Brian M. Harmer

Teaching in a contextual vacuum: lack of prior workplace knowledge as a barrier to sensemaking in the learning and teaching of business courses

Few students in pursuit of baccalaureate business degrees seem to have spent significant time in organisations of the kind studied and discussed in the courses that typify such degrees. This paper questions the extent to which the students’ lack of business exposure is perceived by teachers as a barrier to effective learning and teaching. It suggests that learning and teaching would be enhanced for all stakeholders if students experienced the real‐life complexities of actual organisations either before, or in the early part, of their degree programmes. This would serve the dual purpose of allowing the students to better comprehend the taught content as it relates to real life, while continuing to enhance their eventual employability in the same way that many existing placement schemes aim to do.

Attitude, aptitude, ability and autonomy: the emergence of ‘offroaders’, a special class of nomadic worker

Freedom to choose when, where and on what to work might be viewed as mere telework. However, when we mix the adoption of ubiquitous technologies with personalities that take pleasure in problem solving and achievement for its own sake, a strong need for autonomy, the freedom to work wherever and whenever the mood strikes, and add a dash of entrepreneurial spirit, then perhaps we are seeing an emergent class of worker, and even the possibility of new organisational forms. This research draws on adaptive structuration theory to search for evidence of a different way of working, hidden among otherwise familiar patterns. It concludes by considering what implications the employment of such individuals might have for management processes with organisations.

Making Sense of Mobile Technology: The Integration of Work and Private Life

Mobile technologies have facilitated a radical shift in work and private life. In this article, we seek to better understand how individual mobile technology users have made sense of these changes and adapted to them. We have used narrative enquiry and sensemaking to collect and analyze the data. The findings show that mobile technology use blurs the boundaries between work and private life, making traditional time and place distinctions less relevant. Furthermore, work and private life can be integrated in ways that may be either competitive or complementary. We also observed an effect rarely discussed in the literature—the way personal and professional aspirations affect how work and private life are integrated. Implications include the need for researchers and organizations to understand the wider consequences that arise from the integration of work and private life roles.

Technology's Transformative Effects on When, Where and How Individuals Work: A Grounded-Narrative Approach

This paper reports on an exploratory study of perceptions of the effects of the impact of technology on the way mobile workers work and live. Narrative enquiry was used to gather stories from people using technology enabled mobility tools, and grounded theory was used to analyse the data. Narrative enquiry allowed participants to tell the stories that they perceived to be important and grounded theory permitted emergence of a meta-narrative that revolved around the transformative effects of technology on the way the participants work and how technology transforms the participants and their relationship to work. Key sub-themes are presented which detail these transformations. We frame these transformations through Kakihara & Sorensens [1] theory of the three interrelated dimensions of mobile- human interaction: spatial, temporal, and contextual. Although exploratory in nature, implications for research and practice are suggested.

At cross‐purposes: head‐to‐head professionalism in not‐for‐profit pastoral organizations

PURPOSE The purpose of the paper is to explore the nature and causes of observed tensions among healthcare professionals in not-for-profit organizations such as hospices. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH In the paper the narratives collected from discipline leaders in each of five New Zealand hospices are thematically analysed in order to identify consistent and recurring sources of conflict both within and between disciplinary groups. FINDINGS The paper finds that motivational differences, poor conflict management, interdisciplinary tensions, divergent attitudes towards volunteerism, strategic planning processes, and poor consultation are identified as some of the starting-points for tensions in the participating hospices. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS The research in this paper is based in New Zealand and uses qualitative methods not intended to produce generalizable results. Nevertheless it was conducted in hospices typical of the Western developed countries and identifies focal points and potential avenues for further exploration. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The paper shows that researchers and managers involved in not-for-profit healthcare organization may find the identified issues useful as starting-points for actions to minimise the tensions between and within groups. ORIGINALITY/VALUE This paper explores aspects of a rarely discussed issue, and suggests opportunities for more research in this field.

Opportunistic Bargains: Exploring an Unusual B2C E-commerce Model

Abstract This case study explores the thinking and motivation behind the creation of an atypical e- commerce business model, and the aspirations of the entrepreneurs behind this creation. Unlike most B2C e-commerce providers, a small New Zealand company called Firstin, selling products of a mostly technological nature, does not give its customers the opportunity to fulfil a specific time-bound need. Each day, with no forewarning of what is to be sold, it offers a small range of products at a price that is usually lower than is available at any other local provider. After twenty four hours, or if the product is sold out earlier, the offer lapses, and customers must wait until the next day for a new and different set of bargains. The operational business model depends upon the availability of a range of attractively priced products of relevance to its chosen market, and a significant body of loyal watchers with the ability to make opportunistic purchase decisions if a particular offering meets a need at an attractive price. In the middle of its fourth year in business in the small New Zealand market, this organization continues to evolve, but retains the key features of its unusual operational business model. This research asks what lessons the Firstin case offers that will benefit other entrepreneurs who propose to invest in a B2C e-commerce venture on the basis of similarly unconventional business models.