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Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2024

Thomas Lopdrup-Hjorth and Paul du Gay

Organizations are confronted with problems and political risks to which they have to respond, presenting a need to develop tools and frames of understanding requisite to do so. In…

Abstract

Organizations are confronted with problems and political risks to which they have to respond, presenting a need to develop tools and frames of understanding requisite to do so. In this article, we argue for the necessity of cultivating “political judgment” with a “sense of reality,” especially in the upper echelons of organizations. This article has two objectives: First to highlight how a number of recent interlinked developments within organizational analysis and practice have contributed to weakening judgment and its accompanying “sense of reality.” Second, to (re)introduce some canonical works that, although less in vogue recently, provide both a source of wisdom and frames of understanding that are key to tackling today’s problems. We begin by mapping the context in which the need for the cultivation of political judgment within organizations has arisen: (i) increasing proliferation of political risks and “wicked problems” to which it is expected that organizations adapt and respond; (ii) a wider historical and contemporary context in which the exercise of judgment has been undermined – a result of a combination of economics-inspired styles of theorizing and an associated obsession with metrics. We also explore the nature of “political judgment” and its accompanying “sense of reality” through the work of authors such as Philip Selznick, Max Weber, Chester Barnard, and Isaiah Berlin. We suggest that these authors have a weighty “sense of reality”; are antithetical to “high,” “abstract,” or “axiomatic” theorizing; and have a profound sense of the burden from exercising political judgment in difficult organizational circumstances.

Details

Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83549-588-9

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Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 November 2017

Marco Bevolo

The purpose of this paper is to report the grounded theory empirical validation on key categories within a design-led methodology to envision urban futures. The paper focuses on…

1508

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report the grounded theory empirical validation on key categories within a design-led methodology to envision urban futures. The paper focuses on the editorial products and the design concepts that constitute the heart of the approach. An original elaboration of trend clusters is presented as an exemplification of the outcome of this trend research approach. Although the approach was not created from the viewpoint of tourism and leisure, bibliographic notes on place-making complement it for this journal.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents empirical findings extracted by the means of the grounded theory, with the purpose to empirically validate two key categories (product and process) of a urban futures methodology. The methodology is an application of High Design, the process in use at Royal Philips BV for two decades. This methodology is contextualized within the constructivist episteme, as defined by the editors of this journal in a separate publication. Bibliographic references to place-making complete the paper.

Findings

The following findings are provided: empirical validation of the city.people.light communication platform (qualitative research); empirical validation of the city.people.light workshop practice (qualitative research); and bibliographic descriptions of the design process governing city.people.light and newly developed urban futures trend clusters, at European level, as an exemplification of the program/approach outcome.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is structured according to a multi-layered editorial focus. Empirical findings were generated at primary research level in a 2013-2015 grounded theory projected by the author. Furthermore, the author directed the research processes and products that are the object of empirical validation. Newly defined elaborations and a discussion thereof is offered, taking into account contemporary place-making issues.

Practical implications

The original design-based methodology is a structured practice in urban futures from applied sciences and corporate innovation viewpoint. In this paper, its key categories are empirically validated through the grounded theory. Additionally, outcome from the original foresight programs is presented and a bibliographic review is provided from the viewpoint of place-making.

Social implications

The co-creative methodology herein empirically validated is socio-cultural centered, with a strong drive to coutnerbalance the positivist and engineering corporate mindset through a humanistic concern for people. The framework in terms of place-making takes into account postmodern evolutions of the field.

Originality/value

The paper benefits from a unique mix of: epistemic note on tourism, leisure, and the future; original urban futures scenarios and design concepts from a world class corporate innovation program; and the actual empirical core of the grounded theory validation as performed in a dedicated research project. These three separate streams are mutually related.

Details

Journal of Tourism Futures, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-5911

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 July 2024

Nina Du Toit, Philip Steenkamp, Dewald van Niekerk and Andre Groenewald

Research indicates a significant risk of economic crime associated with post-disaster funding. The purpose of this paper is to assess the characteristics of post-disaster funding…

278

Abstract

Purpose

Research indicates a significant risk of economic crime associated with post-disaster funding. The purpose of this paper is to assess the characteristics of post-disaster funding that make it susceptible to the risk of economic crime and to analyse how the statutory and regulatory disaster risk management instruments of South Africa aim to manage post-disaster events.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses secondary sources such as, but not limited to, legislation, institutional reports, textbooks and peer-reviewed academic journal articles.

