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    Development of Strategies and Transformation Paths for Structured and Targeted Digital Change: The Case of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana Trinity Congregation
    (Digitalization Cases, Management for Professionals, 2019) Asiedu, S.T.; Boateng, R.
    The situation faced: The Church, irrespective of its steady growth from 4 members in 1965 to 2910 members in 2015, struggles to reach out to larger (newer) communities and improve money collection. It struggles as well in reaching its local community especially its members at the right time with the right message. In brief, for the Church to engage its members and the public concerning worship service, publicizing its social activities (evangelism, donations to the needy, visits to prisons, etc.) and payment of voluntary contributions, it had to count on their physical presence in its premises. (b) Action taken: The Church developed an interactive online presence (website) with payment integration for payment of tithe, offertory, voluntary thanksgiving, etc. Social media accounts were established to help create an online community with the secondary objective of driving traffic to the website and engaging the congregation remotely outside church service hours. Mobile money and a point of sale (POS) device were used to facilitate cashless transactions. Supportive committees were set up while interconnecting existing ones. Some of the pastors upload videos to social media as a supplement to morning devotions. Events were promoted on the website and social media. (c) Results achieved: Amongst the lot, there is currently an increase in social media engagements through event posts, live streaming, images, and other post formats and also an increase in participation in church events by almost 50% on average as well as an increase in the number of website visitors from 2558 (901 unique visitors) in the first year after deployment to 11,612 visitors (5841 unique visitors) in the third year as of September 2017. Even though membership statistics surprisingly indicated a 638 decline in 2017, which is worth investigating. (d) Lessons learned: Although deploying the online system was successful, it came with its lessons drawn from challenges that cannot be ignored. These include trust in electronic payments, the need for a strategic framework in the adoption of technology, and the need to educate users. Other lessons include the need for management support and readiness of employees/volunteers and resource availability as a precursor to achieving strategic IS innovation objectives.
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    Assessing Project Management Maturity in Africa: A Ghanaian Perspective
    (International Journal of Business Administration, 2013) Ofori, D.; Deffor, E.W.
    The level of project management awareness and recognition of the standards and knowledge sharing among professionals is on the rise. Despite this many projects continue to fail. Ameliorating project failure requires project management maturity among practitioners. Project management maturity is the progressive development of an enterprise-wide project management approach, methodology, strategy, and decision-making process. To ascertain the level of maturity among project-oriented organizations in Ghana the following research questions were raised: Is the concept of PM maturity understood in Ghana? What are Project Management Maturity levels in Ghana? What maturity models are in use? Are there differences in project management maturity levels in industries in Ghana? The study was exploratory and utilized a questionnaire survey method to collect data on project management Maturity in Ghanaian organizations. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 200 managers from different economic sectors. The findings showed that differences exist in the current project management maturity levels across each phase of the project life cycle for all organizations. The study also showed that most of the practitioners expect their respective organizations to attain higher levels of project management maturity (PMM) albeit at various levels. Organizations operating in the non-profit (NGO) category exhibited relatively higher levels of maturity compared to the other categories of organizations in all five phases of the project management life cycle. Firms in the public sector of Ghana recorded low levels of maturity in most of the phases of the project management life cycle. This may be attributed to the low level of project management expertise in the sector, with possible dire consequence to the country’s development since the public sector accounts for a large percentage of projects executed in Ghana. Overall, the findings seem to indicate that project management maturity occurs in phases; PM maturity does not occur as an event but is an ongoing process that is interlinked. The implication therefore is that organisations cannot claim to be mature in one area and neglect the other; it becomes imperative for project-implementing organizations in Ghana to strive to attain maturity in all five phases of the project management life cycle to attain the full benefits of the projects they implement.
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    Assessing Social Capital For Organisational Performance: Initial Exploratory Insights From Ghana
    (Organizations And Markets In Emerging Economies, 2010) Ofori, D.; Sackey, J.
    Social Capital is a concept that describes good quality social relations that can lead to mutual benefit. The fundamental proposition of social capital theory is that networks of relationships grant access to resources, especially information benefits not available to non-members of the network. This study assessed the functions of social capital within Ghanaian organizations, described the patterns and determinants of social capital use within organizations, and explored how social capital contributes to firm performance using a sample frame of firms listed in the Ghana Club 100. A questionnaire field survey supplemented by personal interviews was chosen as the most appropriate design for this investigation. Employees were sampled across the organizational hierarchy based on their responsibilities, positions, and type of relationship held with others within the organization. Data was also collected on demographic characteristics and organizational dynamics. The results showed that social capital is critical to knowledge sharing in the Ghanaian organization; that it helps to get things done and helps in the attainment of organizational objectives. The findings also suggested that three determinate variables of social capital: reciprocity, trust, and institutional ties, have the most significant positive relationship with organizational performance. Given that, the study recommends that firms take a proactive approach towards promoting, building, and maintaining viable social networks within their structures to derive maximum benefit from it.
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    Brand equity and financial performance
    (Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 2018) Narteh, B.
    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between brand equity and financial performance and the moderation role of brand likeability retail banking sector. Design/methodology/approach – The study is quantitative and employed the survey methodology to sample the views of 550 retail bank customers. Data were analyzed though the structuring equation modeling using AMOS. Findings – The study found out that service quality, brand association, brand loyalty, and brand relevance positively and significantly predicted financial performance of the retail banks. In addition, brand likeability also moderates the relationship between brand equity and financial performance. Originality/value – The study contributes to the ongoing research in examining the linkage between brand equity and financial performance. The study has also shown the value of brand likeability as a moderator of the brand equity-financial performance linkage. The strategic implication of the results are discussed in the paper.
