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Contributing to scholarship on diversity and inclusion (D&I) and careers within UK retailing, this paper documents the lived experiences of minority-ethnic women working in retail. Given the extensive research on both the career obstacles faced by women in a highly feminized sector and the disadvantages experienced by minority-ethnic workers in the UK labor market more broadly, consideration of social identity categories beyond gender and their impact on retailing careers in the existing literature is limited. Here we use intersectionality theory to explain how individual-level identity categories, such as gender, ethnicity and religion, intersect with wider organisational practices, which disadvantage the career progression of minority-ethnic women in UK retail. In a service-driven sector dependent upon consumers, we conclude that there is a need to consider intersectional identity experiences and power relations within the customer-employee relationship, as this disproportionately affects minority-ethnic women and the realization of their career goals in retail.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to move away from the focus upon the drivers of diversity to consider the drivers of inclusion in the workplace. The research outlined addresses this by considering the views of all employees, not just those who would be considered members of minority groups.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on an extensive set of case study data from a range of methodological sources. The case study is of a major high street retailer.FindingsFindings focus upon what leads to employees feeling included in the workplace. In addressing this we explore both the drivers of, and barriers to, inclusion. We argue that inclusion is complex and that individuals may feel included by some aspects of organisational culture whilst simultaneously feeling excluded by others.Practical implicationsThe implications of our results for HR practitioners are that organisations need to pay attention to general HR policies as ways of enhancing inclusion, for example development practices, but also pay attention to the different needs of diverse groups.Originality/valueThe paper is original in that in recognising that equality, diversity and inclusion are all closely related, we demonstrate that an understanding of the effectiveness of diversity strategies needs to be fundamentally informed by a consideration of inclusion which can only occur through an engagement with employee's understandings of organisational culture and their place or otherwise within it. Without this employee engagement, many well-intentioned diversity initiatives may go awry. Moreover, the value of the research is that it demonstrates that in order to be successful an inclusion strategy needs to embrace both minority and majority perspectives.

Open access article The aims of this paper are twofold. First, we aim to expand understanding of work–family experiences beyond the prevalent emphasis on traditional couple-headed families within organization and management literatures by focusing on the experiences of employed single mothers. Second, we aim to gain insight into how work and family meanings may be negotiated in the context of heightened conflicting ideals and demands. Drawing on rich qualitative data from in-depth interviews and diaries, our findings make three important contributions to the existing work–family literature. First, we show that conflicting work and family ideals are not only exacerbated for single mothers, but viable narrative strategies with which to negotiate this conflict are also restricted. Second, we highlight how narratives constructed around the meaning of work are key to single mothers’ negotiation of conflicting work and family ideals and identify three work narratives drawn upon by single mothers focused on providing, performing and protecting. Finally, we demonstrate how shifts between single mothers’ work narratives are particularly influenced by progression opportunities and a supportive work environment. We conclude by making suggestions for future work–family research

Drawing upon an employer branding lens to help explore and inform our understanding of the marketing of workforce diversity, here we argue that diversity is understood and used in an aesthetic and commercialized way, rather than with a focus upon the inclusion of disadvantaged groups. Our analysis of the marketing and diversity practices of four small and medium-sized law firms demonstrates a continued access-and-legitimacy approach to diversity: that a desire for successful employer branding still supersedes organizational commitment to equal opportunities and diversity management in practice. We argue that this commercialized approach leads to several contradictions, which in turn reproduce the market-based perspective of diversity, relegating employees primarily to the aesthetics of race and gender and the affiliated skills and resources. In theorizing the processes by which diversity is undermined and functions solely to enhance business image and increase organizational performance, we highlight how an employer branding lens enables us to identify and understand contradictions between diversity policy and practice in a different way, by linking aesthetics with the marketing of the brand.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. Despite the considerable interest in researcher reflexivity within the organizational literature, little attention has been paid to participant reflexivity, here defined as the reflexive considerations of research participants that are stimulated by their involvement in research. Our argument is that engagement in the research process is a context where such reflexive thinking is likely to happen and that through certain methodological approaches, participants’ reflexive thinking becomes more conscious and therefore potentially accessible to the researcher. In identifying the participant reflexivity that emerged as part of a photo-elicitation study of work-life balance and conflict, we outline the kinds of reflexive dialogue that participants reported as being stimulated by involvement in the research and explore the link between emotion and reflexive practice. Hence our paper contributes to our understanding of qualitative research and reflexivity first by highlighting empirically the kinds of internal dialogue reported when participants engage in self-reflexivity as part of the research process; second, by outlining how we can access participant reflexivity methodologically, including through

