Leon C. Prieto and Simone T.A. Phipps
This article aims to depict the pivotal role Octavia Hill, Jane Addams and Mary Parker Follett played in the field of social entrepreneurship. The article aims to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to depict the pivotal role Octavia Hill, Jane Addams and Mary Parker Follett played in the field of social entrepreneurship. The article aims to examine the contributions made by these remarkable women who made valuable theoretical and practical contributions to the emerging field of social entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
Synthesizing articles from history journals, writings about the figures of interest, published works by the figures themselves and other resources, this paper illustrates how Hill, Addams and Follett made valuable contributions to social entrepreneurship and questioned the rectitude of unadulterated capitalism.
Findings
This paper concludes that Hill, Addams and Follett refuted the viewpoint that self-interest and single-minded self-survival were the best ways to live and to conduct business. By their actions, the women showed that they did indeed bring “capitalism in question”, by recognizing the importance of seeking others’ interests.
Originality/value
This article highlights the contributions made by Hill, Addams and Follett, who made valuable contributions in the field of social entrepreneurship which is made evident by their work with housing settlements, community center development, etc.
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Jane Parker, James Arrowsmith, Amanda Young-Hauser, Darrin Hodgetts, Stuart Colin Carr, Jarrod Haar and Siatu Alefaio-Tugia
The study maps workplace stakeholders’ perceptions of living wage (LW) impacts in New Zealand. Empirical findings inform an inaugural model of LW impacts and contingent factors at…
Abstract
Purpose
The study maps workplace stakeholders’ perceptions of living wage (LW) impacts in New Zealand. Empirical findings inform an inaugural model of LW impacts and contingent factors at individual, organisation, sector/industry and national levels.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a national employee survey, semi-structured interviews with business sector representatives, and staff in two LW organisation cases were subjected to thematic content analysis.
Findings
Informants emphasised anticipated LW impacts amid complex workplace and regulatory dynamics. Employers/managers stressed its cost effects. However, employees, human resource (HR) advocates and other LW proponents highlighted employee “investment” impacts that improve worker productivity and societal circumstances.
Research limitations/implications
This study highlights the need for further context-sensitive LW analysis. An initial model of LW impacts provides a framework for comparative and longitudinal work in other national contexts.
Practical implications
The proposed model categorises perceived LW effects and can inform policy development. Findings also stress a need for cross-agency initiatives to address LW concerns, including a key role for HR.
Social implications
The findings highlight perceptions of a LW impacting within and beyond the workplace. Whilst higher-quality management is seen to encourage better-informed decisions about “going living wage”, a LW's positive socio-economic impacts require multi-lateral initiatives, suggesting that those initiatives are is part of wider obligations for policy makers to encourage decent living standards.
Originality/value
This study provides a much-needed and inaugural focus on the intertwined workplace and wider impacts of a LW, extending extant econometric analyses. The paper also synthesizes different data sources to develop an inaugural, context-sensitive model of perceived LW effects.
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Jane Parker, Amanda Young-Hauser, Janet Sayers, Patricia Loga, Selu Paea and Shirley Barnett
Despite the need for such, little scholarly attention has been paid to transdisciplinary enquiry into gender inequities in workplaces. The authors provide a pragmatic evaluation…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the need for such, little scholarly attention has been paid to transdisciplinary enquiry into gender inequities in workplaces. The authors provide a pragmatic evaluation of the transdisciplinary research (TDR) model by Hall et al. (2012) for framing the study of this societal issue, shedding light on the challenges, principles and values that could usefully inform subsequent TDR in organisational settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper evaluates the model in relation to TDR on gender inequities in New Zealand's public service by Hall et al. (2012) Content analysis on our reflective narratives from research team meetings, email exchanges, informal discussions and a workshop reveals TDR study insights. Findings show support for the model and its four broad phases and surface principles and values for applied TDR enquiry that addresses societal challenges in the organisational context.
Findings
The adoption of a TDR model to examine a study of equity in the public service revealed practical and conceptual challenges, encouraging ongoing reflection and adaptive behaviour on the researchers' part. The pragmatic evaluation also highlighted environmental constraints on undertaking TDR, with implications for the ambition of future studies.
Research limitations/implications
This evaluative enquiry encourages similar research in other organisational and national settings to validate the use of TDR to gain insightful, contextualised understandings of social challenges centred in the organisational setting.
Practical implications
This pragmatic evaluation of a TDR model's capacity to approximate the approach and phases of our applied enquiry lays the groundwork to refining TDR approaches used in subsequent studies aimed at addressing societal issues in the organisational setting.
Social implications
This paper can potentially promote greater collaboration between research scholars and other stakeholders wanting to develop TDR paradigms and applied enquiry that can meaningfully inform workplace and societal impacts.