Findings

Post-disaster funding is inherently susceptible to economic crime due to characteristics identified such as time pressure; substantial inflow of money, goods and services; inadequate needs assessment, large-scale reconstruction and the involvement of contractors or suppliers; power imbalance; and the responsibility of governments. The Disaster Management Act and National Disaster Management Framework provide an extensive regulatory framework for mitigating post-disaster funding risks by attempting to find a balance between quick aid distribution and financial controls. This paper finds that even though South Africa is known to have some of the best disaster risk management laws, the pervasive nature of the characteristics could still render post-disaster funding structures susceptible to the risk of economic crime.

Originality/value

There is limited scientific research on this topic. The expected prevalence of future disasters requires the regulatory and legislative disaster risk management instruments to evolve concomitantly. Research on this topic must continue to ensure that risks associated with post-disaster funding and its susceptibility to economic crime can be mitigated as far as possible.

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 December 2022

Miriam O'Regan, Aiden Carthy, Colm McGuinness and Philip Owende

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on student work readiness outcomes of collaboration with employers in developing and delivering tailored graduate employability…

3074

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on student work readiness outcomes of collaboration with employers in developing and delivering tailored graduate employability workshops in socio-emotional skills for work (SES4Work).

Design/methodology/approach

Framed by the CareerEDGE model of graduate employability, the authors piloted a five-session module for near graduates in five disciplines. The research included an online employer survey (n = 128), employer interviews (n = 21) and tailored workshops for near graduates, culminating in a mock competency-based interview. Using a pre/post-test design, participants (n = 24) also completed the CareerEDGE Employability Development Profile (EDP) and the Trait Emotional Intelligence questionnaire (TEIque).

Findings

After completing the module, there was a statistically significant improvement in participant scores on the CareerEDGE EDP +12.3%, p < 0.001, effect size (Cohen's d) 0.89, large, and the TEIque +6.4%, p = 0.009, effect size (Cohen's d) 0.61, moderate. Furthermore, 70% (n = 17) of participants were “hired” based on their mock interviews, with 12% (n = 4) offered employer connections after graduation.

Originality/value

This is the first academic research in Ireland to develop and evaluate an enterprise-collaborative, discipline-specific module for enhancing graduate employability. Findings suggest that employer collaboration can enhance the efficacy of employability interventions and therefore merits further research.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 65 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

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Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 August 2023

Tatiana Anisimova, Soniya Billore and Philip J. Kitchen

Via the lens of the ego-depletion phenomenon (Baumeister et al., 1998) and Higgins' (1998) regulatory focus theory, this paper seeks to explain why current controlled…

1303

Abstract

Purpose

Via the lens of the ego-depletion phenomenon (Baumeister et al., 1998) and Higgins' (1998) regulatory focus theory, this paper seeks to explain why current controlled communications are failing to achieve coherence between people's free will and their actions pursuing sustainable goals in a society. This paper explains how ego-depletion triggered by controlled communications can lead to confusion and decision fatigue in a society, thus potentially sabotaging people's participation in sustainable behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors applied Jaakkola's (2020) theory synthesis approach to integrate concepts from previously unconnected disciplines in order to generate novel insights in the area of controlled communication management.

Findings

The authors develop a theoretical framework and present research propositions that can help advance research and the discourse at the intersection of controlled communication and self-regulation theories.

Research limitations/implications

This paper possesses the limitations associated with conceptual papers, e.g. the lack of empirical support of the study’s conceptual arguments.

Practical implications

This paper generates novel insights to assist communication practitioners and policymakers to improve vehicles and mechanisms of controlled communication with the public regarding sustainable goals pursuit.

