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This chapter provides an extensive review of literature on the interaction between and interdependence of informal and formal working practices in various workplace settings. The aim of the chapter is to elucidate the organisational, managerial, human relations and social factors that give rise to informal work practices and strategies, on the shop-floor not only at workers and work group levels but also at supervisory and managerial levels. This chapter helps the reader to understand the informal work practice of making a plan (planisa) in a deep-level mining workplace.

Problem-solving approaches to research have dominated the not-for-profit festival management field. Little attention has been paid to how festival organizations successfully create cultures where knowledge transfer is practised within the high intensity of a festival life cycle. Drawing upon insights from social practice theory and appreciative inquiry (AI), the purpose of this paper is to offer a different conceptual approach to understanding how knowledge transfer “works” as an organizational practice to produce a collaborative festival culture.

This paper draws upon an ethnographic case study with the highly acclaimed Queensland Music Festival organization in Australia. The research questions and methods were framed around an appreciative approach that identified formal and informal practices that " worked " rather than a conventional problem-focused analysis.

This research focused on appreciating the cultural context that shaped the interrelationships between formal and informal knowledge transfer practices that enabled trust and collaboration. A range of knowledge transfer practices was identified that contributed to the creation of a shared festival ethos and the on-going sustainability of the festival vision.

The not-for-profit sector brings numerous challenges for festival organizations, and there is a need to appreciate how collaborative and creative knowledge transfer can occur formally and informally. Festival organizers can benefit from understanding the relational and practice dimensions of knowledge management as they are performed within specific organizational contexts.

An appreciative understanding of knowledge transfer practices has not yet been applied to not-for-profit festival organizations, where problem-solving approaches dominate the field.

This paper aims to examine the interaction between formal and informal organisation of work inside the pit, with reference to the informal working or coping strategy of “making a plan” (planisa).

The research for this paper was ethnographic in nature and the participant observation was the main research technique used in the field.

The underground gold miners make a plan or engage in planisa to offset the production bottlenecks which affected their capacity to achieve their production targets and increase their bonus earnings. They “get on and get by” underground in order to cope with organisational constraints and management inefficiencies.

The paper highlights the limits of formal organisation of work and the significance of gold miners’ informal work strategy of making a plan (planisa) as an existing and alternative working practice that shapes their subjective orientation, agency and resilience to work structures and managerial strategies. Any strategy designed to improve the health, safety and productivity of underground miners must recognise, elaborate and systematically articulate the workplace culture of planisa as an existing work practice in the day‐to‐day running of the production process down the mine.

A long‐standing meta‐narrative regarding the future of work is that, over history, economic activity has shifted from the informal into the formal economy and that the informal economy is now a residue existing only in the margins. This paper aims to evaluate critically this formalization thesis so as to question whether the future of work is inevitably and immutably one of formalization.

Primary data are drawn upon from a study of the work practices of 600 households in Ukraine conducted during 2005/2006 to evaluate the centrality of the formal economy in this post‐socialist society.

This study reveals only a relatively shallow permeation of formalization in this post‐socialist society and how the informal economy is a core integral component of contemporary work organization relied on not only by some 28 per cent of households who, excluded from the formal economy, utilize this sphere as their principal livelihood practice but also by the vast majority immersed in the formal economy who heavily depend on informal work to secure their livelihood.

This snapshot survey identifies only that the informal economy is not some minor residue as depicted by the formalization thesis. It cannot decipher whether there is movement in Ukraine towards greater reliance on the formal (or informal) economy.

This paper de‐centers the formal economy by re‐positioning it as just one of a plurality of work practices and foregrounds the informal economy as a core component of work organization in this post‐socialist society.

This chapter examines the interaction between formal and informal organisation of work in a deep-level mining workplace. In response to organisational constraints, underground mining teams make a plan (planisa) to offset production bottlenecks which affected the daily running of the production process at the rock-face down the mine. They ‘get on and get by’ inside the pit to cope with organisational dysfunctions and management inefficiencies. The chapter highlights the limits of formalised work methods and the significance of the frontline miners’ informal work practice of making a plan (planisa) as an existing and alternative working practice that shapes their subjective orientation, agency and resilience to deep-level mining work processes and managerial initiatives. While the informal work practice of planisa has pros and cons, any managerial strategy designed to improve organisational productivity, safety and teamwork must recognise and systematically articulate the frontline miners’ work culture of planisa. This is especially important if we are to fully understand the limits of contemporary organisational strategies and workers’ orientations towards modernised work processes and managerial practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the multi-faceted contexts, which influence the motives, decisions and actions that underpin the mundane and lively entrepreneurial practice of migrant youth entrepreneurs (MYEs) within a developing economy context. Moreover, the paper explores the under-researched linkages between migration and informal entrepreneurship.

