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1 – 10 of 14Monica Trezise and Michael J. Richardson
As Australians experience more fierce and frequent natural disasters, there are urgent calls for businesses to meaningfully respond to climate change. Australian financial and…
Abstract
Purpose
As Australians experience more fierce and frequent natural disasters, there are urgent calls for businesses to meaningfully respond to climate change. Australian financial and professional services employees occupy an ambiguous space as climate mitigation measures have different economic implications for their clients. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Australian professionals experience climate change and respond to the issue within their workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed methods study applies a systems thinking framework to investigate: how do professionals’ experiences of the issue of climate change and the workplace influence their cognitions, emotions and behaviour? And in particular, what psychosocial antecedents precede voicing climate concern?
Findings
Firstly, a survey of professionals (N = 206) found social norms, perceived behavioural control and biospheric values, but not attitudes, significantly predicted prohibitive green voice. Middle managers were significantly likely to voice climate concern, whereas senior managers were significantly likely to express climate scepticism. Ten professionals were then interviewed to gain a contextualised understanding of these trends. Interpretive phenomenological analysis identified five interrelated themes: (1) active identity management, (2) understanding climate change is escalating, (3) workplace shapes climate change response, (4) frustration and alienation and (5) belief that corporations prioritise profit.
Originality/value
Findings are discussed in relation to how employees may both embody and adapt their organisations. These results have implications for understandings of workplace meaningfulness and organisational risk governance.
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McKinsey partners, Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field are championing the premise that the need for a fundamental rethink of the role of middle management in today’s…
Abstract
Purpose
McKinsey partners, Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field are championing the premise that the need for a fundamental rethink of the role of middle management in today’s organizations is now more urgent than ever.
Design/methodology/approach
So what should the new blueprint be for middle management as the crucial link between the executive level and the front line S&L interviewer Prof Brian Leavy asks the authors of Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work.
Findings
Companies with top quartile management practices can have more than three times the return to shareholders than other companies.
Practical implications
Because of middle managers’ proximity to the front line, they have a helpful, realistic perspective on how new tools like generative AI should be adopted throughout the organization.
Originality/value
The authors found that middle managers deliver the most value to the organization when they can serve as coaches, connectors, talent managers and strategists. For senior leaders to truly put middle managers at the forefront, they must give managers space to grow and the license to manage in a way that works for them and their team.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of positive autoethnography for the consequences of conversion therapy. Life after conversion therapy is, for many, a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of positive autoethnography for the consequences of conversion therapy. Life after conversion therapy is, for many, a life-changing episode, especially when combined with disfellowship. In recent years, positive autoethnography has grown substantially. The work of Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004), from the school of positive psychology, focuses on posttraumatic growth following a traumatic event or series of events.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative approach of positive autoethnography.
Findings
This innovative case study highlights personal struggles with grief, depression and suicidal ideation. In addition, the time elapsed has enabled a process to juggle with alternative ideas moving forward in salvaging a form of identity.
Research limitations/implications
Treatment as usual psychological therapies (TAUPT) provide many unhelpful triggers due to the same jargon used in both conversion therapy and TAUPT. Away from TAUPT, this writing exercise may help as a stand-alone post-conversion recovery process.
Practical implications
The post-conversion recovery process will offer much-needed help with only a few face-to-face meetings to aid the posttraumatic growth writing exercise.
Social implications
The suicide rates for sexual minority conversion therapy victims are eight times higher than those of other sexual minority groups and isolation levels. A single point of entry pathway for conversion therapy survivors is needed.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, the first of its kind to apply positive autoethnography using the model as a framework to understand the post-conversion therapy experience, looks for growth in five areas: relating to others, new possibilities, personal strength, spiritual change and appreciation of life.
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High-tech start-up creation is associated with complex challenges originating from quick transformations in technologies and markets. To raise start-up survival and success…
Abstract
Purpose
High-tech start-up creation is associated with complex challenges originating from quick transformations in technologies and markets. To raise start-up survival and success chances, founders need to ensure a rapid conversion of a venture idea into a working business. This paper aims to explore how identity-related characteristics of founders influence the speed of the start-up creation process.
Design/methodology/approach
For this study, a longitudinal multiple-case-study design was selected to identify a vivid flow of decisions and actions taken by high-tech start-ups for analysis in depth. Over 20 months, a series of interviews were organized with founders of six start-ups located in the same business incubator in Russia. Also, a set of additional data sources was engaged, including publicly available data and internal documents provided by businesses.
Findings
The findings reveal contrasting dynamics of start-up creation processes among founders with differing role identities. Identity fit and identity misfit are suggested to be serious pull and push factors in the process of organizational becoming through the impact they have on the situational regulatory focus of founders.
Originality/value
The current research contributes to the entrepreneurship stream of research by extending the knowledge of how cognition affects the process of new venture creation.