Originality/value

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is one of the first papers that has merged the domains of self-regulation, ego-depletion, and controlled communication in an integrative framework in order to explain the mechanisms of how to enhance the effectiveness of controlled communication associated with sustainable goals pursuit.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 April 2023

Jestine Philip, Katharina Gilli and Michael Knappstein

Even with the recognized impact organizational leaders have on the outcome of digital transformation (DT), a comprehensive scholarly understanding of the competencies that leaders…

7323

Abstract

Purpose

Even with the recognized impact organizational leaders have on the outcome of digital transformation (DT), a comprehensive scholarly understanding of the competencies that leaders must possess to lead a DT to success is lacking.

Design/methodology/approach

To derive and list the competencies considered by experts as necessary for managing DT, the authors recruited 18 international senior managers with relevant experience and applied the Delphi method to survey the managers. Upon the completion of three survey rounds and the authors modifying the response list until consensus was reached, 39 items were shortlisted as constituting key competencies for managing DT. Furthermore, the authors engaged in inductive theorizing to derive propositional statements using these findings.

Findings

The practitioners agreed on visionary thinking, agility, understanding the value of data, data-driven decision-making, knowledge of strategy and accepting change as the most important requirements for managing DT. Through inductive theorizing, the authors further derived that the seven discovered clusters fell into two broader competencies – behavioral and strategic – and that each behavioral competency would have varying importance depending on the country and industry that the organization operates in.

Research limitations/implications

As is typical for Delphi studies that involve multiple survey rounds, the study participant response rate was moderate. The implications of this study, in finding that a variety of leadership competencies are needed to ensure successful DT, validate prior research that people, not technology, drive DT.

Practical implications

This study helps mitigate assumptions that successful DT processes are only possible by hiring technological experts, as doing so highlights the importance of behavioral leadership competencies.

Originality/value

The study is one of the first to interlink digital leadership with DT by inductively theorizing behavioral and strategic competencies. The authors also establish that contexts are vital in determining which aspects of leadership competencies are deemed most important in driving DT.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 44 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 September 2024

Maria Spante and Philip Moffitt

The purpose of this study is the development of a methodology that draws on activity theory (AT) to assess educators’ and leaders’ professional learning in a pre-school setting.

232

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is the development of a methodology that draws on activity theory (AT) to assess educators’ and leaders’ professional learning in a pre-school setting.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports on a case study of professional development in an active learning classroom (ALC) where 20 professionals participated in a one-day writing workshop. AT was used to analyse the writing workshop as well as data from reflective writing, video recordings, interviews and surveys.

Findings

The paper shows that professional development is significantly influenced by a range of mediating technologies used in educational spaces such as the ALC. The mediated practice breaks normal work practice in the pre-school activity system and division of labour roles, and hierarchical positions and professional relationships. Such a break is considered to facilitate a manifestation of professional learning. However, it also poses a risk for organisational disruptions emphasising the need for diagnostic understanding when an ALC should be used for capturing workplace learning.

Practical implications

Structured writing workshops – taking place in ALCs – provide a suitable forum that breaks with routines, accelerates collective reflections and articulation of negotiated meaning and produces a common ground across hierarchical roles supporting collective professional development in the activity system.

Originality/value

Unlike previous research focusing on student perspectives, this study views these spaces as settings for professionals to recognise and solve developmental problems. It suggests that structured writing workshops in ALCs can accelerate collective reflection and support collective professional development across hierarchical roles.

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 December 2020

M. Karim Sorour, Philip J. Shrives, Ahmed Ayman El-Sakhawy and Teerooven Soobaroyen

This paper seeks to investigate to what extent (and why) CSR reporting in developing countries reflect instrumental and/or “political CSR” motivations and the types of…

8361

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to investigate to what extent (and why) CSR reporting in developing countries reflect instrumental and/or “political CSR” motivations and the types of organisational legitimacy sought in these circumstances.

Design/methodology/approach

We adopt a theoretical framework based on neo-institutional theory, “political CSR” framework and types of organisational legitimacy. This interpretive research is set in the Egyptian context post-2011 revolution. We first carry out a content analysis of web disclosures for 40 banks in 2013 and 2016 to ascertain the nature of CSR activities and any changes over time. Second, we draw on 21 interviews to tease out the implications of the change in societal expectations due to the revolution and to deepen our understanding of the organisational motivations underlying CSR reporting.

