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A new issue of Human Relations is available online: Human Relations May 2017; 70(5) − we hope you enjoy reading these articles, particularly
How practice makes sense in healthcare operations:
Studying sensemaking as performative, material-discursive practice
Lotta Hultin, Magnus Mähring
Human Relations, 70(5): 566‒593. First published August-25-2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716661618
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716661618
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MAY ISSUE ARTICLES
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Whistle-blowing and the politics of truth: Mobilizing 'truth games' in the WikiLeaks case
Iain Munro
Human Relations, 70(5): 519‒543. First published December-16-2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716672721
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716672721
Abstract
This article investigates the role of 'truth' as an object of contention within organizations, with specific reference to the 'politics of truth' in the WikiLeaks case. For an empirical illustration of a 'truth game', this article draws on varied accounts of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website. The article shows how different 'truth games' are mobilized by different organizational actors engaged in a politics of truth. The article demonstrates the existence of different truth games at work in the WikiLeaks case. It shows WikiLeaks' profound challenge to hegemonic games of truth in terms of a 'networked parhessia', which entails a radical transformation of the process of truth-telling in support of whistle-blowers and in pursuit of an explicitly emancipatory, anarchist political agenda. Networked parhessia provides a new infrastructure to enable a 'parhessia of the governed'. This article demonstrates how WikiLeaks is of singular importance as a case study of organizational resistance in the way it moves beyond micropolitical acts of resistance, such as whistle-blowing, towards an engagement with wider political struggles.
Keywords: censorship, Foucault, networked parhessia, resistance, truth
The relationship of social support with well-being outcomes via work–family conflict:
Moderating effects of gender, dependants and nationality
Suzie Drummond, Michael P O'Driscoll, Paula Brough, Thomas Kalliath, Oi-Ling Siu, Carolyn Timms, Derek Riley, Cindy Sit, Danny Lo
Human Relations, 70(5): 544‒565. First published November-01-2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716662696
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716662696
Abstract
The impact of work–family conflict on well-being outcomes is well established, as is the role of social support in buffering perceptions of conflict. What is less well understood is how these relationships vary for different groups of respondents. Using a two-wave longitudinal design with a 12-month time lag and samples of employees (total N = 2183) from Australia, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong, the present research investigated whether the mediating relationships between social support, work–family conflict and well-being outcomes were moderated by gender, geographical region and the presence of dependants in the household. Supervisor support and family support were associated with lower work–family conflict, and hence reduced psychological strain and increased job and family satisfaction, for women and for employees in China and Hong Kong, but not for employees in Australia and New Zealand. However, the presence of dependants was not a significant moderator. Our findings illustrate the importance of exploring gender and national differences in work–family conflict research, particularly the investigation of cross-domain effects.
Keywords: cross-national research, dependants, gender, moderated mediation, social support, well-being, work–family conflict
How practice makes sense in healthcare operations:
Studying sensemaking as performative, material-discursive practice
Lotta Hultin, Magnus Mähring
Human Relations, 70(5): 566‒593. First published August-25-2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716661618
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716661618
Abstract
This article aims to move sensemaking theory forward by exploring a post-humanist view of how sense is made in material-discursive practices. Answering recent calls for novel theoretical views on sensemaking, we adopt a relational ontology, assuming subject and object to be ontologically entangled, and viewing agency as a circulating flow through material-discursive practices. Employing this perspective, we study how sensemaking unfolds at the emergency ward of a Nordic university hospital. By working through the concepts of material-discursive practices, flow of agency and subject positions, we produce an account of sensemaking that decenters the human actor as the locus and source of sensemaking, and foregrounds the performativity of practices through which certain ways of acting become enacted as sensible. This allows us to propose an alternative to the traditional view of sensemaking as episodic, cognitive-discursive practices enacted within and between separate human actors. With this view, what makes sense is understood as a material-discursive practice and related subject positions, which owing to their specific positioning in the circulating flow of agency emerge as sensible. Consequently, every actor is not just making sense, but is also already being made sense of; positioning and being positioned in the flow of agency.