Originality/value
This pragmatic evaluation of a TDR approach involves its initial application to the study of equity at work and develops principles and values that could inform TDR paradigms and methodologies of subsequent enquiries in the field.
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Christian Yao, Jane Parker, James Arrowsmith and Stuart C. Carr
A “living” wage (LW) is conventionally defined as enabling meaningful participation in society above subsistence through, for example, recreation, supporting a family, and…
Abstract
Purpose
A “living” wage (LW) is conventionally defined as enabling meaningful participation in society above subsistence through, for example, recreation, supporting a family, and savings. There is increasing debate over LWs due to growing inequality, rising living costs and welfare reform but this remains largely framed by the econometric cost-benefit parameters that apply to minimum wage regulation. The capabilities approach advocated by Sen (1999) offers a different perspective that is inclusive of choice, contingencies and the inter-connections between quality of (paid) work and private life. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts this framework and utilises a qualitative exploration of the narratives of 606 New Zealand employees to understand perceived wage effectiveness. The results suggest that a focus on a specific LW rate might be conceptually limiting, in comparison to a LW range.
Findings
First, the findings indicate that there is a pivot range in which people move from self-assessed “survival” to “decent” income. Second, a LW may have more than a simply monetary effect in better meeting employees’ living costs; it can also improve well-being through subjective perceptions of valued freedoms to do with job satisfaction, equity and security.
Originality/value
The results thus draw attention to a wider notion of a LW in terms of personal and family well-being, utilising a capabilities approach, with implications for organisational practice, policy and theory concerning sustainable livelihood and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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Peter Prowse, Ray Fells, James Arrowsmith, Jane Parker and Ana Lopes
Jane Holgate, Sue Abbott, Nicolina Kamenou, Josie Kinge, Jane Parker, Susan Sayce, Jacqueline Sinclair and Laura Williams
The pursuit of equality and valuing of diversity are central tenets of much organisational thinking and public policy development. However, in this current age of austerity we are…
Abstract
Purpose
The pursuit of equality and valuing of diversity are central tenets of much organisational thinking and public policy development. However, in this current age of austerity we are witnessing a number of existing and proposed “fairness initiatives” feeling the sharp blade of a cost‐cutting axe. This paper is a reflexive response that aims to examine a piece of action research in the field of industrial relations. It aims to take the professional UK association, the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA), as a case study and consider how issues of equality and diversity have been viewed by the organisation both in theory and practice. Using a framework which acknowledges the need for multiple levels of analysis (macro, meso and micro) and which argues for an intersectional approach, the paper seeks to detail the measures adopted by BUIRA so as to augment its organisational responsiveness to various equality and diversity concerns. It also provides an insight into how the authors, as equality and diversity academics, reflected on the process of creating policy through their own research activities. A further aim of the paper is to highlight the scope and character of equality and diversity initiatives undertaken by BUIRA, and to discuss some of their implications for its membership – both now and in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
What began as a simple policy piece of research developed into a multi‐method, quantitative and qualitative, action‐based project. It also became a reflexive study of how and by what methods research is conducted. A quantitative and qualitative survey of BUIRA members was followed with interviews with past‐presidents of the organisation. Historical data in the form of a comprehensive 2010 retrospective on BUIRA were also consulted.
Findings
The authors' empirical material was analysed with reference to a theoretical framework that acknowledges the importance of intersectionality at all levels of analysis. The study's findings are discussed in relation to macro, meso and micro influences and reference is made to how these three levels intersect in examining views and perceptions in relation to equality and diversity within BUIRA. The main findings are that while BUIRA as an association has acted to combat perceptions that it is dominated by older White men who prioritise traditional elements of industrial relations (IR), this view still persists for some of the membership. The membership survey indicated that it was female, younger or less established academics in particular who held this view, suggesting that in challenging inequalities within the IR academic community BUIRA may still have a way to go.
Practical implications
A key implication is that representative organisations such as professional associations need to consider equality and diversity aspects that reflect the membership they serve. This has been acknowledged as fundamental in both workplaces and trade unions and now requires similar commitment from professional associations. Of course, the scope and character of initiatives are also context‐sensitive, as reflected by non‐linear progress in equality initiatives undertaken by these and other organisations.
Originality/value
The research offers an analysis of equality and diversity within a professional association which is an under researched area.
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Mike Parker and Jane Slaughter
Total quality management (TQM) is usually presented as a proven “win‐win” solution to the problems of private and public sector organizations. However, actual TQM programmes…
Abstract
Total quality management (TQM) is usually presented as a proven “win‐win” solution to the problems of private and public sector organizations. However, actual TQM programmes (under a variety of names) have a poor track record in their own terms and a strong faddish appearance. Despite the record and the sharp disagreements among quality gurus, unions are frequently presented with finished programmes requiring major union and employee concessions. Further, despite TQM’s claimed concern for the welfare, dignity, and creative input of employees, the reality of TQM is a model which places most employees last. Beneath the rhetoric of many TQM programmes is a system of management control and unappealing work organization best described as “Management‐by‐stress”. Unions need to understand the basic TQM themes, examine their impact on employees and their unions, and propose alternatives which start with basic social needs.
