Showing papers in "Human Relations in 2012"
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of proactive personality in predicting work engagement and job performance was examined, and it was found that employees with a proactive personality would be most likely to craft their own jobs, in order to stay engaged and perform well.
Abstract: The article examines the role of proactive personality in predicting work engagement and job performance. On the basis of the literature on proactive personality and the job demands-resources model, we hypothesized that employees with a proactive personality would be most likely to craft their own jobs, in order to stay engaged and perform well. Data were collected among 95 dyads of employees (N = 190), who were working in various organizations. The results of structural equation modeling analyses offered strong support for the proposed model. Employees who were characterized by a proactive personality were most likely to craft their jobs (increase their structural and social job resources, and increase their job challenges); job crafting, in turn, was predictive of work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption) and colleague-ratings of in-role performance. These findings suggest that, to the extent that employees proactively adjust their work environment, they manage to stay engaged and perform well.
807 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that we make our lives, ourselves and our experience "sensible" in embodied interpretations and interactions with others, and suggest this occurs within contested, embedded, narrative performances in which we try to construct sensible and plausible accounts that are responsive to the moment and to retrospective and anticipatory narratives.
Abstract: This article aims to make a contribution to the literature by addressing an undertheorized aspect of sensemaking: its embodied narrative nature. We do so by integrating a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective of narrative and storytelling with a documentary case taken from a filmed tour of a sports team to illustrate the process of sensemaking around a specific event. We argue that we make our lives, ourselves and our experience ‘sensible’ in embodied interpretations and interactions with others. We suggest this occurs within contested, embedded, narrative performances in which we try to construct sensible and plausible accounts that are responsive to the moment and to retrospective and anticipatory narratives.
371 citations
TL;DR: The authors posit a performative critique of leadership that emphasizes tactics of circumspect care, progressive pragmatism and searching for present potentialities, and use these tactics to sketch out a practice of deliberated leadership that involves collective reflection on when, what kind and if leadership is appropriate.
Abstract: Existing accounts of leadership are underpinned by two dominant approaches: functionalist studies, which have tried to identify correlations between variables associated with leadership; and interpretive studies, which have tried to trace out the meaning-making process associated with leadership. Eschewing these approaches, we turn to an emerging strand of literature that develops a critical approach to leadership. This literature draws our attention to the dialectics of control and resistance and the ideological aspect of leadership. However, it largely posits a negative critique of leadership. We think this is legitimate and important, but extend this agenda. We posit a performative critique of leadership that emphasizes tactics of circumspect care, progressive pragmatism and searching for present potentialities. We use these tactics to sketch out a practice of deliberated leadership that involves collective reflection on when, what kind and if leadership is appropriate.
349 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on links among sensemaking, organizing, and storytelling, and aim to understand order, constraint, conflict, legitimation, embodiment, and distributed improvisation.
Abstract: The contributions to this special issue focus on links among sensemaking, organizing, and storytelling. They are re-examined in terms of to what the authors pay attention, with what, and for what. In pursuit of linkages, authors attend to accounts of consulting failure, hearings about the recent financial crisis, life history storytelling by elite actors, conflict in a rugby team on tour in Australia, and recurring stories told by jazz musicians. With analyses of dominant stories, discursive devices, life stories, documentaries, and oral tradition, these authors aim for a deeper understanding of order, constraint, conflict, legitimation, embodiment, and distributed improvisation. An assessment of these efforts shows how they deepen, extend, and consolidate our understanding of interpretive work.
251 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the transfer of practices involves different kinds of power capabilities through which MNC actors influence their institutional environment both at the macro-level of host institutions and the micro level of the MNC itself.
Abstract: This article argues for the systematic incorporation of power and interests into analysis of the cross-border transfer of practices within multinational companies (MNCs). Using a broadly Lukesian perspective on power it is argued that the transfer of practices involves different kinds of power capabilities through which MNC actors influence their institutional environment both at the ‘macro-level’ of host institutions and the ‘micro-level’ of the MNC itself. The incorporation of an explicit account of the way power interacts with institutions at different levels, it is suggested, underpins a more convincing account of transfer than is provided by the dominant neoinstitutionalist perspective in international business, and leads to a heuristic model capable of generating proposed patterns of transfer outcomes that may be tested empirically in future research.
