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1 – 10 of over 17000Peter Hines, Chris Butterworth, Caroline Greenlee, Cheryl Jekiel and Darrin Taylor
The purpose of this paper is to extend the People Value Stream concept further by developing a view of what the world would look like through the eyes of a positive psychology…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the People Value Stream concept further by developing a view of what the world would look like through the eyes of a positive psychology employee-centred lens. The authors hope to provide a frame for further discussion, research and practical application in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
In this conceptual paper, the authors draw on their collective 120 plus years of experience with Lean and Human Resource Management through leading, teaching, researching and consulting in the area.
Findings
The People Value Stream concept is extended here by ideating how the “Voice of the Employee” could be used to enhance the existing knowledge of Lean. Relying on a range of cognitive psychological theories, particularly Self-Determination Theory, the authors show how it might be possible to develop a highly engaged workforce primarily by unlocking their intrinsic motivation through a “Self-Development and Growth Cycle”. This cycle is the people-improvement version of the seminal Deming process-improvement PDCA cycle. It can be applied within a job crafting “Personal Cockpit”. The authors also highlight a range of outputs and wider implications that create a pull for team leaders and senior management wishing to move to a real Servant Leader model. It will also help those developing and supporting people-related policies and procedures both within organisations and in trade unions.
Originality/value
This paper turns the existing literature about people within Lean upside down. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time in an academic paper, it discusses what would be the implications for the Lean world if the authors truly started understanding and deploying the explicit “Voice of the Employee” rather than just the established Lean “Voice of the Owner”-led Hoshin Kanri approach. The authors show how a lack of knowledge in these areas by the Lean community is limiting Lean’s engagement of people and its sustainability.
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Christine Naschberger and Krista Finstad-Milion
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how French managers picture their careers, specifically female careers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how French managers picture their careers, specifically female careers.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample was composed of 93 women and 5 men attending a professional women’s networking event in France. Participants answered a questionnaire, including images to choose from to best describe how they perceived their own career development.
Findings
The results indicate that a female career is closely associated with work-life balance by both women and men. Also, women acknowledge three times more than men, the existence of a glass ceiling in their organisation. Women and men choose both traditional and contemporary images of career.
Research limitations/implications
As the sample was taken from a women’s network event, the male sample size is small. Despite the small sample of men, giving voice to male participants leads to rich insights which challenge gendered and non-gendered career models.
Practical implications
On an individual level, reflection on one’s career path fosters awareness and ownership of career choices. Further, working with career images enhances discussion and experience sharing about personal career choices, and offers opportunities to organisations concerned with developing female talent.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the career literature by providing insights into how female and male managers perceive female careers. The study’s originality lies in the methodology, based on using images of careers to better understand how managers picture their own careers.
The purpose of this paper is to identify and interpret the spiritual foundation that permeates all Drucker's contributions, and to show that his convictions served as his internal…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and interpret the spiritual foundation that permeates all Drucker's contributions, and to show that his convictions served as his internal compass, thus helping him to develop and articulate a coherent and unequivocally ecological view of the nature of management.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper makes use of primary data by focusing on Drucker's published works, as well as private correspondence found at the online Drucker Archives of the Drucker Institute in Claremont Graduate University. It also makes use of materials written about Drucker and his views by former students and colleagues.
Findings
The paper presents Drucker as a lifelong learner, as the excellent student who used his personal lens to observe, synthesize, and purposefully distil his experiences into what would become the practice of management. The paper examines his contributions to the field of management from a personal perspective by presenting Drucker as the spiritual philosopher, the social ecologist, the learning teacher, and the refracting bystander.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that Drucker's views achieve greater clarity, poignancy, and relevance when contextualized within his personal philosophy. This foundation humanizes his phenomenal contributions, and increases respect for a man who exemplified what he preached.
Originality/value
Presenting Drucker as a pragmatist alone devalues his overall contributions to management and society. In an era of reported spiritual decline and commodization of the individual, Drucker's spiritually‐aligned contributions remind readers that doing the “right thing” is both simple and complicated, but always a timelessly human right and responsibility.
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Corporate downsizing has destroyed millions of well‐paying jobs just in the USA. The psychological, medical, and social costs are staggering. Families are fragmented, communities…
Abstract
Corporate downsizing has destroyed millions of well‐paying jobs just in the USA. The psychological, medical, and social costs are staggering. Families are fragmented, communities impoverished, democracies weakened by oligopolistic, plutocratic corporarchies, and Third World nations recolonized and their subsistence economies decimated. Most of the employee survivors of this economic and class warfare are working longer and harder and are suffering various stress, burnout, and psychiatric symptoms. In addition to intense global competition, cheap foreign labour, and superefficient technologies, there are psychocultural factors contributing to the “jobless economy”: executive ambition, greed, power‐lust, and winner‐take‐all ideologies. Solutions include changes in tax and other federal policies, restrictive corporate charters, shorter workweeks, community development programmes, and co‐operative, employee‐owned enterprises. The learning organization and fourth‐wave business suggest an evolutionary paradigm for the twenty‐first century based on global responsibility, economic justice, a new bottom line, and a restoration of meaningful, sustainable work.
