Tourism Workforce Resilience in Crisis: Paradox Dynamics Across Multi-Level Actors

Resilience is a concept of growing interest in the modern workplace. Multiple stakeholders, including policy makers, organizational leaders, human-resource professionals, and employees discuss resilience as an essential element needed to effectively deal with unexpected and mind-boggling changes that riddle the current workplace. These collective interests are commonly known as workforce resilience. However, there is a lack of consensus as to what causes and entails workforce resilience as well as how to best address the issue for leaders and employees alike. By comparing disciplinary perspectives of resilience and reviewing empirical studies, this study identifies core elements and drivers of workforce resilience in the context of organizational and human resource development. This study also clarifies how workforce resilience should incorporate policies and strategies at the societal and organizational levels together with organizational human-resource interventions.

Nepal is a home to different famous mountains including Mount Everest, the highest mountain of the planet. The geography of Nepal is both an opportunity and a threat to the country and the communities. More than 15 percent of land lies in mountainous regions where tourism is the major profession to rely on for the communities. However, the region encountered one of the greatest threats in the form of COVID-19 which restricted people's mobility. The livelihood of the mountain communities which are directly or indirectly dependent on tourism was severely affected by COVID-19. The prime trait that helped minimize the damage was the resilience of the mountain community. This qualitative study attempts to assess the resilience (community resilience) of mountain people with the cases from the Everest and Annapurna region and analyze it against the theory of resilience.

Industries are facing rapidly evolving skill needs, driven by technological transformations, the climate crisis, and geopolitical threats. This leads to widening skill gaps, which are complex to understand and involve multiple stakeholders, including employees, employers, education providers, and policymakers. Bridging these skill gaps requires not only technical solutions but also strategic organisational practices and motivation.This research aimed to propose ways to bridge these skill gaps by incorporating stakeholders' diverse perspectives. To pursue this mission, Design Research Methodology was applied in four steps: understanding the problem and formulating the research goal, exploring stakeholders’ needs, proposing a solution to the problem, and evaluating this solution. The findings of the studies in this research are presented in seven appended papers. The results include a definition of skill gaps, a description of the main stakeholders involved, and a deeper understanding of learners' motivational needs. Moreover, this thesis provides insights into managerial practices and challenges in bridging skill gaps within organisations. Additionally, the results highlight companies' workforce readiness towards Industry 5.0, regarding skills, upskilling initiatives, and workforce resilience. Lastly, the thesis proposes and evaluates a solution for personalised skill matching that recommends learning opportunities to employees based on their skill gaps. The contribution of this thesis extends over three main dimensions: theoretical, practical, and societal. Theoretically, it improves understanding of skill gaps and identifies both individual needs and organisational practices. In practice, it provides guidelines for designing motivational learning, a framework for developing organisational practices to address skill gaps, and policy recommendations for targeted skill development aligned with Industry 5.0. The research also offers practical insights into platforms for managing skill gaps and highlights challenges and practices encountered during implementation. Societally, it underscores essential ways to prevent unemployment and enhance people’s well-being.

In the inaugural column, I introduced the concept of paradoxical tensions — critical, unresolvable tensions that all leaders, including those in academia, must balance. All organizations are balancing an array of paradoxical tensions in every decision, even in the design of their offices: privacy versus camaraderie, freedom of speech versus civility, legal risks versus innovation, work–life balance versus output, the organization's needs versus the needs of science. Leaders and managers are the fulcrum for balancing these tensions.

