Organizational Work Practices Research Articles

‘We are leaders, not managers!’: academics’ understanding of leadership dynamics in Omani higher education institutions

ABSTRACT This research has adopted an exploratory qualitative design to explore how academics (deans, assistant deans and faculty staff) at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) in Oman understand leadership. Data was collected qualitatively through 46 semi-structured interviews. Academics perceive leadership as a distributed and collaborative process. In addition, senior academics (deans and assistant deans) in the study viewed themselves strongly as ‘leaders’ whilst those faculty staff positioned at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy viewed senior academics primarily as ‘managers’. The research makes a contribution to the field of leadership and how it is conceptualized by academics. This study exhibits, in addition to existing knowledge of organizational work practices and their unique configuration within the Omani higher education context, which lacks such qualitative research, the complexities and tensions of leadership dynamics in a buried bureaucratic model under the strong weight of the leadership identity adopted by the senior academics and underpinned by what others beneath the senior academics view as management.

Artificial Intelligence and Its Role in Shaping Organizational Work Practices and Culture

Artificial Intelligence and Its Role in Shaping Organizational Work Practices and Culture

Hybrid Copresence: Issues of Re-Spatialization of Remote Work in Coworking Spaces

The re-spatialization of work in coworking spaces alters the social experience of teleworkers by involving two copresences associated with distinct organizational and spatiotemporal contexts: a remote copresence with the company and a physical copresence in the coworking space. Each can be experienced to different degrees between social isolation and perceived proximity. Nevertheless, the current literature does not provide an opportunity to make sense of the combination of copresences. From this perspective, data collected during an organizational ethnography conducted within two networks of coworking spaces were analyzed. The results show that the re-spatialization of work in coworking spaces generates a hybrid copresence that can be experienced in four ways: (reinforced) isolation, ubiquity, (guilty) compensation, and (frustrated) refocusing. The characteristics of these distinct situations and the possible evolutions from one to the other are explored and explained. The results are discussed in relation to the evolution of work in a post-COVID-19 era that seems to encourage the development of more hybrid practices and spatialities. Contributions to three fields of organizational literature are made: organizational space, telecommuting and distantiated forms of work, and coworking spaces. Managerial implications are also discussed around reflections on a more hybrid and multi-spatialized organization of work practices in organizations.

Multilevel learning in a knowledge-intensive public organization during teleworking implementation amidst the COVID-19 crisis

PurposeThis paper primarily aims to identify the multilevel learning processes emerging from abrupt telework implementation in a public knowledge-intensive organization (KIO) amid the COVID-19 crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis single-case process research was guided by interpretivist epistemology. Empirical data from documentary research and 41 interviewed managers were processed by inductive qualitative analysis using the multilevel learning theoretical model.FindingsEight types and three modes of learning processes during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified in a public KIO, iteratively emerging in multilevel learning dynamics during the compulsory adoption of telework and replacing the face-to-face work mode conducted since its foundation.Research limitations/implicationsAs insider researchers, while daily and privileged access to the field was obtained, it also demanded their continuous effort to maintain transparency and scientific distancing; conceptual results are restricted to process theorisation studies, specifically the 4Is theoretical model in the scope of crisis learning process studies concerning KIOs.Practical implicationsThis study provides evidence for managers to adopt interactive dynamics among eight multilevel types and three learning modes of emergent learning, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and support learning practices’ implementation and routinisation across three organizational levels in crisis situations. In addition, evidencing emergent types of learning enables organizational learning (OL) researchers to examine how organizational structures and work practices either promote or inhibit different learning types and impact multilevel learning when adopting teleworking during a crisis.Originality/valueThis research has theoretical value in two ways: (i) Providing empirically supported knowledge: This involves understanding multilevel learning processes resulting from emergent learning in a public KIO that abruptly adopted teleworking during a crisis context; (ii) deepening process theorization studies on OL: To achieve this, we enhance the 4I model by incorporating eight types and two modes of learning processes. These processes iteratively emerge from the individual and group levels towards the institutional level in a public KIO.

