scholarly journals Rapha and its embedded storytelling

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Catherine Glover

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how British cycling brand Rapha innovatively embeds stories throughout its touchpoints and in its garments. Design/methodology/approach Using narrative inquiry methodology and subjective personal introspection, it analyses published brand texts, cycling apparel, primary interviews and lived experience to establish a key story theme and the role, form, value and continuity of stories in the brand’s canon. Findings It claims that Rapha’s texts reveal evidence of a specific story plot, the “Quest” (Booker, 2015), which acts as a structural editorial device and provides a rich lexicon that taps into a transformative personal experience. The study proposes that the brand’s employees identify themselves with quester values that define the brand’s essence, providing a coherent message and magnifying the agency in Rapha’s stories. Research limitations/implications This inquiry offers insight into a single consumer brand, yet it is the material manner in which stories are embedded within the brand offerings plus how lived experiences are recounted through structured storytelling that are of significance to wider practice and understanding. Originality/value It brings together industry, academic and personal insight to Rapha’s storytelling praxis to illustrate how storied content can be used to transmit values, purpose and passion to its audience.

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 764-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Evans ◽  
David Lines

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an insight into the complexities of the identity work performed by independent coaches, based on an investigation into their “lived experiences”. The emerging coaching industry has created opportunities for individuals wishing to pursue a career as independent executive/career coaches. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory investigation was conducted using the principles of grounded theory, drawing on insights from “knowledgeable informants” (18 in total) gained through interviews and focus group discussion. Findings – Despite the attractiveness of pursuing an independent career, the findings surfaced a number of tensions in the way that independent coaches transform and perform their identity. One tension involves balancing notions of self-identity and “ideal work” with presenting a credible self to different client groups, the purchasers of their services. Research limitations/implications – As the research focused on a specific category of independent practitioners, more research is required to assess the generalizability of the findings to other categories of practitioners. Practical implications – A framework illuminating the processual nature of identity work among independent coaches is presented. This could be used to inform developmental conversations with aspiring independent coaches, or to support the content on formal coaching programmes. Originality/value – In drawing attention to the complexities of identity work performed by independent coaches, given the contingencies affecting their work, this research offers a different contribution to the coaching literature.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-7
Author(s):  
Peter Cronin ◽  
Liam Peyton ◽  
Eddie Chaplin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a perspective on depression and self-help from two experts with lived experience of learning disabilites. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines the authors’ presentation and experiences at the recent Learning Disability Today conference. Findings The paper shares some things we can do to help our mental wellbeing. Originality/value This paper offers the view of two people with learning disabilities lived experience of depression. The paper also offers and insight into some of the strategies they use to manage and encourage positive mental health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 747-761
Author(s):  
Angus J. Duff ◽  
Scott B. Rankin

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of workers who live in vans to explore how work and non-work interact when one's living environment is mobile.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 participants. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts, coded while listening to each interview recording, provided a rich account of the interaction of work and non-work life domains.FindingsSeveral themes were identified, including seeing the van as a home, hidden or disclosed identity stemming from living in a van, financial freedom, career freedom and work/non-work synchronization. Overall, findings suggest that flexible home arrangements, the relocation of one's home to adapt to work, aligned work and non-work domains to positively impact their overall work and non-work satisfaction, providing career freedom and expanded career opportunities.Research limitations/implicationsThe understanding of workers who live in vans broadens one’s understanding of mobile work and the work/non-work interface, providing insight into the dual alignment of work and home to accommodate each other, which the authors term work/non-work synchronization.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to consider van living from a work and career perspective and for the first time conceptualizes the notion of flexible home arrangements.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (11) ◽  
pp. 2207-2213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelagh Ferguson

Purpose This paper aims to elucidate health-related transformations experienced by an individual. Building from personal experience offers an understanding of the relational dynamics at play within health transformations, which makes a contribution to realising and facilitating the agency of the patient in systems of integrated care. Design/methodology/approach Introspection can be used as a methodology to elucidate messy and personal affective experiences. The author’s introspection is an 18-month catalogue and analysis from diagnosis of breast cancer through significant stages of rehabilitation. Reflexive introspection has gained traction in health research due to its cathartic benefits, whilst this approach offers much; a key challenge for integrated care is translating deeply personal and subjective introspections into strategic-level application. Findings Using Turner’s (1969) concept of liminality, this research explicates key relational dynamics of health-related transformations experienced by an individual. By recognising changes in affective being as a pivotal point in rehabilitation, this work links embodied transformation as a critical antecedent to a patient’s willingness to engage his/her agency in their rehabilitation. Originality/value Whilst recognising that integrated care is patient-centred and seeks to incorporate the patient’s voice, this research gives insight into how the author, as a patient, engaged her agency in her rehabilitation through building her own transformed personal ontologies of health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-606
Author(s):  
Manzurul Alam

Purpose This is a reflective essay on how lockdowns during COVID-19 pandemic have exposed internal organisational processes and work practices. Design/methodology/approach The essay is based on the author's reflections on organisational work practices during the coronavirus mandatory social distancing period. Findings This reflective essay shows how COVID-19 pandemic challenges the existing organisational systems and processes. It produces thoughtful considerations of different options for managing organisational activities in the post-COVID-19 period. Research limitations/implications The reflective essay underscores various issues relating to organisational job design and work practices and the impact on future management accounting research. Originality/value This essay provides personal insight into how the recent pandemic influences organizational work practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaista E. Khilji

