What often keeps them awake at night? – A synoptic review from operations managers’ perspective (Published)

This study provides a synoptic review of operations management from practitioners’ perspective. The challenges facing operations managers are discussed around the practice of handling issues, risks, and uncertainties with brief review of academics and practitioners’ insights. The synoptic review reveals that these events whether current (issue), possible (risk) or unpredictable (uncertainty) contribute to factors that often keep operations managers awake at night – mainly because most business decisions are made with incomplete information and in the face of an uncertain future. The graphical deconstruction of operations managers’ perspective and the integration of the concept of spectrum of organisational DNA provide an augmented perspective of operations management. By merging different academic approaches, the study proposes a hybrid concept which includes risk and uncertainty. This hybrid concept portrays the uncodified and implicit way with which operations managers handle the dynamic interplay between risk, uncertainty, and management strategies. This study adds a pragmatic perspective to operations management.

 

Keywords: Issues, Review, Risk, Uncertainty, operations management

Sense-Making, Entrepreneurial Orientation and Their Influence on Firm Performance in Kenya (Published)

Manufacturing firms constitute an integral part of the economic rubric of developing countries. In Kenya, they contribute 14% of gross domestic product, and train and employ 30% of the workforce. However, they exhibit low organization capacity, and struggle to survive as competitive enterprises. The purpose of this study was to establish how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) influences the relationship between sense-making and firm performance in Kenya. Anchored on the resource-based view and strategic entrepreneurship concept, the study used a self-administered questionnaire to survey owners/managers of 83 small and medium enterprise (SME) food-manufacturing firms registered by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, employing Statistical Software for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 and SmartPLS 3. The study found that EO fully mediates the relationship between sense-making and firm performance. This study concludes that EO is a critical strategy that firms should exploit to maximize their performance. The study recommends that, manufacturing SMEs should encourage employee entrepreneurial behaviours, and the government should support policies that promote entrepreneurial business management capabilities in manufacturing firms.

Keywords: Manufacturing Firms, Uncertainty, market diversity, new products portfolio, sense-making, technology variety