scholarly journals Personalia and women’s spatial practices in the routine office

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Chalmers
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Clerical Workers ◽  
Office Design ◽  
Spatial Design ◽  
Work Spaces ◽  
Routine Work ◽  
Space Of Flows

Office design is a contemporary cultural discourse, where space is conceived in abstract terms. Organizations mission and purpose are translated into the spatial design of workplaces. In the most dominant sectors such as finance and banking neoliberal organizations operate around the space of flows, generated by globalization, technology and postmodernity (Castells, 2000). The space of flows is also manifest in the spatial design of the workplace shaping employees’ working identities and behaviours. The dissertation asserts that there are two classes of office workers evolving in the workplace: the professional knowledge workers who are increasingly mobile and autonomous; and the routine clerical workers who are captive in a hegemonic system that keeps them doing clerical work with little prospect of promotion. It is significant that the clerical class is composed mostly of women. Personalia and Women’s Spatial Practices In The Routine Office examines the head offices of Investors Group in Winnipeg, Canada, in terms of how the company’s offices both reflect and generate spaces of flows. Women’s participation rates have grown from being a small minority in the 1900s to approximately 70% of the clerical workforce in the 2000s. Through microanalysis of previously unexamined personalia, or personal objects at the desk, the dissertation finds work spaces are expressive of women’s lived experiences of work. By conducting interviews and photographic studies of the workspaces of 11 women at Investors Group the research uncovers the ways women use the personalia at their desks to reappropriate the everyday spaces of the office. The identification of the term personalia becomes a key concept in the work and a contribution to the study of the close environment of the office desk. Social networks with co-workers, past and present are honored in the personalia at the desk; and tactics such as repurposing office supplies as gifts, along with numerous individual and heterogeneous behaviours demonstrate that routine work spaces are not neutral spaces, but are open to the expressive practices which de Certeau calls operations. The ways that women make space for themselves and push against the hegemony of the neoliberal organization are specific and instructive. They reflect women’s values and the identities crafted for public and private consumption. The research closely examines the practices of women in the financial services industry through the filter of Lefebvre’s trialectic for the analysis of space (1991), de Certeau’s ways of operating and tactics (1998), and Franck’s interpretation of Women’s Ways of Knowing (1989; 2000). The research demonstrates how personalia in the contemporary workplace reflects women’s values, and how women’s values have influenced the design of the workplace.

scholarly journals Personalia and women’s spatial practices in the routine office

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Chalmers
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Clerical Workers ◽  
Office Design ◽  
Spatial Design ◽  
Work Spaces ◽  
Routine Work ◽  
Space Of Flows

Office design is a contemporary cultural discourse, where space is conceived in abstract terms. Organizations mission and purpose are translated into the spatial design of workplaces. In the most dominant sectors such as finance and banking neoliberal organizations operate around the space of flows, generated by globalization, technology and postmodernity (Castells, 2000). The space of flows is also manifest in the spatial design of the workplace shaping employees’ working identities and behaviours. The dissertation asserts that there are two classes of office workers evolving in the workplace: the professional knowledge workers who are increasingly mobile and autonomous; and the routine clerical workers who are captive in a hegemonic system that keeps them doing clerical work with little prospect of promotion. It is significant that the clerical class is composed mostly of women. Personalia and Women’s Spatial Practices In The Routine Office examines the head offices of Investors Group in Winnipeg, Canada, in terms of how the company’s offices both reflect and generate spaces of flows. Women’s participation rates have grown from being a small minority in the 1900s to approximately 70% of the clerical workforce in the 2000s. Through microanalysis of previously unexamined personalia, or personal objects at the desk, the dissertation finds work spaces are expressive of women’s lived experiences of work. By conducting interviews and photographic studies of the workspaces of 11 women at Investors Group the research uncovers the ways women use the personalia at their desks to reappropriate the everyday spaces of the office. The identification of the term personalia becomes a key concept in the work and a contribution to the study of the close environment of the office desk. Social networks with co-workers, past and present are honored in the personalia at the desk; and tactics such as repurposing office supplies as gifts, along with numerous individual and heterogeneous behaviours demonstrate that routine work spaces are not neutral spaces, but are open to the expressive practices which de Certeau calls operations. The ways that women make space for themselves and push against the hegemony of the neoliberal organization are specific and instructive. They reflect women’s values and the identities crafted for public and private consumption. The research closely examines the practices of women in the financial services industry through the filter of Lefebvre’s trialectic for the analysis of space (1991), de Certeau’s ways of operating and tactics (1998), and Franck’s interpretation of Women’s Ways of Knowing (1989; 2000). The research demonstrates how personalia in the contemporary workplace reflects women’s values, and how women’s values have influenced the design of the workplace.

