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Enhancing performance in small professional firms through vision communication and sharing

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Abstract

Despite evidence of a positive relationship, vision’s effects on performance are not fully understood, particularly in small professional service settings. This study advances prior research using a multi-stakeholder, multi-measure approach. It reports a positive relationship between vision-communication and -sharing on performance in Australian retail pharmacies using five measures—financial assessments, employee and customer satisfaction, productivity, and staff retention. Organizations whose managers communicate the vision to staff and whose employees share this vision outperform their peers across all business indicators and retain their employees longer. Financial performance and productivity were higher with long-term staff and managers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Administration, East China Normal University, No. 3663, North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Fenwick Feng Jing

  2. Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University & Institute for Sustainable Leadership, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Gayle C. Avery

  3. Faculty of Business, Australian Catholic University & Institute for Sustainable Leadership, 40 Edward Street, North Sydney, NSW, 2060, Australia

    Harald Bergsteiner

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  1. Fenwick Feng Jing
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  2. Gayle C. Avery
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  3. Harald Bergsteiner
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Correspondence to Gayle C. Avery.

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Jing, F.F., Avery, G.C. & Bergsteiner, H. Enhancing performance in small professional firms through vision communication and sharing. Asia Pac J Manag 31, 599–620 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-013-9345-9

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