Search results
1 – 10 of 12Melanie M. Lazarus and Joseph P. Nalepka
The results of the COVID-19 pandemic rendered the traditional work environment model obsolete for the United States Air Force, resulting in the need to create a new hybrid work…
Abstract
Purpose
The results of the COVID-19 pandemic rendered the traditional work environment model obsolete for the United States Air Force, resulting in the need to create a new hybrid work model that fits unique employee needs in a complex organization. This practitioner article discusses how the 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW) built the Mission-Focused Agile Work Environment (MFAWE) using a combination of human and mission-focused strategies to ensure a more flexible work environment without compromising excellence or its employees' well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an action research approach, data was collected by 77 diverse stakeholders in six working groups. Five perspectives were examined – employee, operations, infrastructure, leadership and mission – using a combination of literature and policy reviews, interviews, surveys and personal experiences to deliver recommendations to leadership for implementation.
Findings
The MFAWE addressed hybrid work transition requirements, including employee guidance, permanent workspace guidelines and facilities. Lessons learned from implementation included the need for a change management and communication strategy. An employee playbook was found to be an effective modality for information sharing but not for policy enforcement. Employee preference for permanent space regardless of time on site due to sanitation and mental health concerns was also discovered.
Originality/value
This article showcases how a large, complex organization built a new hybrid work model using employee-inclusive practices, filling a gap in the literature. This project also uncovered complex interdependencies when transitioning to a hybrid work model, including employee preferences.
Details
Keywords
Markus Helfen, Rick Delbridge, Andreas (Andi) Pekarek and Gretchen Purser
In this chapter, we introduce the topic of essentiality of work, exploring its implications for workers, labour markets, and public policy. The essentiality of work often…
Abstract
In this chapter, we introduce the topic of essentiality of work, exploring its implications for workers, labour markets, and public policy. The essentiality of work often corresponds in a dialectical way with the precarity of work, raising pressing questions about how societies value and, more pertinently, devalue various types of labour, thereby influencing life chances and societal integration. What we see in the contributions to this volume and the wider evidence is that essential work is typically performed by workers who are treated as expendable, or inessential. We proceed to outline the various contributions from the studies compiled in this volume. These present diverse perspectives on ‘essentiality’ and the experiences of essential workers. Offering a range of new empirical insights, the volume underlines the vitality and lasting relevance of essentiality – both as a concept and in the experience of workers – beyond the pandemic.
Details
Keywords
Kesavan Manoharan, Pujitha Dissanayake, Chintha Pathirana, M.M.D.R. Deegahawature and Renuka Silva
Studies highlight that poor labour supervision and inadequate labour training facilities are the primary factors that result in labour skill shortages and productivity-related…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies highlight that poor labour supervision and inadequate labour training facilities are the primary factors that result in labour skill shortages and productivity-related challenges among construction firms. This study aims to assess the construction supervisors’ abilities in providing work-based training elements and evaluating labour skills in construction.
Design/methodology/approach
A construction supervisory training programme was newly designed with a set of labour training exercises using comprehensive approaches. A total of 64 construction supervisors were trained to deliver the labour training components for more than 250 labourers working on 23 construction projects in Sri Lanka. The supervisors’ competencies were assessed using a detailed marking guide developed through expert discussions and literature reviews.
Findings
The results show the detailed cross-section of a wide range of competencies of the construction supervisors in providing labour training elements with the levels of standards/descriptions. The generalisability of the study applications and the reliability of the results were ensured using statistical tests and expert reviews. The findings further describe the impacts of the well-improved competencies of construction supervisors on labour working patterns and work outputs.
Research limitations/implications
Though the study findings were limited to the Sri Lankan construction sector, the study applications can have a considerable impact on the current/future practices of the construction sector in developing countries as well as other developing industries.
Social implications
The study outcomes may contribute to a rapid increase in the number of construction supervisors becoming certified assessors of National Vocational Qualifications up to certain levels. This paper describes the further extensive implications and future scopes of the study elaborately.
Originality/value
The study adds new characteristics and values to construction supervision practices that can be remarkable in achieving higher levels of performance and productivity in labour operations. Importantly, the study contributes to adorning the job role of construction supervisors with the title of “labour training expert”.