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Jane Parker and James Arrowsmith
The purpose of this paper is to provide contemporary information and analysis of women's location within the service sector of New Zealand; to evaluate the responsiveness of two…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide contemporary information and analysis of women's location within the service sector of New Zealand; to evaluate the responsiveness of two major policy initiatives designed to ameliorate women's circumstances therein; and to reconceptualise and suggest possible approaches and measures which could inform future government and workplace policy and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The study primarily employs a thematic analysis of publicly‐available reports, documentation and pertinent academic work. Secondary, independent statistical analyses of nationally‐representative data are used in order to provide the context and rationale for the policy analysis, and to overview key trends and “problem” areas in the service sector for working women in New Zealand.
Findings
New Zealand has a high female labour force participation rate, with more than eight out of 10 female workers employed in service work. Although women remain over‐represented in low‐paid work, they have benefited from service sector growth, higher penetration of professional and managerial work, and some reduction in the gender pay gap. State interventions are justified in equity, labour market and welfare terms, with an emerging focus on “decent work” and productivity. Yet, this analysis of key initiatives for working women reveals an inadequate regulatory and policy framework. The significance and “genderedness” of service work to the economy means that it is increasingly but still insufficiently the focus of economic and social policy.
Originality/value
This study responds to the absence of a contemporary and comprehensive assessment of the location and inequities experienced by different groups of women in New Zealand's service sector, particularly Māori and Pasifika women. It provides a springboard to further analysis of the key trends, themes and policy impacts that it highlights, as well as of a reconceived regulatory approach for women working in the service sector outlined in the Concluding section.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine why and how the Trades Union Congress (TUC) – the labour movement's peak body, “think tank” and exemplar – engages in alliance building…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine why and how the Trades Union Congress (TUC) – the labour movement's peak body, “think tank” and exemplar – engages in alliance building with civil movements and groups. In particular, it investigates: the rationale for such; the nature of the alliances and the extent to which they inform TUC revival efforts or a new approach to trade unionism.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight senior TUC personnel. Most interviewees provided documentary evidence to elaborate on their comments. The dimensions of a thematic analysis of this and web site evidence were structured to reflect the above areas of inquiry.
Findings
The findings are that: interest in the TUC and labour movement in alliance building with civil groups is building at all levels; TUC engagement with, promotion of and guidance on civil alliances is largely emergent and sporadic; notwithstanding this, certain parts of the TUC have increased its promotion of and to a lesser extent direct engagement with alliances. It also is shown that: such engagement looks likely to continue to grow as a feature of other revival strategies and there is little assessment of whether alliance building can help strengthen the British labour movement.
Practical implications
The findings inform the paper's discussion of potential TUC and union revival purpose, policy and practice.
Originality/value
This paper provides an in‐depth empirical study of the TUC's involvement in alliance building with other social movements and groups. Policy‐maker and practitioner interest in such is growing rapidly, particularly in light of the debatable effectiveness of familiar British union revival strategies.
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This paper aims to add information on how women's voices enriched American social entrepreneurship in the Progressive era. While most discussions of women as social entrepreneurs…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to add information on how women's voices enriched American social entrepreneurship in the Progressive era. While most discussions of women as social entrepreneurs have centered on white middle class women, this article profiles two female agents for change and innovation who came out of the white working class and Boston's Black elite, respectively. These additions provide an analysis of female participation that takes account of issues of intersectionality and positionality, important concepts in contemporary critical theory.
Design/methodology/approach
This article extends our understanding of women's role as social entrepreneurs in the early twentieth century by offering biographies of Rose Schneiderman and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin based on extensive examination of sources from Progressive era documents to contemporary scholarly analyses. Inclusion of Progressive era sources enables the narrative to suggest how these social entrepreneurs were viewed in their own day.
Findings
Biographies of Rose Schneiderman and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin indicate the broad range of women who developed new organizations to serve traditionally marginalized populations in the Progressive era. The article shows the types of obstacles each woman faced; it enumerates strategies they used to further their aims as well as recording some of the times they could not surmount class- or race-based obstacles placed in their paths.
Originality/value
At a time when issues of intersectionality and positionality have become more prominent in management discourse, this article expands the class and race backgrounds of women specifically proposed as icons of social entrepreneurship. It represents an early attempt to link these concepts with the study of entrepreneurship.