The purpose of this paper is to offer an appraisal of the craft metaphor in management with particular reference to authority, resistance, care and the interior landscape of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an appraisal of the craft metaphor in management with particular reference to authority, resistance, care and the interior landscape of the manager/crafter.
Design/method/approach
This is a conceptual essay that draws on an autoethnography.
Findings
Respect for the limits of managerial and bureaucratic authority and an appreciation of the manager/crafter's interior landscape are crucial aspects of effective craft and management practice. Insights into the practice of craft may enhance understanding of how both craft and management are a potent brew of politics, power, people, history, reason, faith and authority and just how crucial the interior landscape of the manager/crafter is.
Originality/value
This article offers a focus on an inadequately examined aspect of management/craft – the interior landscape of the manager – that is informed by an auto-ethnography and suggests a case for conceptualizing management as craft, with implications for management development.
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Deborah Knowles, Damian William Ruth and Clare Hindley
The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of current models of organisational response to crises and offer additional perspectives on some of these models. It is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of current models of organisational response to crises and offer additional perspectives on some of these models. It is also intended to confirm the value of fiction as a truth-seeking and hermeneutic device for enriching the imagination.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses Daniel Defoe’s 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year to draw parallels between his portrayal of the London Great Plague of 1665 and the management of modern-day crises. Defoe uses London’s ordeal of the Great Plague to advise those subjected to future crises. Through his representation of plague-ridden streets, Defoe shows stakeholders acting in ways described in current crisis management literature.
Findings
The authors note how the management of the Plague crisis was unsuccessful and they challenge the very idea of managing a true crisis. The authors are able to illustrate and offer refinements to the Pearson and Clair (1998) and Janes (2010) models of crisis management as well as confirming the value of their constructs across a lapse of centuries.
Research limitations/implications
Although it is an examination of a single novel, the findings suggest value in conceptualising organisational crises in innovative and more imaginative ways.
Originality/value
It confirms the heuristic value of using fiction to understand organisational change and adds value to current models.
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Damian Ruth, Frances Gunn and Jonathan Elms
The purpose of this paper is to explore the everyday tasks and activities undertaken by retailer entrepreneurs and owner/managers when they strategize. Specifically, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the everyday tasks and activities undertaken by retailer entrepreneurs and owner/managers when they strategize. Specifically, it interrogates the nature of the intuitive, idiosyncratic strategic agency of a retail owner/manager.
Design/methodology/approach
Through adopting a combination of phenomenological and narrative approaches, focussing on illuminating the everyday operational and strategic practices of one retail entrepreneur and owner/manager, a richly contextualized, ideographic account of the procedures and outcomes of their strategizing is provided.
Findings
By revealing narratives that are seldom obvious – often kept behind the counter, and not on display – the authors are able to unravel the social reality of the retailer's decision-making, and the influences of identity, connections with customers and community, emotions and the spirit, and love and family. This study also illuminates how entrepreneurs retrospectively make sense out of the messiness of everyday life particularly when juggling the melding of personal and business realities.
Research limitations/implications
This paper explores the experiences and reflections of the decision-making of one retail entrepreneur manager within a particular business setting. However, the use of an ideographic approach allowed for an in depth investigation of the realities of strategic practices undertaken by a retail owner that may be extrapolated beyond this immediate context.
Originality/value
This paper develops original insights into the retailer as an individual, vis-à-vis an organization, as well as nuanced understanding of the actual nature of work undertaken by retail entrepreneurs and owner/managers. To this end, this paper contributes to the “strategy-as-practice” debate in the strategic management literature, and to narrative analysis and advances insights to the perennial question: “what is a retailer?”.
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To give an overview of prevalent views on and practices in management development in New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose
To give an overview of prevalent views on and practices in management development in New Zealand
Design/methodology/approach
Employs a questionnaire, mainly Likert‐scale, to interview human resource managers and line managers in 86 companies in New Zealand. The research model and instrumentation is based on existing research on management development in Europe.
Findings
Many of the tensions and inconsistencies exhibited between assumptions and practices and a variance of views indicate that at national level management development is rather incoherent and further research would be justified. For example, it is widely assumed that experience makes a good manager, but mentoring is rated lower than external courses as a source of development. There are often substantial disparity of views between HR managers and line managers.
Practical implications
Firms wishing to develop coherent management development processes could be guided by the disparities revealed in this research.
Originality/value
This research is the first step towards international comparative data on management development for New Zealand, and the model allows for direct comparison with existing European data.
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To offer a coherent critique of the concept of managerial frameworks of competence through the exploration of the problems of generalizability and abstraction and the “scientific”…
Abstract
Purpose
To offer a coherent critique of the concept of managerial frameworks of competence through the exploration of the problems of generalizability and abstraction and the “scientific” assumptions of management.
Design/methodology/approach
Employs the ecological metaphor of intellectual landscape and extends it to examining the development of the field of management, its early contours which traversed a diversity of conceptualisations such as management as an art, or an expression of personality, or as a vocation, the search for coordinates and a scientific image, and finally, a comparison of agri‐business and market gardening. The argument is illustrated by reference to particular management development programmes.
Findings
The argument is made that frameworks of competence impose conceptual limitations – “monocultures of the mind” – that are destructive. Justifying coordinates in an activity that is always particular, contextual and socially constructed faces the problem of finding stable evidence in a turbulent ecology and “frameworks of competence” are beset with problems of definition. However, with an understanding of power and discourse, and the application of the landscape metaphor such frameworks can be productively illuminated. What seems to be required is a wholesale shift in values and a re‐evaluation of the meaning and purpose of work.
Practical implications
Useful to curriculum designers and programme developers to analyse their work.
Originality/value
Provides a detailed coherent account of the emergence of the concept of competency, and subjects the concept to wide‐ranging critical review.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. 10;
Findings
Individuals working as retailers must overcome considerable barriers in order to succeed. Greater awareness and understanding of the various challenges, issues and experiences that shape their strategic decision-making can help to increase their competitiveness.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers’ hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Ruth Taylor and Damian De Luca
The purpose of this study is to look at the experiences of university academic staff setting up a small computer games studio to provide work placement opportunities for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to look at the experiences of university academic staff setting up a small computer games studio to provide work placement opportunities for undergraduate students and the supporting role of industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study uses sense making to explore the boundaries between “simulated” and “real” work in an educational setting.
Findings
For students and teachers to work together in a commercial setting, relationships have to be reconstructed. Teaching focusses on developing the individual and personal attainment, the work environment prioritises the team so that organisational and business needs are met. Differences in culture and working practices between industry and academia and the organisational constraints of a university, present challenges for academic staff engaged in enterprise.
Research limitations/implications
The authors recognise the limitations of a single institution case study and intend further investigation into factors around employability, enterprise education and the availability of work experience for students studying in the creative technologies including experiences in other institutions.
Practical implications
Practical experience and business knowledge gained through the studio development process by the student and staff, has informed the curriculum through the introduction of team-working modules. The studio provides a unique interface between the university and games industry partners.
Originality/value
The study shows the value of a university-based games studio in providing work experience for students and enhancing employability and provides insights into university/industry partnering.