Jonas Sandberg and Henrik Eriksson
Few studies have been conducted into the contextual and relational aspects of male caregiving that include analysis by gender and family relationships. The aim was to gain…
Abstract
Few studies have been conducted into the contextual and relational aspects of male caregiving that include analysis by gender and family relationships. The aim was to gain understanding of the experience of older men as caregivers for an ill spouse. A narrative approach was adopted for this study. Interviews were conducted with three older men between 65 and 78 years, who had been caring for their wives for between one and 12 years. Two main categories emerged: taking on a new and unfamiliar role, and learning to live with the new role. The results also show how the men seek to maintain continuity in their relationships with the wives they are caring for. The findings can be understood in the light of a major life transition of how older men providing care for a spouse create new roles and how they cope with the changes in the marital relationship. A sense of continuity in the process of caring is important for men to help them find the strength to continue as caregivers.
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Joana Geraldi and Jonas Söderlund
In 2006, the “Rethinking Project Management” network called for a paradigm shift in project research, and proposed five research directions. The directions inspired research and…
Abstract
Purpose
In 2006, the “Rethinking Project Management” network called for a paradigm shift in project research, and proposed five research directions. The directions inspired research and marked a milestone in the development of the field. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the past decade and to rejuvenate these research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose the umbrella term: “project studies” to denote the research related to projects and temporary organizing. Project studies is conceived not only as a body of research, but also as a social process embedded in research communities, and contemporary Zeitgeist. Based on Sandberg’s interpretative approach to the fit between work and works (in this case research-researcher) and Habermas’ three types of human interests: technical, practical, and emancipatory, the authors develop a conceptual framework circumscribing three types of research in project studies.
Findings
The conceptual framework is used to craft future research directions, in the lines proposed by Winter et al. (2006b).
Research limitations/implications
The authors conclude by proposing for a sixth theme on the practice of theorizing, and call for engaged, ambidextrous scholars, who’s “job” goes beyond the writing of articles and research applications, and includes shaping discourses of project research, nurturing new project scholars, contributing to project practice and carefully considering the legacy of projects and project studies in society.
Originality/value
This paper positions research as a social process, and the role of researchers as actors shaping research in project studies.
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Alexander Styhre, Sanne Ollila, Jonas Roth, David Williamson and Lena Berg
The purpose of the paper is to report a study of knowledge sharing practices in the clinical research organization in a major pharmaceutical company. While knowledge sharing and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to report a study of knowledge sharing practices in the clinical research organization in a major pharmaceutical company. While knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer is often conceived of in terms of codification and storage in databases accessed through information technology, there is less experience in industry from working with knowledge sharing in face‐to‐face communication settings.
Design/methodology/approach
A collaborative research methodology including academic researchers, consultants and company representatives was used to examine and develop a knowledge‐sharing model. Interview and participative observations were used as data collection methods.
Findings
The study suggests that the use of so‐called knowledge facilitators, organizing and leading knowledge sharing seminars among clinical research teams, needs to develop the capacity to interrelate heedfully, that is, the dispositions to act with attentiveness, alertness, and care, to fully explore the insights, experiences, and know‐how generated in the clinical research teams. Heed precedes successful sharing of knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
It is concluded that the literature on knowledge sharing needs to pay closer attention to the practices on the micro level in knowledge sharing, in the day‐to‐day collaborations between different professional groups.
Originality/value
The paper applies the concept of “heedful interrelation” in a practical knowledge management project in a major pharmaceutical company.
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Hans Landström, Jonas Gabrielsson, Diamanto Politis and Roger Sørheim
In this study, the authors develop knowledge and insights on how the perception of interestingness influences the structure and focus of conversations in entrepreneurial education…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors develop knowledge and insights on how the perception of interestingness influences the structure and focus of conversations in entrepreneurial education (EE) research. In particular, the authors elaborate on what is perceived as interesting among different subgroups of EE researchers, and not least, how EE researchers can identify and engage in scholarly conversation within the field.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a unique database with web-based responses from 465 EE researchers from around the world. The authors conduct analyses of both open-ended and closed questions. The open-ended questions are analyzed by inductive categorization. The closed questions are subject to factor and cluster analyses.
Findings
The findings suggest that EE research is a topic-oriented field, characterized by a strong focus on novel and challenging research issues. In addition, the field is individualistic and fragmented, and the perception of interestingness differs between five subgroups of EE researchers, whose members have a somewhat different perception of interestingness. Accordingly, the authors also find different core conversations going on within the field. Obviously, these conversations tend to be triggered by the field's obsession with novelty and challenging research, but several conversations are related to practically relevant research, as well as methodological and theoretical discussions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to elaborate on the perception of interestingness among EE researchers and the conversations going on within the field. In the study the authors have explored the characteristics of EE research based on the perception of interestingness among the researchers within the field. In this respect, this study contributes insights on how current and aspiring EE researchers can find and build scholarly conversations embedded in passionate interest, while concurrently disseminating and accumulating knowledge on EE together with like-minded peers.
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Elisabeth Borg and Jonas Soderlund
This paper aims to present findings from an interpretative study documenting how mobile project workers develop their conceptions of work performed in liminal (in-between…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present findings from an interpretative study documenting how mobile project workers develop their conceptions of work performed in liminal (in-between) positions. The overall purpose of the paper is to elucidate how people in time-limited and ambiguous work positions develop competences to manage their dynamic work conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
This research relies on two narratives of mobile project workers drawn from a larger longitudinal study. The empirical material includes diaries and multiple interviews. The analysis takes a narrative approach and identifies how and when the mobile project workers enhance their level of liminality competence.
