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1 – 10 of over 5000
Article
Publication date: 1 February 1995

Anna Luzio‐Lockett

Focuses on conflicts within organizations which express themselvesin aggression, whether this be in the interaction between superior andemployee or between colleagues, the…

1583

Abstract

Focuses on conflicts within organizations which express themselves in aggression, whether this be in the interaction between superior and employee or between colleagues, the consequences deriving from them, and the solutions to be found, taking into a broader consideration both the victim, the organization and what each can and should achieve.

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2006

James Bolton

Candor has been hailed in the business press as a key to unlocking organizational performance, yet there has been little discussion of methods that can foster and sustain candor

588

Abstract

Purpose

Candor has been hailed in the business press as a key to unlocking organizational performance, yet there has been little discussion of methods that can foster and sustain candor. The purpose of this article is to present a theoretical model for firstly, understanding the forces supporting and constraining organizational candor and secondly, promoting its practice.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper builds upon existing research that explores the dynamics present in the relationship between the individual and the organization and applies it to the growing need of creating greater organizational candor.

Findings

The decision to disclose ideas and information is a personal choice, an extension of an individual's free will. Organizations that want to capitalize on this rich knowledge base need to cultivate openness within work groups and the larger culture.

Practical implications

The methods presented here are intended to provide readers with options for nurturing candor in their own work and in the organizations in which they work.

Originality/value

The originality of this article is in bringing forward historical research from the applied behavioral sciences and using it to respond to a current organizational need. It will be of value to those who seek to practice and encourage greater candor, personally and organizationally.

Details

Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 38 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0019-7858

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2015

Florian E. Klonek and Simone Kauffeld

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a vocational communication skill from the helping professions. Verbal skills in MI are summarized under the acronyms OARS and EARS (open-ended…

1180

Abstract

Purpose

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a vocational communication skill from the helping professions. Verbal skills in MI are summarized under the acronyms OARS and EARS (open-ended questions/elaborating, affirmations, reflections, and summaries). The purpose of this paper is to outline how MI provides important skills for engineers, and demonstrate skill assessment by using an observation-based scientific approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Totally, 25 engineering students took part in a skill-based MI training. Quality assurance of the training was assessed by using a repeated measurement design with multiple measures: systematic observations from recorded interactions and self-reported and standardized performance measures. Two external observers reliably coded the recorded conversations using the MI skill code.

Findings

Trainees showed a significant increase of verbal skills in MI. Directive-confrontational behaviors decreased after training. Self-reported and performance measures indicated significant increases in MI post training. Conversational partners in the post-training condition showed significantly more motivation in comparison to partners before the training.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation of the study is the small sample size. However, training effect sizes showed large effects on verbal skills.

Practical implications

Communication skills in MI can be taught effectively for a technical population. This study suggests that MI is effective within the higher education of technical professions who have to deal with motivational issues. Observational measures can be used for quality assurance purposes, but also serve as a feedback instrument for work-based learning purposes.

Originality/value

This is the first study to evaluate training in MI for engineers using a multi-method approach with observational measures.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 May 2013

Stephanie E. Pitts and Karen Burland

This article seeks to understand how audience members at a live jazz event react to one another, to the listening venue, and to the performance. It considers the extent to which…

1359

Abstract

Purpose

This article seeks to understand how audience members at a live jazz event react to one another, to the listening venue, and to the performance. It considers the extent to which being an audience member is a social experience, as well as a personal and musical one, and investigates the distinctive qualities of listening to live jazz in a range of venues.

Design/methodology/approach

The research draws on evidence from nearly 800 jazz listeners, surveyed at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and in The Spin jazz club, Oxford. Questionnaires, diaries and interviews were used to understand the experiences of listening for a wide range of audience members, and were analysed using NVivo.

Findings

The findings illustrate how listening to live jazz has a strongly social element, whereby listeners derive pleasure from attending with others or meeting like‐minded enthusiasts in the audience, and welcome opportunities for conversation and relaxation within venues that help to facilitate this. Within this social context, live listening is for some audience members an intense, sometimes draining experience; while for others it offers a source of relaxation and absorption, through the opportunity to focus on good playing and preferred repertoire. Live listening is therefore both an individual and a social act, with unpredictable risks and pleasures attached to both elements, and varying between listeners, venues and occasions.

Research limitations/implications

There is potential for this research to be replicated in a wider range of jazz venues, and for these findings to be compared with audiences of other music genres, particularly pop and classical, where differences in expectations and behaviour will be evident.

Practical implications

The authors demonstrate how existing audience members are a vast source of knowledge about how a live jazz gig works, and how the appeal of such events could be nurtured amongst potential new audiences. They show the value of qualitative investigations of audience experience, and of the process of research and reflection in itself can be a source of audience development and engagement.

Originality/value

This paper makes a contribution to the literature on audience engagement, both through the substantial sample size and through the consideration of individual and social experiences of listening. It will have value to researchers in music psychology, arts marketing and related disciplines, as well as being a useful source of information and strategy for arts promoters.

Details

Arts Marketing: An International Journal, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-2084

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2005

Claus D. Jacobs and Loizos Th. Heracleous

To conceptualize and theorize dialogue's diagnostic as well as generative functions for strategic innovation and organizational change.

3805

Abstract

Purpose

To conceptualize and theorize dialogue's diagnostic as well as generative functions for strategic innovation and organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual development with case illustration.

Findings

Strategic innovation requires shifts in existing mental models of organizational actors that underlie the overall strategy paradigm of a firm. Dialogue as a form of reflective conversation enables actors to alter managers' mental models through conscious, critical exploration.

