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1 – 10 of 26Tuija Muhonen, Sandra Jönsson and Martin Bäckström
The purpose of this paper is to explore health- and work-related outcomes of cyberbullying behaviour and the potential mediating role of social organisational climate, social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore health- and work-related outcomes of cyberbullying behaviour and the potential mediating role of social organisational climate, social support from colleagues and social support from superiors.
Design/methodology/approach
Altogether 3,371 respondents participated in a questionnaire study.
Findings
The results of this study indicate that social organisational climate can have a mediating role in the relationship between cyberbullying behaviour and health, well-being, work engagement and intention to quit. Contrary to earlier face-to-face bullying research, the current study showed that cyberbullying behaviour had stronger indirect than direct relationships to health, well-being, work engagement and intention to quit.
Practical implications
Communication through digital devices in work life is becoming more prevalent, which in turn increases the risk for cyberbullying behaviour. Organisations need therefore to develop occupational health and safety policies concerning the use of digital communication and social media in order to prevent cyberbullying behaviour and its negative consequences.
Originality/value
Cyberbullying behaviour among working adults is a relatively unexplored phenomenon and therefore this study makes valuable contribution to the research field.
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Sandra Jönsson and Tobias Schölin
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and contextualize the outcomes of competence development as a restructuring strategy in a company that was significantly affected by the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and contextualize the outcomes of competence development as a restructuring strategy in a company that was significantly affected by the economic recession in 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
In the context of restructuring, increased globalization has expanded international competition that in turn has put additional pressure on organizational transformation, restructuring, reorganization and rationalization.
Findings
The result indicates that the experience of learning, commitment and job satisfaction have decreased between T1 and T2 (no difference regarding self-efficacy).
Originality value
From this study, the authors can conclude that the outcomes of competence development programs are not easily interpreted. Depending on the purpose of the intervention, the results can be interpreted in different ways. It is important to approach the issue of competence development with a wise degree of skepticism.
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Sandra Jönsson, Tuija Muhonen, Christina Scholten and Anders S. Wigerfelt
The purpose of this paper is to discuss and problematise how leadership and employees, or “employeeship”, are constructed within IKEA, a global firm often associated with national…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss and problematise how leadership and employees, or “employeeship”, are constructed within IKEA, a global firm often associated with national identity, and connected to distinct values and a leadership ideal. From a critical management perspective, the authors' intent was to study whether there were hierarchies and polarisations in constructions of leadership and, if so, how they were manifested.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical material consists of 17 interviews with Swedish and non-Swedish managers at the senior management level and internal documents.
Findings
The analysis of the empirical material supports the finding that employees are constructed in superior vs subordinate positions based on beliefs about nationality (ethnicity), wherein the construction of Swedishness is ranked above other nationalities. Based on these constructions, two different dimensions of a leader emerge. The first dimension is one of leading and supporting, which involves personal development and is regarded as something positive. The second dimension involves being a manager, which is perceived as conservative, dreary and unappealing.
Originality/value
The study illustrates how leaders in a global firm construct hierarchies and polarisation in the daily work.
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Sandra Jönsson and Tobias Schölin
In line with the growing emphasis on workplace learning, there has been a tendency to abandon traditional Tayloristic models of work organization in favor of more humanistic…
Abstract
Purpose
In line with the growing emphasis on workplace learning, there has been a tendency to abandon traditional Tayloristic models of work organization in favor of more humanistic, flexible and integrated work systems. This study focusses on facilitators of learning in a company that is based on the principles of Toyota production system (TPS). In this paper, the authors are focussing on one central aspect of the TPS, that is, workplace learning. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of empowering leadership, teamwork, innovative climate as facilitators of learning in this specific context.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaires (focussing on workplace learning, empowering leadership, teamwork and innovative climate) were distributed to 643 factory workers in the company Scania in Sweden. A total of 487 persons answered the questionnaire, which amounted to a response rate of 76 percent.
Findings
The result indicates that empowering leadership was the best predictor, followed by teamwork and innovative climate.
Originality/value
From this study, the authors can conclude that the already known predictors of learning can also be applied in a TPS setting. The key features in the TPS company constitute a foundation for learning.
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Tuija Muhonen, Sandra Jönsson, Leif Denti and Kan Chen
The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of empowering and employee-centered leadership on well-being, and the indirect or mediating role of social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of empowering and employee-centered leadership on well-being, and the indirect or mediating role of social organizational climate between leadership behavior and well-being in a cross-cultural perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaires were distributed in two furniture retail stores in Sweden and two stores in China belonging to the same company. The final sample consisted of 483 participants from the Chinese and 254 participants from the Swedish stores.
Findings
The results of the structural equation modeling showed that there was no direct effect between leadership behavior (employee-centered leadership and empowering leadership) and well-being in either the Swedish or the Chinese sample. Further, the findings of the study indicate that social climate mediates the relationship between leadership behavior and employee well-being, but this seems to be culturally contingent. The mediating effect is prevalent in a culture that has been considered as having a collective orientation and where the power distance is high.
Research limitations/implications
Despite some methodological limitations such as the cross-sectional design and problems with acquiescence in responses, the results indicate the complexity of the role of culture in organizational behavior.
Practical implications
Managers working in increasingly globalized contexts need to take into consideration that some organizational behaviors gradually become more universal, whereas others remain culturally contingent.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates the complex relationship between leadership behavior, social climate, and employee well-being in the same corporate culture, but in different cultural settings.
