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1 – 10 of 650Anthony Silard and Sarah Wright
This paper aims to study the differing pathways to loneliness in managers and their employees. Literature on emotions in organizational life, organizational management and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the differing pathways to loneliness in managers and their employees. Literature on emotions in organizational life, organizational management and leadership and loneliness are explored to develop and test hypotheses regarding the differential prototypical scripts that can be generative of loneliness in managers and employees.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 28 managers and 235 employees from a horticultural company based in Mexico were surveyed, using measures of perceived connection quality, loneliness and meaningful work to test three hypotheses.
Findings
Data from 28 managers and 235 staff indicate that while loneliness scores do not significantly differ between managers and their subordinates, the predictors of loneliness differ between managers and employees, with emotional connection and mutuality predicting loneliness in employees but not in managers.
Originality/value
This paper adds specification to the literatures on workplace loneliness, the loneliness associated with management roles, emotions in organizational life and emotions and leadership. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature on manager-subordinate relationships.
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Christine Wee, Trixie Mottershead, Sarah Wright, Sujeet Jaydeokar and Mahesh Odiyoor
This paper aims to improve community care for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or autism. Lack of coordination between agencies leads to children and young people…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to improve community care for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or autism. Lack of coordination between agencies leads to children and young people with the most complex needs falling between services. The North West Operational Delivery Network (ODN) for learning disability and autism set out to develop a model of care for mental health services for children and young people with ID and/or autism in North West England that would improve coordination between services and lead to better community care.
Design/methodology/approach
The ODN held a series of good practice events and consultations with stakeholders in North West England to look at gaps in service provision, national guidelines and agree on a pathway for services.
Findings
The ODN decided to use the THRIVE framework as the basis for a specific model of care. Interventions were mapped against the THRIVE groupings, including pathways and team specifications for assessment and support for children with autism, and models for child and adolescent mental health service support for ID and/or autism, for keeping children and young people with behaviour that challenges in the community and transition.
Originality/value
This model aims to provide the North West England region with a clear multi-agency approach for supporting the needs of this population and supports multi-agency commissioning, gap analysis, earlier intervention and improving health outcomes for this population.
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Marjolein Lips-Wiersma, Sarah Wright and Bryan Dik
The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and white-collar occupations.
Design/methodology/approachs
Using the comprehensive meaningful work scale (Lips-Wiersma and Wright, 2012) with 1,683 workers across two studies, ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in dimensions of MFW.
Findings
While unity with others and developing the inner self were regarded as equally important for white-, blue-, and pink-collar workers, the authors data suggest that white-collar workers placed more importance on expressing full potential and serving others than blue-collar workers. The frequency of experiencing MFW differed across the three groups with white-collar workers experiencing higher levels of unity with others, expressing full potential, and serving others; however no mean differences were found for developing the inner self.
Originality/value
This study is the first to empirically investigate an oft-discussed but previously untested question: does the experience of MFW differ across white-, blue-, and pink-collar jobs?
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Jack Hassell, Joana Kuntz and Sarah Wright
While worker well-being is increasingly recognised as a performance driver and marker of socially responsible organisations, workaholism is ubiquitous and remains poorly…
Abstract
Purpose
While worker well-being is increasingly recognised as a performance driver and marker of socially responsible organisations, workaholism is ubiquitous and remains poorly understood. This study aims to uncover workaholism precursors, dynamics and trajectories, and explains how organisations can manage its emergence and impact.
Design/methodology/approach
Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of self-identified workaholics in New Zealand and analysed through interpretivist phenomenological analysis.
Findings
This study contributes to the workaholism literature by elucidating how the work–identity link is formed and maintained, the psychophysiological experiences and worldviews of workaholics and the role families, organisations and culture play in workaholism. The findings also elucidate the relationship between workaholism, work addiction and engagement.
Practical implications
The authors outline how leaders and organisations can detect and manage workaholism risk factors and understand its trajectories to develop healthy workplaces.
Originality/value
The retrospective experiential accounts obtained from a diverse sample of workaholics enabled the identification of workaholism precursors, including some previously undetected in the literature, their complex interrelations with environmental factors and workaholism trajectories.
