David Cropley and Arthur Cropley
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of gender diversity on organisational capacity for innovation, and explore the factors that affect the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of gender diversity on organisational capacity for innovation, and explore the factors that affect the relationship between gender diversity and innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies the Innovation Phase Assessment Instrument (a 168-item survey instrument designed to assess an organisation’s alignment to six dimensions of human capital innovation inputs) to members of an Australian manufacturing firm, exploring relationships across both gender and work function in the firm.
Findings
Initial results suggest a negative relationship between proportion of females in functional areas and capacity for innovation. Further analysis suggests that capacity for innovation among female employees was suppressed by an unfavourable organisational climate (OC).
Practical implications
With a trend towards greater gender diversity as a means for improving organisational innovation, managers should be aware of the role that OC plays in assisting innovation. The relationship between gender diversity and innovation is not merely quantitative, but is also qualitative. Simply increasing the number of females in male-dominated firms may not result in improved innovation capacity. Unless the OC of the firm is aligned to what is needed for successful innovation, the benefits of greater gender diversity may not be realised.
Originality/value
This study integrates research from the psychology of creativity and innovation with consideration of organisational design and innovation management. The study demonstrates that a highly differentiated analysis of psychological antecedents to innovation can be used to cast new light on the origins of gender and other group differences in firms. The findings add important new knowledge to the arguments in favour of greater gender diversity as a means for improving organisational innovation.
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This chapter explores the migration decisions and motives of a group of academics who were recruited to three Australian higher education institutions during the period 1965–2003…
Abstract
This chapter explores the migration decisions and motives of a group of academics who were recruited to three Australian higher education institutions during the period 1965–2003. The chapter furthers our understanding of historical patterns of academic mobility and the experience of academic mobility and adds to our understanding of the academic profession. The research used a micro approach to migration history and focussed on academic migrants’ decision-making processes. The research used semi-structured interviews with three groups of academics who were interviewed in 1982 and 2003. The academic migrants in this research were not committed to any particular institution or curriculum. What was most important in their migration decision was simply obtaining any academic position. Many, if not most of them, owed their academic careers to the growth in Australian higher education caused by its transition from an elite to a mass system. They obtained their academic posts because of the global nature of academic work. The question that arises from this study is what Australian universities will need to do to attract a new generation of academics as they compete in a global market for academic personnel.
Mary Barrett, Anne Cox and Blake Woodward
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological contracts (PCs) of international volunteers (IVs) in international aid and development organizations (IADS)…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological contracts (PCs) of international volunteers (IVs) in international aid and development organizations (IADS). Specifically, it explores four questions: how IVs form PCs; what the content of these PCs is; how IVs’ PCs are maintained; and how they are fulfilled or breached.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used an inductive analysis of qualitative data: interviews with 27 IVs from a range of IADS.
Findings
The findings take the form of research propositions: RP1: IVs’ PCs, like those of domestic volunteers, include relational, transactional and, especially, values-based elements, but the balance of these is influenced by their values-based PC; the self-directed way IVs join their organizations; and reliance on peers rather than the organization’s management hierarchy. RP2: the PCs of IVs working for faith-based organizations have an additional element: spiritual support. RP3: the values-based PC means many transactional elements can be “adjusted away”, making it difficult to breach these PCs. RP4: experienced volunteers have very minimal PCs, but are more likely than inexperienced volunteers to expect basic safety and adequately skilled colleagues.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest areas of new inquiry and specific ways each research proposition could be tested empirically.
Practical implications
To alleviate IVs’ expatriation and repatriation adjustment problems, international aid organizations could facilitate the ways IVs already help each other. This would also help fulfill IVs’ PCs.
Originality/value
IVs are a growing but underexplored group and aspects of their PCs may be unique.
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Workwear in the food industry has an important role. Hygiene is paramount and food products must be protected from contamination and infection. Britain has a lower change rate of…
Abstract
Workwear in the food industry has an important role. Hygiene is paramount and food products must be protected from contamination and infection. Britain has a lower change rate of workwear than almost any other part of the world. Many companies fail to realise the dangers of infrequent clothing changes and rely on “home‐washing” in many cases, thus increasing the occurrence of cross‐contamination because of today's low temperature washes. To overcome such problems, workwear can be rented, laundered on site, or with an outside company. Rental companies may provide extras such as goggles, boots, hats and ear protection.
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BRIAN VICKERY and ALINA VICKERY
There is a huge amount of information and data stored in publicly available online databases that consist of large text files accessed by Boolean search techniques. It is widely…
Abstract
There is a huge amount of information and data stored in publicly available online databases that consist of large text files accessed by Boolean search techniques. It is widely held that less use is made of these databases than could or should be the case, and that one reason for this is that potential users find it difficult to identify which databases to search, to use the various command languages of the hosts and to construct the Boolean search statements required. This reasoning has stimulated a considerable amount of exploration and development work on the construction of search interfaces, to aid the inexperienced user to gain effective access to these databases. The aim of our paper is to review aspects of the design of such interfaces: to indicate the requirements that must be met if maximum aid is to be offered to the inexperienced searcher; to spell out the knowledge that must be incorporated in an interface if such aid is to be given; to describe some of the solutions that have been implemented in experimental and operational interfaces; and to discuss some of the problems encountered. The paper closes with an extensive bibliography of references relevant to online search aids, going well beyond the items explicitly mentioned in the text. An index to software appears after the bibliography at the end of the paper.
