Katie Olsen and Danielle LaGree
The purpose of this paper is to examine how young women understand and make meaning of their status as early-career women (ECW) in the creative communication industry, which is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how young women understand and make meaning of their status as early-career women (ECW) in the creative communication industry, which is typically dominated by male leadership. It explores how professional relationships influence their transition into full-time employment and influences their career trajectories.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews with 31 women in the first five years of their communication careers provided insights into how they experience professional relationships in the workplace in relation to leadership advancement. Inductive coding, a feminist organizational communication lens and literature on mentorship and role modeling was used to explore the standpoint of these young women.
Findings
Young women understand that professional relationships are necessary for acclimation and professional development. Our analysis revealed an intersection of three distinct ways these relationships help young women cultivate a strong career foundation, positioning themselves for leadership opportunities.
Practical implications
This study provides insight into the experiences of ECW, a group significantly overlooked by industry and research as a way to increase career equity. Findings from this study guide programmatic and socialization practices to help young women overcome barriers.
Originality/value
Developing a deeper understanding of women worker’s realities, this research encourages industries to regard the entire career path, emphasizing the importance of beginning socialization experiences in the workplace. It offers actionable managerial practices, and it drives a new scholarly focus on a demographic critical to closing the leadership gender gap.
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Danielle LaGree, Katie Olsen, Alec Tefertiller and Rosalynn Vasquez
Motivated by the organizational challenge coined the great discontent, employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, see minimal opportunities for growth and are actively searching…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated by the organizational challenge coined the great discontent, employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, see minimal opportunities for growth and are actively searching for new roles. This research aims to take a novel approach to internal communication strategy by introducing employability culture and leadership empowerment as mechanisms for supporting employees' career growth and additional positive workplace outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was designed and administered in the United States. The final sample size includes 425 full-time employees working in a variety of roles, industries and work arrangements.
Findings
Findings point to the inherent need for revised internal communication strategy that goes beyond managing and disseminating information. Organizations must develop cultures and their leaders in ways that empower employees and help them understand the meaning of their work. Employability culture, or an organization's support for developing employees' adaptive skills as work roles change, positively predicted employees' perceptions of their career growth opportunities at their current place of employment, employee loyalty and engagement, and job satisfaction. Leadership empowerment behaviors also positively predicted all previously listed workplace variables. These perceptions as influenced by work arrangement (onsite, hybrid, fully remote) and younger versus older generations were also analyzed.
Originality/value
Research findings offer new strategies for internal communications. Internal communication teams can partner alongside executive leadership to develop a culture that helps employees envision how their skills and expertise translates to different areas of the organization, empowering them to find meaning in their work, and be driven to support organizational growth.
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Dunja Antunovic, Katie Taylor, Macauley Watt and Andrew D. Linden
On 2 February 2020, 99.9 million viewers learnt about the Women's Football Alliance (WFA), the largest women's American football league in the United States, when former player…
Abstract
On 2 February 2020, 99.9 million viewers learnt about the Women's Football Alliance (WFA), the largest women's American football league in the United States, when former player Katie Sowers became the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl. In the same month, the WFA announced several corporate partnerships and a new television deal with statements that connected the support for women's American football to advancing gender equity.
This chapter examines the professionalisation of women's American football in the United States through the lens of mediated visibilities. We use the term mediated visibilities, rather than media coverage, to move beyond how journalists are writing about sport (or ‘covering’ sport) and account for the complex ways in which content about women's sport circulates across producers and platforms in the digital media environment. In particular, our analysis examines the opportunities and limitations of digital media in the process of (semi-)professionalisation of women's American football.
The WFA joined the broader ‘momentum’ of women's sport in the United States as both the league's social media platforms and the sponsors aligned their messages with cultural narratives around women's sport to invoke gender equity in promoting women's American football. Moreover, the league positioned the strategy to enhance mediated visibility the sport as an integral step in the process of (semi-)professionalisation. However, the role of the WFA's digital media platforms alone appears to be limited without substantial structural change.
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Chengwei Liu and Chia-Jung Tsay
Chance models – mechanisms that explain empirical regularities through unsystematic variance – have a long tradition in the sciences but have been historically marginalized in…
Abstract
Chance models – mechanisms that explain empirical regularities through unsystematic variance – have a long tradition in the sciences but have been historically marginalized in management scholarship, relative to an agentic worldview about the role of managers and organizations. An exception is the work of James G. March and his coauthors, who proposed a variety of chance models that explain important management phenomena, including the careers of top executives, managerial risk taking, and organizational anarchy, learning, and adaptation. This paper serves as a tribute to the beauty of these “little ideas” and demonstrates how they can be recombined to generate novel implications. In particular, we focus on the example of an inverted V-shaped performance association centering around the year when executives were featured in a prominent listing, Barron’s annual list of Top 30 chief executive officers. Our recombination of several chance models developed by March and his coauthors provides a novel explanation for why many of the executives’ exceptional performances did not persist. In contrast to the common accounts of complacency, hubris, and statistical regression, the results show that declines from high performance may result from the way luck interacts with these executives’ slow adaptation, incompetence, and self-reinforced risk taking. We conclude by elaborating on the normative implications of chance models, which address many current management and societal challenges. We further encourage the continued development of chance models to help explain performance differences, shifting from accounts that favor heroic stories of corporate leaders toward accounts that favor their changing fortunes.
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Katia Ciampa and Dana Reisboard
The single-site case study described herein is part of a two-year professional development (PD) initiative aimed at helping teachers from an urban elementary (K-8) school learn…
Abstract
Purpose
The single-site case study described herein is part of a two-year professional development (PD) initiative aimed at helping teachers from an urban elementary (K-8) school learn how to implement explicit, transactional comprehension strategy instruction across grades using culturally relevant books. This paper aims to describe the urban elementary teachers’ successes and challenges in their first-year implementation of providing culturally relevant literacy instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
Three types of qualitative data were collected: researchers’ anecdotal notes during the professional learning sessions; teacher focus groups; and teachers’ blog reflection entries.
