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1 – 10 of 46Michael Knoll, Anindo Bhattacharjee and Wim Vandekerckhove
This paper aims to explore how the context in a dynamically developing country affects employee silence in India.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how the context in a dynamically developing country affects employee silence in India.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews with employees and managers from different sectors in the Mumbai and Delhi areas. An abductive approach was used to analyze the data.
Findings
Two types of social mobility concerns – advancement aspiration and fear of social decline – emerged as salient drivers of silence and can be attributed to a volatile job market, social status markers, transferability of qualification, someone’s socio-economic situation and the overall economic situation. Pathways were specified from social mobility concerns to silence tendencies that are motivated by both low approach and high avoidance.
Research limitations/implications
Social mobility as a specific factor in the Indian distal context and as a characteristic of emerging markets can motivate silence while organization-related concepts like job satisfaction or commitment may have less predictive value. Propositions that were derived from the interview study need to be validated by deductive research. Generalizability of Indian findings across other emergent markets needs to be shown.
Originality/value
To the organizational behavior (OB) scholarship on silence, this research contributes by identifying antecedents of silence that are situated beyond the organizational boundaries challenging the dominant role of established factors at the team- and organizational level. To the human resource management/employment relations (HRM/ER) scholarship, this research contributes by theorizing psychological processes that link environmental factors to silence behaviors.
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Tina Saksida, Michael Maffie, Katarina Katja Mihelič, Barbara Culiberg and Ajda Merkuž
Drawing on psychological contract (PC) theory and platform labor research, the purpose of our study was to explore gig workers’ reactions to perceived PC violation. Our study was…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on psychological contract (PC) theory and platform labor research, the purpose of our study was to explore gig workers’ reactions to perceived PC violation. Our study was set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought workplace health and safety issues into much sharper focus, even in nonstandard employment arrangements like gig work.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed a mixed-methods design. In Study 1, we tested a conceptual model of US-based ride-hail drivers’ (n = 202) affective and cognitive reactions to Uber’s (lack of) commitment to safe working conditions. In Study 2, we conducted interviews with 32 platform workers to further explore an unexpected finding from Study 1.
Findings
In Study 1, we found that drivers’ perceptions of PC violation were related to decreased trust in Uber and higher intentions to leave this line of work; however, cynicism toward Uber only predicted withdrawal intentions for those drivers who did not believe that they had job alternatives available outside of gig work. We explored this further in Study 2, where we found that workers with low economic dependence on gig work could afford to be casually cynical toward the platform, while high-dependence workers felt “trapped” in this line of work.
Originality/value
We contribute to the social/relational theoretical approach to gig work more broadly and to the literature on PC in platform work more specifically. We also add to the emerging literature on how economic dependence shapes workers’ experience of platform work. Our findings around low-dependence gig workers experiencing a more indifferent form of cynicism – which we have termed casual cynicism – highlight the importance of treating the context of gig work as unique, not merely an extension of traditional management research.
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Adrian Wilkinson, Michael Barry, Leah Hague, Amanda Biggs and Paula Brough
In recent years, in research and policy circles, there is growing interest in the subject of speaking up (and silence) within the health sector, and there is a consensus that it…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, in research and policy circles, there is growing interest in the subject of speaking up (and silence) within the health sector, and there is a consensus that it is a major issue that needs to be addressed. However, there remain gaps in our knowledge and while scholars talk of a voice system – that is the existence of complementary voice channels designed to allow employees to speak up – empirical evidence is limited. We seek to explore the notion of a voice system in a healthcare organisation as comprising structures and cultures as seen from different stakeholder perspectives. What do they see and how do they behave and why? To what extent do the users see a voice system they can access and easily navigate?
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews and focus groups were conducted with a voice stakeholder group (e.g. designers of the system from senior management and HR, which comprised 23 staff members) as well as those who have to use the system, with 13 managers and 26 employees from three units within a metropolitan hospital: an oncology department, an intensive care unit and a community health service. Overall, a total of 62 staff members participated and the data were analysed using grounded theory to identify key themes.
