Front-Line Management during Radical Organisational Change: Social Exchange and Paradox Interpretations

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

There is a research “Learning from Past External Shocks to Ride the Waves of the Coronavirus.” This paper is interesting and timely suitable to read (or publish). However, the authors should have to clarify before publication as follow.

1. The description of the research questions, analysis process and the results should have to be clear and straightforward.

• Need to define the “Social Exchange, and the theory [55, 56]” with diverse references. What the authors targeting? Internal HR perspectives? Or Service provider-customers relationships [18, 61]?  
• Research goal is not clear. IS it for risk management? or customer service? Or satisfy employees?
• Your references [18, 55, 56, 61] are all HR perspectives. More references are needed to airport services’ frontline managers.
• How about take a look following articles to clarify your research goals or find the variables for exchange values?

Hong, S.-J., Choi, D., Chae, J. (2020). Exploring different airport users’ service quality satisfaction between service providers and air travelers, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 52. 101917.

Fodness, D., and Murray, B., 2007. Passengers' Expectations of Airport Service Quality. Journal of Services Marketing 21(7), 492-506.

2. What questions are you used? If you provide the questions, it would be better to understand.
3. What you mean airport services’ frontline managers? Airline staff? Airlines contractors? Airport employees? Government agency (Security, CIQ etc.)?
4. What are the contributions for this research?

• How to build, utilize relationship reward? How to reward and motivate the employees?

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

Point 1: The description of the research questions, analysis process and the results should have to be clear and straightforward.

 

Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion.

We have split the research question (RQ) into two RQs to make them clearer and more straightforward as follows (lines 147-154):

            RQ1: What is the role of social exchanges in helping front-line managers cope and manage during major radical organisational change events?

            RQ2: How do front-line managers manage the paradoxical demands of facilitating both change and regular work activities during major radical organisational change events?

Additionally, we have elaborated more on the analysis process and added the following (lines 458-487):

“In qualitative methods, coding is the first step of a systematic approach to prepare and order the data for analysis and reporting. According to Saldaña [81], a code is a term or short phrase that assigns an attribute to a segment of language-based data. This study employed two coding methods—structural and pattern coding—which were used across three cycles to identify and classify common themes. Before sorting and classifying the data under each code, the researchers highlighted the relevant and important data based on the notes taken during the reading of the transcripts. Accordingly, the researchers attempted to identify categories and classifications.

NVivo software has become the most widely used software for categorizing and organizing data in qualitative studies as it has enabled researchers to store data, organize and sort it systematically for coding and performing thematic analysis [82]. Accordingly, NVivo was used to manually code each participant’s transcribed interview. The first and second cycle of the coding process were based on a structural coding technique that categorizes data based on interview questions’ headings and subheadings. Conversely, the third cycle of coding was based on a pattern coding technique that identifies similar data, followed by grouping them together to generate themes for answering the study’s questions [81]. Overall, the researchers identified a pool of 34 cycle codes.

To ensure an accurate representation and understanding of the topic, the coded data was reviewed after the NVivo coding process. The researchers reviewed the textual data to ensure that the identified themes were explicitly stated by the interviewees. The elimination of information was based on importance, while the importance of the information was based on the quality of the content and the number of times that participants mentioned them. The identified themes were assessed to ensure that each critical moment/event or lived experience was essential for understanding the study’s questions.

Ritchie and Lewis [83] believe that the frequency of theme occurrences does not necessarily signify that the theme is important for answering the study’s questions. As such, the following steps were taken. The invariant constituents of the experiences were clustered to form thematic labels. Based on the invariant pattern constituents, specific themes emerged from the thematic labels. The preliminary grouping code report was used to generate the main thematic labels that were important to the primary and secondary research questions. After sorting the data into the first, second, and third cycle codes, the researchers used the pattern coding technique to identify thematic and conceptual similarities.”

 

Point 2: Need to define the “Social Exchange, and the theory [55, 56]” with diverse references.

 

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. We have added an additional paragraph in the introduction that goes through some of the diverse definitions for social exchange and the one that was selected with relevant references as follows (line 81-90):

“A “front-line manager” is typically any employee immediately below the senior manager or department head, such as a leading hand, foreman, supervisor, section head or duty manager [10].

Stafford [11] described social exchange as a non-rigid relationship between two individuals in which they are not compelled to make decisions, but rather do so voluntarily. Emerson [12] defined social exchange theory as a social scheme—one that does not necessarily cover specific materialistic objects, but that includes economic considerations in a social relationship. As this study focuses on the context of work and organizational change, we adopt an integrated definition for social exchange as follows: “voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the return they are expected to bring and typically do in fact bring from others” [13] (p.91).”