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The purpose of this paper is to present a degendered organizational resilience model challenging current and dominant conceptualizations of organizational resilience by exploring…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a degendered organizational resilience model challenging current and dominant conceptualizations of organizational resilience by exploring how gendered organizational power structures, language and practices of everyday organizational life interplay and limit inclusive constructions of organizational resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
The degendered organizational resilience model was developed using Acker’s (1990) model of gendered organizations, Martin’s (2003) gendering practices, Lorber’s (2000) degendering and other feminist research on gendered organizations. The purpose of the model is to explore power structures, practices and language within the organizational context during conditions requiring organizational resilience.
Findings
A conceptual model for analyzing the theoretical development of organizational resilience is presented. The model analyzes the following three different aspects of organizations: power structure, to identify which resilient practices receive status based on established gendered organizational hierarchies and roles; actions, to identify how resilience is enacted through practices and practicing of gender; and language, to identify how and what people speak reinforces collective practices of gendering that become embedded in the organization’s story and culture.
Practical implications
The degendered organizational resilience model offers a process for researchers, managers and organizational leaders to analyze and reveal power imbalances that hinder inclusive theoretical development and practices of organizational resilience.
Social implications
The degendered organizational resilience model can be used to reveal power structures, gendered practices and language favoring normative masculine organizational practices, which restrict the systemic implementation of inclusive democratic practices that incorporate and benefit women, men and other groups subject to organizational subordination.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original perspective on the theoretical development of organizational resilience by proposing a degendering model for analysis. A feminist perspective is used to reveal the gendered power structures, practices and language suppressing the full range of resilient qualities by restricting what is valued and who gives voice to resilient processes that lead to resilient organizations.
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The purpose of this paper is to test an hypothesis that teachers’ personal orientations toward food preparation, nutrition and environmental issues would be related to their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test an hypothesis that teachers’ personal orientations toward food preparation, nutrition and environmental issues would be related to their perceived importance of food skills.
Design/methodology/approach
Little research has been conducted on home economics teachers’ views on the importance of the food skills they teach in secondary schools in Australia. Therefore, an online survey was conducted among 261 home economics teachers in Australian secondary schools. The research measured respondents’ ratings of the importance of 70 food skills as well as their teaching preferences and use of resources.
Findings
Respondents rated the procedural “hands-on” skills required to prepare a healthy meal as most important. Exploratory factor analysis derived five components (procedures for domestic settings, procedures for vocational settings, cookery methods, food economy, using microwave oven appliances) relating to teachers’ perceived importance of food skills. Teachers’ personal orientations were described as food aesthete, consumer-environmentalist and nutritionist. The findings showed that these were better predictors of the perceived importance of food skills than demographic characteristics. The most important perceived skills related to the basic procedures required by young people to be able to prepare meals for themselves when living independently. Teachers’ personal “orientations” were significantly related to the perceived importance of food skills. Demographic and professional characteristics were poor predictors of these perceptions.
Originality/value
The findings provide home economics teachers with an understanding of their selection of particular food skills to teach their students in skill-based healthy eating programmes.
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Sara Fernández-López, Marcos Álvarez-Espiño, Sandra Castro-González and Lucía Rey-Ares
The present study examines the potential relationship between financial capability and household financial vulnerability for a sample of Spanish individuals.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study examines the potential relationship between financial capability and household financial vulnerability for a sample of Spanish individuals.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology combines a literature review deepening on the two concepts addressed in this paper – financial vulnerability and financial capability – and an empirical analysis. Based on a sample of 7,811 Spanish individuals taken from the Survey of Financial Competences, different probit regression models are used to test the relationship of key independent variables (namely, financial literacy, financial inclusion, and financial capability) with household financial vulnerability.
Findings
Empirical evidence points to the existence of a negative relationship between financial capability and household financial vulnerability. Besides, the variable on financial capability demonstrates, per se, a greater explanatory power than its two components (i.e. objective financial literacy and financial inclusion) separately, particularly in the case of financial literacy.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the research on household finances along three main dimensions. Firstly, it enhances the research on financial capability by analysing how it relates to consumers' financial vulnerability; an association barely explored by the extant literature. Secondly, it gets closer to the multifaceted concept of financial vulnerability through a wide set of objective and subjective proxy variables. And thirdly, the empirical evidence found leads to proposing some recommendations aimed at improving households' financial capability.
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Sandra Cohen, María-Dolores Guillamón, Irvine Lapsley and Geraldine Robbins
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Eurozone financial crisis by discussing the experiences of Greece, Ireland and Spain. It particularly examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Eurozone financial crisis by discussing the experiences of Greece, Ireland and Spain. It particularly examines the influence and actions of the Troika in the management of the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary source of information for this study has been the documents of the Greek, Irish and Spanish Governments (often only available in their native language) and the reports of EU bodies and the IMF, supplemented by media coverage, as deemed appropriate. This has been analysed on a comparative basis to contrast the experiences of these three countries.
Findings
This study reveals how the Eurozone crisis has impacted on financially weak countries in this currency union. The fiscal conservatism of the Troika (the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank) has had profound consequences for these economies, which have experienced dramatic cuts in public services.
Research limitations/implications
This study has focused on the experiences of three countries in the Eurozone. There is a case for extending this analysis to other Eurozone countries.
Practical implications
There are two approaches to recession – governments can stimulate demand by infrastructure spending or take the financial conservatism route of reducing public expenditure and public sector borrowing. However, the severity of the crisis undermines the first approach and there are uncertain outcomes with the second approach. This paper shows the effects of adopting financial conservatism as a strategy in this crisis.
Social implications
The austerity programmes pursued by the governments in this study have led to unemployment, migration of skilled workers, collapse in property markets, failing banks and social unrest.
Originality/value
This study takes an accounting perspective on the Eurozone crisis. This offers a distinctive interpretation of events. This study examines the merits of widely used theories in studies of public sector change namely legitimation and resource dependency theory intertwined with power and offers insights into how meaningful they are in explaining the dramatic influence of austerity programmes in the Eurozone.
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