This article explores key roles and responsibilities undertaken by academics working in the UK higher education in relation to the student experience. Based on a case study of a large, modern university, we explore perceptions of three management roles that academics perform alongside their academic duties; namely programme leader, year tutor and personal tutor. Drawing on Brookfield’s (1995) four-lens framework, these roles are examined from multiple actors’ perspectives: students, peers, educational researchers, and autobiographical experiences. This study makes an important theoretical contribution by applying Brookfield’s four-lens framework not previously used in researching academic life, whilst empirically it offers insights into how each management role is enacted, and related to various aspects of the student experience. These unique theoretical and empirical insights have implications for enhancing the student experience and support academics into the enactment of management roles.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as connected sensors are increasingly being used in the public sector, often deployed and collecting data in public spaces. While broadly perceived as beneficial by policy makers, such technology presents new challenges for governance. A theme commonly seen in the rhetoric surrounding public space IoT initiatives is empowerment. However, it is important to ask who is empowered and who benefits, and we must ensure that such technological interventions follow democratic principles and are trusted by citizens.In this paper we describe work that utilises design fiction interventions in a community setting to explore questions of privacy, data management, risk and trust in relation to public space IoT deployments. Our findings suggest that agency, transparency and intent associated with IoT systems are key components that must be considered, particularly when multiple actors and stakeholders are involved.We suggest that good governance requires consideration of these systems in their entirety, throughout the process, and in consultation with multiple stakeholders who are impacted, including the public. To achieve this effectively, we argue for transparency at the device and system level, which may require legislative change.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as connected sensors are increasingly being used in the public sector, often deployed and collecting data in public spaces. A theme commonly seen in the rhetoric surrounding public space IoT initiatives is empowerment, and these deployments are broadly perceived as beneficial by policy makers. However, such technology presents new governance challenges. It is important to ask who is empowered and who benefits, and we must ensure that such technological interventions follow democratic principles and are trusted by citizens. In this paper, we investigate how risk, transparency, and data governance require careful consideration in this domain, describing work which investigates how these combine to form components of trusted IoT ecosystems. This includes an overview of the landscape of public space IoT deployments, consideration of how they may often be subsumed in idealized smart city focused rhetoric, and discussion of how methodologies such as design fiction in community settings can uncover potential risks and concerns. Our findings suggest that agency, value and intent associated with IoT systems are key components that must be made transparent, particularly when multiple actors and stakeholders are involved. We suggest that good governance requires consideration of these systems in their entirety, throughout the full planning, implementation, and evaluation process, and in consultation with multiple stakeholders who are impacted, including the public. To achieve this effectively, we argue for transparency at the device and system level, which may require legislative change.

Advocates of inclusive growth claim it provides policymakers with a means of combining economic success with social inclusivity, making it highly attractive across a wide range of settings. Here, we explore how three UK policy organizations (a devolved national government, a city region combined authority, and a local council) are pursuing inclusive growth goals. Drawing on 51 semistructured interviews, documentary analysis and policy ethnography, we argue that inclusive growth is a classic “chameleonic idea,” strategically imbued with malleable qualities that serve to obscure substantive, unresolved tensions. These characteristics are helpful in achieving alliances, both within policy organizations and between these organizations and their multiple stakeholders. However, these same qualities make inclusive growth challenging to operationalize, especially in governance settings dominated by metrics. The process of representing a malleable idea via a set of metricized indicators involves simplification and stabilization, both of which risk disrupting the fragile coalitions that malleability enables.

Wicked problems are causally complex, lack definite solutions, and re-emerge in different guises. This paper discusses how new ways of organizing emerge to tackle changing manifestations of wicked problems. Focusing on the wicked problem of poverty, we conducted a longitudinal study of Fe y Alegria (FyA), one of the world’s largest non-governmental organization, which provides education for the poor across 21 countries in Latin America and Africa. Drawing on archival and ethnographic data, we trace the historical narratives of how FyA defined poverty as a problem and developed new ways of organizing, from its foundation by a Jesuit priest in 1955 to its current networked structure. Our findings reveal the ongoing cycle of interpretive problem definition and organizing solutions for wicked problems. First, since there is no “true” formulation of a wicked problem, actors construct narrative explanations based on their understanding of the problem. Second, organizational solutions to a wicked problem are thus reflections of these narrative constructions. Third, emerging and changing narratives about what the problem is inspire new organizational responses. Our findings provide insights into the dynamic relationship between organizing for wicked problems, narratives, and the changing manifestations of wicked problems and grand challenges more broadly.

