Fariborz Rahimnia

Purpose: Effective interaction with employees is one of the main challenges for human resource management. In many organizations, despite employees’ financial satisfaction, the turnover rate remains high, which may result from weak interpersonal relations and inappropriate managerial behaviors. Managerial decency, as an ethics-based managerial approach, is recognized as an influential ...

This study investigates the significant losses experienced by Iranian traders from 2020 to 2023, attributed to poor trading technology, a lack of servant leadership, and ineffective financial marketing strategies, which have raised concerns about the future of financial services and the brokerage industry. The aim is to develop a model that examines the impact of strategic planning and financial marketing strategies on the quality of financial advice, considering the mediating role of Fintech acceptance and the moderating role of servant leadership. The findings reveal that strategic planning significantly influences FinTech acceptance and the quality of financial advice, while the effect of financial marketing on advisory quality is inconclusive. Additionally, FinTech acceptance positively mediates the relationship between strategic planning and advisory quality but not for financial marketing strategies. The moderating role of servant leadership was also confirmed, showing a positive influence by strengthening the relationship between strategic planning and the quality of financial advice. This study fills both theoretical and practical gaps by integrating FinTech adoption, strategic planning, and financial marketing strategies in exploring financial advice quality. It contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive view of these interconnected factors. Practically, the research addresses the "Black Wednesday Issue" in the Tehran stock market, where many investors suffered losses, offering insights to enhance financial advice and mitigate future risks, benefiting researchers, financial institutions, policymakers, and the general public.

Purpose: Knowledge workers thrive in environments that match the intensity of their expertise. When assigned to non-knowledge-intensive roles, these individuals may exhibit counterproductive behaviors, such as cyberloafing. This research investigates job embeddedness as a contextual factor shaped by workplace alignment, integrating the theory of interpersonal behavior (TIB) with job embeddedness theory (JET) to develop a unified conceptual framework. The primary objective is to examine how embedded knowledge workers respond behaviorally when employed in organizations perceived as misaligned with their professional standards. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-wave longitudinal investigation was conducted with 414 public-sector knowledge workers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical moderated multiple regression (HMMR) were employed to test the research model. Findings: The results indicate that among embedded knowledge workers, person–job and person–organization misfits predict cyberloafing via sequential mediators. Additionally, moral justification significantly moderated the link between intention to cyberloaf and actual behavior. Findings suggest that knowledge workers unable to exit low-alignment environments may adopt cyberloafing as a self-regulatory coping mechanism to preserve identity coherence. Originality/value: Like a loose hat ill-suited to its wearer, the current research illuminates how embedded knowledge workers in non-knowledge-intensive organizations (NKIOs) experience misfits that drive cyberloafing. Combining TIB and JET to explore sequential mediation mechanisms and a boundary condition, this investigation empirically reframes cyberloafing, exposing a hidden cost of poor fit.

Background: Humour is an essential quality and key factor in communication, particularly in leadership. This study explores leader humour within university departments to design a comprehensive model using grounded theory. The study also examines the effects and dynamics of humour in leadership and its influence on followers. Methods: This qualitative study employed Glaser’s 6 C family approach. Data were collected from 18 Iranian university professors, selected via purposive sampling until theoretical saturation was reached. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were analysed using MAXQDA2020 software to facilitate the coding process. Results: The axial category was named ‘leader humorous behaviour’ and the main attributes of humour were ‘benign violation’ and ‘moderation’. This study highlights the importance of moderation in humorous behaviour (frequency and repetition) as an important attribute of leader humour alongside benign violation, which can have negative and unwanted outcomes for both leader and followers despite positive and constructive content. The final model identifies a sense of humour as the central cause and organisational factors as correlated causes. It also identifies the mediators, moderators, context, and consequences of leader humorous behaviour. Sense of humour is found to be the most important factor in followers’ perception and interpretation of leader humour. Conclusions: Leader humour can have positive ethical implications in organisations, thus enhancing relationships and communication when employed appropriately. The findings suggest that positive outcomes of leader humour over time foster greater expression and mitigate misunderstandings. This study offers a foundational understanding of leader humorous behaviour and its potential positive outcomes in organisational settings.

