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Article
Publication date: 23 February 2024

Irene Skovgaard-Smith

The purpose of the paper is to propose a shift from the ideal of immersion to a practice of “committed localism” in the ethnographic study of relational work in the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to propose a shift from the ideal of immersion to a practice of “committed localism” in the ethnographic study of relational work in the post-bureaucratic and service-based economy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork following management consultancy projects in a hospital and a manufacturing company in Denmark. The approach was predicated on committed attention to the everyday of consultancy work activities and associated relational dynamics. This involved being present at the client sites, observing and listening in concrete situations of interaction and engaging in conversations with the multiple actors involved, both external consultants and members of client organisations.

Findings

The paper shows how “committed localism” was practiced in the ethnographic study of management consultancy as it is relationally accomplished in and through concrete situations of interaction between consultants and different actors in client organizations and the associated meaning production of the involved actors.

Originality/value

The paper develops the notion of “committed localism”, originally introduced by George Marcus, into a methodological concept to challenge the conventional ideal of immersion as the hallmark of “proper” ethnography. Such a shift is particularly pertinent for the ethnographic study of relational processes involving multiple actors occupying different positions in the temporary social spaces of contemporary workplaces.

Details

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

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 April 2023

Francisco Fermín Mallén-Broch, Ricardo Chiva, Alma Rodríguez-Sánchez and Jacob Guinot

The paper analyzes and develops Chiva's (2014) proposal on the common welfare HRM system and uncovers its relationship with innovativeness, using altruism as a mediator.

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Abstract

Purpose

The paper analyzes and develops Chiva's (2014) proposal on the common welfare HRM system and uncovers its relationship with innovativeness, using altruism as a mediator.

Design/methodology/approach

The common welfare HRM system implies a certain human and organizational development of the classic control and commitment HRM systems, and its main goal is to promote innovation through a prosocial approach. To this end, the authors investigated its HRM practices, developed a measurement instrument and provided initial illustrative evidence of some of its main implications for innovativeness and altruism. They tested these relationships on a sample of 269 Spanish firms using structural equations and bootstrapping to confirm the significance of the mediated effect.

Findings

Results confirm the study’s hypotheses, thus supporting the common welfare HRM system as a relevant tool for developing innovativeness through the power of altruism. This paper therefore provides empirical evidence of these relationships.

Practical implications

This study has implications that can help managers to increase innovativeness through a specific HRM system. The findings reveal that a coherent set of HRM practices based on common welfare principles and a high level of consciousness creates a climate of altruism that results in innovativeness.

Originality/value

This research shows that humanistic HRM practices also have an impact on performance variables such as innovativeness, through altruistic employees' behaviors. It also develops a measurement instrument for the common welfare HRM system and provides some initial illustrative evidence of some of its main implications.

研究目的

本文分析並發展Chiva (2014) 關於共同福祉人力資源管理系統的建議;同時,擬以利他主義為中介變量、揭示共同福祉人力資源管理系統與創新意念之間的關係。

研究設計/方法/理念

共同福祉人力資源管理系統暗示了典型的管制和承諾型人力資源管理系統的人類與組織發展;而共同福祉人力資源管理系統的主要目的是以親社會理念去鼓勵創新。為此,我們探討了共同福祉人力資源管理措施,制訂了測量儀器,並為共同福祉人力資源管理可幫助帶來創新意念和利他主義的啟示,提供了初步的例證。研究的樣本為269間西班牙公司;我們以結構方程去檢測共同福祉人力資源管理與創新意念和利他主義之間的關係,並創造環境,俾能確認有關之中介效應的重要性。

研究結果

研究結果證實了我們的假設,就是說,研究結果確認了透過利他主義的影響力,共同福祉人力資源管理系統是可以成為促進創新意念的工具的。就此而言,本文提供了關於這些關係的經驗證據。

研究的原創性

本研究顯示了人文主義的人力資源管理措施,亦可透過僱員無私的行為,影響著各個績效變量,像是創新意念。研究亦為共同福祉人力資源管理系統制訂了測量儀器,並提供了初步的例證,確認了該人力資源管理系統所給予我們的主要啟示。

實務方面的啟示

本研究為管理人員提供了啟示,協助他們透過特定的人力資源管理系統去增強創新意念。研究結果顯示、建基於共同福祉的原則和高度意識水平的一整套連貫的人力資源管理措施,能創造一個引來創新意念的利他主義氣氛。

