance and in those operating in environmentally sensitive industries. Additionally, this relationship is less salient in the presence of social capital. Finally, we demonstrate that in firms with a stronger culture, elevated carbon emissions result in a lower firm value. Our findings may be of interest to environmental regulators and management in their pursuit of firm-level carbon emission targets.
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    Corporate culture and carbon emission performance
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2024-11) Hasan MM; Bhuiyan MBU; Taylor G
    Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2002 to 2020, we investigate the relationship between corporate culture and the extent of carbon emissions. We provide evidence that the quantum of carbon emissions is negatively associated with corporate cultural attributes manifested by integrity, teamwork, innovation, and respect. These results hold after controlling for potential endogeneity issues using several identification techniques. We also document that the negative culture–emissions relationship is magnified in firms with weak corporate governance and in those operating in environmentally sensitive industries. Additionally, this relationship is less salient in the presence of social capital. Finally, we demonstrate that in firms with a stronger culture, elevated carbon emissions result in a lower firm value. Our findings may be of interest to environmental regulators and management in their pursuit of firm-level carbon emission targets.
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    Democracy, freedom, and school : realigning power in Aotearoa New Zealand's secondary schools : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023-10-30) Smith, Kylie
    This comprehensive study explores positive impacts of democratic systems enacted within secondary schools on students. Responses to democratic practices within schools (including collective decision-making, deliberative discussion, diverse ways of being, and freedom of movement and expression) are examined and analysed. Additionally, the hidden curriculum created by structures and processes inherent in democratic participation is critically reflected on, including consideration of how democratic processes relate to individual and collective well-being within the school environment. The study adopts a qualitative grounded theory research methodology to comprehend the outcomes of learning within democratic settings. Participants, including alumni and staff from two different democratic school environments, share their perspectives through semi-structured one-on-one interviews and question-and-answer emails. Data collection and analysis were conducted concurrently, and the data analysed using constant comparative analysis. Democratic building blocks, based on a foundation of respect for the student as a whole human, emerged from the data. Organising school structures around democratic ideals, reflective of indigenous models of democracy, and aligned with Lundy’s model of space, voice, influence, and audience aimed at implementing Article 12 of the UNCRC, is seen to cultivate a learning environment where diversity is embraced and respected. Effective communication skills are honed through authentic and meaningful deliberative dialogue, enabling students to value diverse perspectives. Alumni valued the challenge of navigating agency in a safe supportive learning environment and felt empowered to contribute and participate towards a strong collective school community. Implications from the research underscore the potential of democratic systems to create more equitable educational environments, enhancing well-being by aligning the hidden curriculum with critical and culturally sustainable pedagogies. The study highlights the importance of continual dialogue and reflection and advocates for active integration of democratic principles within schools to facilitate challenges to oppressive structures. It further stresses the need for adults to approach schooling from an epistemology of trust in and support for the student, enabling genuine equitable dialogue and fostering a sense of dignity, significance, and belonging among students. Ultimately, the research offers tangible examples of schools where student-defined well-being is prioritized and provides a forward-thinking approach based on democratic principles to empower students.
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    The mediating role of organisational culture in the relationship between region-based firm ownership type (RBFOT) and manufacturing performance : a test on the apparel industry in Sri Lanka : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Gunasekera, Marlon
    In today’s globalised context, manufacturing firms belonging to various regions of the world expand their businesses beyond borders and gradually become international, multinational, and global companies investing in various countries and regions of the world. Most of these firms establish foreign affiliates and compete with the local (domestic) firms in host countries. In this context, international and cross-cultural operations management studies have high theoretical and practical value in understanding how management practices, systems, techniques, and norms account for the manufacturing performance differences between foreign and local firms. Understanding and explaining the reasons for differences in the manufacturing performance of local and foreign-owned firms is an underexplored research area, especially in the developing regions of the world. This study adopts a cross-cultural operations management perspective and hypothesises that differences in organisational culture traits (related management practice orientations) of firms belonging to different regions of the world account for manufacturing performance differences. The study examines the relationship between Region-Based Firm Ownership Type (RBFOT) and manufacturing performance, and the mediating role of the organisational culture (an important influence on manufacturing practices) in this relationship. The study was based in Sri Lanka (South Asia) with the apparel industry as the context, and local firms are compared with foreign firms from two other regions: Western and East Asian. Semi-structured interviews were used to clarify the research context and to understand how foreign-owned firms set up, operate and establish organisational cultures in Sri Lanka. The subsequent quantitative study covered 93 firms with data aggregated to the firm level to test the mediation model. To test the model, ANOVA and parallel multiple mediation analysis using regression-based SPSS PROCESS macro were adopted. The findings revealed that organisational culture (measured using Denison’s culture traits and related management practice orientations) is a significant mediator in explaining the difference in the manufacturing performance of RBFOTs. Moreover, significant differences in culture traits and related management practice orientations were evident between Western, East Asian, and South Asian firms generating different levels of manufacturing performance. Other contributions include developing a new scale to measure the manufacturing performance of apparel firms and validating Denison’s Organisational Culture Survey (DOCS) in Sri Lanka. Overall, the study contributes to the theory and practice of international and cross-cultural operations management in general and apparel industrial management in particular.