Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz, Kin Andersson and Carina Loeb
The purpose is explore an approach to acquire, analyze and report data concerning an organizational change initiative that combines knowledge generation and knowledge use, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is explore an approach to acquire, analyze and report data concerning an organizational change initiative that combines knowledge generation and knowledge use, and contrast that with a method where knowledge generation and use is separated. More specifically, the authors contrast a participatory group workshop with individual interviews analyzed with thematic analysis, focusing on information about the change process and its perceived practical relevance and usefulness.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were managers responsible for implementing a broad organizational change aiming to improve service quality (e.g. access and equity) and reduce costs in a mental health service organization in Sweden. Individual interviews were conducted at two points, six months apart (i1: n = 15; i2: n = 18). Between the interviews, a 3.5-h participatory group workshop was conducted, during which participants (n = 15) both generated and analyzed data through a structured process that mixed individual-, small- and whole-group activities.
Findings
Both approaches elicited substantive information about the content, purpose and process of change. While the content and purpose findings were similar across the two data sources, the interviews described how to lead a change process, whereas the workshop yielded concrete information about what to do. Benefits of interviews included personal insights about leading change while the workshop provided an opportunity for collective sense-making.
Originality/value
When organizational stakeholders work through the change process through a participatory workshop, they may get on the same page, but require additional support to take action.
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Annika Lantz and Kin Andersson
Learning at work generalises through socialisation into behaviours away from the workplace. The aim of this study is to give empirical evidence of a positive relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
Learning at work generalises through socialisation into behaviours away from the workplace. The aim of this study is to give empirical evidence of a positive relationship between job design, self‐efficacy, competence efficacy and personal initiative at work, and proactive job search while under notice of redundancy and in unemployment.
Design/methodology/approach
The results are based on a detailed work task analysis and self‐reported data by individuals who had been made redundant (n=176).
Findings
The paper finds that the theoretical model received substantial, but not full support. Job design has impact on personal initiative through self‐efficacy and competence‐efficacy as mediating variables between job design and personal initiative. Personal initiative at work affects proactive job search when facing unemployment.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation is that the respondents in general had jobs that were low‐skilled and routine. It is likely that a research group with larger differences in job design would show stronger relations between job design and personal initiative.
Practical implications
Work task analysis identifies conditions at work that minimise and mitigate individual initiative and makes it possible to correct them in order both to enhance organisational effectiveness and the individuals' long‐term employability.
Originality/value
The paper proposes that autonomy and complexity, which are the aspects most predominant in the study of how job design affects personal initiative and self‐efficacy, are too limited. The sequential completeness provides a broader or narrower scope of work tasks and more or less feed back which is crucial for learning and mastery‐experiences. Demand on cooperation, demand on responsibility, cognitive demand and learning opportunities affect initiative‐taking as well.
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Reza Kiani Mavi, Neda Kiani Mavi, Doina Olaru, Sharon Biermann and Sae Chi
This paper systematically evaluates the existing literature of innovations in freight transport, including all modes, to uncover the key research themes and methodologies employed…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper systematically evaluates the existing literature of innovations in freight transport, including all modes, to uncover the key research themes and methodologies employed by researchers to study innovations and their implications in this industry. It analyses the role of transport and the impact of innovations during crises, such as COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the innovations in freight transport unravels the pre-requisites of such endeavours in achieving a resilient and sustainable transport network that effectively and efficiently operates during a crisis. The authors performed keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis and research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis using BibExcel and Gephi to determine the major resulting research streams in freight transport.
Findings
The RFPN identified five emerging themes: transport operations, technological innovation, transport economics, transport policy and resilience and disaster management. Optimisation and simulation techniques, and more recently, artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) approaches, have been used to model and solve freight transport problems. Automation innovations have also penetrated freight and supply chains. Information and communication technology (ICT)-based innovations have also been found to be effective in building resilient supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
Given the growth of e-commerce during COVID-19 and the resulting logistics demand, along with the need for transporting food and medical emergency products, the role of automation, optimisation, monitoring systems and risk management in the transport industry has become more salient. Transport companies need to improve their operational efficiency using innovative technologies and data science for informed decision-making.
Originality/value
This paper advises researchers and practitioners involved in freight transport and innovation about main directions and gaps in the field through an integrated approach for evaluating research undertaken in the area. This paper also highlights the role of crisis, e.g. COVID-19, and its impacts on freight transport. Major contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) a qualitative and quantitative, systematic and effective assessment of the literature on freight transport through a network analysis of keywords supplemented by a review of the text of 148 papers; (2) unravelling major research areas; (3) identifying innovations in freight transport and their classification as technological and non-technological and (4) investigating the impact of crises and disruptions in freight transport.
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Matthew E. Brashears and Laura Aufderheide Brashears
Balance Theory has accumulated an impressive record of empirical confirmation at both the micro- and macro-levels. Yet, it is unclear why humans consistently prefer balanced…
Abstract
Purpose
Balance Theory has accumulated an impressive record of empirical confirmation at both the micro- and macro-levels. Yet, it is unclear why humans consistently prefer balanced relations when imbalance offers the opportunity to reap material rewards. We argue that balance is preferred because it functions as a “compression heuristic,” allowing networks to be more easily encoded in, and recalled from, memory.
Methodology/approach
We present the results of a novel randomized laboratory experiment using nearly 300 subjects. We evaluate the independent and joint effects of degree of balance/imbalance and presence/absence of kin compression heuristics on network recall.
Findings
We find that memory for relationship valence is more accurate for balanced, rather than imbalanced, networks and that relationship existence and relationship valence are separable cognitive elements. We also use comparisons between kin and non-kin networks to suggest that humans are implicitly aware of the conditions under which imbalanced networks will be most durable.
