Sue Tempest

The Effects of Liminality on Individual and Organizational Learning

This article uses an examination of the changing nature of organization in the UK television industry to reflect on the impact of liminality on learning. We take as our starting point Garsten’s (1999) use of the term ‘liminality’ (being situated ‘betwixt and between’) to examine individual and organizational learning in the context of organizational recomposition, where learning increasingly occurs at the limits of organizations within networks and teams that cross organizational divides. Garsten argues that the contractualization of work can be seen to challenge the old boundaries of organization and that it suggests new ways of organizing and experiencing work. By extending liminality to the concept of learning, we suggest that as more industries adopt temporary project teams as a way of organizing work, this not only challenges the concept of organization as an enduring social artefact, but also raises issues about how learning and knowledge development takes place. We examine the effects of liminal episodes on learning, both for organizations and individuals, in a context where the old limits of organization are being redefined while new ways of organizing are throwing up their own learning challenges. We suggest that it is crucial to explore how, in a more transient organizational context arising from the greater use of temporary teams, individualized careers, fashioned out of liminality, impact upon organizational learning.

The future of the business school: Knowledge challenges and opportunities

Despite its importance, there is relatively little serious academic research into the business school. This article sets out to stimulate debate that will fill this gap. We review the origins and evolution of the business school and debates about management research and teaching in terms of ideals and practice. Increasingly, the role of the business school is being questioned but much of this debate looks at the business school in isolation from changes in the wider university sector. We situate our analysis within the broader context of debates about the university as a privileged knowledge space. We conclude by suggesting that the future of the business school can best be discussed in terms of changes in knowledge production and that the business school has the opportunity to position itself as a unique site of knowledge generation and diffusion.

New careers for old? Organizational and individual responses to changing boundaries

Much has been written about the implications for employees in the post-corporate era of boundaryless careers. Much less has been written about the problems and challenges facing employers within a boundaryless career context. This paper contributes to both levels of analysis. At the level of the individual employee, focusing upon the middle of the organization, we suggest that there has been a differential impact upon individuals with some ‘losers’ and some ‘winners’. Skilled specialist employees and younger employees may welcome changing career boundaries, whereas those with more generic skills and older employees may be less enthusiastic. At the employer level, our research suggests that the rise of new career boundaries has left employers marginalized in unforeseen ways from the emerging new social structures that individuals are increasingly reliant upon to support the development of their skills and professional networks. We agree with Van Buren (2003) that the demise of the organization-career poses challenges at the organization and industry level in terms of developing and leveraging knowledge. However, the emergence of new boundaries has compounded the difficulties that organizations and industries now face. Thus it may be that even if employers were willing and eager to tackle the employability challenge, the shifting form of career boundaries make this a significant strategic human resource challenge.

A clear sense of purpose? The evolving role of the business school

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to question the purpose of the business school and its role in management education.Design/methodology/approach – The paper develops an historical analysis of the origins, development and identity of the business school, reflecting the views of the business schools multiple stakeholders. The paper reviews traditional business school design and how this is driven by particular concepts of purpose and identity. It questions whether these concepts are sustainable in the light of current forces for change.Findings – The paper identifies the current major design challenges facing business schools as knowledge, narratives and practices and argues for a new narrative of sustainable strategic management as a guiding force for future development.Originality/value – The paper identifies the current knowledge challenges facing business schools and argues that business schools need to rethink their focus on “school” as well as “business”.

Rethinking entrepreneurship methodology and definitions of the entrepreneur

Purpose – The paper aims to highlight the potential of paradigm interplay for providing greater insight into entrepreneurship research, in this case definitions of the entrepreneur. Design/methodology/approach – Literature from entrepreneurship, organisation studies and strategy highlights the potential of multiple paradigm research. We demonstrate how to conduct such a study through paradigm interplay by applying four contrasting research perspectives to four case studies of habitual entrepreneurs. Findings – The practical challenges of conducting multiple paradigm research are illustrated. A number of consistent themes across all four paradigms provide some insight into the reasons why it is difficult to agree on a single definition of the entrepreneur. Insights into the value and operationalisation of multiple paradigm research in the field of entrepreneurship are provided. Research limitations/implications – An exhaustive review of definitions of the entrepreneur is not provided. This is a study into how multiple paradigm research can be used to enrich understanding. Advice for the conduct of studies employing paradigm interplay is presented. Practical implications – The same individuals or firms can be included or excluded depending on the definition employed. This can lead to confusion particularly in establishing eligibility and applicability of specific policy measures. Full awareness of underlying assumptions is required. Originality/value – Paradigm interplay is a new approach for entrepreneurship research

