Dra. Hebles-Ortiz, Melany

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of a classroom application of the cooperative learning (CL) methodology on nine dimensions of business students’ teamwork competence (TC). Design/methodology/approach – The authorsused a quasi-experimental pre-post design with a previous cohortas control group (first-year students from the year prior to treatment application), applying treatment to a sample of 228 first-year students in a School of Economics and Business at a Chilean University (114 as treatment and 114 as control). Findings – Theauthors’ resultsshow thatCL had a positive, significant influence on five dimensions of TC: collective efficacy, planning, goal setting, problem solving and conflict management. Research limitations/implications – This paper upholds the importance and effectiveness of CL in developing TC. However, the evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the CL methodology was limited to developmentandimprovementof lesscomplexdimensionsofTC.Morecomplexdimensionsrequirealonger period of time to be developed. Practical implications – This research is an important contribution to the design and implementation of appropriate methodologies for developing a widely needed area of competence in the workplace, considering its multidimensional nature, whether in academia or business. Originality/value – This is the first study to seek empirical evidence that would link the CL methodology with TC. In addition, it fills a gap in the literature on the development of TC in its multiple dimensions. It particularly addresses the training of business professionals.

Purpose: While companies have increasingly encouraged employees to adopt a customer orientation, less attention has been given to the impact that customer orientation has on employees' job outcomes and performance. Previous research has used job demands-resource theory (JD-R) and proposed several mechanisms through which customer orientation influences performance, yet the intervening variables in the process have shown inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contextual role of organizational justice on the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. In this way, offering more understanding of the contingent effects that intervene in the customer orientation–performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Using a structural equation model (SEM) in a sample of 249 marketing, sales and management managers in Chilean companies, this paper tested different hypotheses concerning the role of work engagement, organizational justice and customer orientation in relation to perceived performance. Findings: This study informs that organizational justice (procedural and distributive justice) moderates the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. Precisely, the findings reveal that at lower values of organizational justice, changes in customer orientation negatively influence work engagement and in turn performance. Originality/value: The results contribute to strengthening customer orientation theory by integrating a contextual variable often omitted: organizational justice. By exploring the moderation effect of organizational justice on customer orientation, this paper reveals contingent effects of employees' perceived fairness on the organization in the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. The findings encourage managers to look after employees' perceived organizational justice when they implement customer-oriented approaches, in particular, of those employees who work in the frontline sales and service positions. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.