Search results

This chapter highlights the value offered by photographic research methods to the study of organizational compassion. We demonstrate this potential by first briefly reviewing the history and usage of photographic research methods in the social sciences and the state of compassion research. We then describe how compassion emerged as a key theme in a field study that utilized photographic methods. From this, we identify four approaches that photographic research methods can be used to extend our understanding of compassion in organizations. Specifically, we clarify how this stream of research can be enhanced by the inclusion of photographic methods. We highlight critical research decisions and possible concerns in implementing photographic methods. The chapter concludes with additional organizational phenomena that would benefit from using a photographic methods approach.

The various methods gathered under the umbrella label of qualitative (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), defined as the study of “things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 3), offer many benefits through their ability to access, explore, and experience real organizational people and problems in rich detail (Van Maanen, 1979). As an example, photographic research methods—primarily qualitative methods through which researchers use photographs to elicit information during interviews and focus groups—often result in deep and nuanced data (Collier & Collier, 1986; Harper, 2005; Vince & Warren, 2012). Photographic methodologies are well-suited to the exploration of new phenomena because they allow researchers to get close to the lived experience and organizational processes (Dion, 2007), attend simultaneously to the social and material world in organizations (Shortt & Warren, 2012), and offer the potential to “mine deeper shafts into a different part of human consciousness than do words-alone interviews” (Harper, 2002, p. 23). Organizational research has traditionally been dominated by a positivistic paradigm that focuses on theory evaluation through the use of quantitative methodologies (Lin, 1998; Sutton, 1997), whereas qualitative research offers the potential to build theory by illuminating underlying processes and causal mechanisms in specific contexts (Lee, 1999). Researchers developing theory may be particularly interested in the richness of the data gathered with qualitative methods (Edmondson & McManus, 2007) such as photographic methods. Qualitative research is thus well-matched to nascent literatures that require inductive study about a phenomenon to generate foundational knowledge (Edmondson & McManus, 2007).

One such nascent research stream that could benefit from photographic methodologies is organizational compassion (Rynes, Bartunek, Dutton, & Margolis, 2012). In its current state, compassion research within the organizational literature has generated many narratives of experiences of compassion in response to a specific tragedy (Dutton, Worline, Frost, & Lilius, 2006), as an organizational capability (Lilius et al., 2011b), or as an organizational capacity that an organization can develop (Madden, Duchon, Madden, & Plowman, 2012). These stories demonstrate that the common elements of the compassion process are the noticing of someone else's pain, empathizing with that person, and then responding in a way designed to lessen that pain (Kanov et al., 2004); however, because this process is so individualized, photographic methodologies offer researchers a chance to capture valuable new information about this process and the experience of compassion within organizations. In this chapter, we describe many potential benefits of designing organizational compassion research based on photographic methodologies.

In doing so, we offer several contributions. First, we show how photographic methodologies can create deeper responses during interviews and observations that may lead to surprising insights for theory. Second, by suggesting some of the insights that have been generated about compassion through photographic methodologies, we offer novel research ideas for this growing body of literature. The following sections provide background on the development and history of photographic methodologies and review the studies and methodologies that have contributed to our understanding of compassion within organizations. Subsequently, we describe some of the ways in which compassion has surfaced during our own field study using photograph elicitation. Finally, we describe possible studies that could benefit from the use of four forms of photographic methodologies to explore more targeted research questions related to organizational compassion and also offer a range of other organizational phenomena that could benefit from a photographic methods approach.

We implement an inductive, case study approach to explore the motivations and methods of five successful social entrepreneurs. Our findings show that founders noticed, felt, and responded to someone else's pain, demonstrating compassion as the genesis of the business venture. Successful social innovation, however, was the result of the creation of an organization structured to include diverse stakeholder input and participation in the decision-making process. Thus, compassion motivates entrepreneurs to pursue broad gains as opposed to singular interests and enhances a willingness to incorporate others' ideas through an open-strategy process. Our study suggests that interaction with stakeholders can impact the structure of the firm, the business model it employs, and intended and unintended business consequences.

The purpose of this study is to extend the current understanding of virtual team (VT) workers’ willingness to continue working in VTs and the forces driving their affective reactions to teamwork. Specifically, this paper applies the input-mediator-output-input (IMOI) literature to investigate the influence of workers’ perceptions of their peers’ skills and peers’ interactions on perceptions of the teamwork process and subsequent affective reactions.

This paper draws on a sample of 997 virtual and face-to-face (FtF) students embedded in 242 project teams to test the hypotheses using multi-group comparisons in structural equation modeling (SEM).

