The "champagne tower" of science publishing

This article discusses the hierarchical nature of science publishing, whereby journals are organized in tiers with the most prestigious elite journals at the top (Cell, Nature, Science), and lowest-ranked journals at the bottom. When rejected from the top-tier journals, authors usually aim for a lower tier of journals, with some choosing smaller, specialist journals for the outlet of their work. Recently, however, a different mechanism of cascading the papers down the hierarchy of journals has become popular, i.e., editors arrange to pass the rejected papers, with the authors’ permission, to their “sister journals” bearing the same brand. These transfer arrangements may be seen beneficial for the authors, as they reduce the publication time, but they also pose difficulties for smaller specialist journals that lose their share of the market and experience a fall in manuscript submissions

Conflicting values in reflection on professional practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of reflection as a tool of enquiry within the context of higher education work based learning. The aim of the study is to investigate how reflection on professional practice brings about a review of the values underpinning that practice. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from a group of undergraduate students undertaking their studies by work based learning in the area of management in a Scottish University. An open-ended questionnaire was designed to learn about the participants’ views on their perceived freedom to reflect on their workplace practice in the university, their ability to challenge the organizational values and established practices in the workplace, and on their relationship with the workplace mentor. Findings – Students on work based learning programmes are subjected to demands from at least three directions: first, their own expectations, in terms of both what they want to achieve by way of their own development, second, the needs of their organization; and third, expectations of the university in ensuring that the work produced meets the standard for an academic award. These interests can sometimes coincide, but they can also conflict, and such a conflict can reveal tensions that run deeper into the culture of the organization. Research limitations/implications – This study is based on a relatively small sample of learners in one university, hence the findings are of preliminary nature. Despite the small sample size, the conclusions are indicative of a potential problem in the design of work based learning, and a larger cross-institutional study would allow the validity of these results to be verified. Practical implications – The findings emerging from this study have implications for the facilitators of work based learning in higher education. Although university work based learning programmes differ significantly from corporate learning and development efforts, this paper suggests that work based learning providers should co-operate more closely with the learners’ employing organizations towards creating an environment for learning at work. More co-operation between the university and the employer might be more beneficial for all stakeholders. Originality/value – The literature on work based learning focuses in the main on the use of reflection as a tool of enquiry into workplace practice. Drawing on the study of contemporary work organizations, this paper explores the tensions arising from reflection on the learners’ practice, and possible conflict of values that reflection exposes. Keywords Professional practice, Reflection, Work based learning, Organizational practices, Corporate learning, HE management programmes, Employees, Personal and professional development

The triple bind of narration: Fritz Schütze’s biographical interview in prison research and beyond

In this article we re-evaluate Fritz Schütze’s biographical interview method with its orientation towards the analysis of social problems experienced by the individual. We used Schütze’s method in a study of repeat offenders in a Polish prison, and on the basis of this experience we believe that we make two contributions – one to social science enquiry in general, and one to prison sociology. We argue that in social science research this method offers unique insights into the process of identity formation. These insights are made possible because of the ‘triple bind of narration’ inherent in Schütze’s method, that is to say the requirement to close, the requirement to condense and the requirement to provide detail. In relation to prison research we argue that Schütze’s method has rehabilitation value in making the interviewee/narrator re-evaluate their life through biography work. We also offer practical advice on how to conduct such interviews

Restoration and Renewal of Parliament: Buildings as a Vehicle for Change

No abstract available

Distrust: not only in secret service organizations

In this article, we discuss the issue of distrust in the most extreme example of distrustful organizations: secret service organizations. Distrust may be a basic organizing principle in such organizations, but how is it produced and maintained? Inspired by actor–network theory, we analyzed the devices, codes, rules, and procedures used in secret service organizations, and then asked whether these devices, codes, rules, and procedures differ from those used in ordinary organizations. Based on our analysis, we make two contributions. First, we draw researchers’ attention to distrust that is intentionally built and maintained rather than distrust that is accidental and indicative of faulty management. Second, we identify the material manifestations of distrust. We argue that in future studies of trust and distrust in organizations, it will be necessary to focus on the technologies, physical objects, and quasi-objects. These, together with discourses, guarantee the stability of connections among organizational actions

