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Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

This paper will investigate some of the theoretical and methodological problems associated with the way ‘culture’ is defined and studied in organizational settings. In short we raise the fundamental question of how culture is understood and explained, i.e., how does one actually ‘discover’ the culture of an organization? The paper will consider these issues in the context of research conducted by the authors on organizational mergers in which culture is defined as a network of communication rules/norms.

Presents a gendered analysis of the reconstitution of professional subjectivities, as part of the New Public Management (NPM) discourse in the UK police service. Draws on texts generated from interviews with police uniform and civilian professional/managers in two constabularies. Explores the ways in which individuals have received and responded to the NPM discourse. Analysis of these texts suggests the promotion of specific gendered meanings of commitment, based on high visibility and unquestioning loyalty. Drawing on a Foucauldain feminist framework, illustrates how individuals exploit the weaknesses, contradictions and spaces revealed in the NPM discourse. This takes place through thought and action, stimulated by tension, discomfort, paradox and difference and may result in accomodation, adaptation or denial of the subject positions offered.

This study uses a microanalysis of interaction approach to study how interactive service workers collaborate with one another in conversations to construct their professional identity in the face of the rapid contextual change. The data consist of (1) a complex written exchange downloaded from an Internet listserv and (2) a mechanically recorded conversation and detailed transcript showing the exact sequence of turns in the conversation, overlapping utterances, laughter, and speech errors. Everyday descriptions in these conversations reveal how knowledge workers produce and reproduce professional identity and a shared culture in the ways they: (1) categorize themselves and other workers, (2) amend or collaborate on each other's characterizations of clients, and (3) negotiate local policies and rules as they intersect with professional values and emotional boundaries. The results demonstrate a need for opportunities to integrate the increasing complexity of interactive service into professional identity as a response to technological and social change.

Based on case studies collected at two UK factories, the issues which arise during JIT implementation are examined. These cases show that the changes involved in a move towards JIT have a political dimension. The implication is drawn that, in implementing a JIT system, production managers need to consider the strategic aspects of the change as much as they do the machines and materials aspects. An equally strategic approach to human resource management is indicated.

One of the central tenets of total quality control is that responsibility for quality lies at the point of production. Salancik′s model of commitment is used to describe systems of work organisation which encourage employees to take on this responsibility. Commitment to quality can be fostered by managing the context within which production takes place. Management of the human aspects of total quality control may be informed by relevant ideas from the commitment literature.

The purpose of this article is to introduce qualitative research in literacy that has been significant in educators understanding difference in young people’s literacy learning.

The approach has been to select influential investigations that have impacted over time and to summarise the insights provided.

This article foregrounds research that helps educators understand learner difference as positive resources and that contests approaches which perpetuate deficit discourses.

The article offers a distinctive and selective reading of literacy studies to highlight and remind readers of what is known about language and literacy learning that should not be ignored in designing further research nor in interpreting existing studies.

The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive, study is to help us better understand how a small group of Hmong immigrant adolescents conceptualize their political and civic citizenship in the United States. Three focus groups including a total of 18 Hmong middle/junior high school adolescents were carried out in order to garner data. Upon data analysis and interpretation, it was determined that study participants consider rights and responsibilities important to citizenship in a democracy and participate in various social, political, academic, and environmental activities. Study participants emphasize the community good over personal self-interests. As Hmong culture tends to be more collectivist in nature, this value orientation may be incompatible with the curriculum, instruction, and philosophy that students experience in public schools: Hmong youth may experience educational disadvantage. Adolescents in this study are developing their conceptions of citizenship within a racialized, hierarchical society and they explained their experiences with racialization and how they understand white privilege.

The paper reports on a research project exploring the change in the organizational context of communicators and communication units in higher education and research institutions (HERIs), the importance of informal processes within their daily work and the great diversity of expectations communicators have to tackle.

Based on a literature review, a mixed-methods study combining expert interviews with 54 German HERI heads of communication units, an online-survey and a document analysis of organizational characteristics was conducted. Findings were validated in four focus groups.

The study illuminates the impact of organizational and operational structures of HERIs on communicators and their boundary spanning activities. Due to varying expectations of stakeholders, communicators constantly have to switch roles. Members of HERIs' executive boards affect status and working conditions for communicators in the organization.

Interviews with other HERI actors, especially members of the executive board, are proposed to get more thorough insights into the organizational context of HERIs and the mutual expectations of different internal stakeholders.

Insights from the project may help HERI actors to reflect their organizational context and to identify potentially contentious structures or processes.

Communicating science sometimes clashes with complex organizational and operational structures. Despite the “organizational turn” in HERI research, there is a lack of data on the relation between communicators, their communication units and the larger organizational context. The exploratory study addresses this gap.