Details
Keywords
Yewei Ouyang, Guoqing Huang and Shiyi He
There are many safety hazards in construction workplaces, and inattention to the hazards is the main reason why construction workers failed to identify the hazards. Reasonably…
Abstract
Purpose
There are many safety hazards in construction workplaces, and inattention to the hazards is the main reason why construction workers failed to identify the hazards. Reasonably allocating attention during hazard identification is critical for construction workers’ safety. However, adverse working environments in job sites may undermine workers’ attention. Previous studies failed to investigate the impacts of environmental factors on attention allocation, which hinders taking appropriate measures to eliminate safety incidents when encountering adverse working environments. This study aims to examine the effects of workplace noise and heat exposure on workers’ attention allocation during construction hazard identification to fill the research gap.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied an experimental study where a within-subject experiment was designed. Fifteen construction workers were invited to perform hazard identification tasks in panoramic virtual reality. They were exposed to three noise levels (60, 85 and 100 dBA) in four thermal conditions (26°C, 50% RH; 33°C, 50% RH; 30°C, 70% RH; 33°C, 70% RH). Their eye movements were recorded to indicate their attention allocation under each condition.
Findings
The results show that noise exposure reduced workers’ attention to hazardous areas and the impacts increased with the noise level. Heat exposure also reduced the attention, but it did not increase with the heat stress but with subjects’ thermal discomfort. The attention was impacted more by noise than heat exposure. Noise exposure in the hot climate should be more noteworthy because lower levels of noise would lead to significant changes. These visual characteristics led to poorer identification accuracy.
Originality/value
This study could extend the understanding of the relationship between adverse environmental factors and construction safety. Understanding the intrinsic reasons for workers' failed identification may also provide insights for the industry to enhance construction safety under adverse environments.
Details
Keywords
Wiljeana Jackson Glover, Sabrina JeanPierre Jacques, Rebecca Rosemé Obounou, Ernest Barthélemy and Wilnick Richard
This study examines innovation configurations (i.e. sets of product/service, social and business model innovations) and configuration linkages (i.e. factors that help to combine…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines innovation configurations (i.e. sets of product/service, social and business model innovations) and configuration linkages (i.e. factors that help to combine innovations) across six organizations as contingent upon organizational structure.
Design/methodology/approach
Using semi-structured interviews and available public information, qualitative data were collected and examined using content analysis to characterize innovation configurations and linkages in three local/private organizations and three foreign-led/public-private partnerships in Repiblik Ayiti (Haiti).
Findings
Organizations tend to combine product/service, social, and business model innovations simultaneously in locally founded private organizations and sequentially in foreign-based public-private partnerships. Linkages for simultaneous combination include limited external support, determined autonomy and shifting from a “beneficiary mindset,” and financial need identification. Sequential combination linkages include social need identification, community connections and flexibility.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of our findings for this qualitative study is subject to additional quantitative studies to empirically test the suggested factors and to examine other health care organizations and countries.
Practical implications
Locally led private organizations in low- and middle-income settings may benefit from considering how their innovations are in service to one another as they may have limited resources. Foreign based public-private partnerships may benefit from pacing their efforts alongside a broader set of stakeholders and ecosystem partners.
Originality/value
This study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine how organizations combine sets of innovations, i.e. innovation configurations, in a healthcare setting and the first of any setting to examine innovation configuration linkages.
Details
Keywords
Kevin Baird, Amy Tung, Thanh Phan and Mohammed Bhuyan
This study examines the effect of Human Resource Management (HRM) policies in respect to workplace flexibility and employee empowerment on two employee behaviour related outcomes…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the effect of Human Resource Management (HRM) policies in respect to workplace flexibility and employee empowerment on two employee behaviour related outcomes (employee organisational commitment (EOC) and collegiality) and organisational resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using an online survey questionnaire managed by Qualtrics. The questionnaire was distributed to the lower, middle and senior managers of 1,000 Australian organisations with 337 responses used in the analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that workplace flexibility exhibits a direct and indirect (through collegiality) significant positive association with organisational resilience, and employee empowerment exhibits a direct and indirect (through both EOC and collegiality) significant positive association with organisational resilience.
Originality/value
The results highlight the importance of implementing desirable HRM policies in respect to empowering employees and enhancing workplace flexibility due to their role in facilitating organisational resilience both directly and indirectly through their influence on employee behaviour related outcomes, specifically EOC and collegiality.