A strategic action fields perspective on organizational trust repair

While the extant literature on organizational trust repair has considered the agency and trust repair actions of individual organizations, it has neglected repair following trust-damaging events affecting specific industries. Drawing on the theory of strategic action fields we ask two research questions: (1) How do reputational scandals involving a few transgressing firms affect trust in the whole institutional field? (2) Do the transgressing firms repair trust in the same way as the blameless ones in the same field? To answer these questions we investigated four cases of retail organizations that engaged in trust repair actions following a food safety scandal, two widely held to have transgressed, and two that were held to be relatively blameless. We compared the trust repair strategies of both groups, finding that even the blameless organizations felt compelled to act to repair trust. However, blameless organizations also sought to differentiate themselves from the transgressing ones by using specific strategies to restore trust

‘Organizational recidivism’ and trust repair:A story of failed detectives

Purpose: Over the last decade, trust repair has become an important theoretical and practical concern in HRM. The purpose of this paper is to explain why organisations fail to repair their stakeholders’ trust following a series of trust breaches. Design/methodology/approach: Archival data is used to investigate the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Using the analytical frame of the detective novel, the authors analyse reputational scandals in RBS, and in doing so, they explore the interweaving of two stories: the story of the “crime” (the bank's actions which led to breaches of trust) and the story of the “detectives” (parliamentary, regulatory and press investigators). Findings: Based on their analysis, the authors argue that the organisation's failure to repair trust is associated with ineffective detection of what went wrong in the bank and why. Practical implications: HR practitioners dealing with similar situations should understand the complicated and unfolding nature of repeated transgressions, and the reasons why previous trust repair efforts may have failed. Social implications: An organisation may be showing willingness to accept responsibility for the violation of trust, but while new transgressions happen, trust repair efforts may fail. Therefore, what is needed in organisations is a longitudinal analysis that takes into account organisational history, including earlier wrongdoings. Originality/value: The paper is one of the few analysing trust repair from a process perspective and using the metaphor of the detective novel to provide insights into organizational reintegration

A grounded theory study of factors and conditions associated with customer trust recovery in a retailer

Although in recent years academic interest in trust repair following a breach has grown significantly, we still know very little about how trust repair happens and in what contexts. This study focuses on customer trust repair following a major food adulteration scandal. Through a grounded theory study of customer experiences of real-life trust breakdown and recovery, we identify four factors (absence of further transgressions, positive personal experience with the retailer, the retailer’s normal functioning, and the normal behavior of other customers) and three contextual conditions (passage of time, institutional context, and immediate trust repair strategies) associated with customers’ trust recovery in food retailers. In addition, we show that trust recovery is not necessarily a direct result of the trustee’s trust repair activities, as theorized previously, before discussing the implications of our findings for theory and practice

‘A deeply troubled organization’: organizational satire in the BBC’s W1A comedy series

This paper analyses the ways in which a media organization implicated in a series of reputational scandals represents its own management in a comedy series. The organization in question is the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and the comedy series is W1A, a mockumentary commissioned and screened by the BBC in 2014–17. Firstly, I discuss the ways in which W1A as a ‘text’ uses satirical devices to ridicule its own management as well as management fads and fashions. Secondly, I analyse W1A as the ‘intertext’, and consider the satirical representations of management in W1A against the backdrop of the BBC’s reputational scandals. I put forward an interpretation that the intertextual references in the comedy series break down the distance between ‘us’ and ‘the troubled organization’. I also argue that intertextual reading of the series (e.g. the analysis of allusions, cameo appearances, and parallels with the real BBC) throws an entirely different light on organizational wrongdoing, opening new possibilities for organizational reintegration and the repair of broken trust. Not only does the reading of W1A change when the audience considers what is happening in the real BBC, but also our interpretation of what is happening in the BBC may change when we watch W1A

Buildings and institutional change: stepping stones or stumbling blocks?

This study aims to throw some theoretical light on the relationship between institutions and the buildings housing them, particularly in the context of institutional change. Drawing on my ethnographic study of the UK Parliament buildings in London, I put forward a framework for analysing the effects that buildings and the artifacts within them may have on institutional change. This framework consists of three elements: (1) buildings enabling or constraining the activities performed inside; (2) spatial hierarchy; and (3) buildings as a resource. My intention is to draw scholars’ attention to the notion of buildings as sites of contestation – places where conflicts over nature and the extent of institutional change are played out. I conclude that redesigning buildings might be seen as a stepping stone to change, but also that buildings can be used to resist change and maintain the status quo. Although buildings ‘inhabited’ by institutions may appear to stand still, they never do; they change in time, both enabling and constraining those who use them and they have an ability to ‘act back’