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In this article, Sarah Wright introduces the Strategies for Living project; Karen Ledger then describes her experiences of working as a researcher within the programme.Strategies…
Abstract
In this article, Sarah Wright introduces the Strategies for Living project; Karen Ledger then describes her experiences of working as a researcher within the programme.Strategies for Living was established as a project within the Mental Health Foundation in 1997, after the publication of a survey, Knowing our Own Minds (Faulkner, 1997). This survey was groundbreaking as, at the time, no other piece of research had directly asked people who used mental health services what they found useful as support for living and coping with mental distress.The report from the survey stated ‘we are all the primary experts on our own mental health, and about what works for us’. This belief underpins the work of Strategies for Living.
Sarah Wright, Anthony Silard and Alaric Bourgoin
In this chapter, the authors explore the notion of loneliness in the CEO role. Traditionally, leaders are portrayed as possessing plentiful personal and social resources whereas…
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors explore the notion of loneliness in the CEO role. Traditionally, leaders are portrayed as possessing plentiful personal and social resources whereas lonely people are portrayed as socially and personally lacking, and so the notion of being lonely in a leadership position seems counterintuitive. The authors explore the elements of the CEO role and discuss the various ways the position can induce or perpetuate loneliness. The authors review the research on loneliness in relation to the CEO role and lay the foundation for future research in this underdeveloped area. The authors propose that loneliness is likely to develop when CEOs either are new to the leadership role or enact negative individual behaviors and might be felt more acutely during times of poor performance, criticism, and difficult decisions. The authors discuss implications and suggestions for future research.
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Paul Hodge, Sarah Wright and Fee Mozeley
How might deeply embodied student experiences and nonhuman agency change the way we think about learning theory? Pushing the conceptual boundaries of practice-based learning and…
Abstract
How might deeply embodied student experiences and nonhuman agency change the way we think about learning theory? Pushing the conceptual boundaries of practice-based learning and communities of practice, this chapter draws on student experiential fieldwork ‘on Country’ with Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia, to explore the peculiar silence when it comes to more-than-human 1 features of situated learning models. As students engage with, and learn from, Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies, they become open to the ways their learning is co-produced in and with place. The chapter builds a case for an inclusive conceptualisation of communities of practice, one that takes seriously the material performativity of nonhuman actors – rock art, animals, plants and emotions in the ‘situatedness’ of socio-cultural contexts. As a co-participant in the students’ community of practice, the more-than-human forms part of the process of identity formation and actively helps students learn. To shed light on the student experiences we employ Leximancer, a software tool that provides visual representations of the qualitative data drawn from focus groups with students and field diaries.
Kenneth Strongman and Sarah Wright
This paper seeks to suggest that the typical western workplace culture, especially in the accounting profession, is predicated on a masculine, emotion‐free template, and that this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to suggest that the typical western workplace culture, especially in the accounting profession, is predicated on a masculine, emotion‐free template, and that this poses specific challenges and difficulties for women.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on conceptual claims and secondary data from studies of emotion, work and gender.
Findings
It was found that female accountants may have to make some difficult choices in the workplace due to their socialization as being more emotionally aware and attuned than men.
Originality/value
The paper underlines the importance of the emotion‐work link in accounting, and how it relates to gender.
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Sanna Malinen, Sarah Wright and Peter Cammock
Past research has found meaningful differences between job and organisational engagement. However, research to date has mainly focused on job engagement, whereas the construct of…
Abstract
Purpose
Past research has found meaningful differences between job and organisational engagement. However, research to date has mainly focused on job engagement, whereas the construct of organisational engagement has been largely neglected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents of organisational engagement and its influence on withdrawal attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an on‐line survey, the authors investigated employees’ perceptions of fairness and trust in senior management, 12 months prior to the measurement of organisational engagement and withdrawal attitudes. The study was conducted in a professional services public organisation, characterised by frequent change and uncertainty.
Findings
The authors showed that perceptions of procedural justice and trust in senior management predicted organisational engagement 12 months later. In addition, organisational engagement partially mediated the relationship between procedural justice perceptions, trust in senior management, and withdrawal attitudes.
Practical implications
The authors’ research suggests that monitoring and influencing employees’ levels of engagement can benefit organisations, and that leaders in particular can influence employees’ level of engagement. Indeed, the present research showed that employees who had trust in senior management and felt that they had a voice in the organisation showed higher levels of engagement and lower intentions to exit the organisation.
Originality/value
This research contributes to our understanding of the drivers of engagement, and demonstrates the importance of organisational‐level, in addition to job‐level engagement.
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