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– The purpose of this paper is to explore supportive and shared leadership structures at schools as a function of school culture policies and procedures.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore supportive and shared leadership structures at schools as a function of school culture policies and procedures.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was conducted at three secondary schools in the Midwestern USA. Administrators and teachers were interviewed, professional learning communities observed and artifacts collected to explore school culture policies, procedures and leadership in the implementation of professional learning community practice.
Findings
This study concludes that school leaders must provide supportive and shared leadership structures for teachers in order to ensure a positive school culture and effective professional learning communities that impact school improvement. Leaders in schools must work directly with teachers to create policies and procedures that provide teachers the leadership structure to directly impact school improvement through professional learning community collaborative efforts.
Originality/value
This study builds on the school culture and professional learning communities literature by exploring existent policies and practices in schools as unique cases. Much of the literature calls for specific case studies to identify issues in the implementation of effective practice. This study is important to the community as specific cases that may inform educational leaders on mechanisms that may be leveraged to ensure successful implementation of policies and procedures outline in school culture and professional learning community literature.
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Toyin Ajibade Adisa, Emeka Smart Oruh and Babatunde Akanji
Despite the fundamental role of culture in an organisational setting, little is known of how organisational culture can be sometimes determined/influenced by professional culture…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the fundamental role of culture in an organisational setting, little is known of how organisational culture can be sometimes determined/influenced by professional culture, particularly in the global south. Using Nigeria as a research focus, this article uses critical discuss analysis to examine the link between professional and organisational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative research approach to establish the significance of professional culture as a determinant of organisational culture among healthcare organisations.
Findings
We found that the medical profession in Nigeria is replete with professional duties and responsibilities, such as professional values and beliefs, professional rules and regulations, professional ethics, eagerness to fulfil the Hippocratic Oath, professional language, professional symbols, medicine codes of practice and societal expectations, all of which conflate to form medical professionals' values, beliefs, assumptions and the shared perceptions and practices upon which the medical professional culture is strongly built. This makes the medical professional culture stronger and more dominant than the healthcare organisational culture.
Research limitations/implications
The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the limited and selected sample of the research.
Practical implications
The primacy of professional culture over organisational culture may have dysfunctional consequences for human resource management (HRM), as medical practitioners are obliged to stick to medical professional culture over human resources practices. Hence, human resources departments may struggle to cope with the behavioural issues that arise due to the dominant position taken by the medical practitioners. This is because the cultural system (professional culture), which is the configuration of beliefs, perceived values, code of ethics, practices and so forth. shared by medical doctors, subverts the operating system. Therefore, in the case of healthcare organisations, HRM should support and enhance the cultural system (the medical professional culture) by offering compatible operating strategies and practices.
Originality/value
This article provides valuable insights into the link between professional culture and organisational culture. It also enriches debates on organisational culture and professional culture. We, therefore, contend that a strong professional culture can overwhelm and eventually become an organisational culture.
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Tian Gao and Bruce Gurd
The balanced scorecard (BSC) has been a popular management innovation in health care. Implementing an innovation like the BSC can change the professional subcultures of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The balanced scorecard (BSC) has been a popular management innovation in health care. Implementing an innovation like the BSC can change the professional subcultures of a hospital. The purpose of this paper is to measure subcultures to establish the level of change during the implementation of a management innovation in a single Chinese public hospital.
Design/methodology/approach
Four surveys were administered to the staff of a single hospital, and a 100,000-word research diary was compiled from observation of the research process. A longitudinal case study design was administered from 2006 to 2009. The competing values tool was administered twice to assess organizational cultural change.
Findings
There was a change in the culture of different professional groups. The group with the strongest dominating culture type, which relies on cohesion, morale and employee participation in decision-making, shows the most positive change in cultural types during the BSC implementation process. Management innovations such as the BSC can create more balance in each professional group.
Practical implications
The successful implementation of a management innovation in a hospital requires the managers to consider meeting the demand of medical professional groups and achieve desired culture type change, which in turn may help to achieve the expected results.
Originality/value
This paper provides support to the finding that groups with a dominant group culture are more receptive to change and implementing a management innovation can influence professional group’s culture. It also provides evidence that the implementation of BSC can create more balance in each professional group’s culture. Although these findings come from health care, it may have relevance to other contexts in China.
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Patricia Khokher, Ivy Lynn Bourgeault and Ivan Sainsaulieu
This paper sets out to explore health professionals' views and experiences regarding the work culture that exists in their hospital units, and further how patients influence these…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to explore health professionals' views and experiences regarding the work culture that exists in their hospital units, and further how patients influence these experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employs a qualitative approach involving individual interviews with 60 health professionals in Canada employed in what is conceptualised as “open” (emergency room and maternity care) and “closed” (intensive care, head and neck surgery) units.