In this article, I present some of the teaching and learning challenges faced from the perspective of a U.K. business school dean. There are many challenges that I could have chosen, but my focus is on the unpredictable external environment, the conundrum of teaching evaluation, developing teaching staff, and the curriculum issues we face.

Despite the extensive use of qualitative research methods in the management field, little empirical attention has been paid to how business and management students learn qualitative research skills...

This paper explores the processes and outcomes of using three different forms of data analytic processes to analyse the same set of qualitative data. The dataset are 24 in‐depth qualitative interviews with taxi drivers about their experiences of dignity at work. To enable an effective comparison of techniques, three types of analysis are used which rely on similar categorisation processes: template analysis; story analysis; and metaphor analysis. In presenting the analysis the aims are to draw attention to the research questions and opportunities for theorising that might be enabled by a given analytic approach and highlight some of the rich variety of analytic approaches available to the qualitative management researcher. Hence we offer a novel, empirical account of the practical use of these three approaches with the intention of potentially expanding the analytic toolkit of other qualitative researchers and promoting the use of a range of different forms of qualitative data analysis. It is argued that given the increasing trend towards standardisation in qualitative management research, it is important to promote alternatives within the qualitative researcher's analytic toolkit.

This article considers critical accountants’ potential contribution to progressive reforms by examining how trade unions transformed workplace accountability relationships and developed social accounts as part of a workplace learning initiative. The article develops and utilizes the concept of facilitative reforms to interpret the advances brought by learning representative initiatives and accompanying changes in broader civil society, workplace relationships and social accounts in the UK and New Zealand. The article finds that the experience of the learning representative initiatives suggests that critical accountants’ support of facilitative reforms may sometimes be a fruitful strategy.

The Management and Organization Review (MOR) special issue on ‘Doing Qualitative Research in Emerging Markets’ aims to advance the quality, diversity, and understanding of qualitative research methods in management in the context of emerging markets. The value of qualitative research is increasingly embraced by management scholars thanks to its merits for building new theories and testing existing ones, as well as exemplifying new phenomena by surfacing contextual idiosyncrasies (Bansal & Corley, 2011; Birkinshaw, Brannen, & Tang, 2011; Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007; Rynes, 2007; Welch, Piekkari, Plakoyiannaki, & Paavilainen-Mantymaki, 2011). As Bansal and Corley (2011: 234) suggest ‘The beauty of qualitative research is that it accommodates different paradigms and different styles of research and research reporting. Although there are merits to having norms emerge for the style of qualitative research manuscripts, we do not want to stifle creativity’.

I have sympathies with many of the arguments made by Dennis Tourish in his article, and I especially welcome his desire to restore more meaning and purpose to management research and his call for our writing to have humor, curiosity, and passion. But I cannot agree with all of his characterization of our discipline, hence, this response. My main point of disagreement is that I feel his account fails to sufficiently consider the diversity around our discipline, and those who populate it.

Pratt and Bonaccio's (2016) article is oriented to the position of qualitative research in U.S. industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology, although brief reference is made to innovations in the UK psychology field. As European work and organizational (W/O) psychologists who have championed the use of qualitative research in our field for the last 25 years, we share Pratt and Bonaccio's concerns about the lack of qualitative research in what are described as the “top” I-O psychology journals, and we agree that this situation is detrimental to the development of the discipline in many ways (see Cassell & Symon, 2006, for further discussion). Here we want to present a European perspective on this issue, which sheds some light on why qualitative research may be more accepted in European W/O psychology but also highlights the power relations that tend, even in Europe, to maintain it in a rather second rate position. Our intention is to engage in a process of mutual learning across the American and European situations.

