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Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

Prabash Aminda Edirisingha, Shelagh Ferguson and Rob Aitken

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which deepens our understanding of identity negotiation and formation in a collectivistic Asian context. Drawing…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which deepens our understanding of identity negotiation and formation in a collectivistic Asian context. Drawing from a three-year, multi-method ethnographic research process, the authors explore how contemporary Asian consumers construct, negotiate and enact family identity through meal consumption. The authors particularly focus on the ways in which Asian consumers negotiate values, norms and practices associated with filial piety during new family formation. Building on the influential framework of layered family identity proposed by Epp and Price (2008), the authors seek to develop a framework which enables us to better understand how Asian consumers construct and enact their family identity through mundane consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

As most of the identity negotiation in the domestic sphere takes place within the mundanity of everyday life, such as during the routines, rituals and conventions of “ordinary” family meals, the authors adopted an interpretive, hermeneutic and longitudinal ethnographic research approach, which drew from a purposive sample of nine Sri Lankan couples.

Findings

The authors present the finding in three vivid narrative exemplars of new family identity negotiation and discuss three processes which informants negotiated the layered family identity. First, Asian families negotiate family identity by re-formulating aspects of their relational identity bundles. Second, re-negotiating facets of individual identity facilitates construction of family identity. Finally, re-configuring aspects of collective family identity, especially in relation to the extended family is important to family identity in this research context. The authors also propose filial piety as a fundamental construct of Asian family identity and highlight the importance of collective layer over individual and relational family identity layers.

Research limitations/implications

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which deepens our understanding of identity negotiation and formation in a collectivistic Asian context. Even though exploring Sinhalese, Sri Lankan culture sheds light on understanding identity and consumption in other similar Asian cultures, such as Indian, Chinese and Korean; this paper does not suggest generalisability of findings to similar research contexts. On the contrary, the findings aim to present an in-depth discussion of how identities are challenged, negotiated and re-formulated during new family formation around specific consumption behaviours associated with filial piety in a collectivistic extended family.

Social implications

As this research explores tightly knit relationships in extended families and how these families negotiate values, norms and practices associated with filial piety, it enables us to understand the complex ways in which Asian families negotiate identity. The proposed framework could be useful to explore how changing social dynamics challenge the traditional sense of family in these collectivistic cultures and how they affect family happiness and well-being. Such insight is useful for public policymakers and social marketers when addressing family dissatisfaction–based social issues in Asia, such as increasing rates of suicide, divorce, child abuse, prostitution and sexually transmitted disease.

Originality/value

Little is known about the complex ways in which Asian family identities are negotiated in contrast to Western theoretical models on this topic. Particularly, we need to understand how fundamental aspects of Asian family identity, such as filial piety, are continuously re-negotiated, manifested and perpetuated during everyday life and how formulations of Asian family identity may be different from its predominantly Western conceptualisations. Therefore, the paper provides an adaptation to the current layered family identity model and proposes filial piety as a fundamental construct driving Asian family identity.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 September 2013

Alma Whiteley, Christine Price and Rod Palmer

The purpose of this paper is to present adaptive culture structuration, a new approach for theorizing and analyzing culture change and for creating an “adaptive cultural…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present adaptive culture structuration, a new approach for theorizing and analyzing culture change and for creating an “adaptive cultural structurated learning environment”.

Design/methodology/approach

Incorporating a case study in the financial sector the paper explores 12 employees' narrated accounts of living through a culture change initiative. A constructivist, interpretive, qualitative research study followed grounded theory principles. Organizational documentation provided secondary data. Semi structured interview data were analyzed using content analysis, constant comparison and theoretical sensitivity and were managed by ATLAS.ti software.

Findings

Three themes emerged: respondents' investment of self, accepting the culture change initiative and its values; employees' epistemic analyses of the embedded value promises including experiencing a critical incident that interrupted managers' enactment of values; employees' resulting “received practice” which represented the enacted (versus the espoused) values and was not visible to managers.

Practical implications

An adaptive culture structurated learning environment fosters a relationship of “negotiated practice” instead of “received practice” between managers and employees in the constitution of corporate culture change. In this space, employee interpretations and assessments, which may otherwise remain hidden from managers and thereby prevent workplace learning opportunities, can be drawn upon, shared meaning co-produced and psychological contract issues explained.

Originality/value

While much has been written on espoused culture change, this is the first theoretical model to examine the process from an employee perspective through an adaptive culture structurated lens.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 25 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 February 2019

Hamid Abdirad and Carrie S. Dossick

The purpose of this paper is to clarify that while integrated project delivery (IPD) methods can be momenta for restructuring architectural practice, they do not predetermine…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify that while integrated project delivery (IPD) methods can be momenta for restructuring architectural practice, they do not predetermine specific patterns of restructuration for the roles, responsibilities and services of architects.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a multiple case study design; two IPD projects were theoretically sampled and studied. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews and observations. An inductive data analysis approach was applied to frame the phenomena, conduct cross-case comparisons and develop propositions.