PurposeInequality is an important organizational phenomenon. Scholars have argued that inequalities persistently dwell in the flow of our lives and have a lingering impact. Yet, despite such compelling evidence, research has overlooked how individuals make sense of the inequalities they face inside and outside the organizations. The purpose of this paper was to address these gaps and capture its complexity on individual lived experiences with inequalities.Design/methodology/approachThe present study used Seidman's adapted 2-interview strategy to collect the data. The first interview placed the participant's life history at the center, allowing the participant to share their childhood and adulthood experiences with inequalities inside and outside the organizations. The second interview focused on the concrete details of the participant's present lived experience and their reflections on the meaning of their experiences. In total, the present study relied on 26 interviews with 13 participants.FindingsLived experiences provided an extended-time view and allowed the researcher to explore how study participants perceived, coped and were shaped by inequalities throughout their lives. In addition, the sense-making perspective offered a new lens to study inequalities. Findings underscore the racial, class and gendered dynamics within organizations supporting their intersectional impact and acknowledge the pre-existing societal norms that condition individual actions and choices.Originality/valueThe study presents an “engaged” view of inequality to highlight it as a cumulative and complex experience. The findings help us recognize that participants are immersed in their specific contexts to act, negotiate, empower and make decisions under real-life pressures. Overall, the study pushes the boundaries of inequality research beyond its current episodic treatment.


Author(s):  
Russell M. Harris ◽  
Russell A. Bors

We collected personal documents from various participants on the topic of "a personal experience in which you observed or experienced psychopathology." The protocols were "topical autobiographical" personal documents, which we analyzed using the procedures set forth by van Kaam, to describe—rather than attempting to explain—lived experiences. Subsequently, 15 protocols obtained from an undergraduate class in psychopathology at the University of Regina were analyzed. We feel that both the methodology used and our findings reveal a new way of viewing psychopathology, showing the inadequacy of reducing psychopathology to diagnostic labels. We found that the fullness of the pathological experience can only be understood through elucidating experienced interpersonal dynamics. Consequently, both an essential and a situational quality is evidenced, revealing the inadequacy of theories in which either the existence of psychopathology or its subjective character are denied.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Israel Odede

Purpose The paper aims to critically examine the bibliographic utility as a roadmap to increase library consortia and provide an insight into a new library consortia strategy that integrates librarians into a system of sharing both resources and knowledge. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a literature review approach with a focus on bibliographic utility as a necessary prerequisite for effective library consortia, which is a paradigm shift from the concept of individual ownership to a collective access of distributed network resources and knowledge. Findings The reviewed literature indicated that significant bibliographic utilities and integrated library systems are factors that shaped and developed consortia activities in libraries. Originality/value The bibliographic utility has limited literature, and a few published scholarly studies have combined bibliographic utility and library consortia as strategies to share resources and knowledge


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223
Author(s):  
Byung Mun Lee

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the rules on the formation of contracts under Korean law and the Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in a comparative way and introduce the relevant proposed rules under the Amendment Draft of the Korean Civil Code (KCC). In addition, it attempts to compare and evaluate them in light of the discipline of comparative law. Design/methodology/approach In order to achieve the purposes of the study, it executes a comparative study of the rules as to the formation of contracts of the CISG, Korean law and the Amendment Draft of the KCC. The basic question for this comparative study is placed on whether a solution from one jurisdiction is more logical than the others and to what extent each jurisdiction has responded to protect the reasonable expectations of the parties in the rules as to the formation of contracts. Findings The comparative study finds that most of the rules under the CISG are quite plausible and logical and they are more or less well reflected in the proposals advanced by the KCC amendment committee. On the other hand, the other rules under the CISG which have brought criticisms in terms of their complexity and inconsistent case law invite us their revision or consistent interpretation. The drawbacks of the CISG have also been well responded in the Amendment Draft of the KCC. Nevertheless, it is quite unfortunate that the Amendment Draft of the KCC still has a rule that regards any purported performance with non-material alteration of the terms of an offer as an acceptance. Originality/value This study may provide legal and practical advice to both the seller and the buyer when they enter into a contract for international sales of goods. In addition, it may render us an insight into newly developed or developing rules in this area and show us how they interact with each other. Furthermore, it may be particularly useful in Korea where there is an ongoing discussion for revision of the KCC.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 473-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everard van Kemenade ◽  
Teun W. Hardjono

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to define what factors cause willingness and/or resistance among lecturers in universities towards external evaluation systems, especially accreditation.Design/methodology/approachA model has been designed to describe possible factors of willingness and/or resistance towards accreditation based on Ajzen and Metselaar. A literature review has been undertaken on the effects of external evaluation like ISO 9000 as well as accreditation systems such as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and European Quality Improvement System. A questionnaire has been administered to a group of 63 lecturers from three departments at Fontys University in The Netherlands. The results of this preliminary survey have been presented to 1,500 academics in The Netherlands and Flanders to collect empirical data.FindingsResistance to accreditation can be found in the consequences of accreditation for the work of the lecturer (workload), negative emotions (stress and insecurity); the lack of knowledge and experience (help from specialists is needed); and lack of acceptance (other paradigm).Originality/valueThe paper provides more insight into the difficulties that organizations, especially universities, have to commit their employees to external evaluation. It might be possible to generalize the findings to other professionals in other organizations. Little research in this field has been undertaken so far.


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