scholarly journals Branding employees

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 102-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Cushen

PurposeFrom the optimistic to the critical, the post‐structural to the market rational there are varied perspectives on normative control at work. The purpose of this paper is to describe a tactical evolution in normative control practices and explore how this development sits with each perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a six month participant ethnography incorporating 75 interviews and document analysis. Data are presented from human resources, executives, managers and employees.FindingsThis paper presents an account of a leading, listed, global firm's attempt to align employees to the organisation's goals through fashioning an ideal employee identity based on the organisation brand. Perspectives are provided on the desired role and ultimate failure of this employee branding initiative. Indeed, branding may be a normative step too far. The paper demonstrates how the workplace comprises of a variety of experiential forces and employees are capable of deciding which are the most substantive. However, the existence of varied perspectives on normative control within the workplace can account for both its failure and perpetuation.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight the variety of forces that interact to shape perspectives of normative control within a workplace. Consequently, future research may benefit from adopting a more holistic analytical approach to avoid over or under estimating the role of normative control.Originality/valueThe novelty of this paper comes firstly from the account of a tactical normative development and secondly from the demonstration of the value of considering the role and impact of normative control from a variety of theoretical perspectives.

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 1058-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waed Ensour ◽  
Hadeel Al Maaitah ◽  
Radwan Kharabsheh

Purpose Arab female academics struggle to advance within their universities in both academic and managerial ranks. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the factors hindering Arab women’s academic career development through studying the case of Jordanian academic women. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered through document analysis (Jordan constitution, Jordanian Labour Law and its amendments, higher education and scientific research law, Jordanian universities’ law and universities’ HR policies and regulations), interviews with 20 female academics and a focus group with 13 female academics (members of the Association of Jordanian Female Academics). Findings The results indicate female academics as tokens facing many interconnected and interrelated barriers embodied in cultural, social, economic and legal factors. The findings support the general argument proposed in human resource management (HRM) literature regarding the influence of culture on HRM practices and also propose that the influence of culture extends to having an impact on HR policies’ formulation as well as the formal legal system. Originality/value The influence of culture on women’s career development and various HR practices is well established in HR literature. But the findings of this study present a further pressure of culture. HR policies and other regulations were found to be formulated in the crucible of national culture. Legalizing discriminatory issues deepens the stereotypical pictures of women, emphasizing the domestic role of women and making it harder to break the glass ceiling and old-boy network.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 430-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy ◽  
Anders Gustafsson ◽  
Elina Jaakkola ◽  
Phil Klaus ◽  
Zoe Jane Radnor ◽  
...  

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide directions for future research on: broadening the role of customers in customer experience; taking a practice-based approach to customer experience; and recognizing the holistic, dynamic nature of customer experience across all touch points and over time. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is conceptual identifying current gaps in research on customer experience. Findings – The findings include a set of research questions and research agenda for future research on customer experience. Originality/value – This research suggests fresh perspectives for understanding the customer experience which can inspire future research and advance theory and managerial practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 389-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruchi Sinha ◽  
Christina Stothard

Purpose This paper aims to understand the effects of team power asymmetry (hierarchy) on team learning. Design/methodology/approach Literature suggests that power asymmetry can hurt team learning due to unequal interactions. The authors integrate the situated focus theory of power and the theory of adversarial growth to propose that environmental hardship can moderate this relationship. Such that, under environmental hardship there is a shift in power relations within hierarchical teams, such that power asymmetry positively relates to team learning via increased team egalitarianism (interactional equality). Findings The study is presented in two parts. Part 1 reviews the literature and builds the theoretical arguments for the conceptual model, while Part 2 empirically examines the model on a sample of military teams. In Part 1, the authors propose a theoretically derived model and directions for future research in team power, dynamics and learning. Research limitations/implications It provides directions to empirically validate a contingency-based model to resolve the dilemma of creating equality and high levels of team learning in hierarchical teams. Originality/value The conceptual model and hypotheses contribute to the team learning literature by theoretically clarifying the conditions under which power asymmetry is likely to improve team learning.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Heinonen ◽  
Tore Strandvik ◽  
Päivi Voima

