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1 – 10 of 16
Article
Publication date: 21 August 2017

John Hassard, Paula Hyde, Julie Wolfram Cox, Edward Granter and Leo McCann

The purpose of this paper is to describe a hybrid approach to the research developed during a multi-researcher, ethnographic study of NHS management in the UK.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe a hybrid approach to the research developed during a multi-researcher, ethnographic study of NHS management in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

This methodological paper elaborates a hybrid approach to the sociological analysis – the critical-action theory – and indicates how it can contribute to the critical health management studies.

Findings

After exploring the various theoretical, methodological and philosophical options available, the paper discusses the main research issues that influenced the development of this perspective and the process by which the critical-action perspective was applied to the studies of managerial work in four health service sectors – acute hospitals, ambulance services, community services and mental healthcare.

Research limitations/implications

This methodological perspective enabled a critical analysis of health service organisation that considered macro, meso and micro effects, in particular and in this case, how new public management drained power from clinicians through managerialist discourses and practices.

Practical implications

Healthcare organisations are often responding to the decisions that lie outside of their control and may have to enact changes that make little sense locally. In order to make sense of these effects, micro-, meso- and macro-level analyses are necessary.

Originality/value

The critical-action perspective is presented as an adjunct to traditional approaches that have been taken to the study of health service organisation and delivery.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2021

Saima Ahmad, Talat Islam, Amrik Singh Sohal, Julie Wolfram Cox and Ahmad Kaleem

This paper develops and tests a model for managing workplace bullying by integrating employee perceived servant leadership, resilience and proactive personality. Specifically…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper develops and tests a model for managing workplace bullying by integrating employee perceived servant leadership, resilience and proactive personality. Specifically, this paper explores servant leadership as an inhibitive factor for workplace bullying, both directly and indirectly in the presence of employee resilience as a mediator. It further explores whether proactive personality moderates the indirect relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an empirical study based on analysis of survey data collected from 408 employees working in services and manufacturing sector organisations in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model.

Findings

Structural equation modelling results support the proposition that servant leadership helps in discouraging workplace bullying, both directly and indirectly, in the presence of employee resilience as a mediator. However, employee proactive personality moderates this process, such that the association between resilience and workplace bullying is stronger for individuals with high proactive personality.

Research limitations/implications

This study's findings illuminate the strong potential of servant leadership for managing workplace bullying. This potential is attributed to positive role modelling in the workplace, which may assist in building followers' resilience. This study provides evidence to support the importance of leadership in the process by which employees develop better psychological resources to combat bullying at work.

Originality/value

This is the first study that examines the direct relationship between servant leadership and bullying at work. In addition, this study introduced the mediating effect of resilience and the moderating effect of proactive personality on this relationship.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 50 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2020

Saima Ahmad, Amrik Singh Sohal and Julie Wolfram Cox

While research on the influence of ethical and unethical behaviour on employee well-being abound, we still know little of how well-being is shaped under the dual positive and…

2659

Abstract

Purpose

While research on the influence of ethical and unethical behaviour on employee well-being abound, we still know little of how well-being is shaped under the dual positive and negative behavioural influences in the workplace. To address this limitation, this paper aims to investigate the relative effects of ethical behaviour of leadership and unethical bullying behaviour on employee well-being through the application of the conservation of resources theory.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was conducted in the context of Pakistan by seeking views of 330 employees in academic work settings.

Findings

The data analysis revealed that occurrence of unethical behaviour plays a more potent role than ethical behaviour in shaping employee well-being. These findings lend support to the conservation of resources theoretical perspective by reiterating the salience of resource loss over resource gain in shaping employee well-being.

Originality/value

This study offers a new insight into the management literature by highlighting that combating workplace bullying not only conserves employee well-being, but also allows organisations to capitalise more fully on the positive process enabled by leadership.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2023

Brian Cooper, Tracey Shea, Julie W. Cox, Naomi Stead and Jonathan Robberts

This study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for human resource management (HRM).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analysed a survey of 1,619 employees working in architectural practice and allied fields in Australia in 2020.

Findings

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors asked whether workers would be more adaptable to change during COVID-19 if they were able to draw on a combination or bundle of supports, known as resource caravans. Hierarchical multiple regression and relative importance analysis showed that confidence in personal support networks during the pandemic was the most important predictor assisting workers to adapt to change, followed by concrete (practical, technical) organizational support for remote work. No evidence was found to corroborate this study's hypotheses that these resources provide support in bundles, challenging the notion of resource caravans in this research context.

