Leadership and vision

�Leadership and vision' is the subject of Chapter 3 and Rogers and Reynolds look at how managers can encourage leadership from other people, whether in their team, the organisation or in collaborative work with different agencies. They explore leadership style, and the extent to which managers can and should adapt their personal style to the differing needs of situations and people. Frontline managers may not always feel that they have much opportunity to influence the grander vision and strategy of their organisation. Rogers and Reynolds argue that they none the less play a role in the vision sequence even at the level of putting it into practice and looking for better ways of doing things. Practice-led managers relay their experience from the front line back to more senior management so that they can contribute to strategic planning

From Shop floor to top floor. An exploratory study of sustainable progression in the retial sector: the case of Morrisons

There has been increasing political and media attention given to the issue of social mobility in recent times. The interest has been sparked by research which suggests that social mobility may have stalled or even declined in the UK during the post-war period. Various factors have been identified as inhibiting social mobility including early years experiences in the home and at school, education and health along with area based influences. Employment and labour market experiences are also key factors contributing to social mobility with the importance of ‘getting a job’ and ‘sustainable progression’ increasingly recognised as an important means of improving social mobility. There now appears consensus that occupational mobility and career development is a key factor in overcoming social mobility, and the extent to which organisations develop pathways and support careers is a critical element in pursuing social mobility. This exploratory study has been commissioned by Morrisons to investigate the factors which impact on progression in the workplace and the effect of these on the social mobility of research participants. The study adopts the framework of ‘career development’ as a construct to explore sustainable progression, drawing on the employment and labour market experiences of employees at Morrisons who, having started on the ‘shop floor’ have progressed to senior management levels in the company. The study is based on their ‘life stories’ to identify the key factors associated with a successful career at Morrisons

Men in non-traditional occupations: Career entry, career orientation and experience of role strain

This paper sets out to explore the experiences of men in non-traditional occupations. In particular it focuses on the dynamics of career entry, career orientation (i.e. preference for intrinsic or extrinsic rewards) and the possible existence, nature and consequences of ‘role strain’. Four occupational groups are examined: nurses, cabin crew, librarians and primary school teachers. Results suggest that men fall into three main categories: seekers (who actively chose the ‘female’ occupation), ‘finders’ (who did not actively seek a non-traditional career but who found the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who actively chose the occupation, often as a result of dissatisfaction with a more ‘masculine’ job, and who then settled in their non-traditional career). Settlers in particular are associated with a more intrinsic career orientation and express a desire to remain close to occupational and professional practice. Role strain is prevalent in men’s experiences in their non-traditional career. The potential sources of such role strain and the implications for career aspirations and career choices are explored

Identity and Commitment: Sen\u27s Conception of the Individual

This paper develops a conception of personal identity for Amartya Sen’s capability framework that emphasizes his self-scrutinizing aspect of the self and related concept of commitment, and compares this conception to the collective intentionality-based one advanced in Davis (2003c). The paper also distinguishes personal identity and social identity, and contrasts Sen’s framework with recent standard economics’ explanation of social identity in terms of conformity. Sen’s concept of commitment is examined in two formulations, and the later version is related to Bernard Williams’ thinking about identity-conferring commitments. The paper’s concludes by arguing that explaining personal identity as a special capability and possible object of social-economic policy provides one way of resolving the debate over whether the capability framework ought to have a short-list of essential capabilities

Is There a New HRM? Contemporary Evidence and Future Directions

[Excerpt] Is there a new human resource management? Yo. That is, yes and no. A new perspective -- strategic human resource management -- emerged during the 80s to take its place alongside the more traditional operational and programmatic perspectives as a major influence on the field. This perspective has rapidly progressed in terms of theory and research (if not practice). But, it continues to take many shapes and forms, and even with its various permutations, is far from universally embraced by scholars or practitioners. What follows is a brief look at the strategic perspective of the field. It begins with a summary of some common themes. This is followed by an illustrative review of extant theory,which in particular distinguishes between the two dominant theoretical streams which have thus far emerged: (1) the multiple model theorists (MMTs) who are given to building typologies of human resource strategies and describing or prescribing the conditions under which the various types work or should work best and (2) the dominant model theorists (DMTs) who are rather less preoccupied with contingencies and rather more concerned with the details and promulgation of their preferred models or strategies within and across firms. Next comes a look at the extent to which these two views show up in actual practice.The evidence is sparse, but their diffusion appears to be rather limited thus far. This naturally gives rise to a discussion of the factors which seem to encourage and, especially, discourage diffusion. Particular attention is paid to the adoption of the so-called strategic business partner role by human resource executives, managers, and professionals, and to the adequacy of this role as a catalyst for the diffusion of the strategic perspective across the U. S. and Canadian economies. Finally, suggestions are made regarding future theoretical and empirical work which might help keep the strategic perspective moving ahead

Self-regulated learning and knowledge sharing in the workplace

This study explores how experts in a global multinational company self-regulate their learning. It investigates experts‟ perceptions of the impact of knowledge sharing on their learning and work. Findings indicate that self-regulated learning (SRL) is a highly social process that is structured by and deeply integrated with work tasks. Experts tend to draw heavily upon their personal networks of trusted colleagues in the process of diagnosing and attaining their learning goals. In contradiction to existing models, SRL in the workplace does not appear to be a clearly delineated, linear process comprised of discrete stages. Further research is needed to understand tacit practices of SRL in the workplace

Goal Congruence, Trust and Organisational Culture: Strengthening Knowledge Links

Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links -- a form of strategic alliance that gives organizations access to the skills and capabilities of their partner and opportunity to create new capabilities together. Using the example of alliances between two universities and SAP AG, the market leader in Enterprise Software, the paper suggests some management practices to improve goal congruence, trust and alignment between different organizational cultures. For example, face-to-face interactions are critical for building a close relationship over time. A theoretical framework of the five phases of partnership development and the three challenges faced by knowledge link partnerships is proposed, along with implications for management, universities and research

Women and training : a critical analysis : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University

From the point of view of its implications for women, this thesis critically investigates the official discourse of training in New Zealand in the late 1980s and 1990s, and explores its effects within the Polytechnic sector. The more theoretical side of the project involves discussing the changing meanings of 'training' and its entangled relationship with 'education'. I then conduct a thorough examination of the key statement of the new training discourse - Education for the Twenty-first Century - and give a twofold account of its structure and meaning. One part of this discourse is oriented towards social pluralism and equity, but this strand is undercut by the dominant 'human capital' perspective which ultimately holds little prospect for real advance in women's training and labour market situation. The more empirical dimension of the thesis involves a quantitative analysis of enrolment statistics, a discourse analysis of Polytechnic reports, and a questionnaire/interview schedule with senior staff within one Polytechnic. Overall, there is little evidence that government strategy and ideology are contested within Polytechnics, and whilst women's participation rates may be buoyant, the content of their training courses and the consequent image of what sort of life women make for themselves could be seen as surprisingly traditional. At all levels of the work, I try to highlight important indications of progress or contradiction, where they exist. But on the whole, the sobering thought emerging from the thesis is that there is still a long way to go for a properly non-sexist training agenda