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Rebecca Rogers, Martille Elias, LaTisha Smith and Melinda Scheetz
This paper shares findings from a multi-year literacy professional development partnership between a school district and university (2014–2019). We share this case of a Literacy…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper shares findings from a multi-year literacy professional development partnership between a school district and university (2014–2019). We share this case of a Literacy Cohort initiative as an example of cross-institutional professional development situated within several of NAPDS’ nine essentials, including professional learning and leading, boundary-spanning roles and reflection and innovation (NAPDS, 2021).
Design/methodology/approach
We asked, “In what ways did the Cohort initiative create conditions for community and collaboration in the service of meaningful literacy reforms?” Drawing on social design methodology (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2010), we sought to generate and examine the educational change associated with this multi-year initiative. Our data set included programmatic data, interviews (N = 30) and artifacts of literacy teaching, learning and leading.
Findings
Our findings reflect the emphasis areas that are important to educators in the partnership: diversity by design, building relationships through collaboration and rooting literacy reforms in teacher leadership. Our discussion explores threads of reciprocity, simultaneous renewal and boundary-spanning leadership and their role in sustaining partnerships over time.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to our understanding of building and sustaining a cohort model of multi-year professional development through the voices, perspectives and experiences of teachers, faculty and district administrators.
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Eloise Labaz, Julie Nichols, Rebecca Agius and Quenten Agius
This chapter explores the Aboriginal artefacts ‘clapsticks’ as a form of cultural data – a means of disseminating cultural knowledge in the galleries, libraries, archives, and…
Abstract
This chapter explores the Aboriginal artefacts ‘clapsticks’ as a form of cultural data – a means of disseminating cultural knowledge in the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] sector. How might alternative methods of curation animate clapsticks as active objects that deliver effective knowledge transfer? This research aims to explore and extend current industry practices of the curation of clapsticks, within the existing parameters of technology, spatial capacity, financial support, and governance as part of the operation of the GLAM sector. The research problem, therefore, explores the past limitations of colonial framing of cultural institutions that once hindered the revealing, the disseminating, and the ‘awakening’ of the complexities of knowledge intrinsic to Aboriginal cultural artefacts. Informal communication with Aboriginal community members and academics was critical to providing cultural context as well as personal beliefs and aspirations vital to conceptualising the future of cultural representation. This investigation explores how a cultural centre offers a space and an opportunity to facilitate the clapsticks datasets in its capacity as a performance-focussed building rather than solely an exhibition space or keeping place. This potential represents a shift in thinking around the clapsticks being a lens through which the stories of Aboriginal culture can be disseminated.
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The millennia long struggles of various oppressed groups have over time illuminated widespread social injustices, organically leading to the recognition of yet further injustices…
Abstract
Purpose
The millennia long struggles of various oppressed groups have over time illuminated widespread social injustices, organically leading to the recognition of yet further injustices captured by the umbrella of discriminatory isms, such as racism, sexism, classism, ableism, anti-Semitism, ageism, heterosexism and many others. In recent years, the debate has become increasingly fierce, polarized and even physically violent.
Design/methodology/approach
One of the premises of the present work is that in part, the aforementioned unconstructive behaviors are a result of the different understandings of what constitutes an ism and the lack of a thoughtful consideration of this issue in the mainstream social debate as much as in the academic literature.
Findings
The author presents evidence for this and critiques the dominant lines of thought in this realm, showing all the dominant lines of thought to fall short of both the fundamental philosophical as well practical desiderata in how isms ought to be understood.
Originality/value
The author proposes an alternative which does not suffer from the weakness of the existing one: one based on the denial of equivalence of sentience. The author shows how the adoption of this understanding leads to constructive ways of addressing isms effected injustice.
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Luuk Mandemakers, Eva Jaspers and Tanja van der Lippe
Employees facing challenges in their careers – i.e. female, migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees – might expect job searches to have a low likelihood of success and might…
Abstract
Purpose
Employees facing challenges in their careers – i.e. female, migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees – might expect job searches to have a low likelihood of success and might therefore more often stay in unsatisfactory positions. The goal of this study is to discover inequalities in job mobility for these employees.
Design/methodology/approach
We rely on a large sample of Dutch public sector employees (N = 30,709) and study whether employees with challenges in their careers are hampered in translating job dissatisfaction into job searches. Additionally, we assess whether this is due to their perceptions of labor market alternatives.
Findings
Findings show that non-Western migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees are less likely to act on job dissatisfaction than their advantaged counterparts, whereas women are more likely than men to do so. Additionally, we find that although they perceive labor market opportunities as limited, this does not affect their propensity to search for different jobs.
Originality/value
This paper is novel in discovering inequalities in job mobility by analyzing whether employees facing challenges in their careers are less likely to act on job dissatisfaction and therefore more likely to remain in unsatisfactory positions.
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