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Article
Publication date: 3 October 2018

Petra Lindfors and Niklas Hansen

New ownership types in health care of welfare states raise concerns regarding psychosocial work conditions including different control dimensions. The purpose of this paper is to…

367

Abstract

Purpose

New ownership types in health care of welfare states raise concerns regarding psychosocial work conditions including different control dimensions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how job demands, control over work and control within work (CWW) were related to job satisfaction in publicly administered, private non-profit and private for-profit hospitals.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaire data came from employees at three hospitals; a publicly administered (n=774), a private non-profit (n=1,481) and a private for-profit (n=694) hospital. Mean-level analyses and hierarchical regressions with multiple group tests were conducted.

Findings

Demands including workload were significantly lower at the publicly administered hospital while the control dimension CWW was significantly higher. Background factors and their associations with job satisfaction differed slightly between ownership types. Attitudes to privatization were not associated with job satisfaction within any ownership type. Overall, psychosocial work characteristics, including job demands and control, were significantly associated with job satisfaction while their interactions showed no consistent associations with job satisfaction. As for the strength of the associations, no consistent differences emerged between ownership types.

Research limitations/implications

Using self-reports only, the associations between psychosocial work characteristics and job satisfaction seemed comparable across ownership types.

Practical implications

Associations between psychosocial work characteristics and job satisfaction seem comparable across ownership types. This may relate to societal demands on the structuring of costs, work and production efficiency being similar for all.

Originality/value

Contributions include researching different occupations and their attitudes to privatization and two control dimensions considered important for different ownership types.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 11 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

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Article
Publication date: 12 January 2015

Annika Lantz, Niklas Hansen and Conny Antoni

The purpose of this paper is to explore job design mechanisms that enhance team proactivity within a lean production system where autonomy is uttermost restricted. We propose and…

2677

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore job design mechanisms that enhance team proactivity within a lean production system where autonomy is uttermost restricted. We propose and test a model where the team learning process of building shared meaning of work mediates the relationship between team participative decision-making, inter team relations and team proactive behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The results are based on questionnaires to 417 employees within manufacturing industry (response rate 86 per cent) and managers’ ratings of team proactivity. The research model was tested by mediation analysis on aggregated data (56 teams).

Findings

Team learning mediates the relationship between participative decision-making and inter team collaboration on team proactive behaviour. Input from stakeholders in the work flow and partaking in decisions about work, rather than autonomy in carrying out the work, enhance the teams’ proactivity through learning processes.

Research limitations/implications

An investigation of the effects of different leadership styles and management policy on proactivity through team-learning processes might shed light on how leadership promotes proactivity, as results support the effects of team participative decision-making – reflecting management policy – on proactivity.

Practical implications

Lean production stresses continuous improvements for enhancing efficiency, and such processes rely on individuals and teams that are proactive. Participation in forming the standardization of work is linked to managerial style, which can be changed and developed also within a lean concept. Based on our experiences of implementing the results in the production plant, we discuss what it takes to create and manage participative processes and close collaboration between teams on the shop floor, and other stakeholders such as production support, based on a shared understanding of the work and work processes.

Social implications

Learning at the workplace is essential for long-term employability, and for job satisfaction and health. The lean concept is widely spread to both public bodies and enterprises, and it has been shown that it can be linked to increased stress and an increase in workload. Finding the potential for learning within lean production is essential for balancing the need of efficient production and employees’ health and well-being at work.

Originality/value

Very few studies have investigated the paradox between lean and teamwork, yet many lean-inspired productions systems have teamwork as a pillar for enhancing effectiveness. A clear distinction between autonomy and participation contributes to the understanding of the links between job design, learning processes and team proactivity.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

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Book part
Publication date: 5 November 1992

John D. Whitley

Abstract

Details

Economic Modeling in the Nordic Countries
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-859-9

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Book part
Publication date: 17 December 2016

Niels Thygesen and Tine Hansen

The purpose of this chapter is to develop the idea of Innovative Laboratories as a learning format which can be used to create public value in a Danish context by specifically…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is to develop the idea of Innovative Laboratories as a learning format which can be used to create public value in a Danish context by specifically coping with strategic challenges which takes the form of paradoxes.