Research limitations/implications
We show that the tension/strain postulated to generate mental and behavioral responses to increase balance likely stems from cognitive limitations. More broadly, this connects balance theory to models of human cognition and evolution and suggests that human general processing ability may have evolved in response to social, rather than physical, challenges.
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Aliaksei Kazlou and Karl Wennberg
Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward…
Abstract
Purpose
Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward self-employment, prevailing studies on minority and ethnic entrepreneurship tend to lump these different categories of migrants together. Based on theories of migrants’ economic embeddedness, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which family- and kinship-based resources affect self-employment duration among refugees and labor migrants.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on Cox regression models, this longitudinal study estimates the self-employment duration of 10,519 refugees and 2,503 labor migrants starting businesses in Sweden in the period 2006–2012.
Findings
Results reveal that while refugees are at a disadvantage to labor migrants in terms of self-employment duration, their higher level of family embeddedness in part helps them overcome these disadvantages. For refugees but not for labor migrants, co-location in an ethnic enclave also lowers the risk of them becoming unemployed after a spell in entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This original paper provides empirical and theoretical contributions to research on migrants’ self-employment success. It also discusses contributions for research on entrepreneurs’ social embeddedness and refugees’ entrepreneurship.
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Entrepreneurs may wish to be selective about which relatives to include or exclude in their businesses. For example, their child might be inept but their niece might be…
Abstract
Entrepreneurs may wish to be selective about which relatives to include or exclude in their businesses. For example, their child might be inept but their niece might be outstanding. What aspects of kinship systems affect their ability to make these sorts of choices? What enables them to bend their ties of kinship and marriage to the interests of their business? Most broadly, what dimensions of kinship lend themselves to tactical or instrumental actions? This question is sweeping just as my meaning of “entrepreneurs” is very broad: those who take actions with the goal of growing their capital (Stewart, 1991). This capital may take the form of newly started ventures, dynastic firms, or even in precapitalist systems other social forms, for example, rural estates farmed by followers.
Quality improvement has developed and spread, and today, all Swedish Regions emphasize that their strategies are based on systematic improvement. This paper aims to describe and…
Abstract
Purpose
Quality improvement has developed and spread, and today, all Swedish Regions emphasize that their strategies are based on systematic improvement. This paper aims to describe and illuminate the development of Quality Improvement (QI) in Swedish healthcare and welfare organizations by using publications in a Swedish context.
Design/methodology/approach
The overview synthesis is inspired by a scoping literature review approach of relevant literature. All publications relevant to Swedish healthcare and welfare settings between 1992 until 2020 were included.
Findings
In all, 213 papers, 29 books and chapters and 34 dissertations related to QI and research in Swedish healthcare and welfare context were identified. From 2011 to 2020, the publication rate increased rapidly. Six different focus areas emerged: systematic and value-creating improvement work; collaboration between organizations and healthcare providers; use of improvement methods and (theoretical) models; leadership and learning; measurements, quality registers and follow-up; and involvement and patient safety. Further QI development in Swedish healthcare and welfare points to an increased importance of collaboration between organizations and coproduction with beneficiaries for the healthcare and welfare services.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to describe and illuminate the QI development in the healthcare and welfare sector in a country. The trajectory also points to a need for coproduction to handle future challenges.
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Patricia Yocie Hierofani and Micheline van Riemsdijk
As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on…
Abstract
Purpose
As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on family-provided care for older immigrants, examining how older immigrants and care providers experience and construct family caregiving.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on interviews with care recipients, family care providers, municipal staff and representatives for migrant organisations in Sweden, this study presents a typology of family caregiving for older immigrants.
Findings
The authors found three caregiving types, namely, solely family-provided care and a combination of family care and public care (predominantly one or the other). The decision to select family-provided or publicly-funded care depends on personal and institutional factors.
Originality/value
The paper makes three empirical contributions to the literature on care provision for older immigrants. Firstly, this study provides insights into the structural and personal factors that shape care-giving arrangements for older immigrants. Secondly, this study examines the perspectives of care recipients and care providers on family-provided care. Care expectations differ between both groups and sometimes result in intergenerational disagreement. Thirdly, in terms of institutional support, this study finds that the Swedish state’s notion of individual needs does not match the needs of immigrant elderly and their caregivers. The paper places the care types in a broader discussion about eldercare provision in the Swedish welfare state, which has experienced a decline in publicly funded care services and an increase in family caregiving in the past 30 years. In addition, it addresses questions of dignified ageing from a minority perspective.
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Abeer Yousuf Danish and Helen Lawton Smith
The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges facing female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges facing female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on secondary data on the context to women's entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, and on Brush et al.'s 5M framework to analyse the results of a survey of 33 Saudi women entrepreneurs in Jeddah in a variety of commercial sectors. The sample consists of female entrepreneurs who are already in business or in the process of establishing one, and who operate from a dedicated business premises away from home. In particular the study investigated the challenges and constraints faced, and the support and opportunities available for these female entrepreneurs.
Findings
It was found that female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia are now establishing and managing more small and medium sized entities than at any time in the past and this trend is growing. This is in spite of significant challenges, both societal and institutional.
Practical implications
The research suggests a number of ways in which institutions of state and trade – which often act as barriers to women practically running a business – could be overcome. These include provision of resources, training and mentoring, and eliminating some of the administrative procedures which require male representation in the establishment and financing female entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
The paper presents original research on the growing phenomenon of female entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. It positions explanations for this trend in the macro and micro economic context and in conceptualisations of female entrepreneurship.