Mirja Määttä and Sanna Aaltonen
The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical view of participatory policies and measures by highlighting that participation is not only a right for young people, but also an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical view of participatory policies and measures by highlighting that participation is not only a right for young people, but also an obligation for many. This obligated participation is studied conceptually and empirically.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces a novel typology of youth participation that demonstrates the dimensions of institutional framing and a degree of choice in participation. The typology is applied in an empirical study on how the participation rights and obligations are formed and handled within an educational programme, aiming to support young people at the margins.
Findings
Young people are controlled by their participation obligations, and are guided to reach maturity and claim personal responsibility for their choices. The acceptance of an obligation to participate has to be negotiated with young people in services; otherwise they may opt out of supportive measures.
Research limitations/implications
More research is needed on how youth participation terminology is used in political programmes and professional practices.
Social implications
It is vital to discuss the options and obligations of young people in professional support measures and consider their implications for different groups of young people. At the policy level, the challenge is to ensure that the right to participate at community and political levels is not ignored or made inaccessible to young people at the margins.
Originality/value
The typology diversifies understanding of youth participation and enables the analysis of participation types. It can be applied in youth studies, policy-making and practices.
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Keywords
Elisa Vuori, Sanna Mutka, Pertti Aaltonen and Karlos Artto
The requirements of various participants of a project may conflict with the strategy of the project's parent organization and, consequently, the project may form its individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The requirements of various participants of a project may conflict with the strategy of the project's parent organization and, consequently, the project may form its individual strategy independently, to better align with the factors in its environment. The purpose of this paper is to describe the formation of the strategy of a project as a response to the project's environment, providing insight into a project's strategy formation, where the project does not merely reflect the strategy of the parent but where the parent is only one influential actor (of many) in the project's environment.
Design/methodology/approach
To increase understanding of the relationship between the project's environment, the strategy of the project‐based firm and the strategy formation of a project, the authors analyze a project of a metallurgy firm in an empirical case study. The authors use project literature and corporate venturing literature, look for the dimensions of project strategy and the factors in the project's environment and study how the factors in the environment shape the project's strategy.
Findings
The analysis suggests that factors in the internal and external environments affect the strategy formation with varying strength. The strategy of the case project was formed in micro‐level iterative processes, in interaction between dimensions of strategy of the project and factors in environment. The empirical case study suggests that a project initiated with strong influence of external factors has to face contradiction between the strategy and related influential factors in the parent organization of the project.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to our understanding of how the strategy of an individual project is formed through micro‐level processes that are related to external and internal factors that affect the strategy formation.
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Laura Korkeamäki, Heikki Keskustalo and Sanna Kumpulainen
The purpose of this paper is to examine what types of task information media scholars need while gathering research data to create new knowledge.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine what types of task information media scholars need while gathering research data to create new knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is qualitative and user-oriented. A total of 25 media scholars were interviewed about their research processes and interactions with their research data. The interviews were semi-structured, complemented by critical incident interviews. The analysis focused on the activity of gathering research data. A typology of information (task, domain and task-solving information) guided the analysis of information types related to data gathering, with further analysis focusing only on task information types.
Findings
Media scholars needed the following task information types while gathering research data to create new knowledge: (1) information about research data (aboutness of data, characteristics of data, metadata and secondary information about data), (2) information about sources of research data (characteristics of sources, local media landscapes) and (3) information about cases and their contexts (case information, contextual information). All the task information types should be considered when building data services and tools to support media scholars' work.
Originality/value
The paper increases understanding of the concept of task information in the context of gathering research data to create new knowledge and thereby informs the providers of research data services about the task information types that researchers need.
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Hamid Reza Khedmatgozar, Leila Namdarian and Behrooz Rasuli
The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for categorizing and evaluating stakeholders that addresses the key five constraints of The Theory of Stakeholder…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for categorizing and evaluating stakeholders that addresses the key five constraints of The Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience (TSIS), including (1) binary attributes, (2) heterogeneous stakeholders in each category, (3) ignoring stakeholder-organization relationship, (4) ignoring stakeholders' communication frequency and (5) ignoring fringe stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
In the first step, a set of solutions for the limitations and constraints of TSIS was extracted by holding three rounds of the Delphi method with the participation of 42 senior and middle Iranian managers in various organizations and based on it, “Basic Analysis for Stakeholder Evaluation and Classification” (BASEClass) was developed as an enhanced theoretical and empirical framework for stakeholder analysis. In the second Step BASEClass is validated by conducting an empirical study in an organization with the participation of 46 managers, experts and specialists.
Findings
BASEClass is an enhanced theoretical and methodological framework for classifying stakeholders based on the three primary attributes of legitimacy, power and urgency, and also the communication quantity as a complementary attribute in a 3D cubical schema, prioritizing stakeholders in several cubes based on one of the multi-criteria group decision-making methods.
Originality/value
BASEClass effectively reduces the mentioned limitations and constraints of TSIS and as a result can improve the effectiveness of strategies for dealing with different stakeholders.
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Sari Rajamäki and Leena Mikkola
This qualitative study aims to understand young professional newcomers' experiences of communication processes in membership negotiation in their first workplace after graduation.
Abstract
Purpose
This qualitative study aims to understand young professional newcomers' experiences of communication processes in membership negotiation in their first workplace after graduation.
Design/methodology/approach
Instead of a one-time interview, the participants were contacted five to ten times during the three to ten months, beginning when they entered the workplace. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative method.
Findings
Three communication processes during membership negotiation were identified: developing reciprocity, seeking and perceiving acceptance and becoming an active member. To experience membership, newcomers need to achieve acceptance and engage in reciprocal communication in early interaction situations with managers and coworkers.
Research limitations/implications
Only the experiences of newly graduated newcomers were studied. This study illustrates the communication processes and social interaction evolving in membership negotiation during newcomers' entry.
Practical implications
Organizations need to re-evaluate their short orientation programs to support membership negotiations in workplace communication.
Social implications
By recognizing the communication processes during membership negotiation, the practices of newcomers' entry can be developed to support the membership development.
Originality/value
This study contributes to membership negotiation by showing how newcomers join the flow of membership negotiation through the processes of developing reciprocity, seeking and perceiving acceptance and becoming an active member.