Originality/value

The authors argue that COR theory has been too broadly applied to the workplace and that boundary conditions should apply to its emphasis on resource caravans. In practical terms, HRM supports to promote employee adaptability should be carefully targeted in extreme circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2004

Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox

This paper is concerned with how employees talk about their experiences of organizational change and focuses specifically on the construction of conversion stories. These are…

4298

Abstract

This paper is concerned with how employees talk about their experiences of organizational change and focuses specifically on the construction of conversion stories. These are particularly positive narratives that consider change as a turning point in which individuals depart from an old way of life pre‐change to embrace a post‐change organization. In this study, employees seek conversion into management groups and report the values and philosophies of management in their narratives, thus highlighting the benefits of change while suppressing any negative aspects. This paper draws attention to the dramatic nature of the conversion story and explores the sharp distinction between the reporting of experiences prior to and after change. We also investigate the relationship between constructing conversion stories and gaining personal and career advancement at work and suggest that beneath the positive exterior of the conversion narratives lies a theme of silence, which may be related to career advancement. Our findings suggest that such stories of silence complicate the conversion story as an example of positive organizational change and discuss implications for both the theory and practice of narrative change research.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2001

Julie Wolfram Cox

As part of a retrospective study of effects of organizational change on interpersonal relations, this paper discusses change talk among Australian employees of an American…

1642

Abstract

As part of a retrospective study of effects of organizational change on interpersonal relations, this paper discusses change talk among Australian employees of an American multinational manufacturing enterprise. Interviewees tended to feel pushed into change, discussing its effects in terms of the difficulties of adolescence and earlier experiences of sudden independence. Over time, what had been a simple and firm us and them division in intergroup relations between management and unions/workers had become more fluid and subtle, and perhaps more mature. Interview data are interpreted and then re‐interpreted in terms of theories of team development, nostalgia, and paternalism. It is argued that each interpretation makes differing, but complementary, assumptions about the nature of time. If developmental, progressive assumptions of organizational change are relaxed, further attention can be given to theorizing and researching subtleties in talk of the past.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2004

Julie Wolfram Cox and Stella Minahan

Presents a gendered interpretation of reports of protests in 2000‐2002 among asylum seekers held at Australia's recently closed Woomera Detention Centre, discussing instances of…

1042

Abstract

Presents a gendered interpretation of reports of protests in 2000‐2002 among asylum seekers held at Australia's recently closed Woomera Detention Centre, discussing instances of lip sewing that evoked strong reaction from the Australian Government, people and press. Suggests that an Irigarayan gendered reading of lip sewing assists in understanding these examples of self‐harm, supplementing feminist readings of craft, and calling attention to local enactments of gender in both refugee studies and in organizational development and change.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

John Hassard and Julie Wolfram Cox

The premise for this volume is that there is “a need to develop a Handbook that takes scholars and practitioners through the paradigm change going on in the field of management…

Abstract

The premise for this volume is that there is “a need to develop a Handbook that takes scholars and practitioners through the paradigm change going on in the field of management and organizational inquiry.” In their invitation to contributors, the editors suggested we should comment on this transition and inform readers of theoretical and philosophical changes that have occurred in recent times. In this chapter, we attempt to do this by revisiting the influential concept of paradigm from the philosophy of science (Kuhn, 1962, 1970) and explore its relation to recent contributions to postmodern social theory in organizational analysis. In particular, the influential paradigm model of Burrell and Morgan (1979) is revisited through meta-theoretical analysis of the major intellectual movement to emerge in organization theory in recent decades, post-structuralism and more broadly postmodernism. Proposing a retrospective paradigm for this movement we suggest that its research can be characterized as ontologically relativist, epistemologically relationist, and methodologically reflexive; this also represents research that can be termed deconstructionist in its view of human nature. Consequently we demonstrate not only that organizational knowledge stands on meta-theoretical grounds, but also how recent intellectual developments rest on a qualitatively different set of meta-theoretical assumptions than established traditions of agency and structure.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Management and Organization Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-552-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2003

Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox

This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia…

2048

Abstract

This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia. Within their narratives, participants discuss various forms of workplace violence aimed at employees by management and, in some cases, other employees. In addition, shifting narratives from violence to resignation are explored. As all participants are no longer employed in the organizations described in the narratives, causal associations between workplace violence and resignation choices are of particular interest. In this context, atrocity narratives are presented in a deliberate effort to extend the theorizing of organizational change into domains that are neither attractive nor progressive.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 16 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Management and Organization Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-552-8

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