Jeff Gold, Tony Oldroyd, Ed Chesters, Amanda Booth and Adrian Waugh
This paper seeks to show appreciation for the collective endeavour of work practices based on varying degrees of dependence, interdependence and mutuality between at least two…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to show appreciation for the collective endeavour of work practices based on varying degrees of dependence, interdependence and mutuality between at least two people. Such dependencies have to be concerned with how talent is used and how this use is an interaction between people, a process called talenting. The aim of this paper is to provide a method to explore talenting.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a brief overview of recent debates relating to talent management (TM). This paper argues that TM seldom pays attention to work practices where performance is frequently a collective endeavour. A mapping method is explained to identify work practices and obtain narrative data. This paper provides a case to explore talenting in West Yorkshire Police.
Findings
In total, 12 examples are found and 3 are presented showing the value of various forms of dependency to achieve outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
TM needs to move beyond employment practices to work practices. There is a need to close the gap between traditional TM employment practices, usually individually focused, and work practices which are most likely to require a collective endeavour.
Practical implications
There needs be ongoing appreciation of talenting to add to TM activities.
Social implications
This paper recognises a more inclusive approach to TM based on work performance.
Originality/value
This paper, to the best of the authors’s knowledge, is probably the first enquiry of its kind.
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Samantha Evans, Amanda Pyman and Iona Byford
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of a managerial approach to renewal for a union’s behaviour by analysing the UK’s fourth largest trade union – The Union…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of a managerial approach to renewal for a union’s behaviour by analysing the UK’s fourth largest trade union – The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW).
Design/methodology/approach
The findings draw on in-depth semi-structured interviews with union officials.
Findings
The research findings show the significance of a managerialist approach to UDSAW’s renewal strategy and its correlation with existing renewal strategies of organising and partnership. However, this approach was not immune to context, with tensions between agency and articulation challenging the basic concept of managerialism and influencing union behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The data were collected from a single case with a small sample size.
Practical implications
The authors’ findings suggest that tensions between bureaucracy and democracy will mediate the extent to which managerialist approaches can be used within unions adding support to the strategic choice theory and underlying arguments that unions can influence their fortune. However, institutional and external pressures could see managerialism becoming more prevalent, with oligarchic and bureaucratic forces prevailing, which could be particularly applicable to unions operating in challenging contexts, such as USDAW. The managerialisation of unions has consequences for union officers; with officers facing increasing pressure in their roles to behave as managers with attendant implications for role conflict, identity and motivation.
Social implications
If managerialism is becoming more prevalent with unions, with oligarchic and bureaucratic forces prevailing, this has potentially wider societal implications, whereby collectivism and worker-led democracy could become scarcer within unions and the workplace, thus irretrievably altering the nature of the employment relationship.
Originality/value
This paper brings together disparate themes in the literature to propose a conceptual framework of three key elements of managerialism: centralised strategies; performance management and the managerialisation of union roles. The authors’ findings demonstrate how there is scope for unions to adopt a hybrid approach to renewal, and to draw upon their internal resources, processes and techniques to implement change, including behavioural change. Consequently, theories and empirical studies of union renewal need to better reflect the complexities of approaches that unions are now adopting and further explore these models within the agency and articulation principles that underpin the nature of unions.
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The purpose of this paper is to outline an empirical study of how professionals experience work and learning in complex adaptive organisations. The study uses a complex adaptive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline an empirical study of how professionals experience work and learning in complex adaptive organisations. The study uses a complex adaptive systems approach, which forms the basis of a specifically developed conceptual framework for explaining professionals’ experiences of work and learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 professionals from a variety of organisations, industry sectors and occupations in Sydney, Australia. The transcripts were subjected to an adapted phenomenographic analysis, and an analysis using the complex adaptive organisations conceptual framework (CAOCF).
Findings
The findings indicated that professionals experienced learning mainly through work, where work was experienced as fluid and influenced by varying degrees of emergence, agency, complex social networks and adaptation. Further, the greater the degree of work fluidity, the greater the impetus towards learning through work, empirically indicating that the experience of learning in contemporary organisations is entwined with work.