Purpose: Human resource analytics (HRA) has recently received attention. However, its literature remains unknown and scattered due to both limited conceptual lenses and limited classification. So, this study is conducted to provide a comprehensive research analysis in this field. Design/methodology/approach: Accordingly, 107 HRA studies, which were collected according to the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) in the last 14 years (2010–2023), were analyzed in the first using the theory-context-characteristics-methods step to examine the evolution of HRA research. The study also develops a conceptual framework based on socio-technical system theory that shows the antecedents and outcomes of HRA adoption. In the second step, fuzzy Delphi and fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis techniques were used to validate and refine the antecedents and outcomes obtained from the first step in such a way that experts’ opinions can be used and the existing knowledge body can be expanded. Findings: In total, 30 antecedents and outcomes were confirmed based on the consensus of experts. Senior management support was identified as the most important antecedent and achieving organizational strategic outcomes as the most important outcomes of HRA adoption. Originality/value: The study maps the current state of HRA studies, identifies directions for future studies by providing a state-of-the-art review of theories, antecedents, outcomes, contexts and methodologies and proposes a framework for HR managers and professionals to apply.

Humor is an important quality and a key factor in communication. This qualitative study aims to design a sense of humor model for university leaders by adopting grounded theory and an interpretive paradigm. The study population was 24 Iranian university professors who were selected via targeted sampling until theoretical saturation was reached. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The axial category was named “leader humorous behavior” and the main attributes of humor were “benign violation” and “moderation.” This study is the first to highlight the importance of moderation in humorous behavior (frequency and repetition) as an important attribute of leader humor rather than benign violation, which can have negative and unwanted outcomes for both leader and followers despite positive and constructive content. The final model identifies sense of humor as the cause of leader humorous behavior, organizational factors as the correlated cause, and the mediators, moderators, context, and consequences of the leader humorous behavior. The results show that sense of humor is the most important factor in followers’ perception and interpretation of leader humorous behavior. Moreover, the positive outcomes of leader humorous behavior increase humor expression in organizations over time, prevent misunderstandings of leader humorous behavior, and enrich leaders’ sense of humor by increasing their experience and insights into norms and appropriate situations. This study lays the foundation for a proper understanding of the different aspects of leader humorous behavior and its implementation in organizations, and introduces humor as a positive ethical behavior with potentially positive outcomes.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine diversity management (DM) practices in leading private-sector organizations in Iran.Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on in-depth interviews with 23 human resource management (HRM) executives and supervisors in nine private sector companies in Iran, and presents the analysis conducted using MAXQDA software.Findings: The results categorize DM practices into four subsystems of HRM, i.e. recruitment and selection, training, performance management, and reward management. These practices indicate the inclusion of diversity-sensitive criteria and consideration of equal opportunity in the HRM subsystems.Originality/value: The findings advance a contextual understanding of DM in a developing country. Considering DM practices in HRM subsystems may provide an effective way to help managers address workforce diversity in organizations.

There are many misleading scientific metrics that are not known to the scientific community, particularly novice researchers. There is limited research in the area of misleading metrics, particularly related to business journals. Therefore, this research aims to examine the use of misleading metrics by business journals, the most popular misleading metrics, and countries contributing to the website traffic for such metrics. We used Scimago ranking for business journals and examined the website of each for the use of misleading metrics. Further, we used a domain-based approach by gathering data from Search Engine Optimization websites (i.e., Alexa and Ubersuggest). Only a few Scopus-indexed, low-quality business journals used misleading metrics on their website. The most common misleading metrics were International Scientific Institute, Open Academic Journals Index, CiteFactor, IndexCopernicus, and International Scientific Indexing. In addition, Indian authors were the most frequent visitors of the websites of misleading metrics.