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Article
Publication date: 7 September 2018

Matthias Georg Will and Ingo Pies

Change management projects typically fail because they meet employee resistance created by emotional sensemaking processes. This paper aims to present an in-depth explanation for…

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Abstract

Purpose

Change management projects typically fail because they meet employee resistance created by emotional sensemaking processes. This paper aims to present an in-depth explanation for these failures and how change managers could avoid them.

Design/methodology/approach

This study presents an argument in the following three steps: it begins with an empirically well-established fact that attempts at change management often trigger negative emotional responses; the moral foundations theory is then used to identify the typical categories of emotional responses that may result in resistance to organizational change; and the ordonomic approach to business ethics is built upon to substantiate the diagnosis that, in many cases, emotional responses cause employees to behave in a way that is collectively self-damaging.

Findings

The core idea of the current study’s contribution is that emotionally driven processes of sensemaking can easily become dysfunctional, especially in situations that require extensive change. Consequently, it should be top priority for managers to engage in sensegiving, which comprises: narratives that explain what is going on against the background of relevant alternatives and appropriate discourses that guide how employees form their expectations. In a nutshell, sensegiving attempts to reframe sensemaking processes.

Practical implications

Even if a win–win potential already exists, it can still be misperceived. If employees are used to thinking within a trade-off framework, this might trigger trade-off intuitions and negative emotions, in effect leading to a situation that makes everyone worse off. Such mental models might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. To counter such a tendency, sensegiving aims at a professional management of sensemaking processes. The task of successful change management, properly understood, is to create and communicate win–win potentials, ensuring that all parties involved understand that they are not asked to sacrifice their self-interest, instead they are invited to participate in a process of mutual betterment.

Originality/value

The literature on sensemaking draws attention to the empirical fact that resistance to change is typically driven by emotions. The moral foundations theory helps in exactly identifying which emotional dimensions are relevant in times of organizational change. The ordonomic approach to business ethics points out that – owing to their emotional nature – processes of sensemaking might fail, that they may mislead employees into behavioral patterns that are collectively self-damaging. Therefore, a top priority for management is to engage in sensegiving, that is, in (re-)framing sensemaking processes.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 5 March 2018

Matthias Georg Will and Ralf Wetzel

Abstract

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Abstract

Details

Management for Scientists
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-203-9

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Matthias Georg Will

– This paper aims to show new ways of overcoming resistance during organizational change by applying insights from New Institutional Economics.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to show new ways of overcoming resistance during organizational change by applying insights from New Institutional Economics.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that adapts findings from New Institutional Economics.

Findings

The paper highlights the relevance of interactions between managers and employees for value creation processes: interactions can generate either win–win or lose–lose situations. By altering the restrictions on managers’ and employees’ behavior, change managers can create mutual benefits for the staff and the firm. The paper thus explicitly considers the individual interests of employees and managers and highlights an approach to link individual interests with the collective interests of the firm by means of appropriate interactions. Additionally, the paper elaborates the relevant factors that determine the success of classical change management measures, like communication or participation, to overcome resistance during organizational change.

Research limitations/implications

The developed framework also indicates important conditions where approaches inspired by management, psychological and sociological theories can be successfully applied and where change management will benefit from being complemented by New Institutional Economics.

Practical implications

Change managers can optimize inter-organizational competition or cooperation to generate a win–win situation by means of appropriate formal or informal restrictions (like incentives or binding mechanisms).

Originality/value

This paper applies insights from New Institutional Economics to show how organizational change can be facilitated by producing mutual benefits. This paper postulates that organizational change often fails or, at the very least, meets with stiff resistance due to dysfunctional interactions within the company. However, such interactions actually contain great opportunities for change managers: by shifting the focus of these interactions, they can generate the potential for win–win situations. In this approach, mutual benefits are a decisive factor in increasing the acceptance to organizational change and overcoming resistance.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 19 March 2019

Abstract

Details

Management for Scientists
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-203-9

Abstract

Details

Management for Scientists
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-203-9

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 September 2023

Markus Brummer, Karl Jakob Raddatz, Matthias Moritz Schmitt, Georg Schlick, Thomas Tobie, Rüdiger Daub and Karsten Stahl

Numerous metals can be processed using the additive manufacturing process laser-based powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M, ISO/ASTM 52900). The main advantages of additive…

Abstract

Purpose

Numerous metals can be processed using the additive manufacturing process laser-based powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M, ISO/ASTM 52900). The main advantages of additive manufacturing technologies are the high degree of design freedom and the cost-effective implementation of lightweight structures. This could be profitable for gears with increased power density, combining reduced mass with considerable material strength. Current research on additively manufactured gears is focused on developing lightweight structures but is seldom accompanied by simulations and even less by mechanical testing. There has been very little research into the mechanical and material properties of additively manufactured gears. The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of lightweight structures in additively manufactured gears under static loads.

Design/methodology/approach

This research identifies the static load-carrying capacity of helical gears with different lightweight structures produced by PBF-LB/M with the case hardening steel 16MnCr5. A static gear loading test rig with a maximum torque at the pinion of T1 = 1200 Nm is used. Further focus is set on analyzing material properties such as the relative density, microstructure, hardness depth profile and chemical composition.

