scholarly journals Sensitivity to situated positionings: Generating insight into organizational change

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sierk Ybema ◽  
Frans Kamsteeg ◽  
Karlien Veldhuizen
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Organisational Research ◽  
Insight Into

Within ethnographic forms of organisational research, sensitivity to context is generally acknowledged as a critical ingredient for analysing processes and practices. When conducting such research, however, researchers typically privilege one particular research context for generating knowledge: although some ethnographic scholars underscore the importance of adopting a diversity of both insider and outsider roles, ethnographic research is usually equated with gaining a deep familiarity with the field of study through immersion. First, we argue that, although immersion elicits valuable knowledge ‘from within’, its prioritisation inevitably blinds the researcher’s eye to equally interesting insights stemming from alternative – and often unintended – positionings. Testifying to the significance of researchers’ relational reflexivity for data interpretation, we show how a variety of researcher’ positionings vis-à-vis the researched generated a variety of insights. Critical sensitivity to fieldworker identities in an ethnographic study of planned organisational change within a police organisation allowed us, second, to criticise the change management literature for routinely building on a fixed dichotomy between ‘change agents’ and ‘change recipients’ and to empirically demonstrate a wider variety of police officers’ positionings in relation to change initiatives (i.e. countering, complying with and co-opting) and its initiators (i.e. engaging in other-depreciating, self-questioning or self-affirming identity work).

Servant Leadership: A systematic literature review—toward a model of antecedents and outcomes

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan G Langhof ◽  
Stefan Güldenberg
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Leadership Model ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Insight Into

The purpose of this article is multi-layered. First, we focus on gaining a comprehensive insight into a research area which just recently received more recognition in management literature: servant leadership. Second, we identify antecedent and outcomes of servant leadership within the existing research body. Third, we synthesize and develop a comprehensive servant leadership model. It assists academics and practitioners in keeping pace with the increasing servant leadership literature. The systematic literature review provides explanations as to why managers practice servant leadership. The study also contributes to a better understanding of the outcomes of servant leadership and brings clarity to a discombobulated group of studies.

scholarly journals Challenges for Change Agents. Best Practices at the University Library of Freie Universität Berlin

ABI-Technik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-364
Author(s):  
Martin Lee ◽  
Christina Riesenweber
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Large Change ◽  
University Library ◽  
The Future ◽  
The University ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe authors of this article have been managing a large change project at the university library of Freie Universität Berlin since January 2019. At the time of writing this in the summer of 2020, the project is about halfway completed. With this text, we would like to give some insight into our work and the challenges we faced, thereby starting conversations with similar undertakings in the future.

scholarly journals Discursive work in resisting stereotypic representations of the Chinese among Chinese students

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zanne Seng ◽  
Mei Yuit Chan ◽  
Ngee Thai Yap
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Fragmented Self ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Discourse Understanding ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Discursive Resources

AbstractThe negative effects of stereotyping arising from a victim’s acceptance and internalisation of stereotype identities are well-known. As stereotypes are created and maintained in discourse, understanding how targets of stereotyping employ discursive resources to resist the constraining structures of stereotypic identities imposed upon them can provide insight into the process of stereotyping and contribute to efforts to reduce the threat of stereotyping. We examined the strategies used by targets of stereotyping in contesting stereotypic representations of their social group through the mobilisation of a range of discourse strategies when presented with stereotyping attacks on the group. The findings revealed that stereotypes are subtle in nature and may not be easily recognised and hence, difficult to resist. Participants employed a number of discourse strategies to repair their fragmented self and group identities. However, in their attempt to maintain identity coherence, they ended up using stereotyping discourses themselves to devalue the perceived outgroup as well as subgroups they created within their own social group. The study highlights the complexity of stereotyping and its self-perpetuating character, and sheds light on the difficulty faced by targets of stereotyping discourse in reconciling their identities through intense discursive and identity work.

Communicate belonging? Duoethnography of an organisational change study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Crestani ◽  
Jill Fenton Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Change Management ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inclusive Language ◽  
Employee Resistance ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis duoethnography explores feelings of belonging that emerged as being relevant to the participants of a doctoral organisational change study. It challenges the prolific change management models that inadvertently encourage anti-belonging.Design/methodology/approachA change management practitioner and her doctoral supervisor share their dialogic reflections and reflexivity on the case study to open new conversations and raise questions about how communicating belonging enhances practice. They draw on Ubuntu philosophy (Tutu, 1999) to enrich Pinar's currere (1975) for understandings of belonging, interconnectedness, humanity and transformation.FindingsThe authors show how dialogic practice in giving employees a voice, communicating honestly, using inclusive language and affirmation contribute to a stronger sense of belonging. Suppressing the need for belonging can deepen a communication shadow and create employee resistance and alienation. Sharing in each other's personal transformation, the authors assist others in better understanding the feelings of belonging in organisational change.Practical implicationsPractitioners will need to challenge change initiatives that ignore belonging. This requires thinking of people as relationships, rather than as numbers or costs, communicating dialogically, taking care with language in communicating changes and facilitating employees to be active participants where they feel supported.Originality/valueFor both practice and academy, this duoethnography highlights a need for greater humanity in change management practices. This requires increasing the awareness and understanding of an interconnectedness that lies at the essence of belonging or Ubuntu (Tutu, 1999).

scholarly journals Towards A Minimum Conceptualisation Of Ethical Organisational Change: The Platform Provided By The "King II" Report

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Van Tonder
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
Ethical Change ◽  
Governance Risk ◽  
Point Of Departure

Despite the fact that organisational change is one of the most frequently recurring organisational phenomena of our time, organisations do not succeed at instituting change processes effectively and dismal change "success rates" are recorded. Van Tonder and Van Vuuren (2004) suggested that the adoption of an ethical framework would significantly mitigate the implicit risk of change practices and reduce the negative consequences of such change initiatives. The literature on ethical change practices however is exceedingly sparse and offers little guidance to management on how to conduct change practices ethically. This study argues that the King II report on corporate governance indirectly yet substantially informs issues of governance, risk and ethics in change management and provides a useful point of departure for establishing ethical change practices.

