John Hassard, Paula Hyde, Julie Wolfram Cox, Edward Granter and Leo McCann
The purpose of this paper is to describe a hybrid approach to the research developed during a multi-researcher, ethnographic study of NHS management in the UK.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a hybrid approach to the research developed during a multi-researcher, ethnographic study of NHS management in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
This methodological paper elaborates a hybrid approach to the sociological analysis – the critical-action theory – and indicates how it can contribute to the critical health management studies.
Findings
After exploring the various theoretical, methodological and philosophical options available, the paper discusses the main research issues that influenced the development of this perspective and the process by which the critical-action perspective was applied to the studies of managerial work in four health service sectors – acute hospitals, ambulance services, community services and mental healthcare.
Research limitations/implications
This methodological perspective enabled a critical analysis of health service organisation that considered macro, meso and micro effects, in particular and in this case, how new public management drained power from clinicians through managerialist discourses and practices.
Practical implications
Healthcare organisations are often responding to the decisions that lie outside of their control and may have to enact changes that make little sense locally. In order to make sense of these effects, micro-, meso- and macro-level analyses are necessary.
Originality/value
The critical-action perspective is presented as an adjunct to traditional approaches that have been taken to the study of health service organisation and delivery.
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Saima Ahmad, Talat Islam, Amrik Singh Sohal, Julie Wolfram Cox and Ahmad Kaleem
This paper develops and tests a model for managing workplace bullying by integrating employee perceived servant leadership, resilience and proactive personality. Specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper develops and tests a model for managing workplace bullying by integrating employee perceived servant leadership, resilience and proactive personality. Specifically, this paper explores servant leadership as an inhibitive factor for workplace bullying, both directly and indirectly in the presence of employee resilience as a mediator. It further explores whether proactive personality moderates the indirect relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an empirical study based on analysis of survey data collected from 408 employees working in services and manufacturing sector organisations in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model.
Findings
Structural equation modelling results support the proposition that servant leadership helps in discouraging workplace bullying, both directly and indirectly, in the presence of employee resilience as a mediator. However, employee proactive personality moderates this process, such that the association between resilience and workplace bullying is stronger for individuals with high proactive personality.
Research limitations/implications
This study's findings illuminate the strong potential of servant leadership for managing workplace bullying. This potential is attributed to positive role modelling in the workplace, which may assist in building followers' resilience. This study provides evidence to support the importance of leadership in the process by which employees develop better psychological resources to combat bullying at work.
Originality/value
This is the first study that examines the direct relationship between servant leadership and bullying at work. In addition, this study introduced the mediating effect of resilience and the moderating effect of proactive personality on this relationship.
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Saima Ahmad, Amrik Singh Sohal and Julie Wolfram Cox
While research on the influence of ethical and unethical behaviour on employee well-being abound, we still know little of how well-being is shaped under the dual positive and…
Abstract
Purpose
While research on the influence of ethical and unethical behaviour on employee well-being abound, we still know little of how well-being is shaped under the dual positive and negative behavioural influences in the workplace. To address this limitation, this paper aims to investigate the relative effects of ethical behaviour of leadership and unethical bullying behaviour on employee well-being through the application of the conservation of resources theory.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted in the context of Pakistan by seeking views of 330 employees in academic work settings.
Findings
The data analysis revealed that occurrence of unethical behaviour plays a more potent role than ethical behaviour in shaping employee well-being. These findings lend support to the conservation of resources theoretical perspective by reiterating the salience of resource loss over resource gain in shaping employee well-being.
Originality/value
This study offers a new insight into the management literature by highlighting that combating workplace bullying not only conserves employee well-being, but also allows organisations to capitalise more fully on the positive process enabled by leadership.
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Brian Cooper, Tracey Shea, Julie W. Cox, Naomi Stead and Jonathan Robberts
This study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for human resource management (HRM).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analysed a survey of 1,619 employees working in architectural practice and allied fields in Australia in 2020.
Findings
Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors asked whether workers would be more adaptable to change during COVID-19 if they were able to draw on a combination or bundle of supports, known as resource caravans. Hierarchical multiple regression and relative importance analysis showed that confidence in personal support networks during the pandemic was the most important predictor assisting workers to adapt to change, followed by concrete (practical, technical) organizational support for remote work. No evidence was found to corroborate this study's hypotheses that these resources provide support in bundles, challenging the notion of resource caravans in this research context.
