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1 – 10 of over 1000Ree Jordan, Terrance W. Fitzsimmons and Victor J. Callan
Workplace mavericks are often labeled as non-conformists. They are perceived to be the employees who disregard organizational policies and procedures, and who invite huge risks in…
Abstract
Workplace mavericks are often labeled as non-conformists. They are perceived to be the employees who disregard organizational policies and procedures, and who invite huge risks in the pursuit of goals that sit outside what the organization dictates as the core business or practice. While this may be accurate to a degree, it is not the complete story. Guided by recent conceptualizations of non-conformity and positive deviance, this qualitative study interviewed 27 observers of mavericks (observer-types) in the workplace, and 28 interviews with mavericks (maverick-types). Results highlight that while maverick individuals do challenge organizational norms, they do so for the benefit of others, including the organization. Additionally, they are not wildcard non-conformists as they do in fact conform. However, they are conforming positively to higher level hyper-norms or organizational goals, and therefore operate in what could be termed as bounded non-conformity. Understanding the form that this bounded non-conformity takes is key for organizations to mitigate perceptions of the risk posed by maverick individuals, while maximizing the rewards that maverick employees can offer to organizations, especially for informing ideas and plans around more radical change and innovation. In this way, organizations can benefit from the numerous and unique contributions of mavericks in the workplace, such as innovative, unorthodox, and out-of-the-box thinking, while at the same time still ensuring the effective governance and risk management of the organization.
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Chris Gardiner and John Henneberry
Develops a habit‐persistence model which is based on the assumptionthat experience conditions present behaviour and expectations. Notesthat the model combines the adaptive…
Abstract
Develops a habit‐persistence model which is based on the assumption that experience conditions present behaviour and expectations. Notes that the model combines the adaptive expectations hypothesis with the partial adjustment process. Concludes that accurate forecasts for declining regions are produced but the results for growing regions are not significant.
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Wendy Gardiner and Nina Weisling
Induction mentoring for early career teachers is a complex practice, requiring knowledge and skills distinct from teaching. However, more is known anecdotally than empirically…
Abstract
Purpose
Induction mentoring for early career teachers is a complex practice, requiring knowledge and skills distinct from teaching. However, more is known anecdotally than empirically about the challenges new mentors face and the type of support they need as they transition from teacher to induction mentor. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study investigated how nine first-year mentors developed, conceptualized and enacted their mentoring practice by asking, what supports/inhibits new mentors’ professional learning and practice? Are there patterns of struggle/challenge that new mentors face? Primary data sources included three 45–60-minute structured, individual interviews across each mentor’s first year. Data analysis was inductive, involving open and axial coding.
Findings
Mentors struggled to navigate multiple complex relationships with administrators, teachers and students. The quality of these relationships impacted their sense of efficacy and mentoring ability. Despite receiving what mentors perceived as effective professional development (PD), all mentors found it difficult to apply knowledge in practice. Mentors also experienced a steep and varied learning curve and identified supports that enhanced their knowledge and situated application of new teacher-centered mentoring.
Originality/value
Despite increases in mentoring programs, there is a lack of research addressing new mentors’ needs and development. This study makes a contribution by identifying new mentors’ needs and challenges and by providing recommendations for situated, responsive, and ongoing PD.
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Thomas Van Asch, Wouter Dewulf and Eddy Van de Voorde
Assessing air cargo strategy from an airport's perspective is relatively novel, and it seems little attention has been paid to this research area. This chapter will address this…
Abstract
Assessing air cargo strategy from an airport's perspective is relatively novel, and it seems little attention has been paid to this research area. This chapter will address this research gap by introducing an Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas, designed to help build cargo strategies for individual airports.
The Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas can be used as a tool to analyze and improve the air cargo strategy of an airport. The first part of this chapter will explain the different components of the Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas more in detail. The horizontal axis on the canvas differentiates between exogenous and endogenous drivers of airport competitiveness. The vertical axis distinguishes between the airport product and the airport market. The canvas also considers potential disruptors and principal shareholders' objectives. The different components of the canvas allow the analyst to dig into the main features and differentiators of respective airports. The canvas might also be helpful to structure and compare the strategic components and framework of their own or competitors' cargo strategies.
In the second part, the Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas was applied to Brussels Airport to analyze its cargo strategy. The canvas showed several strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in its current cargo strategy. The completed canvas will let Brussels Airport's executives explore and analyze the strategy of their main competitors and peers' strategy and help them identify potential gaps in their strategies.
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Rita A. Gardiner, Wendy Fox-Kirk and Syeda Tuba Javaid
This paper aims to examine the ways in which discourses of talent management (TM) reinforce and perpetuate structural barriers of exclusion and discrimination. The argument is…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the ways in which discourses of talent management (TM) reinforce and perpetuate structural barriers of exclusion and discrimination. The argument is made that dominant TM discourses must be interrogated if authentic talent development (ATD) practices are to succeed. This interrogation will require a shift from an organizational emphasis on talent identification towards ATD’s focus on talent cultivation.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual approach is used to critically analyse TM discourses to assess the degree to which they are inclusive. Building upon the work of Debebe (2017), an alternative ATD approach is suggested that, together with the novel concept of authentic otherness, may enable scholars and practitioners to reflect upon current organizational practices and devise new approaches that encourage talent cultivation in diverse employees. This, in turn, may foster a greater sense of organizational belonging.