Details

European Journal of Management and Business Economics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2444-8451

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 April 2024

Jason Martin, Per-Erik Ellström, Andreas Wallo and Mattias Elg

This paper aims to further our understanding of policy–practice gaps in organizations from an organizational learning perspective. The authors conceptualize and analyze…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to further our understanding of policy–practice gaps in organizations from an organizational learning perspective. The authors conceptualize and analyze policy–practice gaps in terms of what they label the dual challenge of organizational learning, i.e. the organizational tasks of both adapting ongoing practices to prescribed policy demands and adapting the policy itself to the needs of practice. Specifically, the authors address how this dual challenge can be understood in terms of organizational learning and how an organization can be managed to successfully resolve the dual learning challenge and, thereby, bridge policy–practice gaps in organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on existing literature to explore the gap between policy and practice. Through a synthesis of theories and an illustrative practical example, this paper highlights key conceptual underpinnings.

Findings

In the analysis of the dual challenge of organizational learning, this study provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes the important role of tensions and contradictions between policy and practice and their role as drivers of organizational learning. To bridge policy–practice gaps in organizations, this paper proposes five key principles that aim to resolve the dual challenge and accommodate both deployment and discovery in organizations.

Research limitations/implications

Because this is a conceptual study, empirical research is called for to explore further and test the findings and conclusions of the study. Several avenues of possible future research are proposed.

Originality/value

This paper primarily contributes by introducing and elaborating on a conceptual framework that offers novel perspectives on the dual challenges of facilitating both discovery and deployment processes within organizations.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 July 2023

Andrés Salas-Vallina, Alma Rodríguez Sánchez and Manoli Pozo-Hidalgo

This study explores the phenomenon of compassionate leadership, a promising concept in management literature. Despite significant contributions towards the understanding of its…

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores the phenomenon of compassionate leadership, a promising concept in management literature. Despite significant contributions towards the understanding of its antecedents and consequences, the specific role of compassion concerning the leader behavior under extreme pressure remains unexplored.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing empirically on the case of three banks under three different logics, the authors trace how heads of banking branches, namely, middle managers, deal with the paradoxical phenomenon of integrating their human nature with the coetaneous need to achieve aggressive objectives. The authors analyzed interviews using the interpretive research method (Hatch and Yanow, 2003).

Findings

The authors identified that the logic of savings banks and credit cooperatives, together with specific human elements, created a healthier environment to develop compassionate behaviors compared to commercial banks. The authors found coherence when linking the institutional message of putting the spotlight on a personalized treatment of customers, and the middle manager compassionate actions towards customers and subordinates.

Research limitations/implications

Suggestions for future theorizing and research are advanced, along with constructive practical implications to rehumanize the dark side of banking for both employees and customers.

Originality/value

The findings provided in this paper are original because they provide further evidence of linking business logics with compassionate leadership of middle managers and its impact on employees and customers.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 April 2024

Maria Krysfeldt, Jannick Friis Christensen and Thomas Burø

The paper discusses how the management of a sports and fashion company, which we refer to as NULMA, successfully applied the neo/normative control technology “karma organisation”…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper discusses how the management of a sports and fashion company, which we refer to as NULMA, successfully applied the neo/normative control technology “karma organisation” and gained employee engagement. Whereas other studies have documented employee resistance to organisational cultures when used for managerial control, our case demonstrates resistance to management practices that employees find inconsistent with the dominant karma culture.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a six-year longitudinal organisational at-home ethnography conducted by one of the authors using methods of both participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and collaborative production of secondary data in the case organisation.

Findings

While our research shows that management can successfully apply neo/normative control which employees accept and support, we further show that employees mobilise the same values to resist management when it fails to deliver on the commitments and promises of the organisational culture.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the literature on organisational culture and, in particular, neo/normative control by theorising employee resistance as being by “accident”, by which we mean an inherent negative potentiality co-invented and released by managers establishing a “karma organisation”. Our theorising culminates in a discussion of the study’s implications for research and practice.