Analysis of Strategies to Attract Female Talent in the Software Development Industry

Historically, activities related to software development have been led by men, with weak participation from women. Currently, initiatives have been promoted to increasingly integrate women into this discipline. However, despite the known benefits of gender diversity in innovation and team performance, the visibility of women in this field remains weak. The primary objective of this article is to analyze strategies to attract female talent to the software development industry, aiming to reduce the gender gaps that women face. The methodology used in this work is based on several steps of systematic literature mapping, which seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on this topic, classify the findings, and offer a framework for future research in this area. The main findings highlight the need for organizational policies and work practices that promote gender equality, as well as the importance of early education and training in retaining female talent in the software industry. This study not only contributes to academic discourse but also suggests practical measures for industry professionals to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment.

Analisis Sistem Pengendalian Internal Pembelian Barang (Purchasing) Pada Harris Hotel & Conventions Gubeng Surabaya

The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the internal purchasing control system at HARRIS Hotel & Conventions Gubeng Surabaya. The method used is qualitative descriptive with data collection through observation and library study. The results showed weaknesses in the separation of tasks between the purchasing and receiving sections, as well as a lack of general manager involvement in the procurement process. Despite the effective use of computerized systems, insufficient organizational structure and work practices that are not fully compliant with standards can impede the effectiveness of internal controls.

Le Budget Participatif : Analyse des facteurs organisationnels de l’effectivité d’un dispositif à la mode

This research examines the organizational and managerial effects of the implementation of participatory budgeting (BP), a rapidly developing mechanism in local governments. A qualitative study of two BP initiatives reveals the perception of several effects at the decision-making and political level, as well as the operational level. The mechanism reshapes public decision-making processes (balance of power, political priorities...), work organization, and managerial practices (transversality, spaces for co-creation/co-production, new tools...). Several barriers and/or enablers to the democratic effectiveness of BP are identified (coordination, work overload, need for support in acquiring new skills...). Without causing radical change, PB generates significant organizational and managerial adjustments, interesting to interpret in the context of better public value management (PVM).

Musculoskeletal discomfort (MSD) in female office workers: An exploratory investigation

Abstract: Predictors associated with musculoskeletal discomfort (MSD) are multi-factorial, including physical, psychosocial, and individual factors. However, with most of the studies on musculoskeletal disorders being undertaken in developed countries; it is plausible that the findings might not be relevant due to differences in work culture and organizational practices in various developing countries. Given this, the current study aimed to examine the prevalence rate of MSD among female office workers in public organizations. A questionnaire survey was employed to measure job satisfaction, work-life balance, mental health, and MSD levels among female office workers (N=333) from four public sector organizations. The 6 months MSD prevalence was 93.4% (95%CI = 90.9-95.8%). Besides, the most frequently experienced MSD among participants in this present study was on the neck/shoulder (92%), lower back (87.5%), lower extremity (82.4%), and hand/fingers (75%). The findings suggested that female office workers in Malaysia did experience MSD and suffer from it in various body regions. In addition, the results further demonstrate the need to develop MSD risk management in the workplace, particularly among female office workers. Nevertheless, further examination of MSD in various types of occupations that employed women to minimize MSD at the workplace is also needed.