Details
Keywords
Fredrik Svärdsten and Kristina Tamm Hallström
The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about the diversity of credibility arrangements in new audit spaces “in the margins” of auditing and the implications of such…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about the diversity of credibility arrangements in new audit spaces “in the margins” of auditing and the implications of such arrangements.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an in-depth qualitative study of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) rights certification run by the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights (RFSL) during its first decade of operation. We have interviewed employees and studied documents at the certification units within the RFSL. We have also interviewed certified organizations.
Findings
We highlight two features that explain the unusual credibility arrangements in this audit practice: the role of beneficiaries in the organizational arrangements chosen and the role of responsibility as an organizing value with consequences for responsibility allocation in this certification. These features make it possible for the RFSL to act as a credible auditor even though it deviates from common arrangements for credible audits.
Originality/value
The RFSL certification is different in several ways. First, the RFSL acts as both a trainer and an auditor. Second, the trainers/auditors at the RFSL have no accreditation to guarantee their credibility. Third, the RFSL decides for itself what standards should apply for the certification and adapts these standards to the operation being audited. Therefore, this case provides a good opportunity to study alternative credibility arrangements in the margins of auditing as well as their justifications.
Details
Keywords
This comparative book review is concerned with two recent studies of essential workers in Germany: Jana Costas’ Dramas of Dignity and Peter Birke’s Grenzen aus Glas [literally…
Abstract
This comparative book review is concerned with two recent studies of essential workers in Germany: Jana Costas’ Dramas of Dignity and Peter Birke’s Grenzen aus Glas [literally ‘borders made from glass’]. While Costas is interested in studying how individual cleaners preserve their sense of dignity despite their widely believed stigmatizing work roles, Birke is interested in the power resources migrant workers can potentially mobilize for improving their working conditions despite the multi-dimensional (inter-sectional) precarity they confront in their life situation. In the context of German industrial and organizational sociology, both studies represent comparatively rare exemplars of detailed qualitative and ethnographic work that illuminate the labour process from taking a workers’ perspective. Using different approaches to fieldwork, both studies reveal the precarious nature of being an essential worker in areas such as meat packing, warehouse work, and cleaning. This general observation gives rise to some concluding speculations about the emancipatory potential of ethnographic research, in labour studies and beyond.
Details
Keywords
Action research by three teaching teams to build the capacity of teachers, in preparation for the transition from a traditional heritage building to a new innovative learning…
Abstract
Action research by three teaching teams to build the capacity of teachers, in preparation for the transition from a traditional heritage building to a new innovative learning facility, forms the basis of this chapter. The new building consisting of four storeys with seven innovative learning environments that support a wide range of teaching and learning opportunities challenged the teams to rethink their pedagogy and embark on a new and exciting journey. The story notes the challenges faced and the successes achieved as well as further action research once established within the new learning environments.
Details
Keywords
Nadia Safura Zabidin, Sheila Belayutham and Che Khairil Izam Che Ibrahim
The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of Industry 4.0 between the academicians and industry players in construction engineering…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of Industry 4.0 between the academicians and industry players in construction engineering, further suggesting a mechanism to narrow the gap between the distinct parties.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted through structured online and face-to-face interviews, using KAP survey, and semi-structured interviews. This constructive research was conducted among Malaysian construction industry players and academicians from the construction engineering department in public universities.
Findings
The findings exhibit the similarities and differences of KAP between academics and industry on Industry 4.0 in construction engineering. In general, both categories of respondents have displayed more similarities than differences in all aspects, except for knowledge. The better knowledge profile of Industry 4.0 among the academicians reflects the nature of the academic works that constantly seek new knowledge, thus suggesting the establishment of an industry-academic (I-A) knowledge equilibrium framework to leverage the knowledge profile between both parties.
Research limitations/implications
This exploratory study that showcases the perspective of the academia and industry practitioners on Industry 4.0 acts as a cornerstone for bridging the gap between the two distinct sectors within the same field.
Practical implications
The gap between the academic and industry was highlighted, further establishing the I-A knowledge equilibrium framework that could also be applied to other fields of study.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper was the profiling of the KAP of Industry 4.0 for the academicians and industry players in construction engineering, further distinguishing the gap between both parties.
Details