Khiam Jin Lee, Sanna K. Malinen and Venkataraman Nilakant
This study examines challenges to cross-sector collaboration in disasters. The authors use Malaysian flooding as the context for the study and offer a framework to understand…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines challenges to cross-sector collaboration in disasters. The authors use Malaysian flooding as the context for the study and offer a framework to understand different types of collaborators in disaster settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected with semi-structured interviews, complemented with secondary data from government documents and news reports. The authors interviewed a total of 30 participants including six disaster aid recipients and 24 strategic and operational participants from 12 disaster management organizations. Thematic analysis was conducted including two cycles of coding, memoing and constant comparisons.
Findings
The authors present two key theoretical contributions: key barriers to cross-sector collaboration and a typology of collaboration in disasters. Key barriers include leadership approach and central vs local decision-making, differing levels of motivation to collaborate and the organizations' ability to collaborate in disasters. Despite these barriers, collaboration does occur in disaster settings. The authors suggest that the forms of collaboration may be driven primarily by differing motivations to collaborate and differing perceptions of others’ ability to collaborate, resulting in four types of collaboration: (1) enthusiastic, (2) mandate-driven, (3) reluctant and (4) non-collaboration.
Originality/value
The authors show that although the command-and-control model was dominant, organizations also attempted to improve disaster management efficacy through collaborative approaches. Central institutional agencies and their wider external partners are capable of using cross-sector collaboration as a strategy to tackle the complex problems post-disaster. However, pre-disaster relationship building will likely help organizations to collaborate more effectively when a disaster occurs.
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Esme Franken, Geoff Plimmer and Sanna Malinen
Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to establish…
Abstract
Purpose
Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to establish growth-oriented management (GOM) as a key management capability to support employee growth. It also identifies employee resilience as a mechanism for growth in employees and examines its role in mediating the relationships between GOM and key employee outcomes: well-being and work engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on survey data (n = 751) from white-collar employees in Australia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the study variables.
Findings
Findings show GOM influenced well-being and work engagement, both directly and indirectly through employee resilience. This reveals more broadly that the unique combination of behaviors that comprise GOM plays a pivotal role in supporting growth-oriented outcomes in employees.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study on the impact of GOM on well-being and engagement, as well as on the mediating mechanism of employee resilience in these relationships. GOM is an innovative contribution to scholarship on employee and organizational development, reflecting the changing nature of management, and responding to the increasingly diverse development needs of employees.
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Sanna Malinen, Puck Algera and Teija Mankkinen
This paper presents a large sample study of fire service volunteer motivations in Finland. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the differences between initial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents a large sample study of fire service volunteer motivations in Finland. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the differences between initial motivations to begin volunteering vs motivations to continue volunteering; and second, to examine the differences in motivations as a function of demographic variables and geographic region of the fire brigade (rural vs urban).
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was completed by 747 fire service volunteers throughout Finland.
Findings
The initial motivations for joining the brigade differed from those that motivated volunteers to continue in their roles. Significant differences between male and female volunteers’ initial motivations, as well as differences in motivations to continue volunteering as a function of age and region, were found.
Research limitations/implications
The findings support integrating a psychological, functional perspective with contextual and situational factors when considering volunteer motivations.
Originality/value
This study suggests a comprehensive understanding of fire service volunteer motivations and informs improved recruitment and retention practices.
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Emma Clarke, Katharina Näswall, Jennifer Wong, Fleur Pawsey and Sanna Malinen
The anticipation of organizational change and the transition process often creates uncertainty for employees and can lead to stress and anxiety. It is therefore essential for all…
Abstract
Purpose
The anticipation of organizational change and the transition process often creates uncertainty for employees and can lead to stress and anxiety. It is therefore essential for all organizations, especially those that operate in high-demand working environments, to support the well-being of staff throughout the change process.
Design/methodology/approach
Research on how employees respond to the organizational change of relocating to a new work space is limited. To fill this gap in the research, we present a case study examining the well-being of clinical and health care employees before and after a disruptive change: relocation in workplace facilities. In addition, factors that enabled successful change in this high-stress, high-demand working environment were investigated. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants before the relocation and 11 participants after relocation. Following an inductive approach, data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key themes.
