Paddy O’Toole, Steven Talbot and Justin Fidock
Stories told in organisations are being used increasingly as a way of gaining greater insight into organisational culture, leadership and health. These insights should be…
Abstract
Stories told in organisations are being used increasingly as a way of gaining greater insight into organisational culture, leadership and health. These insights should be considered when organisational change is needed to improve effectiveness. This paper examines a method that combines data collection through a story elicitation process with intervention design that promotes change and learning within organisations. In this paper, we describe these processes in detail with a step‐by‐step account of how the authors implemented these processes in a research site. Our experience can act as a guide to other researchers undertaking similar projects. Evidence collected so far suggests that these processes can contribute to organisational change in an incremental way that engages people at various levels within an organisation.
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Christina Stothard and Maya Drobnjak
The study aims to propose and test how leadership styles (learning-oriented, transformational and transactional leadership) and a new construct, psychological equality, help…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to propose and test how leadership styles (learning-oriented, transformational and transactional leadership) and a new construct, psychological equality, help overcome the typically negative effect of rank disparity on team learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Militaries have a rigid hierarchy, and rank disparity (hierarchy) inhibits team learning. However, little (quantitative) attention has been paid to understanding the factors that might help overcome the inhibiting effect of hierarchy on military team learning. This study evaluates how learning-oriented leadership helps military teams to learn by improving a sense of psychological equality.
Findings
Learning-oriented leadership supported greater psychological equality and team learning than either transformational or transactional leadership. Additionally, psychological equality significantly improved team learning. Together, learning-oriented leadership and psychological equality were found to support team learning within hierarchical teams. The findings show that team rank disparity does not inevitably stifle team learning.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional archival and self-report data limits drawing causal conclusions; further, longitudinal studies should be undertaken to extend and test the proposed causal relationship modeled in this study.
Practical implications
Generating team learning within the military does not require dismantling traditional military command, communication and control structures; instead, specific leadership behaviors (e.g., sharing information, coaching and avoiding blame or shame) can support psychological equality and increased team learning within military’s established command and control structures.
Originality/value
This study answered recent calls to identify the contingencies shaping team learning; improving psychological equality enhances team learning while maintaining the benefits of a clear hierarchical structure (e.g. military command and control).
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From the early 1980s on the Dutch national government, just like many other western governments, implemented several administrative reforms to solve problems like fiscal deficits…
Abstract
From the early 1980s on the Dutch national government, just like many other western governments, implemented several administrative reforms to solve problems like fiscal deficits and decreased public legitimacy (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2004). Privatisation was one of the first reforms, but never became very popular in the Netherlands. Dutch politicians and civil servants preferred a ‘softer’ modernisation of the state, by separating policy and administration. This meant that the execution of public tasks and/or the implementation of policies were delegated to executive bodies at arms' length of the government. In some cases, existing societal, private or commercial organisations were charged with a particular task, but in most cases executive units from ministries were disaggregated and hived off. Modernisation of the state thus resulted in a strong increase in the number of executive agencies, of different legal types (OECD, 2002). I will refer to this trend as agencification (Pollitt & Talbot, 2004; Pollitt, Talbot, Caulfield, & Smullen, 2004).
Jing Han Beh, Ming Kun Yew, Kok Hong Tan and John Patrick Rayner
Therapeutic landscapes can be beneficial for patients recovering from cognitive and behavioural impairments. The therapeutic garden in the Royal Talbot rehabilitation centre…
Abstract
Purpose
Therapeutic landscapes can be beneficial for patients recovering from cognitive and behavioural impairments. The therapeutic garden in the Royal Talbot rehabilitation centre (RTRC) located in Kew, Melbourne is a precedent for its nature design outdoor spaces and horticultural therapy (HT) program for patients with cognitive impairments due to brain and spinal cord injuries. There have been no studies into the physical design of the RTRC therapeutic garden.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study unveils the critical design themes, and dominant physical elements of the RTRC therapeutic garden through site observation and analysis over the course of two months, a semi-structured interview with a key staff, and graphical representations using integrated photography and collaborative digital tools of AutoCAD and Adobe Photoshop.