Findings
This study revealed that although a plethora of formal voice structures existed, these were not always visible or accessible to staff, leading to confusion as to who to speak up to about which issues. Equally other avenues which were not designated voice platforms were used by employees to get their voices heard.
Originality/value
This papers looks at the voice system across the organisation rather than examining a specific scheme. In doing so it enables us to see the lived perceptions and experiences of potential users of these schemes and their awareness of the system as a whole.
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Sewanu Awhangansi, Titilayo Salisu, Oluwayemisi Awhangansi, Adefunke Dadematthews, Eghonghon Abumere, Benazir Siddiq, Eden Phillips, Meera Mogan, Ayoyimika Olushola, Atim Archibong, Adeniran Okewole, Increase Adeosun, Oladipo Sowunmi, Sunday Amosu, Michael Lewis, Philip John Archard, Olugbenga Owoeye and Michelle O'Reilly
This paper aims to examine the role of bullying victimization in predicting psychopathology, encompassing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risk of developing prodromal…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the role of bullying victimization in predicting psychopathology, encompassing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risk of developing prodromal psychosis and emotional and behavioural problems, among in-school Nigerian adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 351 junior secondary students (n = 173 males, 178 females; age range: 9–17 years) were recruited from five randomly selected public secondary schools in Nigeria. Students completed a variety of self-report measures, including a socio-demographic questionnaire, the prodromal questionnaire – brief version, the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) and the multidimensional peer victimization scale. They were also interviewed using the PTSD module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Kid Version.
Findings
Although bullying victimization was not found to predict the presence of PTSD, it predicted the risk of developing prodromal psychosis. All SDQ subscales also held significant positive associations with bullying victimization. This indicates that higher levels of victimization are associated with increased behavioural and emotional difficulties among adolescents.
Practical implications
The study findings add support to whole system approaches involving relevant stakeholders in health, education, social and criminal justice sectors via protective policies to address the problems of bullying in schools.
Originality/value
The study contributes to evidence demonstrating a need for improved understanding regarding the role of exposure to bullying victimization in predicting various forms of psychopathology. Furthermore, there is specifically a need for research with this focus in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Nigerian education system.
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This paper aims to illustrate, by means of a content analysis of 278 weekly School Meeting minutes, the ways in which student voice is actualized in one democratic free school in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to illustrate, by means of a content analysis of 278 weekly School Meeting minutes, the ways in which student voice is actualized in one democratic free school in Germany.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a qualitative content analysis methodology of 278 weekly School Meetings minutes.
Findings
This paper uses Fielding’s (2012) patterns of partnership typology to illustrate what counts as student voice and participation in a democratic free school.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations included being reliant on translations of German texts, some missing minutes from the entire set, the lack of a single author for the minutes (and thus degree of detail differs) and the fact that the School Meeting minutes make reference to other meetings for various sub-committees for which no minutes exist, and thus, findings on the degree of student voice may be limited. And because this is a study of one school, generalizability may be difficult. Future research into these sub-committee meetings would prove helpful as well as content analyses of other democratic free schools’ meeting minutes.
Originality/value
This study can help people more deeply understand what goes on in democratic free schools and what student voice and participation can mean within this context.
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Stefania Denise Escobar and Colin Michael Hall
This study explores the relationship between Tourism Systems and Smart Cities, aiming to identify what prevents public managers from including these systems in Smart City…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the relationship between Tourism Systems and Smart Cities, aiming to identify what prevents public managers from including these systems in Smart City strategies. This separation neglects that increasing tourism attractiveness may also impact city resources, infrastructures and inhabitants.
Design/methodology/approach
To this end, we developed a critical literature review consulting three databases: Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCOhost. A total of 73 articles were selected and analyzed through thematic analysis.