 

Point 3: What the authors targeting? Internal HR perspectives? Or Service provider-customers relationships [18, 61]?  

 

Response 3: Thank you for your suggestion. To clarify what the authors are targeting, we added the following sentence (line 100-102) and paragraph (line 112-118):

“Although, front-line managers play an important role in leading and facilitating operational activities and filling the gaps caused by the implementation of radical organizational change,...”

 “Although the radical organizational change may be driven by external events or shocks, our research focuses on front-line managers dealing with internal organizational perspectives (e.g. human resources (HR)), as these are issues that dominate their day-to-day jobs. However, because radical organizational changes cannot be entirely insulated and internalized within the organization (due largely to the outsourced nature of airport services) [24], our research also covers some aspects related to service provider-customer relationships, (e.g. the engagements with the client airlines and their other outsourced partners).”

 

Point 4: Research goal is not clear. IS it for risk management? or customer service? Or satisfy employees?

 

Response 4: Thank you for the point raised. To clarify the goal of the research, we addressed this concern in response 3. It is not for risk management and only to a small extent covers customer or client services, with the main focus on the changes affecting the managers and employees. To help elaborate on this besides clarifying the RQs, we added the following to the introduction (lines 147-154):

            “By revealing how front-line managers overcome the paradoxical demands using social exchange at the workplace, this study aims to help managers and researchers better incorporate the human element in radical organizational change where front-line managers play a critical role in this process. Accordingly, the present study is guided by the following two research questions (RQs):

            RQ1: What is the role of social exchanges in helping front-line managers cope and manage during major radical organizational change events?

            RQ2: How do front-line managers manage the paradoxical demands of facilitating both change and regular work activities during major radical organizational change events?”

 

 

Point 5: Your references [18, 55, 56, 61] are all HR perspectives. More references are needed to airport services’ frontline managers.

How about take a look following articles to clarify your research goals or find the variables for exchange values?

Hong, S.-J., Choi, D., Chae, J. (2020). Exploring different airport users’ service quality satisfaction between service providers and air travelers, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 52. 101917.

Fodness, D., and Murray, B., 2007. Passengers' Expectations of Airport Service Quality. Journal of Services Marketing 21(7), 492-506.

Response 5: Thank you for your suggestions. We have incorporated them and added the elaboration below (line 157-162).

“In this research, an airport service provider is referred to as organizations that provide airport ground handling functions such as cargo, passenger services, aircraft cleaning, supply and catering, and ramp services [31]. Much of the existing research consider the front-line services staff of these different services  as one group i.e. frontliners [32,33] but we believe this is not an accurate reflection of the way these airport services are provided as there are internal management structures in these sub-groups (see figure 1).”

In addition to your two suggested references, we have also we added two more academic references and two more industry-related references that elaborate on the structure and nature of airport service providers which highlights the other stakeholders involved in the organisational change e.g. customers, suppliers etc as follows:

Hong, S.-J., Choi, D., & Chae, J. (2020). Exploring different airport users’ service quality satisfaction between service providers and air travelers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.101917

 

Pishdar, M., Ghasemzadeh, F., Maskeliūnaitė, L. and Bražiūnas, J. (2019) “The influence of resilience and sustainability perception on airport brand promotion and desire to reuse of airport services: the case of Iran airports”, Transport, 34(5), pp. 617-627. doi: 10.3846/transport.2019.11747.

Phuong, N.T.H., Tuyet, T.T. and Van Tuan, N., 2018. Internal market orientation, frontliners' organizational commitment and customer-oriented behavior: A study of airport service in Vietnam. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 8(3), 132-145.

 

Frutos, M. J. (2014). What is a ground handling? Retrieved from https://aertecsolutions.com/2014/05/05/what-is-ground-handling/?lang=en

 

O’sullivan, M. (2013, 23 January). Qantas to cut jobs after contract loss. The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from  https://www.smh.com.au/business/qantas-to-cut-jobs-after-contract-loss-20130123-2d768.html

 

Cahill, C., Palcic, D. and Reeves, E. (2017). 'Commercialisation and airport performance: The case of Ireland's DAA'. Journal of Air Transport Management, 59, 155-63.

 

 

Point 6: What questions are you used? If you provide the questions, it would be better to understand.

 

Response 6:

Thank you for your suggestion. To improve the understanding of the questions addressed to the participants, we added the following (line 405-408): 

‘For example, the participants were asked, “Can you please tell me how the front-line managers managed all these challenges that came with the transformation?” (For more information related to the research questions, see the Appendix-Extract of interview protocol questions). “

We also added an extract of the interview questions in an appendix (line 930-966) as follows:

Appendix- Extract of interview protocol questions

The researchers: I’d like to understand how the front-line managers managed their shifts during the transformational change events considering there was a lot of pressure put on the front-line managers. They had to deal with new staff, redundancies, managing the change process, implementing new procedures and at the same time they had to work effectively and efficiently, and deliver better outcomes. The front-line managers were challenged with a dual role, facilitating change and regular work activities at the same time.