Findings
Seven critical design themes are identified for the RTRC garden: (1) space layout and organization, (2) physical and visual access, (3) pathway and facility, (4) multisensory vegetation, (5) amenity, wayfinding and seasonal interest, (6) cognitive stimulation, (7) utility and HT. Qualitative and quantitative data analysed in visual and descriptive format reveal multisensory vegetation, amenity, wayfinding and seasonal interest, and utility and HT are the top three most pivotal critical design themes in the RTRC therapeutic garden.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this case study can be used to impart knowledge about the design of therapeutic landscape settings for cognitive impairments to design professionals and the public.
Originality/value
There is no case study has been conducted for this precedent of therapeutic garden in the Royal Talbot rehabilitation centre that targets for cognitive impairment patients. With the increasing awareness in medical and healthcare environments, this case study would help to inject mutual understanding, generate knowledge and design awareness among design professionals and public, and to cultivate more good quality healthcare settings.
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Luke Jones, Steven Tones and Gethin Foulkes
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the learning conversations that take place in the context of secondary initial teacher education (ITE) in England. More specifically, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the learning conversations that take place in the context of secondary initial teacher education (ITE) in England. More specifically, it aims to examine the learning conversations that occurred between physical education subject mentors and their associate teachers (ATs) during a one-year postgraduate programme.
Design/methodology/approach
Self-completion questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, with 11 ATs within a university ITE partnership, were used to explore ATs’ perceptions of the learning conversations that occurred between them and their mentors. A process of content analysis was used to identify and analyse themes in the data.
Findings
Meaningful learning conversations are not exclusively based on mentors’ feedback on ATs’ teaching. The ongoing everyday dialogue that occurs between mentors and ATs has a direct impact on the ATs’ teaching and a more indirect effect of nurturing collaborative relationships and providing access to a learning community. Successful mentoring is not realised through an isolated weekly lesson observation of the ATs’ teaching. It is an immersive process where the AT and the mentor face the ongoing challenge of exploring aspects of pedagogy and developing a relationship that is conducive to shared learning.
Practical implications
These findings have implications for providers of ITE and more specifically how they approach mentor training. Examining learning conversations, and in particular the more informal everyday dialogue that occurs between the mentor and the AT, may have significant impact on the learning of those who are training to teach.
Originality/value
Informal learning conversations are central to the mentoring process. These findings highlight the value of learning conversations and in particular the impact of informal everyday dialogue that may otherwise be overlooked.
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GERALD ALONZO SMITH and STEVEN HICKERSON
When E. F. Schumacher first wrote Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, the initial reaction was mixed. For the first year or so, the book sold slowly. Then in…
Abstract
When E. F. Schumacher first wrote Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, the initial reaction was mixed. For the first year or so, the book sold slowly. Then in 1974, the sales exploded. In a very short time, E. F. Schumacher became widely acclaimed as his book sold more than a million copies. On both sides of the Atlantic, the common person, as well as the scholar, realized that this was a new voice, a fresh and wholesome breath of wind that was blowing in the stodgy halls of economics.
Claire Hines and Stephanie Jones
As Bond scholarship has shown, men’s magazines played a crucial role in shaping images of masculinity that circulated around James Bond from the 1960s onwards (Hines, 2018). More…
Abstract
As Bond scholarship has shown, men’s magazines played a crucial role in shaping images of masculinity that circulated around James Bond from the 1960s onwards (Hines, 2018). More generally, critics have charged both the Bond film franchise and men’s magazines with perpetuating sexist imagery that upholds patriarchal values or erodes the gains of feminism. Yet close readings of men’s magazines and Bond films can produce a more complex picture of masculinity and gender relations, especially since the mid-1990s saw not only the return of James Bond to the screen following a six-year production break, but also scholarly and media attention to masculinity and significant growth in the men’s magazine market, including the rise of lad mags. This research will analyse magazine content relating to Bond in British men’s magazines during the Pierce Brosnan era, beginning with the launch of the 1995 film GoldenEye, to examine the interrelationship between James Bond as a longstanding male icon, and contemporary models of masculinity characterised by this publishing phenomenon. It will argue that these men’s magazines become an important site for (re)negotiating James Bond’s culturally loaded masculinity throughout the Brosnan years.