Labour came to power in 1997 and immediately transferred many features of its party political news management style into government, overseeing the departure of most of the civil…
Abstract
Purpose
Labour came to power in 1997 and immediately transferred many features of its party political news management style into government, overseeing the departure of most of the civil service communications leadership within two years, and developing the media management role of politically appointed special advisers. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the changes in custom and practice that operated behind the scenes in government communications between 1997 and 2015, asking to what extent such changes challenge public trust in government in a liberal democracy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes a longitudinal, qualitative approach through in-depth interviews with former civil servants, journalists and special advisers, together with documentary and archival evidence. The data were analysed thematically through the text-processing software, NVivo.
Findings
The paper finds that although the controversy over the 2002 dossier on Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction was an extraordinary episode, the creative approach to news management that characterised this case still operates within UK Government communications: the bypassing of civil servants, a partial approach to the facts, selective briefing of favoured journalists, a lack of due process in the management of information and a disregard for the letter and spirit of propriety codes. This has implications for public trust and confidence in the workings of liberal democracy.
Originality/value
The study adopts a mediatisation approach to the study of public relations, using the concept of the “cross field” to demonstrate how PR professionals share media management responsibilities with a number of different promotional actors. PR professionals in government must therefore navigate between the hidden, competitive and demanding worlds of politics, the media and bureaucracy, working with journalists, politicians and political operatives to craft the narratives that seek to drive public opinion.
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Samuel Kenneth Zachary Knowles and Beyza Klein
To better understand the reality of living with the diseases and conditions that its drugs and therapies are developed to treat, the Novartis leadership determined a need for more…
Abstract
Purpose
To better understand the reality of living with the diseases and conditions that its drugs and therapies are developed to treat, the Novartis leadership determined a need for more meaningful insights into patients’ lives. They sought to develop a systematic, creative methodology – informed by the psychology of insightful rather than analytical thinking – to properly integrate and deploy the research commissioned into its day-to-day business decision-making. For it is well established that better understanding of the patient reality drives both compliance and adherence “beyond the pill”. The purpose of this paper is to bring the novel methodology of creativity to a wider audience and ensure that many others – notably in patient advocacy organizations – can benefit from this approach.
Design/methodology/approach
A core team of Insight and Analytics and Patient Engagement leads from various therapeutic area teams worked in partnership with a psychologist and practitioner in the field of insightful thinking, to develop an effective methodology that could reliably surface and articulate genuine patient insights. This methodology – the i4i Insights Discovery™ process – was developed, piloted, refined and codified in 2020 and implemented across the company in 2021–2022. It uses a combination of convergent and divergent thinking techniques – human rather than artificial intelligence, combining diverse research outputs – to understand patients’ lives better. With enhanced understanding, the insights then shape educational and behavioral strategies to drive adherence and compliance.
Findings
At a time of tightening budgets and demands to deliver enhanced impact from research budgets, i4i Insights Discovery™ has enabled Novartis teams to turn existing research outputs into profound and useful understandings of what it means to live with specific diseases and develop evidence-based patient engagement strategies; insight-driven decision-making around the lifecycle of any compound. i4i Insights Discovery™ has been applied across Novartis’s diverse areas of expertise, from heart disease to cancer, from organ transplantation to dermatology, from food allergy to ophthalmology.
Practical implications
The i4i Insights Discovery™ process enables Novartis teams to gain deeper understanding of patients’ lives without the need to commission additional research; to do more with less. These insights enable cross-functional Novartis teams to develop better-informed strategies that better address the needs of patients and their care partners, of health-care professionals and health-care systems. The team creating the process is looking to make the i4i Insights Discovery™ approach a gold standard of insight discovery, both for pharma and health care and in other categories, too.
Originality/value
The i4i Insights Discovery™ process is a practical, novel application of well-established principles in the psychology of insightful thinking to address a clear business imperative. By repurposing and reinterpreting existing research outputs using creative verbal and visual exercises, it delivers a more human and empathetic understanding of the patient reality. It moves teams from “So what?” – this is what the data mean – to “Now what?” – this is what we should do as a result.
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This paper aims to sketch the outline of a systems framework for creativity. It involves several levels of analysis and addresses researchers and practitioners. When improving…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to sketch the outline of a systems framework for creativity. It involves several levels of analysis and addresses researchers and practitioners. When improving creative climates in work settings, it is necessary to have a better understanding of the various mechanisms of creativity and what strengthens or diminishes them.
Design/methodology/approach
Creativity research is fragmented and involves multiple aspects, levels and disciplines, ranging from biology to psychology and sociology. Concepts from systems science have particular value in understanding creativity, as they provide a transdisciplinary language of how systems work and adapt. This conceptual paper makes use of the language and concepts from the systems field to connect often disparate perspectives and clarify key mechanisms of creativity.
Findings
The core of this paper is a newly developed multilevel model of the creative mind. The proposed concepts provide a starting point for integrating further theoretical findings.
Practical implications
Improved understanding of creativity could help leaders more effectively use their creativity while facilitating the creativity of others for successful cooperation and problem-solving.
Originality/value
The visual models introduced here help bridge theory and practice while creating a stronger link between creativity research and studies in systems, cybernetics and complexity.