 

Understanding the dual challenge of front-line managers role and its challenges

 

• Can you please tell me how the front-line managers managed all these challenges that came with the transformation?

 

Comment: Prop the respondent about their social exchange with clients/ staff. Example: What change does the dual role make to service standard? How does it impact the company environment? How it may limit the problem-solving skills of front-line managers? Did the front-line managers hold employees accountable overcome the operational problems? Did they ensure employees are not complacent to limit the problems? How did they manage it?

 

The researchers: During the transformation, the social exchange between the different individuals was subject to change, I would like to know how the front-line managers reacted to this change and how it affected their daily tasks.       

 

Learning about the front-line managers enactment during ROC 

• From your observation, can you please comment on how the front-line managers handled and managed the following:

 

• Handling of disruption (Grounded flights, flight delays, equipment breakdown)
• Manage resource allocation (Sick leave, staff shortage, no shows, injuries, fatigue)
• Leadership style (leading by example, stay calm and professional, work ethically, follow the company procedures)
• Monitor employees (maintain the employees’ performance, disciplinary actions, ensure compliance, smooth workflow)
• Manage clients’ relations (service level, errors, aircraft damage, safety standard, visa violations, slow processing)
• Manage sharing important information with their fellow workers/senior managers (Ensure circulation of information, formal meetings, face-to face conversation).”

 

Point 7: What you mean airport services’ frontline managers? Airline staff? Airlines contractors? Airport employees? Government agency (Security, CIQ etc.)?

 

Response 7:

Thank you. We added figure 1 in the methodology section which explains the functions of an airport service provider (ground-handling). We also added the following explanation:

• Introduction (Line 81-83):

 

“A “front-line manager” is typically any employee immediately below the senior manager or department head, such as a leading hand, foreman, supervisor, section head or duty manager [10].”

• Introduction (line 157-162):

 

“In this research, an airport service provider is referred to as organizations that provide airport ground handling functions such as cargo, passenger services, aircraft cleaning, supply and catering, and ramp services [31]. Much of the existing research consider the front-line services staff of these different services  as one group i.e. frontliners [32,33] but we believe this is not an accurate reflection of the way these airport services are provided as there are internal management structures in these sub-groups (see figure 1).”

• Future research and limitations (line 886-889):

 

“While this research is focused on the ground-handling service providers, future researchers may investigate other types of service providers such as government agencies including security, quarantine and the border force.”

 

 

Point 8: What are the contributions for this research?

 

Response 8:

Thanks for the question. The research contributions are considered in the Discussion (section 5) and Conclusion (section 6). We have also stated these clearly up front in the introduction in lines 170-184 as follows:

 “Importantly, the study contributes to the development of theory as follows. First, in terms of front-line managers’ roles, it helps to understand the role of social exchange in enabling the front-line managers to overcome some of the challenges caused by paradox demands. Second, in terms of integrating social exchange and paradox theory, it improves the understanding of front-line managers’ roles in the context of external shocks.

This study’s practical contributions include highlighting certain practices that front-line managers need to be concerned about during periods of change to prepare them to handle the consequences of external shocks and learn to ride the waves of COVID-19. The study also reinforces research that finds that front-line managers will need to develop competencies in paradox resolution or reconciliation to enable them to overcome the conflicting demands as a result of these shocks.

Additionally, the study ascertains four appropriate strategies that front-line managers adopt based on social exchanges to overcome the ostensibly paradoxical demands. These strategies include building relationships with the clients’ representatives, utilizing relationships with experienced employees to facilitate radical organizational change practices, rewarding the employees in exchange for helping to address the personnel resource shortages and motivating employees to boost morale.”

 

Point 9: How to build, utilize relationship reward? How to reward and motivate the employees?

 

Response 9:

Thank you for the point raised. To emphasise on this topic, we added (line 713-717):

 

“According to Hussain et al. [91], non-monetary rewards and recognition motivate employees more than financial rewards. In their research, they have listed a few examples of non-monetary rewards for employees, including recognizing the employee’s effort in producing the company newsletter, providing written letters of recommendation, providing the employee with extra time-off or over-time, and verbal appreciation and recognition. This is in line with our findings.”

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors!

You have taken a rather important topic for the modern vulnerable to external shocks world.