Details

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

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 February 2024

Sumiyana Sumiyana, Efa Agus Agus Susanto, Dian Kartika Kartika Rahajeng and Rijardh Djatu Winardi

This study aims to investigate the dynamic capabilities of Indonesia’s local government internal auditors (LGIAs). LGIAs are the functional civil apparatus that is responsible for…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the dynamic capabilities of Indonesia’s local government internal auditors (LGIAs). LGIAs are the functional civil apparatus that is responsible for the main task of auditing local governments at the provincial, regency and municipal levels. Meanwhile, the LGIAs are also a spearhead in identifying and analysing errors, irregularities and fraudulent actions in the finance and development of local government.

Design/methodology/approach

The exploratory case study methodology was used, gathering insights from 18 individuals through interviews. In addition, the authors use a critical perspective of the LGIAs’ behaviours in enhancing their capabilities in compliance with the regulations. Moreover, the authors discuss the low motivation of LGIAs in terms of achievement in knowledge acquisition, a mechanistic curriculum creating a climate of low spirit, mental models in rooted ordinariness and behavioural anxiety in hierarchical systems of expertise.

Findings

This paper infers that the LGIAs reflect inertia in terms of capabilities because its curriculum, environment and organisation have pervasively changed the culture of the work environment. Consequently, although immorally convenient and practical, the LGIAs work with professional discipline and expedient behaviours. In addition, the LGIAs behave performativity, presenting task performances with undynamic capabilities. Lastly, these behaviours imply the need to enhance the LGIAs’ dynamic capabilities by structuring local governments’ adaptive environment. Hence, this adaptive environment, in turn, could facilitate LGIAs’ further being in high spirits in enhancing knowledge-based expertise.

Practical implications

This study firstly implies that the research findings indicate the need for environmental-, organisational- and curriculum-made transformations to change the capabilities and competencies of LGIAs in the future, facilitating them to increase assimilation-learning abilities. Furthermore, the research shows that mental models dominate LGIAs, resulting in low spirits and reluctance to develop their dynamic capabilities. The paper recommends creating a work culture where anxiety is not dominant and changing the flexibility of the professional structure for LGIAs so that they can be promoted from functional to structural officers.

Originality/value

LGIAs work in a cultural environment that is always structured to fulfil what the regulations require. So, this study’s first novelty is that it underlines the ordinary job practices of LGIAs and the low incentives to enhance their dynamic capabilities. Secondly, it is highlighted that the institution’s auspices do not facilitate LGIAs to advance their dynamic capabilities because of the static competency-based development curriculum. Thirdly, the research shows that the LGIAs are a civil apparatus whose employment system in Indonesia implies a no-dismissal culture and halo effect in measuring performance.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 July 2021

Henry Adobor, William Phanuel Kofi Darbi and Obi Berko O. Damoah

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of strategic leadership under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability. The authors argue that highly improbable…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of strategic leadership under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability. The authors argue that highly improbable, but high-impact events require the upper echelons of management, traditionally the custodians of strategy formulation to offer a new kind of strategic leadership focused on new mindsets, organizational capabilities, more in tune with high uncertainty and unpredictability.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on strategic leadership, and complexity leadership theory, the authors review the literature and present a conceptual framework for exploring the nature of strategic leadership under uncertainty. The authors conceptualize organizations as complex adaptive systems and discuss the imperatives for developing new mental models for emergent leadership.

Findings

Strategic leaders have a key role to play in preparing their organizations for episodic disruptions. These include developing their adaptive capabilities and building resilient organizations to ensure their organizations cannot only bounce back after a disruption but have the capacity for transformation to new fitness levels when necessary. Strategic leaders must engage with complexity leadership by seeing their organizations as complex adaptive systems, reconfigure their leadership approaches and organizations to build strategic adaptive capability.

Research limitations/implications

This is a conceptual paper and the authors cannot make any claims of causality.

Practical implications

Organizational leaders need to reconfigure their mental models and leadership approaches to reflect the new normal of uncertainty and unpredictability. Developing the strategic adaptive capability of organizations should prepare them for dealing with high impact events. To assure business continuity in the face of disruptions requires building flexible, adaptable business models.

Originality/value

The paper focuses on how managers can offer strategic leadership for a new normal that challenges some of our most cherished leadership and strategic management paradigms. The authors explore the new mental models and leadership models in an era of great uncertainty.

Details

Journal of Strategy and Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-425X

Keywords

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