Managing paradoxes, dilemmas, and change

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubens Pauluzzo ◽  
Marta Guarda ◽  
Laura De Pretto ◽  
Tony Fang

Purpose Drawing on Fang’s (2012) Yin Yang theory of culture while taking up the roadmap proposed by Li (2016) for applying the epistemological system of Yin Yang balancing to complex issues in management research, in general, and to paradoxical issues, in particular, the purpose of this paper is to explore how organizations and individuals in the West can balance cultural paradoxes and manage culture dilemmas through the lens of Yin Yang wisdom. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a qualitative case study. Data are gathered through interviews, documents, and field observations in four subsidiaries of an Italian insurance multinational corporation and were analyzed according to the three parameters, i.e., situation, context, and time (Fang, 2012). Findings The findings show how the integration and learning from seemingly opposite cultures and sets of values lead the organization and individuals to balancing cultural paradox and managing cultural dilemma effectively. With regard to situation, the authors find that both organizations and customers choose the most relevant value(s) to take advantage of specific events or circumstances, and that different value orientations can coexist. As for context, the authors show that organizations can adapt their values either through suppression and/or promotion, which can foster individuals to find new balancing within the paradox. In terms of time, the authors show that the process of learning from other cultures over time can play a role in the shift of people’s and organizations’ choices of attitudes and value orientations. Originality/value The paper suggests the relevance and usefulness of adopting Yin Yang wisdom to uncover the dynamic process of cultural learning in Western scenarios.

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-91
Author(s):  
Kerstin Kuyken ◽  
Mehran Ebrahimi ◽  
Anne-Laure Saives

Purpose This paper aims to develop a better understanding of intergenerational knowledge transfer (IKT) practices by adopting a context-related and comparative perspective. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study design involving 83 interviews and non-participative observation in German and Quebec organizations has been chosen. Findings Two distinctive archetypes of IKT emerge from both national contexts: “we-individualizing” (Germany) and “I-connecting” (Quebec), leading to an eightfold taxonomy of IKT practices. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to young and senior workers and to high-tech sectors. Originality/value Comparative and inductive study of IKT, adaptation of IKT practices to national contexts, retaining younger workers. This inductive and comparative study allows a better adaptation of IKT practices to national contexts and therefore a better retention of younger workers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fábio Frezatti ◽  
David B. Carter ◽  
Marcelo F.G. Barroso

Purpose – An effective management accounting information system (MAIS), as well as the accounting discourse related to it, can support, facilitate, enable, and constrain diverse business discourses. This paper aims to examine the discursive and organisational effects of an organisation accounting upon absent accounting artefacts, i.e. accounting without accounting. Situated within the discursive literature, this paper examines the construction of competing articulations of the organisation by focusing on what accounting does or does not do within an organisation. In particular, the paper acknowledges the fundamental importance of the accounting discourse in supporting, facilitating, enabling, and constraining competing organisational discourses, as it illustrates how the absence of accounting centralises power within the organisation. Design/methodology/approach – From a rhetorical, discursive perspective, the authors develop an in-depth qualitative case study in a manufacturing organisation where MAIS has been abandoned for approximately two years. Interpretive research approaches, from a post-structural perspective, provided the base for the structure of the research. The authors studied how other organisational discourses (such as entrepreneurship and growth), which are traditionally constructed with reference to accounting and other artefacts, continued to be produced and sustained. The non-use and non-availability of management accounting information created a vacuum that needed to be filled. The lack of discursive counterpoints and counter-evidence provided by MAIS created a vacuum of information, allowing powerful, proxy discourses to prevail in the organisation, increasing risks to business management. Findings – The absence of MAIS to support an accounting discourse requires that contingent discourses “fill in the discursive gap”. Despite appearances, they are no substitute for the accounting discourse. Thus, over time, the entrepreneurial, growth and partners' discourses lose credibility, without the corresponding use of management accounting information and its associated discourse. Originality/value – There are at least two main contributions from the case study and the findings presented in this paper: first, they provide a new perspective for studying MAIS, as a specific organisational discourse among other discourses that shape people relationship within the organisation as an examination of accounting without accounting. Second, this discussion reinforces the relevance of accounting discourse for other organisational discourses, supporting, facilitating, enabling, and constraining them, by demonstrating the effects of its absence.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serkan Yiğit ◽  
Nilüfer Şahin Perçin