198 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines elite business careers through the dual lens of sensemaking and storytelling as recounted in life-history interviews with business leaders, and explores how they make sense of, narrativize and legitimate their experiences of building their careers within and beyond large organizations.
Abstract: This article examines elite business careers through the dual lens of sensemaking and storytelling as recounted in life-history interviews with business leaders. It explores how they make sense of, narrativize and legitimate their experiences of building their careers within and beyond large organizations. The research contribution is twofold. First, we explicate the sensemaking processes embedded within the multifarious stories recorded in life-history interviews, identified as locating, meaning-making and becoming. Second, we contribute to the literature on legitimacy by examining how business leaders use their storytelling as a vehicle for self-legitimization, (re)framing their accounts of their own success and justifying their position to themselves and others. In a world where reputations are hard won but easily lost, business leaders must nurture a life-history narrative which is socially desirable if their careers are to remain on track. This may serve them well through the creative evolution of their organizational journeys.
197 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a diary study was conducted to look at the potential positive within-person relationships between positive emotions, work-related hope, and the three dimensions of work engagement on a daily level (i.e. vigor, dedication, and absorption).
Abstract: The objective of this diary study was to look at the potential positive within-person relationships between positive emotions, work-related hope, and the three dimensions of work engagement on a daily level (i.e. vigor, dedication, and absorption). Following Broaden-and-Build theory and Affective Events Theory, it was expected that the experience of positive emotions would cause hope, which in turn would lead to a state of vigor, dedication, and absorption. The study was conducted among 59 employees of a Dutch university, who filled in a diary questionnaire for five consecutive working days, twice a day. As expected, the experience of positive emotions had an indirect effect on the level of vigor, dedication, and absorption through hope across days. So, it seems that an individual and daily perspective on work engagement is particularly worthwhile and provides valuable insights to enhance employee engagement in practice.
191 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the role of having a harmonious passion in the relation between using signature strengths and well-being and found that increases in the use of signature strengths reported by participants from the experimental group were related to increases in harmonious passions, which in turn led to higher...
Abstract: Using signature strengths at work has been shown to influence workers’ optimal functioning and well-being. However, little is known about the processes through which signature strengths lead to positive outcomes. The present research thus aimed at exploring the role of having a harmonious passion in the relation between using signature strengths and well-being. For this purpose, an intervention was developed where participants (n = 186) completed three activities aiming at developing their knowledge and use of their signature strengths at work. The results showed (1) that the intervention successfully increased participants’ use of their signature strengths, (2) that participants from the experimental group reported a higher use of their signature strengths at the end of the study than participants from the control group, and (3) that increases in the use of signature strengths reported by participants from the experimental group were related to increases in harmonious passion, which in turn led to higher...
182 citations
TL;DR: Organization development has been, and arguably still is, the major approach to organizational change across the Western world, and increasingly globally as discussed by the authors. Despite this, there appears to be a great deal of confusion as to its origins, nature, purpose and durability.
Abstract: Organization development has been, and arguably still is, the major approach to organizational change across the Western world, and increasingly globally. Despite this, there appears to be a great deal of confusion as to its origins, nature, purpose and durability. This article reviews the ‘long’ history of organization development from its origins in the work of Kurt Lewin in the late 1930s to its current state and future prospects. It chronicles and analyses the major stages, disjunctures and controversies in its history and allows these to be seen in a wider context. The article closes by arguing that, although organization development remains the dominant approach to organizational change, there are significant issues that it must address if it is to achieve the ambitious and progressive social and organizational aims of its founders.
149 citations
TL;DR: Simplexity as mentioned in this paper is an umbrella term reflecting sensemaking, organizing and storytelling for our time, which captures the notion that while sensemaking is a balance between thinking and acting, in a new world that owes less to yesterday's stories and frames, keeping up with the times changes the balance point to clarify through action.
Abstract: Simplexity is advanced as an umbrella term reflecting sensemaking, organizing and storytelling for our time. People in and out of organizations increasingly find themselves facing novel circumstances that are suffused with dynamic complexity. To make sense through processes of organizing, and to find a plausible answer to the question ‘what is the story?’, requires a fusion of sufficient complexity of thought with simplicity of action, which we call simplexity. This captures the notion that while sensemaking is a balance between thinking and acting, in a new world that owes less to yesterday’s stories and frames, keeping up with the times changes the balance point to clarifying through action. This allows us to see sense (making) more clearly.
