Contemporary Work Organizations Research Articles

Developing and Validating Japanese Versions of Psychological Safety Scale, Knowledge Sharing Scale and Expressed Humility Scale

Organizational research has increased in the contemporary, digitalized and global society. Mainly researchers in Western countries conducted empirical, organizational research in the past. These studies have investigated combinations of psychological safety, knowledge sharing and leaders’ expression of humility because these variables have crucial roles in organizational functions. Japanese research on these variables has been scarce due to the lack of scales for assessing these variables in Japanese. From a methodological perspective, research conducted in Western and other cultures where most people understand English requires multicultural validation studies. Therefore, we developed Japanese versions of scales assessing psychological safety, knowledge sharing and expressed humility and assessed their structural validity, internal consistency and convergent validity. The results indicated factor structures and inter-correlations between the scales consistent with previous research. This work is novel because of its large samples across multiple job types in contemporary work organizations. We expect this study to make methodological and theoretical contributions to future research.

Influence of the Aestheticized Work Environment on Managerial Life in Sri Lanka’s Corporate Sector

In this paper, I examine how the lives of managerial workers are being affected by the rapid aestheticization processes that are happening in contemporary work organizations. Using the photo-elicitation technique as the primary data generation and analysis method, fieldwork was conducted in the factory and office spaces of a well-established manufacturing company in Sri Lanka. The study’s findings show that workplace aestheticization affects managerial workers in the organization differently: in the factory environment, where the nature of work is monotonous and stressful, an aestheticized work environment affects managerial life positively. In such a work context, aestheticization becomes a means of ‘seduction’, which draws managers away from the tediousness of factory life. Yet, in the office workspace, experiencing aesthetics or becoming involved in practices that generate aesthetic pleasure creates a sense of ‘shame’ in managerial workers, as such an association is considered as deviating from the ‘appropriate behavior’ expected of a manager. In conclusion, I argue that aestheticization has a dual effect on managerial life—which is imbued not only with managerial workers’ assumptions about the role of a ‘Manager’ but also with the spatial and contextual dimensions at work.

Clinique du travail et incidences subjectives de la propagande

ContextThis article offers an analysis of contemporary forms of propaganda in the light of the clinical approach of work. Native to the exercise of democracy, propaganda ranges from capitalism to present-day neoliberalism. The aim of this article is to understand the effects of propaganda in the light of suffering at work. The authors analyze the way in which propaganda and its specific variations within contemporary work organizations participate of a social imaginary, disseminated by company communication techniques, and how this social imaginary in return affects the psychic life of the subjects. MethodThis discussion is based on the clinical method of the psychodynamics of work; a discipline built in an interdisciplinary dialogue between the labor sciences and psychoanalysis. The presentation of clinical elements drawn from a consultation of psychopathology of work puts in visibility the psychic incidences of the communication of company and of the techniques of influence on the one hand, to carry out an investigation of the psychopathological consequences of the neoliberal labor organizations. ResultsThe results show that the productions of the social imaginary proceed from the narrowing of spaces open to sublimation, but also that the defensive strategies to fight against suffering help to reduce the work of thought. ConclusionThese effects are made possible by the recourse to dominant ideological contents and contribute to adhesion and submission to “managerial skills” as well as communicational distortion.

Multiple team membership and job performance: The role of employees’ information‐sharing networks

Individuals in contemporary work organizations are often involved in multiple teams at the same time. This study uses a social capital perspective to propose that employees’ multiple team memberships (MTM) offer the potential for individual performance benefits and detriments, depending on the characteristics of an employee’s information‐sharing network. To test our predictions, we gathered both archival and survey data at an organization for applied research in the Netherlands. We found that individual MTM was indirectly associated with an employee’s overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information‐sharing network. As expected, however, this indirect relationship was contingent on the average strength of an employee’s network ties (i.e., the frequency of the respective interactions), such that MTM only improved overall performance when network ties were relatively weak. The indirect relationship between MTM and individual job performance was negative, by contrast, when an employee’s network ties were relatively strong. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the performance consequences associated with individuals’ concurrent membership in multiple teams.Practitioner points An employee’s membership in multiple teams at the same time increases the size of his or her information‐sharing network within the organization. The performance consequences associated with this increased information‐sharing network hinge on the characteristics of an employee’s information‐sharing network. If the respective information‐sharing linkages are based on relatively infrequent interactions with colleagues, an employee’s multiple team membership indirectly benefits his or her overall job performance. If the respective information‐sharing linkages are based on relatively frequent and intense interactions with colleagues, however, an employee’s multiple team membership indirectly diminishes his or her overall job performance.