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend current discussions of value creation and propose a customer dominant value perspective. The point of origin in a customer‐dominant marketing logic (C‐D logic) is the customer, rather than the service provider, interaction or the system. The focus is shifted from the company's service processes involving the customer, to the customer's multi‐contextual value formation, involving the company.Design/methodology/approachValue formation is contrasted to earlier views on the company's role in value creation in a conceptual analysis focusing on five central aspects. Implications of the proposed characteristics of value formation compared to earlier approaches are put forward.FindingsThe paper highlights earlier hidden aspects on the role of a service for the customer. It is proposed that value is not always an active process of creation; instead, value is embedded and formed in the highly dynamic and multi‐contextual reality and life of the customer. This leads to a need to look beyond the line of visibility focused on visible customer‐company interactions, to the invisible and mental life of the customer. From this follows a need to extend the temporal scope, from exchange and use even further to accumulated experiences in the customer's life and ecosystem.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is conceptual. It discusses and presents a customer‐dominant value perspective and suggests implications for empirical research and practice.Practical implicationsAwareness of the mechanism of the customer value formation process provides companies with new insight on the service strategy, service design and new service innovations.Originality/valueThe paper contributes by extending the value construct through a new customer dominant value perspective, recognizing value as multi‐contextual and dynamic based on customers' life and ecosystem. The findings mark out new avenues for future research.


Author(s):  
Sohail Akhtar ◽  
Mohd Anuar Arshad ◽  
Arshad Mahmood ◽  
Adeel Ahmed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of spiritual quotient (SQ) on the organisational sustainability from the Islamic perspective. Till date, many organisations around the world are facing environmental, social and economic issues affecting their organisational sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The present paper is conceptual paper based on literature review on employee’s behavioural issues and role of SQ for organisational sustainability. Findings This present paper argues that SQ must be considered as the important factor for employee development in the organisation. It develops spiritual awareness among employees which enhances their productivity within the organisation. Furthermore, SQ is necessary means of identifying and harnessing deeper inner resources with the capacity to care for the well-being of the organisation and advance its development. Research limitations/implications The paper suggests SQ and its multi-dimensions with the implication for future research in organisational sustainability. Originality/value The paper discusses the development of the concept of SQ from the Islamic perspective.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Angela A. Walters ◽  
Melissa J. Hunsicker-Walburn

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore faculty and students’ perceptions on the issue of technology-facilitated academic misconduct contemporaneously; to gain insight as to how current technologies contribute to academic misconduct, and how perceptions influence policy and practice. Design/methodology/approach – An interpretive qualitative approach was used to explore participants’ perceptions. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis. Findings – Results suggest that while faculty restrict technology in order to decrease opportunity for students to engage in academic misconduct, such technology restrictions may contribute to an increase in student rationalization. Faculty perceive that the restrictions reduce the instances of academic misconduct by reducing the opportunity technology affords. Student perceptions reflect an increase in rationalization that may result in an increase in academic misconduct that seems to be a student response to restrictive policies. Efforts to reduce academic misconduct may need to focus more on positive and proactive approaches to integrating technology rather than restricting or policing technology. Originality/value – Few studies have explored both faculty and student perceptions about the role of technology and its impact on academic misconduct contemporaneously, and few attempts have been made to qualitatively assess these issues. Findings may help guide the development of innovative teaching practices that embrace technology and provide incentives for faculty to adapt their instructional methods.