Findings
Findings identify a number of ways in which organizational norms and structures are maintained and perpetuated through dominant, mainstream TM practices. This hinders ATD for many due to social ascription processes. By exploring the concept of “authentic otherness” (Gardiner, 2017), alongside Debebe’s (2017) approach to ATD, the argument is made that systemic inequities in the workplace may be addressed when we create conditions to support the cultivation of talent for all employees.
Originality/value
This paper builds on recent arguments in the critical TM literature concerning the exclusionary nature of mainstream TM practices in organizations. The concept of authentic otherness is clarified and defined with a view to using this new term as a heuristic device to encourage a reflective understanding of how ATD practices can be developed.
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This paper aims to examine how residues of ancient images have influenced one’s perspectives on management. Increased attention has been given to the absence of bodies within…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how residues of ancient images have influenced one’s perspectives on management. Increased attention has been given to the absence of bodies within discussions of organisations; however, far less attention has been given to the interplay between organisations and images of one’s body.
Design/methodology/approach
By comparing the perceived benefits of studying sport (e.g. passion, embodiment and action) with the tensions that existed between athletic performances and an ancient image of the body, this paper draws attention to residuals that exist within discussions of organisations.
Findings
In a context where an image of the body encouraged moderation, the appropriate levels of heat, and the development of an immaterial and eternal soul, athletic performances, which were physical, extreme, focused on the body and generated excessive heat, were often problematic. These problems are then examined within the literature discussing current issues in management.
Research limitations/implications
Sport has the potential to facilitate one’s understanding of issues that management, consistent with ancient images of the body, has traditionally neglected (i.e. extremes, passion) and the possibilities of using embodied cognition to enhance our understandings of performance, teams and leading are discussed.
Social implications
As scientists become increasingly concerned about the long-term consequences of the reduced opportunities for cultural programs (sport, art, music, etc.), revisiting one’s assumptions is increasingly important, especially as athletics and philosophy once shared the same physical space.
Originality/value
By describing how residues from historical images of the body have influenced the thinking about organizing, this paper highlights the connection between the social and the biological and demonstrates how vestiges from the past influence contemporary discussions.
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Elliroma Gardiner and Jonas Debrulle
Across two studies, the current research investigates whether individuals high in maverickism, which incorporates tendencies of creativity, risk-taking, goal-orientation and…
Abstract
Purpose
Across two studies, the current research investigates whether individuals high in maverickism, which incorporates tendencies of creativity, risk-taking, goal-orientation and disruption are likely to make poorer ethical decisions and whether political skill promotes or hinders good ethical judgment.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants completed an online questionnaire and an ethical dilemma.
Findings
Results with UK (Study 1, N = 300) and Australian workers (Study 2, N = 217) revealed that political skill significantly moderated the maverickism-unethical decision-making relationship. Unethical decision-making was highest for those high in maverickism and political skill.
Research limitations/implications
Results highlight that for individuals high in maverickism, political skill facilitates rather than reduces the breaching of ethical norms.
Practical implications
Results show that while political skill has traditionally been seen as adaptive in organizations, being politically skilled can contribute to engaging in unethical behavior.
Originality/value
This research provides a new and interesting view of how being politically skilled can negatively impact ethical behavior and identifies another individual difference variable, maverickism, which predicts unethical behavior.
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Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Rita A. Gardiner and Liza Howe-Walsh
Elliroma Gardiner and Chris J Jackson
Maverickism is the tendency of an individual to be socially competent, creative, goal focussed, risk-taking and disruptive. Previous research with the five-factor model (FFM…
Abstract
Purpose
Maverickism is the tendency of an individual to be socially competent, creative, goal focussed, risk-taking and disruptive. Previous research with the five-factor model (FFM) shows that individuals high in maverickism exhibit both functional and dysfunctional tendencies. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the descriptive FFM with the process-oriented hybrid model of learning in personality (HMLP), in the prediction of maverickism.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a cross-sectional design with 490 full-time workers the authors use the NEO-International Personality Item Pool and the Learning Styles Profiler to examine differences in the FFM and HMLP in the prediction of maverickism.
Findings
Results with the FFM, identify extraversion, openness and (low) agreeableness as significant predictors of maverickism. All factors of the HMLP (except conscientious learning) significantly predict maverickism. Hierarchal regression analysis shows that the HMLP accounts for an additional 21 percent of variance in maverickism over and above that of the FFM.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have tested and built theory by identifying not only what predicts maverickism, but also how the learning processes of the HMLP interrelate to predict maverickism.
Practical implications
Managers interested in developing the maverick potential of their employees will find this study useful because it identifies what to look for in maverick workers.
Social implications
Individuals high in maverickism have the potential for radical innovation. Understanding how to identify and develop these individuals may lead to larger societal benefits.
Originality/value
The authors are the first to use the HMLP to test maverickism. The research highlights the importance of both personality and learning processes in maverickism.
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