Originality/value
The authors argue that COR theory has been too broadly applied to the workplace and that boundary conditions should apply to its emphasis on resource caravans. In practical terms, HRM supports to promote employee adaptability should be carefully targeted in extreme circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox
This paper is concerned with how employees talk about their experiences of organizational change and focuses specifically on the construction of conversion stories. These are…
Abstract
This paper is concerned with how employees talk about their experiences of organizational change and focuses specifically on the construction of conversion stories. These are particularly positive narratives that consider change as a turning point in which individuals depart from an old way of life pre‐change to embrace a post‐change organization. In this study, employees seek conversion into management groups and report the values and philosophies of management in their narratives, thus highlighting the benefits of change while suppressing any negative aspects. This paper draws attention to the dramatic nature of the conversion story and explores the sharp distinction between the reporting of experiences prior to and after change. We also investigate the relationship between constructing conversion stories and gaining personal and career advancement at work and suggest that beneath the positive exterior of the conversion narratives lies a theme of silence, which may be related to career advancement. Our findings suggest that such stories of silence complicate the conversion story as an example of positive organizational change and discuss implications for both the theory and practice of narrative change research.
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As part of a retrospective study of effects of organizational change on interpersonal relations, this paper discusses change talk among Australian employees of an American…
Abstract
As part of a retrospective study of effects of organizational change on interpersonal relations, this paper discusses change talk among Australian employees of an American multinational manufacturing enterprise. Interviewees tended to feel pushed into change, discussing its effects in terms of the difficulties of adolescence and earlier experiences of sudden independence. Over time, what had been a simple and firm us and them division in intergroup relations between management and unions/workers had become more fluid and subtle, and perhaps more mature. Interview data are interpreted and then re‐interpreted in terms of theories of team development, nostalgia, and paternalism. It is argued that each interpretation makes differing, but complementary, assumptions about the nature of time. If developmental, progressive assumptions of organizational change are relaxed, further attention can be given to theorizing and researching subtleties in talk of the past.
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Julie Wolfram Cox and Stella Minahan
Presents a gendered interpretation of reports of protests in 2000‐2002 among asylum seekers held at Australia's recently closed Woomera Detention Centre, discussing instances of…
Abstract
Presents a gendered interpretation of reports of protests in 2000‐2002 among asylum seekers held at Australia's recently closed Woomera Detention Centre, discussing instances of lip sewing that evoked strong reaction from the Australian Government, people and press. Suggests that an Irigarayan gendered reading of lip sewing assists in understanding these examples of self‐harm, supplementing feminist readings of craft, and calling attention to local enactments of gender in both refugee studies and in organizational development and change.
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John Hassard and Julie Wolfram Cox
The premise for this volume is that there is “a need to develop a Handbook that takes scholars and practitioners through the paradigm change going on in the field of management…
Abstract
The premise for this volume is that there is “a need to develop a Handbook that takes scholars and practitioners through the paradigm change going on in the field of management and organizational inquiry.” In their invitation to contributors, the editors suggested we should comment on this transition and inform readers of theoretical and philosophical changes that have occurred in recent times. In this chapter, we attempt to do this by revisiting the influential concept of paradigm from the philosophy of science (Kuhn, 1962, 1970) and explore its relation to recent contributions to postmodern social theory in organizational analysis. In particular, the influential paradigm model of Burrell and Morgan (1979) is revisited through meta-theoretical analysis of the major intellectual movement to emerge in organization theory in recent decades, post-structuralism and more broadly postmodernism. Proposing a retrospective paradigm for this movement we suggest that its research can be characterized as ontologically relativist, epistemologically relationist, and methodologically reflexive; this also represents research that can be termed deconstructionist in its view of human nature. Consequently we demonstrate not only that organizational knowledge stands on meta-theoretical grounds, but also how recent intellectual developments rest on a qualitatively different set of meta-theoretical assumptions than established traditions of agency and structure.
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Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox
This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia…
Abstract
This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia. Within their narratives, participants discuss various forms of workplace violence aimed at employees by management and, in some cases, other employees. In addition, shifting narratives from violence to resignation are explored. As all participants are no longer employed in the organizations described in the narratives, causal associations between workplace violence and resignation choices are of particular interest. In this context, atrocity narratives are presented in a deliberate effort to extend the theorizing of organizational change into domains that are neither attractive nor progressive.