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1 – 10 of over 48000Yusuf Hassan, Ankur Kushwaha and Varun Sharma
The purpose of the current study is to examine organizational crisis and the role of tech-structural interventions in overcoming the crisis to achieve resilience. Developing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the current study is to examine organizational crisis and the role of tech-structural interventions in overcoming the crisis to achieve resilience. Developing resilience in organizations has become imperative for managers in the never-ending turbulent environment and concerns toward pleasing the stakeholders. Organizations have begun to rely on techno-structural and human process change interventions to attain resilient organizations. Although such strategies are widely prevalent in organizational change literature and can be traced back to the 1970s, scholarly research on the process that develops resilient organizations is limited and also absent in the context of developing economies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uncovered the process of change interventions (primarily techno-structural interventions) at a wealth management firm in India, adopting a case study approach.
Findings
According to the findings, change interventions through techno-structural interventions aided in the transformation of a precarious organization into a resilient one.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides vital practical implications about the role of techno-structural change interventions in reshaping an organization into a more viable business, making the organization resilient to deal with untimely disruptions in the environment.
Originality/value
Very limited research has been done to understand the stakeholder’s management and resilience in the context of financial consulting firms in the emerging market context.
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Eyvind Helland, Marit Christensen, Siw Tone Innstrand and Karina Nielsen
This paper explores line managers' proactive work behaviors in organizational interventions and ascertains how their management of their middle-levelness by aligning with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores line managers' proactive work behaviors in organizational interventions and ascertains how their management of their middle-levelness by aligning with the intervention, or not, influences their proactive work behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors’ findings are based on thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews of university heads of departments responsible for managing organizational interventions.
Findings
The authors found that line managers engaged in a range of proactive work behaviors to implement the organizational intervention (i.e. “driving proactive behaviors”). Furthermore, line managers tended to engage in driving proactive behaviors when they aligned with the organizational intervention, but not to when unconvinced of the intervention's validity.
Practical implications
These findings highlight the importance of senior management and HR investing sufficient time and quality in the preparation phase to ensure all actors have a shared understanding of the organizational interventions' validity.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore line managers' proactive work behaviors to implement an organizational intervention, and how the line managers' management of their middle-levelness influence these proactive work behaviors.
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Henna Hasson, Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz, Stefan Holmstrom, Maria Karanika-Murray and Susanne Tafvelin
This paper aims to evaluate whether training of managers at workplaces can improve organizational learning. Managers play a crucial role in providing opportunities to employees…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate whether training of managers at workplaces can improve organizational learning. Managers play a crucial role in providing opportunities to employees for learning. Although scholars have called for intervention research on the effects of leadership development on organizational learning, no such research is currently available.
Design/methodology/approach
The training program consisted of theoretical and practical elements aimed to improve line managers’ transformational leadership behaviors and, in turn, improve organizational learning. The study used a pre- and post-intervention evaluation survey. Line managers’ and their subordinates’ perceptions of organizational learning were measured with the Dimensions of Organizational Learning Questionnaire and with post-intervention single items on organizational learning.
Findings
Comparisons between pre- and post-intervention assessments revealed that managers’ ratings of continuous learning and employees’ ratings of empowerment and embedded systems improved significantly as a result of the training. The leadership training intervention had positive effects on managers’ perceptions of individual-level and on employees’ perceptions of organizational-level aspects of organizational learning.
Originality/value
The study provides empirical evidence that organizational learning can be improved through leadership training. Both line managers and their subordinates perceived that organizational learning had increased after the training intervention, albeit in different ways. Implications for developing leadership training programs and for evaluating these are discussed.
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Scholarship on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is voluminous. Nevertheless, there is relatively little work that examines DEI from an organization development and…
Abstract
Scholarship on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is voluminous. Nevertheless, there is relatively little work that examines DEI from an organization development and change (ODC) or systems perspective. As a result, there is no unified framework ODC practitioners can use for DEI diagnosis and intervention. The purpose of this chapter is to review the ODC literature with respect to DEI and propose a diagnostic Context-Levels-Culture (CLC) framework for understanding and addressing diversity-related challenges in organizations. We also present a case example of how this framework can be used in DEI consulting, including implications for future research and practice.