Findings

All additively manufactured gear variants show no failure or plastic deformation at the maximum test load. The shaft hub connection, the lightweight hub designs and the gearing itself are stable and intact regarding their form and function. The identified material characteristics are comparable to conventionally manufactured gears (wrought and machined), but also some particularities were observed.

Originality/value

This research demonstrates the mechanical strength of lightweight structures in gears. Future research needs to consider the dynamic load-carrying capacity of additively manufactured gears.

Details

Rapid Prototyping Journal, vol. 29 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2546

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 September 2020

Mahan Mobashery, Ulrike von Lersner, Kerem Böge, Lukas Fuchs, Georg Schomerus, Miriam Franke, Matthias Claus Angermeyer and Eric Hahn

An increasing number of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in Germany is challenging psychiatrists and psychotherapists in multiple ways. Different cultural belief systems on…

Abstract

Purpose

An increasing number of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in Germany is challenging psychiatrists and psychotherapists in multiple ways. Different cultural belief systems on the causes of mental illness and their treatment have to be taken into consideration. The purpose of this study is to explore perceived causes of depression among Farsi-speaking migrants and refugees from Afghanistan and Iran, which represent two groups with a shared cultural heritage, but originating from very different regimes of mobility. Both are among the largest migrant groups coming to Germany over the past decade.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 50 Iranian and 50 Afghan migrants and refugees, who arrived in Germany in the past 10 years were interviewed, using an unlabeled vignette presenting signs and symptoms of depression. The answers were then coded through inductive content analysis.

Findings

Among Iranians, there was a more significant number of causal attribution to Western psychiatric concepts, whereas Afghans attributed depression more often to the experience of being a refugee without referring to psychological concepts. These differences in attribution did, however, not affect the desire for a social distance toward depressed people. Nonetheless, a higher number of years spent in Germany was associated with less desire for social distance toward persons with depression among Afghans, but not among Iranians.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study examining perceived causes of depression with Farsi-speaking migrants in Germany and contributes to understanding tendencies in the perception of depression in non-Western migrant groups.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1950

KENNETH GARSIDE

Probably no aspect of librarianship presents such variations of practice in individual libraries as does the provision of subject catalogues. The author catalogue, which tells the…

Abstract

Probably no aspect of librarianship presents such variations of practice in individual libraries as does the provision of subject catalogues. The author catalogue, which tells the user whether a given work of which he knows the author and title is in the library, must necessarily take a similar form everywhere, and such variations as do exist in the treatment of certain types of heading—that of academies is a case in point—are quickly assimilated by the reader as he moves from library to library. The same cannot be said of the catalogue which tells the user what works are to be found in the library on a given topic. In the Anglo‐Saxon countries subject catalogues may be arranged, if indeed they exist at all, according to a variety of systems, and even where one of the accepted classification schemes or lists of subject headings is used the local modifications are often legion. Many university and research libraries find that no existing scheme offers an arrangement of the whole field of knowledge which reflects the approach to which their readers are accustomed; and certainly no ready‐made scheme is entirely suitable for a university library in the United Kingdom, although many libraries do attempt to provide a useful arrangement both of the books on the shelves and of the entries in the subject catalogue by adapting Dewey, the Brussels decimal classification, or the Library of Congress classification. Bliss, when his full scheme has been published, will probably be found to provide the arrangement most suitable for use in academic libraries, but even his admirable classification fails to provide a scheme which can be identified at all points with the approach which is required in a library which serves first and foremost the teaching of a university.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 21 November 2023

Jonas Koreis, Dominic Loske and Matthias Klumpp

Increasing personnel costs and labour shortages have pushed retailers to give increasing attention to their intralogistics operations. We study hybrid order picking systems, in…

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Abstract

Purpose

Increasing personnel costs and labour shortages have pushed retailers to give increasing attention to their intralogistics operations. We study hybrid order picking systems, in which humans and robots share work time, workspace and objectives and are in permanent contact. This necessitates a collaboration of humans and their mechanical coworkers (cobots).

Design/methodology/approach

Through a longitudinal case study on individual-level technology adaption, we accompanied a pilot testing of an industrial truck that automatically follows order pickers in their travel direction. Grounded on empirical field research and a unique large-scale data set comprising N = 2,086,260 storage location visits, where N = 57,239 storage location visits were performed in a hybrid setting and N = 2,029,021 in a manual setting, we applied a multilevel model to estimate the impact of this cobot settings on task performance.

Findings

We show that cobot settings can reduce the time required for picking tasks by as much as 33.57%. Furthermore, practical factors such as product weight, pick density and travel distance mitigate this effect, suggesting that cobots are especially beneficial for short-distance orders.

Originality/value

Given that the literature on hybrid order picking systems has primarily applied simulation approaches, the study is among the first to provide empirical evidence from a real-world setting. The results are discussed from the perspective of Industry 5.0 and can prevent managers from making investment decisions into ineffective robotic technology.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

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