Findings
The paper finds that the influence of the hospital unit outweighs the influence of professional boundaries but for some groups more than for others. Health professionals in more open units tend to be less satisfied with their work, have more difficult relations with patients, and experience tensions with co‐workers and management. Those in closed units tend to be more satisfied with their work, have relatively better relations with patients and co‐workers, and tend to have more cooperative relations with management. The different structural conditions of work in open and closed units are also clearly important.
Research limitations/implications
The sample for the study was self‐selected from one hospital, which may limit the generalisability of some of the findings.
Practical implications
The insights garnered from the study may help professionals and managers to develop unit‐specific policies to create a more positive workplace culture.
Originality/value
There is a growing body of research on professional culture and oganisational culture that often does not clearly delineate how the two exist concurrently. The paper explicitly investigates this issue by examining work culture across various health professional groups and also across hospital units, and further how patients figure in these experiences.
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The point of divergence for the authors’ analysis is the observation that research on the development of professional skills did not provide empirical support to a possible…
Abstract
Purpose
The point of divergence for the authors’ analysis is the observation that research on the development of professional skills did not provide empirical support to a possible positive relationship between innovative culture and development of professional skills. The author believes that the injection of intervening variables has the potential to do just that. The purpose of this paper is to understand such contingencies through a developed moderated mediation model, which jointly examines supportive leadership as the mediating mechanism and individual power distance orientation as a moderator and to increase the theoretical validity and precision of investigating the development of professional skills.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey data were collected from 317 information technology (IT) professional technical engineers and their supervisors from high-tech sectors. The authors tested the hypotheses by hierarchical regression and followed Baron and Kenny (1986) instruction to examine our moderated mediation model. The authors used a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to verify the constructs’ distinctiveness before testing the hypotheses was performed. Meanwhile, in order to test the mediating effect, the three-equation approach to testing mediation, as recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986), was used.
Findings
The strong support for schema theory in this study suggests that the development of professional skills can be notably promoted through a moderated mediation model which integrates the link between innovative culture and professional skills through the mediating effect of supportive leadership and the direct effects are mitigated by the moderating effect of individual power distance orientation. It highlights the importance of appropriately matching innovative culture and supportive leadership with the power distance orientation of employees. This universalistic organizational behavior approach has worked effectively in an Asian sample.
Originality/value
This study provides a better understanding of work motivation by showing that an employee uses schemas to interpret the relationships among perceived innovative culture, individual power distance orientation, supportive leadership and development of professional skills. This paper also illustrates how perceived innovative culture can act as an positive motivator to inspire IT technical engineers’ development of professional skills, and how individually held power distance orientation may positively or negatively influence the relationship between perceived innovative culture and supportive leadership. Hence, this study has extended the schema theory in organizations and informed the literature on supportive leadership.
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This paper aims to explore issues that must be addressed in post‐secondary educational planning and delivery such that social cultural factors within the learning environment are…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore issues that must be addressed in post‐secondary educational planning and delivery such that social cultural factors within the learning environment are recognized in ways that affirm the learner's cultural traditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The adoption of a multiple cultures model of instructional design with an emphasis on implementing flexible learning using instructional technology is proposed.
Findings
The paper finds that as student mobility continues to increase across educational programs and geographic borders, the need to accommodate cultural differences in an increasingly heterogeneous study will have to increase dramatically and, for this to occur, institutions and faculty will have to improve their insight into cultural and learning differences that affect teaching and learning.
Practical implications
Distance education courses are commonly offered in professional upgrading or “bridging” programs as one solution to addressing the apparent knowledge and experience gaps of newly immigrated internationally‐educated practitioners. Useful strategies for accommodating individual styles and preferences in a multiple cultures professional online learning context have been described.
Originality/value
Learning preferences and styles are inextricably related to cultural background as well as curricular and course design. This paper provides a much‐needed professional distance education framework that integrates the skills and values of the student with those of the local professional community to create a unified and authentic learning environment.
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Kurt Thumlert, Ron Owston and Taru Malhotra
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a commissioned research study that analyzed a schooling initiative with the ambitious goal of transforming learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a commissioned research study that analyzed a schooling initiative with the ambitious goal of transforming learning environments across the district by advancing innovative, inquiry-driven pedagogical practices combined with 1:1 iPad distribution. The paper explores impacts of the initiative on pedagogical innovation, twenty-first century learning, and related impacts on professional learning, collaboration, and culture change in the pilot schools analyzed in the study.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-dimensional case study approach was used to analyze how the initiative was implemented, and to what extent teaching, learning, and professional cultures were transformed, based on action plan inputs and “change drivers”. Research methods included structured, open-ended interviews conducted with randomly selected teachers and key informants in leadership roles, focus groups held with students, as well as analysis of policy documents, student work samples, and other data sources.
