Apologies for any cross-posting.
A new issue of Human Relations is available online: Human Relations October 2015; Vol. 68, No. 10 - we hope you enjoy reading these articles.
The entire issue can be accessed online at http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/10?etoc .
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OCTOBER ISSUE ARTICLES
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Cultural identity change in expatriates: A social network perspective
Jina Mao and Yan Shen
Human Relations 2015 68(10):1533-1556
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/10/1533?etoc
Abstract
We explore relational patterns of expatriates' social networks and their impact on
expatriates' change in cultural identity while working abroad. We go beyond monocultural
assumptions and highlight the importance of examining cross-cultural relational
dynamics on maintenance and change in expatriates' cultural identity. We argue that
strong ties in dense networks are most conducive to helping expatriates stay attached
to a national culture. Cultural diversity in a social network provides the impetus for
cultural identity change. Cross-cultural interconnectedness within an expatriate's
social network contributes to the development of multiculturalism in one's cultural
identity. We also discuss the effect of cultural identity change on expatriation and
repatriation adjustment, and provide some practical implications for individuals as
well as organizations. Overall, we offer a cross-cultural social network perspective in
theorizing about the expatriation experience.
Casting the lean spell: The promotion, dilution and erosion of lean management in the NHS
Leo McCann, John S Hassard, Edward Granter, and Paula J Hyde
Human Relations 2015 68(10): 1557-1577
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/10/1557?etoc
Abstract
Lean thinking has recently re-emerged as a fashionable management philosophy, especially in public services. A prescriptive or mainstream literature suggests that lean is rapidly diffusing into public sector environments, providing a much-needed rethink of traditional ways of working and stimulating performance improvements. Our study of the introduction of lean in a large UK public sector hospital challenges this argument. Based on a three-year ethnographic study of how employees make sense of lean 'adoption', we describe a process in which lean ideas were initially championed, later diluted and ultimately eroded. While initially functioning as a 'mechanism of hope' (Brunsson, 2006) around which legitimacy could be generated for tackling longstanding work problems, over time both 'sellers' and 'buyers' of the concept mobilized lean in ambiguous ways, to the extent that the notion was rendered somewhat meaningless. Ultimately, our analysis rejects current prescriptive or managerialist discourses on lean while offering support for prior positions that would explain such management fashions in terms of the 'life cycle of a fad'.
What is critical appreciation? Insights from studying the critical turn in an appreciative inquiry
Rory J Ridley-Duff and Graham Duncan
Human Relations 2015 68(10): 1579-1599
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/10/1579?etoc
Abstract
Appreciative inquiry was developed in the late 1980s as a process to encourage social innovation by involving people in discovering the 'best of what is'. Recent research has suggested that appreciative inquiry practitioners' focus on positivity is now inhibiting appreciative inquiry's focus on generative theory. This article responds by asking the question 'what is critical appreciation?', then seeks answers by studying the critical turn in a Big Lottery Research project. By tracking the narratives of research assistants as they describe the 'life worlds' and 'systems' in their community, we clarify the recursive processes that lead to deeper levels of appreciation. We contribute to the development of critical appreciative processes that start with a critical inquiry to deconstruct experience and then engage critical appreciative processes during the remainder of the appreciative inquiry cycle to construct new experiences. The initial critical inquiry establishes which system imperatives colonize the life world of participants whilst subsequent critical appreciative processes build participants' aspirations to design new social systems.
Unleashing angst: Negative mood, learning goal orientation, psychological empowerment and creative behaviour
March L To, Cynthia D Fisher, and Neal M Ashkanasy
Human Relations 2015 68(10): 1601-1622
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/10/1601?etoc
Abstract
Emotion researchers have found that negative mood may either enhance or inhibit employee creativity. Little is known about this conundrum, however, and in particular when and why each effect occurs. To address this concern, we formulate and test hypotheses about likely moderators of the relationship between negative mood and creative process engagement. Results from an experience sampling study with 556 real-time reports from 68 employees support our hypothesis that negative mood is most strongly and positively related to concurrent creative process engagement among employees who (a) have high trait learning goal orientation and (b) perceive that they are empowered. Our hypotheses and findings help to resolve the ongoing controversy surrounding the nature of the negative mood–creativity nexus.
