Bronte van der Hoorn and Stephen Jonathan Whitty
The purpose of this paper is to propose the project-space model as positively influencing sensemaking in the project context. There is currently minimal discussion of the tools…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose the project-space model as positively influencing sensemaking in the project context. There is currently minimal discussion of the tools used by project managers, teams and stakeholders to build their map of the project terrain or to make sense of a project’s status. However, such sensemaking is critical to ongoing decision making and aligning action in any project.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses framework analysis to examine the results of a completed action research case study that utilised a tool: the project-space model. Three frameworks are then utilised as an investigative lens to examine how the project-space model influenced sensemaking.
Findings
The project-space model is found to enhance sensemaking within the case study. Specifically, its visual nature, the focus it brings to the plurality of experience and the need for plausibility rather than precision in understanding.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are based on a single case study. Further studies could be undertaken to confirm extensibility.
Practical implications
The project-space model is identified as having a favourable impact on sensemaking in the case study project. There is a need to consider what other tools are currently used or could be used by project teams to enhance sensemaking.
Originality/value
Empirical, contextualised case study research highlighting the value of the project-space model as a sensemaking tool. Contribution to evidence on the efficacy of the project-space model as a useful tool for project managers.
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This paper aims to explore how varsity football athletes and coaches negotiate meanings when faced with the unmet expectations of a new head coach brought into lead a turnaround…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how varsity football athletes and coaches negotiate meanings when faced with the unmet expectations of a new head coach brought into lead a turnaround process. It also aims to pay particular attention to the role of history in this meaning making process.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on semi‐structured interviews with players and coaches at two points in time. To preserve the richness of their experiences and illuminate the historical aspects of change, it focuses on the stories of three players and one supporting coach.
Findings
Numerous symbols of change emerge that have multiple and contradictory meanings. The meanings around success and failure are renegotiated over time as individuals struggle with the unmet expectations of change. Moreover, individuals are unable to shed the failures of the past and move forward.
Practical implications
Change is a complex and messy process of managing multiple meanings. Understanding change entails more than a snapshot picture of an organization. New leaders have no control over the past, yet they need to be aware of how individuals experienced the past in order to increase the likelihood of success in the present.
Originality/value
Success and failure are experienced as an ongoing process as athletes and coaches experience, reflect on and interact with others. In illuminating the role of history in how change is experienced in the present, the paper demonstrates that the past can serve as both an immobilizing force, as well as a comparative point enabling individuals to rationalize their emotions.
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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/00251749610106927. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/00251749610106927. When citing the article, please cite: Stephen Drew, Colin Coulson-Thomas, (1996), “Transformation through teamwork: the path to the new organization?”, Management Decision, Vol. 34 Iss: 1, pp. 7 - 17.
James U. McNeal and Mindy F. Ji
To elicit the visual memory of packaging that facilitates consumers’ identification and selection of products from store displays, children were asked to draw a cereal box and the…
Abstract
To elicit the visual memory of packaging that facilitates consumers’ identification and selection of products from store displays, children were asked to draw a cereal box and the results were compared with actual cereal boxes. Over 97 percent spontaneously drew a cereal box with a brand name and other brand related symbols. This may be the first time to have a glimpse of the consumer’s evoked set as it really exists. The results suggest that one’s evoked set is not just a list of brand names in the mind, but an elaborate symbolic environment made up of visual and verbal codes in which the brand name is nested. Major implications for brand and package management are discussed.
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Describes a draw and write exercise for use with primary schoolchildren on the theme of making others happy, and the links that thistopic has with curriculum guidance on health…
Abstract
Describes a draw and write exercise for use with primary school children on the theme of making others happy, and the links that this topic has with curriculum guidance on health education. Lists and categorizes some of the responses made by the children and concludes that few children at this age were able to appreciate concepts such as caring for others, putting others first or understanding their point of view. Summarizes ways to develop the exercise.
