The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that highlights transhumanism’s ideals of achieving superintelligence, super longevity and super well-being through…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that highlights transhumanism’s ideals of achieving superintelligence, super longevity and super well-being through human enhancement technologies (HET) and their relations with services marketing principles.
Design/methodology/approach
Framed by the transformative service research (TSR), this conceptual work articulates the 7Ps of the marketing mix with four macro-factors that create tensions at both the marketplace and consumer levels.
Findings
HET has potential for doing good but also tremendous bad; greater attention is needed from services marketing researchers especially in one proprietary research area: bioethics.
Research limitations/implications
The authors contribute to the growing work on TSR investigating how the interplay between service providers and consumers affects the well-being of both. Additionally, the authors call for novel interdisciplinary work in transhuman services research.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first papers in services marketing research to explore the promises and perils of transhumanism ideals and human enhancement technologies.
Details
Keywords
There's a conspiracy of silence about the failure rate of major managerial change initiatives. Three‐quarters of the initiatives—reputable programs to manage quality, customer…
Abstract
There's a conspiracy of silence about the failure rate of major managerial change initiatives. Three‐quarters of the initiatives—reputable programs to manage quality, customer focus, teamwork, mergers, downsizing, and reengineering—have failed, according to a recent Arthur D. Little survey of a large number of European and U.S. companies across many industries.
Louise J. Suckley, Ilfryn Price and Jason Sharpe
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of adopting an organizational ecological perspective to explore behavioural barriers in a UK operations & production…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of adopting an organizational ecological perspective to explore behavioural barriers in a UK operations & production management (OPM) setting.
Design/methodology/approach
An ethnographic case study approach was adopted with a narrative ecological stance to deconstruct the perceived realities and the origins of the inter‐departmental barriers applying Scott‐Morgan's unwritten rules methodology.
Findings
Despite an improvement in the physical proximity of the production and quality control departments, the qualitative approach revealed that latent, socially constructed drivers around management, interaction and communication reinforced inter‐departmental barriers. Conflicting enablers were ultimately responsible derived from the organizational structure, which impacted the firm's production resources.
Research limitations/implications
As a case study approach, the specificity of the findings to this OPM setting should be explored further.
Practical implications
The paper demonstrates the use of theoretical frameworks in a production and manufacturing organization to provide insights for maximising process effectiveness. Using the organizational ecological perspective to uncover the socially constructed unwritten rules of the OPM setting beneficially impacted on operational effectiveness.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to organization ethnography literature by providing a detailed empirical analysis of manufacturing and services behaviour using an organizational ecology perspective. The example demonstrates that “qualitative” research can have real world impact in an advanced operational context. It also contributes to an ecological or complex adaptive systems view of organizations and, inter alia, their supply chains.
Details
Keywords
Gives reports and surveys of selected current research and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: Scientific research and warfare; Cybernetics and psychology;…
Abstract
Gives reports and surveys of selected current research and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: Scientific research and warfare; Cybernetics and psychology; Combating computer rage; Communication systems; Cybernetics and automation; Management cybernetics – human resources development; Innovative systems.
Details
Keywords
Christine Teague, David Leith and Lelia Green
This chapter uses symbolic interactionism as a theoretical framework for considering data produced during two in-depth ethnographic investigations: one at Orco, a minerals…
Abstract
This chapter uses symbolic interactionism as a theoretical framework for considering data produced during two in-depth ethnographic investigations: one at Orco, a minerals processing facility; the other at RTE, the Rail Transport Executive of an urban region in Australia. It discusses the value of symbolic interactionism in revealing the detailed importance of interaction between managers and workers and, particularly, within specific workgroups. It argues that regular, repeated and intense interaction such as characterizes daily work in high-pressure occupations helps establish subcultures. It is then comparatively easy for a subculture group to develop its own values and meanings in opposition to those promulgated by management. The two case studies differ significantly around the organizational value placed on investigating injuries and accidents. In the Orco workplace, injury statistics are clearly communicated and workers believe that the “zero injury workplace” is a management priority. In the RTE, transit officer injuries are kept confidential and workers believe that a major purpose of investigations is to show how individual workers are at fault. In both cases, however, the work group has developed an informal safety culture at odds with that promoted by managers.The conclusion drawn by the end of the chapter is that managers seeking to influence the safety cultures of workers in dangerous and fraught occupations should pay close attention to the ways in which those workers operate at a symbolic distance from management. They should engage with the workers to understand the symbolic value placed by frontline staff upon the meanings attributed to safe work practices, and should collaborate together to develop a shared safety culture in which workers are protected by active management engagement in their symbolic reality. Where this occurs, workers’ perspectives are appreciated at the same time as their practices become more regulated and aligned with managerial wishes. Symbolic interactionism offers a rich perspective that takes into account the dynamism of changing circumstances and that works outwards from the thought processes of individuals through to interactions across entire organizations.
Details
Keywords
Barrie O. Pettman and Richard Dobbins
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
Abstract
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
Details
Keywords
J.A.P. Hoogervorst, P.L. Koopman and H. van der Flier
The core principles of total quality management (TQM) are considered to be incompatible with the traditional mechanistic way of organizing. It is believed that this constitutes a…
Abstract
Purpose
The core principles of total quality management (TQM) are considered to be incompatible with the traditional mechanistic way of organizing. It is believed that this constitutes a major reason for failed TQM programs: attempting to introduce its principles with the traditional mindset. Additionally, initiatives to change behaviour often fail due to the fact that no concurrent attention is given to the coherence and consistency of those macro‐organizational variables determining behaviour. These two primary reasons for TQM failures are the subject of this discussion.