Identity, storytelling and the philanthropic journey
Mairi Maclean, Charles Harvey, Jillian Gordon, and Eleanor Shaw
Human Relations 2015 68(10): 1623-1652
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/10/1623?etoc
Abstract
This article develops theoretical understanding of the involvement of wealthy entrepreneurs in socially transformative projects by offering a foundational theory of philanthropic identity narratives. We show that these narratives are structured according to the metaphorical framework of the journey, through which actors envision and make sense of personal transformation. The journey provides a valuable metaphor for conceptualizing narrative identities in entrepreneurial careers as individuals navigate different social landscapes, illuminating identities as unfolding through a process of wayfinding in response to events, transitions and turning-points. We delineate the journey from entrepreneurship to philanthropy, and propose a typology of rewards that entrepreneurs claim to derive from giving. We add to the expanding literature on narrative identities by suggesting that philanthropic identity narratives empower wealthy entrepreneurs to generate a legacy of the self that is both self- and socially oriented, these 'generativity scripts' propelling their capacity for action while ensuring the continuation of their journeys.
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OCTOBER FREE ACCESS ARTICLE
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Free to access until 31 October 2015:
Obesity in organizational context
Charlotta Levay
Human Relations 2014 67(5): 565–585, DOI: 10.1177/0018726713496831
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/67/5/565.full
Abstract
This article argues that obesity is an overlooked topic that deserves to be investigated in organizational studies, in line with the recent interest in embodiment. Obesity plays a pervasive role in everyday organizational life as a source of discrimination, legitimization of power differentials and widespread anxiety even for the non-obese. Obesity is also a thoroughly organized phenomenon. It is increasingly construed as a medical and societal problem and the target of massive efforts to curb the 'obesity epidemic'. These include workplace health initiatives that offer opportunities for empirical access to otherwise elusive phenomena related to obesity. To substantiate its claims, the article relates research from several fields, notably critical obesity research and empirical studies of embodiment in organizations. It points at intriguing combinations of ubiquitous social influence and failed campaigns, of subjugation and resistance, and of prejudice and critical reflection. Finally, the article indicates directions for future research, which could fruitfully apply and further develop the late-Foucauldian themes of governmentality and technologies of the self.
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WHY PUBLISH IN HUMAN RELATIONS?
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Human Relations is an A* journal – the highest category of quality – in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABCD) Journal Quality List 2013. It is also ranked 4 in the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Academic Journal Guide 2015. Human Relations is a top 5 interdisciplinary social sciences journal:
2-year impact factor: 2.398 - Ranked: 35/185 in Management and 5/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
5-year impact factor: 3.187 - Ranked: 37/185 in Management and 3/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Source: 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015)
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CALLS FOR PAPERS
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Special issue: Conceptualising flexible careers across the life course – submit by 1 March 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Flexible%20careers.html
Special issue: Global supply chains and social relations at work – submit by 30 April 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Global%20supply%20chains.html
NEW: Special issue: Politicization and political contests in contemporary multinational corporations – submit by 30 September 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Politics%20and%20MNCs.html
NEW: Special issue: Organizing feminism: Bodies, practices and ethics – submit by 30 November 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Organizing%20feminism.html
Human Relations welcomes critical reviews and essays:
- Critical reviews advance a field through new theory, new methods, a novel synthesis of extant evidence, or a combination of two or three of these elements. Reviews that identify new research questions and that make links between management and organizations and the wider social sciences are particularly welcome. Surveys or overviews of a field are unlikely to meet these criteria.
- Critical essays address contemporary scholarly issues and debates within the journal's scope. They are more controversial than conventional papers or reviews, and can be shorter. They argue a point of view, but must meet standards of academic rigour. Anyone with an idea for a critical essay is particularly encouraged to discuss it at an early stage with the Editor-in-Chief.
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RECENT ONLINEFIRST PREVIEW ARTICLES
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Beyond choice: 'Thick' volunteering and the case of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Michelle O'Toole and Chris Grey
Human Relations 0018726715580156, first published on September 30, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715580156
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/30/0018726715580156.abstract
Abstract
This article problematizes the dominant assumption in the literature on volunteer work that it is undertaken primarily as a matter of individual choice. Using findings from a qualitative study of volunteers at the not-for-profit organization, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, it is shown that volunteering exists within a dense web of social relations, especially familial and communal relations, so that volunteering is recursively constituted by structure and agency. The concept of 'thick volunteering' is developed to denote how in some cases these social relations, especially when the work involved is dangerous, may make volunteering especially significant.