Originality/value
This study used the concept of complex adaptive organisations as a conceptual framework, coupled with an adapted phenomenographic methodology, to investigate individual professionals’ experiences of work and learning. The adoption of the concept of complex adaptive organisations provided a rigorous way to adopt a complexity approach. In particular, the concept of emergence provides insights into how organisational complexity influences work and, subsequently, learning and adaptation.
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Nigel Cox, Amanda Clayson and Lucy Webb
The purpose of this paper is to develop further the understanding of co-productive methodological practice for substance use research by demonstrating the use of a mobile…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop further the understanding of co-productive methodological practice for substance use research by demonstrating the use of a mobile, multimedia interviewing aid by members of a UK recovery community.
Design/methodology/approach
A co-productive approach to data collection was piloted using a bespoke, audio-visual booth located in a range of recovery and community-focused social events. Audio-visual data were collaboratively selected, curated and analysed by recovery community partners and researchers.
Findings
Findings illustrate how a mobile audio-visual booth can be used successfully within co-productive research. This approach facilitated a better understanding of the experiences and practices of self-reflection within the recovery community as they worked together to create a meaningful recovery largely independent of conventional recovery services.
Research limitations/implications
This research was performed with one cohort of co-production members. However, the co-productive nature of the enquiry and the rich data this provided invites the making of cautious but firmer claims with regard to the transferability of this approach to similar recovery contexts.
Social implications
Co-productive approaches confer a meaningful impact upon members of the recovery community, and wider understanding of this approach will promote an impact upon others engaging in recovery, supporting growth of a practice-based and theoretically underpinned evidence base.
Originality/value
This study highlights use of digital technologies within co-productive community-based methodologies, reducing reliance upon academic expertise, and facilitating participant leadership in research. The analysis also signposts new areas for scholarly discussion in the area of co-productive, community-driven research.
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Mick Cunningham and JaneLee Waldock
A small number of studies have suggested that parental divorce may manifest during adulthood as low-level emotional distress characterized by painful feelings such as sadness or…
Abstract
Purpose
A small number of studies have suggested that parental divorce may manifest during adulthood as low-level emotional distress characterized by painful feelings such as sadness or self-blame. In light of the paucity of existing research on distress, the current study was designed to assess the presence of distress among a sample of young adults with divorced parents and to ascertain whether painful feelings accurately describe the primary ongoing consequences of parental divorce.
Methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with a sample of university students were conducted to investigate the concept of distress after parental divorce. Interview guides were designed to elicit responses about ways that parental divorce continues to influence the lives of young adults.
Findings
The study identified a set of ongoing stressors that do not overlap substantially with previous measures of post-divorce distress and that are often rooted in logistical difficulties. Three specific sources of distress are discussed: family coordination difficulties, struggles balancing the politics of parental expectations about time with their children, and perceptions of family fragmentation. These sources of distress frequently originate in the physical separation of parents’ households. Interviewees reported spending extra time and energy arranging family visits. Their choices about visiting parents frequently led to both feelings of guilt about the allocation of family time and a reduced sense of family cohesion. Ongoing logistical difficulties were much more commonly cited by young adults than painful feelings.
Originality/value
This qualitative investigation of distress suggests a significant re-orientation toward our understanding of the consequences of parental divorce is needed.
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Jayden R. Hunter, Brett A. Gordon, Stephen R. Bird and Amanda C. Benson
Workplace exercise programmes have been shown to increase employee participation in physical activities and improve health and fitness in the short-term. However, the limited…
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace exercise programmes have been shown to increase employee participation in physical activities and improve health and fitness in the short-term. However, the limited breadth of employee engagement across organisations combined with declining exercise adherence within individual studies indicates a need for better-informed programmes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate relationships between employee moderate-vigorous physical activity (exercise) participation and their perceived barriers and facilitators to engagement in onsite exercise, to inform the design and implementation of future workplace exercise interventions.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey identified employee demographics, exercise (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), perceived barriers (Corporate Exercise Barriers Scale) and facilitators to exercise at an Australian university.