Keywords: flow of agency, lean management, material-discursive practices, performativity, posthumanism, quality in healthcare, sensemaking, sociomateriality, subject positions, visualization
Communicative tensions of meaningful work: The case of sustainability practitioners
Rahul Mitra, Patrice M Buzzanell
Human Relations, 70(5): 594‒616. First published September-30-2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716663288
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716663288
Abstract
This study, based on in-depth interviews with 45 practitioners in the emerging field of environmental sustainability, argues for a more nuanced approach to studying the meaningfulness of work. Drawing from the tension-centered approach, we posit that sustainability practitioners derived meaningfulness in tensional ways from circumstances and factors that were both enabling and constraining, stemming from various organizational, professional and political structures. This occurs through ongoing negotiation that spans everyday work processes, the perceived impact of such work, and participants' career positioning. In addition to examining meaningfulness as a dynamic and contested negotiation, rather than a purely positive outcome, the political implications of such meaning-making are traced. We close by discussing some implications for future research on meaningfulness of work.
Keywords: careers, meaningful work, politics, sustainability, tensions
Motivation and identity: A psychoanalytic perspective on the turn to identity in motivation research
Michaela Driver
Human Relations, 70(5): 617‒637. First published January-02-2017, doi: 10.1177/0018726716669577
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716669577
Abstract
Taking the recent turn to identity in motivation research as its starting point, the study attempts to move the field further beyond instrumentalizing and fractionalizing conceptions in which motivation is simply a question of pulling the right levers. Drawing on a psychoanalytic, particularly Lacanian, perspective and an analysis of 51 narratives shared by employees from a number of occupations, it develops a more fine-grained and complex understanding of how motivation functions in the context of identity work. Specifically, the study explores how motivation is invariably mapped onto internal struggles with unconscious subjectivity and desire. These may align individuals more with organizational ideals of the properly motivated employee, but also create an empowering space in which employees can work through work-related fantasies and find enjoyment on their own terms. The implications of this perspective are discussed.
Keywords: discourse, identity, Lacan, motivation, psychoanalysis
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APRIL FREE ACCESS ARTICLE
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Free to access until 30 April 2017:
On temporary organizations: A review, synthesis and research agenda
Catriona M Burke and Michael J Morley
Human Relations, 69(6): 1235‒1258. First published March-08-2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726715610809
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726715610809
Abstract
Despite the ascendency of temporary organizations to common practice in many industries, and their expansion as an area of academic inquiry, research evidence on their genesis, development and impact remains fragmented across diverse fields, many of which fail to engage with each other. Our purpose in this article is to bring greater systematics to the scholarship on temporary organizations through documenting their evolution and assembling their bricolage. To this end, we first define and delineate the concept of the temporary organization and we develop an inductively derived framework for organizing the literature comprising individual/team attributes and interior processes, task attributes, tensions between the temporary organization and the permanent organization, networks and organizational fields and performance/outcomes of temporary organizations. Following an explication of these attributes and the dominant relationships between them, we suggest how this nascent area of inquiry might advance through the identification of a number of significant research opportunities. Finally, we highlight the consequences for broader management and organization theory development.
Keywords: networks, organizational performance, organizing systems, project organization, temporary organizations, time
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AWARD NEWS
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We're delighted to inform you that this Human Relations paper is the 2017 winner of The Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize for the most outstanding piece of research relevant to management consultancy. The Urwick Cup is awarded by the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants. The authors have been invited to talk at a dinner of the Company on the 6th June 2017 in London, where they will be presented with the award and have also been invited to give a lecture later in the year to a select group of guests.
Reputation and identity conflict in management consulting
William S Harvey, Timothy Morris, and Milena Müller Santos
Human Relations, January 2017, 70(1): 92‒118. First published May-05-2016 doi 10.1177/0018726716641747
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716641747?etoc=
Abstract
Based on a case study of a large consulting firm, this article makes two contributions to the literature on reputation and identity by examining how an organization responds when its identity is substantially misaligned with the experience and perceptions of external stakeholders that form the basis of reputational judgments. First, rather than triggering some form of identity adaptation, it outlines how other forms of identity can come into play to remediate this gap, buffering the organization's identity from change. This shift to other individual identities is facilitated by a low organizational identity context even when the identity of the firm is coherent and strong. The second contribution concerns the conceptualization of consulting and other professional service firms. We explain how reputation and identity interact in the context of the distinctive organizational features of these firms. Notably, their loosely coupled structure and the central importance of expert knowledge claims enable individual consultants both to reinforce and supplement corporate reputation via individual identity work.
