Mise en place : time management behaviour and flow within the hospitality training environment

Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between time management behaviour (TMB) and flow (optimal experience) which is a psychological well-being construct embedded in subjectivity within in the culinary training environment. Time constraints may have an adverse impact on a culinary student’s personal skill of his/her culinary ability. The construct of flow (optimal experience) refers to the state in which individuals are so intensely involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The activity is so enjoyable that individuals will perform it for the sheer sake of doing it, even at great personal cost. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a sample of n=229 students at a tertiary institution spanning across different ages, racial groups and education levels. Significant relationships were found between flow and TMB. The dimensions of TMB mediated through perceived control of time on flow. Successful TMB skills may be beneficial for increasing flow experiences within hospitality management which in turn could contribute to better work performance within the hospitality industry and should consequently be embedded in culinary training to enhance subsequent work performance

Exploring a model for finding meaning in the changing world of work (Part 2)

Orientation: This article explores the role that meaning, as logotherapy conceptualises it, can play to facilitate organisational changes.Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore further a model an earlier paper proposed for using employees’ experiences of meaning in work contexts to facilitate changes.Motivation for the study: The researchers could not find a comprehensive model in the literature for addressing employees’ experiences of meaning in, or at, work during organisational changes. A previous paper proposed such a model, but it addressed only one component fully. This article seeks to explore this model further to address this apparent gap in the literature.Research design, approach and method: The researchers used a literature review to conduct the study. The components of the model directed this review in order to find meaning at work.Main findings: The actions of organisations, which aim to create positive organisational contexts (through practices for improving meaning at work and transcendence) and to frame changes using ‘Logo-OD’, can improve employees’ experiences of meaning during organisational changes.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding the relationship between meaning and organisational change, and applying the model this article presents, can contribute to the overall success of change initiatives.Contribution/value-add: This study’s primary contribution stems from the novel framework it presents for organisations to use the knowledge about how employees search for meaning to facilitate changes.</p

Towards a workplace conducive to the career advancement of women

The aim of this study was to start designing a workplace conducive to women’s career advancement. Appreciative inquiry was selected as an appropriate methodology, given the slow progress that has been made in addressing gender equality at work. Seventeen men and women working in the finance division of a large organisation were invited to participate in an appreciative inquiry workshop. This was followed by interviews with four leadership team members. While no original ideas or solutions emerged from the interventions, participants of the appreciative inquiry process demonstrated a shift in thinking, more positive emotional responses, a shared vision for the future and improved willingness to assume accountability for change

The effect of the spatial positioning of items on the reliability of questionnaires measuring affect

Orientation: Extant research has shown that the relationship between spatial location and affect may have pervasive effects on evaluation. In particular, experimental findings on embodied cognition indicate that a person is spatially orientated to position what is positive at the top and what is negative at the bottom (vertical spatial orientation), and to a lesser extent, to position what is positive on the left and what is negative on the right (horizontal spatial orientation). It is therefore hypothesised, that when there is congruence between a respondent’s spatial orientation (related to affect) and the spatial positioning (layout) of a questionnaire, the reliability will be higher than in the case of incongruence. Research purpose: The principal objective of the two studies reported here was to ascertain the extent to which congruence between a respondent’s spatial orientation (related to affect) and the layout of the questionnaire (spatial positioning of questionnaire items) may impact on the reliability of a questionnaire measuring affect. Motivation for the study: The spatial position of items on a questionnaire measuring affect may indirectly impact on the reliability of the questionnaire. Research approach, design and method: In both studies, a controlled experimental research design was conducted using a sample of university students (n = 1825). Major findings: In both experiments, evidence was found to support the hypothesis that greater congruence between a respondent’s spatial orientation (related to affect) and the spatial positioning (layout) of a questionnaire leads to higher reliability on a questionnaire measuring affect. Practical implications: These findings may serve to create awareness of the influence of the spatial positioning of items as a confounding variable in questionnaire design. Contribution/value-add: Overall, this research complements previous studies by confirming the metaphorical representation of affect and enhances our understanding of embodiment-related conceptual processing and its subsequent influence on self-evaluations versus external evaluations on an unconscious level, specifically in relation to measuring affect

Critical management studies in South Africa

This book shows how Critical Management Studies (CMS) scholarship is starting to develop a character of its own in South Africa. It attests to CMS slowly gaining momentum and acquiring an identity of its own amongst South African scholars. However, management studies in South Africa is dominated by capitalist ideology and positivist methodology. Although Interpretive scholarship has gained some momentum, it still falls within the parameters of ‘mainstream’, capitalist thinking. Scholarship outside the domain of capitalist thinking, such as critical scholarship, remains sorely underexplored. Being entrenched in the positivist tradition is arguably a major Achilles’ Heel for the progression of management as a field of inquiry. CMS presents a vehicle for alternative epistemologies to be heard in the management discourse. With its focus on power imbalances, struggles for emancipation from oppression, and distrust of capitalism, CMS provides the peripheral point of view with a voice. CMS presents a space where scholars can engage with South African realities surrounding political, cultural, social, and historic contexts and issues in management. This book is promoting CMS to the scholarly community, to show that there are exciting possibilities being offered by a different approach to management scholarship. This book also forms part of a larger project of growing CMS in South Africa, and is a collection of original works by academics actively working in CMS, following various methodological approaches which can be categorised into two broad methodological categories, namely, conceptual work and empirical work following an Interpretive approach

Critical management studies in South Africa

This book shows how Critical Management Studies (CMS) scholarship is starting to develop a character of its own in South Africa. It attests to CMS slowly gaining momentum and acquiring an identity of its own amongst South African scholars. However, management studies in South Africa is dominated by capitalist ideology and positivist methodology. Although Interpretive scholarship has gained some momentum, it still falls within the parameters of ‘mainstream’, capitalist thinking. Scholarship outside the domain of capitalist thinking, such as critical scholarship, remains sorely underexplored. Being entrenched in the positivist tradition is arguably a major Achilles’ Heel for the progression of management as a field of inquiry. CMS presents a vehicle for alternative epistemologies to be heard in the management discourse. With its focus on power imbalances, struggles for emancipation from oppression, and distrust of capitalism, CMS provides the peripheral point of view with a voice. CMS presents a space where scholars can engage with South African realities surrounding political, cultural, social, and historic contexts and issues in management. This book is promoting CMS to the scholarly community, to show that there are exciting possibilities being offered by a different approach to management scholarship. This book also forms part of a larger project of growing CMS in South Africa, and is a collection of original works by academics actively working in CMS, following various methodological approaches which can be categorised into two broad methodological categories, namely, conceptual work and empirical work following an Interpretive approach

The branding of a new discipline: positive psychology

Inaugural lecture--Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, 15 August 200