Author(s):  
Gianna Moscardo

Purpose – This paper aims to address the question – is heritage interpretation an effective tool in tourism? Design/methodology/approach – The author takes a critical stance seeking to identify and evaluate key assumptions and questions about the nature and effectiveness of heritage interpretation as a tourism management tool. Findings – There are significant gaps in the available research into interpretation and in those areas that have been studied, there is only limited evidence that interpretation is effective. There are few important findings in this area and even where there are some sound and useful conclusions, they still do not address some of the more fundamental concerns about interpretation more broadly. Research limitations/implications – The paper identifies a set of topics for future research based on the outcomes of the review and consideration of the critiques of interpretation that could be used to improve and extend interpretation in tourism. Originality/value – By taking a critical perspective on interpretation and questioning the untested and implicit assumptions about the nature and role of this activity within tourism, the paper identifies issues relevant to the conduct of tourism research more generally that have been given little attention in the academic literature to date.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-416
Author(s):  
Johan Lilja ◽  
Pernilla Ingelsson ◽  
Kristen Snyder ◽  
Ingela Bäckström ◽  
Christer Hedlund

Purpose Metaphors are a powerful and human way of understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. In quality management (QM), several metaphors are used to describe and bring to life the often-abstract QM concepts and systems. These metaphors are of great importance for how QM is understood, communicated and practiced. However, the metaphors of QM have seldom been systematically screened or put in focus, neither the topic of a critical discussion. The purpose of this paper is hence to contribute with a screening of the metaphors currently used, within QM literature and in practice among QM leaders, and then elaborate on their potential for improvement and development. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a literature review combined with interviews of QM leaders. Findings The paper highlights that the current QM metaphors provide intuitive associations to properties such as stability, shelter, and structure, but not to the important dynamic properties of QM, such as learning, or to the critical role of people in QM. What can be seen as core properties of QM are communicated by texts or labels added on to metaphors with properties that often are in sharp contrast to them. The paper also provides suggestions for further improvements and development. Originality/value The paper highlights the area of metaphors within QM as an important area for future research. It also provides insights concerning the successful use and selection of metaphors in future QM practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alana E. Jansen ◽  
Ben Joseph Searle

PurposeWhile diversification within organisations is seen by many to be a strategic move, there is conflicting evidence about what makes diverse teams successful. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a range of complex, and in some cases contradictory, research contributions towards several key areas of diversity within teams, and to propose a framework for integrating existing approaches and clarifying inconsistencies in this domain.Design/methodology/approachA literature review was conducted to explore several key areas of surface and deep-level diversity in teams, with the discussion included in this paper highlighting many of the inconsistencies and complexities associated with this research domain.FindingsThis review highlights the need for future research to look at the effects of surface and deep-level diversity simultaneously, over time, across multiple levels and with a broad range of contextual moderators, to examine their impact on a range of outcomes.Originality/valueIn order to account for the complexities within diversity research, the authors propose the use of the job demands-resources (JDR) model which suggests possible explanations for inconsistent findings and bridges the gap between commonly used theoretical perspectives.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Matthijs Bal ◽  
Lee Matthews ◽  
Edina Dóci ◽  
Lucy P. McCarthy

PurposeScholarly and general interest in sustainable careers is flourishing. Sustainable careers are focused on the long-term opportunities and experiences of workers across dynamic employment situations, and are characterized by flexibility, meaning and individual agency. The current paper analyzes and challenges the underlying ideological assumptions of how sustainable careers are conceptualized and advocates the inclusion of the ecological meaning of sustainability and the notion of dignity into the sustainable careers concept.Design/methodology/approachUsing Slavoj Žižek's (1989, 2001) conceptualization of ideology as fantasy-construction, the authors explore how the use of sustainable careers is influenced by fantasies about the contemporary workplace and the role of the individual in the workplace. This is a conceptual method.FindingsThe authors argue that the concept of sustainable careers is grounded in the neoliberal fantasy of the individual. The paper concludes by presenting an alternative concept of sustainable careers grounded in a dignity-perspective on sustainability, which offers an alternative theoretical understanding of sustainable careers in the contemporary workplace, sharpening its contours and usefulness in theorizing careers.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to systematically analyze the use and conceptualization of sustainable careers in the literate and to expose the ideological underpinnings of the concept. Propositions are developed to be explored by future research.


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