To achieve a sustainable future, a variety of societal systems need to be transformed and new ways of social collaboration created. Higher education institutions play an important role in guiding these changes, through education, research, and outreach. In this paper, we study a lab-based learning environment, the Challenge Lab, where master's degree students engage in, and create value in support of, the transition to a sustainable society. Three student cases are analyzed in-depth to understand how the Lab functions as an expansive learning process and provides space for transformative and integrative value creation. The Lab's guiding methodology is based on backcasting from principles, combined with clarifying the students' core values and drivers. The role of the teacher in such a learning environment is to provide the basis for the process by facilitating and guiding. Provided with the right conditions, these students have the ability to challenge underlying assumptions about how systems work and to build trust by facilitating dialogue among actors in society. The students perceived the opportunity to engage in real-world challenges as meaningful, drew valuable lessons for their future, and got to know themselves better. In this transitional period of achieving ambitious sustainability goals and targets, students' ability to be a source for change inside higher education institutions-maybe the most important source there-deserves much more attention.
Flexible work arrangements permitting workers to work anytime and anywhere are increasingly common. This flexibility can introduce both challenges and opportunities for the organisation, as well as for worker work-life balance (WLB). This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the extent to which occupational factors (organizational, leadership and psychosocial) and individual work-related behaviours (over-commitment, overtime work and boundary management) are associated with WLB, and whether these associations are modified by the perceived level of flexibility at work (i.e., control over when, where, and how to do the work). In total, 2960 full-time office workers with flexible work arrangements at the Swedish Transport Administration participated. Associations were determined using linear regression analyses with adjustment for covariates. The strongest negative associations with WLB were found for over-commitment, quantitative job demands, expectations of availability, and overtime work. Strongest positive associations were found for boundary management, information about organizing work, social support, and relation-oriented leadership. Perceived flexibility was positively associated with WLB, and interacted with several of the examined factors, buffering their negative associations with WLB. Results suggest that WLB can be promoted by organizational initiatives focusing on minimizing excessive job demands, increasing psychosocial resources, supporting boundary management, and enhancing perceived flexibility.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine whether healthy and successful organizations are working accordingly to Quality Management. The purpose is also to describe in more detail how they are working. Design/methodology/approach -Three Swedish organizations that have shown excellence in leadership, internal partnership, working environment and profitability have been examined, to find out what methodologies they have used for their success. To discover whether these healthy and successful organizations are working accordingly to Quality Management, Deming's 14-point list has been used as an analytical tool. Findings -Identified methodologies used by the healthy and successful organizations are described. Viewed in the light of the analysis, a relationship between the three examined healthy and successful organizations and Quality Management is indicated. Practical implications -Working with the methodologies described here, the three organizations have improved co-worker health. Other organizations could probably adopt the identified and described methodologies to improve the health of their co-workers and effectiveness in the organization. Originality/value -Concerning the performance evaluation and the continuous improvement component in Quality Management, substantial contributions could be made to the health area by applying the tools that the quality area have used over a considerable period to improve the quality outcomes. Quality and health aspects have common success factors, and a focus on high quality could be seen as being positive for health outcomes.
The increasing prevalence of externalised work arrangements in industrialised countries has brought with it ever greater managerial complexity in the workplace. This article explores how leadership behaviour is perceived by internal and external workers within a public authority in Sweden. Questionnaire data from 505 temporary agency workers (TAWs), contractors and internal employees have been analysed. Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicate that external workers such as TAWs and contractors are more likely than internal employees to notice leadership profiles, including pronounced, task-oriented leadership behaviour. These results hold true when controlled for demographic and socio-economic variables and organisational tenure. A practical implication is that explicit attention should be paid to the need for leadership training in developing HRM strategies with regard to external employees.
Central in leadership for sustainability transitions is the capability to create transformative momentum in a sustainable (desirable) direction, calling for meaningful conversations on sustainable futures. The aim of this study is to develop a conceptual framework to inspire and support such conversations. A qualitative literature review of sustainability conceptualizations was conducted, followed by a thematic analysis. The resulting framework consists of an overarching question and an accompanying set of categories for four sustainability dimensions: the social, the economic, the ecological, and ‘human needs and wellbeing’. Furthermore, the framework is visualized as a lighthouse for pedagogical reasons. We foresee that the lighthouse might be of value in processes guiding socio-technical transitions towards sustainability in three different ways: (1) by attempting to bridge the issue of ‘transition’ with that of ‘sustainability’; (2) as part of a backcasting process; and (3) modes of transdisciplinary research where relevant actors take part in the conversation. The study is related to over 20 years of experience from working with a backcasting approach engaging with sustainability transitions in a variety of processes. We invite further dialogue on how one may approach the concept of sustainability to inspire and support conversations on sustainable futures.
We investigated managers' work and behaviour patterns in profitable growth small-and mediumsized Swedish companies, and considered how these patterns might be associated with good health outcomes. Specifically, we looked at hours worked by managers, proportion of time spent on working activities, and leadership behaviour orientation. We used a quantitative cross-sectional design and collected data via a standardized questionnaire that was answered by 133 top managers. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, linear regression, and compositional data analysis. Our results indicate that the managers worked long hours, which is a health risk both for them as individuals and for their organizations, but also that they engaged in work practices and leadership behaviours that were favourable for organizational health and for their employees. The managers spent a high proportion of their time in touring, which could be beneficial to organizational health, and exercised active leadership through behaviours that contribute to both employee health and company effectiveness. Comparing our results to other studies, we can observe that patterns of managers' time use differ between small and large companies, confirming that the size of the firm is an important determinant of managerial work. Keywords Managers' time use. Managers' working hours. Leadership behaviour. Touring. Organizational health. Small businesses JEL classifications L26. L20. I15. M10 1 Introduction Research on managerial work has been criticized for not paying sufficient attention to the impact of managerial practices on those managed as well as on effective organizational performance (Hales 1986, 2001; Martinko and Gardner 1985; O'Gorman et al. 2005). There is a need for a more comprehensive understanding of what shapes managerial work, and the role of context and individual factors (Hales 1999, 2001). In this article, we discuss some implications of managerial work and behaviours for organizational Small Bus Econ
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.