Search results

1 – 4 of 4
Article
Publication date: 1 August 2006

Monique de Wit, Mark Wade and Esther Schouten

This case study paper has the purpose of showing that both processes of hardwiring and soft wiring together is essential for embedding corporate responsibility across a global

2035

Abstract

Purpose

This case study paper has the purpose of showing that both processes of hardwiring and soft wiring together is essential for embedding corporate responsibility across a global organisation to achieve lasting change.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach taken in this paper is first to describe the experiences in the Shell Group in terms of tools and approaches. In Shell, governance and business processes are being aligned, “hardwired”, while communications, leadership development programmes and competency frameworks reach the “hearts and minds” of Shell people – “soft wiring”. Informal networks tap into the enthusiasm of people, developing intrinsic motivation. These experiences of Shell are then compared with the sense making model of Cramer et al.

Findings

The findings show a high level of alignment.

Practical implications

The practical implication of this finding is that hardwiring and softwiring processes appear to be a vital combination for changing the way business do things.

Originality/value

The value of this paper lies in making the business efforts of embedding corporate responsibility into business practice more effective by focussing on hardwiring and softwiring at the same time.

Details

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1983

Janice M. Bogstad

For many years, science fiction has been perceived as “rayguns and rocket ships” boys' literature. Any number of impressionistic and statistical studies have identified the…

Abstract

For many years, science fiction has been perceived as “rayguns and rocket ships” boys' literature. Any number of impressionistic and statistical studies have identified the typical SF reader as male, between the ages of twelve and twenty and, in the case of adults, employed in some technical field. Yet I continually find myself having conversations with women, only to find that they, like myself, began reading science fiction between the ages of six and ten, have been reading it voraciously ever since, and were often frustrated at the absence of satisfying female characters and the presence of misogynistic elements in what they read. The stereotype of the male reader and the generally male SF environment mask both the increasing presence of women writers in the field of science fiction and the existence of a feminist dialog within some SF novels. This dialog had its beginnings in the mid‐sixties and is still going strong. It is the hope of the feminist SF community that this effacement can be counteracted.

Details

Collection Building, vol. 5 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1967

AT the time of writing (Autumn 1966), those who are concerned with technical college libraries stand at a very interesting stage in the development of those services. I was…

Abstract

AT the time of writing (Autumn 1966), those who are concerned with technical college libraries stand at a very interesting stage in the development of those services. I was reminded of this fact the other day when I was lunching with one of the College Principals who had been concerned with the ATI Memorandum on College Libraries in 1937. (That, as you may know, was a very forward‐looking document and outlined objectives, not all of which have yet been attained.)

Details

New Library World, vol. 68 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Loyd S. Pettegrew

Health care organizational research should pay greater attention to the specific settings where health is practiced. An ethnographic account of humor, ritual and defiance is…

Abstract

Purpose

Health care organizational research should pay greater attention to the specific settings where health is practiced. An ethnographic account of humor, ritual and defiance is presented from 29 months spent in a private, concierge-type radiation oncology center. A thick description of the setting and interaction among center staff and patients is offered in an attempt to establish why qualitative research of health care settings is so important. Findings are compared to Ellingson’s work on health care setting. Humor, ritual and defiance have therapeutic value and deserve greater attention in cancer treatment centers and health care organizations more broadly. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

An ethnographic account of humor, ritual and defiance is presented from 29 months spent in a private, concierge-type radiation oncology center through thick description.

Findings

This study reinforces the literature on the value of institutionalizing humor and ritual to improve patients’ experience in cancer care given the dominance of large public institutions, most easily accessed by academic researchers. Suncoast Coast Radiation Center’s “institutionalized humor” is an important finding that should be examine further. Scholarship can also illuminate the use of ritual in settings where health care is practiced.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to a particular research setting which is a private, concierge care radiation oncology treatment center in the Southeastern USA.

Practical implications

Cancer care centers should consider carefully institutionalizing humor and ritual into their daily practices. Further, patient defiance should be reinterpreted not as a patient deficiency but as a therapeutic coping mechanism by patients.

Social implications

While nearly half of cancer care in the USA is offered in private, for-profit institutions, the vast majority of the understanding of cancer care comes only from non-profit and government-run institutions. Shining a light of these neglected cancer care settings will add to the understanding and the ability to improve the care offered to patients.

Originality/value

This is the first health ethnography in a concierge care, cancer care treatment setting. It tests the proposition that humor, ritual and defiance play an important role in a private concierge cancer care organization.

Details

Journal of Organizational Ethnography, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-6749

Keywords

Access

Year

Content type

Article (4)
1 – 4 of 4