Findings
The findings revealed that the PD for culturally relevant literacy instruction resulted in teachers’ heightened awareness of how identities and social subjectivities are negotiated in and through culturally relevant discourse, the implicit and explicit bias in the school curriculum. Finally, PD served as a catalyst for facilitating students’ and teachers’ racial and cultural identity development.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study suggest that culturally relevant books which incorporate the students’ background may aid in student engagement because students are able to draw upon their culturally acquired background knowledge to better comprehend texts. Thus, to engage, motivate, affirm and promote students’ literacy success, teachers need to possess knowledge of their students’ race and culture, as well as their background, language and life experiences.
Practical implications
The findings of this study suggest that culturally relevant books which incorporate the students’ background may aid in student engagement because students are able to draw upon their culturally acquired background knowledge to better comprehend texts. Thus, to engage, motivate, affirm and promote students’ literacy success, teachers need to possess knowledge of their students’ race and culture, as well as their background, language and life experiences.
Social implications
Teachers and teacher educators must reflect on, question and critique their own work in preparing teachers to enter today’s schools as critical, reflective educators. The types of children’s literature that are selected and introduced to students play an important role in dismantling technocratic approaches to literacy instruction and strengthen one’s understanding of one another. Teachers must select books that challenge assumptions and speak of possibilities for change.
Originality/value
Culturally relevant pedagogy that includes culturally relevant children’s literature holds promise for improving literacy instructional and assessment practices and school experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse students, especially in environments where high-stakes testing is emphasized. It is one way to imagine a better schooling experience for students that affirms identities and honors and sustains diversity. For culturally relevant pedagogy to be a reality in education, stakeholders must be on board, including students, parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers.
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It was a typical Wednesday in Room 4. Wednesday mornings meant time for Invitations. A time cherished and enjoyed by the intermediate students in Ruth’s elementary classroom…
Abstract
It was a typical Wednesday in Room 4. Wednesday mornings meant time for Invitations. A time cherished and enjoyed by the intermediate students in Ruth’s elementary classroom. Invitations were a time for small groups of students to work together across disciplines on self-selected topics offered by the teacher but grown from student interests. On a weekly basis students signed up for Invitations – sometimes sticking with a topic for several weeks and sometimes attending to a new topic each week. Topics ranged anywhere from using technology, taking apart CD players to discover how they work, exploring media coverage of current events, debating social issues, dissecting plants, to making maps. Students then worked cooperatively in student-facilitated groups to use multiple ways of knowing, and available resources and materials to ask important questions, to investigate issues of significance, to pursue possibilities, and to inquire with others.
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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Kestutis Lekeckas, Julija Stirbe, Kristina Ancutiene and Ruta Valusyte
To explore the influence of various factors on the adhesion strength of 3D printing materials and chiffon fabrics, and to develop an original design clothing prototype with an…
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the influence of various factors on the adhesion strength of 3D printing materials and chiffon fabrics, and to develop an original design clothing prototype with an extended functionality that would be compatible with the specifics of the circular design.
Design/methodology/approach
Four different chiffon fabrics and four 3D printed materials were chosen as the research subjects to determine the influence of various factors on the adhesion strength and ductility. The uniaxial tensile test was used to determine pull-out force and the pull-out elongation from the interlayer.
Findings
3D printed TPU elements can be used to join clothing parts made from low-elasticity chiffon fabrics to improve wearing comfort. In order to comply with the circular economy concept, it is important to select such adhesion parameters of the 3D printed elements and the material system that would ensure wear comfort and withstand wear-level loads; and at the end of the life cycle of a garment, the 3D printed elements could be separated from the product and recycled.
Originality/value
The systems developed can be used to renew and repair products, adding originality, individual touch or additional decorative features, while extending the functional possibilities of clothing items in accordance with circular design principles.
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Juri Matinheikki, Katie Kenny, Katri Kauppi, Erik van Raaij and Alistair Brandon-Jones
Despite the unparalleled importance of value within healthcare, value-based models remain underutilised in the procurement of medical devices. Research is needed to understand…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the unparalleled importance of value within healthcare, value-based models remain underutilised in the procurement of medical devices. Research is needed to understand what factors incentivise standard, low-priced device purchasing as opposed to value-adding devices with potentially higher overall health outcomes. Framed in agency theory, we examine the conditions under which different actors involved in purchasing decisions select premium-priced, value-adding medical devices over low-priced, standard medical devices.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects scenario-based vignette experiments on three UK-based online samples of managers (n = 599), medical professionals (n = 279) and purchasing managers (n = 449) with subjects randomly assigned to three treatments: (1) cost-saving incentives, (2) risk-sharing contracts and (3) stronger (versus weaker) clinical evidence.
Findings
Our analysis demonstrates the harmful effects of intra-organisational cost-saving incentives on value-based purchasing (VBP) adoption; the positive impact of inter-organisational risk-sharing contracts, especially when medical professionals are involved in decision-making; and the challenge of leveraging clinical evidence to support value claims.
Research limitations/implications
Our results demonstrate the need to align incentives in a context with multiple intra- and inter-organisational agency relationships at play, as well as the difficulty of reducing information asymmetry when information is not easily interpretable to all decision-makers. Overall, the intra-organisational agency factors strongly influenced the choices for the inter-organisational agency relationship.
Originality/value
We contribute to VBP in healthcare by examining the role of intra- and inter-organisational agency relationships and incentives concerning VBP (non-) adoption. We also examine how the impact of such mechanisms differs between medical and purchasing (management) professionals.