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    The state of corporate social responsibility research in Ghana: A synthesis of literature
    (Business Strategy & Development, 2019) Damoah, O.B.O.; Peprah, A.A.; Cobla, G.M.
    There are recent calls to pay attention to the institutional requirement or the config urations of the national business system because it eventually results in the different manifestation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in different contexts. This has led to several contestations against the suitability of transferring developed countries' CSR frameworks and ideas to developing countries. Yet literature reviews about CSR in developing countries and in Africa, in particular, are limited. This paper, therefore, contributes to this gap by systematically reviewing and synthesizing 113 CSR's stud ies from Ghana between 2006 and 2018. Altogether, this paper structures CSR research in Ghana into salient themes to provide the current state of knowledge and help scholars scope the field and explore value‐adding avenues to further our understanding about CSR research in developing countries. Based on the findings, implication on theory, public policy, and practice are suggested.
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    Biometric technology for voter identification: The experience in Ghana
    (The Information Society, 2018) Effah, J.; Debrah, E.
    Our study examines how and why Ghana’s first attempt to use biometric technology for voter identification and verification in its 2012 general elections failed. We employ activity theory as the analytical lens and interpretive case study as the methodology. Our findings show that the effectiveness of biometric technology to provide reliable identification does not depend solely on its technical qualities but also on real-time connectivity between registration centres and an electronic national register. Furthermore, the electoral officials need to be trained intensively to operate the machines and given guidance on how to handle situations when breakdowns occur. While biometric technology does introduce powerful capabilities, it is just one piece of a complex human activity system.
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    The Effect of Trust, Commitment, and Conflict Handling on Customer Retention: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction
    (Journal of Relationship Marketing, 2018) Mahmoud, M.A.; Hinson, R.E.; Adika, M.K.
    Previous studies have investigated drivers of customer retention in the mobile telecommunications industry worldwide. These studies call on scholars pay to attention to these factors in the scholarly marketing literature, since customer retention is the basic tenet of relationship marketing. Drawing on relationship marketing theory, this study analyzes the direct and indirect rela tionships amongst trust, commitment, and conflict handling on customer retention. A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was employed to gather data from customers of mobile telecommunication operators. The findings revealed that only conflict handling had a direct significant effect on customer retention. Also, trust and conflict handling had a direct and significant effect on customer satisfaction. However, trust and conflict handling were seen to have an indirect significant effect on customer retention via customer satisfaction. The study recommends that managers should effectively resolve customer complaints as well as build their trustworthiness in order to satisfy and retain their customers.
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    Effect of Workload on Job Stress of Ghanaian OPD Nurses: The Role of Coworker Support
    (Safety and Health at Work, 2019) Kokoroko, E.; Sanda, M.A.
    Background: Although the concept of workload is important to nursing practice, only a few nursing researchers have focused on the issue of workload within the nursing context. Knowledge of how the dynamics of workload affects the job stress of nurses working in a specific unit or department in a hospital setting, and the influence of coworker support on this relationship, still remains limited. This study, therefore examined the effect of workload on job stress of Ghanaian outpatient department nurses and the moderating effect of coworker support on this relationship. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used, and questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 216 outpatient department nurses from four major hospitals in Ghana. The data collected measured workload, job stress, and coworker support using National Aeronautics and Space Adminis tration (NASA) Task Load Index, job stress scale, and coworker support scale, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and hierarchical regression. Results: High levels of workload were associated with high levels of job stress of the nurses. Also, higher levels of workload were related to higher levels of job stress for nurses who received high levels of coworker support, but this was not the case for those who received low levels of coworker support (reserve buffering effect). Conclusion: The finding reiterates the adverse effect of workloads on employees’ health, and the reverse buffering effect implies that supporting a colleague at work should be conveyed in a positive manner devoid of negative appraisal.
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    The Relationship between Firefighters’ Work Demand and Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders: The Moderating Role of Task Characteristics
    (Safety and Health at Work, 2019) Kodom-Wiredu, J.K.
    Background: Emergency workers such as firefighters are cataloged within the most demanding and injurious professions globally. Considering the health and safety implications in firefighting, a lot of research needs to be conducted to examine how firefighters’ task characteristics and their work demand influence the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). This study therefore examines how the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and the development of WMSDs. Methods: Convenient sampling was employed to select 320 firefighters in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression. Results: The findings revealed that work demand and task characteristics have significant positive effects on WMSDs. Again, the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and WMSDs. Conclusion: Since the study shows that task characteristics influences the relationship between work demand and WMSDs, it is vital for managers to constantly modify the nature of tasks performed by and work demand of emergency workers to minimize the development of WMSDs and other industrial health complications.
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    Customer involvement capability and service firm performance: The mediating role of innovation
    (Journal of Business Research, 2018) Anning-Dorson, T.
    This study contributes to the literature on customer involvement by assessing the influence firm-level customer involvement capability has on service firm performance in two economic contexts. The study further examines innovation as a necessary mediator between customer involvement capability and firm performance. Data collected from service firms operating in two countries, the United Kingdom and Ghana, is analysed and used to validate the article's theoretical and empirical contributions. The results show that customer involvement cap ability has a positive and direct relationship with service firm performance in Ghana but a negative and direct relationship in the British context. The implication is that the effect of firm-level capability can be context specific and that its development must therefore be aligned with the context in which a firm operates. On the other hand, it was found that in both contexts, innovation (product and process) mediated the relationship between involvement capability and firm performance.