Keywords: case study, identity, management, organizational theory, reputation
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RECENT ONLINE FIRST PREVIEW ARTICLES
Access all OnlineFirst articles here: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
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Trajectories and antecedents of integration in mergers and acquisitions:
A comparison of two longitudinal studies
Martin R Edwards, Jukka Lipponen, Tony Edwards, Marko Hakonen
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726716686169, first Published March 17, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726716686169
Abstract
Despite existing research examining snapshots of employee reactions to organizational mergers and acquisitions (M&A), there is a complete absence of work theorizing or exploring rates of change in employees' organizational identification with the merged entity. We address this gap using two three-wave longitudinal panel samples from different M&A settings, tracking change in identification through a two-year period. Theorizing trajectories of change in identification across the organizations in both settings, we make predictions linked to expected antecedents of change in identification. Our research context (M&A-1) involves a merger of three Finish universities tracking 938 employees from each organization in three waves (nine months pre-merger to 24 months post-merger). Our second context (M&A-2) involves a multinational acquisition tracking 346 employees from both the acquired and acquiring organization in three waves (from two to 26 months post-acquisition). Using Latent Growth Modelling, we confirm predicted trajectories of change in identification. Across both samples, a linear increase (across Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3) in justice and linear decrease in threat perceptions were found to significantly predict a linear increase in identification across the post-M&A period. We discuss organizational identification development trajectories and how changes in these two antecedents account for changes in identification across M&A contexts.
Keywords: employee integration, identity, longitudinal research, M&A, mergers and acquisitions, organisational identification, organisational psychology
The shaping of sustainable careers post hearing loss:
Toward greater understanding of adult onset disability, disability identity, and career transitions
David C Baldridge, Mukta Kulkarni
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726716687388 | First Published February 17, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726716687388
Abstract
Through this interview-based study with 40 respondents in the United States we have outlined enablers of career transitions and sustainable careers for professionals who have experienced severe hearing loss as adults. To sustain careers after adult onset disability, respondents engaged in a quest for meaning and big picture answers to 'who am I?' and 'am I still successful?' This included redefining themselves – e.g. I am now both a person with a disability (disability identity) and a successful professional (professional identity) – and career success (e.g. now I care about service to society as much as I care about material artifacts). Respondents also adopted new work roles where disability was a key to success (e.g. becoming an equal employment officer) and utilized social networks to continue being successful. Such redefining of work and networks supported the aforesaid quest for meaning and big picture answers. Findings not only indicate how individuals experience career success after a life-changing event but also help defamiliarize extant notions of ableism in workplace contexts.
Keywords: adult onset, career transitions, disability, disability identity, hearing loss, sustainable careers
Work-related change in residential elderly care: Trust, space and connectedness
Wieke E van der Borg, Petra Verdonk, Linda Dauwerse, Tineke A Abma
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726716684199 | First Published February 10, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726716684199
Abstract
Increasing care needs and a declining workforce put pressure on the quality and continuity of long-term elderly care. The need to attract and retain a solid workforce is increasingly acknowledged. This study reports about a change initiative that aimed to improve the quality of care and working life in residential elderly care. The research focus is on understanding the process of workforce change and development, by retrospectively exploring the experiences of care professionals. A responsive evaluation was conducted at a nursing home department in the Netherlands one year after participating in the change program. Data were gathered by participant observations, interviews and a focus and dialogue group. A thematic analysis was conducted. Care professionals reported changes in workplace climate and interpersonal interactions. We identified trust, space and connectedness as important concepts to understand perceived change. Findings suggest that the interplay between trust and space fostered interpersonal connectedness. Connectedness improved the quality of relationships, contributing to the well-being of the workforce. We consider the nature and contradictions within the process of change, and discuss how gained insights help to improve quality of working life in residential elderly care and how this may reflect in the quality of care provision.