However, as it seems to me, not external shocks but their  consequences are to be concidered as the real drivers of necvessary changes min management

 

[1] demands a link to the page – it is difficult to verify that the statement matches only by the title of the linked book

1. Ott, J.S. (1996). Classic Readings in Organizational Behavior (2nd ed.). CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. 794
2. Castel, P. & Friedberg, E. (2010). Institutional change as an interactive process: The case of the modernization 795 of the French cancer centers. Organisation Science, 21(2), 311–330.
3. Windolph, S. E., Harms, D., & Schaltegger, S. (2014). Motivations for corporate sustainability management: 797 Contrasting survey results and implementation. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental 798 Management, 25(1), 272–285. 799
4. Epstein, M. J. (2008). Making sustainability work. Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, 800 environmental, and economic impacts. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf. 801
5. Pillay, J. (2013). Corporate turnaround as knowledge subversion: A dialogic perspective on transformational 802 change (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). 803 INCORRECT REFERENCE
6. Hales, C. (2005). Rooted in supervision, branching into management: Continuity and change in the role of 804 first line manager. Journal of Management Studies, 42(3), 471–506. 805
7. Turner, C. (2019). Change management strategy a plan for how to make something different. Quality, 58(10), 806 20. 807
8. McCalman, J., Paton, R. & Siebert, S. (2016). Change management: A guide to effective implementation (4th 808 ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE. 809
9. Do, D. T., & Nuth, A. (2020). Academic library middle managers as leaders: In their own words. Journal of 810 Library Administration, 60(1), 41-70. 811
10. Bleistein, S. (2017). Rapid organisational change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 812
11. Ha, H. (2014). Change management for sustainability (1st ed.). New York, NY: Business Expert Press. [The author highlights the importance of sustainable development, including economic, environmental, and social elements and introduces different types of changes including planned, unplanned, incremental/marginal, transitional, and transformational ones.]813
12. Peacock, M. (2017). The human resource professional’s guide to change management: Practical tools and 814 techniques to enact meaningful and lasting organisational change. New York, NY: Business Expert Press. 815

 

13. Harmon, P. (2019). Business process change: a business process management guide for managers and process 816 professionals (Fourth). Morgan Kaufmann, an imprint of Elsevier. 817
14. Chen, L. & Wallace, M. (2011). Multiskilling of frontline managers in the five star hotel industry in Taiwan. 818 Study and Practice in Human Resource Management, 19(1), 25–37. 819
15. Townsend, K., Wilkinson, A., Allan, C. & Bamber, G. (2012). Accidental, unprepared, and unsupported: 820 Clinical nurses becoming managers. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(1), 204–220. 821
16. Townsend, K. & Russell, B. (2013). Investigating the nuances of change in front-line managers’ work. Labour 822 and Industry, 23(2), 168–181. 823

 

NOW, ENOUGH

 

 

 

NOTES ON line 44 “organisational or economic sustainability”
YOUR ARTICLE: Organisational sustainability is concerned with overcoming a unique challenge through selecting the appropriate change strategies, talents and leadership which lead to sustainable organisational performance.
sustainable organisational performance is a combination of growth and profitability
sustainable organisational performance is a combination of growth (social and economic measures) and profitability (financial measures).
For Rodríguez-Olalla & Avilés-Palacios [33], organisational sustainability is “…. a multidimensional phenomenon that focuses on maintaining results, generating knowledge, building capacity, establishing experiences with partners, and producing services and products based on the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness.”
From article - Sustainability 2018, 10(4), 1157; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041157
Organisational sustainability can thus be proposed to be: “The contributions of the organisation to sustainability equilibria, including the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of today, as well as their interrelations within and throughout the time dimension (i.e., the short-, long-, and longer-term). This entails the continuous incorporation and integration of sustainability issues in the organisation’s system elements (operations and production, strategy and management, governance, organisational systems, service provision, and assessment and reporting), as well as change processes and their rate of change. The system elements and change processes transform the inputs (in regard to material and resources that have economic, environmental, and social value) into outputs (products, services, and waste, with their economic, environmental, and social value). These fulfil the organisation’s goal or objective, based on resource efficiency and effectiveness. The organisation is affected by the organisation’s nonhuman and human resources (i.e., individuals, groups, culture, values, attitudes, and norms), its infrastructure, its supply chain (upstream and downstream), and the interactions with its stakeholders (internal, interconnecting, and external)”.
From article - Sustainability 2018, 10(4), 1157; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041157
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2012), the essence of sustainability in an organizational context is “the principle of enhancing the societal, environmental and economic systems within which a business operates”.
Societal/Social Exchange	Environmental/environment	economic sustainability/economic*
2/80	0/13[1]	1/7
The general definition of economic sustainability is the ability of an economy to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely.
666

 

 

[1] But not in the context of sustainable development

 

Please check the .pdf 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

Point 1: it seems to me, not external shocks but their consequences are to be considered as the real drivers of necessary changes in management.

