PurposeAs part of an ongoing project on worker well‐being, this paper aims to examine the application of flexible work arrangements through the experiences of core workers in a small, European‐owned, New Zealand manufacturing firm.Design/methodology/approachA participatory action research approach is taken.FindingsThe research reveals that flexible employment arrangements utilised in this firm did not afford protection to core workers as theory suggests. Both core and peripheral workers were exposed to pressure primarily to extend their hours of work and to reduce their expectations regarding remuneration. Production level increases were not reflected in increases in numbers of core workers; in fact perceived job security was low. Core workers felt pressure to work extended hours out of their commitment to the firm, each other, and to maintain their own employment.Practical implicationsThe use of more democratic processes inherent in action research oriented at workplace well‐being are shown to have had some value toward enhancing worker well‐being.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates that the participative project placed pressure upon management and that it had the potential to redress a power imbalance within the employment relationship.
Colonial influences have generally failed to respect indigenous knowledge, languages, and cultures. Determination to reclaim First Nations identity is visible in many jurisdictions. First Nations Peoples continue to call on governments to facilitate changes needed to revitalize their economic, social, cultural, and spiritual well-being. This article is a reflective article generated from our response to the situation of Mäori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand. It provides a background on the historical attempts to weaken Mäori leadership and the resilience of Mäori in their resistance to such undermining. Using a description of a physical space, the Marae (the meetinghouse), the authors provide a glimpse into a distinctive Mäori psychology connected to Marae encounters and into Mäori ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Three examples of organizational practice at the incorporation of such values are provided. Four implications for management education are posited as relevant not only to the education of managers in Aotearoa but wherever engagement with indigenous people occurs. Keywordsindigenous knowledge, self-determination and mutual flourishing, bicultural policy and management practice
It is important that human resource management (HRM) undergraduate students develop critical thinking around project management decision making as part of their transferable skills development. Such initiatives provide opportunities for students to consider the implications of their decisions in relation to practical settings, that they might better address unexpected HRM demands of the future. We integrate project management into our teaching to progressively build students' skills in HRM. First, students engage in a project management case study and conduct a formal presentation. Second, we extend student awareness of divergent approaches to project management through engagement with excerpts from previous HRM student case studies. Third, the students execute project management of a written case study, under examination conditions. Our approach scaffolds students' higher order thinking and engagement with the divergent nature of the HRM discipline. We provide facilitator and student feedback to illustrate our outcomes. This research is relevant to management educators and, we suggest, is transferable to disciplines other than HRM.
Management practices that serve principles of "efficiency" and "effectiveness" in the capitalist understanding of such notions have generated work practices that purport to empower employees under the guise of employee participation programs. In the fieldwork reported here, action research was used as a vehicle to initiate collaborative workplace engagements for the benefit of an organization and its employees. Our results have implications for action researchers and for social construction theory. We found that collaborative behaviors, modeled through action research to all organization levels, have the potential to initiate change toward respectful pluralist engagements. Authentic participation requires a supportive environment in order for organizations and their employees to truly flourish. It became apparent that New Zealand employment law provided a framework within which to work collaboratively, but the will to do so was not fully evident. However, through action research, the participants began to construct their "common sense" (Berger & Luckmann, 1966: 37) of their shared workplace reality and goals.
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