Findings
Our findings suggest that a supportive team, inclusive leadership and a psychologically safe environment, may buffer negative employee well-being outcomes during disruptive organizational change.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the literature on successful organizational change in health care by highlighting the resources which support well-being throughout the change process and enabling the successful transition to a new facility.
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Katharina Näswall, Sanna Malinen, Joana Kuntz and Morgana Hodliffe
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new measure of employee resilience. Employee resilience is a key capability enabling employees to manage and adapt to continually…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new measure of employee resilience. Employee resilience is a key capability enabling employees to manage and adapt to continually changing circumstances. While there is an increasing body of research on how to best promote resilience among employees in organizations, the measurement of the construct has received less research attention. The measure introduced in this paper focuses on employee resilience as a work-related capability that can be developed.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents three survey-based studies describing the development of a new measure, the Employee Resilience Scale and its preliminary validation. Study 1 concerns the scale development and testing, along with a confirmatory analysis of the measurement structure in a different sample. Study 2 investigates the discriminant validity of the scale in relation to a well-known measure of personal resilience, the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale. Study 3 was concerned with work-related outcomes of employee resilience (e.g. job engagement).
Findings
Support was found for the unidimensionality of the scale in Study 1. Study 2 showed a clear differentiation between the two measures of resilience: employee resilience and personal resilience, supporting the discriminant validity of the measure. Study 3 provided evidence for the criterion-related validity of the scale.
Research limitations/implications
The three studies presented here provide preliminary support that the Employee Resilience Scale can be used to measure resilience among employees.
Originality/value
While the concept of employee resilience has gained attention in the literature, a measure of the construct has lacked. The study presents a valid measure of employee resilience which can be used to diagnose and develop a more adaptive workplace.
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Russell Wordsworth, Colin Michael Hall, Girish Prayag and Sanna Malinen
Natural disasters and other crises present methodological challenges to organizational researchers. While these challenges are well canvassed in the literature, less attention has…
Abstract
Natural disasters and other crises present methodological challenges to organizational researchers. While these challenges are well canvassed in the literature, less attention has been paid to understanding how distinct crisis events may present, not only unique challenges, but also important opportunities for research. In this chapter, we draw on our collective experience of conducting post-earthquake research and compare this with the COVID-19 pandemic context in order to identify and discuss the inherent vulnerabilities associated with disaster studies and the subsequent methodological challenges and opportunities that researchers might encounter. Adopting a critical perspective, the chapter grapples with some of the more contentious issues associated with research in a disaster and crisis context including aspects of stakeholder engagement, ethics, reciprocity, inequality, and vulnerability.
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Sanna Malinen, Sarah Wright and Peter Cammock
Past research has found meaningful differences between job and organisational engagement. However, research to date has mainly focused on job engagement, whereas the construct of…
Abstract
Purpose
Past research has found meaningful differences between job and organisational engagement. However, research to date has mainly focused on job engagement, whereas the construct of organisational engagement has been largely neglected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents of organisational engagement and its influence on withdrawal attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an on‐line survey, the authors investigated employees’ perceptions of fairness and trust in senior management, 12 months prior to the measurement of organisational engagement and withdrawal attitudes. The study was conducted in a professional services public organisation, characterised by frequent change and uncertainty.
Findings
The authors showed that perceptions of procedural justice and trust in senior management predicted organisational engagement 12 months later. In addition, organisational engagement partially mediated the relationship between procedural justice perceptions, trust in senior management, and withdrawal attitudes.
Practical implications
The authors’ research suggests that monitoring and influencing employees’ levels of engagement can benefit organisations, and that leaders in particular can influence employees’ level of engagement. Indeed, the present research showed that employees who had trust in senior management and felt that they had a voice in the organisation showed higher levels of engagement and lower intentions to exit the organisation.
Originality/value
This research contributes to our understanding of the drivers of engagement, and demonstrates the importance of organisational‐level, in addition to job‐level engagement.
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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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Albattat Ahmad, Nini Shaliza, Mohd Zuraimi and Azizul Jamaludin