Response 1: Thank you for suggestion, we amended the study as per your suggestion. 36, 119, 134,176, 192, 207, 830, 843 and 892.

Point 2: [1] demands a link to the page – it is difficult to verify that the statement matches only by the title of the linked book

Response 2:

Thanks for your comments. We followed the journal author guidelines by providing pages number when there is a direct quotation cited. We checked the reference list and corrected any errors accordingly in line with the Sustainability journal guidelines for referencing.

1. Ott, J.S. (1996). Classic Readings in Organizational Behavior (2nd ed.). CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. 794

 

Ott, J. S. (1996). Classic readings in organizational behavior (2nd ed.). Wadsworth Pub.

 

1. Castel, P. & Friedberg, E. (2010). Institutional change as an interactive process: The case of the modernization 795 of the French cancer centers. Organisation Science, 21(2), 311–330.

 

Castel, P., & Friedberg, E. (2010). Institutional change as an interactive process: the case of the modernization of the French cancer centers. Organization Science, 21(2), 311–330.

 

1. Windolph, S. E., Harms, D., & Schaltegger, S. (2014). Motivations for corporate sustainability management: 797 Contrasting survey results and implementation. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental 798 Management, 25(1), 272–285. 799

 

Fifka, M. S., Berg, N., Windolph, S. E., Harms, D., & Schaltegger, S. (2014). Motivations for corporate sustainability management: contrasting survey results and implementation: motivations for corporate sustainability management. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 21(5), 272–285. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1337

 

1. Epstein, M. J. (2008). Making sustainability work. Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, 800 environmental, and economic impacts. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf. 801

 

Epstein, M. J. (2008). Making sustainability work: best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts (1st ed.). Greenleaf Pub.

 

1. Pillay, J. (2013). Corporate turnaround as knowledge subversion: A dialogic perspective on transformational 802 change (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). 803 INCORRECT REFERENCE

 

Pillay, J., Braganza, A., Ladkin, D., & Cranfield University. (2013). Corporate turnaround as knowledge subversion: a dialogic perspective on transformational change (dissertation). Cranfield University.

 

1. Hales, C. (2005). Rooted in supervision, branching into management: Continuity and change in the role of 804 first line manager. Journal of Management Studies, 42(3), 471–506. 805

 

 

Hales, C. Rooted in supervision, branching into management: Continuity and change in the role of first line manager. J. Manag. Stud. 2005, 42(3), 471–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00506.x.

 

1. Turner, C. (2019). Change management strategy a plan for how to make something different. Quality, 58(10), 806 20. 807

 

Turner, C. (2019). Change management strategy a plan for how to make something different. Quality, 58(10), 20–20.

 

1. McCalman, J., Paton, R. & Siebert, S. (2016). Change management: A guide to effective implementation (4th 808 ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE. 809

 

McCalman, J.; Paton, R.; Siebert, S. Change management: A guide to effective implementation, 4th ed.; SAGE: Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2016.

 

1. Do, D. T., & Nuth, A. (2020). Academic library middle managers as leaders: In their own words. Journal of 810 Library Administration, 60(1), 41-70. 811

 

Do, D. T., & Nuth, A. (2020). Academic library middle managers as leaders: in their own words. Journal of Library Administration, 60(1), 41–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2019.1671036

 

1. Bleistein, S. (2017). Rapid organisational change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 812

 

 

1. Ha, H. (2014). Change management for sustainability (1st ed.). New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

 

[The author highlights the importance of sustainable development, including economic, environmental, and social elements and introduces different types of changes including planned, unplanned, incremental/marginal, transitional, and transformational ones.]813

 

Response: Thank you – we have revised the paper to focus mainly on organisational sustainability. Please see response to point 3 below.

 

1. Peacock, M. (2017). The human resource professional’s guide to change management: Practical tools and 814 techniques to enact meaningful and lasting organisational change. New York, NY: Business Expert Press. 815

 

Peacock, M. (2017). The human resource professional's guide to change management: practical tools and techniques to enact meaningful and lasting organizational change (Ser. Human resource management and organizational behavior collection). New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

 

1. Harmon, P. (2019). Business process change: a business process management guide for managers and process 816 professionals (Fourth). Morgan Kaufmann, an imprint of Elsevier. 817

 

 

 

1. Chen, L. & Wallace, M. (2011). Multiskilling of frontline managers in the five star hotel industry in Taiwan. 818 Study and Practice in Human Resource Management, 19(1), 25–37. 819

 

Chen, L., & Wallace, M. (2011). Multiskilling of frontline managers in the five star hotel industry in taiwan. Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 19(1), 25–37.

