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1 – 10 of over 15000Laura Zapata, Gerardo Ibarra and Pierre-Henri Blancher
New ways of working have rapidly increased in organizations, promising employees a better control over their work time, space, and more autonomy. The present study analyzes the…
Abstract
Purpose
New ways of working have rapidly increased in organizations, promising employees a better control over their work time, space, and more autonomy. The present study analyzes the relationship between new ways of working and employee engagement and productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to evaluate organizational practices developed based on flexible schemes and the relevance of employee engagement for better productivity based on digital tools. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
New ways of work requires an integration of workspaces' design, social interaction, and individual wellness. Organizations need to recognize how employees' trust, commitment, and passion are fundamental to face current and future changes. Flexibility in time and space and digital tools for work are critical.
Practical implications
A personalization of organizational practices to support individual well-being and flexible and hybrid schemes of work are needed. Developing policies collaboratively to work together respectfully in a hybrid environment is necessary.
Social implications
Hybrid work format is allowing women to balance career and childcare, reducing the wage gap with men. The green imperative has also played a role reducing the amount of carbon monoxide produced via commuter.
Originality/value
The present study exposes how organizational practices must ensure employee well-being and autonomy to perform their tasks. In this regard, employees need to be recognized as individuals, physically and mentally. Attempting to force a one-size-fit-all solution can have detrimental effects on the workforce, particularly on women, people of lower socioeconomic status, and people in less advanced economies. Personalization requests empowerment and democratization at work.
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Ia Williamsson and Linda Askenäs
This study aims to understand how practitioners use their insights in software development models to share experiences within and between organizations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand how practitioners use their insights in software development models to share experiences within and between organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study of practitioners in software development projects, in large-, medium- or small-size businesses. It analyzes interview material in three-step iterations to understand reflexive practice when using software development models.
Findings
The study shows how work processes are based on team members’ experiences and common views. This study highlights the challenges of organizational learning in system development projects. Current practice is unreflective, habitual and lacks systematic ways to address recurring problems and share information within and between organizations. Learning is episodic and sporadic. Knowledge from previous experience is individual not organizational.
Originality/value
Software development teams and organizations tend to learn about, and adopt, software development models episodically. This research expands understanding of how organizational learning takes place within and between organizations with practitioners who participate in teams. Learnings show the potential for further research to determine how new curriculums might be formed for teaching software development model improvements.
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Grégory Jemine, François-Régis Puyou and Florence Bouvet
Increasingly, emerging information technologies such as shared software and continuous accounting are offering alternative ways to perform accounting tasks in a supposedly more…
Abstract
Purpose
Increasingly, emerging information technologies such as shared software and continuous accounting are offering alternative ways to perform accounting tasks in a supposedly more efficient fashion. Yet, few studies have investigated how they affect the provision of accounting services, especially in the context of small accounting firms, which provide legal and tax services to entrepreneurs and businesses. Drawing on the service perspective, the paper critically examines how technological innovation challenges and reconfigures the co-production of accounting services in these firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper answers calls issued in prior studies to conduct empirical research on emerging information technologies for accountants. It focuses on the specific context of small accounting firms and draws on interviews with small accounting firms' managers (n = 20).
Findings
The study emphasizes five significant challenges that accounting firm managers face when using information technologies to support the provision of their services (ensuring reliability, factoring in their heterogeneous client base, repricing, training clients to use new technologies and promoting advisory services). Information technologies are shown to have a structuring role in the co-production of accounting services, as they lead to reconfigurations of the relationships between accountants and their clients. A range of four configurations is developed to highlight accountants' strategies to maintain collaborative relationships with their clients while integrating new technologies into their work practices.
Originality/value
By conceptualizing accounting services as a co-production process, the paper offers new insights into the implications of emerging information technologies for small accounting firms.
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Åsa Tjulin and Carolina Klockmo
This study explores the organisational dynamics in a change process across work units in a Swedish municipality. The purpose of this study is to understand how and why co-creation…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the organisational dynamics in a change process across work units in a Swedish municipality. The purpose of this study is to understand how and why co-creation unfolds during efforts to bring different units into one united work unit.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative longitudinal study was designed using data triangulation for eight months, comprising written reflection texts, meeting protocols and interviews. This study is based on a back-and-forth inductive and abductive grounded theory analysis.
Findings
The main results of this study indicate that there was friction in the co-creation process between units, between the members of the change group and supervisors, as well as friction within the change group. Further, the results indicate that communications, relations, supervisor support and governing strategies clashed with work routines and methods, work cultures, roles and responsibilities and that the units had differing views of the needs of the intended target group. This thereby challenged the propensity for change which, in turn, may have limited developmental learning at a workplace and organisational level.
Originality/value
Working across units to find common and new paths and work methods for labour market inclusion proved to be challenging because of contextual circumstances. Crossing and merging organisational boundaries through co-creation processes was demanding because of new expectations from the organisation, as it shifted towards trust-based governance in conjunction with working during a pandemic when social interactions were restricted to digital communication channels.