“High performance work system”: challenges and good practices of organizations around the world

The desire to ensure high productivity of each employee in each organization is characteristic of the entire modern world. However, there is no single term used for this, even within an English-speaking (or Russian-speaking) environment, just as there is no common understanding of the factors that can lead to high productivity of each employee. In Russia statistics are collected and programs are being developed that contribute to the growth in the number “High Productivity Jobs” (at the state level). In English-speaking practice, similar approaches are indicated by the abbreviations HPO, HPHRP, HPWP and HPWS. However, similar to the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the concept of “Decent Work” in the world, problems are also experienced by companies trying to apply “high-performance work organization practices”. The published results of the analysis of world publications over the past 30 years show the connection of “high-performance work systems” a) with a variety of personnel management practices (slightly less than in half of the publications); b) with an intermediary factor in the form of staff satisfaction and their sense of subjective well-being (according to some data, most discussed in publications on “high-performance systems”); c) with the effectiveness and productivity of the organization as a whole, and d) with different, not always explicit, attitudes and expectations of employees (allocated to a separate group). Nevertheless, studies periodically show not only successes, but also unpredictable deterioration of indicators that are significant for organizations. The “emotional burnout” of employees and the “imbalance of work and the rest of life” increase attention to the “psychological contract” as ensuring compliance with the complex of mutual expectations of employers and employees. Part of these expectations is related to the currently developing format of hybrid work for some categories of specialists.

Agency in institutionalized sport organizations: examining how institutions suppress agency

ABSTRACT Research question This study was designed to better understand how institutionalized work practices in sport organizations influence employee agency. We fill a gap in the literature by reaffirming the roles of institutional structures and the agents themselves when examining how institutions suppress agency and resist change from within. Research methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 full-time sport employees working in the U.S. collegiate sport industry, which is a highly institutionalized sport environment. Thematic analysis was employed to gain insight into agency experiences in institutionalized sport organizations. Results and findings Two themes were identified that detailed how institutionalized sport organizations impacted agency. Influential workplace prioritization norms and a bureaucracy effected participants’ agency to enact change. Participants enabled these conditions as they preserved their standing within the institution despite its constraining effect on their agency. Implications From a theoretical standpoint, the results offer a nuanced understanding of embedded agency in sport by demonstrating how sport institutional maintenance work occurs through the ‘silent work’ of institutionalized routines and practices. Further, this study relied on agents’ perspectives of institutional constraints, which aids the understanding of micro perspectives of embedded agency in sport. From a practical perspective, the results indicate that the status quo of institutionalized sport organizations may not be sustainable and could be difficult to modify and improve. This calls into question the viability of current work arrangements in sport.

How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Innovative Work Behaviour?

Purpose: This research examines the effect of perceived corporate social responsibility on the employee-company relationship (organisational trust, organisational identification) and employees' future well-being and participation in innovative work practices. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a quantitative research approach by PLS-SEM analysis with a sample size of 400. The respondents are employees working for four distinct textile garment manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam. Findings: Our study found that corporate social responsibility directly impacts organisational trust, identification, well-being, and innovative work practices, and innovative work behaviours are directly related to organisational trust, employee well-being, and identification. Research limitations/implications: The study focuses on workers who have a basic understanding of corporate social responsibility. Consequently, the scope of research in diverse industries throughout the country's regions and cities must be expanded. Given the constraints, future studies should be broadened and conducted in greater detail. Each profession should concentrate its efforts on a broader range of survey subjects, such as office workers, employees, and consumers. Originality/value: Employee well-being is linked to innovative work behaviour, and the stronger the company's identity, the more likely people will be to be creative at work. The author found that people who work for a company that has a good sense of itself are more likely to be creative at work. The study shows that when employees are happy, they are more likely to work in new and innovative ways.

Troubleshooting: The Automation of Synthetic Biology and the Labor of Technological Futures

Science and Technology Studies has long characterized the dynamics of imagining new technology as the primary driver of progress. Among these dynamics are the performative effects of the future, which have been characterized largely at the level of broader political economies. However, performative futures also operate at more intimate scales, like organizational work practices. So much is the case in the field of synthetic biology, which aims to advance biological research by making laboratory work more efficient with new digital and robotic infrastructure. This paper shows how these infrastructures have transformed laboratory work, drawing on interviews and observations with laboratory technicians in three synthetic biology facilities. These infrastructures have not eliminated laboratory work so much as introduced new kinds of skilled work. Much of this skilled work falls into the category of “troubleshooting:” the improvised correction of unexpected problems in a technical system. Organizational management treats the necessity of troubleshooting as a temporary stage in the development of its technology, while routinizing troubleshooting as a part of daily operations. This tension highlights how labor can be obscured not just by the materiality of infrastructures but by temporality—the possibility of skilled work’s obsolescence in an eventual future.

