Sara Lindström and Minna Janhonen
By adopting a paradox lens, the purpose of this study is to explore paradoxes in relation to work organization, recruitment and competence development in growth-oriented companies.
Abstract
Purpose
By adopting a paradox lens, the purpose of this study is to explore paradoxes in relation to work organization, recruitment and competence development in growth-oriented companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a qualitative content analysis based on research interviews of managers responsible for human resource management (HRM) in Finnish small and medium-sized growth enterprises (SMEs).
Findings
The results show four themes, namely, (1) individualized work, (2) cultural cohesiveness, (3) experimental organization and (4) personal closeness. These identified themes are interpreted as mutually enabling, active responses to the underlying paradoxes of individualism – community and stability – change.
Originality/value
The results contribute to research on tension and paradox in HRM by taking the still unexplored opportunity to apply paradox theory to HRM in SMEs.
Sara Lindström, Heli Ansio and Tytti Steel
This study identifies how self-employed older women experience and represent self-integrity – an element and source of meaningfulness – in their work, and how these experiences…
Abstract
Purpose
This study identifies how self-employed older women experience and represent self-integrity – an element and source of meaningfulness – in their work, and how these experiences are intertwined with gendered ageing.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used thematic analysis, influenced by an intersectional lens, to scrutinise qualitative data generated during a development project, with ten over 55-year-old self-employed women in Finland.
Findings
The study reveals three dominant practices of self-integrity at work: “Respecting one's self-knowledge”, “Using one's professional abilities”, and “Developing as a professional”. Older age was mostly experienced and represented as a characteristic that deepened or strengthened the practices and experiences of self-integrity at work. However, being an older woman partly convoluted that. Self-integrity as a self-employed woman was repeatedly experienced and represented in contrast to the male norm of entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the literature on gender and entrepreneurship by highlighting the processual dimensions – how integrity with self is experienced, created and sustained, and how being an older woman relates to self-integrity in self-employment. The results show a nuanced interplay between gender and age: Age and gender both constrain and become assets for older women in self-employment through older women's experiences of self-integrity.
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Sara Lindström and Sinikka Vanhala
The purpose of the article is to contribute to HRM‐performance research by focusing on how HR managers discursively construct performance in local government HRM.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the article is to contribute to HRM‐performance research by focusing on how HR managers discursively construct performance in local government HRM.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is carried out in Finnish local government organizations, where HR managers of ten large and medium‐sized cities were interviewed. The study adopted a constructionist approach: performance is constructed through the talk of different stakeholders, in this case, HR managers. The analysis draws upon discourse analysis.
Findings
Performance in local government HRM is constructed through three predominant discourses: the service discourse, the process discourse, and the customer change discourse. The central finding of the study is the strong role of local residents, portrayed as external customers to HRM.
Research limitations/implications
Typical to discourse analysis, the number of interviews is limited and the results cannot be generalized. Thirdly, according to the constructivist approach, researchers also discursively construct the phenomenon under study. Additionally, this article focuses on performance talk of HRM managers; other actors of HRM, e.g. top management teams, line managers, and HR experts, also discursively construct HRM‐performance through their talk.
Practical implications
In public organizations and also private sector service companies, the strong role of external customers in HRM and HRM‐performance should be considered, especially in HRM metrics.
Originality/value
Research revealed the central role of external customers in the discourse of local government HRM‐performance, and extends thus the scope of the performance concept in HRM studies.
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Minna Janhonen and Sara Lindström
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the routes of team goal attainment through individual and social mechanisms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the routes of team goal attainment through individual and social mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews, annual reports and observations of team meetings conducted within a Finnish department store.
Findings
The key findings of our analysis are three fold. First, we identified four routes to team goal attainment: team leadership, one’s own work, customer service and team work. We propose that for team members, these routes to goal attainment are more important than the organizational goals of sales and reputation themselves, since sales and reputation may be too far removed from the team’s everyday work. Second, both individual and social mechanisms are needed for team goal accomplishment. This finding highlights the importance of the social identity perspective in binding individual and collective motivations together. Third, teamwork in our case department store is somewhat affected by non-participative conventions, but many employee-involving practices can also be identified. These employee-involving HRM practices offer the employees a voice, and give the teams and team supervisors sufficient power in work organization.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this study are mostly due to the qualitative case study design which hinders the generalization of the results. The wide perspective of the study can also be seen as a limitation.
Practical implications
The results suggest that HR professionals and line managers should be more aware of and support the processes through which teams and team members attain organizational goals. This requires detailed knowledge of the processes – routes to team goal attainment – at the shop floor level.
Originality/value
This study highlights the interconnectedness of individual and team level attributes in retail team work, and proposes the perspective of social identity theory as a lens for analysis.