145 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the relationship of a wide array of personal characteristics and contextual factors with both self-ratings and non-self-report measures of employee creativity and found that effect sizes are larger when self-rated employee creativity are used.
Abstract: Both self-ratings and non-self-report measures of employee creativity (supervisor ratings, peer ratings, and objective measures of creativity) have been used frequently in the literature, but there have been no attempts to compare research results using different types of creativity measures. In the present meta-analysis, we examined the relationships of a wide array of personal characteristics and contextual factors with both types of creativity measures. The results suggest that, in a majority of cases, effect sizes are larger when self-ratings of employee creativity are used. The article concludes with a discussion of the circumstances when inflation of observed correlations is most likely to occur, some steps for reducing inflated observed correlations, and other issues germane to empirical creativity research.
TL;DR: The authors used data from a survey of more than 3000 organizational members in the US to test a model of whistle-blowing and found that observation of wrongdoing generally was associated with lower perceived organizational support and lower perceived justice of reporting channels (both procedural justice and distributive justice).
Abstract: News reports of organizational wrongdoing often pique interest in the question of how to encourage employees to report it. We used data from a survey of more than 3000 organizational members in the US to test a model of whistle-blowing. As predicted, observation of wrongdoing generally was associated with lower perceived organizational support and lower perceived justice of reporting channels (both procedural justice and distributive justice), suggesting that tolerating wrongdoing has negative effects for the organization itself, but there was also evidence that correcting wrongdoing may be nearly as positive as preventing it. Three previously untested variables – proactive personality, less co-worker invalidation, and leverage in the specific situation – predicted whistle-blowing, as did strength of evidence, a variable for which prior findings were inconsistent. Gender also was related to whistle-blowing. Finally, the predictors of blowing the whistle exclusively to one’s supervisor were similar to thos...
TL;DR: The Wheel Model of humor as mentioned in this paper suggests that humor-induced positive affect results in transmission of emotion to social groups, which in turn creates a climate that supports humor use and subsequent humor events.
Abstract: In this article we develop the Wheel Model of humor, which addresses the theme of this special issue by casting humor events as an important driver of employee happiness and well-being through their influence on positive affect. Drawing on theories of humor and emotion, the Wheel Model suggests that humor-induced positive affect results in transmission of emotion to social groups, which in turn creates a climate that supports humor use and subsequent humor events. This model is depicted in a circular pattern to highlight the cumulative and escalatory process through which individual humor events can impact individuals and groups over repeated cycles of the wheel. We also describe individual and environmental variables that are likely to have an impact on relationships within the Wheel Model. Finally, we discuss specific research contexts to which the Wheel Model can be applied (mentoring, leadership, groups/teams), as well as other future research directions.
TL;DR: This article examined the use of discursive devices in the storytelling surrounding the recent financial crisis, focusing on the moral stories constructed during a public hearing involving senior banking executives in the UK and found that two competing storylines were used by the bankers and their questioners to emplot the events preceding the financial crisis.
Abstract: This article draws on insights from a variety of fields, including discursive psychology, ethnomethodology, dramatism, rhetoric, ante-narrative analysis and conversation analysis, to examine the discursive devices employed in the storytelling surrounding the recent financial crisis. Discursive devices refer to the linguistic styles, phrases, tropes and figures of speech that, we propose, are central to the development of a compelling story. We focus our analysis on the moral stories constructed during a public hearing involving senior banking executives in the UK. The analysis suggests that two competing storylines were used by the bankers and their questioners to emplot the events preceding the financial crisis. We propose that a discursive devices approach contributes to the understanding of storytelling by highlighting the power of micro-linguistic tools in laying out the moral landscape of the story. We argue that the stories surrounding the financial crisis are important because they shaped how the crisis was made sense of and acted upon.
TL;DR: This article identified key psychological mechanisms involved in explaining within-person changes in well-being, including the ways in which people appraise events at work, the importance of humour, the sense of hope, and the balance between skills and challenges.