This paper uses data from a longitudinal, seven-year, cross-national study to explore the translation of a trade union idea. The aim of the paper is to examine and explicate the nature of the translation work undertaken to translate a trade union idea in a multi-organizational setting. In examining how the idea of the learning representative initiative was translated into the New Zealand context we draw upon a narrative analysis to reveal the complexities of the dynamic and ongoing translation of the idea and identify the nature of the translation work required. As such we contribute to the literature on the translation of ideas firstly by explicating the concept of real-time translation work in a novel empirical context, and secondly theoretically, by drawing attention to the distinctive characteristics of trade union translation work. In doing so we argue that translation work in this distinctive socio-political context requires ongoing vigilance and proprietorship of the idea by trade union actors and that such proprietorship is crucial in other cases where translators are coming from subordinate positions.

This contribution aims to highlight the diversity in European qualitative management research as a way of celebrating its ongoing development within Europe. In recognising the strengths that emerge from this diversity in epistemological traditions and methods, attention is drawn to the concerns increasingly expressed by qualitative researchers about growing pressures of standardisation. It is argued that qualitative researchers should take every opportunity to encourage methodological diversity whilst resisting attempts at homogenising the experience and reporting of qualitative management research.

We explore the use of photo-elicitation methods in a study of how people manage their daily work-life balance and conflict. In doing so, we outline some important methodological issues for those who seek to use these methods and conclude that photo-elicitation techniques have much to offer HR researchers.

With the increased debate on replication in quantitative research, the question arises as to whether there should be more replication occurring in qualitative research as well, and what that might ...

We use organizational justice theory to examine how perceptions of fairness affect the decision-making process of line managers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 35 Irish managers to explore how managers make organizational allocation decisions in cases where it is impractical to offer work–life balance accommodations to all employees. The findings suggest that firstly, managers construct the ‘life’ aspect of work–life balance within a heteronormative framework, where the emphasis is on caregiving and most usually parenting. Secondly, managers actively use their decision-making powers around both formal and informal work–life balance supports to minimize injustice within their departments. By bringing together ideas about organizational justice and managerial decision-making, we indicate how managers determine fairness through a decision-making process narrowed by embedded gender role beliefs. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

This research examines the relationship between structural and cultural dimensions affecting managerial decision-making about work–life balance (WLB) opportunities. Through a top-down study of two contrasting Irish organisations, we identify how each of five dimensions of work–life culture: ‘managerial and organisational support’, ‘organisational time expectations’, ‘career consequences’, ‘gendered perception of policy use’ and ‘co-worker support’ are mediated through managers to affect availability and uptake of WLB opportunities and creating gaps between policy and practice. This study demonstrates how marked distinctions between the personal opportunities managers may wish to offer and the discretion available to them arise. Secondly, the concept of organisational work–life culture is advanced by elaborating the ‘context of support’, namely interdependencies between organisational culture and structure that affect the uptake of WLB opportunities. Implications for researchers and practitioners are also ...

Management Research: European Perspectives brings together experts in the field to take stock of European management research and reflect on its distinctiveness. Building on a successful series of papers published in the European Management Journal, this book contains international contributions providing a range of scholarly perspectives on the reality of European management research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider how taxi drivers understand the customer service relationship as “dirty work” by examining the strategies they use to manage the taint associated with their work. Design/methodology/approach – An innovative qualitative approach is taken that focuses upon the analysis of metaphors elicited in interviews with 24 taxi drivers. Findings – Four different metaphorical understandings of the customer service relationship are provided: heroes, confidante, the unworthy, and predator. These metaphors are explained through a series of “hidden transcripts” (Scott, 1990). The impact of these different metaphors and hidden transcripts as sensemaking devices is addressed. Originality/value – The paper uses an innovative qualitative method to argue that the construction of work as “dirty” or otherwise is located within the customer service interaction.

Research methods and research practice provide relatively new foci for academic reflection and enquiry in the business and management field. There has been an increase in the number of forums and range of debates in the area. This paper provides a historical and thematic overview of the field as a means of contextualizing the other papers in the remainder of this special issue. Each paper covers one of a broad spectrum of issues about research methods and research practice: namely, measurement in quantitative research; theory development in qualitative research; visual methods; evaluation of concepts; issues experienced when researching extreme events; paradigm wars; and the changing pattern of coverage of qualitative research papers in leading journals.

