Working in teams : the influence of rhetoric-from sensemaking to sadness

At a time when teams are increasingly and routinely being used in Public Administration (PA) organizations, the prevailing wisdom about teams continues to confirm that teams axiomatically bring increases and improvements in effectiveness, productivity and communication. There has been relatively little critical address of whether these benefits actually accrue, nor what the experience of team members actually is. The PA literature, in particular, remains silent on this important issue. This paper shares findings from an exploratory phenomenological study. Members of teams in organizations were interviewed and asked about their experiences of working in teams. In contrast to the current wisdom, not only did team members not report the anticipated improvements and benefits, their stories tended to highlight the negative influence that the rhetoric surrounding teams might have on individuals. This paper shares the responses of team members to that rhetoric, revealing themes of &quot;Teams, Rhetoric and Sensemaking,&quot; a challenge to the notion of &quot;Teams as One Big Happy Family?&quot; while identifying &quot;Teams as Crucibles of Resignation and Sadness.&quot; These findings indicate the continuing need for further research into understanding the experience of individuals within various team and organizational structures, especially as they operate in PA organizations.<br /

Middle managerial careers in the 21st century

Managerial careers no longer conform to traditional career paths, progressing within the hierarchical structure of one or two organisations. Instead, organisational restructuring and changed business practices have impacted middle managers\u27 job security and the need to take personal responsibility for their careers. Concurrently. the nature ofmiddle managerial work has altered - bringing increasing intensity and a requirement to manage within new workplace practices such as flexibility initiatives and short-term managerial contracts. These changes have implications for how human resource professionals both attract and retain talented managers. This paper argues for a critical re-consideration ofthe distinct nature ofmiddle managerial careers

Friendships under strain : the work-personal life integration of middle managers

Middle managers in today\u27s organisations have reported experiencing longer working hours and intensified work regimes. These increased pressures, in turn, have led to growing difficulty in addressing the integration of their work and personal lives. In an exploratory study of the daily workplace experiences of Australian middle managers and the impacts on their personal lives, one of the key themes to emerge was respondents\u27 concerns about the negative effects on their friendships. This paper discusses middle managers\u27 recognition of the value of friendships for their wellbeing, and the resultant anger and sadness reported at the strain on these relationships due to competing time demands. The significant role that friendships play in alleviating some of the stresses of work demands, while concurrently being impeded by these same demands, is an important issue for organisations to consider. These findings indicate the need for middle managers to truly have an ability to engage in activities - and friendships - which will aid them in their working lives. The study also indicates a need for further investigation into the development and maintenance of friendships for both middle managers and other groups of employees. <br /

Pathogenetics of alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins.

Alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is a lethal lung developmental disorder caused by heterozygous point mutations or genomic deletion copy-number variants (CNVs) of FOXF1 or its upstream enhancer involving fetal lung-expressed long noncoding RNA genes LINC01081 and LINC01082. Using custom-designed array comparative genomic hybridization, Sanger sequencing, whole exome sequencing (WES), and bioinformatic analyses, we studied 22 new unrelated families (20 postnatal and two prenatal) with clinically diagnosed ACDMPV. We describe novel deletion CNVs at the FOXF1 locus in 13 unrelated ACDMPV patients. Together with the previously reported cases, all 31 genomic deletions in 16q24.1, pathogenic for ACDMPV, for which parental origin was determined, arose de novo with 30 of them occurring on the maternally inherited chromosome 16, strongly implicating genomic imprinting of the FOXF1 locus in human lungs. Surprisingly, we have also identified four ACDMPV families with the pathogenic variants in the FOXF1 locus that arose on paternal chromosome 16. Interestingly, a combination of the severe cardiac defects, including hypoplastic left heart, and single umbilical artery were observed only in children with deletion CNVs involving FOXF1 and its upstream enhancer. Our data demonstrate that genomic imprinting at 16q24.1 plays an important role in variable ACDMPV manifestation likely through long-range regulation of FOXF1 expression, and may be also responsible for key phenotypic features of maternal uniparental disomy 16. Moreover, in one family, WES revealed a de novo missense variant in ESRP1, potentially implicating FGF signaling in the etiology of ACDMPV

The CLoud–Aerosol–Radiation interaction and forcing: year 2017 (CLARIFY-2017) measurement campaign

The representations of clouds, aerosols, and cloud–aerosol–radiation impacts remain some of the largest uncertainties in climate change, limiting our ability to accurately reconstruct past climate and predict future climate. The south-east Atlantic is a region where high atmospheric aerosol loadings and semi-permanent stratocumulus clouds are co-located, providing an optimum region for studying the full range of aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions and their perturbations of the Earth’s radiation budget. While satellite measurements have provided some useful insights into aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions over the region, these observations do not have the spatial and temporal resolution, nor the required level of precision to allow for a process-level assessment. Detailed measurements from high spatial and temporal resolution airborne atmospheric measurements in the region are very sparse, limiting their use in assessing the performance of aerosol modelling in numerical weather prediction and climate models. CLARIFY-2017 was a major consortium programme consisting of five principal UK universities with project partners from the UK Met Office and European- and USA-based universities and research centres involved in the complementary ORACLES, LASIC, and AEROCLO-sA projects. The aims of CLARIFY-2017 were fourfold: (1) to improve the representation and reduce uncertainty in model estimates of the direct, semi-direct, and indirect radiative effect of absorbing biomass burning aerosols; (2) to improve our knowledge and representation of the processes determining stratocumulus cloud microphysical and radiative properties and their transition to cumulus regimes; (3) to challenge, validate, and improve satellite retrievals of cloud and aerosol properties and their radiative impacts; (4) to improve the impacts of aerosols in weather and climate numerical models. This paper describes the modelling and measurement strategies central to the CLARIFY-2017 deployment of the FAAM BAe146 instrumented aircraft campaign, summarizes the flight objectives and flight patterns, and highlights some key results from our initial analyses

The individual experience within a work team

This thesis investigates the research question: What is the individual's experience within a work team? The concern is for respondents' meaning and understanding of the team experience and how team membership impacts their lives. The introductory chapter considers the researcher's concerns leading to the formulation of this question, including the uncritical nature of much of the literature on teams and the limited attention given to impacts and outcomes for individual team members. These concerns are expanded further in a review of both current and extant literature on teams. The current research is predominantly focused on team effectiveness and productivity, and this research is examined before moving on to review research conducted into individual factors relating to teams using a qualitative research methodology. The Heideggerian phenomenology, used in this study, is discussed. Data analysis is outlined. The research methods lead to the development of the model, comprising four themes. The first theme discusses respondents' concerns regarding the positioning of their immediate team within broader team structures within the organisation. Next, respondents' desire for, and expectation of, support from within the team is considered. The third theme, ambiguity,examines the uncertainty experienced by respondents with respect to team goals. Finally, respondents' experiences of dissonance and incongruity with relation to their teams are discussed, again considering the related issues of organisational rhetoric and sensemaking. The implications for organisations is discussed, and avenues for future research are presented

Life in the middle : middle managers' experiences in and out of the workplace

This thesis investigates the research question: What are the day-to-day work experiences of middle managers, and how do these experiences personally impact them in and beyond the workplace? The focus is on respondents’ meaning and understanding of their experiences as a middle manager in the private sector, and the effects these have on their lives outside the organisation. The study highlighted the importance of considering the whole person in organisational research, as the interconnectedness of work and the rest of life was revealed