Management and Marketing - Research Publications

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Work, organisation and Enterprise Resource Planning systems: an alternative research agenda
    Dery, K ; Grant, D ; Harley, B ; Wright, C (WILEY, 2006-11)
    This paper reviews literature that examines the design, implementation and use of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs). It finds that most of this literature is managerialist in orientation, and concerned with the impact of ERPs in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and business performance. The paper seeks to provide an alternative research agenda, one that emphasises work‐ and organisation‐based approaches to the study of the implementation and use of ERPs.
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    Online consultation: E-Democracy and E-Resistance in the Case of the Development Gateway
    Ainsworth, S ; Harley, B (SAGE Publications, 2005-01-01)
    To explore the implications of the Internet for the relationship between organizational communication and power, this article compares two online forums established in response to the introduction of a new e-organization: the Development Gateway. The article analyzes postings to the forums to explore the capacity of the Internet to foster democracy, and to investigate how power and resistance are exercised through this medium. Findings show that, rather than equate resistance with participation, as some models of democracy do, the dynamics of power and resistance are more complex, and resistance and power can take participative and nonparticipative forms.!
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    Management Reactions to Technological Change The Example of Enterprise Resource Planning
    Harley, B ; Wright, C ; Hall, R ; Dery, K (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2006-03)
    This article explores how different types of managers respond to large-scale organizational change and what factors underpin differences in management attitudes and reactions. Through qualitative analysis of the introduction of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in two case study organizations, the authors argue that variations in managerial responses to organizational change relate to both the structural position of individual managers and their level of involvement in the implementation of change. Managers are also shown to exhibit agency in interpreting, influencing, and negotiating the impact of organizational change. The analysis emphasizes the need to incorporate more critical perspectives informed by labor process theory with existing insights from conventional organizational change literature.
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    High performance work systems and employee experience of work in the service sector: The case of aged care
    Harley, B ; Allen, BC ; Sargent, LD (WILEY, 2007-09)
    Abstract In spite of the growing body of research on high performance work systems (HPWS), there is little evidence on their application in the service sector. It is commonly argued, however, that occupational segmentation in services is a barrier to HPWS. Analysis of data from aged‐care workers indicates that: HPWS have positive outcomes for workers; highly skilled nurses are no more likely than lowly skilled personal care workers to be subject to HPWS; and in some cases, HPWS are associated with more positive outcomes for low‐skilled than high‐skilled workers. These findings suggest that HPWS may well be widely applicable in service settings.
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    Firing blanks? An analysis of discursive struggle in HRM
    Harley, B ; Hardy, C (WILEY, 2004-05)
    ABSTRACT  We revisit Karen Legge's (2001) critique of HRM in which she argues that the attempt of modernist/positivist HRM research to show that HRM improves organizational performance is a ‘spent round’. We note that despite spirited challenges by Legge and others, the discourse of HRM is becoming increasingly dominant. Accordingly, we use discourse analysis to examine why this might be the case. Specifically, we analyse the texts produced in the engagement between Karen Legge and David Guest to show how modernist/positivist texts like those of Guest have been successful in constructing an identity for HRM and embedding it in the broader academic discourse concerning the employment relationship, while critical researchers like Legge face a number of difficulties in producing ‘counter‐texts’.
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    A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: getting below the surface of the growth of 'knowledge work' in Australia
    Fleming, P ; Harley, B ; Sewell, G (SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2004-12)
    This article critically addresses the claim that there has been a striking growth in ‘knowledge work’ in advanced economies. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey, we examine occupational change from 1986 to 2000 to evaluate the support for this claim. Researchers have usually relied on aggregate level data to justify the presence of a burgeoning knowledge-based workforce, but we contend that we must ‘get below the surface’ of the major occupational groups by disaggregating the data. This enables us to demonstrate that a substantial component of the apparent growth in knowledge work is accounted for by an increase in low-level information handling occupations rather than by a growth in knowledge work as it is commonly conceived. The article then develops an interpretive framework that makes sense of the data in a manner that avoids both over-estimating the prevalence of the ‘knowledge worker’ and underestimating the knowledge-related activities in jobs commonly considered to be low-skilled and bereft of important competencies.
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    Reflecting on Reflexivity: Reflexive Textual Practices in Organization and Management Theory
    Alvesson, M ; Hardy, C ; Harley, B (Wiley, 2008-05)
    abstract  This paper identifies four sets of textual practices that researchers in the field of organization and management theory (OMT) have used in their attempts to be reflexive. We characterize them as multi‐perspective, multi‐voicing, positioning and destabilizing. We show how each set of practices can help to produce reflexive research, but also how each embodies limitations and paradoxes. Finally, we consider the interplay among these sets of practices to develop ideas for new avenues for reflexive practice by OMT researchers.