The bored self in knowledge work
Jana Costas and Dan Kärreman
Human Relations 0018726715579736, first published on September 30, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715579736
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/30/0018726715579736.abstract
Abstract
This article draws attention to reported experiences of boredom in knowledge work. Drawing on extensive qualitative data gathered at two management consultancy firms, we analyze these experiences as a particular interaction with identity regulation and work experiences. We conceptualize the reports of the bored self as a combination of unfilled aspirations and the sense of stagnation, leading to an arrested identity. Our contribution is to expand extant conceptualizations of employee interactions with identity regulation, in particular relating to identity work and identification. The findings provide a critical rendering of the glamourized image of knowledge work.
Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin's legacy for change management
Stephen Cummings, Todd Bridgman, and Kenneth G Brown
Human Relations 0018726715577707, first published on September 30, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715577707
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/24/0018726715577707.abstract
Abstract
Kurt Lewin's 'changing as three steps' (unfreezing → changing → refreezing) is regarded by many as the classic or fundamental approach to managing change. Lewin has been criticized by scholars for over-simplifying the change process and has been defended by others against such charges. However, what has remained unquestioned is the model's foundational significance. It is sometimes traced (if it is traced at all) to the first article ever published in Human Relations. Based on a comparison of what Lewin wrote about changing as three steps with how this is presented in later works, we argue that he never developed such a model and it took form after his death. We investigate how and why 'changing as three steps' came to be understood as the foundation of the fledgling subfield of change management and to influence change theory and practice to this day, and how questioning this supposed foundation can encourage innovation.
A relational, transformative and engaged approach to sustainable supply chain management: The potential of action research
Anne Touboulic and Helen Walker
Human Relations 0018726715583364, first published on September 29, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715583364
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/24/0018726715583364.abstract
Abstract
This article describes how action research can advance sustainable supply chain management research. Most sustainable supply chain management research is empirical and little attention has been paid to reflecting upon how research is conducted in the field. Current research fails to make links with ideas of relationality, change and engagement proposed in broader sustainability research. We propose to address this gap by discussing how action research could help address current challenges in sustainable supply chain management. The article explores the proponents and application of action research as a relevant methodology for knowledge development in the field, based upon a critical analysis of sustainable supply chain management and action research, including a review of previous action research studies and insights from a research project in which action research was applied. Particular emphasis is put on exploring the links between the sustainability dimension of sustainable supply chain management and the foundations and practice of action research. The article does not reject other methodological approaches, but it shows that the pragmatic orientation of action research is particularly suitable for an applied field such as sustainable supply chain management where problems are often messy, cross-disciplinary and essentially concerned with the flourishing of individuals and organizations. Our article has broader implications for inter-organizational research.
Rethinking the soft skills deficit blame game: Employers, skills withdrawal and the reporting of soft skills gaps
Scott A Hurrell
Human Relations 0018726715591636, first published on September 29, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715591636
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/24/0018726715591636.abstract
Abstract
Soft (e.g. interpersonal and social) skills are receiving ever more attention with employers frequently reporting that employees lack these skills. The 'blame game' for these skills deficits is frequently directed at the individual, family or government. Scant attention has been paid to the possibility that people may possess soft skills but decide to withdraw them because of disaffection with their employer. Taking a critical perspective and drawing on three case study establishments, this article finds that some managers blamed soft skills gaps on skills withdrawal. The employee data did not, however, reveal greater employee disaffection in the establishment worst affected by soft skills gaps. Investigation of withdrawal instead revealed more about employees who had left the organizations and the propensity for employers to blame employees for soft skills gaps. The study also affirmed that organizations may be to blame for their soft skills gaps if they do not contextually integrate selection, induction and training practices with their skills needs.