Abstract: Even workers who are generally happy at work can suffer short-term losses of enthusiasm and fulfilment. Short-term fluctuations matter because they can better explain work-related well-being (e.g. work engagement, flow, positive affect or passion), employees’ relations with other people at work (e.g. co-workers, clients), life outside work, and ultimately productivity. This article reviews what we know about short-term variations in employee well-being and highlights new theoretical assumptions and results from the seven articles in this special issue. The articles identify key psychological mechanisms involved in explaining within-person changes in well-being, including the ways in which people appraise events at work, the importance of humour, the sense of hope, and the balance between skills and challenges. Interventions that offer leadership training and cultivate signature strengths at work can also be effective in enhancing employee well-being. Boosting short-term well-being can make a big differenc...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the findings of a qualitative study that explored the unofficial techniques and activities that individuals use to shape their own work-life balance, and they theorize that this behaviour may be usefully conceptualized as physical, relational and cognitive worklife balance crafting.
Abstract: This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that explored the unofficial techniques and activities that individuals use to shape their own work–life balance. It theorizes that this behaviour may be usefully conceptualized as physical, relational and cognitive work–life balance crafting. It identifies the physical, relational and cognitive techniques that young professionals employ to manage their work–life balance and shows that distinct approaches to work–life balance crafting exist, each of which features a specific range of techniques.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how work-family conflict mediated the relationship between social support (supervisor and family) and burnout, and how sex moderated this relationship (N = 343 Spanish workers).
Abstract: We examined how work-family conflict (WFC) mediated the relationship between social support (supervisor and family) and burnout, and how sex moderated this relationship (N = 343 Spanish workers). The results sustained hypotheses in accordance with a biosocial model of sex differences. There were full mediation effects of work interference with family (WIF) in the association of work support with burnout for men, and of family support with burnout for women. This suggests that sex moderated these mediation processes. The findings are discussed in terms of a shift in the differential assignment of family roles to men and women, despite the fact that women might be the main contributors to domestic work and related tasks.
TL;DR: In this article, the simultaneous impact of being the direct target of bullying and working in an environment characterized by bullying upon employees' turnover intentions was investigated, and it was found that bullying increased individual employee's turnover intentions.
Abstract: In this study, we investigate the simultaneous impact of, and interaction between, being the direct target of bullying and working in an environment characterized by bullying upon employees’ turnover intentions. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis of a sample of 41 hospital units and 357 nurses demonstrates that working in an environment characterized by bullying increases individual employees’ turnover intentions. Importantly, employees report similarly high turnover intentions when they are either the direct target of bullying or when they work in work units characterized by high bullying. Results also suggest that the impact of unit-level bullying is stronger on those who are not often directly bullied themselves.
TL;DR: In this paper, a longitudinal, experience-sampling study aimed to determine the relationship between daily work engagement and work-to-family facilitation, and the effect of daily engagement in facilitating work-family relations was partially mediated by positive mood.
Abstract: Although work engagement has been shown to be associated with positive job attitudes and behaviors, no research has investigated its relationship with work-family issues. To address this, the current longitudinal, experience-sampling study aimed to determine the relationship between daily work engagement and work-to-family facilitation. A total of 52 extension agents responded to two daily surveys for two weeks. Results indicate that both work engagement and work-to-family facilitation vary considerably from day to day. Daily work engagement had a positive effect on family life. The effect of daily engagement in facilitating work-family relations was partially mediated by positive mood, and the relationship between work engagement and facilitation of work-family relations was moderated by work-family capitalization, or the sharing of positive work experiences at home. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case-based historical analysis of the Hawthorne investigation is presented. But the authors focus on the early years of the investigation and do not consider the social and political factors that shaped the company.
Abstract: In primary accounts of the Hawthorne Studies (1924–32), the host organization, Western Electric, is treated as a largely anonymous actor. Through case-based historical research we find such treatment masks the distinctive profile of the company in the years preceding and encompassing the Hawthorne investigations. Besides its significant industrial standing, when Western’s reputation for welfare capitalism is considered alongside a tragedy that galvanizes its Hawthorne workforce, the company emerges as an iconic manufacturer with a singular cultural inheritance. Unlike previous retrospective studies, this research explains a range of social and political factors that shaped the Hawthorne Works at this time. In particular, it describes how an ostensibly ‘human relations’ philosophy had been espoused at Western prior to Elton Mayo’s arrival in 1928, but that this outwardly ‘progressive’ ethos was underpinned by hard-edged paternalism and tough-minded anti-unionism. Later, during the 1930s, an increasingly ch...