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine and understand the experiences of tourists in the Turkish coffee houses in Istanbul, Turkey. Design/methodology/approach In this study, a qualitative case study method was used to analyze tourists’ comments with user-generated content technique by analyzing tourists’ comments. The data used in the study was collected through TripAdvisor, which is considered one of the most famous websites with tourist reviews and comments, between 20 May and 10 June 2020 from tourists’ reviews (n:219). Findings The findings show that Turkish coffee house experiences are heterogeneous based on the dimensions of coffee characteristics, place, satisfaction, recommendation and revisit intention, value/price and value-added experience. Moreover, value-added experience includes some sub-themes such as a memorable experience, authentic experience and culture learning experience. Originality/value There are some studies on Turkish coffee and Turkish coffee culture in the literature, but there have been no empirical studies investigating the Turkish coffee house experiences of tourists. For this reason, this study aims to examine and understand the experiences of tourists in Turkish coffee houses. Therefore, it is believed that this study will fill the current gap in the literature on tourists’ experiences of Turkish coffee houses.


KWALON ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valérie Pattyn ◽  
Lasse Gerrits ◽  
Stefan Verweij

Qualitative Comparative Analysis: more associated with the qualitative research tradition than with the quantitative approach Qualitative Comparative Analysis: more associated with the qualitative research tradition than with the quantitative approach Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is an approach that enables systematically comparing qualitative case study data. The fact that QCA borrows certain elements from quantitative methods (such as the use of Boolean algebra and the quantification of conditions and outcomes) may raise questions about the qualitative character of QCA. Based on a discussion of four criteria relating to causal analysis, we argue that QCA belongs to the qualitative research tradition. Where QCA borrows characteristics from the quantitative approach, this is only for the sake of a qualitative objective: to better understand the conditions underlying a particular outcome or phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Jacobo Ramirez ◽  
Anne-Marie Søderberg

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how Danish and Mexican communication and management practices are recontextualized at the Latin American office of a Scandinavian multinational corporation (MNC) located in Mexico. Design/methodology/approach A case study based on interviews, observations and company documents was conducted. Findings Well-educated Mexican middle managers appreciate the participative communication and management practices of Scandinavian MNCs, which transcend most experiences at local workplaces, but their interpretations and meaning system are influenced by the colonial legacy and political and socioeconomic context framing their working conditions. Originality/value This paper provides a contextualized analysis of a rich case study to further illustrate the challenges faced by MNCs in their quest to establish a regional office in a Latin American context and offers a theoretical model of the elements involved in complex recontextualization processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutfun Nahar Lata

PurposeThis paper explores the importance of building trust and rapport with participants using gatekeepers and insider-outsider dynamics in accessing vulnerable research participants in the Global South.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws data from a qualitative case study conducted in Sattola slum in Dhaka.FindingsFindings suggest that access to participants can be gained through building rapport and trust with participants. A trusting relationship further helps the researcher to explore the processes of social exclusion experienced by the participants.Originality/valueFew studies is published on female researchers building trust with vulnerable research participants negotiating gatekeepers and their subjectivity in the field. The paper contributes original insights into this from fieldwork carried out by a middle-class female researcher in Dhaka. It raises important issues in securing the trust of participants when they are part of disadvantaged, exploited or generally vulnerable populations.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Ståle Knardal ◽  
John Burns