Scientization, instrumentalization, and commodification of mindfulness in a professional services firm

Mindfulness programs, and related practices of contemplation and spirituality, are a growing trend in contemporary work organizations. Increasingly adopted into corporations, mindfulness is often described as a remedy for workplace challenges such as constant hurry, interruptions, and stress. Despite increasing research on mindfulness, little research examines how mindfulness is adapted in corporate settings, including concerns of co-optation during implementation. This article addresses this gap by qualitatively examining corporate mindfulness practices within an international, knowledge-intensive firm. We identify the processes of scientization, instrumentalization, and commodification of mindfulness programs, exploring the mechanisms by which these three processes interact with each other. We conclude by discussing the importance of scientization, instrumentalization, and commodification for understanding mindfulness in practice, and for building a research agenda around emic and situated understandings of corporate mindfulness.

Diversity Regimes in Worker Cooperatives: Workplace Inequality under Conditions of Worker Control

Two major shifts in contemporary work organizations—“employee participation” and “diversity management”—have typically been studied in isolation from one another. Building on theoretical work by Acker (2006a,b), we ask how the interaction of these two constructs has affected the pursuit of workplace democracy at two worker cooperatives in Northern California. Using qualitative methods, we find that distinct “diversity regimes” have emerged at these establishments, substantially affecting the configurations of inequality that evolved. We distinguish two types of diversity regimes—“utilitarian” and “communitarian”—which operate either to obscure the workings of inequality or to foster attention to their presence. Our results suggest that how sociodemographic differences are managed has material consequences for the development of egalitarian structures at work.

Sick Leave—A Signal of Unequal Work Organizations? Gender perspectives on work environment and work organizations in the health care sector: a knowledge review

The background to this article review is governmental interest in finding reasons why a majority of the employees in Sweden who are on sick leave are women. In order to find answers to these questions three issues will be discussed from a meso-level: (i) recent changes in the Swedish health care sector’s working organization and their effects on gender, (ii) what research says about work health and gender in the health care sector, and (iii) the meaning of gender at work. The aim is to first discuss these three issues to give a picture of what gender research says concerning work organization and work health, and second to examine the theories behind the issue. In this article the female-dominated health care sector is in focus. This sector strives for efficiency relating to invisible job tasks and emotional work performed by women. In contemporary work organizations gender segregation has a tendency to take on new and subtler forms. One reason for this is today’s de-hierarchized and flexible organizations. A burning question connected to this is whether new constructions of masculinities and femininities really are ways of relating to the prevailing norm in a profession or are ways of deconstructing the gender order. To gain a deeper understanding of working life we need multidisciplinary research projects where gender-critical knowledge is interwoven into research not only on organizations, but also into research concerning the physical work environment, in order to be able to develop good and sustainable work environments, in this case in the health care sector