Findings
Three processes were identified as significant in developing higher liminality competence: understanding the value of in-betweenness, embracing the role as an inside-outsider and translating the liminal experience through reflexivity.
Practical implications
The paper demonstrates the need for employers to support individuals in passing through the three processes and to support thoughtful mobility across different project settings to improve the liminality competence of their employees.
Originality/value
In the dual ambition of offering insights based on interpretative research on competence and putting greater emphasis on people working in in-between positions, this study enhances the understanding of how individuals develop their conceptions of work in general, and their conceptions of liminality at work in particular.
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Teodor Sommestad, Henrik Karlzén and Jonas Hallberg
This paper aims to challenge the assumption that the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) includes all constructs that explain information security policy compliance and investigates…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to challenge the assumption that the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) includes all constructs that explain information security policy compliance and investigates if anticipated regret or constructs from the protection motivation theory add explanatory power. The TPB is an established theory that has been found to predict compliance with information security policies well.
Design/methodology/approach
Responses from 306 respondents at a research organization were collected using a questionnaire-based survey. Extensions in terms of anticipated regret and constructs drawn from the protection motivation theory are tested using hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
Adding anticipated regret and the threat appraisal process results in improvements of the predictions of intentions. The improvements are of sufficient magnitude to warrant adjustments of the model of the TPB when it is used in the area of information security policy compliance.
Originality/value
This study is the first test of anticipated regret as a predictor of information security policy compliance and the first to assess its influence in relation to the TPB and the protection motivation theory.
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Vanda N. Veréb, Helena Nobre and Minoo Farhangmehr
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how international tourists’ cosmopolitan values change due to the restraining fear of terrorism, and how this change affects their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how international tourists’ cosmopolitan values change due to the restraining fear of terrorism, and how this change affects their worldview, destination perception and travel preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews were conducted with international travellers from all five continents to pinpoint the universal shifts in cosmopolitan values, specifically regarding risk perception in the face of terrorism.
Findings
Tourists’ personal values are changing due to the increased risk of terrorism (or the perception of it), which prompts international travellers to act less on their desire for stimulation and more for their need for security when travelling. Just as any change in values tends to be relatively permanent, this value shift might have long-term consequences for the entire tourism industry.
Research limitations/implications
Terrorism risk perception and its retraining effect regarding willingness to travel were established to be significant and universal. However, this study suggests that the strength of the travellers’ cosmopolitan orientation influences the extent terrorism risk is acted upon. Results indicate that the higher the travellers’ cosmopolitan conviction is, the less significantly they seem to be affected by the fear of terrorism.
Practical implications
The study offers cues on how managers and policy makers can enhance destination image that keeps up with the current realities of global tourism in the face of terrorism, and highlights a promising market segment, strongly cosmopolitan travellers who are less concerned with potential travel risks and react less negatively in troubled times.
Originality/value
Most of the previous studies considered tourists’ cosmopolitanism as a stable orientation rather than a context-specific state. This study addresses this gap by exploring how resilient the tourists’ cosmopolitan desire for openness and freedom is under the risk perception of terrorism, and what effect the fear of terrorism has on their travel habits.
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Jonas A. Ingvaldsen and Jos Benders
This article addresses why movements towards less-hierarchical organizing may be unsustainable within organizations.
Abstract
Purpose
This article addresses why movements towards less-hierarchical organizing may be unsustainable within organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Eschewing hierarchy may prove sustainable if alternative forms of management are acceptable to both employees and managers accountable for those employees’ performance. Developing alternatives means dealing with the fundamentally contradictory functions of coordination and control. Through a qualitative case study of a manufacturing company that removed first-line supervisors, this article analyses how issues of control and coordination were dealt with formally and informally.
Findings
Removal of the formal supervisor was followed by workers’ and middle managers’ efforts to informally reconstruct hierarchical supervision. Their efforts to deal pragmatically with control and coordination were frustrated by formal prescriptions for less hierarchy, leading to contested outcomes. The article identifies upward and downward pressures for the hierarchy’s reconstruction, undermining the sustainability of less-hierarchical organizing.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by the use of cross-sectional data and employees’ retrospective narratives. Future research on the sustainability of less-hierarchical organizing should preferably be longitudinal to overcome these limitations.
Practical implications
Unless organizational changes towards less hierarchy engage with issues of managerial control and upward accountability, they are likely to induce pressures for hierarchy’s reconstruction.
Originality/value
The article offers an original approach to the classical problem of eschewing hierarchy in organizations. The approach allows us to explore the interrelated challenges facing such restructuring, some of which are currently unacknowledged or underestimated within the literature.
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Jonas Gabrielsson, Gustav Hägg, Hans Landström and Diamanto Politis
The purpose of the paper is to explore knowledge accumulation in research on pedagogy in entrepreneurship education, with particular attention to how core journal outlets, core…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to explore knowledge accumulation in research on pedagogy in entrepreneurship education, with particular attention to how core journal outlets, core topics and core scholarly works have developed over time.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors combine a systematic literature review technique and bibliometric analysis to depict the development of this stream of research in the period 1995–2018.
Findings
Findings from the analyses suggests that research addressing pedagogy in entrepreneurship education has developed into a coherent research theme over the past decade, with a noticeable cognitive structure in core research topics and core works, as well as a number of core journal outlets for debates and dissemination of findings.
Research limitations/implications
The study is anchored in a bibliometric research tradition and influenced by the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
Originality/value
The paper provided contributes to the understanding of knowledge accumulation in research addressing pedagogy in entrepreneurial education.