Ekonomski i socijalni aspekti organizacionog ponašanja u post kovid eri

The new time is a period when organizations and employees are facing radical changes on a daily basis. The Covid pandemic has made the existing situation even more complex, and has posed new challenges to organizations, and their employees. Adapting to the "new normality" requires multispectral changes within the organizational structure, culture, work practices, and lifestyle. It is to be expected that the fear of change is ubiquitous, however, this is one of the situations when the crisis should be seen as a potential chance. The authors made an effort to describe and explain the organizational aspects of change in more detail, all with the aim of promoting current business practices.

Conceptualizing the moderating effects between work from home and individual performance - Developing a conceptual framework using the self-determination theory.

The working systems of organizations/institutions have undergone continuous transformations over the years for various reasons. Researchers have continually strived to find effective solutions/appropriate work systems to sustain an individual's performance in spite of the challenging working/business environment. The global pandemic Covid-19 prompted a rethinking of organizational work practices across sectors. Work from home (WFH) became a key component of continuing the organization's working system. This paper specifies the following six factors that may moderate the effectiveness of a work-from-home setting on individual performance such as dedication, disposition, determination, configuration, collaboration, and coordination. The paper uses self-determination theory (SDT) to develop a conceptual framework for WFH-individual performance, which specifies dedication, disposition, and determination as intrinsic motivators, while configuration, collaboration, and coordination as extrinsic motivators. Moreover, it provides implications and future research directions for theory development and practice.

Innovation, work organization and knowledge sharing in Uruguayan firms

ABSTRACT How work is organised is a critical component of firms’ learning process. Because of that, the relationship between firms’ work organisation and their innovative effort is endogenous in nature and, in turn, causal effects are hardly identifiable. This paper aims to contribute by analysing the effects of organisational work practices oriented toward knowledge sharing and innovative efforts in Uruguayan firms between 2009 and 2015. Our research design allows us to test both the endogenous relationship and the potential causal effects, using econometric panel data techniques and instrumental variables. The results corroborate the endogenous relationship between these variables. Moreover, a positive and significant effect of communication practices on the innovative effort is identified in low-tech manufacturing firms but not in high-tech firms. This result offers valuable implications for public policy and industrial practices in developing countries since it reflects the main features of an innovation pattern that mostly relies on modernisation strategies rather than on high-tech innovations based on R&D.

Design thinking in the public sector – a case study of three Danish municipalities

In recent years, design in the public sector has gained popularity amongst policymakers as well as among scholars. Design is perceived as a promising way to create more successful policies and public services. Despite growing popularity, a critical reflection on benefits and challenges, as well as about different understandings of design practices in the public sector, are still lacking. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate different ways public organizations engage and introduce design approach. In this paper we present 3 municipalities in Denmark and the way design is understood and implemented in organizational work practices. Our contribution to theory is twofold. First, our research responds to the recent call of different researchers to investigate how design is operationalized and drawn upon in practice by different organizations in the public sector. Second, our research contributes to the design field, by showing barriers of implementations, different benefits and challenges connected with design in organizations with no prior experience in design.