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Anne E. Bowler, Terry G. Lilley and Chrysanthi S. Leon
A central tenet of Progressive era responses to prostitution was the alleged over-representation of white, US-born daughters of foreign parentage in the prostitution population…
Abstract
A central tenet of Progressive era responses to prostitution was the alleged over-representation of white, US-born daughters of foreign parentage in the prostitution population. We detail a statistical error in an influential 1913 study from the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford as an important source of this tenet. Using archival data to more accurately reconstruct the Reformatory population, we find that Black women constituted the only over-represented group, but were all but ignored by reformers. We foreground how ideas about race and immigration informed the social response to prostitution in this period, highlighting the importance of critically analyzing historical sources.
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David Cray, Ruth McKay and Robert Mittelman
A dynamic global economy has increased the need for cross-cultural flexibility and cultural intelligence (CQ). While a large literature has examined various means to increase CQ…
Abstract
Purpose
A dynamic global economy has increased the need for cross-cultural flexibility and cultural intelligence (CQ). While a large literature has examined various means to increase CQ in student and expatriate populations, its importance for teachers in cross-cultural settings has been largely unexamined. This paper aims to use the experiences of a group of professors in an MBA programme in Iran to investigate the effect of their activity on their cross-cultural skills.
Design/methodology/approach
Using structured interviews and content analysis, the authors draw on the experiences of business faculty from a Canadian business school who helped deliver an MBA programme in Iran to investigate how their experiences in a country new to them were reflected in the components of CQ.
Findings
Using an established model of CQ, the authors find contributions to all three facets, knowledge, mindfulness and behaviour, indicating that such exchanges can be regarded as important for students and teachers alike in an international educational context.
Originality/value
With more and more teaching extending across cultural boundaries in both domestic and international settings, the capacity of instructors to read, interpret and react to the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of their students is an important factor in the success of these programs. To this point, at least within the business education literature, the influence of such encounters on the instructors involved has been neglected.
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Current legislative, policy and cultural efforts to censor and illegalize classroom discussions and curricular representations of LGBTQ+ people reflect longstanding challenges in…
Abstract
Purpose
Current legislative, policy and cultural efforts to censor and illegalize classroom discussions and curricular representations of LGBTQ+ people reflect longstanding challenges in English education. In an effort to explore what curricular inclusion can (not) accomplish – especially what and how current struggles over inclusion, censorship, illegalization and ultimately representation in English education might (not) contribute to queer and trans liberation – the purpose of this article is to feature the experiences of queer and trans youth as knowers in classroom lessons with LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from a yearlong literacy ethnography at a Midwestern high school in which the author explored youth and adults reading, writing and talking about sexual and gender diversity, in this article the author focuses on one literacy learning context at the high school, a co-taught sophomore humanities that combined English language arts and social studies.
Findings
Engaging theories of epistemic (in) justice, the findings of this article highlight the experiences of queer and trans youth – especially two queer youth of Color, Camden and Imani – as knowers in the context of an LGBTQ+-inclusive classroom curriculum. The author describes epistemic harms with respect to distortions of credibility and homonormative assimilationist requirements and reflects on alternative possibilities that youth gestured toward through their small resistances.
Originality/value
By centering the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, this article contributes to research about LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum in English teaching. Previous research, when empirical rather than conceptual, has tended to focus on the perspectives of teachers.
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The Supreme Court's recent cross burning case – Virginia v. Black (2003) – saw dueling historical narratives. Justice O’Connor, writing for the majority, painted a history in…
Abstract
The Supreme Court's recent cross burning case – Virginia v. Black (2003) – saw dueling historical narratives. Justice O’Connor, writing for the majority, painted a history in which the Klan often burned crosses to intimidate, but also did so for other, “expressive” reasons. Justice Thomas, in dissent, related a history in which the burning cross never speaks. Interestingly, O’Connor and Thomas used many of the same historical sources. How did they reach such different results? While both O’Connor and Thomas interpreted (and stretched) the historical sources in different directions, their dispute ultimately turned on their diverging doctrinal views.
This is an outline of findings from research aimed at identifying the emerging issues around the formation of a jointly managed and staffed community rehabilitation service in…