Supply chain friends: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Section snippets
Supply chain relationships: Friend or frenemy
The importance of firms developing close relationships with suppliers has been well recognized by supply chain managers. Similarly, the supply chain management literature highlights the key role and impact of positive buyer-supplier relationships (Autry and Golicic, 2010, Daugherty, 2011). Closer buyer-supplier relationships have been found to result in a variety of benefits for the parties involved, including superior levels of customer service (Vickery, Jayaram, Droge, & Calantone, 2003),
Gender
In our study, six of the 26 respondents were females. According to several relatively recent accounts, women make up as little as 11% to 25% of the supply chain industry (Ostby, 2013). Due to the lack of availability of women colleagues and connections, it is not surprising that many of the friendships found in the supply chain are between men. Even so, men seek out other men to form work-related friendships regardless of the availability of women; women, however, seek relationships with men
Assess and monitor
Firms should assess and be cognizant of the nature of the relationships their employees form with other managers in the supply chain. Upper management should encourage supply chain managers to disclose if they have formed friendships with their supply chain counterparts. Importantly, this should not be done in a threatening way because friendships, as shown herein, can have positive outcomes for the parties involved. Some respondents indicated that personal relationships are occasionally
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Role of personal relationships in mitigating knowledge hiding behaviour in firms: a dyadic perspective
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