Employees’ Relational Work on Social Media

Given how social media are commonly used in contemporary Nordic countries, social media platforms are emerging as crucial for relational work between employers, employees, and potential employees. By means of a discursive psychology approach, this study investigates employers’ constructs of relational work on social media through the use of two interpretative repertoires: the repertoire of loss of control and the repertoire of ever-presence. The consequences of these interpretative repertoires are a masking of power relations, especially between employers and young employees in precarious labor market positions and those with limited digital knowledge or financial means. Further, the positioning of social media as part of a private sphere of life means the invasion of not only employees’, but also managers’ private time and persona. The result of this study hence calls for the need to understand relational work on social media as part of normative managerial work.

Organizations Decentered: Data Objects, Technology and Knowledge

Data are no longer simply a component of administrative and managerial work but a pervasive resource and medium through which organizations come to know and act upon the contingencies they confront. We theorize how the ongoing technological developments reinforce the traditional functions of data as instruments of management and control but also reframe and extend their role. By rendering data as technical entities, digital technologies transform the process of knowing and the knowledge functions data fulfil in socioeconomic life. These functions are most of the times mediated by putting together disperse and steadily updatable data in more stable entities we refer to as data objects. Users, customers, products, and physical machines rendered as data objects become the technical and cognitive means through which organizational knowledge, patterns, and practices develop. Such conditions loosen the dependence of data from domain knowledge, reorder the relative significance of internal versus external references in organizations, and contribute to a paradigmatic contemporary development that we identify with the decentering of organizations of which digital platforms are an important specimen.

Efficiency of Managerial Work and Performance of Managers: Time Management Point of View

Appropriate time management allows individuals to achieve work and personal goals, plan tasks, set priorities, eliminate disruptive effects, and increase work efficiency and productivity. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of managerial work and the performance of managers of food companies in the V4 countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) from the perspective of time management principles, point out the shortcomings and reserves that can ensure time management, and propose solutions to improve business practice. We set five research assumptions in order to evaluate the situation comprehensively. A survey carried out from September 2020 to January 2021 involved 1588 managers working at various levels of management. Statistical methods and tests were used for data processing and their subsequent evaluation. The data were processed using Microsoft Excel 2016, the statistical software SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1, and XLSTAT. The analysis showed that three-quarters of managers are aware of the value of their time. More than half of the managers involved try to regularly review their agenda in order to identify gaps in the use of time and to avoid repeating unproductive practices. Only half of the managers make arrangements not to think about work in their free time. The managers spend the most time in their work dealing with administration. Intensifying the implementation of ICT (information and communication technologies) in the work of the manager has the effect of increasing the efficiency of the division and use of working time of managers. Based on our findings, we consider the goal orientation, positive motivation, systematic training, and development of managers as a key prerequisite for efficiency of managerial work and performance of managers and their effective time management.

A Systemic Perspective for Understanding Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Overview and Subregional Context in Latin America as Evidence

Since virtual education has increased from a local to a global audience, it is of great importance to understand the role that cultural and social backgrounds play in the transition to digital education. Therefore, a review of preferences and evidence among different Latin American regions and nations increases understanding. This digital transformation can be assessed under several categories of cultural, social, and economic situations. Traditionally, universities are known as formal institutions with emerging education trends, but it is mandatory to address the managerial work and implications of the institutions themselves. Particularly, universities play a relevant role in understanding the effective digital transformation in communities, but the profile of the educational system is very important for configuring this process. This research points out the main dimensions that prevent societies from increasing their educational level. By using comparative data analysis and documentary references, this paper highlights a systemic perspective for understanding the digital transformation in higher education, but it also expands the range to managerial decisions about the role educational ecosystems play in this transformation. Moreover, this study provides an overview of how relational elements configure management in higher education institutions.

Possibilities for Coping Strategies Development of Management Students

Coping with demanding situations is a regular part of managerial work; therefore, training in it ought also to be part of the pre-graduation preparation of students of Management. From a managerial perspective, demanding situations are perceived as either unpleasant or as a potential opportunity for career advancement. This paper presents the results of an experimental research project investigating coping strategies development, specifically among students of Management. An experimental group underwent specific preparation, whereas a control group did not. The experiment was conducted on a research sample of 293 management students using the COPE (b) methodology. The experimental results confirmed statistically significant differences between the ante- and the post-measurement within the experimental group in terms of these five coping strategies: Positive reframing, Active coping, Planning, Humour, and Venting. Within the control group, no significant differences were recorded.