The use of metaphors in understanding organizational change has become prominent in recent years, although most research focuses on the deductive application of metaphors, rather than on inductive explorations of metaphorical language-in-use. This article extends qualitative understandings of the experience of change agency through an inductive focus on the metaphorical language-in-use of change agents. Through case study data from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the authors explore how a group of trade unionists involved in the development of a trade (labor) union–sponsored learning initiative draw on metaphorical language to talk about their experiences. Seven different metaphors are identified and the change agency roles implied by those metaphors are analyzed. In considering the similarities and differences between managerial and union change agency, the authors argue that although some metaphors such as journey and warfare might be widespread in the accounts of both types of change agents, attention to other metaphors that share entailments with these metaphors reveals agency roles unique to the union context. The advantages and disadvantages of this novel form of qualitative data analysis are evaluated.

PurposeThe purposes of this paper are to explain how the need arose for trade unions to develop accounting systems to monitor learning outcomes and to illuminate how trade unions rose to that challenge.Design/methodology/approachA semi‐structured interview study of the full‐time educational officers of a number of the UK trade unions produced transcripts that were analysed using template analysis and were supplemented by collection of documentary evidence from the trade unions and interviews and documents from related organizations.FindingsTrade unions are starting to compile extensive information about the learning opportunities that they are facilitating.Practical implicationsInformation produced by the trade union's accounting systems highlights the value of the government's investment in the union learning fund (ULF).Originality/valueThis is the only study to address the systems of monitoring developed by trade unions in response to the receipt of funds from the ULF in the UK.

This paper considers how work psychologists define ‘good’ qualitative research in the work psychology domain. In addressing the assessment of quality in work psychology research, we draw on 22 in-depth interviews with work psychologists about their current practices and expectations around qualitative research. Using narrative analysis, the various plots and narratives that constitute how interviewees understand good qualitative research are identified. The implications of the use of these narratives for both how quality is understood and the use of qualitative research in this area are addressed. Drawing on Weick's concept of sensemaking as a theoretical framework, it is argued that the narratives identified enable the construction of a hegemonic understanding of what is good methodological practice within the work psychology discipline. The implications of this for the work psychology field and the methodological practices of work psychologists are considered.

The aims of this paper are two-fold: firstly, we aim to gain insight into how personal meanings attached to work and family are negotiated in the context of significant demands and conflicting valu...

Conducting management research underpins management learning and education—therefore how the management researcher or practitioner learns research skills is an important issue to be addressed. This paper focuses upon the skills, knowledge and practices required to conduct qualitative management research, and the learning processes that go into their development. A total of 45 in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in the field. From an analysis of the interview data, the types of skills and knowledge required for the production of good qualitative research were identified, and the learning processes and practices associated with those skills were critiqued. It is argued that the processes by which we learn to do qualitative research, and become effective qualitative researchers, involve both the learning of appropriate skills and knowledge and their use and conceptualization through three types of research practice: reflection, reflexivity and phronesis. The implications of the analysis for management learning are presented.

The statutory rights given to trade union learning representatives (ULRs) to facilitate and organize learning in the workplace has led to the creation of a new specialized union lay official role. This article investigates how the ULR initiative is facilitating the development of learning partnerships in the workplace. Empirical data is provided from a qualitative study that draws on interviews with full-time trade union officials from a range of unions. It is argued that although the ULR initiative provides opportunities for unions to promote the ideal of learning partnerships within the workplace, rights to learning remain a contested terrain between many employers and unions.

PurposeDisparities in learning opportunities endure. This paper aims to investigate whether the learning representative schemes in the UK and New Zealand (NZ) may redress disparate opportunities for learning.Design/methodology/approachAn interview study of UK trade unions' educational officers and an interview study of representatives of bodies involved in designing the NZ learning representative scheme are used to consider each scheme's capability to address disparate learning opportunities.FindingsThe paper finds that the UK scheme allows trade unions to initiate vocational and non‐vocational learning opportunities locally. Legislative and financial support allows some redress of inequalities in learning opportunities. The NZ scheme was introduced through a tripartite alliance of central organizations, without legislative support, to provide vocational opportunities. This scheme may facilitate learning opportunities at companies where the constituents of the central organizations support the initiative.Research implications/ limitationsThe UK scheme is firmly established, while the NZ scheme has only been developed recently. The potential for further developments in the New Zealand scheme must be acknowledged.Practical implications/ limitationsUnion‐backed learning representative schemes in different countries have been introduced to redress the unequal distribution of learning opportunities that exist at work. However, to date, there has been limited research into the potential for learning representative schemes to promote learning in different organizational contexts. There is a need for further research in this area.Originality/valueThe paper presents findings from the first comparative study of the learning representative schemes in the UK and NZ.