TL;DR: In this article, the role of corporate sustainability specialists as intermediaries acting between broader social debates and local organizational contexts is explored, and the activities of these individuals in translating and shaping climate change emotionology within their organizations are explored.
Abstract: In responding to climate change, organizations navigate in an increasingly volatile emotional milieu in which feelings of fear, anxiety, hostility and anger shape public debate. In this article, we explore how corporations have responded to the broader ‘emotionology’ surrounding climate change. Our focus is on the role of corporate sustainability specialists as intermediaries, or ‘emotionology workers’, acting between broader social debates and local organizational contexts. Through analysis of interview and documentary data from major Australian corporations we explore both the activities of these individuals in translating and shaping climate change emotionology within their organizations, and how they manage their own emotionality in this work. We find that sustainability professionals are key agents in the design and implementation of a positive emotionology of climate change as a challenge and opportunity for corporate action. However, these activities result in tensions and contradictions for these ...
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effect of psychological flexibility, relative to surface and deep acting, in the relationship between day-level emotional demands and exhaustion and found that person-level psychological flexibility was associated with lower levels of daily emotional exhaustion (measured at bedtime).
Abstract: Drawing from job demands–resources theory (Demerouti et al., 2001), this article investigates the effect of psychological flexibility, relative to surface and deep acting, in the relationship between day-level emotional demands and exhaustion. A total of 170 not-for-profit service workers first filled in a questionnaire and then completed a diary survey over three consecutive workdays. The results of multilevel analyses suggest that person-level psychological flexibility was associated with lower levels of daily emotional exhaustion (measured at bedtime). Moreover, person-level psychological flexibility was found to attenuate, whereas person-level surface acting was found to strengthen, the association between day-level emotional demands and day-level exhaustion. Person-level deep acting had no significant effect on daily exhaustion. These findings extend previous research by demonstrating the role of psychological flexibility in encouraging employees to handle their emotions primarily by accepting them r...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effect of cultural consistency on organizational performance and found that it may differ depending on the levels of other culture traits, such as mission, adaptability, and involvement.
Abstract: Past research has shown a close connection between organizational culture and effectiveness, but nearly all of this research has examined the direct effects of culture on performance outcomes. In contrast, this article examines the idea that the effects of cultural consistency on organizational performance may differ depending on the levels of other culture traits. Data from 88,879 individuals in 137 public companies using the Denison Organizational Culture Survey were paired with three objective measures of organizational performance and used to examine the interaction effects of consistency with mission, adaptability, and involvement. Consistency shows a significant positive interaction with all three traits in predicting market-to-book ratios and sales growth. Firms that are both consistent and adaptable, for example, are high performers. In contrast, the results show a significant negative interaction when predicting return on assets. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to fut...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how call center employees draw on opposed discourses to understand the purpose and consequences of performance measurement as workplace surveillance, and how employees used an ironical process of predicate logic to develop flexible meaning-making strategies to cope with the apparent conflicts in meaning that arose from the two opposing discourses.
Abstract: We examine how call-center employees draw on opposed discourses to understand the purpose and consequences of performance measurement as workplace surveillance. Sometimes the workers saw performance measurement as a legitimate and impartial managerial tool serving the interests of everyone in the organization (e.g. by exposing free-riding, etc.). Other times, they saw performance measurement as intrusive and oppressive; imposed on them by managers who, as agents of employers, used it to serve a narrow set of interests (e.g. by intensifying work, etc.). Our analysis depicts how employees used an ironical process of predicate logic to develop flexible meaning-making strategies to cope with the apparent conflicts in meaning that arose from the two opposed discourses. We conclude by developing a three step method for the practical analysis of such ironical situations of competing discourses that facilitates our ability to reconsider and reconfigure meaning in more useful ways.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relational effects of interpersonal affect regulation and found that attempts to improve others' affect among grocery store employees were associated with both regulatory targets and agents' perceptions of friendship and trust.
Abstract: Research suggests that people deliberately try to improve others’ feelings in a variety of social contexts. However, little is known about whether and how interpersonal affect regulation influences the quality of people’s relationships. Two applied social network studies investigated the relational effects of interpersonal affect regulation. In Study 1 attempts to improve others’ affect among grocery store employees were associated with both regulatory targets’ and agents’ perceptions of friendship and trust. In Study 2 we replicated this finding among staff and prisoners in a high-security prison. Additionally, we showed that these associations were mediated by positive changes to regulatory targets’ and agents’ affect. The results provide insights into the social consequences of interpersonal affect regulation and help to elucidate the factors influencing the formation and maintenance of high-quality relationships.
