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1 – 10 of over 88000
Article
Publication date: 23 July 2018

Roland Yeo and Sue Dopson

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of practical insider and theoretical outsider. The duality helps the researcher to live “in” and think “out” of the research context to develop a theory for practice and then transpose it to a practice for theory through the collaboration of an external theoretical insider.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a theoretical account of the reflexive experience of the practitioner reintroducing relational ethnography, where the researcher regards processes and spaces as the objects of analysis rather than bounded groups and places. It emphasizes the relational significance of the researcher, researched, and theoretical insider in exploring the structures of relations and meanings in the field of professional practice.

Findings

The paper argues that understanding the complementariness and paradoxes of the dual role helps the researcher to identify knowledge gaps and contest commonsense knowledge in search of critical knowledge and theoretical insights. The transition between the bounded (restrained) and unbounded (unrestrained) selves occurs in the holding space of research, influencing the position from which the researcher views himself, his subjects, and his social world.

Originality/value

The paper extends the dimension of ethnographic research, which de-centers the authority and control of the researcher to that of the relationship between the researcher and informants, by focusing on the relational significance between the researcher, researched, and theoretical insider. This perspective gives rise to a deeper understanding of relational ethnography, seen largely in sociological research, as relevant to organizational research, where structures of relations and actions explored in real time could account for the configuration, conflict, and coordination of work practices.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 June 2013

Rajashi Ghosh, Ray K. Haynes and Kathy E. Kram

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate how an adult development perspective can further the understanding of developmental networks as holding environments for developing…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate how an adult development perspective can further the understanding of developmental networks as holding environments for developing leaders confronted with challenging experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

The article utilizes constructive developmental theory (C‐D theory) to explore and address the implications of an adult development lens for leader development, especially as they confront complex leadership challenges that trigger anxiety.

Findings

Theoretical propositions suggest different kinds of holding behaviors (e.g. confirmation, contradiction, and continuity) necessary for enabling growth and effectiveness for leaders located in different developmental orders.

Research limitations/implications

Propositions offered can guide future researchers to explore how leaders confronted with different kinds of leadership challenges sustain responsive developmental networks over time and how the developers in the leader's network coordinate to provide confirmation, contradiction, and continuity needed for leader development.

Practical implications

Leaders and their developers should reflect on how developmental orders may determine which types of holding behaviors are necessary for producing leader effectiveness amidst challenging leadership experiences. Organizations should provide assessment centers and appropriate training and development interventions to facilitate this reflection.

Social implications

This paper demonstrates the important role that developmental relationships play in leadership effectiveness and growth over time. Individuals and organizations are urged to attend to the quality and availability of high quality developmental relationships for purposes of continuous learning and development.

Originality/value

This article re‐conceptualizes developmental networks as holding environments that can enable leader's growth as an adult and, hence, increase their effectiveness as leaders amidst complex leadership challenges.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2015

Antonio C. Caputo, Pacifico M. Pelagagge and Paolo Salini

The purpose of this paper is to develop analytical planning models to compare just-in-time (JIT) delivery and line storage (LS) alternatives for a continuous supply of materials…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop analytical planning models to compare just-in-time (JIT) delivery and line storage (LS) alternatives for a continuous supply of materials to assembly lines.

Design/methodology/approach

A mathematical model is developed to size resources and to determine total system costs.

Findings

The choice of assembly lines feeding policy requires a thorough economic comparison of alternatives. However, the existing models are often simplistic, neglecting many critical factors which affect the systems’ performances. As a consequence, industries are unsure about which system is best for their environment. This model allows to compare the cost and suitability of two major continuous-supply alternatives in any specific industrial setting. Results of the model application are case-specific and cannot be generalized.

Research limitations/implications

The model is aimed at single-model assembly lines operating in a deterministic environment. Although relevant quantitative cost drivers are included, some context-related qualitative factors are not yet included. The model assumes that the information about product structure and part requirements is known and that a preliminary design of the assembly system has been carried out.

Practical implications

Production managers are given a quantitative decision tool to properly assess the implementation of continuous material supply policies at an early decision stage, and determine which option is the best, also allowing to explore trade-offs between the alternatives.