This article explores bus drivers' underreporting of passengers' anti-social behaviour within the UK bus industry. Anti-social behaviour is a widespread phenomenon affecting a large proportion of the working population across many sectors and occupations. Although internal reporting systems can provide organizations with necessary information to tackle this problem, where employees regularly fail to report anti-social behaviour and where such underreporting is endemic, any effort to address the problem is likely to fail. Given this importance of reporting, an understanding of the factors affecting widespread underreporting is essential. Taking an interpretive, ethnographic approach, we explore bus drivers' accounts of the reasons for underreporting, as well as why bus drivers construct their interpretations in this way. In attempting to answer this question we found that underpinning participants' reasons for underreporting, was a dominant culture of masculinity. Introducing gender to the underreporting literature, we examine the construction of masculinity in the area of male dominated service work, a relatively under-researched area. This article draws on data taken from multiple qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, observation and analysis of formal documentation.

This article considers the in‐service learning opportunities arising from the emergence and early formation of the learning representative scheme in New Zealand. Drawing on an interview study with respondents from the major stakeholders involved in the design of the scheme and subsequent ongoing research, the article makes comparisons between the scheme in New Zealand and its counterpart in the United Kingdom. The article suggests that in New Zealand both the training for learning representatives and the forms of learning they are likely to facilitate for others have tended to be more standardised initially than was the case with their UK counterparts. A tripartite framework that did not exist in the United Kingdom and the initial smaller scale of the New Zealand learning representative project facilitated greater standardisation of the process by which people acquired the skills and knowledge to be learning representatives. The greater standardisation of the training that learning representatives may fac...

In the employee reporting and social and environmental accounting and reporting fields, disputes are commonplace between academics who advocate improvements to reporting as a means of making those who control capital more accountable within capitalism and Marxist writers who see such improvements as possible obstacles to a change to an alternative society. Gramsci's war of position concept, which allows the interpretation of progressive change as valuable per se and as having the potential to create the conditions for advancement to an alternative economy, is proposed as a means of resolving these differences. This argument is illustrated by reference to the UK's trade union learning representative initiative.

The focus of this paper is on the `institutional work' (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006) of disrupting institutions, examining the rhetorical strategies employed to construct and justify meanings and interpretations. This work is explored in the context of the contemporary academic labour process; specifically, research approaches within the management discipline. A total of 45 individuals involved in funding, conducting, publishing and using qualitative management research were interviewed. From our analysis of their arguments, we focus specifically on the discursive positioning of quantitative research as illegitimate institutionalization of academic working practices and of qualitative research as legitimate resistance to this institutionalization. We identify a number of rhetorical strategies which construct and justify these discursive positions including: the undermining of success criteria; the legitimizing of interests (through claims of institutionalized discrimination) and actors (through identity claims); attributions of political action (including the construction of counter-institutions); claims to agency; and the invocation of alternative institutional logics. We argue that examining institutional work as rhetoric adds to our theoretical understanding of the discursive disruption of institutions, particularly with respect to the manipulation of contradictory meanings and the functions of agency—structure discourse; and contributes a political dimension to our understanding of the qualitative—quantitative `divide' within management research.