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of accounting when managing the institutional complexities of a festival organisation pursuing financial and social objectives. Specifically, it focuses on how accounting can be implicated in handling a festival’s multiple and potentially conflicting logics. Also, through mobilising the concept of institutional work, the following builds on our knowledge of the importance of what people do, in managing an organisation’s institutional complexity. Design/methodology/approach This paper is grounded in a qualitative case study, for which the primary data derives from interviews, plus examination of internal documents and information in the public domain. Findings The festival studied is commercially successful, though ultimately one of its main organisational goals is to maximise donations to charitable causes. Other goals include: offering an alternative community through music, particularly to the young; fostering new and innovative artistry; and nurturing a festival family that is rooted to a large extent in its army of volunteers. The paper reveals how seeking such goals simultaneously requires the handling of logics that potentially can pull in opposite directions. Moreover, it highlights the efforts of festival organisers to maintain coexistence between the different logics, including the utilisation of accounting, accounts and accountability to facilitate this. Originality/value There are three main contributions of the paper. First, it offers new insight into how accounting can be purposefully used to mediate between potentially opposing logics in a complex organisational setting. Second, the paper extends our knowledge of the use of accounting specifically within a popular culture context. Third, the following adds to recent use of the concept of institutional work to understand why and how people mobilise accounting to handle institutional complexity in organisational settings.


LaGeografia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Erman Syarif

The crisis of teenage morality is a serious problem for the Indonesian people, especially in South Sulawesi, one of the efforts made by revitalizing local wisdom in learning at school. The objectives of this study are: 1) to analyze the local wisdom values of the Karampuang indigenous people, and 2) to integrate local wisdom values in geography learning. The approach used in this study is a qualitative case study. Data collection techniques used are observation, interview, and literature review. Procedure for analyzing data by collecting data, reducing data, presenting data, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study show: 1) the values of the local wisdom values of the Karampuang indigenous people, which are religious, caring for the environment, loving the country, working hard, being honest, friendly, caring and responsible and friendly. 2) one application for integrating the values of local wisdom of the Karampuang indigenous people into geography learning in class XI basic competencies 3.6 analyzes forms of local wisdom in the use of natural resources in agriculture, mining, industry and tourism. The integration of the values of the local wisdom of the Karampuang indigenous people is expected to create an education system with quality human resources and character.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 778-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Williams ◽  
Alice M. Turner ◽  
Helen Beadle

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate patient perspectives on attending pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). This qualitative case study identifies the benefits and challenges to attending PR and presents areas of improvements as recommended by patients. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study of a UK case study based on a PR programme based on undertaking focus groups (n=3) and interviews (n=15) with current and former patients. Findings The findings report patient perspectives of the challenges and benefits of attending a PR programme along with recommendations on how the service could be improved. Research limitations/implications The authors focussed solely on a UK PR programme, so the findings might not be applicable to other countries if PR is organised and provided in a unique way or setting. Practical implications This paper provides valuable insights to patient perspectives offrom patients attending PR programmes, which are useful to those running and designing these services. Originality/value The findings identify the benefits and challenges for patients attending PR programmes and suggest areas where improvements can be made.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 486-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karsten Paetzmann

Purpose – This paper analyzes the new EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) to determine the level of guidance on instruments to wind-down bad asset portfolios of asset management vehicles. In the absence of such detailed guidance stipulated by the BRRD, the aim is to provide certain practical guidance to future resolution planning and execution. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws upon experience from portfolio reduction strategies applied at European bad banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. For illustration purposes, the paper use case study data from a bad bank located in the eurozone. Findings – For the new European Commission, implementation and enforcement of the Banking Union within the eurozone is currently a key priority. Present efforts are mainly directed towards minimum technical standards. However, the fundamental question of how to orderly unwind a bad assets portfolio without the usage of public funds remains partly addressed only. While a uniform approach to any bad asset does not seem to be applicable, certain lessons learned from previous financial crises may contribute to a selection of reduction strategies. Research limitations/implications – This paper draws upon experience from portfolio reduction strategies applied at European bad banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. It includes case study data from the wind-down of a eurozone bad bank detailing the asset reduction strategies achieved so far. Such per asset class wind-down patterns have not been published and commented on in academia so far.


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