Originality/value

With respect to previous simplified literature models, this new approach allows to quantify a number of additional factors which are critical for the successful implementation of cost-effective continuous-supply systems, including error costs. No other direct comparison of LS and JIT is available in the literature.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 August 2016

Raina Elise Fox

In this paper, I apply the discourse of transitional justice to the case study of survivor docents at the Japanese American National Museum, a site that has come to represent and…

Abstract

In this paper, I apply the discourse of transitional justice to the case study of survivor docents at the Japanese American National Museum, a site that has come to represent and serve as a form of reparation for the traumatic memory of Japanese American internment during World War II. As a longer term supplement to trials or Truth and Reconciliation Commissions or an alternative in cases where no such structures exist, I illustrate how the museum tour becomes an empowering platform for survivors of the American Internment camps to work through and instrumentalize traumatic memories within the dialogic museum sphere, even as this alternative space forms its own new silences. Thus, by applying the very theories and criticisms through which scholars of memory politics evaluate official platforms of transitional justice, I aim to complicate and evaluate this alternative form of testimony, and in so doing explore areas of growth in the fields of both transitional justice and museum practice. Bridging the gap between testimony, oral history, and museum interpretation, survivor docents represent a sustained dialogic approach to history that perpetuates, preserves, and activates – rather than resolves – discourse around contentious memories.

Details

Narratives of Identity in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-078-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 August 2022

Lesley Millar

According to the critic Tom Lubbock, ‘Cloth is the universal free element. It doesn't have to explain itself. It performs’ (Lubbock, 2002). Cloth drapes and folds, becoming a…

Abstract

According to the critic Tom Lubbock, ‘Cloth is the universal free element. It doesn't have to explain itself. It performs’ (Lubbock, 2002). Cloth drapes and folds, becoming a membrane separating what is outside from what is inside. In this chapter, I draw on the writings of de Certeau, Rendell, Tschumi, etc. to develop ideas concerning the ways in which the use and understanding of textiles may move our perceptions of the boundaries of space, and the location of place. I argue that cloth may contain the identity of place, and that lace and lace net-works provide a starting point for the exploration of fluid space as described by Isozaki, Ishigami, etc. 1 I also discuss those structures/mise-en-scène which frame our awareness and interpretation of place and space. Examples of work drawn from art, cinema and architecture are used to illuminate those ideas which question the materiality and purpose of form and enclosure.

Details

Moving Spaces and Places
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-226-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 October 2021

Kelly Mack, Claudia Rankins, Patrice McDermott and Orlando Taylor

More than 10 years after its founding, the STEM Women of Color Conclave® has emerged as the largest safe brave space in the United States for women faculty of color in the…

Abstract

More than 10 years after its founding, the STEM Women of Color Conclave® has emerged as the largest safe brave space in the United States for women faculty of color in the academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Originally intended to be a national assembly, the Conclave® has evolved into a safe brave space that serves as a refuge for STEM women faculty of color who are regularly taxed with the struggle of having to navigate the unwelcoming, and often hostile, environments of the ivory tower in very unique ways. This chapter narrates how the Conclave's founding members journeyed toward creating and sustaining this safe brave space. The reader is awakened to deeper awareness of and sensitivities for the ways in which safe brave spaces must address both the complexities related to struggle – and liberation from that struggle – for both occupiers and observers of safe brave spaces. However, just as the quantum observer can disturb the system just by observing it and, ultimately, change or even nullify the results, we recognize that merely observing the Conclave® would nullify its intended purpose and, in the end, render it unsafe. Therefore, the reader can anticipate an absence of direct observations, reports of outcomes, or specific accounts of progress related to the occupiers of our safe brave space. Rather, the chapter offers an invitation to the reader to explore the authors' lived experiences as occupiers who designed a safe brave space. We invite the reader, particularly those who are also observers of safe brave spaces, to join us in protecting these valuable spaces.

Article
Publication date: 18 October 2021

Michael Clark, Andy Bradley, Laura Simms, Benna Waites, Alister Scott, Charlie Jones, Paul Dodd, Tom Howell and Giles Tinsley

This paper aims to discuss the importance of compassion in health care and experiences of Compassion Circles (CCs) in supporting it, placing this into the national policy context…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the importance of compassion in health care and experiences of Compassion Circles (CCs) in supporting it, placing this into the national policy context of the National Health Service (NHS), whilst focusing on lessons from using the practice in mental health care.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper is a discussion of the context of compassion in health care and a description of model and related concepts of CCs. This paper also discusses lessons from implementation of CCs in mental health care.

