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1 – 10 of 17Amanda Williams, Katrin Heucher and Gail Whiteman
At the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, the Club of Rome in collaboration with a network of global contributors issued a statement calling for nations to declare a…
Abstract
At the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, the Club of Rome in collaboration with a network of global contributors issued a statement calling for nations to declare a planetary emergency. The statement calls for urgent action to prevent a global crisis due to the impact of human activity on the stability of the Earth’s life-support systems. Implications of the planetary emergency pose intriguing challenges for how managers address paradoxical sustainability challenges across spatial and temporal scales. In this chapter, the authors have two aims. First, the authors show that the planetary emergency is inherently paradoxical. To do this, the authors build an embedded view of the planetary emergency and argue that it is paradoxical due to key dynamics that emerge across organizational, economic, social, and environmental systems over time. Second, the authors advance paradox theory by exploring the paradoxical nature of the planetary emergency and propose a three-sequence framework for collective action including: (1) building a view of the planetary emergency across spatial and temporal scales, (2) collectively making sense of the planetary emergency, and (3) levering a paradoxical view of the planetary emergency to ensure effective action.
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Gail Whiteman, Thaddeus Müller and John M. Johnson
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the emotional experiences from qualitative research can enrich organization and management studies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the emotional experiences from qualitative research can enrich organization and management studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper's approach includes a review of the literature in sociology, anthropology, psychology, and feminist studies, in which scholars have argued convincingly for the explicit need to acknowledge and utilize the emotions of researchers as they study social and organizational phenomenon. Also, past research is emotionally re‐written as reflexive examples.
Findings
The use of emotions as qualitative researchers can enrich the understanding of organizational and social life by offering new questions, concepts, and theories. At the level of methodology, this leads one to develop and reflect upon an emotional and cognitive orientation of the field.
Originality/value
The majority of narratives in organization studies remain sanitized, emotion‐less texts. While a discussion of researcher‐emotion can remain a back‐stage activity between colleagues over dinner, It is believed that much can be gained by a more explicit discussion.
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Rebecca Bednarek, Miguel Pina e Cunha, Jonathan Schad and Wendy Smith
Over the past decades, scholars advanced foundational insights about paradox in organization theory. In this double volume, we seek to expand upon these insights through…
Abstract
Over the past decades, scholars advanced foundational insights about paradox in organization theory. In this double volume, we seek to expand upon these insights through interdisciplinary theorizing. We do so for two reasons. First, we think that now is a moment to build on those foundations toward richer, more complex insights by learning from disciplines outside of organization theory. Second, as our world increasingly faces grand challenges, scholars turn to paradox theory. Yet as the challenges become more complex, authors turn to other disciplines to ensure the requisite complexity of our own theories. To advance these goals, we invited scholars with knowledge in paradox theory to explore how these ideas could be expanded by outside disciplines. This provides a both/and opportunity for paradox theory: both learning from outside disciplines beyond existing boundaries and enriching our insights in organization scholarship. The result is an impressive collection of papers about paradox theory that draws from four outside realms – the realm of belief, the realm of physical systems, the realm of social structures, and the realm of expression. In this introduction, we expand on why paradox theory is ripe for interdisciplinary theorizing, explore the benefits of doing so, and introduce the papers in this double volume.
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The aim is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Organizations are finding that adopting sustainable practices because “it's the right thing to do” can have beneficial effects on profits, competitiveness, and hard‐to‐measure goodwill from customers and employees.
Practical implications
The piece provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.
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Miguel Pina e Cunha, Daniel Veiga Vieira, Arménio Rego and Stewart Clegg
The purpose of this paper is to ask why poor performance management practices persist in Portugal, in the middle of claims to increase productivity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to ask why poor performance management practices persist in Portugal, in the middle of claims to increase productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive micro-practice analysis is used to understand barriers to management practice that do not require massive institutional changes.
Findings
The practice of performance management in Portugal typically displays three weaknesses: (1) insufficient planning (2) process and integrity issues, and (3) a non-meritocratic logic.
Research limitations/implications
The paper discusses the important topic of persistence of bad practices, showing how institutionalized patterns might be difficult to eradicate even they are suboptimal.
Practical implications
The authors identity key issues in the functioning of performance management, therefore helping managers in developing remedies to improve the quality of their practice.
Originality/value
The paper explains the persistence of bad management practice whose continuity hinders not only organizations’ effectiveness but also that of their members.