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Emily C. Bouck and Sara Flanagan
The chapter Technological Advances in Special Education provides information on advances of technology and how such technological advances have influenced students with…
Abstract
The chapter Technological Advances in Special Education provides information on advances of technology and how such technological advances have influenced students with disabilities and special education across the globe. The chapter presents technological advances that benefited students with disabilities in developed countries as well as potential technologies to support students with disabilities in developing countries. The scant exiting literature on developing countries suggests some universal themes regarding technology for students with disabilities including access and training. Additional attention and research is needed on assistive technology to support students with disabilities in both developed and developing countries, with recognition that what works is developed counties may not work in developing.
Entrepreneurial intention – the decision to, and subsequent practice of, launching a business – is often referred to as a planned, considered act. Factors influencing the decision…
Abstract
Entrepreneurial intention – the decision to, and subsequent practice of, launching a business – is often referred to as a planned, considered act. Factors influencing the decision to embark on entrepreneurial ventures have been identified and used to create models of entrepreneurial intention. Do these models, which emerge primarily from behavioural psychology, hold true for participants in the cultural and creative industries (CCIs)? Narrative research conducted with 18 CCI entrepreneurs from Australia indicates that the intention to start their ventures is neither clearly identified nor defined. These narrative accounts present intention as a slippery notion – difficult to define, to separate from other factors, and to rely on with certainty. In these accounts, the founding of CCI ventures is revealed as a gradual, organic process, less distinct than existing models of entrepreneurial intention suggest. Three themes that impact on entrepreneurial intention are identified from these accounts – desire for personal growth, progression from freelancing, and realisation of creative projects – to further illuminate how venture creation takes place in the CCIs.
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To provide a primer on the major project management protocols and examples of how these protocols have been used to manage library projects.
Abstract
Purpose
To provide a primer on the major project management protocols and examples of how these protocols have been used to manage library projects.
Methodology/approach
The chapter presents a broad review of the literature on project management in general, and as it has been applied in library settings, including brief histories of each major methodology, its development, component elements, and examples of its use in libraries.
Findings
Many of the major project management protocols, such as Six Sigma, Agile, Lean, Scrum, and Waterfall, have been used successfully in library settings across a broad range of areas and project types.
Originality/value
As libraries continue to innovate and expand their services, the management of complex projects and processes has become commonplace. This chapter will serve as a primer on the major project management protocols, highlighting the ways in which they can be used in libraries, and to which types of library projects they have been successfully applied.
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Sara El-Deeb, Hamid Jahankhani, Osama Akram Amin Metwally Hussien and Isuru Sandakelum Will Arachchige
The concept of ‘intelligence’ used to differ between human and machines, until the disruption of artificial intelligence (AI). The field of AI is advancing far more rapidly than…
Abstract
The concept of ‘intelligence’ used to differ between human and machines, until the disruption of artificial intelligence (AI). The field of AI is advancing far more rapidly than the establishment of rules and regulations, which is causing certain fear. However, slowing down this progression to avoid economic crisis is not an option because of open-source AI, which facilitates faster development processes and collective contributions to codes and algorithms. Public policies, such as the ‘European Union AI Act (EU AI)’, ‘Whitehouse AI’, and the G7's ‘Hiroshima Artificial Intelligence Process’ (HAP), are already drafted. Regulators need to adopt a dynamic approach given AI's rapid advancement, and they need to eventually strive for international harmonisation in their rules and regulations for better collaborations. The EU's AI Act is the ‘world's first comprehensive law’ and it focuses on five main pillars similar to other countries drafts: ensuring AI usage is safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly. They portray four risk categories against which citizens can file complaints: (1) Unacceptable risk (2) High risk (3) Generative AI (4) Limited risk. The US AI policies include ‘The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People’ and the ‘Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence’. This conceptual study extensively reviews the concept of AI and compares pioneering draft laws while providing recommendations on ethics and responsible AI. The contribution of this study is that it sheds light on the evolving evolution of AI and the challenges posed by the rapid advancement of AI technology, emphasising the necessity for flexible and adaptive regulatory frameworks. This is the first paper to explore AI from the academic and political perspective.
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Describes the emergence of proximity policing – a Danish version of COP – and evaluates a series of experiments with implementation of the concept. The design and scope of each…
Abstract
Describes the emergence of proximity policing – a Danish version of COP – and evaluates a series of experiments with implementation of the concept. The design and scope of each experiment is described, and their degree of implementation is assessed. Proximity policing in Denmark differs from other COP projects in that this kind of work is still the responsibility of a number of designated officers instead of the whole police force. Geographical assignments and long‐term affiliation with the local areas provide for a personalization of policing – a personalization that is very popular with local and municipal liaisons to the police. The goals of the Danish experiments are very extensive, and it is concluded that all cannot be accomplished at the same time.