Design/methodology/approach
From the perspective of TQM, the importance of a human‐centred approach to organizing is argued. The human‐centred approach to organizing fundamentally offers the possibility of aligning human interests with organizational interests. Rather than depersonalisation of work, with the possible danger of alienation, work offers possibilities for self‐realization and self‐development. This is considered to be the most fundamental contribution of TQM. It is thus argued that TQM in its ideal fundamental concept differs from the traditional mechanistic principles by offering genuine possibilities for employee development and self‐realization.
Findings
It is argued that TQM entails a human‐centred approach to organizing which is fundamentally incompatible with traditional mechanistic thinking. Further, the needed focus on employee behaviour requires attention to organizational culture, management practices, and organizational structures and systems, seen as macro variables determining behaviour. Absence of coherence and consistency among these variables when attempting to change behaviour has been argued to be another major source of TQM failures.
Originality/value
Establishing coherence and consistency among the three elements of the behavioural context should thus be a central focus area.
Details
Keywords
David Norman Smith and Eric Allen Hanley
Controversy has long swirled over the claim that Donald Trump's base has deeply rooted authoritarian tendencies, but Trump himself seems to have few doubts. Asked whether his…
Abstract
Controversy has long swirled over the claim that Donald Trump's base has deeply rooted authoritarian tendencies, but Trump himself seems to have few doubts. Asked whether his stated wish to be dictator “on day one” of second term in office would repel voters, Trump said “I think a lot of people like it.” It is one of his invariable talking points that 74 million voters supported him in 2020, and he remains the unrivaled leader of the Republican Party, even as his rhetoric escalates to levels that cautious observers now routinely call fascistic.
Is Trump right that many people “like” his talk of dictatorship? If so, what does that mean empirically? Part of the answer to these questions was apparent early, in the results of the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES), which included survey questions that we had proposed which we drew from the aptly-named “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” scale. Posed to voters in 2012–2013 and again in 2016, those questions elicited striking responses.
In this chapter, we revisit those responses. We begin by exploring Trump's escalating anti-democratic rhetoric in the light of themes drawn from Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno. We follow this with the text of the 2017 conference paper in which we first reported that 75% of Trump's voters supported him enthusiastically, mainly because they shared his prejudices, not because they were hurting economically. They hoped to “get rid” of troublemakers and “crush evil.” That wish, as we show in our conclusion, remains central to Trump's appeal.
Details
Keywords
Jan Hoogervorst, Henk van der Flier and Paul Koopman
Organisations engage in explicit and intentional communication with employees in various ways. However, communication will not be received in a “neutral” context. Employees…
Abstract
Organisations engage in explicit and intentional communication with employees in various ways. However, communication will not be received in a “neutral” context. Employees operate in an organisational (or behavioural) context determined by the organisational culture, structures and systems, and the management practices. This context acts as a source of implicit communication towards employees. This view fits the various perspectives about communication, which does not need to be considered as a two‐way process, and which can be intentionally or unintentionally, transmitted and received. All too often, implicit communication is at odds with the “official” explicit communication. Through this latter form of communication the organisation might, for example, proclaim a quality image, while in reality employees experience that, in case of conflicts, delivery planning prevails over quality. Likewise, communication about the “learning organisation” appears to be cumbersome in a culture suppressing discussion about failures. The effect of implicit communication should not be underestimated. Cynicism among employees is repeatedly the result of inconsistent messages being received. This paper describes the aspects of organisational culture, structures and systems, and management practices, seen in a behavioural context, in order to illustrate how these aspects act as an implicit source of communication to employees. Additionally, this form of communication expresses whether employees themselves are seen as the crucial core of organisational success. The importance of consistent signals is illustrated, specifically with respect to organisational change programs.
Details
Keywords
Management fashions can be, and have been, conceptualized as narrative elements competing for replication and resources in the wider managerial discourse. Most wax and wane…
Abstract
Purpose
Management fashions can be, and have been, conceptualized as narrative elements competing for replication and resources in the wider managerial discourse. Most wax and wane through a life cycle. Some achieve an extended place and even a transition to quasi‐ permanent institutions. Facilities/Facility Management (FM) is one such example, the purpose of this paper is to explore this.
Design/methodology/approach
The case draws FM's history since 1968 and asks whether it is compatible with recent and classic Darwin, thoughts on cultural evolution as a selection process between competing discourses.
Findings
Several properties of that history are argued as compatible with the theoretical stance taken particularly the mutation of the syntactic content to suit local circumstances and the dilution of the term's intent. Success attributes in the selective competition include contingency, securing an organizational home and mutability (what was represented became, more operational, less virulent but in the process more transmissible). In spreading globally the signifier/meme FM also proved mutatable to local managerial discourses.
Originality/value
The study supports a developing paradigm that it is possible to view organizations as ecologies of variously, memes, signifiers, narratives, representations or discourses. All five terms are shown to have been used to make similar significations by different authors. It shows how a natural history of narrative memes can be constructed.