Conflicting values in reflection on professional practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of reflection as a tool of enquiry within the context of higher education work-based learning. The aim of the study is to investigate how reflection on professional practice brings about a review of the values underpinning that practice. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from a group of undergraduate students undertaking their studies by work-based learning in the area of management in a Scottish University. An open-ended questionnaire was designed to learn about the participants’ views on their perceived freedom to reflect on their workplace practice in the university, their ability to challenge the organizational values and established practices in the workplace, and on their relationship with the workplace mentor. Findings – Students on work-based learning programmes are subjected to demands from at least three directions: first, their own expectations, in terms of both what they want to achieve by way of their own development, second, the needs of their organization; and third, expectations of the university in ensuring that the work produced meets the standard for an academic award. These interests can sometimes coincide, but they can also conflict, and such a conflict can reveal tensions that run deeper into the culture of the organization. Research limitations/implications – This study is based on a relatively small sample of learners in one university, hence the findings are of preliminary nature. Despite the small sample size, the conclusions are indicative of a potential problem in the design of work-based learning, and a larger cross-institutional study would allow the validity of these results to be verified. Practical implications – The findings emerging from this study have implications for the facilitators of work-based learning in higher education. Although university work-based learning programmes differ significantly from corporate learning and development efforts, this paper suggests that work-based learning providers should co-operate more closely with the learners’ employing organizations towards creating an environment for learning at work. More co-operation between the university and the employer might be more beneficial for all stakeholders. Originality/value – The literature on work-based learning focuses in the main on the use of reflection as a tool of enquiry into workplace practice. Drawing on the study of contemporary work organizations, this paper explores the tensions arising from reflection on the learners’ practice, and possible conflict of values that reflection exposes.

What is `Value’? Unpacking an overlooked key concept

The paper addresses remarkable lacunae surrounding the term value. It has four objectives. The first is to specify and elucidate three regimes of representation – ‘business value,’ ‘surplus value’ and ‘sign value’ – that are directly relevant for analysing and critiquing contemporary capitalist work organizations. A second is to advance analyses of value that resist a restriction of its meaning to a single, ostensibly authoritative articulation. A third objective is to commend and illustrate a distinctive, postfoundationalist perspective on value which proceeds from a suspension of the idea that there is an essence of value that awaits capture by a sufficiently powerful theoretical position. The final objective of the paper is to indicate how ‘sign value’ may be incorporated into a reconstructed critique of political economy that bears directly upon the contemporary, financialized phase of capitalist development.

F. W. Taylor and the legacies of systemization

F. W. Taylor (1856–1915) is a seminal figure in the history of industrial society and a key reference point for the study of technology, work and the organization of production. This paper locates Taylor's work in the broad historical development of formal systems and ‘rational’ management. The paper notes the historical continuities that link the ‘technologies of control’ which emerged in US industry during Taylor's lifetime and those which appear in contemporary work organizations. This is counterpoised with recent comment on the information technology and the ‘end’ of Taylorist work practices.

Participative Management and Performance: an en Pirical Analysis of Work Organizations

Workers' Participation in Management (WPM) has come to be the focus of scientific and academic attention in Sociological circles with its growing importance in the context of post industrial society. WPM is viewed as a principal mechanism through which the principles of human relations approach could be incorporated into the managerial practices in the contemporary work organizations and as such, has been looked upon as a positive and humanizing intervention in the process of management. However, the nature, extent and determinants of WPM have been found to be varying significantly in different socio­cultural contexts warranting culture specific and context specific empirical studies. An attempt, hence, is made in this paper to probe empirically into the extent and determinants of WPM in work organizations in an Indian setting. In all, eight work organizations from public and private sector, representing diverse types, and sizes are studied employing an organizational information schedule so devised as to elicit information required for conceptualizing organizational and contextual variables, along with three interview schedules each designed to ascertain the nature and extent of WPM, by representatives of workers, managers and unions operating as functionaries on diverse machineries of WPM. The findings seem to negate the much debated and lamented poor levels of participation by worker representatives, apathy of managerial personnel and antagonism of union leadership. The level of WPM wherever provided for, is found to be reasonably high and it varies significantly with organizational variables such as size, sector, age of the organization and extent of unionization on the one hand contextual variables such as labor force composition and ideological and political overtones of the unions operating in the plant on the other. Further, the findings indicate that the extent of WPM has significant positive implications for productivity, climate of industrial relations and profitability in particular and industrial performance in general.