Findings

While IPD implementations set expectations for new structures for practices, it is the project participants’ situated decisions that lead to the restructuration of some dimensions of architectural practice. The dimensions in this study included team formation, design leadership and collaboration and architectural services. IPD project participants locally changed and redefined conventional roles, responsibilities and project artifacts (e.g. drawings and models) that concerned design development and coordination.

Practical implications

IPD context, by itself, does not predetermine a fixed pattern of change in establishing designers’ roles, responsibilities and services because restructuration is highly negotiated amongst the IPD parties and can lead to different responses to this contractual setting. Contracts set expectations for collaborative behavior, but the fulfillment of these expectations is situated and emerging as project participants negotiate to develop practices.

Originality/value

While IPD research and guidelines aim to provide recipes for IPD implementation, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by clarifying that IPD is a context in which unprecedented ways of practice restructuration could emerge.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2018

Rachel Trees and Dianne Marion Dean

This purpose of this study is to examine the fluidity of family life which continues to attract attention. This is increasingly significant for the intergenerational relationship…

Abstract

Purpose

This purpose of this study is to examine the fluidity of family life which continues to attract attention. This is increasingly significant for the intergenerational relationship between adult children and their elderly parents. Using practice theory, the aims are to understand the role of food in elderly families and explore how family practices are maintained when elderly transition into care.

Design/methodology/approach

A phenomenological research approach was used as the authors sought to build an understanding of the social interactions between family and their lifeworld.

Findings

This study extends theory on the relationship between the elderly parent and their family and explores through practice theory how families performed their love, how altered routines and long standing rituals provided structure to the elderly relatives and how care practices were negotiated as the elderly relatives transitioned from independence to dependence and towards care. A theoretical framework is introduced that provides guidance for the transition stages and the areas for negotiation.

Research limitations/implications

This research has implications for food manufacturers and marketers, as the demand for healthy food for the elderly is made more widely available, healthy and easy to prepare. The limitations of the research are due to the sample located in East Yorkshire only.

Practical implications

This research has implications for brand managers of food manufacturers and supermarkets that need to create product lines that target this segment by producing healthy, convenience food.

Social implications

It is also important for health and social care policy as the authors seek to understand the role of food, family and community and how policy can be devised to provide stability in this transitional and uncertain lifestage.

Originality/value

This research extends the body of literature on food and the family by focussing on the elderly cared for and their family. The authors show how food can be construed as loving care, and using practice theory, a theoretical framework is developed that can explain the transitions and how the family negotiates the stages from independence to dependence.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2002

Judith Y. Weisinger and Eileen M. Trauth

Presents a theoretical approach to understanding the local culture of firms in the multinational information sector. Called situating culture, this approach holds that cultural…

2171

Abstract

Presents a theoretical approach to understanding the local culture of firms in the multinational information sector. Called situating culture, this approach holds that cultural understanding is locally situated, behavioral and embedded in everyday, socially negotiated work practices. The application of this theory is provided through cases from the workplace cultures of US multinational IT firms operating in Ireland. These examples show how the local culture of a global IT firm represents the interaction of industry, corporate and national contexts. It results in locally situated work practices and distinct socially negotiated realities that ultimately impact behavior in these settings. The theoretical approach of situating culture contributes to a better understanding of contextualism in the cross‐cultural IT environment. This understanding, in turn, has implications for future cross‐cultural IS research as well as for cross‐cultural IT practice.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2017

Geoff Walton and Jamie Cleland

The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative investigation into whether online textual postings, produced by undergraduate students as part of an undergraduate module…

3298

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative investigation into whether online textual postings, produced by undergraduate students as part of an undergraduate module, can demonstrate their information literacy (IL) capabilities as a discursive competence and socially enacted practice. It also asks whether these online postings embody power relations between students, tutors and librarians.

Design/methodology/approach

Foucault’s notion of discursive competence and the separate but complementary concept of practice architectures (specifically focussing on “sayings”) devised by Lloyd were used as thematic lenses to categorise online discussion board postings from a formative online peer assessment exercise created for first-year UK undergraduate students. Online postings were the node of analysis used to identify patterns of language across online conversation. These postings were inductively analysed through manual content analysis. Subject’s responses were initially categorised using open coding.

Findings

Postings appeared to embody student’s discursive competence and information practice in IL, especially their level of information discernment and what constituted a quality “reference” for an assignment. However, they also demonstrated that the notion of “references” (information artefacts such as a journal article) perform a certain function in reproducing the discursive practices of an academic discipline as an agreed construct between tutor, student and librarian.

Practical implications

Students were engaged in the process of becoming good scholars by using appropriate online postings to create valid arguments through assessing other’s work, but what they did not do was question received meanings regarding the quality of information they used as evidence. Far from exhibiting the desired outcome of critical thinking (a cornerstone of IL) students who appeared most articulate in discussion tended to emulate the “strong discourse” put forward by their tutors and librarians.