Recognition and the moral taint of sexuality: Threat, masculinity and Santa Claus
Philip Hancock
Human Relations 0018726715589798, first published on September 29, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715589798
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/24/0018726715589798.abstract
Abstract
This article explores the ways in which a desire for recognition characterizes the work of a particular category of service worker, the semi-professional Santa Claus performer. Employing a series of observations and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, it considers ways in which such work is underpinned by a struggle for recognition based on an exchange of love and social esteem that is immanent to the perceived reality of the performance of the character himself. The discussion focuses on the risk posed to the possibility of this relationship by the attribution to these performers of a tainted identity, one premised on the combination of a debased version of male sexuality and an increasingly prevalent cultural unease surrounding the relationship between children and adults. It concludes by arguing for a broader reconsideration of the concept of taint – particularly moral taint – as a far more fluid and contingent concept than has traditionally been deployed, as well as the value of engaging with the importance of recognition as a conceptual resource for both understanding, and possibly improving, the experiences of the contemporary service worker.
Antenarratives of organizational change: The microstoria of Burger King's storytelling in space, time and strategic context
David M Boje, Usha CV Haley, and Rohny Saylors
Human Relations 0018726715585812, first published on September 29, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715585812
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/24/0018726715585812.abstract
Abstract
This research extends our understanding of organizational sensemaking through storytelling to highlight complex processes of organizational change in space, time and strategic context. We focus on the concept of antenarratives, how managers' and other stakeholders' fragmented speculations regarding futures may legitimate or resist organizational change. Antenarratives are not yet fully-formed narratives, but rather pieces of organizational discourse that help to construct identities and interests. We explain the theoretical relevance of Russian socio-linguist Mikhail Bakhtin's space and time conceptualizations (chronotopes) for strategic narratives of change, and illustrate how antenarratives play important roles in narrative chronotopes. We relate German philosopher Martin Heidegger's reasons for being in relation to others (existential ontology) to stakeholders' and organizational identities, and to antenarrative glimpses in Bakhtin's chronotopes. Through these theorizations, we contribute to conversations surrounding managerial discourses of organizational change, and discussions on how researchers may analyze antenarratives in relation to stabilized narratives. We use microstoria, or little-story analysis, and the case of Burger King Corporation's international strategizing, to highlight emergent conflicts and their resolution for sensemaking that includes diverse organizational stakeholders and affects organizational effectiveness.
Looking intra-organizationally for identity cues: Whether perceived organizational support shapes employees' organizational identification
Long Wai Lam, Yan Liu, and Raymond Loi
Human Relations 0018726715584689, first published on September 24, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715584689
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/15/0018726715584689.abstract
Abstract
We propose that employees' perceptions of intra-organizational cues are an important factor influencing their identification with their organizations. Building on self-categorization theory, we examine whether perceived organizational support influences organizational identification. We contend that in addition to the mediating effect of affective commitment, organizational identification also mediates the effect of perceived organizational support on employees' extra-role behavior. We collect perceptions of perceived organizational support, organizational identification and extra-role behavior information from 363 nurses in China using a three-wave data collection method and find empirical evidence to support most of our hypotheses. We find that collectivism moderates the indirect effect of perceived organizational support on extra-role behavior through organizational identification. We discuss the implications of our findings.
Modelling job crafting behaviours: Implications for work engagement
Arnold B Bakker, Alfredo Rodríguez-Muñoz, and Ana Isabel Sanz Vergel
Human Relations 0018726715581690, first published on September 24, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715581690
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/15/0018726715581690.abstract
Abstract
In this study among 206 employees (103 dyads), we followed the job demands–resources approach of job crafting to investigate whether proactively changing one's work environment influences employee's (actor's) own and colleague's (partner's) work engagement. Using social cognitive theory, we hypothesized that employees would imitate each other's job crafting behaviours, and therefore influence each other's work engagement. Results showed that the crafting of social and structural job resources and the crafting of challenge job demands was positively related to own work engagement, whereas decreasing hindrance job demands was unrelated to own engagement. As predicted, results showed a reciprocal relationship between dyad members' job crafting behaviours – each of the actor's job crafting behaviours was positively related to the partner's job crafting behaviours. Finally, employee's job crafting was related to colleague's work engagement through colleague's job crafting, suggesting a modelling process.