scholarly journals An Empirical Examination of Nursing Units in China Based on Nurse Experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Xuan ◽  
Zongfei Li ◽  
Xixi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Work ◽  
Patient Room ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Nursing Unit ◽  
Spatial Design ◽  
Work Spaces ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Unit Design ◽  
Nurse Experience ◽  
Doctor's Office

Objectives: To create opportunities to increase nursing staff’s satisfaction and operational efficiency and eventually improve nurses’ experiences through better design in unit layout. Background: The majority of research performed on nursing units in China only focused on the spatial design itself, and few studies examined the nursing unit empirically based on nurses’ experience. Nursing units need to be designed with understanding nurses’ behavior and experience in China. Method: A mixed-method approach was conducted in four double-corridor nursing units in China. Observation and interview data were collected to explore how physical environments for managing administrative duties, medications, and caring patient were used in nursing units. Results: The most frequent activities were communication, medication, and patient-care activities. The places in which nurses spent the most of theirs working times were the nurse station (NS), patient room, workstation on wheels (WoW), and medication room. The important clinical work spaces were the patient room, NS, WoW, medication room, doctor’s office, disposal room, examining room, and back corridor. The important traffic linkages were between NS and medication room, patient room and WoW, and medication room and patient room. Conclusions: This article revealed the frequency of nurse activities; how they spent their time; how they use the clinical spaces; identified important clinical spaces, linkages, and driver of inefficiency in nursing work and nursing unit design; and finally generated recommendations for double-corridor nursing unit design in China which can be used by medical planner, hospital administrator.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gendered Spatializations: A Study of Cityscapes in Manu Joseph’s Novels

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.S. Parvathi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Body ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
City Image ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Spatial Politics ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

Burton Pike (1981) terms the cityscapes represented in literature as word-cities whose depiction captures the spatial significance evoked by the city-image and simultaneously, articulates the social psychology of its inhabitants (pp. 243). This intertwining of the social and the spatial animates the concept of spatiality, which informs the positionality of urban subjects, (be it the verticality of the city or the horizonality of the landscape) and determines their standpoint (Keith and Pile, 1993). The spatial politics underlying cityscapes, thus, determine the modes of social production of sexed corporeality. In turn, the body as a cultural product modifies and reinscribes the urban landscape according to its changing demographic needs. The dialectic relationship between the city and the bodies embedded in them orient familial, social, and sexual relations and inform the discursive practices underlying the division of urban spaces into public and private domains. The geographical and social positioning of the bodies within the paradigm of the public/private binary regulates the process of individuation of the bodies into subjects. The distinction between the public and the private is deeply rooted in spatial practices that isolate a private sphere of domestic, embodied activity from the putatively disembodied political, public sphere. Historically, women have been treated as private and embodied and the politics of the demarcated spaces are employed to control and limit women’s mobility. This gendered politics underlying the situating practices apropos public and private spaces inform the representations of space in literary texts. Manu Joseph’s novels, Serious Men (2010) and The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012), are situated in the word-cities of Mumbai and Chennai respectively whose urban spaces are structured by such spatial practices underlying the politics of location. The paper attempts to problematize the nature of gendered spatializations informing the location of characters in Serious Men and The Illicit Happiness of Other People.

scholarly journals Political economics, collective action and wicked socio-ecological problems: A practice story from the field

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa B. Adams ◽  
Theodore R. Alter ◽  
Margot W. Parkes ◽  
Michael Reid ◽  
Andrew P. Woolnough
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Political Economics ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Ecological Problems ◽  
Practical Experiences