Dealing With Pluralism: Managerial Work of CEOs in Italian Public Healthcare Organizations

Background: Healthcare organizations are extremely complex, and the work of their CEOs is particularly demanding, especially in the public sector. However, we know little about how healthcare executives’ managerial work unfolds. Drawing from scholarship on pluralistic organizations and managerial work, we answer the questions: what is the content of managerial work of executives in public healthcare? How do CEOs deal with pressures from internal and external stakeholders while maintaining a strategic agenda?Methods: We adopted a mixed method with a survey to measure CEO behaviors, coding CEOs time for four weeks; a questionnaire to understand the strategic dimensions of interactions; interviews of senior CEOs.Results: CEOs in Italian public healthcare devote most of their time to interactions, by and large responding to pressures by internal stakeholders. Although half of this time is perceived as occupied in answering operational requests, this is necessary to nurture relations, create networks and develop alliances and consensus, which are functional in achieving CEOs’ strategic agenda.Conclusions: CEOs in public healthcare must deal with enormous contextual pressures and cannot manage the complexity but are called to manage within the complexity, fostering involvement in decision making, building networks, and establishing alliances. Amidst ambiguity and fragmentation, executives need to find solutions to perform their managerial work without being entrapped by stakeholders’ pressures, thanks to effective stakeholder management as well as delegation.Trial registration: The article does not report the results of a health care intervention on human participants, and material used in the research did not need ethical approval according to Italian law.

Patterns of Active Commuting to School in Spanish Preschool Children and Its Associations with Socio-Economic Factors: The PREFIT Project

The aims of this study were to describe patterns of active commuting to school (ACS) of preschool children, and to analyse the relationship between ACS and family socio-economic factors. A total of 2636 families of preschoolers (3-to-5 years old) were asked to complete a questionnaire at home about the mode of commuting to school of their children and marital status, educational level, and profession of both father and mother. Chi-square analyses were applied to compare ACS between school grades and gender of the children. To analyse the association of ACS with socio-economic factors, logistic regression analyses were performed. Almost 50% of participants reported ACS of their offspring, with a higher rate in 3rd preprimary grade (5 years old) than in 1st and 2nd preprimary grades (3- and 4-years old. All, p < 0.05). Those preschool children who had parents with lower educational level and no managerial work had higher odds to ACS than those who had parents with higher educational level and managerial work (all, p ≤ 0.001). Around half of the Spanish preschool children included in this study commuted actively to school and families with lower educational levels or worse employment situation were related to active commuting to school.

Difficult Situations in Educational Management

Introduction: The scholarly paper focuses on addressing selected issues related to the forms of managers’ behaviour in coping with difficult situations in managerial work. Purpose: The aim is to enrich human knowledge in the field of coping with difficult situations in managerial work both at the methodological level and at the level of theory development in this area. Methods: The most commonly used method was quantitative-qualitative content analysis of the text of various types of communicants in order to systematise, analyse and describe various phenomena and situations in educational management. We describe the objects and subjects they have a quantitatively and qualitatively differentiated essence and characteristics (manager’s personality, demanding working environment, specific environment of class or school, processes at work, at school or during teaching, management style, workplace culture, etc.). Conclusion: In terms of the specific application of the mentioned knowledge in managerial work, we can assume a positive impact on increasing the effectiveness of managerial work, in the context of which this can be used to increase the quality of selection of suitable people for managerial positions, education and training of managers, as well as prediction of possible risk factors in coping with difficult situations in managerial work.

The Blinkered Boss: How Has Managerial Behavior Changed with the Shift to Virtual Working?

Virtual working became the norm for most organizations since March 2020, and it brings well-recognized challenges. But we know little about the impact of virtual working on managerial behavior. This article presents the results of three surveys conducted before and during lockdown to understand what changed. It shows how managers became more blinkered: turning inward, becoming task-focused at the expense of relationship-building, and finding few opportunities to develop new skills. The article offers practical suggestions for how the evolution of managerial work might be accelerated, so that managers can become more effective in this changing environment.