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Robert Lundmark, Karina Nielsen, Henna Hasson, Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz and Susanne Tafvelin
Line managers can make or break organizational interventions, yet little is known about what makes them turn in either direction. As leadership does not occur in a vacuum, it has…
Abstract
Purpose
Line managers can make or break organizational interventions, yet little is known about what makes them turn in either direction. As leadership does not occur in a vacuum, it has been suggested that the organizational context plays an important role. Building on the intervention and leadership literature, we examine if span of control and employee readiness for change are related to line managers' leadership during an organizational intervention.
Design/methodology/approach
Leadership is studied in terms of intervention-specific constructive, as well as passive and active forms of destructive, leadership behaviors. As a sample, we use employees (N = 172) from 37 groups working at a process industry plant. Multilevel analyses over two time points, with both survey and organizational register data were used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results revealed that span of control was negatively related to constructive leadership and positively related to passive destructive leadership during the intervention. Employee readiness for change was positively related to constructive leadership, and negatively related to both passive and active destructive leadership.
Practical implications
Our findings suggest that contextual factors need to be assessed and considered if we want line managers to engage in constructive rather than destructive leadership during interventions.
Originality/value
The present study is the first to address line managers' making or breaking of organizational interventions by examining the influence of context on both their destructive and constructive leadership.
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Maria Karanika-Murray, Dimitra Gkiontsi and Thom Baguley
Although visible leader support is an essential ingredient for successful organizational health interventions, knowledge on how leaders at different hierarchical levels engage…
Abstract
Purpose
Although visible leader support is an essential ingredient for successful organizational health interventions, knowledge on how leaders at different hierarchical levels engage with interventions is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to explore leader engagement by drawing from the experiences of the intervention team.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from semi-structured interviews with the team responsible for implementing an organizational health intervention in two large UK organizations were used to examine how leaders at strategic (senior management) and operational (line managers) positions engaged with the intervention.
Findings
Thematic analysis uncovered 6 themes and 16 sub-themes covering the leaders’ initial reactions to the intervention, barriers to leader engagement, ways in which the intervention team dealt with these barriers, factors facilitating and factors accelerating leader engagement, and differences in engagement between leadership levels.
Research limitations/implications
This study can inform research into the conditions for optimizing leader engagement in organizational health interventions and beyond. Insights also emerged on the roles of leaders at different hierarchical levels and the value of perspective taking for intervention implementation.
Practical implications
Recommendations for bolstering the engagement of leaders in interventions are offered, that apply to all leaders or separately to leaders at strategic or operational levels.
Originality/value
The experiences of the intervention team who sought to engage leaders at different organizational levels to support the intervention are invaluable. Understanding how leader engagement can be maximized can better equip intervention teams for delivering successful interventions.
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Piia Seppälä, Jari J. Hakanen, Asko Tolvanen and Evangelia Demerouti
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of a job resources-based intervention aimed at proactively increasing work engagement and team innovativeness during…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of a job resources-based intervention aimed at proactively increasing work engagement and team innovativeness during organizational restructuring using a person-centered approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The intervention was conducted in two organizations: two departments served as participants (n=82) and two as controls (n=52). The aim was to first identify sub-groups of employees with different developmental patterns of work engagement, and then to determine whether these sub-groups benefited differently from the intervention with respect to team innovativeness and work engagement.
Findings
Latent profile analysis identified three different patterns of work engagement among the participants: high and stable (n=64), moderate and decreasing (n=13), and low and decreasing (n=5). The χ²-test yielded no significant difference between participants and controls (n=52) with respect to team innovativeness over time. However, t-tests showed that team innovativeness increased in the high work engagement class and somewhat decreased in the moderate and low work engagement classes.
