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1 – 10 of 26David E. Williams, Elly-Jean Nielsen, Melanie A. Morrison and Todd G. Morrison
This study aims to explore the perceptions and reactions of men, who participate in a female-dominated online consumption space. It looked at the process of men, (re)negotiating…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the perceptions and reactions of men, who participate in a female-dominated online consumption space. It looked at the process of men, (re)negotiating their digital gendered identity on Pinterest.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory-light approach was taken. Data were collected through 21 one-on-one semi-structured interviews with male Pinterest users. Subsequently, data were extensively coded and analyzed for the key themes and patterns.
Findings
Three core categories emerged, which speak to the ways men account for their practices on Pinterest as autonomous online agents. These categories were: awareness of Pinterest as a feminized digital space; limited sociality due to the solitary use of Pinterest (the exception being when collaborating with an intimate partner); and performed identities (k = 4) serving to justify the men’s activities on a female-dominated social networking site.
Research limitations/implications
The findings establish a firm theoretical basis for understanding male Pinterest users as autonomous online agents. However, reflective of this relatively small, exploratory qualitative project, the process-based interview questions did not render, particularly, long or rich narratives. Future qualitative research might endeavor to ask deeper, more open-ended questions.
Originality/value
This is an original study of men’s use of Pinterest. Research on the identity projects of men entering fields traditionally occupied by women and coded as feminine is established, there is a lack of understanding of how gender identity is (re)constructed digitally, especially on social media.
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Helena Cooper‐Thomas, Neil Anderson and Melanie Cash
The majority of organizational newcomers have prior work experience. Organizational socialization tactics are less effective for such “experienced newcomers”, relative to graduate…
Abstract
Purpose
The majority of organizational newcomers have prior work experience. Organizational socialization tactics are less effective for such “experienced newcomers”, relative to graduate newcomers. Hence experienced newcomers tend to rely on their own actions to become socialized. The aim of this article is to assess and potentially extend the range of adjustment strategies identified as being used by experienced newcomers themselves to achieve positive adjustment.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 86 experienced newcomers entering a professional services organization.
Findings
Nineteen strategies emerged, with seven newly identified in this research. These are compared with strategies found in past research.
Practical implications
HR, and the managers and colleagues of newcomers can use the strategies identified and categorized here to encourage newcomers to use organizationally‐appropriate behaviors. Newcomers can use these strategies to help themselves achieve their own adjustment goals.
Originality/ value
There is an increasing focus on newcomer proactive behavior in organizational socialization research, yet there are few empirically grounded developments of newcomer adjustment strategies. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to focus on what experienced newcomers report doing to help themselves adjust.
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Melanie Barlow, Bernadette Watson, Kate Morse, Elizabeth Jones and Fiona Maccallum
The response of the receiver to a voiced patient safety concern is frequently cited as a barrier to health professionals speaking up. The authors describe a novel Receiver Mindset…
Abstract
Purpose
The response of the receiver to a voiced patient safety concern is frequently cited as a barrier to health professionals speaking up. The authors describe a novel Receiver Mindset Framework (RMF) to help health professionals understand the importance of their response when spoken up to.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework draws on the broader receiver-focussed literature and integrates innovative findings from a series of empirical studies. These studies examined different receiver behaviour within vignettes, retrospective descriptions of real interactions and behaviour in a simulated interaction.
Findings
The authors' findings indicated that speaking up is an intergroup interaction where social identities, context and speaker stance intersect, directly influencing both perceptions of and responses to the message. The authors' studies demonstrated that when spoken up to, health professionals poorly manage their emotions and ineffectively clarify the speaker's concerns. Currently, targeted training for receivers is overwhelmingly absent from speaking-up programmes. The receiver mindset framework provides an evidence-based, healthcare specific, receiver-focussed framework to inform programmes.
Originality/value
Grounded in communication accommodation theory (CAT), the resulting framework shifts speaking up training from being only speaker skill focussed, to training that recognises speaking up as a mutual negotiation between the healthcare speaker and receiver. This framework provides healthcare professionals with a novel approach to use in response to speaking up that enhances their ability to listen, understand and engage in point-of-care negotiations to ensure the physical and psychological safety of patients and staff.
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Riikka Harikkala-Laihinen, Mélanie Hassett, Johanna Raitis and Niina Nummela
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how dialogue can be used to promote post-acquisition socio-cultural integration. Specifically, it addresses questions regarding when and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how dialogue can be used to promote post-acquisition socio-cultural integration. Specifically, it addresses questions regarding when and how companies can utilise dialogue to generate positivity regarding socio-cultural integration.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study approach was adopted owing to its suitability for creating in-depth understanding in the context of socio-cultural integration. Primary data were collected via interviews, an employee satisfaction survey, and participant observation. Secondary data were obtained from the case company’s internal materials, such as strategies, integration workflows, and employee magazines. Analysis methods included descriptive statistics and thematic qualitative analysis.