Inductive, qualitative field data from a migrant destination, the Ashanti Region in Ghana are analysed, comprising 15 interviews with MYEs who hail from 12 communities in the three Northern Regions of Ghana. The authors introduce a narrative-based approach, which has previously been under-employed within empirical studies of informal entrepreneurship.

The findings showcase the complex array of opportunities and challenges, which influence individual decisions to engage in informal entrepreneurship. The findings highlight the importance of not only economic rationales but also non-economic rationales for engaging in informal entrepreneurship. Such rationales emerge from the legitimation of informal practices, the social embeddedness of migrant youth within family and community networks and the precarious nature of informal entrepreneurship.

The fine-grained discussion of the findings contributes explicitly to theory by underscoring the diversity of informal entrepreneurship activities. Theoretically, the article demonstrates the need to look beyond narrow economic explanations for why individuals engage in informal entrepreneurship. Taking a more holistic approach to explaining motivations for engaging in informal entrepreneurship, enables more nuanced understandings of the importance of non-economic rationales for individuals, located in specific contextual settings.

Examines the relative importance of institutional and resource dependent explanations versus managerial explanations of variations of formal and informal work‐family responsiveness. Work‐family responsiveness is defined in two ways: formal policies and practices that an organization offers, designed to assist employees to balance their work and family lives; and a work environment that is accommodating of its employees’ work‐family needs. Focuses attention on the important role that managerial attitudes have on the provision of work‐family practices and an accommodating work‐family workplace. Concludes that by integrating the insights of several theoretical perspectives, a more comprehensive model of organizational responsiveness in relation to work‐family practices is developed and a set of testable propositions that can guide future research can be made. Indicates that an additive theoretical model combining managerial and institutional factors offers the most appropriate theoretical explanation for identifying factors related to the provision of work‐family benefits and whether the workplace is accommodating of work‐family issues.

The purpose of this study is to explore schoolteachers’ experiences of knowledge sharing as a source of informal learning in the workplace when teaching new education programs on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.

This study is based on interviews with American schoolteachers teaching education programs provided by Junior Achievement USA that aim to equip pupils with practical skills in financial literacy and entrepreneurship to improve their work-readiness in adult life.

The findings of this study indicate that knowledge sharing is a source of informal learning among the teachers when dealing with the JA programs. This takes place through collaboration in communities of practice. Experienced teachers (who have previously taught the programs) are especially valuable in sharing their insights and helping the teachers prepare their teaching. Such knowledge-sharing practices help the schoolteachers to improve their practices. Having a supportive social culture encourages knowledge sharing between schoolteachers, but more time is needed to prioritize this kind of collaboration between co-workers.

Teaching financial literacy and entrepreneurship through pupil-driven activities can be experienced as different from teaching regular subjects, and teachers in the study seem to benefit from sharing experiences when it comes to preparing or adding to their teaching. The findings suggest that to facilitate knowledge-sharing practices can be helpful to schoolteachers when introducing new topics and pedagogical methods in schools.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the social context of enterprise resource planning (ERP) adoption and use within an organization, emphasizing a knowledge transfer perspective. This framework is investigated in terms of the conflicts and struggles between the best practices embedded in ERP modules and the interactions of users of the ERP system.

A case study using grounded theory is applied with the rich and detailed interview process. This paper shows how to conduct grounded theory and how to interpret the individual level of analysis to organizational level impacts.

This study analyzes how an organization adopts a unique information system provided by enterprise integration and also suggests the likely consequences of knowledge transfer between the organization perspective embedded in ERP and individual apprehension conceptualizing the mode of human interaction and the type of work practice.

This is a case study offering rich description of a theoretical framework of knowledge transfer.

The results show how to guide organizational members in adoption and use of integrated information systems.

This paper contributes to the work practice for knowledge transfer in the case of information systems integration.

This concluding chapter not only summarises the key discussions and arguments of the preceding chapters but also reflects on organisational, managerial, supervisory, behavioural, social and cultural factors shaping the miners’ reactions to the restructured and formalised deep-level mining work processes and their unofficial job tactic of making a plan (planisa). The chapter provides suggestions on how the positive aspects of planisa could be harnessed and negative aspects addressed towards efficient, productive and safer organisational, managerial, supervisory and operational practices at the rock-face down the mine.