 

1. Townsend, K., Wilkinson, A., Allan, C. & Bamber, G. (2012). Accidental, unprepared, and unsupported: 820 Clinical nurses becoming managers. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(1), 204–220. 821

 

Townsend, K., Wilkinson, A., Bamber, G., & Allan, C. (2012). Accidental, unprepared, and unsupported: clinical nurses becoming managers. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(1), 204–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610963

 

1. Townsend, K. & Russell, B. (2013). Investigating the nuances of change in front-line managers’ work. Labour 822 and Industry, 23(2), 168–181. 823

 

Townsend, K., & Russell, B. (2013). Investigating the nuances of change in front-line managers' work. Labour and Industry, 23(2), 168–181.

 

 

Point 3:

NOTES ON line 44 “organisational or economic sustainability”
YOUR ARTICLE: Organisational sustainability is concerned with overcoming a unique challenge through selecting the appropriate change strategies, talents and leadership which lead to sustainable organisational performance.
sustainable organisational performance is a combination of growth and profitability
sustainable organisational performance is a combination of growth (social and economic measures) and profitability (financial measures).
For Rodríguez-Olalla & Avilés-Palacios [33], organisational sustainability is “…. a multidimensional phenomenon that focuses on maintaining results, generating knowledge, building capacity, establishing experiences with partners, and producing services and products based on the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness.”
From article - Sustainability 2018, 10(4), 1157; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041157
Organisational sustainability can thus be proposed to be: “The contributions of the organisation to sustainability equilibria, including the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of today, as well as their interrelations within and throughout the time dimension (i.e., the short-, long-, and longer-term). This entails the continuous incorporation and integration of sustainability issues in the organisation’s system elements (operations and production, strategy and management, governance, organisational systems, service provision, and assessment and reporting), as well as change processes and their rate of change. The system elements and change processes transform the inputs (in regard to material and resources that have economic, environmental, and social value) into outputs (products, services, and waste, with their economic, environmental, and social value). These fulfil the organisation’s goal or objective, based on resource efficiency and effectiveness. The organisation is affected by the organisation’s nonhuman and human resources (i.e., individuals, groups, culture, values, attitudes, and norms), its infrastructure, its supply chain (upstream and downstream), and the interactions with its stakeholders (internal, interconnecting, and external)”.
From article - Sustainability 2018, 10(4), 1157; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041157
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2012), the essence of sustainability in an organizational context is “the principle of enhancing the societal, environmental and economic systems within which a business operates”.
Societal/Social Exchange	Environmental/environment	economic sustainability/economic*
2/80	0/13[1]	1/7
The general definition of economic sustainability is the ability of an economy to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely.
666

 

Response 3: Thank you for pointing this out. We deleted “economic sustainability” (line 47) as the paper is not focussed on that. Instead it is focused on organisational sustainability. To improve the research connection to organisational sustainability, we included your suggestions as 2 additional paragraphs in the introduction (line 51-74) as follows:

“Indeed, sustainable organizational performance entails a combination of growth and profitability. Nonetheless, organizational sustainability is mainly motivated by internal improvement [4,5]. Organizational sustainability is a multidimensional phenomenon that aims to maintain positive outcomes, generate the required knowledge, continuously build capacity through gaining adequate experience to enable the entity to produce products and services based on an efficient and effective process [6]. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development [7], the principle of sustainability in an organizational context is fundamental to developing the entity based on economic, societal and environmental foundations.

For this paper, we follow Rodrigo’s [8] understanding of organizational sustainability as follows (p. 16):

The contributions of the organization to sustainability equilibria, including the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of today, as well as their interrelations within and throughout the time dimension (i.e., the short-, long-, and longer-term). This entails the continuous incorporation and integration of sustainability issues in the organization’s system elements (operations and production, strategy and management, governance, organizational systems, service provision, and assessment and reporting), as well as change processes and their rate of change. The system elements and change processes transform the inputs (in regard to material and resources that have economic, environmental, and social value) into outputs (products, services, and waste, with their economic, environmental, and social value). These fulfil the organization’s goal or objective, based on resource efficiency and effectiveness. The organization is affected by the organization’s nonhuman and human resources (i.e., individuals, groups, culture, values, attitudes, and norms), its infrastructure, its supply chain (upstream and downstream), and the interactions with its stakeholders (internal, interconnecting, and external).”