Examining How Stakeholders at the Local, State, and National Levels Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 822-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Brown ◽  
Joanna Englehardt ◽  
David P. Barry ◽  
Da Hei Ku
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
First Grade ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Local State ◽  
National Education ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Academic Content ◽  
Education Stakeholders

Kindergarten in the United States has fundamentally changed. It is the new first grade where children are taught increased academic content and experience more standardized testing. There is much debate among education stakeholders about these changes, but such discussions are often siloed— making it difficult to know whether these changes reflect these stakeholders’ understandings of kindergarten specifically or public education in general. This explorative video-cued multivocal ethnographic study addressed this issue by examining how local, state, and national education stakeholders made sense of the changed kindergarten. Such findings provide insight into what it is they viewed driving these academic and instructional changes, what opportunities for further reform exist, and whether these stakeholders will work to support and/or alter such changes.

scholarly journals Dismembering organisation: The coordination of algorithmic work in healthcare

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 546-571
Author(s):  
Simon Bailey ◽  
Dean Pierides ◽  
Adam Brisley ◽  
Clara Weisshaar ◽  
Tom Blakeman
Keyword(s):  
Acute Kidney Injury ◽  
Kidney Injury ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Expected Performance ◽  
Sociological Literature ◽  
Insight Into

Algorithms are increasingly being adopted in healthcare settings, promising increased safety, productivity and efficiency. The growing sociological literature on algorithms in healthcare shares an assumption that algorithms are introduced to ‘support’ decisions within an interactive order that is predominantly human-oriented. This article presents a different argument, calling attention to the manner in which organisations can end up introducing a non-negotiable disjuncture between human-initiated care work and work that supports algorithms, which the authors call algorithmic work. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the authors describe how two hospitals in England implemented an Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) algorithm and analyse ‘interruptions’ to the algorithm’s expected performance. When the coordination of algorithmic work occludes care work, the study finds a ‘dismembered’ organisation that is algorithmically-oriented rather than human-oriented. In the discussion, the authors examine the consequences of coordinating human and non-human work in each hospital and conclude by urging sociologists of organisation to attend to the importance of the formal in algorithmic work. As the use of algorithms becomes widespread, the analysis provides insight into how organisations outside of healthcare can also end up severing tasks from human experience when algorithmic automation is introduced.

Creating communities: the use of technology in craft and DIY communities of practice

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Holmes ◽  
Anita Greenhill ◽  
Rachel McLean
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to gain insight into craft and do-it-yourself (DIY) communities of practice (COPs) and how the use of technology provides ways for participants to connect, share and create. Gaining deeper insights into the practices of these communities may provide new opportunities to utilise within this flourishing domain. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative methods were adopted to collect data and analysed through an interpretivist lens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of craft and DIY COPs to gain a deep understanding of the broader ethnographic study. Existing theoretical perspectives surrounding COPs have been applied to further current perspectives. Findings – Findings from this study suggest that being part of a COP allows participants to connect to others, build creative enterprise and learn or enhance skills. Insights gained from this study indicate some of the detailed ways in which the application of technology redefines craft and DIY COPs. Research limitations/implications – This study provides a succinct exploration of a vast and fluid domain; if presented with more time and wider resources, the research would include further exploration of virtual COPs. Originality/value – The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of Information Systems (IS) and Technology Management to this domain is regarded as an original research and furthers knowledge in these areas. Originality/value – The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of ICTs within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of IS to the domain of craft and DIY culture is original research and extends existing concepts to include skills sharing as a previously unexplored domain.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Questing for meaningfulness through narrative identity work: The helpers, the heroes, and the hurt

2021 ◽  
pp. 001872672110430
Author(s):  
Sarah-Louise Weller ◽  
Andrew D. Brown ◽  
Caroline A Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Master Narratives ◽  
Identity Narratives ◽  
Primary Contribution ◽  
Meaningful Lives

What identity narratives do those engaged in dangerous volunteering fabricate and how do they help satisfy their quest for meaningful lives? Based on a three-year ethnographic study of QuakeRescue, a UK-based voluntary, search and rescue charity, we show that volunteers worked on identity narratives as helpers, heroes and hurt. The primary contribution we make is to analyse how meaningfulness (the sense of personal purpose and fulfilment) that people attribute to their lives, is both developed through and a resource for individuals’ narrative identity work. We show how organizationally based actors attribute significance to their lives through authorship of desired identities which are sanctioned and supplied by societal (master) narratives embedded in and constitutive of local communities. In our case, the helper and hero identities dangerous volunteering offered members were seductive. However, their pursuit had ambiguous and sometimes, arguably, negative consequences for volunteers who had seen action overseas, and our study adds to understanding of how organizational members’ quest for meaningful identities may falter and sometimes fail.

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