Findings

CCs were developed from an initial broad concern with the place of compassion and well-being in communities and organisations, particularly in health and social care after a number of scandals about failures of care. Through experience CCs have been refined into a flexible model of supporting staff in mental health care settings. Experience to date suggests they are a valuable method of increasing compassion for self and others, improving relationships between team members and raising issues of organisational support to enable compassionate practice.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is a discussion of CCs and their conceptual underpinnings and of insights and lessons from their adoption to date, and more robust evaluation is required.

Practical implications

As an emergent area of practice CCs have been seen to present a powerful and practical approach to supporting individual members of staff and teams. Organisations and individuals might wish to join the community of practice that exists around CCs to consider the potential of this intervention in their workplaces and add to the growing body of learning about it. It is worth further investigation to examine the impact of CCs on current concerns with maintaining staff well-being and engagement, and, hence, on stress, absence and the sustainability of work environments over time.

Social implications

CCs present a promising means of developing a culture and practice of more compassion in mental health care and other care contexts.

Originality/value

CCs have become supported in national NHS guidance and more support to adopt, evaluate and learn from this model is warranted. This paper is a contribution to developing a better understanding of the CCs model, implementation lessons and early insights into impact.

Details

The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-6228

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 August 2023

Keri Cheechoo

This chapter frames the educational journey of an Iskwew, or Cree woman who has navigated the different spaces of settler education, sometimes reluctantly and sometimes eagerly…

Abstract

This chapter frames the educational journey of an Iskwew, or Cree woman who has navigated the different spaces of settler education, sometimes reluctantly and sometimes eagerly. The author engages the usage of her Cree Nisgaa Methodological Framework that is framed by protocol, mamatowisin, or engaging inner mindfulness, and reciprocity. The author makes and holds space for readers to journey with her, offering an opportunity to bear witness to the experiences of First Nation (Indigenous) education, from her positionality as a Cree woman. The author engages, embodies, and enacts ethical relationality throughout the chapter as it is her pedagogical hope that this chapter contributes to a collective space where Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships can be forged with respect, relevance, relationality, and reciprocity on behalf of students everywhere.

Details

Approaches to Teaching and Teacher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-467-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2019

Roland K. Yeo

The paper aims to discuss the transformation of a multinational organization, Global Co, through the deployment of an operational excellence system at a time of turbulence and…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to discuss the transformation of a multinational organization, Global Co, through the deployment of an operational excellence system at a time of turbulence and complexity. It illuminates the opportunities and challenges of implementing the system from the perspective of learning and change.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study method was utilized in the research based on a four-year longitudinal study. Formal and informal interviews, unobtrusive observations and archival records formed the core of the data collection that led to key insights reported in this paper.

Findings

A structured approach to managing work processes is essential for ensuring efficiency and reliability in work output. Performance improvement is sustained by operational discipline that strives for consistency in daily work practices. Organizations develop self-healing mechanisms to help address work-related gaps and issues, turning constraints into enablers for improvement.

Originality/value

The paper provides a wider dimension of organizational performance from the learning and change perspective. It considers organizations as organisms with self-healing properties supported by operational discipline. It redefines the impact of operational excellence through organizational significance.

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2007

Veronika Ilsjan

The purpose of this paper is to identify the development trends of corporate real estate management (CREM) in Estonia and to compare them with more developed western countries in…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the development trends of corporate real estate management (CREM) in Estonia and to compare them with more developed western countries in order to define the actual problems.

Design/methodology/approach

An explorative survey with direct interviews among the 17 largest organisations in a certain sector (four banks, five infrastructure companies, five universities, three municipalities).

Findings

In some fields Estonia recovered from the lost experience stages quickly (organisational structure and outsourcing), while in other fields it has not yet recovered (disposal of owned properties), but in several aspects the problems are similar to western countries (information issues). No differences are found between the public and private sectors or between larger and smaller organisations. The smallness could be regarded as an advantage at the organisational and state levels since it allows for better communication, but requires more flexibility. Strategies and tools justified in more developed markets and in larger organisations could limit development in a smaller environment and therefore, should not be transferred automatically.

Research limitations/implications

The office sector was selected for a comprehensive but comparable overview for several reasons.

Originality/value

Practically no CREM research has been conducted in either Estonia or any other Eastern European country. Estonia lost about half a century's experience of the open market environment during the Soviet period (1945‐1990), when there was no private ownership of enterprises and properties. Since the second‐half of the 1990s the economy, and especially the property market in Estonia have risen rapidly. Estonia could be handled as a representative example (case) to explore CREM development in countries with a similar history.

Details

Journal of Corporate Real Estate, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-001X

Keywords

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