Empowering integrative, sustainable and equitable approaches to wicked socio-ecological problems requires multiple disciplines and ways of knowing. Following calls for greater attention to political economics in this transdisciplinary work, we offer a practitioner perspective on political economy and collective action and their influences on our community engagement practice and public policy. Our perspective is grounded in a pervasive wicked problem in Australia, invasive rabbits, and the emergence of the Victorian Rabbit Action Network. The network grew out of a publically funded research project to support community-led action in rabbit management. Victorian residents and workers affected by rabbits – public and private land managers, scientists, government officers and others – were invited to engage in a participatory planning process to generate sustainable strategies to address the rabbit problem. Each stage in the process, which involved interviews, a workshop and consultations, was designed to nurture the critical enquiry, listening and learning skills of participants, advance understandings of the problem from multiple perspectives, generate collective options to guide decision-making, and encourage community-led collective action. We reflect on our understanding of these processes using the language and lens of political economics and, in particular, the context of democratic professionalism. In so doing, we define terms and refer to information resources that have enabled us to bring a practical working knowledge of political economics to our professional practice. Our intent is to motivate academics, community members, government officials, and scientists alike, to draw on their knowledge and field experiences and to share practice stories through the lens of political economics and collective action. This is an opportunity to engage each other in small ‘p’ politics of how we understand and act on wicked problems, to negotiate and connect across disciplines, practical experiences and human difference, so that people may work more creatively and effectively together to address the challenging issues of our time.  

scholarly journals USO DE LOS SERVICIOS FINANCIEROS. ESTUDIO EMPÍRICO EN ESTUDIANTES UNIVERSITARIOS

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 581
Author(s):  
Milka Elena Escalera-Chávez ◽  
Esmeralda Tejada-Peña ◽  
Arturo García-Santillán
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Banking Institutions ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Estudiantes Universitarios

Abstract.USE OF FINANCIAL SERVICES EMPIRICAL. STUDY IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.The financially included population has access to banking services, hence this insertion favors the economic development of the population, however there are many people who do not use formal financial services, including students. For this reason, the objective of this work was to identify the frequency with which the upper level students of Tuxtepec Oaxaca access the financial services offered by the Banking Institutions. The sample is made up of 800 upper level students who belong to 8 public and private universities in Tuxtepec Oaxaca. The frequency of use of financial services was checked by means of the test. The results show that students use the financial services offered by Banking Institutions. However, it is important to reiterate that some students do not resort to the financial system, this proportion of the population being an area of opportunity for the process of financial inclusion in Mexico.Key Words: Use, Financial Services, University Students.Resumen.La población incluida financieramente accede a los servicios bancarios, de ahí que ésta  inserción favorece el desarrollo económico de la población, sin embargo existen muchas personas que no  utilizan  los servicios financieros formales, incluyendo a los estudiantes. Por este motivo, el objetivo de este trabajo fue identificar la frecuencia con la que los estudiantes de nivel superior de Tuxtepec Oaxaca acceden a los servicios financieros que ofrece las Instituciones Bancarias. La muestra está conformada por 800 alumnos del nivel superior que pertenecen a 8 universidades públicas y privadas de Tuxtepec Oaxaca. Se  comprobó por medio de la prueba t la frecuencia del uso de los servicios financieros. Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes usan los servicios financieros que ofrecen las Instituciones Bancaria. Sin embargo, es importante reiterar que algunos estudiantes no recurren al sistema financiero, siendo esta proporción de la población un área de oportunidad para el proceso de inclusión financiera en México.Palabras Claves: Uso, Servicios Financieros, Estudiantes Universitarios.

scholarly journals Arbeid in publieke en private sectoren vergeleken

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Smulders ◽  
Irene Houtman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Quality Of Work ◽  
Public Sectors ◽  
Emotional Strain

Work in public and private sectors compared Work in public and private sectors compared During the past years, Dutch media made mention of work problems and social unrest in the public sectors. However, research did not focus very strongly on the quality of work in these sectors. Therefore the aim of this article is to describe working conditions and terms of employment in the public sectors in comparison with the private sectors in the Netherlands. The data used were gathered by TNO and Statistics Netherlands in 2010 with the annual Netherlands Working Conditions Survey. The 2010-sample contained 23.000 workers, representative for the Dutch work force.The analyses – centered on 10 public and 10 private sectors – show clearly that mental-emotional strain is higher in the public sectors than in private sectors. On the other hand, physical strain, dangerous work and irregular working hours, are encountered more frequently in the private sectors. In the public sectors employees work more with permanent contracts and in shorter working weeks. Work uncertainty is seen above average in the financial and commercial services and in the transportation sector, but also in government departments, the judiciary and the police. Feelings of burn out are found most often in the three educational sectors. Pay satisfaction is highest among workers in the financial services, higher education and government departments, and lowest in the police and the hotel and catering industry. On average overall work satisfaction is highest in the public sectors.In addition, the analyses show that the 10 public sectors cannot be seen as one whole; the same is true for the 10 private sectors. As far as the quality of work is concerned, government departments, local governments, provinces and higher education resemble commercial and financial services. But primary and secondary education, health care and the police differ significantly from the other public sectors.

