Evelyne Mertens, Ann Heylighen, Anja Declercq, Karin Hannes, Fred Truyen, Yvonne Denier and Bernadette Dierckx de Casterlé
Novice researchers experience difficulties in analysing qualitative data. To develop the skills necessary for qualitative data analysis, theoretical manuals are often…
Abstract
Purpose
Novice researchers experience difficulties in analysing qualitative data. To develop the skills necessary for qualitative data analysis, theoretical manuals are often insufficient. Supervisors supporting students in analysing qualitative data stress the need for practical guidance, including exercises and feedback. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss QualiBuddy, an interactive online support tool in answer to this need.
Design/methodology/approach
An online support tool was developed in answer to existing problems regarding analysing qualitative data. The tool provides a learning trajectory of 11 stages of analysis, which all contain examples, exercises, feedback, verification questions and questions for reflection. This tool is developed from a multidisciplinary perspective and is constructed around various steps. During the development process, internal feedback from the members of the project team, as well as external feedback from an international steering group with experts in qualitative research were taken into account.
Findings
The tool QualiBuddy is based on an empirically and theoretically grounded approach to qualitative data analyses. Pilot tests with experienced qualitative researchers suggest that the tool potentially allows novice researchers from various domains to develop and improve their skills in conceptualising interview data, specifically within a grounded theory approach.
Originality/value
QualiBuddy is a newly developed interactive online education tool based on and complementary to existing guides for qualitative data analysis.
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Claudia Marà, Lander Vermeerbergen, Valeria Pulignano and Karin Hannes
Revitalisation of quality of working life (QWL) research points to non-standard work such as remote platform work as a compelling setting where research on QWL is needed. Whereas…
Abstract
Purpose
Revitalisation of quality of working life (QWL) research points to non-standard work such as remote platform work as a compelling setting where research on QWL is needed. Whereas the literature on working conditions in remote work platforms is rich, knowledge on the topic is fragmented. This systematic review aims to synthesize and integrate findings from existing literature to offer an encompassing and multidimensional understanding of QWL and the managerial practices linked to it in remote work platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of 24 empirical qualitative studies selected based on a multiple-database search using Boolean search engines. The selection of studies to be included in the review was performed through a four-steps procedure, following the PRISMA protocol. A thematic analysis of the studies was performed to synthesize findings.
Findings
We synthesize and show how remote platform workers experience a degrading QWL along five QWL dimensions, and we illustrate how these QWL dimensions are influenced by platforms’ managerial practices such as client-biased systems, rate-setting mechanisms, reputational systems, global competition schemes, lock-in systems, monitoring and nudging systems and information asymmetry.
Originality/value
The study contributes to reinvigorating QWL literature by producing a systematic synthesis of workers’ experience of QWL in the non-standard work context of remote platform work and the managerial practices that influence QWL. Our study overcomes two main shortcomings of the existing empirical studies published: (1) studies examine only a few QWL dimensions and/or (2) examine some platforms’ managerial practices that influence QWL, overlooking others.
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Charlotte Struyve, Alan Daly, Machteld Vandecandelaere, Chloé Meredith, Karin Hannes and Bieke De Fraine
The number of early career teachers leaving the profession continues to be an ongoing issue across the globe. This pressing concern has resulted in increased attention to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The number of early career teachers leaving the profession continues to be an ongoing issue across the globe. This pressing concern has resulted in increased attention to the instructional and psychological conditions necessary to retain early career educators. However, less formal attention has been paid to the social infrastructure in which early career teachers find themselves. The purpose of this paper is to foreground the role of social capital and its effect on job attitudes and educators’ intention to leave the profession.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 736 teachers within ten secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Using social network and multilevel moderated mediation analysis techniques, the relationships between teachers’ social connectedness, job attitudes, and the intention to leave the profession for both novice and experienced teachers were analyzed.
Findings
Findings indicate that being socially connected to other educators within the school is associated with a reduction in teachers’ intention to leave the profession, mediated by their job attitudes, for both early career and experienced teachers. However, social connectedness was significantly more important for early career teachers. No significant effects are found for being socially connected to the mentor.
Originality/value
This study provides evidence for the importance of social capital for teachers, particularly early career educators. Moreover, by introducing teachers’ social connectedness as related to intention to leave, this study makes a significant and unique contribution to the literature.
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Marta Lindvert, Marit Breivik-Meyer and Gry Agnete Alsos
Acknowledging that technology incubators are gendered organizations, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how gender patterns, norms and practices of entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
Acknowledging that technology incubators are gendered organizations, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how gender patterns, norms and practices of entrepreneurial masculinities are performed within technology incubators. Although incubators within the same country represent similar types of contexts, they also develop organizational variations. Local gender regimes, norms and actions within an incubator have implications for the type of entrepreneurs who are attracted to and feel included in a particular incubator.