Practical implications
During organizational changes, those initially work-engaged seem to be able to proactively build their team innovativeness via a job resources-based intervention and remain engaged; whereas those initially not work-engaged may not, and their work engagement may even decrease.
Originality/value
This study reveals that an initial level of work engagement is a prerequisite why some employees profit more from a job resources-based intervention than others and provides tailored knowledge on the effectiveness of the intervention.
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Hanna Augustsson, Agneta Törnquist and Henna Hasson
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the outcomes of a workplace learning intervention on organizational learning and to identify factors influencing the creation of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the outcomes of a workplace learning intervention on organizational learning and to identify factors influencing the creation of organizational learning in residential care of older people.
Design/methodology/approach
The study consisted of a quasi‐experimental intervention for outcome evaluation. In addition, a case study design was used to identify factors influencing organizational learning. Outcomes were evaluated using the validated Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire at three time points, and interviews were conducted with nursing staff and managers.
Findings
The intervention had some effects on the individual level, but no improvements in organizational learning were found. Hindering factors for creating organizational learning were poor initial learning climate, managers' uncertainty about their role, lack of ownership and responsibility among staff and managers, managers' views of personality being a more important component than staff development in older people's care, and a lack of systems for capturing acquired knowledge.
Originality/value
The study offers suggestions for the transfer of individual‐level learning to organizational learning in older people's care.
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Hamid Roodbari, Karina Nielsen, Carolyn Axtell, Susan E. Peters and Glorian Sorensen
Realist evaluation seeks to answer the question of “what works for whom in which circumstances?” through developing and testing middle range theories (MRTs). MRTs are programme…
Abstract
Purpose
Realist evaluation seeks to answer the question of “what works for whom in which circumstances?” through developing and testing middle range theories (MRTs). MRTs are programme theories that outline how certain mechanisms of an intervention work in a specific context to bring about certain outcomes. In this paper, the authors tested an initial MRT about the mechanism of participation. The authors used evidence from a participatory organisational intervention in five worksites of a large multi-national organisation in the US food service industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data from 89 process tracking documents and 24 post-intervention, semi-structured interviews with intervention stakeholders were analysed using template analysis.
Findings
The operationalised mechanism was partial worksite managers’ engagement with the research team. Six contextual factors (e.g. high workload) impaired participation, and one contextual factor (i.e. existing participatory practices) facilitated participation. Worksite managers’ participation resulted in limited improvement in their awareness of how working conditions can impact on their employees’ safety, health, and well-being. Based on these findings, the authors modified the initial MRT into an empirical MRT.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the understanding of “what works for whom in which circumstances” regarding participation in organisational interventions.
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Manila S. Austin and Debra A. Harkins
The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness and practical utility of an organizational learning intervention for an organization that was not progressive, was not…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness and practical utility of an organizational learning intervention for an organization that was not progressive, was not specifically chartered as a learning organization, and was situated in an urban, culturally diverse, and under‐privileged community.
Design/methodology/approach
In this empirical case study, employees were surveyed pre‐ and post‐intervention on measures of organizational learning, school climate and morale. Archival data on turnover rates were also collected for the years bracketing the intervention (2003‐2005).
Findings
Analyses show the center reduced turnover and improved in organizational learning, morale, and to a lesser degree, organizational climate. Analyses demonstrate relationships between change in organizational climate dimensions (e.g. supportive leadership, appraisal and recognition, goal congruence) and change toward organizational learning.
Originality/value
This research suggests that organizational learning – and the post‐bureaucratic practices that characterize it – can be useful even in the most challenging of settings. Unlike previous research, this study specifically addresses organizational learning's utility for under‐privileged populations; it also examines how the more traditional measure of organizational climate is related to post‐industrial notions of learning and business performance. It should be of value to academics and practitioners wishing to apply organizational learning to less‐advantaged and change‐averse organizations.
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