Findings
The findings suggest that dialogue can be used to create positivity regarding socio-cultural integration throughout the stages of unfreezing, moving, and refreezing by actively engaging employees in voicing, listening, respecting, and suspending. It is proposed that cultural conflict during post-acquisition socio-cultural integration can be overcome through the generation of positivity; dialogue enables the collective management of emotions during post-acquisition integration by offering a platform for creating positivity and social cohesion; and due to its collaborative and engaging nature, dialogue provides an especially effective means of communication for overcoming cross-cultural conflict.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to showcase dialogue as a specific means of communication for creating positivity during cross-border socio-cultural integration. This study reached beyond comparative cultural research to offer views on positivity, emotion during socio-cultural integration, and dialogue as means for overcoming cross-cultural conflict.
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The purpose of this paper is to: give a brief history of the development of complexity science for people unfamiliar with the details of complexity science; describe the different…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to: give a brief history of the development of complexity science for people unfamiliar with the details of complexity science; describe the different types of complexity; discuss examples of the types of complexity, and introduce some ideas about how complexity could be introduced into education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper summarizes other work in the field of complexity science, and organizes the results in a new way with the intent of making a difficult subject easier for the reader to understand.
Findings
Two different types of complexity are described – organized and unorganized. The focus of the paper is on organized complexity of which three categories are described – complicated, chaotic and critical. Examples, descriptions and characteristics of each category are given.
Practical implications
Suggestions are given as to how this transformational science could be integrated into education.
Originality/value
The paper summarizes other work in the field of complexity science, and organizes the results in a new way with the intent of making a difficult subject easier for the reader to understand.
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Ayse Gursoy, Karen Wickett and Melanie Feinberg
The purpose of this paper is to investigate tag use in a metadata ecosystem that supports a fan work repository to identify functions of tags and explore the system as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate tag use in a metadata ecosystem that supports a fan work repository to identify functions of tags and explore the system as a co-constructed communicative context.
Design/methodology/approach
Using modified techniques from grounded theory (Charmaz, 2007), this paper integrates humanistic and social science methods to identify kinds of tag use in a rich setting.
Findings
Three primary roles of tags emerge out of detailed study of the metadata ecosystem: tags can identify elements in the fan work, tags can reflect on how those elements are used or adapted in the fan work, and finally, tags can express the fan author’s sense of her role in the discursive context of the fan work repository. Attending to each of the tag roles shifts focus away from just what tags say to include how they say it.
Practical implications
Instead of building metadata systems designed solely for retrieval or description, this research suggests that it may be fruitful to build systems that recognize various metadata functions and allow for expressivity. This research also suggests that attending to metadata previously considered unusable in systems may reflect the participants’ sense of the system and their role within it.
Originality/value
In addition to accommodating a wider range of tag functions, this research implies consideration of metadata ecosystems, where different kinds of tags do different things and work together to create a multifaceted artifact.
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Tina Šegota, Marianna Sigala, Ulrike Gretzel, Jonathon Day, Jithendran Kokkranikal, Melanie Smith, Claudia Seabra, Philip Pearce, Rob Davidson, Cine van Zyl, David Newsome, James Hardcastle and Tijana Rakić
Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox
This paper is concerned with how employees talk about their experiences of organizational change and focuses specifically on the construction of conversion stories. These are…
Abstract
This paper is concerned with how employees talk about their experiences of organizational change and focuses specifically on the construction of conversion stories. These are particularly positive narratives that consider change as a turning point in which individuals depart from an old way of life pre‐change to embrace a post‐change organization. In this study, employees seek conversion into management groups and report the values and philosophies of management in their narratives, thus highlighting the benefits of change while suppressing any negative aspects. This paper draws attention to the dramatic nature of the conversion story and explores the sharp distinction between the reporting of experiences prior to and after change. We also investigate the relationship between constructing conversion stories and gaining personal and career advancement at work and suggest that beneath the positive exterior of the conversion narratives lies a theme of silence, which may be related to career advancement. Our findings suggest that such stories of silence complicate the conversion story as an example of positive organizational change and discuss implications for both the theory and practice of narrative change research.
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There is a great deal of interest in the environment these days, and while much of that interest focuses on saving the world, a lot of it relates to learning about nature. Field…
Abstract
There is a great deal of interest in the environment these days, and while much of that interest focuses on saving the world, a lot of it relates to learning about nature. Field guides are among the most popular natural history guides for the general public; it sometimes seems that almost every household must have at least one lurking in a corner. There are an incredible variety of field guides available for inquiring naturalists. The well‐known Peterson, Golden, and Audubon series and the typical bird, flower, and tree guides are just the tip of the iceberg.
David Newman and Melanie Platten
Following the implementation of key actions resulting from Valuing People (DoH, 2001), people with learning disabilities resident in hospital will be relocated into the community…
Abstract
Following the implementation of key actions resulting from Valuing People (DoH, 2001), people with learning disabilities resident in hospital will be relocated into the community. This paper examines psychological, social and quality of life indicators applied to a group of 50 service users, 36 of whom are soon to be relocated into community housing. The methodology employs a range of psychometric measures in order to describe intellectual and social functioning, mental health, levels of challenging behaviour and quality of life and choice opportunities. The aim was to compile a profile of the individuals as a group in order to inform service planning and provision. Results illustrate that the group contains a range of individuals with complex and enduring needs. A discussion of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for these individuals and the services that support them is presented. The study presents an opportunity to re‐apply this methodology in future years in order to evaluate whether community living has brought tangible benefits to the group.