Originality/value

This research uses practice architectures and discourse analysis to analyse students’ IL capabilities and the context in which they are developed. An approach not employed hitherto. This has practical implications for the ways in which academics and librarians introduce students to the academic discourse of their discipline and the ways in which the production, communication and exchange of information in academic contexts is characterised.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 73 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2012

Annemaree Lloyd

This paper aims to introduce a “people‐in‐practice” perspective which brings together previous theorisations of information literacy landscapes and practice. This perspective…

2916

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to introduce a “people‐in‐practice” perspective which brings together previous theorisations of information literacy landscapes and practice. This perspective provides the framework to analyse the complex practice of information literacy from a sociocultural perspective. This perspective represents a shift in focus towards information literacy as a socially enacted practice, and away from the information skills approach that has dominated information literacy research and education.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical data that informs this work is drawn from a series of studies that have been conducted by the author in the workplace and in everyday settings since 2004. Findings from these studies have contributed to the development of the people‐in‐practice perspective that is presented in this article.

Findings

Drawing from the author's empirical studies and from literature reporting socio‐cultural research into information literacy, a people‐in‐practice perspective is described.

Originality/value

The value of this paper lies in the attempt to marry together the author's previous work resulting in the introduction of a people‐in‐practice perspective. This perspective draws from socio‐cultural and practice theory.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 68 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2012

Karen Smits and Alfons van Marrewijk

The purpose of this paper is to examine how project partners respond to contractually agreed collaboration in an infrastructural megaproject. Problematic performances of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how project partners respond to contractually agreed collaboration in an infrastructural megaproject. Problematic performances of megaprojects have shifted away attention from the instrumental towards the interpretative, focusing on daily work life, practices, power, ambiguity and sense making in project organizations. Such an interpretative perspective helps to better understand practices of collaboration in complex mega projects, which the authors studied in the Panama Canal Expansion Program (PCEP).

Design/methodology/approach

Given the focus on daily work life, the authors chose an in‐depth single case study. Practices of collaboration have been studied during a one‐year ethnographic fieldwork period in Panama, in which the daily work life of project participants was intensely observed.

Findings

First, it was found that practices of collaboration in complex projects change in periods of conflict. In these periods actors are forced to reflect upon their practices and to negotiate about new practices. Second, the authors identified collaborative practices in which a consultancy firm teaches their client and supervises its appropriate behavior. The authors have labeled these as chaperoning.

Practical implications

This study illustrates that when innovation in contracts requires an innovative relationship between project partners, specific attention to this innovation and the related practices of collaboration enhances the collaborative relationship among partners, which can prevent cost overruns and delays.

Originality/value

Ethnographic fieldwork has not been used frequently to study project management practices. The paper builds upon a one‐year ethnographic fieldwork period to study practices in the daily work life of the project participants from “within”.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 5 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 July 2015

Alina Dulipovici and Dragos Vieru

This study aims to examine how a collaboration technology is used by three organizational groups. The main focus is on the interplay between the users’ perceptions (of the…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how a collaboration technology is used by three organizational groups. The main focus is on the interplay between the users’ perceptions (of the technology and of the knowledge shared) and the material properties of the collaboration technology.

Design/methodology/approach

Two theoretical frameworks (social representations and sociomaterial practice perspective) examine collaboration technology use to better understand the underlying dynamics. The research is conducted as a case study in a US company where a collaboration technology was being implemented.

Findings

The findings reveal a process model showing how social dynamics and users’ perceptions of what the collaboration technology can do and cannot do to share the users’ knowledge influence the users’ behaviour. Based on these perceptions, users will twist or amend their interpretation of the reality (the material properties of the technology) to justify their use of the collaboration technology.

Research limitations/implications

This research is conducted as a single case study. However, the significant amount of time spent at the research site allowed for a very rich description of the events and processes involved.

Practical implications

This study offers guidelines on what influences use and adoption of collaboration technologies. It highlights the importance of providing more than just training, as social dynamics and users’ perceptions continuously influence users’ behaviour.

Originality/value

By combining two complementary theoretical frameworks, this study provides a novel and more in-depth explanation of collaboration technology use (or lack thereof).

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2020

Catharina Juul Kristensen

The purpose of this article is to examine conflicts of interest (COI) in qualitative social research with multiple and often powerful stakeholders such as organisations and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to examine conflicts of interest (COI) in qualitative social research with multiple and often powerful stakeholders such as organisations and funders.

Design/methodology/approach

The article offers an explorative qualitative analysis of a selected group of Danish doctoral students' experiences and negotiations of COI in their qualitative, multiple stakeholder research. The point of departure is that while potential and readily identifiable sources of COI, such as funding institutions, are important to disclose this may provide inadequate insight into stakeholders' actual – and potentially undue – influence on the research during the research process. This calls for a focus on research practice. Finally, the current neoliberal policy changes affecting universities provide the backdrop for the study.

Findings

Focusing on negotiations around COI in practice, the analysis illuminates the complex reality of negotiating different – and sometimes conflicting – expectations and interests when conducting long-term qualitative studies. It also shows examples of stakeholders' attempts to potentially, and unduly, influence doctoral students' research. Finally, it suggests that stakeholders and researchers alike can be both powerful and potentially vulnerable when engaging in qualitative research.

Originality/value

The article contributes to the existing literature by explicitly focusing on COI in qualitative social research, and by exploring experiences and negotiations of COI in practice.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

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