Keywords: authenticity, autonomy, case study, connectedness, leadership, quality of care, quality of working life, responsive evaluation, trust
Critical Essay: Organizational cognitive neuroscience drives theoretical progress, or: The curious case of the straw man murder
Michael JR Butler, Nick Lee, Carl Senior
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726716684381 | First Published February 2, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726716684381
Abstract
In this critical essay, we respond to Lindebaum's argument that neuroscientific methodologies and data have been accepted prematurely in proposing novel management theory. We acknowledge that building new management theories requires firm foundations. We also find his distinction between demand and supply-side forces helpful as an analytical framework identifying the momentum for the contemporary production of management theory. Nevertheless, some of the arguments Lindebaum puts forward, on closer inspection, can be contested, especially those related to the supply side of organizational cognitive neuroscience research: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data, motherhood statements and ethical concerns. We put forward a more positive case for organizational cognitive neuroscience methodologies and data, as well as clarifying exactly what organizational cognitive neuroscience really means, and its consequences for the development of strong management theory.
Keywords: management, methodology, organizational cognitive neuroscience, practice, theory
Casual employment and long-term wage outcomes
Irma Mooi-Reci, Mark Wooden
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726716686666 | First Published February 1, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726716686666
Abstract
Temporary and other forms of non-standard employment are an important feature of modern labour markets. Yet, relatively little is known about how much and under what circumstances such employment arrangements impact on long-term wage outcomes. Using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey spanning the period 2001 to 2014, we examine how employment status earlier in a working career is associated with subsequent wage dynamics. Particular attention is paid to how wage trajectories vary with gender and age. Estimates from a series of panel data models of real hourly wages reveal that among men there is an average long-run penalty from casual employment of about 10%, suggestive of scarring effects. Nevertheless, for men in most age groups this wage penalty does eventually begin to shrink. Among prime-age men, however, there is no evidence of catch-up; indeed, for this group the wage gap widens over time. Among women the estimated average long-run wage penalty associated with casual employment is both much smaller and less robust. We argue that expectations and norms about 'ideal careers' may be an important explanatory factor underlying the larger casual employment wage penalty for men.
Keywords: casual employment, contingent workers, gender differences, HILDA Survey, longitudinal data, pay/rewards
Work–family interface in the context of career success: A qualitative inquiry
Mina Beigi, Jia Wang, Michael B Arthur
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726717691339 | First Published February 1, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726717691339
Abstract
Work–family researchers are increasingly recognizing the need to expand their focus to advance the field. One population largely neglected by work–family researchers is individuals who have been extremely successful in their careers. In addition, organizational career scholars have largely neglected the interplay between employees' work and family lives. This study contributes to the work–family literature by studying work–family interface (WFI) in the context of career success. We sought to explore the lived experiences of 28 distinguished professors who are among the top 2–5% of scholars in their field, to provide an in-depth understanding of their WFI and the prominent factors affecting it over their careers. Our findings have theoretical implications for both work–family and career success literatures.
Keywords: academic careers, career success, distinguished professor, work–family, work–family interface, WFI
When too many are not enough:
Human resource slack and performance at the Dutch East India Company (1700–1795)
Stoyan V Sgourev, Wim van Lent
Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726717691340 | First Published February 1, 2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726717691340
Abstract
Slack is an elusive concept in organizational research, with studies documenting a variety of relationships between slack and firm performance. We advocate treating slack not as a resource, but as a practice – a sequence of events and responses over time. A longitudinal analysis of the Dutch East India Company (1700–1795) highlights the use of slack as a response to a resource constraint (the shortage of skilled labor). After documenting the negative performance effects of skill shortage, we identify a trade-off in the use of human resource slack (number of sailors above what is operationally required), in which slack enhanced operational reliability, but reduced efficiency. Derived from a historical context, this trade-off has contemporary relevance and is helpful in reconciling contradictory evidence on slack.
Keywords: contingent workers, human resources, management history, organizational slack, personnel selection
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CALL FOR PAPERS
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Special issue: Inserting professionals and professional organizations in studies of wrongdoing: The nature, antecedents, and consequences of professional misconduct – submit by 30 April 2017
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Professional%20misconduct.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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Reflections on the history of HR from Paul Edwards, former EIC:
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- Human Relations: 1957–1966
- Human Relations: 1967–1986
- Human Relations: 1987–1996 and beyond
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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 and included in the FT50 list of journals (effective from January 2017) used by the Financial Times in compiling the FT Research rank, included in the Global MBA, EMBA and Online MBA rankings.
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Claire Castle
Managing Editor, Human Relations
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org
Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org
Twitter: @HR_TIHR