Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.350710 Organisational behaviour

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exploring organisational dissent in the online setting : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Communication at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Chen, Hui
    Online organisational dissent is an emerging phenomenon in our digital world. It occurs when employees express disagreement or contradictory opinions about organisational practices, policies, and operations via the internet. Organisational dissent research has investigated face-to-face dissent, but online employee dissent is at an early stage. However, online organisational dissent can improve effective digital and cross-cultural communication. Miss Chen explored the digital communication issue and built the scholarship of conceptualizing online dissent. The main findings and implications include: a) illustrated face is an explanatory mechanism for organisational dissent; b) organisational assimilation serves as a conflict-ridden process for dissent c) virtual organisational dissent relates more confidence in technology than fear of approaching communication; d) employees used the online platform to negotiate face in organisational dissent. This project contributes to our understanding of how online dissent is influenced by different psychological and cultural factors such as face concerns and anxiety in computer-mediated communication.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A place to call home? : an ethnography of the retirement village as a heterotopic place : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for Master Business Studies, Massey Business School, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Colbert, Fiona
    People over 65 in New Zealand often enter long-term care conditional to their levels of health, family and community support. New Zealand has a growing ageing population, and people are living longer because of lifestyle choices and advances in medical technology. In response the residential care landscape has transformed, resulting in the emergence of the corporate, resort-style retirement village sector that provides several aged care living options dependent upon the older person’s health, physical and economic circumstances. These villages deliver communities that aim to offer safety, reassurance, care and security. Many older people remain living at home either as they prefer to stay in their own environment or because they cannot afford other options. Most older people at the later stage of life must consider the option of either staying at home or finding a new ‘home’ in a facility. Often this decision is beyond their control if they are no longer safe and accessing adequate care at home, for instance, if they have a health crisis. This study consists of an ethnographic, naturalistic observation of a retirement village as a home away from home. The methodology I employ involved close observation and reflections upon daily life in an elderly care institution. I spent 155 hours in a retirement village and was afforded access to life behind the scenes to help me understand the practices and customs of the staff, residents and relatives. This allowed me the opportunity to develop an awareness of how various spaces are deciphered, lived in or endured from the perspectives of the important retirement village stakeholders – residents, family and staff. Inevitably my own experiences of looking after my parents, and their experiences of ageing, added an autoethnographic component to this study. I employ Foucault’s assertion that rest homes are heterotopias to frame, interpret and discuss my observations. I elaborate upon the feelings of dread and vulnerability that older people experience when they contemplate moving into and settling into a retirement facility. I explore how standardised healthcare practices and customary surveillance can challenge an older person’s identity and subsequently hinder an older person from finding a sense of belonging in the retirement village care. The themes of vulnerability, dread and a sense of belonging drawn from the ethnography reinforce how essential it is for retirement village corporations, their staff and the wider community to adopt a model of caring that empowers older people. This empowerment comes from them feeling a sense of control and individuality over their existing routines and habits which have been developed in their own homes, and which give meaning to their lives. Furthermore, care needs to incorporate an understanding of lifeworld existentialism such as dread causing anxiety and vulnerability, to gain a full awareness of someone’s life. I argue that institutional representatives and families need to understand the feelings associated with home as the first step in enabling an older person to feel valued and comforted in their uniqueness in a new environment such as dependent care in a retirement village. Additionally, for older people to feel central to their individual care they should be included in the decision-making process about where they live and what possessions they have around them. Thus, they are supported in a place to call their own – home.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Agile transformation for business teams within New Zealand organisations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Blewden, Andrew John
    Agile leverages long-held business principles such as customer centricity, quality, lean thinking and continuous improvement, and complements these with a new mindset based around innovation, risk-taking, speed, adaptability and iteration. This New Zealand (NZ) based study elaborates emerging theory that agile values and practices, originally the domain of technology, can scale effectively into non-technical teams leading to positive and transformational business outcomes. The study determined that exposure to agile is ubiquitous across NZ organisations and many non-technical workers already demonstrate agile values and practices informally, often in response to the failure of traditional ways of working. Very little resistance to agile was identified in business teams and new capability emerges as a natural and logical progression, fundamentally based around the value of people and teams, not technical processes or techniques. The greatest business challenges identified were lack of management support – often due to poor knowledge - and a reluctance by leaders to truly empower teams. Other key challenges were insufficient resourcing of cross functional squads, the time required to adjust to new ways of working, the challenge of shifting organisational culture and mindset, and insufficient training and communication. The single most important success factor is allowing agile to evolve slowly via a tailored and adaptive approach, followed by strong top-down leadership, creating an environment which encourages risk taking and learning from ‘failing fast’, building an organisational culture based on agility, and clarity of overall vision, strategy and objectives. The main benefits are faster delivery of increased customer value, improved product quality, and highly flexible and adaptive teams focused on short-term priorities and goals. Other key benefits include improved communication across the organisation, more effective collaboration between business and technical teams, and significant improvements in worker’s engagement and motivation. However, benefits are largely anecdotal and qualitative therefore further empirical and quantitative research is recommended to prove an explicit link between agile and the achievement of organisational strategies and goals.