This paper employs empirical studies to consider whether learning representative initiatives in the UK and New Zealand can help the realisation of flexicurity. Learning representatives are trade union supported lay officials who advise on learning opportunities to their fellow employees at their place of employment. The aspect of flexicurity that is of greatest importance here is the equipping of workers with portable skills so that they may enjoy security of employment – rather than security from a specific job – through their flexibility in moving around the economy. The findings indicate that while government and trade unions in both countries seek to promote workers’ attainment of portable skills through the learning representative initiatives, some employers either favour learning for current jobs only, or oppose the schemes completely. Although the attainment of flexicurity was never an objective of the learning representative initiatives, limited support from employers is one reason why the schemes are not realising their full potential for flexicurity.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide a piece of empirical work that examines the impact of trade union learning representatives in enabling access to learning by those groups traditionally less likely to access such opportunities. This aim is discussed in relation to the literature on the significance of organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachThe research conducted included an in‐depth qualitative interview study of full‐time trade union officials with some responsibility for learning in their union.FindingsThe findings are discussed in relation to how trade union learning representatives are approaching their role; how learning is being facilitated; who is gaining access to learning and how; and the ownership of learning more generally.Originality/valueThe paper presents original data on a new learning initiative about which very little is currently published.

The aim of this article is to explore the ways in which small firm size impacts upon psychological contracts in the workplace, from the perspective of the owner-manager.While the study of the psychological contract has attracted much research interest of late, the majority of this research is located within the context of large firms. Debates concerning the impact of the new deal, which have provided the rationale for much contemporary research into the psychological contract, have not questioned the relevance of such changes to small firms and there has been a general failure to consider how the characteristics of small firms and the conditions they face affect the role, content and dynamics of psychological contracts.The research is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with owner-managers of 10 small firms from a variety of sectors.The findings suggest that small firm size affects psychological contracts in a number of significant ways, and that the changes associated with the so-called `new deal' have had little impact on small businesses. The implications of the findings are outlined, first with regard to enhancing understanding of the dynamics of employment relationships within small firms, and second for our further understanding of the psychological contract.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the findings of research which explores how the concept qualitative management research is variably constructed and defined by those who have a direct interest in, and influence upon, important aspects of qualitative management research.Design/methodology/approachInformation was gathered through the use of semi‐structured interviews conducted with 44 individuals who were drawn from four observer‐identified types of “expert” informant who were taken to generally represent key groups of stakeholders in the conduct, evaluation and dissemination of qualitative management research. Interview data from these individuals were analysed though an iterative process using the NVivo software package to inductively generate definitional categories and explore aspects of their interrelationships.FindingsFrom data analysis it was apparent that there are eight different, but often interrelated, ways in which interviewees define qualitative management research. The philosophical dimensions of each of these variable definitions are outlined and their relationships to the methodological literature are explored. The variety identified amongst informants, indicates how there is a potential dissensus possible regarding what qualitative management research might entail, as well as regarding its provenance and its academic status. This dissensus potentially can create problems with regard to its evaluation.Originality/valueSo whist there is little evidence to suggest any systematic relationship between the variable institutional backgrounds of informants and how they variably define and perceive qualitative management research, philosophical influences upon this contested terrain are explored and the implications of the identified dissensus for how qualitative management research is perceived and evaluated is discussed. The implications of this evidently contested terrain are discussed with particular reference to the future constitution of qualitative management research and its evaluation.

This study explores the impact of flexible working on the daily experiences of work–family conflict for dual-earner couples with child dependants. In exploring these daily experiences, the occurrence of maternal gatekeeping behaviours, and the relationship between flexible working and such behaviours is investigated. We draw on episodic and longitudinal data from qualitative diaries kept for a 1-month period by both members of 24 couples (48 participants) as well as from introductory and subsequent in-depth qualitative interviews with the couples, both together and apart. We report an evidence suggesting that work–family conflicts are experienced and resolved differently, depending on whether it is the male or the female who works flexibly within dual-earner couples. This link between flexible working and gender is demonstrated to have an important impact on maternal gatekeeping behaviours, which are highlighted as playing a crucial role in such daily experiences and how they are resolved. Practitioner points Traditional gender norms still play a role in parents' decisions to work flexibly and workers who opt for non-traditional routes may feel stigmatized. HR departments and employers need to promote the legitimacy of male access to flexible working and work–life balance policies, so these are not perceived as opportunities for mothers alone. Greater father take-up of work–life balance initiatives that offer more opportunities for involvement in childcare should be encouraged. Employers should offer a variety of flexible working arrangements to provide employees with desirable and healthy resolution options when faced with incidents of work–family conflict.