Organisational perspectives on boring prison work: Between emancipation and paranoia

Boredom may take different forms depending on the setting. However, most existing literature portrays it as a negative phenomenon for both individuals and organisations. While boredom is studied primarily via controlled laboratory experiments and questionnaire-based studies, past research has been criticised for neglecting to understand workers’ experiences of boredom in real-world work settings. Drawing on a qualitative case study comprising of interviews with prison officers and ethnographic fieldwork in two Danish prisons, this article explores workers’ experience of boredom embedded in specific organisational work practices of repetitive routines, waiting and meaningless tasks. It shows that workers may take an organisational perspective on their experience of boredom, rather than a personal one, acknowledging the tedious features of work but nevertheless emphasising their organisational value. I use a phenomenological approach to sensemaking to deepen the understanding of how workers’ protests against boredom may not be only destructive but may sometimes take creative forms, leading to positive organising. Drawing on these findings, I extend our understanding of boredom at work.

Social Class and Class Inequality in Organizations: Facing and Fighting Classism in the Workplace

Social class provides a fundamental lens through which individuals see themselves and others and is a robust predictor of how people behave in organizations. As an intersectional form of diversity that intertwines with many other forms of difference, social class holds the potential to impact a wide range of individual work experiences, team processes, and organizational practices and cultures. This panel aims to contribute to our collective understanding of social class and class inequality in organizations by bringing leading social class experts into a conversation to explore how addressing class issues could uniquely improve organizational functioning amidst the current world challenges. The panel will shed light on understanding what social class is, what it is like to be an employee from a particular social class, and how social class dynamics influence a broad range of outcomes at work.

Global human mobility and knowledge transfer: Highly skilled return migrants as agents of transnational learning

AbstractGlobal human mobility constitutes a key mechanism for knowledge transfer. This study examines the micro‐dynamics of knowledge transfer in the developed‐developing country migratory context. It highlights the agentic role of return migrants in transforming overseas learning into relevant knowledge in their home contexts. Drawing on situated and relational theories of knowledge and learning, the study views knowledge transfer as a relevance discovery process. It looks at a group of highly skilled migrants who had returned from developed countries to Ethiopia. Despite their high skill, the focus of knowledge transfer was mostly in non‐technical fields that include a broad range of organizational knowledge and work practices. These were made relevant to the local context through the returnees’ ‘work of reconciliation’, involving ‘engagement’, ‘alignment’ and ‘imagination’. The study challenges the standard assumption of a one‐way linear flow of knowledge from developed to developing countries. It sheds new light on the migration‐development link by highlighting the ‘aspirational’ aspect of migrant transnational learning.

Work organization as a barrier to crop–livestock integration practices: a case study in Guadeloupe

Crop–livestock integration exploits the synergies between cropping and livestock systems, mainly by using animal excreta as an organic crop fertilizer or using crop products as animal feed. From an environmental and economic point of view, crop–livestock integration is thought to increase system autonomy and resilience. However, little research has addressed its social impact and particularly the relationship between crop-livestock integration and work organization although, like most agroecological practices, crop-livestock integration was considered time- and labor-intensive. Here we used quantitative indicators based on the “Qualification and Evaluation of Work” method coupled with qualitative interviews with farmers to understand how implementation of crop–livestock integration practices is affected by work characteristics (perception, organization, duration, and arduousness). This framework was implemented on 14 farms selected from a typology of mixed crop–livestock systems in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), where high labor costs heighten the tension between work organization and agroecological practices. Our results show that three patterns of crop–livestock integration shaped work organization: family farms with strong crop–livestock integration (Pattern 1, n=6 farms), farms with moderate crop–livestock integration (Pattern 2, n=5 farms), and intensive productivity-driven farms (Pattern 3, n=3 farms). We also show for the first time that farmer perceptions of work, especially with animals, influences level of implementation of crop–livestock integration practices. In Pattern 1, work with livestock is done by the farmers themselves or by skilled and trusted persons from their inner circle. In Pattern 3, livestock was considered a source of on-farm income, and work with livestock, including crop–livestock integration practices, is readily delegated to employees or volunteers. Whatever the pattern, the time burden of collecting crop-products and excreta was cited as a primary barrier to further implementation. Actionable opportunities for further implementation of these patterns of crop–livestock integration practices are discussed.