Grey Advantage: New strategies for the old

Abstract With nearly one fifth of the population of the industrialized world soon to be beyond a traditional retirement age, businesses need to re-appraise their attitudes towards both older workers and older customers. Whilst some public and private sector organizations may have signalled such intentions, the gap between the rhetoric and reality of ‘third age’ employment and grey market development is still substantial. Analysing the ‘Age-Quake’, this article reviews current ageing population trends and associated business agendas. Using case study analysis, it then challenges three perceived ‘grey discontinuities’, as well as the traditional perception of simplistic step-change declines in physical and mental abilities and economic activity at the traditional retirement age. Deriving from this, the article challenges the older received wisdom by offering the individual assessment of ‘third-agers’ in terms of abilities as employees and tastes as customers as two generic strategies to assist managers in the strategic alignment of their organizations in pursuit of “grey advantage”.

Careering alone: Careers and social capital in the financial services and television industries

The relationship between career and social capital is an important but relatively unexplored research topic. In this article, we draw on the literatures on social capital and careers, and on empirical studies of the shifting nature of careers in financial services and television production firms, to argue that, in labour markets where key skills are in short supply, the concept of social capital constitutes a rich resource for understanding the implications of changing forms of organization. We argue that social capital has a particularly important impact on an organization’s ability to leverage knowledge and is, thus, of strategic significance. The ability to manage social capital might, therefore, prove to be a major management competence. Use of the social capital concept gives us an important insight into the changing nature of careers and organizations.

In the Death Zone: A study of limits in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster

This article examines the May 1996 Everest disaster through the lens of limits and liminality to provide an alternative interpretation of the significance of the event as a counterpoint to existing accounts. The Everest disaster is an example of management under the most extreme conditions and also an example of a common managerial mindset that is prevalent in the literature on leadership and strategy that anything can be achieved by organizations with appropriate strategic intent and leadership. Rather than focusing upon how disaster could have been avoided by better management, we trace the roots of the disaster to the impact of liminality in extreme conditions and we consider the implications for organizations with liminal team members, a condition that is becoming more prevalent in contemporary organizations.

From crisis to purpose

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that the current economic crisis offers an opportunity to rethink the role of the business school and how business schools can reinvent what they do by an engagement with history and the design sciences.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on an ongoing research project into the role of the business school. It provides an historical analysis of the business schools evolving role.Findings – Debates about the nature of the business school fall into two camps, one that argues that the business school is a professional school, and another that says the business school needs to be a better social science school. This paper suggests an alternative perspective, more geared to a view of management as an art, rather than a science, offering less economics, more humanities and history.Originality/value – The paper aligns itself with a growing call for business school reform and suggests how alternative disciplines might help shape its future.

Gendered Ageism and Organizational Routines at Work: The Case of Day-Parting in Television Broadcasting

This article contributes to the study of gendered ageism in the workplace by investigating how the routine of day-parting in broadcasting participates in the social construction of an ideology of ‘youthfulness’ that contributes to inequality. Critical discourse analysis is applied to the final judgment of an Employment Tribunal court case where the British public service broadcaster, the BBC, faced accusations of discrimination on the basis of both age and gender. Three interrelated findings are highlighted. First, the ideology of youthfulness was constituted through discursive strategies of nomination and predication that relied on an inherently ageist and sexist lexical register of ‘brand refreshment and rejuvenation’. Second, the ideology of youthfulness was reproduced through a pervasive discursive strategy of combined de-agentialization, abstraction and generalization that maintained power inequality in the workplace by obscuring the agency of the more powerful organizational actors while further marginalizing the weaker ones. Third, despite evidence that the intersection of age and gender produced qualitatively different experiences for individual organizational actors, in the legitimate and authoritative version of the truth constructed in the Tribunal’s final judgment, ageism discursively prevailed over sexism as a form of oppression at work. These findings support the view that the intersection of age and gender in the workplace should be explored by taking into account different levels of analysis – individual, organizational and societal – and with sensitivity to the context. They also suggest that the notion of gendered ageism is still poorly articulated and that the lack of an appropriate vocabulary encourages the discursive dominance of ageism over sexism, making the intersection of the two more difficult to study and to address.