David Meacheam

Knowledge worker control: understanding via principal and agency theory

Purpose – The growing prominence of knowledge workers in contemporary organisations has led to a considerable amount of research into their role and activities, however, despite this growing interest, there remains a lack of clarity regarding the relationship of knowledge workers to management. This paper aims to respond by investigating the features of knowledge work that impose barriers to traditional managerial control methods and exploring the extent to which alternative approaches to influence are available to knowledge work managers, and the circumstances under which these different approaches are indicated.Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilised agency theory to investigate the implications of knowledge asymmetry in principal‐knowledge worker exchanges, and argues against the utility of models of control based on principles of scientific management on which agency models are typically based, towards models of control based on reciprocity and commitment.Findings – The paper has two main out...

The individual and organizational commitments needed for a successful diabetes care community of practice

Through a qualitative case study of a regional diabetes care programme in New South Wales, Australia, this article examines the phenomenon of communities of practice (CoPs) within organizations, with a specific focus on identifying the commitments required from both individuals and organizations in order to produce a successful CoP. The CoP literature suggests that ‘commitment’ is essential, yet the exact nature of this ‘commitment’ has not been identified. This study aims to discover what these commitments are. From the research data, key individual and organizational commitments are identified. The individual commitments needed are (in rank order of significance): a personal commitment to the aim of the CoP; a commitment to knowledge-sharing with others; a commitment to knowledge-seeking from others; effective management of personal relationships with others in the CoP; and understanding of the roles of other members. At the organizational level, the commitments needed are a good fit between the purposes of the CoP and the aims of the organizations employing the CoP members, a commitment to research regarding the CoPs activities, sufficient funding of the work of CoP members, continuing practical and political support to the CoP and facilitation of innovation within the CoP. Recommendations are made relating to the practical significance of the findings of the study. The implications of the findings are assessed relative to other health-service CoPs.

Current Issues in the Expatriate Management Literature—A Checklist for Practitioners

Current ideas and research on the management of expatriates are explored through simple questions that are presented in this paper. Several important environmental influences affecting management have emerged from the current literature. These influences include tax matters, health and medical issues, risk management, economic issues, and culture. The outcomes of expatriate management are also briefly explored. A checklist for practitioners is offered so they can assess their current expatriate management practices.

Working on country: a case study of unusual environmental program success

ABSTRACT Many programs have failed in attempting to tackle Indigenous disadvantage, through remote-area employment and environment activities. In the 1990s and 2000s, the federal environment departments Contract Employment Program for Aboriginals in Natural and Cultural Resource Management and Indigenous Protected Areas program made small but valuable advances. In the post-2005 Indigenous reform agenda, the environment department took the opportunity to go the next step, proposing in 2007 a program paying award wages for Indigenous rangers caring for country. The result, Working on Country, is acknowledged as an environmental, employment, and social success. By September 2013, nearly 700 rangers in 90 projects cared for 1.5 million square kilometres of country. Theoretical understanding of ‘policy success’ is recognised as an embryonic field within public policy theory. Working on Country provides a fertile case to investigate ‘policy success’. Interviews with federal environment departmental officials show that, in the particular case of Working on Country, keys to policy success were the lengthy evolution and ‘road testing’ of the program concept, authentic stakeholder engagement, and subsuming the environment objectives. We enunciate the unusual factors that were brought to bear in that success, and inquire if they are replicable.

Master Foods Australia: Lessons in successful organisational learning practice:

Following the work of Peter Senge in particular, organisations have placed increasing emphasis on their development as ‘learning organisations’. Master Foods is one of the largest privately owned businesses in the world and has maintained a dominant presence for more than 50 years in the highly competitive fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) market. Through interviews with key members of the Master Foods organisation, the authors assess how well the company fits the profile of a learning organisation, and point to aspects of Master Foods’ practice that might explain their success in developing internal learning.

Going thin on top: work intensification and the neglect of personal support of senior managers

As organisations from the early 1990s flattened, senior managers have to a large degree been asked to cope with much less by way of personal support for the execution of their duties. Personal assistants are increasingly rare, senior managers are commonly expected to perform quite menial tasks (typing and filing) that have little overall impact on their work effectiveness, and the private lives of these senior managers becomes impoverished as a result. A series of organisational failures arising from this refusal by many organisations (government, private sector and church-based) are critically assessed. The moral implications of the failure by many organisations to support senior managers are examined, and an effort is made to generate a debate in support of this often well paid, but poorly supported part of the modern workforce.