Design/methodology/approach
Four Norwegian incubators were studied. Data was collected through interviews with incubator managers, and male and female entrepreneurs. The interview data was complemented with observations and analysis of webpages. To analyse data, we used a qualitative, inductive approach, where a thematic analysis helped us to create a framework of incubators as gendered organizations.
Findings
Building on Connell's (2006) four-dimension framework, we found that the studied incubators all perform gendered patterns, norms and practices, related to division of labour, relations of power, emotion and human relations as well as culture and symbolism. They facilitate and perform entrepreneurial masculinities in different ways, expressing both traditional and modern masculine ideals. We found several examples of how these masculine ideals and norms were dominating, with effects on both female and male founders and expressed through a variety of emotions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to literature on masculinities, by exploring the pluralities of masculinity within incubators as gendered regimes. Further, findings contribute to the understanding of incubators as gendered organizations.
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This chapter investigates the need to focus on the gap between the pure quantification of the body, expressed by robotic implants, and recent research aiming to recover…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the need to focus on the gap between the pure quantification of the body, expressed by robotic implants, and recent research aiming to recover qualitative aspects of touch, such as sensation. The solution proposed is to analyse new implant technologies with a stereoscopic vision that is able to consider sensation both as intensity of neural signals and as something that we feel. The central question is: what is the value of introducing qualitative analysis into typically quantified robotics research, governed by data?
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Anne‐Mette Hjalager, John Houman Sørensen and Rasmus Juul Møberg
This study investigates labour market fluctuations and gender issues in the health and care sector. A large data set from public registers has allowed us to compile a…
Abstract
This study investigates labour market fluctuations and gender issues in the health and care sector. A large data set from public registers has allowed us to compile a comprehensive picture of the job categories that particularly attract men. We find a polarisation of men in the upper and lower positions in the job hierarchy. In the metropolitan area, men tend to be discouraged from taking jobs in the health and care sector, as opposed to the peripheral region, where alternative job offers may be more scarce. A logistic regression analysis shows that (young) age is the major explanatory factor for leaving the health and care sector to find occupation elsewhere. However, gender (male), wage levels (low), marital status (single) and education (none) are also significant. The study discusses seven theoretical perspectives for male and female careers in the health and care sector: The need for flexibility. Destandardising of jobs. Devaluation of feminised work areas. Human capital as a stabiliser. Feminisation. The prospects of boundaryless careers. The spatial dimension.
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The purpose of this article is to discuss the role that law plays for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in substance, action and reporting, including whether CSR functions as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to discuss the role that law plays for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in substance, action and reporting, including whether CSR functions as informal law.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical point of departure is based in legal science. Through a discussion of various contexts of CSR in which law and legal standards feature, the article questions the conception that CSR is to do “more than the law requires”. CSR is discussed with the triple bottom line as a point of departure, focussing on social (esp. labour and human rights) and environmental dimensions.
Findings
It is argued that CSR functions as informal law, and that important principles of law function as part of a general set of values that guide much action on CSR. Furthermore, it is argued that aspects of law in the abstract as well as in the statutory sense and as self‐regulation influence the substance, implementation and communication of CSR, and that the current normative regime of CSR in terms of demands on multinational corporations may constitute pre‐formal law.
Originality/value
Through its discussion, observations and examples of the role played in CSR by law in the abstract as well as the statutory sense, by international, supranational and national soft and hard law and documents, and by public regulation as well as corporate self‐regulation, the paper is of value to corporate managers, public regulators, NGOs and individuals with an interest in CSR, including as an aspect of corporate governance.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Swedish mass media constructed Sweden and Swedes during the first days after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Swedish mass media constructed Sweden and Swedes during the first days after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles from four of the largest newspapers in Sweden was conducted.
Findings
The results show that the tsunami was framed as a Swedish disaster almost exclusively focusing on Sweden, Swedish victims and Thailand, and that there was a division between “us” and “them”. Two categories of “us” and “them” were identified in the coverage: on the international level Sweden, i.e. “us”, was glorified and contrasted with “inferior” countries such as Thailand, “them”; on the national level, the distinction between “us” and “them” was not as obvious, but by including particular experiences and practices and excluding others, lines are drawn between “us” – ethnic Swedes – and “them” – everyone else. The conclusion of the paper is that mediated frames of catastrophes are influenced by stereotypes and nationalistic values.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on a qualitative analysis and it is not possible to generalize to other cases. Additional quantitative studies would therefore be of value.
Practical implications
This study can be used in the education of crisis and disaster managers to make them aware of how underlying norms guide news coverage and encourage them always to consider information based on mass media reports critically.
Originality/value
This paper gives new theoretical and empirical insights into the way in which disasters contribute to recreating and maintaining the historical division between regions and people, on both a national and an international level.