Findings
Of the 252 full-time employees who responded, most reported meeting (43.7 per cent) or exceeding (42.9 per cent) exercise guidelines over the previous week. A lack of time or reduced motivation (p<0.001), exercise attitude (p<0.05), internal (p<0.01) and external (p<0.01) barriers towards workplace exercise participation were all associated with failure to attain government-recommended volumes of weekly exercise. Personal training (particularly for insufficiently active employees) and group exercise classes were identified as potential exercise facilitators. Walking, gym (fitness centre), swimming and cycling were identified as the preferred modes of exercise training.
Practical implications
Employees not meeting recommended volumes of exercise might require additional support such as individualised gym and cycling programmes with personal supervision to overcome reported exercise barriers to improve exercise participation, health and fitness.
Originality/value
This study identifies specific barriers and facilitators to workplace exercise participation perceived by university employees. These findings can be used to inform the design and implementation of workplace exercise programmes aiming to achieve wider workplace engagement and greater exercise adherence, particularly of less active employees.
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Carl Gustav Johannsen and Niels Ole Pors
Purpose — This article is inspired by sociology and institutional theory. It investigates how and why the adoption of Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) by…
Abstract
Purpose — This article is inspired by sociology and institutional theory. It investigates how and why the adoption of Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) by public and academic libraries in Europe reveals a remarkable variety and complexity. Primarily, it is observed differences in adoption and use of EBLIP — principles in different European countries that are in focus of the article.
Design/methodology/approach — The purpose of this article is to take a closer look upon these differences. The theoretical framework applied is inspired by a sociological approach, especially the notions developed within the framework of Scandinavian institutional theory. This approach invites to deal with the topic in a nuanced way by delivering fruitful concepts such as drivers for adopting new ideas, the importance of identity and organisational fields, concept migration, adoption processes and travel routes of ideas including the importance of imitation and translation of concepts. Furthermore, in this article, we will also consider the significance of topics such as organisational and information culture and leadership of adoption processes. The methodology can be classified as desktop research and some of the findings are based on a government-supported study in Denmark.
Findings — What was found in the course of the work? This will refer to analysis, discussion or results. The findings relate to the purposes and they are formulated in relation to six research questions. Findings are that several factors influence the adoption and use of EBLIP. The factors are among others national culture, cultural traits embedded in the value system of different types of library work and also related to information culture. The concept of organisational recipes appears to be a rather strong concept in relation to, for example, which forms of EBLIP a library adopt.
Research limitations/implications (if applicable) — The research clearly demonstrates that the diversified theoretical approach taken in this article would be fruitful as a starting point for further research.
Practical implications (if applicable) — A practical implication is that the library and information sector could benefit from the establishment of institutions that produce systematic reviews and also that the sector ought to be aware of the different forms of evidence-based practices classified as either soft or hard.
Originality/value — The article is one of the few in the field that introduces several new theoretical approaches together with an emphasis on cultures at different forms and levels.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine restaurant employees’ engagement in identity work to manage occupational stigma consciousness.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine restaurant employees’ engagement in identity work to manage occupational stigma consciousness.
Design/methodology/approach
Research methods included ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews.
Findings
Widespread societal stigma attached to food service work disturbed participants’ sense of coherence. Therefore, they undertook harmonizing their present and envisioned selves with “forever talk,” a form of identity work whereby people discursively construct desired, favorable and positive identities and self-concepts by discussing what they view themselves engaged and not engaged in forever. Participants employed three forever talk strategies: conceptualizing work durations, framing legitimate careers and managing feelings about employment. Consequently, their talk simultaneously resisted and reproduced restaurant work stigmatization. Findings elucidated occupational stigma consciousness, ambivalence about jobs considered “bad,” “dirty” and “not real,” discursive tools for negotiating laudable identities, and costs of equivocal work appraisals.
Originality/value
This study provides a valuable conceptual and theoretical contribution by developing a more comprehensive understanding of occupational stigma consciousness. Moreover, an identity work framework helps explain how and why people shape identities congruent with and supportive of self-concepts. Forever talk operates as a temporal “protect and preserve” reconciliation tool whereby people are able to construct positive self-concepts while holding marginalized, stereotyped and stigmatized jobs. This paper offers a unique empirical case of the ways in which people talk about possible future selves when their employment runs counter to professions normatively evaluated as esteemed and lifelong. Notably, research findings are germane for analyzing any identities (work and non-work related) that pose incoherence between extant and desired selves.