Cheryl Marie Cordeiro‐Nilsson and Suliman Hawamdeh
This study seeks to investigate how a more lateral style of working, such as the Swedish model of management that reflects a more linear manner of managing organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to investigate how a more lateral style of working, such as the Swedish model of management that reflects a more linear manner of managing organizational knowledge, is carried over and transferred to Swedish managed organizations in Singapore.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 33 top‐level managers (23 Scandinavians and ten Asians) who worked in Swedish managed organizations in Singapore were interviewed for this study. It was necessary that the respondents were in top‐level management positions, the assumption being that it was their decisions and actions that steered the organization to its goals. The respondents were selected randomly and came from a variety of industry backgrounds.
Findings
The Swedish style of handling information and knowledge within the organization has proven more open, flexible and accessible than Singaporeans might initially expect or understand. This cultural difference of who gains access to timely information and who should use that information to make decisions, for example, first met with a lack of understanding and even inaction on the part of the Singaporeans and active measures are needed such as re‐structuring the organization or a constant communicative strategy by the Swedes to first make a change in direction in organization behaviour. This means that the organizations in this study, in keeping a high standard of employee satisfaction, get to retain, harvest and profit from their organization's knowledge base while enjoying a low turnover rate in human capital.
Originality/value
This study aims to take a complementary approach of exploring the Swedish management style via discourse analysis, with the transcribed long interview data sorted with the coding procedures adapted from grounded theory.
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Caitlin McArthur, Reem T. Mulla, Luke A. Turcotte, Jessica Chi-Yen Chu, Micaela Jantzi and John P. Hirdes
Long-term care (LTC) homes are highly regulated settings that provide care to people living with complex health conditions who are often at the end of their lives. Mental health…
Abstract
Long-term care (LTC) homes are highly regulated settings that provide care to people living with complex health conditions who are often at the end of their lives. Mental health and quality of life are important concepts in LTC given the inherent poor health and diminished autonomy of residents living in this setting. The COVID-19 pandemic had the potential to further compound these issues through lockdowns limiting movement within and outside of LTC homes, increased fear of severe COVID-19 infections, staff shortages, and impaired communication through personal protective equipment. However, the evidence describing the effect of the pandemic on mental health and quality of life is mixed, with some studies describing increased rates of mental health concerns and others presenting modest increases or decreases. Creative strategies to mitigate negative mental health consequences of lockdown included technology supported and window or outdoor visits, increased access to volunteers, and supports for families. However, the evidence in this area continues to evolve as subsequent waves of the pandemic progress. Future research may present new evidence about other strategies that became important in different stages of the pandemic.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction and overview of the various papers in this special issue.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction and overview of the various papers in this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A short discussion of the main quests of interventionist research and how these are related to the papers in this special issue, is undertaken.
Findings
The essence of interventionist research is its methodological location, researching where practice and theory meet.
Research limitations/implications
Interventionist research places strong demands on the individual researcher's interpretative, social, and abstracting skills in order to carry observations to ontological and epistemological levels.
Practical implications
Interventionist research is rich in research designs and specific intervention types. Selecting the “right” one is strongly related to the connection the researcher makes with the social context she/he will operate in. Changes over time in both design and intervention can be expected, given the dynamic, longitudinal and interactive nature of interventionist research.
Originality/value
This special issue provides examples of a varied set of interventionist research situations, including the selection of typical intervention methods and how knowledge contributions were extracted.
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Our higher education cohorts are becoming increasingly diverse. Providing beneficial formative and summative feedback for highly diverse groups of students is difficult. Three key…
Abstract
Our higher education cohorts are becoming increasingly diverse. Providing beneficial formative and summative feedback for highly diverse groups of students is difficult. Three key aspects of the feedback process are required to ensure benefits: (i) suitable feedback components; (ii) suitable embedding of feedback in the learning context; and (iii) active engagement in the feedback process. In order to explore these three aspects, this chapter investigates: (a) relevant literature; (b) learning and teaching activities in Warwick Business School’s Distance Learning MBA; and (c) data from an internal committee report that presented the NVivo-processed findings of a review of 173 DLMBA students’ reflections on impactful feedback. The observations and recommendations given here reveal insights that can be applied to other student groups beyond the MBA sphere and ensure an impactful learning and teaching experience for all stakeholders. Thus, the purpose of the chapter is to assist colleagues and students in engaging more fruitfully in feedback processes and in adding tried and tested approaches to their learning and teaching repertoires.
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Asafa Jalata and Harry F. Dahms
To examine whether indigenous critiques of globalization and critical theories of modernity are compatible, and how they can complement each other so as to engender more realistic…
Abstract
Purpose
To examine whether indigenous critiques of globalization and critical theories of modernity are compatible, and how they can complement each other so as to engender more realistic theories of modern society as inherently constructive and destructive, along with practical strategies to strengthen modernity as a culturally transformative project, as opposed to the formal modernization processes that rely on and reinforce modern societies as structures of social inequality.
Methodology/approach
Comparison and assessment of the foundations, orientations, and implications of indigenous critiques of globalization and the Frankfurt School’s critical theory of modern society, for furthering our understanding of challenges facing human civilization in the twenty-first century, and for opportunities to promote social justice.
Findings
Modern societies maintain order by compelling individuals to subscribe to propositions about their own and their society’s purportedly “superior” nature, especially when compared to indigenous cultures, to override observations about the de facto logic of modern societies that are in conflict with their purported logic.
Research implications
Social theorists need to make consistent efforts to critically reflect on how their own society, in terms of socio-historical circumstances as well as various types of implied biases, translates into research agendas and propositions that are highly problematic when applied to those who belong to or come from different socio-historical contexts.