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Karin Högberg and Sara Willermark
This study aims to develop the understanding of learning processes related to the new ways of interacting in the enforced digital workplace over time.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop the understanding of learning processes related to the new ways of interacting in the enforced digital workplace over time.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple, longitudinal case study of knowledge-based workers in three firms located in Sweden has been conducted from March 2020 to March 2023. In total, 89 interviews with 32 employees in three knowledge-based firms have been collected.
Findings
The study shows how the intricate interaction between rules and norms for interaction and work must be renegotiated as well as un- and relearned when the physical work environment no longer frames the work context. Furthermore, technology can be viewed as both an enable and a barrier, that is, technology has enhanced collaboration between organizational members yet also created social difficulties, for example, related to communication and interaction. The study emphasizes that individuals learned through trial and error. That is, they tried behaviors such as translating social interactions" to a digital arena, appraised the outcomes and modified the practices if the outcomes were poor.
Research limitations/implications
The present study does have several limitations. First, it is based on interviews with respondents within three organizations in Sweden. To broaden and deepen the understanding of both organizational and learning, future studies can contribute by studying other contexts as well as using a mixed method approach in other countries.
Practical implications
Results from the study can provide a practical understanding of how the rapid change from working at the office to working from home using digital technologies can be understood and managed.
Originality/value
Contributions include combining interaction order and un- and relearning among organizational employees. This insight is important given that the rapid digital transformation of our society has changed how work is performed and how the future workplace will be both structured and organized.
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Isabel Alexandra Brandenberger, Mervi Anneli Hasu and Monika Nerland
This paper aims to generate a better understanding of how challenges and opportunities for sustainable change during digitalization relate to the organizing work of change agents…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to generate a better understanding of how challenges and opportunities for sustainable change during digitalization relate to the organizing work of change agents mandated to facilitate technology adoption from within local work organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examines the work of welfare technology coordinators, health-care professionals who are mandated to facilitate the use of technologies in home-based services in a Norwegian city. Data comprise ethnographic observations of meetings and work practices, interviews and documents collected over one year. A practice-based approach was applied to analyze how the welfare technology coordinators go about integrating technologies with the work practices, and the forms of negotiations this work implies in their work community.
Findings
The analysis identified four sets of practices in the coordinators’ work: exploring and integrating new technologies into work practices, legitimizing aims and values, formalizing routines and responsibilities and critically considering existing and envisioned service practices. Through these practices, emerging problems and disconnections in the service organization were attended to in a continuous manner.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by examining the work of internal change agents mandated to facilitate multiple and simultaneous technology adoption and demonstrates the importance of recognizing the continuous efforts and negotiations of these agents as significant to sustainable organizing.
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Rachel Gifford, Arno van Raak, Mark Govers and Daan Westra
While uncertainty has always been a feature of the healthcare environment, its pace and scope are rapidly increasing, fueled by myriad factors such as technological advancements…
Abstract
While uncertainty has always been a feature of the healthcare environment, its pace and scope are rapidly increasing, fueled by myriad factors such as technological advancements, the threat and frequency of disruptive events, global economic developments, and increasing complexity. Contemporary healthcare organizations thus persistently face what is known as “deep uncertainty,” which obscures their ability to predict outcomes of strategic action and decision-making, presenting them with novel challenges and threatening their survival. Persistent, deep uncertainty challenges us to revisit and reconsider how we think about uncertainty and the strategic actions needed by organizations to thrive under these circumstances. Simply put, how can healthcare organizations thrive in the face of deeply uncertain environments? We argue that healthcare organizations need to employ both adaptive and creative strategic approaches in order to effectively meet patients' needs and capture value in the long-term future. The chapter concludes by offering two ways organizations can build the dynamic capabilities needed to employ such approaches.
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Julian Waters-Lynch and Cameron Duff
The purpose of this study is to reflect on and analyse the sensory experiences related to the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research seeks to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to reflect on and analyse the sensory experiences related to the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research seeks to understand how these experiences have influenced the integration of work practices into home and family life and the subsequent adaptations and embodied learning that arise in response.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' research approach incorporates autoethnographic methods to explore the sensory, affective and emotional experiences of transitioning to remote work. The authors draw on principles of embodied learning, as influenced by Gilles Deleuze, and utilise a range of ethnographic tools including note-taking, audio memos, photography, shared conversations and written reflections to gather their data.
Findings
The study illuminates the ways bodies learn to accommodate the new organisational contexts that arise when the spaces, affects and forces of home and work intersect. It demonstrates how the integration of work into the private domain resulted in new affective and material arrangements, involving novel sensory experiences and substantial embodied learning.
Originality/value
This study provides a distinct, sensory-oriented perspective on the challenges and transformations of remote work practices amid the pandemic. By focussing on the affective resonances and embodied learning that emerge in this context, it contributes to the emerging discourse around post-lockdown work practices and remote work in general.
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