Summoning the spirits: Organizational texts and the (dis)ordering properties of communication
Consuelo Vásquez, Dennis Schoeneborn, and Viviane Sergi
Human Relations 0018726715589422, first published on September 24, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715589422
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/15/0018726715589422.abstract
Abstract
This article addresses the question: why does disorder tend to simultaneously accompany efforts to create order when organizing? Adopting a communication-centered perspective, we specifically examine the role of texts in the mutual constitution of order and disorder. Drawing on empirical material from three qualitative case studies on project organizing, we show that attempts of ordering through language use and texts (i.e. by closing and fixing meaning) tend to induce disordering (i.e. by opening the possibility of multiple meanings), at the same time. As we contend, these (dis)ordering dynamics play a key role in the communicative constitution of organization, keeping them in motion by calling forth continuous processes of meaning (re-)negotiation.
On stopping doing those things that are not getting us to where we want to be: Unlearning, wicked problems and critical action learning
Cheryl Brook, Mike Pedler, Christine Abbott, and John Burgoyne
Human Relations 0018726715586243, first published on September 24, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715586243
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/15/0018726715586243.abstract
Abstract
This article explores the idea of unlearning on the basis of empirical data drawn from 73 social workers' accounts of addressing their problems and challenges in critical action learning sets. To address intractable or wicked problems, characterized by having multiple stakeholders with competing perspectives and by an absence of obvious solution, it may be necessary first to unlearn existing responses and to ask fresh questions to illuminate what is as yet unknown. Action learning privileges questions over solutions in seeking learning from action on organizational challenges, whilst critical action learning is a variety that employs insights from critical social theory to promote critical reflection and unlearning in this process. The article breaks new ground in claiming: first, that unlearning in the context of the wicked problems of social work is characterized less by the discarding of outmoded knowledge and routines and more by a critical unlearning that opens up new possibilities of not knowing and non-action; and second, that critical unlearning is much more likely to take place when supported by a deliberated and social process such as that provided by critical action learning.
FREE ACCESS (PDF copy attached):
Critical Essay: Building new management theories on sound data? The case of neuroscience
Dirk Lindebaum
Human Relations 0018726715599831, first published on September 15, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715599831
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/09/0018726715599831.abstract
Abstract
In this critical essay, I contend that accelerating demands for novel theories in management studies imply that new methodologies and data are sometimes accepted prematurely as supply of these novel theories. This point is illustrated with reference to how neuroscience can inform management research. I propose two demand forces that foster the increased focus on neuroscience in management studies, these being (i) the direction of public research funding, and (ii) publication bias as a boost for journal impact factor. Looking at the supply side, I note that (i) the statistical power of studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (or fMRI, the 'gold' standard) is unacceptably low, (ii) the use of imprecise 'motherhood' statements, and (iii) the dismissal of ethical concerns in the formulation of management theories and practice informed by neuroscience. I then briefly outline the bad consequences of this for management theory and practice, emphasize why it is important to prevent these consequences, and offer some methodological suggestions for future research.
The moral work of subversion
Peter N Bloom and Paul J White
Human Relations 0018726715576041, first published on September 15, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715576041
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/09/0018726715576041.abstract
Abstract
This article critically reconsiders dominant understandings of morality and subversion within organizations. Existing organizational literature does not adequately address the important productive role of morality for producing and justifying everyday subversive practices as well as the use of subversion to legitimate power relations and dominant values. Drawing upon interactionist insights, we develop a practice-based account of morality, highlighting the means through which subversion retroactively legitimates the diverse range of actions performed by organizational subjects. This form of retrospective reasoning, which we term 'moralization', serves as an important resource for subjects to actively negotiate the often competing moral and practical demands placed on them as organizational subjects. Consequently, we position subversion as an important means of accomplishing, legitimating and preserving a given organizational order, rather than a 'common sense' view that subversion necessarily subverts organizational values. In doing so, we make explicit the 'positive' function of rule-bending for processes of organizational control.
Best wishes,
Claire Castle
Managing Editor, Human Relations
Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org
Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org
OnlineFirst forthcoming articles: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
Submission guidance: http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/submit_paper.html
2-year impact factor: 2.398 - Ranked: 35/185 in Management and 5/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
5-year impact factor: 3.187 - Ranked: 37/185 in Management and 3/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Source: 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015)