Originality/value
An effort to engender a process of reciprocal engagement between one of the early traditions of critiquing modern societies and a more recent development originating in populations and parts of the world that historically have been the subject of both constructive and destructive modernization processes.
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M. Isberg, P. Jonsson, N. Keskitalo, F. Masszi and H. Bleicher
Shows how a sensitivity analysis of different mobility models was carried out in order to reach the best fit of simulation results to measured data. Simulated data were compared…
Abstract
Shows how a sensitivity analysis of different mobility models was carried out in order to reach the best fit of simulation results to measured data. Simulated data were compared to both electrical (IV‐characteristics) and optical (excess charge carrier distribution) results. The simulations included both steady state and transient investigations on a temperature scale ranging from room temperature up to 150°C. Concerning lifetimes, a two‐trap Shockley‐Read‐Hall (SRH) recombination model was implemented into the simulation code to be able to model the local lifetime variations of the irradiated samples. At high carrier concentration, the overall dominating recombination process is the Auger process. From experimental data the Auger coefficients seem to be concentration dependent too, and in addition, proposes a temperature dependence to the Auger coefficient.
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This chapter explores the potential of transnational history for researching global higher education policy. It begins with an overview of transnational history as a perspective…
Abstract
This chapter explores the potential of transnational history for researching global higher education policy. It begins with an overview of transnational history as a perspective, demonstrating how it is, in part, a response to processes of globalization that have also transformed contemporary higher education. Second, it reviews key features of transnational history as a perspective that can enhance global higher education policy research. The third part takes dimensions of contemporary global higher education and discusses how these can be approached through a transnational historical perspective drawing on the features outlined. The chapter concludes by highlighting how a transnational historical approach can enable new insights and research questions as well as some challenges presented by this perspective. The spatial focus of the chapter is predominantly European higher education, though the implications are more general.
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Mikael Öhman, Ala Arvidsson, Patrik Jonsson and Riikka Kaipia
The purpose of this study is to elaborate on how analytics capability develops within the PSM function. This study is an in-depth exploration of how analytics capability develops…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to elaborate on how analytics capability develops within the PSM function. This study is an in-depth exploration of how analytics capability develops within the purchasing and supply management (PSM) function.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study was conducted of the PSM function of six case firms, in which primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with PSM analytics stakeholders. The data were analyzed based on an analytics capability framework derived from the literature. Cases were chosen based on them having advanced PSM practices and ongoing analytics projects in the PSM area.
Findings
The findings shed light on how the firms develop their analytics capability in the PSM functional area. While we identify several commonalities in this respect, the authors also observe differences in how firms organize for analytics, bringing analytics and PSM decision-makers together. Building on the knowledge-based view of the firm, The authors offer a theoretical explanation of our observations, highlighting the user-driven side of analytics development, which has largely been unrecognized by prior literature. The authors also offer an explanation of the observed dual role that analytics takes in cross-functional initiatives.
Research limitations/implications
The exploratory nature of our study limits the generalizability of our results. Further, our limited number of cases and interviewees indicate that there is still much to explore in the phenomenon of developing analytics capability.
Practical implications
Our findings can help firms gain a better understanding of how they could develop their analytics capability and what issues they need to consider when seeking leveraging data through analytics for PSM decisions.
Originality/value
This paper is, to the best knowledge of the authors, the first empirical study of analytics capability in PSM.
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This study aims to analyze the use of two concepts, propaganda and advertisement, in two areas of Swedish society during the 1930s; first, their use by the advertisement business…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the use of two concepts, propaganda and advertisement, in two areas of Swedish society during the 1930s; first, their use by the advertisement business, and second, their use by the Swedish Cooperative Union and Wholesale Society.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting a perspective of conceptual history, inspired by Reinhart Koselleck, the author is trying to pinpoint the meanings that were ascribed to these concepts in a 1930s context, the interdependency between these concepts and other keywords that were used in connection with them.
Findings
The study reveals how the ambiguous and synonymous use of these concepts served different purposes in the two fields of study. In the 1930s, propaganda was a key concept of communication and was used in manifold ways for selling goods and disseminating ideas. Propaganda was used to explain the newly introduced American marketing terminology. During the 1930s, the field of advertisement was trying to change what previously had been labeled as “idea propaganda” into “advertisement.” The ambiguous use of concepts made it possible for the Swedish Cooperative Union and Wholesale Society to combine advertisement for their produced goods with disseminating ideas of the cooperative ideology. The concepts of enlightenment (upplysning) and propaganda were crucial to hold together the ideological and commercial parts of the cooperative movement.
Originality/value
The interaction of meanings between commercial and political concepts is rarely researched in conceptual history or marketing history, which this article advocates to be an important field of study.
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Juliana Keiko Sagawa and Marcelo Seido Nagano
Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack of integration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack of integration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the relationships among integration, uncertainty, IQ and performance, in the context of the production planning and control function. The literature lacks in-depth studies that consider these factors altogether, showing how they interact and how they contribute to improve business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors introduce the variable of planning performance, which represents the quality of the production plans/planning process and is related to the frequency and causes of modifications to these plans. The relationships among the mentioned constructs are investigated by means of multiple case studies.
Findings
The results illustrate that integration is positively related to planning performance, and this relationship is mediated by IQ and moderated by uncertainty.
Originality/value
The presented analysis may help practitioners to foster interfunctional integration, better cope with uncertainty and improve information management, aiming to achieve better planning performance. The managers can choose integration and IQ improvement mechanisms that better fit to their environment/reality, using the four different cases as a benchmark. Moreover, this research contributes to the literature exploring this contingency perspective by means of in-depth case studies, considering that most of the existing research adopting this perspective is survey-based.