Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Margaret Barr, Chris Munro, Heather Noon and Daniel Arifin
This paper adds depth to our understanding of how coaching works by exploring the experiences of 14 aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper adds depth to our understanding of how coaching works by exploring the experiences of 14 aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part of a leadership development programme.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a phenomenological approach. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. Thematic analysis was used to code the data and identify themes.
Findings
This paper reports on four themes based on the experiences of the participants: having time to reflect, feeling safe to explore, focussing on what's important for me and experiencing positive emotions.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are unique to the participants who volunteered to take part in this study and therefore not representative of a general population of aspiring educational leaders. Further research is needed into the possible benefits of coaching to support educators undergoing leadership training.
Practical implications
The findings raise a potential dilemma within the teaching profession about the use of educators' time; while they need to give time and attention to multiple stakeholders, they also need to protect time for their own development and self-reflection. Based on the reported experiences of the participants in this study, it is recommended that coaching be considered a component of professional development for educational leaders.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the growing research base for coaching in education, providing a unique insight into the experiences of aspiring school principals who received one-to-one leadership coaching as part of a leadership development programme.
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This chapter explores the ways in which academic educators’ experience of collaborative inquiry-based learning (IBL) can illuminate student behaviours, particularly in relation to…
Abstract
This chapter explores the ways in which academic educators’ experience of collaborative inquiry-based learning (IBL) can illuminate student behaviours, particularly in relation to assessment and the affective domain. The facilitator of this IBL, in the setting of academic staff development in UK Higher Education, uses a reflective storytelling style to detail the learning of an annual cohort of staff at a university in the north west of the United Kingdom. Six separate academic staff cohorts enroled in a unit, as part of a Master of Arts in Academic Practice, to undertake this experiential, humanist way of learning, working with all the principles of collaborative inquiry. The chapter explores the ways in which the participants’ self-reported affective responses altered over the course of the unit, particularly in relation to the assessment. Participant reflections are integrated with pedagogic literature and extracts from the facilitator’s contemporaneous notes, assessor’s feedback and other material, detailing the ways in which the freedom of an IBL episode moves to anxiety associated with assessment, which can build as the assessment point nears. Reflections on group constitution, cohort characteristics and the role of the facilitator are considered in relation to the notion of ‘success’ of IBL episodes. This is interrogated particularly in relation to academic staff responses to the experience of the emotions of IBL, and how this may affect their own practice in designing teaching and learning experiences for students in Higher Education.
The purpose of this paper is to argue for a strengthening of the relational aspect of social work and for initiatives that involve local people and local communities.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue for a strengthening of the relational aspect of social work and for initiatives that involve local people and local communities.
Design/methodology/approach
A think piece based on observations of the current situation and supporting evidence.
Findings
Social work has become distanced from those whom it seeks to help. Case management and risk assessment need to be complemented by a more human approach based on positive relationships between professionals and service users.
Originality/value
An informed discussion on the future of social work.
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Trevor Hopper, Mostafa Jazayeri and Chris Westrup
The paper's aim is to establish how world class manufacturing (WCM) was diffused to some small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises in the NW of England and the network of institutions…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's aim is to establish how world class manufacturing (WCM) was diffused to some small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises in the NW of England and the network of institutions involved ranging from the state to firms, and to iterate the results with Miller and O'Leary's work on accounting practices and governance.
Design/methodology/approach
This followed an actor network theory approach of “following the actors and actants” using interviews and documentation.
Findings
Three accountabilities (financial, production, and idealised customer) at firm and state levels were linked through agencies like consultants, academics, and employer federations, and quasi‐governmental organisations like training and enterprise councils. New discourses and programmes of governance associated with competitiveness fostered changes in accountability locally and nationally. Competitiveness, WCM, and occasional allies like activity‐based costing lacked stable and consistent definition. They are adopted and circulate because their plasticity helps actors redefine themselves within translation and mediation processes.
Research limitations/implications
Shop floor workers were not directly studied. Hence, observations on resistance and enactment are tentative.
Practical implications
Continual translations within large networks shape new techniques of management and governance.
Originality/value
The paper shows that programmes and discourses of governance over time are reciprocally linked in a constellation of state institutions and firms.
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Paul Blyton, Edmund Heery and Peter Turnbull
Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing…
Abstract
Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing politics of employment relations beyond and within the nation state, against a background of concern in the developed economies at the erosion of relatively advanced conditions of work and social welfare through increasing competition and international agitation for more effective global labour standards. Divides this concept into two areas, addressing the erosion of employment standards through processes of restructuring and examining attempts by governments, trade unions and agencies to re‐create effective systems of regulation. Gives case examples from areas such as India, Wales, London, Ireland, South Africa, Europe and Japan. Covers subjects such as the Disability Discrimination Act, minimum wage, training, contract workers and managing change.