Results support the assertion that team processes are essential in translating team skills and interactions into satisfaction with the team. Further, this paper finds that skills are more influential on teammate satisfaction for FtFs than they are for VTs; and, conversely, that VTs’ interactions are more pivotal regarding teammate satisfaction through VT processes than they are in FtFs.

The effort contributes to the IMOI literature by showing how teams overcome virtuality to perform effectively and how team-embedded members react differently across VT and FtF contexts.

These findings are particularly notable given that prior research has suggested VT performance may not be contingent on social bonds within the team. Although this is possibly true for performance, the findings suggest that social interactions are, in fact, crucial to teams’ affective reactions.

This chapter presents a novel method for using PechaKucha presentations to generate and analyze participant-generated video data. As a data source, participatory video (PV) differs from ethnographic or archival video by relying on participants to tell their own stories. As a presentation technique, PechaKucha produces six-minute-and-forty-second, narrated slideshow presentations. The slideshows or recordings from live PechaKucha presentations are a dense form of PV that is easier to code and analyze than traditional sources of PV. This chapter describes the procedures to capture and analyze PechaKucha-based PV and illustrates considerations for researchers who plan to use PV to gather data.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The results showed that individual skills were more influential on teammate satisfaction for FtFs than for VTs.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Disasters drastically affect regional industries; consequently, the study of regional resilience is of much interest to organizational researchers. To that end, this study examines the role of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, stakeholder engagement, and elements of psychological recovery in the US Gulf Coast following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.

Through a qualitative content analysis of 183 industry-relevant articles published during and after the disaster, this study unpacks the most significant themes at work in the recovery process, including the psychological elements of the oil spill and its aftermath, the role of various internal and external stakeholders, and emerging opportunities for entrepreneurial activity in the region for regional resilience and recovery.

The nine themes that emerged from the data were captured in three categories mapped over time. Category one, psychogical states during and after the oil spill, include denial, coping, and recovery. Category two, regional recovery efforts and the role of stakeholders, includes the themes distractions, bargains, and material support. Category three, emerging opportunities, includes financial support, new markets, and reparations.

By mapping these themes over distinct time periods, this study identifies and explores patterns in the recovery period and use them to draw theoretical and practical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential effects of workplace stress and the use of social support by contingent vs standard employees.

Conservation of resources (COR) theory is used to frame research questions. Using content analysis of 40 interviews from individuals in the hospitality industry, differences between the levels of stress reported by contingent and standard employees as well as differences in their use of social support networks to offset stress is examined.

Contingent employees report experiencing more stress than do standard employees in the same profession. Furthermore, contingent employees seek out more social support than do standard employees. There was no difference between the two groups with respect to the desire for social support from three sources: vertical, horizontal, and customer groups.

This study extends the literature on contingent workers, the literature on how different types of employees deal with stress, as well as adding to the COR literature by showing that contingent employees experience and assuage their stress differently than do standard employees.

It is common for professionals in technical and science-related careers to interact with colleagues and the general public frequently in their daily work. However, most do not receive any education or practice developing interpersonal skills. Thus, these professionals may struggle to create positive interactions, especially while in leadership roles or interacting with stakeholders or clientele. We worked with the Wildlife Services National Training Academy to develop and deliver a half-day training on leadership competencies including emotional intelligence, power and influence, and conflict management. This application brief describes the training, including learning activities implemented, and reports evaluative feedback from participants and the workshop developers and facilitator. Recommendations for implementing similar leadership development programming for technical audiences is included.

This paper aims to explore the relationships among perceived organizational support, positive relationships at work and intent to turnover through a social exchange theory lens. The main contribution of this paper is the investigation of different types of positive workplace relationships on employee withdrawal behaviors.

A 49-item survey was developed through a review of literature related to positive workplace relationships and intent to turnover. Surveys were made available to 200 healthcare employees; 73 surveys were accurately completed and used to test a mediated model of positive relationships at work.

Positive relationships at work were found to have a mediating effect between perceived organizational support and intent to turnover. Additionally, perceived organizational support was found to have direct and indirect effects on intent to turnover.

Managers can affect employees’ intentions to turnover by improving practices that provide support to employees and encouraging positive relationships with coworkers. Additional literature related to our variables of interest suggests that employees perceive more support when their organizations offer commensurate rewards, opportunities for growth and participation in decision making.

This study speaks to those researchers and managers interested in employees’ motivations for staying in or leaving from their organizations. Turnover and related withdrawal behaviors are expensive for organizations, so discovering the factors that members value offers organizations the ability to affect their members’ intentions to turnover. Additionally, the exploration of relationships between perceived organizational support and positive relationships at work suggests that different support mechanisms play different roles in affecting organizational and individual outcomes.