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1 – 10 of over 284000The purpose of this paper is to explore the essence that is, the nature of organizational responses to efficiently resist enforced change in institutionalized work practice…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the essence that is, the nature of organizational responses to efficiently resist enforced change in institutionalized work practice destined to address poor organizational performance. The micro-foundations of the cognitive logic that are activated when organizations face change are hereby conceptualized.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a case study design, the study focusses on narratives of a failure to implement a regulatory enforced change in work practice at a military academy established in the 1600s. The interviews are complemented by secondary data.
Findings
The analysis reveals a cognitive framework by which the members of the organization shaped their responses. By building on micro-foundations for mobilizing resistance (i.e. the essential substance at a micro level), this study shows how the cognitive logic is activated to respond to change. To show how the cognitive logic is used to mitigate and compensate for incongruences with the regulatory logic, this study outlines a set of strategic resistance maneuvers and cognitive resistance forces that restrict regulatory influence on change in work practice. This study thus provides insights into maneuvers and resistance forces that members may activate to resist change efficiently.
Originality/value
To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to attempt to conceptualize the essence of the cognitive logic activated to resist organizational change.
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Danielle A. Tucker, Jane Hendy and James Barlow
As management innovations become more complex, infrastructure needs to change in order to accommodate new work practices. Different challenges are associated with work practice…
Abstract
Purpose
As management innovations become more complex, infrastructure needs to change in order to accommodate new work practices. Different challenges are associated with work practice redesign and infrastructure change however; combining these presents a dual challenge and additional challenges associated with this interaction. The purpose of this paper is to ask: what are the challenges which arise from work practice redesign, infrastructure change and simultaneously attempting both in a single transformation?
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present a longitudinal study of three hospitals in three different countries (UK, USA and Canada) transforming both their infrastructure and work practices. Data consists of 155 ethnographic interviews complemented by 205 documents and 36 hours of observations collected over two phases for each case study.
Findings
This paper identifies that work practice redesign challenges the cognitive load of organizational members whilst infrastructure change challenges the project management and structure of the organization. Simultaneous transformation represents a disconnect between the two aspects of change resulting in a failure to understand the relationship between work and design.
Practical implications
These challenges suggest that organizations need to make a distinction between the two aspects of transformation and understand the unique tensions of simultaneously tackling these dual challenges. They must ensure that they have adequate skills and resources with which to build this distinction into their change planning.
Originality/value
This paper unpacks two different aspects of complex change and considers the neglected challenges associated with modern change management objectives.
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Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier…
Abstract
Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier 25), the consequences on employees of such a reduction can be assessed; and relevant attitudes and aspirations better known.
Laura Zapata, Gerardo Ibarra and Pierre-Henri Blancher
New ways of working have rapidly increased in organizations, promising employees a better control over their work time, space, and more autonomy. The present study analyzes the…
Abstract
Purpose
New ways of working have rapidly increased in organizations, promising employees a better control over their work time, space, and more autonomy. The present study analyzes the relationship between new ways of working and employee engagement and productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to evaluate organizational practices developed based on flexible schemes and the relevance of employee engagement for better productivity based on digital tools. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
New ways of work requires an integration of workspaces' design, social interaction, and individual wellness. Organizations need to recognize how employees' trust, commitment, and passion are fundamental to face current and future changes. Flexibility in time and space and digital tools for work are critical.
Practical implications
A personalization of organizational practices to support individual well-being and flexible and hybrid schemes of work are needed. Developing policies collaboratively to work together respectfully in a hybrid environment is necessary.
Social implications
Hybrid work format is allowing women to balance career and childcare, reducing the wage gap with men. The green imperative has also played a role reducing the amount of carbon monoxide produced via commuter.
Originality/value
The present study exposes how organizational practices must ensure employee well-being and autonomy to perform their tasks. In this regard, employees need to be recognized as individuals, physically and mentally. Attempting to force a one-size-fit-all solution can have detrimental effects on the workforce, particularly on women, people of lower socioeconomic status, and people in less advanced economies. Personalization requests empowerment and democratization at work.
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Michael Rosholm, Marianne Røed and Pål Schøne
– The purpose of this paper is to analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants.
Design/methodology/approach
A representative plant-level panel survey merged with register data is used. Random effect regression Tobit models are estimated. The dependent variable is wage costs share of immigrants at the plant. The important explanatory variables are measures of new technologies and work practices.
Findings
The results show that workplaces where employees use personal computers intensively and have broad autonomy hire fewer non-western immigrants who have not been raised in Norway. The negative relationship is especially strong for low-skilled non-western immigrants.
Originality/value
The estimation framework for studying this topic is new. The paper also presents original evidence on the relationship between characteristics of the “new” economy and demand for immigrant workers.