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Sharon Loane and Jim Bell
The importance of networks in the internationalisation of entrepreneurial firms is widely accepted. However, while the literature tends to focus on the existing networks of firms…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of networks in the internationalisation of entrepreneurial firms is widely accepted. However, while the literature tends to focus on the existing networks of firms, there is growing evidence that many rapid internationalisers have to build new networks. This cross‐national study investigates the networks of internationalising entrepreneurial firms in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi‐stage approach and mixed methods were employed. Online sources were used to gather information on 218 internationalising small firms, then an e‐mail instrument was administered to verify data and address information gaps, resulting in 143 usable responses (66 per cent) evenly distributed across locations. A representative sub‐sample of 53 firms was selected for further in‐depth investigation via face‐to‐face interviews with CEOs.
Findings
A high proportion of firms (25 per cent) actively used existing networks to develop their knowledge of international markets and improve their international competitiveness. However, an even larger number (34 per cent) had to build new networks because of the advanced nature of their offering. In‐depth interviews provided rich insights into the nature and scope of the firms' network development activities.
Research limitations/implications
While the sample size is relatively small, the findings are consistent across locations. They suggest that further investigation of network building activities among internationalising entrepreneurial firms is required.
Practical implications
The results have implications on firm strategy, in terms of the strategic nature of network building and the need for systematic approaches. They also are pertinent to public policy in support of internationalisation. In particular, there is a need for support agencies to shift their focus from providing objective knowledge to supporting experiential learning and network development.
Originality/value
The linkage of extant network approaches to the emerging knowledge‐based view (KBV) of internationalisation enhances and advances both perspectives.
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Gillian Sullivan Mort and Jay Weerawardena
International entrepreneurship (IE) is a new field of multi‐disciplinary enquiry that has its origins in the research on born globals. Within international marketing the concept…
Abstract
Purpose
International entrepreneurship (IE) is a new field of multi‐disciplinary enquiry that has its origins in the research on born globals. Within international marketing the concept has attracted the attention of researchers examining the factors driving small‐ and medium‐size firm internationalisation. These small, rapidly internationalising, entrepreneurial new ventures have recently both challenged and fascinated scholars and practitioners. While IE researchers are beginning to call for a broadening of the field of IE enquiry, this research continues the focus on the special breed of small firms, the born globals. We do this to deepen our understanding of IE, and focus on networking in born globals to attempt to develop richer insights directed towards establishing more in‐depth understanding and more robust theoretical frameworks.
Design/methodology/approach
Relationships and networking have been important in internationalisation studies for some time, and for small firms in particular are of interest for their role in helping overcome “resource poverty”. Case study method is adopted to examine the generative mechanisms and processes of networking capabilities. Drawing on six exemplar case studies from low‐tech and hi‐tech industry sectors, this research identifies the role and characteristics of the entrepreneurial owner/manager and the development of networking capability over time.
Findings
Fundamental and secondary networking capabilities are identified. How networking capability enables identification and exploitation of market opportunities, facilitates the development of knowledge‐intensive products and firm international market performance in the born global firm is discussed. The issue of network rigidity is also highlighted. A conceptual model is presented, implications discussed and future research directions, in particular the extension of networking capability research to large firms exhibiting IE, are promulgated.
Originality/value
Overall the findings of the study contribute to the development of IE research by identifying the centrality and scope of the impact of networking capabilities in small born global firms arguing that dynamic networking capability characterises IE in this context.
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Andrea Whittle and Frank Mueller
The purpose of this paper is to use Actor Network Theory to explore the role of management accounting systems (MAS) in the construction of business strategy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Actor Network Theory to explore the role of management accounting systems (MAS) in the construction of business strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on findings from an ethnographic study of a UK‐based firm. Theoretical concepts from Actor‐Network Theory are used to illuminate the findings of the study.
Findings
The study found that MAS acted as an obligatory point of passage into the strategic agenda of the firm. However, the findings also reveal the political tactics used by employees in order to work within, against and around the MAS.
Originality/value
The paper shows that MAS are a key player in the political contests that occur during the process of strategy formulation, as opposed to offering a neutral tool for measuring the strategic value of innovative ideas.
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Ella Mae Matsumura, Tyler Thomas and Dimitri Yatsenko
Organizations desire more accurate cost systems as competition increases, and consequently increase cost system complexity, as cost systems with greater complexity are potentially…
Abstract
Organizations desire more accurate cost systems as competition increases, and consequently increase cost system complexity, as cost systems with greater complexity are potentially more accurate than simpler systems. However, even complex systems are prone to impactful inaccuracies, for example, due to design or calculation issues, that can adversely affect decision-making and firm performance. The authors investigate whether and the extent to which cost system complexity and competition decrease managers’ attribution of cost-system-driven adverse firm effects to the cost system. The authors find greater cost system complexity (by inspiring greater confidence in the cost system) and higher competition (by providing a plausible external cause) decrease managers’ attribution of cost-system-driven adverse firm effects to the cost system. With both greater cost system complexity and higher competition, managers observing signals of material cost inaccuracies are potentially the least likely to attribute cost-system-driven adverse firm effects to the cost system.