Nic Beech

Impact and Management Research: Exploring Relationships between Temporality, Dialogue, Reflexivity and Praxis

This paper introduces the special issue focusing on impact. We present the four papers in the special issue and synthesize their key themes, including dialogue, reflexivity and praxis. In addition, we expand on understandings of impact by exploring how, when and for whom management research creates impact and we elaborate four ideal types of impact by articulating both the constituencies for whom impact occurs and the forms it might take. We identify temporality as critical to a more nuanced conceptualization of impact and suggest that some forms of impact are performative in nature. We conclude by suggesting that management as a discipline would benefit from widening the range of comparator disciplines to include disciplines such as art, education and nursing where practice, research and scholarship are more overtly interwoven.

Identity-in-the-work and musicians’ struggles : the production of self-questioning identity work

Identity work is widely regarded as a process through which people strive to establish, maintain or restore a coherent and consistent sense of self. In the face of potential disruptions of, or threats to, their identities, people seek to salvage their sense of self by resolving tensions and restoring consistency. In contrast to the current identity work literature, this research indicates that identity work is not always about seeking resolution and moving on, but sometimes about continuing struggles which do not achieve a secure sense of self. This article seeks to elaborate the understanding of unresolved identity work by exploring three contexts of the everyday practice of indie musicians. An analysis of how they struggle to construct acceptable versions of their selves as songwriter, bandleader and front(wo)man allows us to develop the conceptualization of self-questioning (as opposed to self-affirmative, resolution-oriented) identity work.

Potential challenges facing distributed leadership in health care: evidence from the UK National Health Service

The discourse of leaderism in health care has been a subject of much academic and practical debate. Recently, distributed leadership (DL) has been adopted as a key strand of policy in the UK National Health Service (NHS). However, there is some confusion over the meaning of DL and uncertainty over its application to clinical and non-clinical staff. This article examines the potential for DL in the NHS by drawing on qualitative data from three co-located health-care organisations that embraced DL as part of their organisational strategy. Recent theorising positions DL as a hybrid model combining focused and dispersed leadership; however, our data raise important challenges for policymakers and senior managers who are implementing such a leadership policy. We show that there are three distinct forms of disconnect and that these pose a significant problem for DL. However, we argue that instead of these disconnects posing a significant problem for the discourse of leaderism, they enable a fantasy of leadership that draws on and supports the discourse.

The talent paradox: talent management as a mixed blessing

Purpose n n n n nThe purpose of this paper is to provide an inside-out perspective on the practices and effects of talent management (TM) in a multinational organization. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nThe study adopts an autoethnographic approach focusing on the experiences of the first author during her employment in a multinational organization. This approach contributes to the literature by providing an insider talent perspective that thus far has not been presented in TM research. n n n n nFindings n n n n nApplying autoethnography as a means to address the inside-out perspective in TM reveals a tension. The authors label this phenomenon the “talent paradox,” defined as the mix of simultaneously occurring opportunities and risks for individuals identified and celebrated as a talent. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nThe paper may be of value to TM scholars and practitioners, as well as to employees who have been identified as high potentials or talents in their organizations. In contrast with the TM literature’s optimism, the findings illuminate that being identified as a talent may paradoxically produce both empowerment and powerlessness. Attending to personal aspects of TM processes is relevant for organizations as well as for individuals as it enables reflection and sensemaking.

Managing Change: Culture, habits and unlearning

The aims of this chapter are to: introduce the concept of integrated, differentiated andn fragmented cultures; explore an approach to analysing culture using Gerryn Johnson’s ‘cultural web’ as a diagnosticn tool; consider the implications of culture for how change might ben planned, enacted and reacted to; identify the distinction between single- and double-loop learningn and consider which might be appropriate in differentn circumstances; introduce the concept of defensive routines and highlight then ways in which they can inhibit change; and make readers aware of the dangers of oversimplifying the conceptn of culture as it applies to organizations. Organizations are social settings in which individuals and teams interact inn the conduct of business. As they do so they construct meanings associatedn with their activities and the objects that they use. For example, a seniorn manager with a large office might symbolize his or her status rather thann simply providing a venue for meetings. The meanings associated with such an symbol can vary. For example, some might regard a large office as somethingn to aspire to and a mark of achievement, whilst others might see it asn symbolizing the separation of senior managers from the rest of the workforcen (as discussed in the ITS Canada case, Extended Case 2). The ascription ofn such meanings is variable and is beyond the control of management, yet itn will have an impact on how people behave. For this reason, organizations aren often ascribed cultural characteristics as a helpful means of describingn what the organization is like. Some organizations are described asn entrepreneurial, others as bureaucratic; some may be aggressive, othersn collaborative; some may be characterized as innovative whilst others aren seen as traditional. Of course, a singular description is unlikely ton capture every aspect of the organization, or to be universally true. Perhapsn the most commonly cited definition of organizational culture is ‘hown things are done around here’ (Drennan, 1992: 3), which resonates withn many people’s experience and nicely captures a view of what isn communicated to those inside and beyond the organization. If nothing else,n such descriptions help us make sense of the organization, particularly as an newcomer. New members of an organization must establish what is acceptablen in their new surroundings.

Managing Change: The enquiry–action framework in practice

Introduction In this concluding chapter we revisit the enquiry–action framework inn the light of the ideas, techniques and cases that have been discussed. Wen explore how the framework can be used in leading and managing change and wen consider how the separate practices of the framework can be integrated. Then aims of the chapter are to: elucidate the practicalities of the enquiry–actionn framework; discuss the integration of practices; identify connections between the enquiry–action frameworkn and the theories of change introduced earlier in the book;n and explore implications for the nature of leading and managingn change. Fineman, Sims and Gabriel (2005) introduce the metaphor of a river as a wayn of thinking about organizations, or, rather, the set of practices thatn constitute organizing. This relates to a perspective on organizations asn being in flux (Chia, 1995) as actors act, interact and react within an socio-economic climate that is typically changeable. In some senses, thisn may appear to be unsettling. In this way of thinking we never reach then ‘refreezing’ part of Kurt Lewin’s (1947) model ofn change (unfreeze, change, refreeze), and hence there is never a finishedn conclusion or a point at which we can objectively say that a change was an success or a failure. Although this might be disconcerting, we see it asn being of more practical help than a traditional way of thinking ofn organizations as objects, machines or closed systems (Marshak, 2009). Theren is constant motion but at the same time an identity and a set of meaningsn that are conserved over time. Viewed by a swimmer in the river, it is an place of constant change. Viewed by a cartographer on a series of maps drawnn over time, it is an incrementally changing feature of the landscape. Hence,n it is not only that there is a core of organizing practices that remain then same over time and a periphery that changes. Rather, what changes, what isn core and how these ideas are interpreted will vary from differentn perspectives (Tsoukas and Chia, 2002). For example, in the Oticon case onen can ask whether manufacturing hearing aids is the company’s core orn if the core as experienced by designers is a combination of innovation,n speed and hearing aids – that is, the core might reflect the valuesn introduced by the CEO Lars Kolind.