Findings

Following the 2011 revolution, the banks’ CSR reporting practices have gradually shifted from a largely instrumental “business-case” perspective towards a more substantive recognition of a wider set of societal challenges consistent with a political CSR perspective. Overall, the maintaining/gaining of legitimacy is gradually bound to the communication of accounts about the multi-faceted socially valued consequences or structures performed by banks. Our interview data shows that participants reflected on the legitimation challenges brought by the revolution and the limits of transactional strategies involving traditional constituents, with a preference for pursuing consequential and structural forms of moral legitimacy.

Research limitations/implications

This study demonstrates a constructive shift by businesses towards engaging with the new social rules in response to sociopolitical changes and the need to achieve moral legitimacy. Hence, policymakers and stakeholders could consider engaging with different economic sectors to foster more transparent, accountable, and impactful CSR practices.

Originality/value

We highlight the implications of Scherer and Palazzo’s political CSR approach for accountability and CSR reporting. CSR reporting in some developing countries has typically been seen as peripheral or a symbolic exercise primarily concerned with placating stakeholders and/or promoting shareholders’ interests. We suggest that researchers need to be instead attuned to the possibility of a blend of instrumental and normative motivations.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 January 2022

Philip Roth

Informal knowledge sharing interactions (IKSI) are of particular value for innovation projects. This is especially true for unplanned IKSI, because they are even more likely to…

1589

Abstract

Purpose

Informal knowledge sharing interactions (IKSI) are of particular value for innovation projects. This is especially true for unplanned IKSI, because they are even more likely to provide non-redundant knowledge and new perspectives than planned IKSI. Seminal studies have shown that the formation of unplanned IKSI can be explained on the basis of spatial structures. Strictly speaking, however, these studies only explain unplanned encounters. Whether unplanned IKSI result from these unplanned encounters, though, cannot be satisfactorily explained on the basis of spatial configurations alone. The purpose of this paper is to tackle this explanatory gap by unraveling the fundamental social processes by application of the symbolic interaction theory.

Design/methodology/approach

For this purpose, the formation of 132 IKSI on innovation projects from three research and development departments of large companies was recorded in detail using a combination of diaries and interviews. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Findings

The analysis reveals that IKSI cause symbolic costs (image damages), and that these costs vary between types of social situations. Because actors anticipate situation-specific costs, their propensity to initiate IKSI can be explained in terms of the situations in which they encounter one another. Furthermore, the analysis reveals six particularly relevant characteristics of situations and further elaborates the basic argument by analyzing their functioning.

Originality/value

The paper complements previous explanations of unplanned IKSI by opening up the social processes underlying their formation.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 26 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 April 2024

Yanmin Zhou, Zheng Yan, Ye Yang, Zhipeng Wang, Ping Lu, Philip F. Yuan and Bin He

Vision, audition, olfactory, tactile and taste are five important senses that human uses to interact with the real world. As facing more and more complex environments, a sensing…

1433

Abstract

Purpose

Vision, audition, olfactory, tactile and taste are five important senses that human uses to interact with the real world. As facing more and more complex environments, a sensing system is essential for intelligent robots with various types of sensors. To mimic human-like abilities, sensors similar to human perception capabilities are indispensable. However, most research only concentrated on analyzing literature on single-modal sensors and their robotics application.

Design/methodology/approach

This study presents a systematic review of five bioinspired senses, especially considering a brief introduction of multimodal sensing applications and predicting current trends and future directions of this field, which may have continuous enlightenments.

Findings

This review shows that bioinspired sensors can enable robots to better understand the environment, and multiple sensor combinations can support the robot’s ability to behave intelligently.

Originality/value

The review starts with a brief survey of the biological sensing mechanisms of the five senses, which are followed by their bioinspired electronic counterparts. Their applications in the robots are then reviewed as another emphasis, covering the main application scopes of localization and navigation, objection identification, dexterous manipulation, compliant interaction and so on. Finally, the trends, difficulties and challenges of this research were discussed to help guide future research on intelligent robot sensors.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. 44 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

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