TL;DR: In this paper, the second-order construct of innovator resilience potential is developed, which consists of six components, i.e., self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, optimism, hope, self-esteem, and risk propensity.
Abstract: Innovation projects fail at an astonishing rate. Yet, the negative effects of innovation project failures on the team members of these projects have been largely neglected in research streams that deal with innovation project failures. After such setbacks, it is vital to maintain or even strengthen project members’ innovative capabilities for subsequent innovation projects. For this, the concept of resilience, i.e. project members’ potential to positively adjust (or even grow) after a setback such as an innovation project failure, is fundamental. We develop the second-order construct of innovator resilience potential, which consists of six components – self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, optimism, hope, self-esteem, and risk propensity – that are important for project members’ potential of innovative functioning in innovation projects subsequent to a failure. We illustrate our theoretical findings by means of a qualitative study of a terminated large-scale innovation project, and derive implications for re...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how stories can be used as templates to guide jazz musicians' sensemaking about the leadership of teams, what it means to be a jazz musician and what jazz is (or is not).
Abstract: Drawing on contemporary interviews and archival data, we explore how stories can be used as templates to guide jazz musicians’ sensemaking about the leadership of teams, what it means to be a jazz musician and what jazz is (or is not). By going beyond the metaphorical notion of jazz as improvisation, we contribute to theories of leadership by showing how informal storytelling can act as a powerful sensemaking and sensegiving mechanism for leadership and organizing. We also explore the contested nature of stories drawing on the notion of ‘antenarrative’. Our analysis contributes to the body of work on leader sensegiving and storytelling by examining the conditions under which a story’s sensegiving power may be restricted. Our research suggests that the sensegiving power of an ante-narrative and associated stories depends on whether or not they attempt to counter a dominant discourse.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how dominant stories influence and may contribute to organizational inertia and suggest that a dominant story fixes not only the meaning of events, but also the meanings of the labels available for sensemaking.
Abstract: This article suggests that by regarding the semantics of storytelling, we are able to explore how dominant stories influence and may contribute to organizational inertia. Using data from two change projects in large Scandinavian companies, it is shown that in the negotiation of meaning those stories that display semantic fit with the dominant story are perceived as more convincing, while those stories that lack this attribute appear oxymoronic and fail to have an impact. As a result, the organization is only able to change in a manner congruent with the dominant story and becomes inert in other respects. We suggest that a dominant story fixes not only the meaning of events, but also the meaning of the labels available for sensemaking. By this appropriation of language, the dominant story circumscribes sensemaking and storytelling possibilities, and thereby restricts organizational flux.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors hypothesize and present quantitative evidence from 499 animal-shelter workers, demonstrating that dirty work involves tasks that are stigmatized owing to characteristics that the public finds disgusting, degrading, or objectionable.
Abstract: Dirty work involves tasks that are stigmatized owing to characteristics that the public finds disgusting, degrading, or objectionable. Conservation of resources theory suggests such experiences should induce strain and decreased work satisfaction; social identity theory suggests such work should lead to strong psychological investment in the work, among other outcomes. Integrating these two perspectives, this study hypothesizes and presents quantitative evidence from 499 animal-shelter workers, demonstrating
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate how breakthroughs in knowledge may fail to be translated into practices if they are not aligned with existing practices, or if they cut across established boundaries and power structures.
Abstract: This article contributes to our understanding of practices in innovating organizations. Previous studies have demonstrated how breakthroughs in knowledge may fail to be translated into practices if they are not aligned with existing practices, or if they cut across established boundaries and power structures. By drawing upon an ethnographic study of a medical R&D department that has been highly successful in developing new medical practices, this article investigates how such challenges can be overcome. To date, much of the literature has focused on coordination across single, well-defined boundaries. We here extend this focus and introduce the notion of ‘boundary organizing’ to analyse highly political and contingent processes of innovation and change within and across different practices. We add to existing literature by highlighting how the handling of multiple boundaries, the indirect effects of boundary work, the negotiation of mutual benefits and interests, and mutual adaptation are key aspects of b...