Design/methodology/approach

The learning format is theoretically informed by Niklas Luhmann’s functional approach as well as based on concrete teaching experiences within the course on strategy which is an integral part of the Master of Public Administration, CBS.

Findings

The structure and processes of Innovative Laboratories incorporate the idea of theoretical perspectives as contingent ways of observing and apply this idea to the way strategic problems are reformulated by the participants and thus to how new strategic solutions become viable.

Originality/value

As such, the laboratories represent a way of innovation, as the most valuable part of the process is not to find a solution but to create a new problem by reformulation. This innovation process is captured by the metaphor of ‘managination’.

Details

Developing Public Managers for a Changing World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-080-0

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Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2018

Leopold Ringel

According to popular belief, transparency is a versatile tool for the governance of organizations: it is supposed to help in mitigating problems such as corruption, economic…

Abstract

According to popular belief, transparency is a versatile tool for the governance of organizations: it is supposed to help in mitigating problems such as corruption, economic deficiencies, and a lack of legitimacy. However, is it a truly effective panacea, as it has been envisioned by its advocates? Empirical research gives reason to doubt, indicating that there is a wide gap between the idealized expectations of transparency and its practical merits. Organizations face severe difficulties when they try to implement such measures, especially because their daily activities often deviate significantly from societal expectations. Putting a combination of Erving Goffman’s frontstage/backstage theory and Niklas Luhmann’s sociological systems theory to use, this chapter conceptualizes organizations as social entities constantly engaged in boundary-maintenance, which not only comprises – in Luhmannian terms – “operative closure” (the autonomy of a system from direct influence of its environment) but also boundaries of visibility. It is thus not at all surprising that organizations regularly try to circumvent the implementation of transparency and develop new practices of secrecy. This chapter outlines an integrative conceptualization that enables researchers to reject mundane visions of how transparency ought to improve organizations, and suggests new pathways for empirical research.

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Toward Permeable Boundaries of Organizations?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-829-3

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Article
Publication date: 25 September 2018

Vladislav Valentinov, Stefan Hielscher, Sebastian Everding and Ingo Pies

Public debates on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are strongly influenced by the nongovernmental organization (NGO)-led advocacy, most of which is harshly…

1014

Abstract

Purpose

Public debates on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are strongly influenced by the nongovernmental organization (NGO)-led advocacy, most of which is harshly critical of genetic engineering. This advocacy has resulted in discourse failures marked by the disregard for the scientific consensus on the risks and benefits of GMOs. This paper aims to present a theoretical inquiry into this phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on American institutionalism and Niklas Luhmann social systems theory, the paper explains these discourse failures in terms of the problematic relationship between institutions and technology.

Findings

Clarence Ayres would likely see these discourse failures as a form of “institutional resistance” to the progress of science and technology. In contrast, Marc Tool’s social value principle stresses the importance of democratic legitimation and public acceptance of new technologies, while being sensitive to the possibility of ideologically biased discourses. It is argued that the institutionalist understanding of the interplay between democracy, science and technology would benefit from a better account of Niklas Luhmann’s concept of “complexity reduction”.

Social implications

The study shows that some NGOs are powerful enough to actively shape, if not manipulate, public attitudes and sentiments against GMOs.

Originality/value

The case of the anti-GMO advocacy calls for a new conceptualization of how democracy, science and technology fit together.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 9 November 2004

Julian Birkinshaw and Niklas Arvidsson

An assumption underlying the concept of the metanational is that the necessary knowledge, ideas, and assets for creating new business opportunities are spread across the world…

Abstract

An assumption underlying the concept of the metanational is that the necessary knowledge, ideas, and assets for creating new business opportunities are spread across the world. Most firms, even those that are multinational in scope, are not highly effective at accessing or making use of globally dispersed knowledge because they are deeply embedded in their home market, and their overseas subsidiaries (for the most part) act on the orders of their parent company rather than taking autonomous action.