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

1. Research into the consequences of external influences on the activities front-line managers in airport services and the social environment of the organization is certainly of considerable important.
2. The authors are based on external influences of this organization in the years 2003 to 2019. These were usually short-term events and it is a question to what extent they can be compared with the situation caused by COVID-19, which is significantly more extensive and long-lasting. Although this fact is pointed out by the authors at the end of the thesis, it should also be strongly pointed out in section 5.6. Limitations and future research.
3. The study was conducted on 40 employees. From this point of view, it can be considered rather introductory. A more detailed portfolio of employees would be needed for a more detailed examination of this issue. Authors should justify the limited number of respondents.
4. For lines 371 and 692, I recommend modifying the reference to the literary source as numbered, not Harvard.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

 

Point 1: Research into the consequences of external influences on the activities front-line managers in airport services and the social environment of the organization is certainly of considerable important.

 

Response 1: Thank you for your comments.

 

Point 2: The authors are based on external influences of this organization in the years 2003 to 2019. These were usually short-term events and it is a question to what extent they can be compared with the situation caused by COVID-19, which is significantly more extensive and long-lasting. Although this fact is pointed out by the authors at the end of the thesis, it should also be strongly pointed out in section 5.6. Limitations and future research.

 

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. To address this issue, we added the following in the limitations and further research (line 866-871):

“Indeed, the external shocks listed earlier (see table 1) that had an influence on the organization between 2003 to 2019 and resulted in major radical organizational change events were usually short-term events. Therefore, this raises the question as to what extent the study findings can be used with the situation caused by COVID-19, which is significantly more extensive and long-lasting. Future studies should be conducted in other industries and in other organizations within the aviation sector and during COVID-19 restrictions if possible.”

 

Point 2: The study was conducted on 40 employees. From this point of view, it can be considered rather introductory. A more detailed portfolio of employees would be needed for a more detailed examination of this issue.

 

Point 2:

Thank you. To address this issue, we added a table to describe the role of the participants in more details (line 419-424):

“Table 2 describes the roles of the key business personnel who are referred to as “participants”.

 

Table 2
Key Participants and Roles

 

Study participants	Role description
Employees	Floor employees who work under the front-line managers, and who are mainly responsible for operations such as check-in, boarding, meeting and greeting the arriving aircrafts, mishandled luggage recovery service and handling grounded flights.
First-line managers	Individuals who report to senior managers. Their focus is on managing day-to-day operations.
Senior Managers	Based in the local state office. Responsible for the organization's strategic management and overseeing the front-line managers.

 

 

 

Point 3: Authors should justify the limited number of respondents.

 

Response 3:

Thank you. To address this issue, we added the following (lines 390- 400):

“This study adopted an exploratory approach using qualitative semi-structured interviews. The sample size was dependent on several factors—including the purpose of the study, methodological perspectives, the theoretical underpinnings of the study and the variability in the population. We followed Adler and Adler’s [77] suggestion that the number of interviews range between 12 and 60 interviews, depending on the purpose. As such, the sample in the present study consisted of forty participants. We were constrained from increasing the sample size due to the voluntary nature of the research based on requirements set by the university ethics committee. This is because the nature of radical organizational change made many of potential participants wary of participating because they had job security concerns. The researchers adequately secured 40 participants out of the total 200 employees working for the target organization which equates to 20% response rate. Based on existing research practices, this is an acceptable size for a qualitative study [78].”.

We also added (line 409-414):

“It is important to note that the voice of senior managers was not apparent through the interviews because they were underrepresented at the research site as most of them were based in the headquarters location (only five senior managers were employed in the research site). Although all five senior managers in the research site participated in the study, they were extremely cautious in answering the interview questions due to their concerns for privacy and confidentiality, despite reassurances, therefore resulting in them giving only very short and diffuse answers.”

 

Point 4: For lines 371 and 692, I recommend modifying the reference to the literary source as numbered, not Harvard.

 

Response 4:

Thank you. As per your recommendation, we amended the references accordingly:

In-text change. Line 491. “According to Pratt [85] (p. 501):”

End-text changed. Line 1137-1141:

“Pratt, M. From the editors: For the lack of a boilerplate: Tips on writing up (and reviewing) qualitative study. Acad. Manag. J. 2009, 52(5), 856–886. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.44632557.

 

Pratt, M. Fitting oval pegs into round holes: Tensions in evaluating and publishing qualitative study in top-tier North American journals. Organ. Study Methods 2008, 11(3), 481–509. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428107303349.”

 

End-text changed. Line 1170-1171:

“Sarason, S. B. (1974). The psychological sense of community: prospects for a community psychology ([1st ed.], Ser. The jossey-bass behavioral science series). Jossey-Bass.”