Research limitations/implications

Conceptual framework introduces reflective dialogue, as a crucial processual element for encouraging shifts in mental maps and as a necessary, but not sufficient condition for strategy innovation; provides an analytical framework for enhancing understanding of the emergent processes of strategic innovation, and for studying shifts in organizational actors' mental models.

Practical implications

Provides organizational change agents and strategists with perspectives and frameworks for appreciating and fostering reflective dialogue in the context of strategic thinking and innovation.

Originality/value

Concept of reflective dialogue and associated frameworks link micro‐levels and macro‐levels of strategy innovation and address critical process elements.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2007

Rupert Eales‐White

The purpose of this paper is to enable the reader to recognise that from each natural preference on the four Jungian dimensions flow opposite beliefs, behaviours and language;

485

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enable the reader to recognise that from each natural preference on the four Jungian dimensions flow opposite beliefs, behaviours and language; that difference initially is perceived negatively; and to provide strategies that will create real value from difference, improving their ability to manage relationships and enhancing their career prospects.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper defines each preference on each of the four dimensions: extroverted or introverted preference for obtaining energy and focusing; practical or concept preference for gathering and using information; logical or harmony preference for taking decisions; and structured or flexible preference for operating in the outside world. It sets out the words and phrases used for each preference and proves that they are polar opposites. The paper highlights the importance of relationships to career prospects in large diverse organisations. It demonstrates that the most effective profile for career success in such organisations is ECLS. The study details how the use of the technique reflective listening enables the individual to calm down an angry boss and leave him/her with a perception of competence. The paper also indicates how, whatever the reader's profile, he/she can gain a competitive edge in career and relationship terms if he/she both follows a personal path to completeness in all the dimensions and develops empathy by adopting a matching strategy.

Findings

The paper finds that there is a difference in the dimensions results in difficult relationships with opposite profiles. In modern, large, diverse organisations, the ECLS profile has a competitive edge in career terms. This natural edge can be overturned by individuals who are prepared to pursue a personal path to completeness and use an effective empathetic approach to managing relationships.

Originality/value

The paper provides a demonstration of how the distribution of introverted and extroverted preferences in the chain of command can have a major impact on career prospects. It also shows how individuals, who use a positive approach to managing differences, can maximise relationship and career success, whereby they themselves follow the path to completeness in the four dimensions, and others adopt a strategy where they match the other person's (particularly the boss's) beliefs, behaviours and language.

Details

Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 39 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0019-7858

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Taina Erkkilä and Vilma Luoma-aho

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector organisations produced thousands of social media messages weekly answering citizens questions and informing the public on safety…

1172

Abstract

Purpose

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector organisations produced thousands of social media messages weekly answering citizens questions and informing the public on safety related matters. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the pandemic shaped social media listening in Finland's public sector organisations and how these organisations aligned their listening and strategic communication to address emerging questions, news (real and fake) and rumours during the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on a theoretical background from strategic communication, organisational listening, digital marketing and public sector communication, qualitative interview data included communicators (N = 14) from all central Finnish public sector organisations in charge of COVID-19 communication. Findings were themed and analysed qualitatively to understand the level of alignment of strategic communication on social media.

Findings

The findings revealed that the pandemic had strained public sector organisations' communication capabilities, forcing them to align their processes and resources reactively to enable useful content and limit false/misleading content. The results confirmed that organisational listening remained somewhat unaligned. A dual role of public sector communication as speakers but increasingly as listeners was highlighted.

Originality/value

The study’s findings point to organisational listening on social media being a central requisite for public sector organisations overcoming a crisis.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1995

Geoff Southworth

Critically reviews mentoring for new headteachers in England. Firstprovides a background to the English scheme which shows that mentoringwas introduced as a way of supporting new…

2245

Abstract

Critically reviews mentoring for new headteachers in England. First provides a background to the English scheme which shows that mentoring was introduced as a way of supporting new school leaders, then focuses on the concept of mentoring. Sets out the main characteristics of mentoring in England in order to establish greater clarity about its definition. Considers the advantages and disadvantages of mentoring. Notes and discusses four advantages and four disadvantages. The advantages are: that mentoring for new heads facilitates peer support; enables newcomers to make the role and occupational identity changes necessary; benefits mentors as well as mentees; and the process encourages reflective practice. The disadvantages are: pairing new heads and mentors is problematic; there is a dearth of knowledge about the needs of new heads in the 1990s; advice from experienced heads may be outmoded; and mentoring may sustain too strong a belief in the central importance of headteachers. Finally, critically reviews the strengths and weaknesses of mentoring. Mentoring may stimulate reflective, critical leadership or be a means of passing on conservative role assumptions. At present we have too little data to say which, in practice, it really is.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1994

Trevor Bentley

When groups meet, people form assumptions about the roles of variousparticipants within that group. Examines what these assumptions areusing three different approaches…

4249

Abstract

When groups meet, people form assumptions about the roles of various participants within that group. Examines what these assumptions are using three different approaches: restructured non‐directed interaction; exploration of reasons for being there; self‐introduction of group and discussion of group roles. Discusses the role of facilitator in a group, and defines facilitation as opposed to leadership, finding facilitation is about empowering people to take control and responsibility for their own efforts. Illustrates how to become a good facilitator using fictional characters from a facilitation skills workshop. Ends by revealing how an individual′s potential can be released.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 18 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 January 2005

140

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0952-6862

Keywords

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