Are public employees more satisfied than private ones? The mediating role of job demands and job resources

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Gastearena-Balda ◽  
Andrea Ollo-López ◽  
Martín Larraza-Kintana
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Job Demands ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Job Resources ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Employment Sector ◽  
Routine Work

Purpose This paper aims to compare job satisfaction in public and private sectors and the mediating role of several job demands and resources on the relationship between the employment sector and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the job demands-resources model, this study argued that differences in job satisfaction were explained largely by the job characteristics provided in each sector. Data comes from the quality of working life survey, a representative sample of 6,024 Spanish public and private employees. Findings This study revealed that public employees were more satisfied than private ones. This relationship was partially mediated by job demands and job resources, meaning that the public and private employment sectors provided different working conditions. Public employees, in general, had fewer demands and more job resources than private ones, which resulted in different levels of job satisfaction. Additionally, partial mediation indicated that public employees are more satisfied than private ones, despite accounting for several job demands and job resources. Research limitations/implications While the findings of this study highlighted the relative importance of job demands and job resources in affecting job satisfaction of public and private employees, the generalizability of the results to other countries should be limited as the study only used data from a single country. Practical implications A significant portion of the positive effect on job satisfaction of public employees is channeled through the lower levels of routine work and lower number of required working hours and through better job resources such as higher salary, more telework, greater prospects at work and more training utility. To improve job satisfaction, it is apparent that managers should pay special attention to things such as routine work, working hours, training and telework. Originality/value This paper contributes to the comprehension of how several job demands and resources simultaneously play a mediating role in explaining the relationship between the employment sector and job satisfaction.

Connecting places, constructing Tết: Home, city and the making of the lunar New Year in urban Vietnam

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick McAllister
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Home ◽  
The City

This paper presents an overview of the main features and nature of Tết, the Vietnamese lunar New Year festival, as it is currently experienced in Hồ Chí Minh City. It outlines a variety of social practices associated with Tết and suggests that it is through these that one can identify a ‘festive landscape’ in the city, within which a number of diverse places are made into and experienced as ‘meaningful space’ in the context of the Tết festival. The emphasis is on how the spatial practices associated with the festival constitute the lived experience of Tết by urban residents and on how this both transforms and connects various sites. Of particular importance here is the family home and how it is linked to the wider holistic experience of Tết, bringing together in a single place sacred and secular, public and private, and the production and consumption of place, in a social construction that is characterised as a heterotopia.

scholarly journals Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction: A Comparative Study of an Indian Public VS Private Bank

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dharmendra Singh
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Banks ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Public And Private Sector

This study focuses on the service quality and customer satisfaction among the private and public sector banks in India. Today customers are supposed to have awareness about the financial services provided by the banking sector. An attempt has therefore, been made in this paper to quantify the ‘awareness level’ of the customers and analyze the ‘service quality experience’ of the customers from their banks. The study has been carried out to compare the service quality experienced by customers of the public and private sector banks and to study the link between service quality and customer satisfaction. For that reason a well structured questionnaire was used to collect the views of customers on various service dimensions and the satisfaction of the customers regarding the services offered by the public and private sector banks. Various statistical tools like ANOVA, Factor Analysis and Multiple Regressions were used for analyzing the data collected on five service dimensions of SERVQUAL and satisfaction of customers. The results indicate that the private sector bank was better in terms of providing services and creating awareness about their products and services. The study also proves that an increase in service quality will most likely lead to customer satisfaction.  

scholarly journals IDEO Product Development Case Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 396-401
Author(s):  
Xiaoru Du
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Case Analysis ◽  
Process Approach ◽  
Matrix Product ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Main Design ◽  
The Public ◽  
Design Firms

IDEO is one of the successful product development companies, it established in 1991 and combined with 3 companies (David Kelley Design, ID Two and Matrix Product Design). As one of the world’s leading design firms, IDEO won a large number of awards than other product development firms. This company has a rapidly development in last several years, owned over 660 employees in the various disciplines. IDEO help organizations in the public and private sectors to find new design approach to innovate and grow, its major well-know clients are include Apple Inc., AT&T, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Steelcase, PNC Financial Services and Palm. The company utilize design thinking as their main design process approach and focus on investigate and satisfied consumers’ needs.

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