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Alberto Bayo‐Moriones, Margarita Billón and Fernando Lera‐López
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence on the relationships among new technologies, innovative work practices and upskilling in the Spanish case. …
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence on the relationships among new technologies, innovative work practices and upskilling in the Spanish case. Design/methodology/approach – Using detailed plant‐level data from a survey of Spanish manufacturing firms, we apply estimation methods, such as tobit and ordered probit models, to test the hypothesis that the use of ICT, AMT, and innovative work practices is positively related to upskilling. Findings – As available empirical evidence shows for other countries, we have found that AMT, ICT and innovative work practices are positively related to skills, although they have different effects on workforce composition and training. We have also found several significant effects of the interactive terms of the three technologies and work practices considered on the selected variables of upskilling. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is the lack of time series data. Cross‐sectional data do not allow the use of lagged variables and make it impossible to analyse the evolution of the adoption of new technologies and work practices by firms and their dynamic effects on skills, or to study causalities among variables. In addition, the study relates only to manufacturing industries. Further research should consider expanding the analysis to the service sector and studying possible complementarities between technology and work practices, in terms of labor cost savings. Originality/value – This paper offers empirical evidence for Spain on the relationship between new technologies, innovative work practices and upskilling considered jointly. It analyses two different technologies: ICT and AMT. The paper also focuses on different dimensions of upskilling.
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Najmeh Hafezieh, Neil Pollock and Annmarie Ryan
Digital technologies, digitalised consumers and the torrent of customer data have been transforming marketing practice. In discussing such trends, existing research has either…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital technologies, digitalised consumers and the torrent of customer data have been transforming marketing practice. In discussing such trends, existing research has either focussed on the skills marketers need or broad-based approaches such as agile methods but has given less consideration to just how such skills or approaches might be developed and used in marketers' day-to-day activities and in the organisation of marketing in the firm. This is what the authors address in this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts an in-depth case study approach to examine an exemplary digital enterprise in transformation of their digital marketing. The insights were gathered from 25 interviews, netnography and document analysis of the case organisation in addition to 10 interviews with independent experts.
Findings
Drawing on practice-oriented approach, the authors show how organisations respond to the emerging trends of digital consumers and big data by taking a ‘hacking marketing’ approach and developing novel marketing expertise at disciplinary boundaries. The authors put forward three sets of practices that enable and shape the hacking marketing approach. These include spanning the expertise boundary, making value measurable and experimenting through which their adaptive, iterative and multidisciplinary work occurs. This explains how managing digital consumers and big data is not within the realm of information technology (IT) functions but marketing and how marketing professionals are changing their practice and moving their disciplinary boundaries.
Practical implications
This study offers practical contributions for firms in terms of identifying new work practices and expertise that marketing specialists need in managing digital platforms, digitalised consumers and big data. This study’s results show that enterprises need to design and implement strong training programmes to prepare their marketing workforce in adopting experimentations of agile approach and data-driven decision making. In addition, Marketing education should be changed so that programmes consider a review of their courses and include the novel marketing models and approaches into their curriculum.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the nascent discussions by unpacking how enterprises can develop new marketing expertise and practices beyond skillsets and how such practices form new hacking marketing approach which addresses the problem of the inability of the conventional marketing approach to show its value within the firm.
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Much of the lesson study research in initial teacher education (ITE) is focussed on single cases and pilot projects. As a result, there is very little consideration of the wider…
Abstract
Much of the lesson study research in initial teacher education (ITE) is focussed on single cases and pilot projects. As a result, there is very little consideration of the wider cultural and organisational issues which need to be considered if lesson study is to become embedded within ITE partnerships in the longer term. The move from novelty to sustainability is not an easy one but is rarely considered within the LS literature. Here, the authors argue that Normalisation Process Theory, a framework first developed in the medical, health and social care sphere can be used to offer a wider, organisation-level perspective on successfully embedding lesson study in ITE partnerships.
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The paper aims to examine, within the context of professional practice and learning, how designers collaboratively working in international teams experience practice-based…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine, within the context of professional practice and learning, how designers collaboratively working in international teams experience practice-based learning and how such occasions contribute to professional development.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces the cooperation project between Tibro Training Centre and Furniture Technology Centre Trust and its workshop context organized as practice-based learning. Participants’ learning context consisted of a mixture of professional practices allowing different logics and different cultures make up an innovative working site. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data suggests that three phenomenographic hierarchical categories constitute the learning process: getting a recognized professional identity; perceiving new elements and expanding knowledge and seeing new aspects of design work and new steps of development in profession.
Findings
Cooperative practice-based learning is understood as social practice in a community of practice, and as continuous changes of the learning object due to that new aspects are discerned by the learners. These categories illustrate how participants’ meaning making and understanding of the learning object were expressed in cooperation as doings and sayings, as translation and as situated activities in a community of practice. Accordingly, it contributed to participants’ professional development in spite of their different professional educations and professional experiences.
Practical implications
More studies of practice-based learning environments in work places are needed that could help societies and companies to advance integrative efforts of new employees and new immigrants into an increasingly diverse globalized labour market.
Originality/value
The results suggest that understanding as well as content structure and meaning making of the learning object are intertwined constituent aspects of practice-based learning.
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