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

I consider that the purpose of this article and the chosen topic are well founded, the subject is topical for readers and contributes to the development of literature in the field. Regarding the methodology, i think it should be better explained, for readers who have not used this method, not being the usual one. I also believe that the variables used should be better substantiated theoretically, and a better consolidation of the conclusion based in the results obtained.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 4 Comments

 

Point 1: Regarding the methodology, i think it should be better explained, for readers who have not used this method, not being the usual one. I also believe that the variables used should be better substantiated theoretically, and a better consolidation of the conclusion based in the results obtained.

 

Response 1:

Thank you for your suggestion. We have added an additional paragraph to explain the “power” and “proof” quotes technique as follows (lines 499-501):

“The power quotes are the most compelling data that effectively illustrate the researcher’s ideas, while the additional data in the proof quotes aim to illustrate a particular idea or argument. This also means that the researchers may have several proof quotes in one table to reflect each idea [85].”

Additionally, we have also revised parts of the paper to address the theoretical substantiation as per responses to Reviewer 1, Reviewer 2 and Reviewer 3 above.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors do appropriately the revision based on comments.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments- Round 2

 

Point 1: As it seems to me a great job has been done.

Response 1: Thank you, we appreciate your comment. 

Point 2: (1) the name must be shortened - there is a danger of forgetting the first word, having reached the last

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. We shortened the paper title (line 2-4):

“Front-line Management during Radical Organisational Change: Social Exchange and Paradox Interpretations”

Point 3: (2) five times addressing COVID-19 looks somewhat speculative; maybe a generalized interpretation of COVID-19 as an extreme shock would be better and would allow readers to consider the necessary changes as a more or less standard solution of management concerning any external shock

 

Response 3: Thank you for your suggestion, we added the following to the introduction (line 48-53):

 

Although the speed and duration of change in this pandemic is unprecedented, the pandemic does provide an opportunity to reflect on key and generalized lessons that can be learnt from organizational responses to major change events. The present study sought to uncover such lessons by investigating how an airline services provider responded to several past external shocks. These lessons may help similar organisations to ride the turbulent waves of change as a result of COVID-19 and the organisations that must contend with future external shocks.

 

Point 4: (3) last but not least - English is not my mother tongue but something says me you have to continue your work with the text. That is - figuratively speaking - "squeeze out the water". Indeed, the article became about 20% longer.

Response 4: Thank you for the suggestion. We have reduced the word count by about 800 words (5% of the original total) from about 14800 to about 14000 words by deleting several less important and extraneous passages from the paper. The deletions are indicated by track changes.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Desar authors!

I haver attentively read your article V.2.

As it seems to me a greate job has been done.

My attention and assessment of your article has been changed towards my altered recommendation “can be published, if ...” (See below).

However, to my mind, three points could irritate readers and distort their understandig sense and scope of your article: 

(1) the name must be shortened - there is a danger of forgetting the first word, having reached the last

(2) five times addressing COVID-19 looks somewhat speculative; maybe a generalized interpretation of COVID-19 as an extreme shock would be better and would allow readers to consider the necessary changes as a more or less standard solution of management concerning any external shock

(3) last but not least - English is not my mother tongue but something says me you have to continue your work with the text. That is - figuratively speaking - "squeeze out the water". Indeed, the article became about 20% longer.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments- Round 2

 

Point 1: As it seems to me a great job has been done.

Response 1: Thank you, we appreciate your comment. 

Point 2: (1) the name must be shortened - there is a danger of forgetting the first word, having reached the last

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. We shortened the paper title (line 2-4):

“Front-line Management during Radical Organisational Change: Social Exchange and Paradox Interpretations”

Point 3: (2) five times addressing COVID-19 looks somewhat speculative; maybe a generalized interpretation of COVID-19 as an extreme shock would be better and would allow readers to consider the necessary changes as a more or less standard solution of management concerning any external shock

 

Response 3: Thank you for your suggestion, we added the following to the introduction (line 48-53):

 

Although the speed and duration of change in this pandemic is unprecedented, the pandemic does provide an opportunity to reflect on key and generalized lessons that can be learnt from organizational responses to major change events. The present study sought to uncover such lessons by investigating how an airline services provider responded to several past external shocks. These lessons may help similar organisations to ride the turbulent waves of change as a result of COVID-19 and the organisations that must contend with future external shocks.

 

Point 4: (3) last but not least - English is not my mother tongue but something says me you have to continue your work with the text. That is - figuratively speaking - "squeeze out the water". Indeed, the article became about 20% longer.

Response 4: Thank you for the suggestion. We have reduced the word count by about 800 words (5% of the original total) from about 14800 to about 14000 words by deleting several less important and extraneous passages from the paper. The deletions are indicated by track changes.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf