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1 – 10 of over 144000Michiel Schoemaker and Jan Jonker
To develop a concept of managing intangible assets in contemporary organisations. Insight is given into the rise of the network organisation and the importance of talent, social…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a concept of managing intangible assets in contemporary organisations. Insight is given into the rise of the network organisation and the importance of talent, social capital and identity in this kind of organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a conceptual framework based on a theoretical analysis of recent literature in the fields of human resource management and organisational identity.
Findings
Organisations in contemporary society fundamentally differ from the ones dominating the twentieth century. Work nowadays is providing service(s), organising based upon a mix of people's talents, social capital and information and communication technology (ICT). Modern organisations depend on talent. Talents make the distinctive difference between an organisation and its competitors. Organising with talents requires a second‐order form of networks: (social) cohesion in the network quintessential to make it work. This can be found in the notion of “social capital”. Yet talents and social capital only thrive in an excellent community of work. Organisations as communities of work hold together by a common identity. With the rise of the modern organisation in the information society the community of work has become a fundamental part of organising.
Research limitations/implications
First there is a growing inter‐affiliation and interdependency of work processes and the community of work. Second, assumptions regarding the manageability of “organisations” are under pressure. More research is needed in the field of the relationship between organisational processes, commitment and identity.
Practical implications
In order to survive and prosper, “modern” organisations acting in the information society need to be flexible configurations bearing a recognisable identity.
Originality/value
This paper gives insight in the relationship between core competencies and identity on the one hand and work processes and the community on the other hand. Talents and social capital need to be placed at the heart of the modern organisation. This demands a re‐balance in the relations between the individual and the organisation.
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Terhi Saaranen, Marjorita Sormunen, Tiia Pertel, Karin Streimann, Siivi Hansen, Liana Varava, Kädi Lepp, Hannele Turunen and Kerttu Tossavainen
This paper aims to present the baseline results of a research and development project targeted to improve the occupational well‐being of school staff and maintain their ability to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the baseline results of a research and development project targeted to improve the occupational well‐being of school staff and maintain their ability to work, in Finland and Estonia. It reveals the most problematic factors in the various aspects of the school community and professional competence and outlines development needs in the school communities.
Design/methodology/approach
The overall project design is action research, conducted during 2009‐2013 in the SHE (Schools for Health in Europe) network in Finland and Estonia. The baseline survey data were collected in 2009‐2010 with a web‐based Well‐being at your work index questionnaire and analysed statistically using descriptive statistics, sum variables of factors and Mann‐Whitney tests.
Findings
The general opinions of the Finnish school staffs were more affirmative than those of Estonian school staffs regarding their own personal occupational well‐being in comparison with the best in the profession (p=0.000). However, the Finns were more critical than the Estonians when estimating the general well‐being of the staff in their working community, maintenance of their ability to work, the aspects of the school community and professional competence and development needs in the school communities.
Research limitations/implications
The results cannot be widely generalised due to the geographically defined samples, but they can be suggestive in comparable situations in Finland and Estonia.
Originality/value
There is a need to develop the occupational well‐being of school staff and maintenance of their ability to work in the school communities: specific interventions will be developed on the basis of the results obtained from the project schools.
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This article seeks to look at the police officer on patrol. It aims to explore three categories of work undertaken during periods of un‐tasked patrol where officers can…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to look at the police officer on patrol. It aims to explore three categories of work undertaken during periods of un‐tasked patrol where officers can self‐direct their work.
Design/methodology/approach
Informed by empirical data from an ethnographic study of front line community policing in Britain, the categories of work are illustrated through the profile(s) of officer(s) whose actions best support each style.
Findings
The coming together of officers with different skills and the propensity to undertake different types of police work can broaden the community policing philosophy as well as the practice itself. While an expansive policing mandate can be used to justify and explain the pursuit of preferential areas of police work by the patrolling officer, findings also uncover evidence of the persistence of police practices and attitudes that alienate certain community groups.
Research limitations/implications
Given the sustained popularity of localized policing models, further ethnographies are needed to broaden the analysis of patrol work particularly as additional research of this kind conducted with different groups of officers may well reveal evidence of different patrol styles.
Practical implications
If the full potential of community policing is to be recognized then the police service needs to encourage front line officers to devise ways of learning about, making contact with, and working with, the diverse groups that comprise local communities. However, introducing new policies and working practices needs to be accompanied by attitudinal and behavioural change.
Originality/value
The paper presents a new and original set of patrolling styles of the police officer.
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– The purpose of this paper is to explore the presence and nature of integrated care in community hospitals.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the presence and nature of integrated care in community hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
Staff reported their views and experiences of integrated care in 48 questionnaires for a Community Hospitals Association programme. An analytical framework was developed based on eight types of integration, and the community hospital services concerned were grouped into nine service categories.
Findings
Staff reported multiple types of integration, averaging four types (median), with a range of two to eight (of the eight types studied). The types of integration most frequently reported were multidisciplinary care, and community hospital/secondary care and community hospital/primary care. Integration with communities, patients and the third sector featured in many of the services. Integration with social care and local authorities were least frequently reported. Services with the highest number of types of integration (5+) included palliative care, maternity services and health promotion. Staff reported that commitment was a positive factor whilst a lack of staff resources hindered partnership working.
Research limitations/implications
Staff volunteered to be part of the programme which promoted good practice, and although the findings from the study cannot be generalised, they do contribute knowledge on key partnerships in local hospitals. Further research on the types, levels and outcomes of integrated care in a larger sample of community hospitals would build on this study and enable further exploration of partnership working.
Practical implications
The analytical framework developed for the study is being applied by staff and community groups as a tool to help assess appropriate partnership working and help identify the scope for further developing integrated care. The evidence of integrated working is available to inform those commissioning and providing community health services.
Originality/value
This study has shown that integrated working is present in community hospitals. This research provides new knowledge on the types of integrated care present in a range of community hospital services. The study shows a tradition of joint working, the presence of multiple simultaneous types of integration and demonstrated that integrated care can be provided in a range of services to patients of all ages in local communities.
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Bradford W. Hesse and Charles E. Grantham
Whereas the Industrial Revolution attracted workers away from home‐based community settings to central locations, the current proliferation of personal computers and asynchronous…
Abstract
Whereas the Industrial Revolution attracted workers away from home‐based community settings to central locations, the current proliferation of personal computers and asynchronous telecommunications technologies is reversing this trend. By networking employees from different geographical sites together, these technologies are producing “hybrid” organizational structures that permit their members to work within flexible schedules and in flexible places, even to the point of working at home. The result is the electronically distributed work community: a population of nonproximal coworkers who labor together electronically. This paper presents a springboard for conducting research on telework as it is understood within the context of that community. The paper begins with a brief history of telecommuting and describes its influence on the electronic community and organizational structures in general within the past two decades. The paper concludes by presenting implications for research on telework in the areas of privacy regulation, emergency preparedness, self‐efficacy, temporal aspects of employee behavior, communication patterns, and organizational effectiveness.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits and challenges of using a virtual learning community (VLC) as a vehicle for workforce development. This paper argues that VLCs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits and challenges of using a virtual learning community (VLC) as a vehicle for workforce development. This paper argues that VLCs provide a flexible vehicle for workforce development. However, workplace realities may lead to unexpected challenges for participants wanting exploit the flexibility of e‐learning technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study is located in a strategic healthcare organisation in the UK. The study used a multi‐method approach to develop a rich picture of the VLC. Data were collected from a variety of sources (programme evaluation questionnaires, learning logs, discussion group messages and VLE tracking system) and analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods.
Findings
The findings indicate that while membership of a VLC offers new opportunities for collaboration, learning and working at a time and place that suits individuals it also offers many challenges. The following issues were identified as having an impact on effective participation in the VLC: motivation; time management; public/private boundaries; work/life balance; and access to ICT.
Research limitations/implications
There are limitations in generalising from a particular case study. The use of a case study provides a depth to the study that helps to illuminate the experiences of individual e‐learners.
Practical implications
The findings have strategic implications for organisations planning to use VLCs to support workforce development. The study indicates the need for facilitators to enable participants to explore time and work/life balance issues. It highlights the importance of involving the managers of e‐learners in the negotiations involved in establishing a VLC. Finally, the study identified that employers need to provide protected time for e‐learners and that access to technology is an issue.
Originality/value
The research has value to managers who are considering using VLCs as a means of enhancing workforce development.
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Sarah Wilkinson, Luciana Lang and Sophie Yarker
The purpose of this paper is to present alternative ways of addressing inequality in age-friendly work by drawing attention to the limitations of place-based approaches in meeting…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present alternative ways of addressing inequality in age-friendly work by drawing attention to the limitations of place-based approaches in meeting the needs of dispersed communities.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of the age-friendly programme Ambition for Ageing (AfA) is used to explore three examples of working with minority communities.
Findings
Place-based age-friendly development risks further marginalising older people belonging to dispersed communities of identity or experience; therefore, we need to adopt adopt an intersectional approach to inequality in later life.
Practical implications
Three ways that age-friendly programmes may become more inclusive of minority groups who are geographically dispersed are identified: bringing community members together; co-production; and supporting visibility in mainstream settings.
Originality/value
This paper brings together insights from the AfA programme, critically assessing place-based approaches in relation to working with dispersed communities of identity. It offers some ways to mitigate limitations through adopting tailored equality approaches.
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Canada's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI) uses an operating model that is unusual in government. It is created to enable…
Abstract
Purpose
Canada's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI) uses an operating model that is unusual in government. It is created to enable cross‐boundary capability and capacity building and learning. Some consider it a model for other federal science initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of leadership – and its relationship to perceived effectiveness – in this complex network of counter‐terrorism communities, where parts of the network are functioning better than others. At a more academic level, it explores whether complexity theory can inform leadership theory.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative, empirical study uses phenomenography and elements of ethnography as methodologies. Data are gathered through interviews and observation.
Findings
CRTI personnel refer to their initiative as a counter‐terrorism network of communities. The leader of each community works – without positional authority – with participants from many organizations and locations. The paper reveals qualitatively different ways of understanding leadership. Even though CRTI groups have much in common, participants' ways of understanding that work vary greatly. Some understand their work environments as complex systems rather than as traditional government structures; this way of understanding is associated with perceptions of effectiveness. This finding can change the ways in which science and technology professionals make sense of their work in complex, trans‐disciplinary fields such as counter‐terrorism and global warming.
Originality/value
This qualitative, empirical research complements and supports some of the conceptual work about leadership and learning in complex environments.
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Fun at workplace is considered an important initiative to build co-working communities, and this study aims to study its role in promoting the innovative behaviour of co-workers…
Abstract
Purpose
Fun at workplace is considered an important initiative to build co-working communities, and this study aims to study its role in promoting the innovative behaviour of co-workers [members of co-working spaces (CWS)] and the mechanism of its influence.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the theory of social exchange and resource conservation, the authors conducted a qualitative study to explore the four dimensions of workplace fun and a quantitative study to empirically analyse the relationship between community embeddedness, organisational embeddedness, workplace fun and creativity of co-workers, taking K-space as an example.
Findings
Workplace fun is positively correlated with co-workers' creativity. Community embeddedness plays a complete mediating role between workplace fun and organisational embeddedness. Community embeddedness and organisational embeddedness play a chain-mediating role between workplace fun and creativity.
Originality/value
This study explores the process and impact of fun on employee creativity in a shared office environment by clarifying the composition of fun in CWS workplaces and the transmission mechanism of fun through informal community embeddedness and formal organisational embeddedness, expanding the research perspective on the factors influencing employee creativity in the new office model and enriching the research findings on the impact of fun at work on job performance.
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Rochelle Spencer, Martin Brueckner, Gareth Wise and Banduk Marika
Using an integrated framework for performance management of nonprofit organizations, this paper aims to present an analysis of the activities of an Indigenous social enterprise in…
Abstract
Purpose
Using an integrated framework for performance management of nonprofit organizations, this paper aims to present an analysis of the activities of an Indigenous social enterprise in the town of Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The evaluation focuses on the social effectiveness of the organization and its ability to help generate income and employment and drive social capital creation.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is informed by data derived from “yarns” with social enterprise staff and semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants who were selected using snowball sampling. Data were transcribed and analyzed thematically.
Findings
The analysis reveals that the organization provides a successful community-based pathway for increasing Indigenous economic participation on local terms at a time of regional economic decline and high levels of Indigenous unemployment nationally.
Practical implications
The measured effectiveness of Nuwul highlights the need for targeted policy support for Indigenous enterprises and that social entrepreneurship is far more likely to be successful in a supportive government policy environment, a critical need for government-initiated policies to encourage the formation of Indigenous social enterprises that are entrepreneurial and innovative in their solutions to poverty and marginalization. Such policies should not only aid the establishment of Indigenous ventures but also facilitate their long-term growth and sustainability.
Originality/value
Although Indigenous entrepreneurial activities have been found to be effective in addressing Indigenous disadvantage in Australia, little is known about their community impact. The article provides original empirically grounded research on the measurement of Indigenous entrepreneurial activities and their wider community impact. The data show, against the backdrop of mixed results of government efforts to drive Indigenous economic mainstreaming, that the entrepreneurial activities analyzed in this paper are an example of more flexible and culturally appropriate pathways for achieving Indigenous equality in rural and remote regions of Australia.
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