Findings
Through this critical review, we develop a framework of barriers to integrating a tourism system in Smart City strategies composed of four main barrier themes and 11 barrier factors. Findings show the need for innovative research and public managers to go beyond considerations related to technological challenges and instead focus on other barriers hindering integration, such as the lack of participatory governance and knowledge of tourism systems' current and future impact.
Originality/value
This study offers a critical identification of barriers impeding the inclusion of tourism systems in Smart City strategies, providing a useful guideline for public managers aiming to follow an innovative approach to smart development where tourism can still be a tool to enhance the attractiveness of the territory while considering its current and future impact on the city.
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Kidjie Saguin and Michael Howlett
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) use indicators in an attempt to foster policy integration and coherence in order to achieve transformative societal change. But the…
Abstract
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) use indicators in an attempt to foster policy integration and coherence in order to achieve transformative societal change. But the SDGs, like their predecessor Millennium Goals, have not been entirely successful in this effort. Many studies have identified continuing challenges to integrating multiple goals in this way, linked to the complex patterns of interaction between the goals and the nature of the policy systems and subsystems in which they operate. This chapter builds on the policy design literature to argue that the main aim of the SDGs is to reconcile what are otherwise incoherent policy goals and inconsistent policy instruments in a process of policy integration. This process is made more complex in the case of this kind of “super-wicked” problem in which multiple actors face time constraints across multiple policy levels, sectors and venues. It identifies four different techniques for policy integration in such policy nexuses – policy harmonization, mainstreaming, coordination, and institutionalization – and assesses their possibilities for success in the SDG case against what is possible given the nature of the nexus and the capacity of governments to deal with it. The paper contributes to the current literature on policy integration, wicked problems, and the SDGs by further conceptualizing how integrative strategies can be better designed and implemented through capacity-building efforts aimed at developing coordinative relationships within conflict-ridden, multi-actor and multilevel cross-sectoral policy domains.
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Studies have shown that doctoral students are at risk of mental health issues that result from the demands and workload in doctoral programs, poor work relationships with…
Abstract
Studies have shown that doctoral students are at risk of mental health issues that result from the demands and workload in doctoral programs, poor work relationships with supervisors, and delays in graduation. Research also shows that savoring good moments can help individuals maintain and foster their wellbeing. Drawing on data from a larger phenomenological research study (Al Makhamreh, 2019), this chapter presents a discussion of the importance of savoring for wellbeing based on findings from 19 doctoral students in Canadian universities. Findings demonstrate that numerous students were able to face the challenges in their doctoral programs by savoring happy moments that benefited their wellbeing and fueled their energy to keep going to achieve their goals. Recommendations for universities include offering students courses, training, interventions, and workshops on savoring and positive psychology in general. Additionally, providing savoring outlets and opportunities (e.g., gardens and gardening activities) could help students maximize their program experiences and satisfaction.
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Siew Chen Sim, Sheng Huang, Michael James Mustafa and Wen Li Chan
This study aims to explore how training influences employee proactive behaviours in entrepreneurial ventures. Specifically, the study develops and tests a model in which…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how training influences employee proactive behaviours in entrepreneurial ventures. Specifically, the study develops and tests a model in which organisational identification (OID) mediates the relationship between perceptions of training and two employee proactive behaviours: taking charge and creative behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from 136 employee-supervisor dyads from 24 entrepreneurial ventures in Malaysia’s high technology industry. Smart–partial least square structural equations modelling was used to test our proposed hypothesis.
Findings
The findings suggest that entrepreneurial ventures can use training to strengthen employees’ identification with the ventures, which in turn encourages proactive behaviours.
Originality/value
This study shows how HRD practices found in larger firms can work in different ways to influence desirable behaviours among employees of entrepreneurial firms. Specifically, by demonstrating how the relationship between training and employee proactive behaviours occurs through OID in the context of entrepreneurial ventures, the authors provide a complementary explanation of how HRD practices in entrepreneurial ventures can influence employee positive behaviours.
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