Global agriculture trade stimulates a transformation of traditional cold chains to global cold chains with long-haul intercontinental transportation. Sea transportation by reefer containers will be the dominant modality in the future for global cold chains. Reefer logistics plans and controls the forward and backward logistics of reefer containers and perishable products. Reefer logistics is challenging due to its distinctive features that include (1) high asset value, (2) food quality/waste issue, (3) energy requirements for refrigeration, (4) extra emissions, and (5) reefer maintenance and PTI. Thus, reefer logistics is a complex system with specific technical challenges, which deals with cost-efficiency, timeliness, product quality, and sustainability requirements.One of the biggest challenges in reefer logistics is to find solutions balancing cost, quality, and sustainability since improving product quality and sustainability may come at a cost. Additionally, multiple stakeholders are involved in reefer logistics, who have different perceptions of the product quality, economic aspect, and sustainability. There can be a conflict of interests between stakeholders. Therefore, it is necessary to manage the potentially conflicting objectives in a multi-actor setting for reefer logistics. The main research question that this thesis aims to answer is: How to manage reefer logistics considering its distinctive characteristics and trading off conflicting objectives of multiple stakeholders?In this thesis, we firstly provide an overall understanding of reefer logistics by analysing its technical characteristics and stakeholders. After the qualitative analysis, we propose a generic agent-oriented modelling framework to manage reefer logistics, which considers the identified features and the multiple stakeholders' objectives. We further evaluate two (re)designs of reefer logistics using the overall understanding of reefer logistics and the generic modelling framework.In Chapter 2, we explore the characteristics of reefer logistics. We carry out a systematic literature review on reefer logistics and conduct system analysis based on the literature review and expert interviews. We first focus on single-actor system analysis. We identify the means, objectives of each actor, and the internal/external factors affecting the achievement of objectives. Next, we conduct a multi-actor system analysis to study how an action (carried out by one actor) could influence other chain actors. The results of system analysis in chapter 2 can be use as an explanatory tool for further development in decision support models for reefer logistics.After analysing the reefer logistics system, we further looked into the decision-support modelling for reefer logistics considering its specific characteristics and different objectives of stakeholders. In Chapter 3, we develop an agent-based simulation (ABS) framework for reefer logistics. The ABS trades off operational cost, quality, and CO2 emission, which can support decision-making in the design and operation of (global) reefer logistics systems. The ABS is developed based on the knowledge acquired in Chapter 2, which specifies the main actors, resources, activities, and flows. We model a reefer logistics system with a two-tier architecture that consists of a social layer and a physical layer. On the social level, each actor as an autonomous agent makes decisions and interacts with other actors. On the technical level, physical components perform activities and handle reefer/cargo flows. Next, we carry out a numerical case study of a global banana supply chain. The case study shows the capability of the ABS model to compare scenarios with different cold chain configuration designs and management strategies in terms of operational cost, CO2 emissions, product quality, and waste.In Chapter 4, we explore the capability of the ABS model developed in Chapter 3. The ABS model is applied to evaluate several possible (re)design scenarios enabled by the remote container management system (RCM). We first developed a conceptual framework to assess the value of RCM. In the framework, we classify the RCM information into four categories – (1) product and transportation condition, (2) security, (3) container location, and (4) container status. The value of RCM information is from two aspects: (1) substitution of existing information flow as a new technology, and (2) decision-support with new types of information. Secondly, we did a numerical case study of a global banana supply chain to quantify the value of RCM. We evaluate five information scenarios that focus on both IT and decision support aspects. We can conclude that RCM enables digitalization that has an improvement in the efficiency of reefer logistics. The beneficiaries are mainly the cargo owner (shippers) and the asset owner (shipping lines and leasing companies). Other actors may also benefit from the RCM information, such as customs and terminal operators.In Chapter 5, we looked into the concept of flow consolidation in port-hinterland container transport. We develop an analytical model to compare the difference in implementing flow consolidation scenarios between reefer logistics and dry container logistics. The model compared the performances in various dimensions of three flow consolidation scenarios of hinterland transportation for both dry and perishable cargoes: (1) only-trucking, (2) container consolidation, and (3) combined container/cargo consolidation. We derived several propositions and theorems describing conditions under which different scenarios outperform others regarding operational cost and CO2 emission. We further conducted a numerical case study that shows cargo type and shipment distance are essential factors that affect flow consolidation performances.In this thesis, we develop explanatory and modelling tools for reefer logistics to trade off different objectives, e.g., cost, product quality, and emission. We summarize the findings in five main concluding statements: (1) Trading off different objectives is essential when making decisions for reefer logistics. (2) The goals of multiple actors in cold chains can be conflicting. Therefore, integrating multiple actors’ viewpoints is essential in finding (and consequently accepting) global optimal solutions for reefer logistics considering their (conflicting) goals and market positions. (3) A generic agent-based simulation model is an appropriate way to investigate different what-if scenarios to find tailored solutions for reefer logistics. (4) Traceability and transparency are crucial for reefer logistics to improve the safety/security of perishable products and the cost-efficiency and sustainability of logistics processes. (5) Traditional solutions for supply chain management might not be necessarily suitable for cold chains due to the technical complexity of cold chains.