Findings
The authors found evidence of a synergistic relationship between innovations in inquiry-driven pedagogy and professional learning cultures, with evidence of increased collaboration, deepened engagement and persistence, and a climate of collegiality and risk-taking at both classroom and organizational levels. Based on initiative inputs, the authors found that innovations in collaborative technology/pedagogy practices in classrooms paralleled similar innovations and transformations in professional learning cultures and capacity-building networks.
Practical implications
This initiative analyzed in this paper provides a case study in large-scale system change, offering a compelling model for transformative policies and initiatives where interwoven innovations in pedagogy and technology mobilization are supported by multiple drivers for formal and informal professional learning/development and networked collaboration. Challenges and recommendations are highlighted in the concluding discussion.
Originality/value
The transformative initiative analyzed in this paper provides a very timely case-model for innovations in twenty-first century learning and, specifically, for enacting and sustaining large-scale system change where inquiry-driven learning and technology tools are being mobilized to support “deep learning”, “new learning partnerships”, and multilevel transformations in professional learning (Fullan and Donnelly, 2013). This research advances scholarly work in the areas of twenty-first century learning, identifying relationships between technology/pedagogy innovation and professional capital building (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012).
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William David Brice and James Richardson
The purpose of this paper is to empirically compare values and beliefs of family‐business members with those of professional managers across two countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically compare values and beliefs of family‐business members with those of professional managers across two countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological approach utilizes a survey comparing 163 family‐firm members and 168 bank managers in Ukraine and the USA, looking for differences between the culture of members of family‐owned firms and non‐family professionals; and especially the direction of any differences.
Findings
The findings show significant differences between family‐firm members and non‐family professionals in both countries. Differences are in the same direction for three constructs. While this study is limited in only examining two countries, the results imply a conclusion that higher social flexibility and spirituality and lower power distance are potentially universal in terms of family‐firm culture.
Originality/value
This study's value is in illuminating specific fundamental cultural traits that may be related to family‐firm competitive advantage that researchers have noted in the literature.
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Sally Jacobs, Darren Ashcroft and Karen Hassell
The aim of this paper is to report on the findings of a systematic literature review‐seeking to elicit existing evidence of the nature of organisational culture in community…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to report on the findings of a systematic literature review‐seeking to elicit existing evidence of the nature of organisational culture in community pharmacy organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
This review takes a novel approach to systematically identifying and synthesising the peer‐reviewed research literature pertaining to organisational culture in this setting, its antecedents and outcomes.
Findings
The review provides an overview of the scope of and research methods used in the identified literature, together with a narrative synthesis of its findings, framed within five dimensions of organisational culture: the professional‐business role dichotomy; workload, management style, social support and autonomy; professional culture; attitudes to change and innovation; and entrepreneurial orientation.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need for more detailed and holistic exploration of organisational culture in community pharmacy, using a greater diversity of research methods and a greater focus on patient‐related outcomes.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates that, whilst little research has explicitly investigated organisational culture in this context, there exists a range of evidence describing aspects of that culture, some of the environmental and organisational factors helping to shape it, and its impact on the pharmacy workforce, services delivered and business outcomes. It highlights the importance of the business‐professional role dichotomy in community pharmacy; the influence of individual pharmacists' characteristics and organisational setting; and the impact on pharmacists' wellbeing and job satisfaction and the services delivered. It provides less evidence of the impact of organisational culture on the quality and safety of service provision.
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Iulian Warter and Liviu Warter
This chapter intends to reveal the leading questions regarding doing business in Eastern Europe. The chapter uncovers the most important cultural issues applied to business ethics…
Abstract
This chapter intends to reveal the leading questions regarding doing business in Eastern Europe. The chapter uncovers the most important cultural issues applied to business ethics in order to improve the knowledge concerning business in Eastern Europe. We envisage, also, the nexus between intercultural elements and business ethics issues. This chapter aims at practitioners and management scholars, serving as a starting point for deepening the understanding of cultural and ethical issues in Eastern Europe.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the economic, social and political conditions have changed radically, especially in Europe. During the last two decades, Europeanization has become an attractive research area and an integral part of the study of European Union (EU) politics.
National cultural values provide a context for discussing ethics and ethicality, but not an explanation of why there are differences in ethical values. The organizational culture is quite homogeneous among Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) countries, but the national cultures remained different.
Organizational cultures in ECE are characterized by: highly centralized structures, dislike of uncertainty, preferences for formality and strong collectivist attitudes.
Professional ethics is not a special type of ethics but the application of ethical judgement in professional practice. This application can be difficult in business settings as conflicting demands can arise. In areas where professional practitioners are employed, there is potential for a conflict.
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