Delays and interruptions: A self-perpetuating paradox of communication technology use

In contemporary knowledge work organizations, work is often accomplished through communication. Consequently, communication disruptions often translate into work disruptions. In this paper, we identify two types of communication disruptions with implications for the relative organization of work: delays and interruptions. Communication delays contribute to work disorganization when a worker is unable to move forward with a task due to insufficient information, while interruptions derail the flow of activities directed toward the accomplishment of a task. Communication technologies are often designed with the intention of improving work organization by reducing communication delays (first-order effect), but the use of these technologies may, in practice, inadvertently contribute to an increase in work interruptions (second-order effect). We illustrate these first and second-order impacts of communication media use in a descriptive model. Then, using this model as our point of departure, we draw on prior research on personal control, relationships, and organizational culture to offer testable propositions regarding likely worker responses (third-order effect) to either communication delays or interruptions with further implications for the organization of work. Our argument suggests that communication technology use may not result in either more or less organized work overall but, rather, may simply shift the locus of control over the flow of work.

The Moral Impotence of Contemporary Experts

Technological growth in developed and developing countries in the 20th century has lent a great deal of importance to scientific reasoning in the management of human affairs. An important outgrowth has been the development of systems thinking to organize the workplace. The business reengineering process and the enterprise resource planning system are contemporary instances of the application of systems thinking that have had a serious influence on the modern work organization. This article traces the roots and evolution of systems thinking and investigates whether it is influential in shaping contemporary work organizations. The article also deals with the existential question of whether it is possible for experts to exercise morality and responsibility when they participate in complex work organizations shaped by the application of systems thinking. These concerns begin to motivate the broader question of whether it is possible for anyone to live in the age of systems.

Managing Subjectivity and the Dialectic of Self-Consciousness: Hegel and Organization Theory

This article presents the work and ideas of the German philosopher G. WF Hegel as a means of addressing recent debates concerning the management of employee subjectivity within contemporary work organizations. Drawing primarily upon his writings on the phenomenological development of `self-consciousness' and the concept of `ethical life' as a state of realized subjectivity, the authors argue that they provide a meta-theoretical framework within which the processual ontology of organizational (inter)subjectivity can be both addressed and critically appraised. This is then illustrated by a discussion of the role corporate culturalism plays in the mediation of this process, with particular attention being paid to its impact on the embodied dimension of the subject.

Relevance of Traditional Value Frameworks in Contemporary Chinese Work Organizations: Implications for Managerial Transition

This paper overviews the role of tradition in the structure, processes and behaviour of Chinese work organ izations. The traditional value frameworks combining Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist principles and prac tices had long been the surrogate of a well-defined legal structure in China. Social interaction based on the strong guanxi bonds dominates the managerial culture and such vehicles of social capital development are prerequisites of any substantive partnership building with China. The analysis presented in this overview attempts to explore the reasons for relative underdevelopment of managerial autonomy and innovation, and the predominance of collective face and networking. It is suggested that there are a number of strengths in the Chinese traditions that may be helpful in the emerging managerial transitions, while pointing out areas where breaking with the past may be necessary. This paper signals the importance of more research in Asian management to alleviate the ethnocentric basis of Western-oriented mainstream management.

The Case for Comparable Worth

Comparable worth is a necessary and feasible remedy for the systematic, sex‐related pay inequities found in most contemporary work organizations. It is necessary because discriminatory pay practices of the past were not fully addressed by equal employment opportunity legislation, and their effects have been perpetuated by conventional pay administration practices. It is feasible because it can be assessed and implemented simply, often using data already available, at a relatively small cost to the organization. Arguments against the necessity of comparable worth are based largely on academic studies of pay discrimination, which differ from comparable worth studies in their context, purpose, methods, and results. Arguments against the feasibility of comparable worth center on potential costs and technical criticisms of comparable worth pay policies, objections contradicted by the facts of actual comparable worth implementation.

The transformational management of conflict: A perspective from the early Christian church

An understanding of transformational leadership has been developed for many spheres of management, but not previously for organizational conflict. This paper analyzes a successful conflict mediation attempt in the early Christian church and draws from it elements of a model of the transformational management of conflict that can be applied by managers in many contemporary work organizations. The elements include (a) reframing the conflict, (b) a focus on a shared organizational vision, (c) the placement of responsibility for dispute resolution in the hands of organizational members directly and indirectly involved in conflict, and (d) the use of communication devices consistent with the desired outcome. The paper suggests skills necessary for managers to implement the model and implications for research on it.