Following recent policy statements recognising the need to develop the Aboriginal tourism industry in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, this article examines the extent of Aboriginal peoples’ inclusion in, and contribution to, the destination images for four regional NSW tourism destinations. Taking the destination image for Lake Macquarie, a local government area with the second largest Aboriginal population in NSW, as a starting point, the paper examines how Aboriginal peoples and cultures are positioned in local tourism promotions. Finding that Aboriginal peoples, cultures and heritage are largely absent from the destination image for Lake Macquarie and that the tourist gaze that is encouraged there is one of whiteness, comparisons are then made with other regional tourism destinations in NSW with relatively high rates of Aboriginal tourism, including Brewarrina, the Blue Mountains and Shoalhaven. Aboriginal tourism in these areas appears to provide visitors with multiple ways of seeing and experiencing place. With contemporary as well as heritage linkages, Aboriginal culture is presented as traditional and living, dynamic and innovative. We argue that by incorporating Aboriginal perspectives, destinations can encourage a multiplicity of gazes, disrupting stereotypes and bringing tourism closer to its social development objectives.

The local embedding of low carbon technologies and the agency of user-side intermediaries

Neoinstitutionalists have developed a rich array of theoretical and empirical insights about how new practices become established via legitimacy and diffusion, but have paid scant attention to their origins. This blind spot has been reinforced by recent work on institutional entrepreneurship which has too often celebrated the actions of a single or small number of actors, and deflected attention away from the emergent, multilevel nature of how new kinds of activities emerge and provide a foundation for the creation of a new practice. In this paper, we examine the case of the creation of active money management practice in the US mutual fund industry, drawing on both institutional and practice scholarship, to develop a process model of new practice creation that redirects attention toward the multiplicity of actors that interactively produce change.

Understand, track and develop enterprise workplace safety, and sustainability in the industrial park

PurposeDigital innovation and circular business model innovation are two critical enablers of a circular economy. A wide variety of digital technologies such as blockchain, 3D printing, cyber-physical systems, or big data also diverges the applications of digital technologies in circular business models. Given heterogeneous attributes of circular business models and digital technologies, the selections of digital technologies and circular business models might be highly distinctive within and between sectorial contexts. This paper examines digital circular business models in the context of the fashion industry and its multiple actors. This industry as the world’s second polluting industry requires an urgent circular economy (CE) transition with less resource consumption, lower waste emissions and a more stable economy.Design/methodology/approachAn inductive, exploratory multiple-case study method is employed to investigate the ten cases of different sized fashion companies (i.e. large, small medium-sized firm (SME) and startup firms). The comparison across cases is conducted to understand fashion firms' distinct behaviours in adopting various digital circular economy strategies.FindingsThe paper presents three archetypes of digital-based circular business models in the fashion industry: the blockchain-based supply chain model, the service-based model and the pull demand-driven model. Besides incremental innovations, the radical business model and digital innovations as presented in the pull demand-driven model may be crucial to the fashion circular economy transition. The pull demand–driven model may shift the economy from scales to scopes, change the whole process of how the fashion items are forecasted, produced, and used, and reform consumer behaviours. The paths of adopting digital fashion circular business models are also different among large, SMEs and startup fashion firms.Practical implicationsThe study provides business managers with empirical insights on how circular business models (CBMs) should be chosen according to intrinsic business capacities, technological competences and CE strategies. The emerging trends of new fashion markets (e.g. rental, subscription) and consumers' sustainable awareness should be not be neglected. Moreover, besides adopting recycling and reuse strategies, large fashion incumbents consider collaborating with other technology suppliers and startup companies to incubate more radical innovations.Social implicationsAppropriate policies and regulations should be enacted to enable the digital CE transition. Market patterns and consumer acceptances are considered highly challenging to these digital fashion models. A balanced policy on both the demand and supply sides are suggested. The one-side policy may fail CBMs that entail an upside-down collaboration of both producers and consumers. Moreover, it is perhaps time to rethink how to reduce unnecessary new demand rather than repeatedly producing and recycling.Originality/valueThe pace of CE research is lagging far behind the accelerating environmental contamination by the fashion industry. The study aims to narrow the gap between theory and practice to harmonise fashion firms' orchestration and accelerate the transition of the fashion industry towards the CE. This study examines diverse types of digital technologies in different circular business models in a homogeneous context of the fashion industry with heterogeneous firm types.