Using qualitative diary research to understand emotion at work

This chapter addresses the role of qualitative diary research as a method for documenting subjective experiences and emotions at work. Qualitative diary research can yield rich insights into relationships, processes, events and settings and diaries more generally are a means by which to ‘capture the particulars of experience in a way that is not possible using traditional designs’ (Bolger, Davis & Rafaeli, 2003, p. 579). The chapter addresses issues relating to the strengths, limitations, ethical considerations, design and conduct of qualitative diary research. Researchers are not immune to emotion in and about their work, and the role and use of diaries in reflexive research practice are also discussed using extracts from three researchers’ diaries/field notes as illustrative examples. Empirical data from multimethod organizational psychology research into work-related gossip are also included as practical examples of using diary research methods and working reflexively (Waddington, 2005; 2010a; Waddington & Fletcher, 2005). The broad aim of the chapter is to outline and discuss ways of conducting qualitative diary research on emotions in the workplace and illustrate how such qualitative data can be analyzed

The compassion gap in UK universities

Context: This critical reflection is set in the context of increasing marketisation in UK higher education, where students are seen as consumers, rather than learners with power. The paper explores the dark side of academic work and the compassion gap in universities, in order to make recommendations for practice development in higher education and the human services. Aims: The paper aims to show how reflexive dialogue can be used to enable the development of compassionate academic practice. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Toxic environments and organisational cultures in higher education have compounded the crisis in compassionate care in the NHS. Implications for practice are: • Narrative approaches and critical appreciative inquiry are useful methods with which to reveal, and rectify, failures of compassion; • Courageous conversations are required to challenge dysfunctional organisational systems and processes; • Leadership development programmes should include the application of skills of compassion in organisational settings

Comrades in diversity: Weathering the storm of NHS reform through action learning

This paper is based on our experience of presenting at the CARN/IPDC conference. It considers shared learning arising from an action-learning group with NHS managers navigating their way through turbulent NHS transition processes and politically driven health care reform. We surface how the challenges and processes of collaboration emerged and changed during January to July 2012, at a time of unprecedented organisational redesign, driven by high winds of political reform and global fiscal austerity. Collaborative learning was deliberately engineered to provide a vessel within which ‘comrades’ could meet together to strategise and consider the implications of daily turmoil within and across a complex working context. The action learning, as a critical learning space aimed to also enable participants to ‘keep an eye on the horizon’. In other words refocusing on opportunities that challenge and change provides, explored through participant’s thinking and doing in their role as leaders who have potential to influence workplace culture, particularly during a time of ‘raging seas’

Ideas and influences in practice development: Practicing with political awareness

In order to influence practice and patient outcomes in a positive manner, health and social care practitioners need to understand the organisational and political context of their clinical and professional practice. This paper presents a research-based framework for practicing with political awareness and leading practice development in inter-professional teams

Developing Compassionate Academic Leadership: The Practice of Kindness

This opinion piece paper argues that there is now a compelling need for compassionate academic leadership in our universities in both a national and international context. The premise of the paper is that universities are, or ought to be, ‘caregiving organisations’, because of their role and primary task of helping students to learn. However, the relentless neoliberal instrumentalisation and marketisation of higher education has eroded that premise. Yet universities still have a duty of care; a moral and legal obligation to ensure that everyone associated with the institution, whether this be students, employees or the general public, are fully protected from any personal physical and/or emotional harm. Care, kindness and compassion are not separate from being professional; rather, they represent the fundamentals of humanity in the workplace. Compassion is now a crucial and core concern in tertiary education. Arguably, in the future, universities that can demonstrate their compassionate credentials and pedagogy will be the successful universities, and this requires kindness in leadership and compassionate institutional cultures. Therefore, I argue that in order to nurture cultures of compassion, universities require their leaders – as the carriers of culture – to embody compassion in their leadership practice. However, this needs to be a shared approach, rather than a dominant, hierarchical top-down approach, and is characterised by openness, curiosity, kindness, authenticity, appreciation and above all compassion. The paper draws upon contemporary thinking and research around the role of kindness in leadership and the development of compassionate organisational values and culture

Rethinking gossip and scandal in healthcare organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to argue that gossip is a neglected aspect of organizational communication and knowledge, and an under-used management resource. Design/methodology/approach – The paper challenges mainstream managerial assumptions that gossip is trivial or tainted talk which should be discouraged in the workplace. Instead, gossip is re-framed at an organizational level of analysis, which provides the opportunity for relational knowledge about systemic failure and poor practice in healthcare to surface. Findings – Rather than simply viewing gossip as an individual behaviour and interpersonal process, it is claimed that organizational gossip is also a valuable early warning indicator of risk and failure in healthcare systems. There is potentially significant value in re-framing gossip as an aspect of organizational communication and knowledge. If attended to (rather than neglected or silenced) gossip can provide fresh insights into professional practice, decision-making and relational leadership. Originality/value – This paper offers a provocative challenge to mainstream health organization and management thinking about gossip in the workplace. It offers new ways of thinking to promote patient safety, and prevent the scandals that have plagued healthcare organizations in recent years

Organizational gossip, sense-making and the spook fish: A reflexive account

This paper offers a reflective and reflexive account of doing research into gossip in healthcare organisations. It advances the concept of sense-making, drawing upon Weick’s perspective theoretically and reflexively to incorporate a ‘sixth sense’ of intuition. The spookfish, which has developed highly specialised eyes to cope with very low light levels, is used as an organising metaphor to illustrate how attention to everyday talk can illuminate our understanding of gossip and intuition in organisational and managerial contexts. The paper exemplifies some practical aspects of working reflexively, illustrating how critical conversations and metaphor were used in the research process, and beyond, as a means of encouraging creative thought in the emergent scholarship of organisational gossip

Understanding and Creating Compassionate Institutional Cultures and Practices

This chapter identifies and explores the values and assumptions underpinning compassionate institutional cultures and practices. It presents, and further develops, a conceptual framework for creating conditions for compassion outlined in Waddington (2017). Theoretically, the chapter is informed by insights and evidence from psychodynamic psychology, work and organizational psychology. It also draws lightly upon empirical material and findings from a small-scale mixed methods study exploring Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies and academic engagement in six universities in the UK (reported in Lister and Waddington, 2014; Waddington and Lister, 2010; Waddington, 2012; Waddington and Lister, 2013). It offers a new paradigm for universities seeking to create compassionate cultures and practices, and ends with a final note of caution. The commodification of compassion must be avoided at all costs. It may be all too easy for compassion to become the panacea for papering over the cracks in dysfunctional institutional systems and cultures. There is a danger of compassion becoming just another ‘flavour of the month’ buzzword, and a consequent risk that it could lose its power and potential to influence change in organizational values and cultures

New thinking about gossip – as an idea whose time has come

This short research-based opinion piece for The Conversation is written for a general public audience, answering the following questions: (i) How did gossip originate; (ii) Why do we enjoy it; (iii) What are the benefits; (iv) Has the pandemic changed our relationship with gossip

Learning about leadership through critical reflection and practitioner-academic co-inquiry

This article is a critical reflection on learning about leadership and putting leadership theory into interprofessional practice. It is based around reflection upon a leadership intervention experienced in practice in a U.K. hospital setting, undertaken as an assignment task for a leadership module. Critical reflection and co-inquiry involves unsettling previously held beliefs and assumptions about learning, practice and disciplinary knowledge. This has meant discarding our traditional ‘practitioner’ and ‘academic’ roles, and re-positioning ourselves as co-authors and editors of our social worlds. The article concludes with reflections upon the role of Work and Organizational Psychologists in interprofessional collaborative working