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The purpose of this short paper is to comment on the powerful contribution researchers have made to the emerging field of Indigenous O&M scholarship.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this short paper is to comment on the powerful contribution researchers have made to the emerging field of Indigenous O&M scholarship.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the work in the field of Indigenous O&M.
Findings
Indigenous O&M research, first, has been driven by the effects of colonization and the attempts to reclaim traditional ways of researching, organizing and managing, second; has sought asylum in established critical and alternative fields of scholarship to create research legitimacy in the mainstream, and; third, produced novel methodological processes.
Originality/value
Several observations of the field will be made and some considerations are put forward to promote research within the tight – almost impenetrable – boundaries of the academy and its institutions.
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Rafael Borim-de-Souza, Beatriz Lima Zanoni, Jacques Haruo Fukushigue Jan-Chiba and Benilson Borinelli
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizations and sustainability as a field of knowledge possible to be accessed by descriptive and thematic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizations and sustainability as a field of knowledge possible to be accessed by descriptive and thematic representations extracted from administration area published papers about the subject.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper consists in a bibliometric study. It was considered five bases of journals indexation: AOM, Emerald, Elsevier, Sage and Wiley. By judgmental sampling, 11 journals were selected, in which, at the end of data collection, 192 papers were eligible to be analyzed by content and thematic analysis techniques.
Findings
In quantitative data analysis, it was implied that the field of knowledge identity was colonized by the Euro-American axis. In qualitative analysis, it was found that the investigated field of knowledge was built by 15 thematic representations, understood by three forms of comprehensions, enabled by four different debates.
Practical implications
In a political and ideological perspective of sustainability, the socioenvironmental interests are silenced by a dominant power. Along these lines, the theme is managed, instrumentalized and commercialized by a dominant power. This paper aims to make these relations between organizations and sustainability public. The investigated field of knowledge houses a dominant discursive representation interest in respect to the investigated relations.
Originality/value
This paper innovates by considering conceptual frameworks of sustainable development and sustainability developed from contributions extracted from organizational theories, sociological reflections and political science orientations. The selection was necessary to ensure the theoretical viability of the discussion proposed by this paper.
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Laura Claus, Mark de Rond, Jennifer Howard-Grenville and Jan Lodge
We explore the lived experience of organizational scholars who have conducted fieldwork in unsettling contexts. Through analyzing our interviews with these scholars, we find…
Abstract
We explore the lived experience of organizational scholars who have conducted fieldwork in unsettling contexts. Through analyzing our interviews with these scholars, we find themes around the causes and consequences of unsettling fieldwork, and the coping strategies employed. We reflect on the often overlooked emotional and relational aspects of conducting and coping with unsettling fieldwork, and offer some suggestions for how scholars might support each other, especially given the increasing prevalence of organizational scholarship that pushes boundaries by engaging unconventional topics and settings.
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The purpose of this paper is to offer practical researcher self-care strategies to prepare for and manage the emotions involved in doing organizational ethnographic research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer practical researcher self-care strategies to prepare for and manage the emotions involved in doing organizational ethnographic research. Institutional ethics policies or research training programs may not provide guidance, yet emotions are an integral part of research, particularly for ethnographers immersed in the field or those working with sensitive topics or vulnerable or marginalized people.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork over nine months with a voluntary organization in the UK, Yarl’s Wood Befrienders, to explore the experiences and activities of volunteer visitors who offer emotional support to women detained indefinitely in an immigration removal center. The author is a “complete member researcher,” or “at-home ethnographer,” a volunteer visitor and a former detainee.
Findings
The author describes the emotional impact the research personally had on her and shares learning from overcoming “compassion fatigue.” Self-care strategies based on the literature are recommended, such as a researcher self-assessment, identification of the emotional risks of the research, and self-care plan formulated during project planning. Suggested resources and activities to support the well-being of researchers are explored.
Practical implications
This paper provides practical resources for researchers to prepare for and cope with emotional and mental health risks throughout the research process. It builds awareness of safeguarding researchers and supporting them with handling emotional disruptions. Without adequate support, they may be psychologically harmed and lose the potential to critically engage with emotions as data.
Originality/value
The literature on emotions in doing research rarely discusses self-care strategies. This paper offers an actionable plan for researchers to instil emotional and mental well-being into the research design to navigate emotional challenges in the field and build resilience.
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