Details

"Theories of the Multinational Enterprise: Diversity, Complexity and Relevance"
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-285-6

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Article
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Minna Stenius, Nelli Hankonen, Niklas Ravaja and Ari Haukkala

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of motivation for knowledge sharing (KS) by assessing how four qualitatively different motivation types, as per…

3040

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of motivation for knowledge sharing (KS) by assessing how four qualitatively different motivation types, as per self-determination theory (SDT), predict KS, its quality and its undesirable counterpart, knowledge withholding.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was carried out as a survey (n = 200) in an expert organization. The analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling.

Findings

Autonomous type of extrinsic motivation (identified motivation) was the strongest predictor of KS (in work meetings) and its quality, whereas the other motivation types (intrinsic, introjected and external) had no independent contribution to variance in KS. Knowledge withholding was negatively associated with identified and positively with external KS motivation.

Research limitations/implications

Single organization limits the generalizability of the results. Future studies should further investigate the role of identified motivation for various KS behaviors.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that autonomy-supportive management practices known to facilitate self-determined behavior can improve KS. Fostering external motivation by incentivizing KS may be both ineffective and have undesirable consequences.

Originality/value

Few prior studies investigate KS motivation beyond external and intrinsic motivation or apply SDT to KS using SDT-based scales. This study distinguishes between four different motivation types and is the first to investigate their differential impact on KS and its quality. It is also the first to demonstrate the importance of identified motivation for KS. It further elucidates how the quality of KS motivation is reflected in knowledge withholding, an overall underinvestigated behavior.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 April 2024

Øystein Pedersen Dahlen

The main aim of this article is to broaden the notion of strategic intent in public relations. It also develops an understanding of the social value of what can be defined as the…

543

Abstract

Purpose

The main aim of this article is to broaden the notion of strategic intent in public relations. It also develops an understanding of the social value of what can be defined as the first modern health communication campaign in Europe based on strategic intents and the development of modernity.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on both historical research and empirical material from the Norwegian tuberculosis campaign from 1889 up to 1913, when Norwegian women achieved suffrage. The campaign is analysed in the framework of modernity and social theory. The literature on lobbying and social movements is also used to develop a theoretical framework for the notion of strategic intent.

Findings

The study shows that strategic intent can be divided into two layers: (1) the implicit strategic intent is the real purpose behind the communication efforts, whereas (2) the explicit intent is found directly in the communication efforts. The explicit intent may be presented as a solution for the good of society at the right political moment, giving an organisation the possibility to mobilise for long-term social changes, in which could be the implicit intent.

Originality/value

The distinction between explicit and implicit strategic intent broadens our understanding on how to make long-term social changes as well as how social and political changes occur in modern societies. The article also gives a historical account of what is here defined as the first modern health communication campaign in Europe and its social value.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 29 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 13 April 2021

Myriam Fotou

Migration has a strong political significance and a crucial constitutive role for identity. The liminal status and exclusion of migrants delimits the inside/outside of political…

Abstract

Migration has a strong political significance and a crucial constitutive role for identity. The liminal status and exclusion of migrants delimits the inside/outside of political communities and allows for the constitution and coherence of identity. Migration is also a challenge: while it is often presented as a managerial issue related to states’ economic and labour considerations, it essentially challenges and undermines their national and cultural self-image. Migration management also reflects the values and qualities communities identify in themselves; thus immigration policies put communities and states to the test for the way such values are upheld. This contribution explores migration’s constitutive role for European identity and the challenges it presents it with. Explaining the securitisation of migration management in Europe and its racial and dehumanising characteristics, it argues that the two-tier human rights system created in the European space affecting migrants undermines European identity value claims and threatens to undo them. It claims that the time has come to acknowledge European identity’s historical constitution in colonialism, and to envisage it as a fluid, open-ended project accommodating in earnest racial and cultural diversity, pluralism and difference.

Details

Political Identification in Europe: Community in Crisis?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-125-7

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