Suzette Dyer

Flexibility models: a critical analysis

Mass production structures have been criticised as being too rigid to respond to increased global competition and to increasingly sophisticated consumers demanding differentiated products. Additionally, the job designs associated with mass production have been criticised for: deskilling workers leading to high worker dissatisfaction; rendering workers unable to make decisions about how they perform their jobs; and for creating a workforce that is not able to respond to the requirements associated with the demands of new work practices. Thus calls for increased flexibility at the organisation level have been made by employer and employee groups. Flexibility promises to provide the competitive edge needed in an increasingly global market; and employees with increased participation, more interesting jobs, stable employment, and better wages and work conditions. However, there still appear to be many unresolved issues relating to the flexibility debate.

Introducing critical theory to the management classroom: An exercise building on Jermier's life of mike

This exercise invites critical consideration of domestication, exploitation, and hegemony. We enquired with participants into the ways in which these processes may be embedded in the taken-for-granted logics of organizational and personal decision making. We contrast participation or tolerance of theseprocesses with commitment to often simultaneously held values of freedom associated with democratic societies. We seek places of resistance to exploitation of selves, others, and the environment. We encourage the transformation of the research, education, and practice of business and of management to explore what such a transformation would entail. References to published exercises that deepen this enquiry are provided in the text.

Changing the Nature and Conditions of Employment: Stimulating Critical Reflection.

Building on the liberatory aspirations for management education promoted by Boyce, the authors have devised a classroom exercise to illustrate our unconscious participation in the reorganization of employment. The exercise is designed to interest students in critical theory as an approach to learning that encourages asking challenging questions of our organizations and of ourselves. It may be used as a precursor to wider discussions about what responsibilities we each have for the well-being of other human beings and how various life circumstances influence our decisions and our emotions.

Normalising workplace change through contemporary career discourse

Abstract Embedded in the discourses of globalisation and flexibility is the argument that new political and economic relationships need transforming to generate flow-on benefits to wider society. Yet, resulting changes to employment and welfare provision in the last two decades have led to disparate outcomes globally. In this context, contemporary career discourse invites us to take responsibility for personal wellbeing and offers practical steps to achieve this. In light of the wider context, such discourse may be viewed as techniques to discipline wider society to accept uncritically political and economic changes as natural and inevitable.

Chinese-Born International Students' Transition Experiences from Study to Work in New Zealand

A growing number of Chinese-born international students are seeking permanent residency and paid employment in New Zealand after graduation. As yet, little is known about their post-study transitions to permanent residency and paid employment. This article reports on research investigating the transition experiences of 10 Chinese-born international students. The theoretical framing is provided by accounts of Chinese cultural values, experiences of Chinese-born skilled migrants and aspects of adult career development. Data were collected using a thematic interview guide focusing on occupational choice, organisational entry and early career experiences. The participants used a variety of techniques described in traditional career development models to find employment and to develop their early career. The students attributed their success in gaining employment to obtaining permanent residency before seeking work, language proficiency, networks developed during their study years, and having a recognised New Zealand qualification.

Government, Public Relations, and Lobby Groups: Stimulating Critical Reflections on Information Providers in Society.

The exercise presented in this article has been designed to illustrate the sometimes conflicting goals of business, government, and lobby groups to sway public opinion through information management. The exercise draws on the seemingly technical and common sense issue of infant and childhood immunization. It provides students with an opportunity to critically engage in understanding the impact of the creation, management, and dissemination of information on decision making. The influence of managed information on decision making and the implications this has for the unbiased information needed for full democratic participation more generally are explored throughout the exercise.

Migration: A means to create work–life balance?

Abstract In this article, we examine the postmigration work–life balance or conflict experiences of 15 Chinese-born mothers living in New Zealand. Our analysis contributes theoretically to the work–life balance and migration literatures. It does so by revealing that balance and conflict is influenced by the interrelationship between the socio-cultural, work, and family domains; and that this interrelationship has both a complex and nuanced influence on postmigration balance and conflict. Thus, balance or conflict was influenced by the interrelationship between the participants’ unique experiences within the three domains, including experiencing satisfaction in all three domains and through complex processes of negative spillover, compensation, renegotiation and removal. The postmigration experiences highlight the need for a comprehensive and concerted approach by government, tertiary education institutions, and human resource managers to develop responsive policy initiatives that support migrants to settle into all aspects of their lives.

Changing perceptions about feminists and (still not) claiming a feminist identity

ABSTRACT We examine student perceptions about feminists and feminism, and the willingness to claim a feminist identity and engage in collective activism, as stated at the beginning and end of a Women’s Studies course. Course participation simultaneously fostered more positive views towards feminists and feminism and entrenched the unwillingness to claim a feminist identity and engage in activism. These contradictory outcomes stemmed from the critical capacity to recognise that structural inequality is reproduced through disciplinary relationships. Thus, unwillingness was entangled with feelings of fear and vulnerability in relation to the national context whereby neoliberalism guides the governance of the self, and where gender equality has presumed to be achieved. The article highlights that developing the willingness to identify and act is intimately shaped and constrained by the socio-political context and personal relationships. We consider the implications of this insight in relation to pedagogical assumptions about developing feminist knowledge in the classroom.

“We’re all in this together”? The search for collective belonging in a globalised single industry town

Purpose Communities of work are a phenomenon closely associated with government social and industrial policy, and can be tracked in contemporary examples globally alongside industrial development. The purpose of this paper is to explore community identity within a town which was previously single industry, but has since experienced workforce reduction and to a large degree, industry withdrawal. Design/methodology/approach Using an inductive approach, the researchers interviewed 32 participants who had resided (past or present) within the instrumental case study town. A thematic analytical framework, drawing on the work of Boje (2007) was employed. Findings A significant theme to emerge from the participants was the public assertion of social cohesion and belonging. However, what was interesting, was that beneath this unified exterior, lay accounts of multiple forms of demarcation. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s (1983) notion of the imagined community, and Bauman’s (2001) identity in globalisation, this contradiction is conceptualised as boundary-making moments of identification and disidentification. Research limitations/implications This research is specific to the New Zealand context, although holds many points of interest for the wider international audience. The research provides a broad example of the layering of the collective and individual levels of identity. Social implications This research provides a voice to the wider individual, community and societal implications of managerial practices entwined with political decisions. This research encourages managers and educators in our business schools to seek to understand the relationship between the political, corporate, community and individual realms. Originality/value This research makes a significant contribution to understandings of the interconnectedness of social policy, industry, and the lived experiences of individuals. Moreover, it contributes to the broader single industry town literature, which previously has focussed on stories of decline from a North American context.

Career in a Globalised Economy: Researching the Implications in a One-Industry Town.

Collectively, globalisation and flexibility strategies have changed the nature and structure of employment, and as such careers academics, careers practitioners and governments have argued that individuals need to manage their careers in fundamentally new ways to ensure continued employment. We have become concerned that the promise of shared wealth has yet to be realised, as global trends indicate disparate wealth and employment distribution. We are also concerned about the underlying assumptions that individuals can create continuous employment in an environment that does not guarantee employment security simply by managing their ‘career’. In this paper, we briefly outline our current research that seeks to understand the implications of organisation and labour flexibility and globalisation within a one-industry town on individual careers and on the wider community. This research will have implications for careers policy makers and practitioners alike.