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Rahman Mushfiqur, Chima Mordi, Emeka Smart Oruh, Uzoechi Nwagbara, Tonbara Mordi and Itari Mabel Turner
The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of work-life-balance (WLB) challenges for Nigerian female medical doctors. This study focusses on Nigeria, which its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of work-life-balance (WLB) challenges for Nigerian female medical doctors. This study focusses on Nigeria, which its peculiar socio-cultural, institutional and professional realities constitute WLB as well as social sustainability (SS) challenge for female medical doctors.
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on qualitative, interpretivist approach and informed by institutional theory, this study explores how Nigeria’s institutional environment and workplace realities engender WLB challenges, which consequently impact SS for female doctors. In total, 43 semi-structured interviews and focus group session involving eight participants were utilised for empirical analysis.
Findings
The study reveals that factors such as work pressure, cultural expectations, unsupportive relationships, challenging work environment, gender role challenges, lack of voice/participation, and high stress level moderate the ability of female medical doctors to manage WLB and SS. It also identifies that socio-cultural and institutional demands on women show that these challenges, while common to female physicians in other countries, are different and more intense in Nigeria because of their unique professional, socio-cultural and institutional frameworks.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the WLB and SS requires scholarship to deepen as well as extend knowledge on contextual disparities in understanding these concepts from developing countries perspective, which is understudied.
Originality/value
This study offers fresh insights into the WLB and SS concepts from the non-western context, such as Nigeria, highlighting the previously understudied challenges of WLB and SS and their implications for female doctors.
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Stephen Knott and John P. Wilson
A charity’s core purpose is legally mandated and delivery thereof is not a corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity which, by definition, is voluntary in nature. Any CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
A charity’s core purpose is legally mandated and delivery thereof is not a corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity which, by definition, is voluntary in nature. Any CSR activity not required by law should be “incidental” and be an outcome of a core purpose/object and not a focus of activity. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to address the lack of research into voluntary CSR activities conducted by charities so that charities might have a clearer operating platform and do not involuntarily contravene legislation.
Design/methodology/approach
This was an exploratory investigation using purposive sampling of senior leaders in UK charities. This study uses a case study approach to identify pragmatic areas of concern and also identify practical actions.
Findings
The conventional hierarchical ordering of Carroll’s CSR pyramid (1991) for profit-focussed organisations were found to be inconsistent with those for charitable organisations which were: ethical, legal, economic and philanthropic/voluntary/incidental.
Research limitations/implications
This was an exploratory study and would benefit from further investigation.
Practical implications
Corporate social responsibility actions undertaken by charities need to be carefully evaluated to ensure that they comply with the core charitable purpose or are incidental.
Social implications
Many employees in charities are motivated by social justice; however, they need to be cautious that they do not exceed the core purpose of the charity.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research was identified which has addressed the fundamental issue of charities’ core purposes and the extent to which charities might legally undertake CSR activities.
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Formulaic in both their narrative and character development, buddy-cop films are unique in their ability to present ideas about masculinity and the journey towards manhood without…
Abstract
Formulaic in both their narrative and character development, buddy-cop films are unique in their ability to present ideas about masculinity and the journey towards manhood without sacrificing the likeability or relatability of their male leads. The focus of this chapter is how aspects of masculinity are depicted when there are two or more male protagonists in an action film. Examples I have selected for analysis are the highly successful franchises Beverly Hills Cop (1984–1993) and Lethal Weapon (1987–1998). In the case of Beverly Hills Cop, the male dynamic is unique in that there are a trio of male leads (as opposed to the traditional duo), each of which depicts masculinity in different ways, often resulting in the lead characters jostling for the role of the alpha-male. In contrast, the Lethal Weapon franchise explores the dynamics of age and the importance of mateship and mentoring in the construction of relationships between men. In both examples the necessity of vulnerability in the dynamic of solid man-to-man peer relationships is also paramount. The enduring popularity of these films and their subsequent sequels is indicative of the fact that while pop-cultural ideas around masculinity may be in a constant state of flux, elements of the stereotypical action hero remain prominent.
Discussions about the male action hero will be informed by Susan Jeffords Hard Bodies (1994), while concepts of maturing will be explored through the lens of Joseph Campbell's construct of the Hero's Journey and Carl Jung's archetypes, which, as I will demonstrate, are central components of the relationship dynamics present in each film.
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The aim of this paper is to explore how men entrepreneurs construe their success and the influence of the socio-cultural context and political and economic turbulence on their…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore how men entrepreneurs construe their success and the influence of the socio-cultural context and political and economic turbulence on their construals of success in the context of the Arab country of Lebanon.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the objective, the author draw on intersectionality theory and capitalise on twenty in-depth, semi-structured interviews with men entrepreneurs.
Findings
The findings reveal how construals of success by men entrepreneurs occur at the nexus between patriarchy, gendered expectations and adverse economic and political conditions. As a result, success is construed through the perseverance and legitimacy of their business and their compliance with expected family roles. These construals unfold as the men hold themselves accountable for and do gender and success per the ideal expectations indoctrinated by patriarchy.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its theoretical contributions. First, it is the first study to explore the construals of success by men entrepreneurs in an Arab Middle Eastern country. Second, it contributes to a growing body of work that explores gender as a situated practice and demonstrates how it is performed by men entrepreneurs while construing their success. Third, it contributes to research on intersectionality in entrepreneurship and sheds light on the interconnections of gender, patriarchal socio-cultural values, economic and political conditions and entrepreneurship in Arab countries.
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