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Sub-theme 73: Rethinking Work: Pathways and Practices

Convenors:
Mario Pezzillo Iacono
Second University of Naples, Italy
Katharina Chudzikowski
University of Bath, UK
Paul L. du Gay
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Call for Papers

Several, cultural, social, technological and economic changes have affected the work redesign processes in organizations. Promoting theory and research development on this important substantive and methodological topic is therefore of foremost importance, as confirmed by the growing number of academic journals that are addressing this topic.

The main aim of this sub-theme is to develop an ongoing and constructive dialogue among HRM and OB scholars to conduct research that is relevant for management theory and practice in the contemporary world. We are interested in understanding, identifying, and improving the effectiveness of work practices in the various functions and activities carried out as part of HR, and determining the optimal fit between these practices and organizational strategies, cultures, and performance. The emphasis is on the study of the employment relationship at the individual, group, organizational, network, societal, and cross-cultural levels of analysis, and the impact of this relationship on outcomes critical to the organizations.

Empirical, conceptual, and practitioner-oriented contributions utilizing various theoretical perspectives and research designs will be discussed.

In particular, major topics include theory and research on:

  • HR leadership and HR strategy
  • Work redesign and ethics
  • Re-designing the HR organization
  • Work practices and employees work attitudes and behaviors
  • Rethinking career development; inc. HR practices for diversity management
  • Managing an ageing workforce
  • Employment relations and flexibility
  • HRM & employee development
  • HRM, compensation and evaluation systems
  • Rethinking work, sense-making and decision-making processes
  • Work redesign, managerial control and power relations
     

References

  • Ahonen, P., Tienari, J., Meriläinen, S., & Pullen, A. (2014): "Hidden contexts and invisible power relations: A Foucauldian reading of diversity research." Human Relations, 67 (3), 263–286.
  • Armstrong, M. (2007): A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th edition. London & Philadelphia: Kogan Page.
  • Bondarouk, T.V., & Olivas-Luijan, M.R. (eds.) (2014): Human Resource Management, Social Innovation and Technology. Advanced Series in Management. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
  • Boxall, P., Purcell, J., & Wright, P.M. (eds.) (2008): The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Guest, D.E. (1997): "Human resource management and performance: A review and research agenda.'"International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8 (3), 263–276.
  • Lengnick-Hall, M.L., Lengnick-Hall, C.A., Andrade, L.S., & Drake, B. (2009): "Strategic human resource management: The evolution of the field." Human Resource Management Review, 19 (2), 64–85.
  • Townley, B. (1993): "Foucault, Power/Knowledge, and its Relevance for Human Resource Management." Academy of Management Review, 18 (3), 518–545.
  • Zanoni, P., & Janssens, M. (2004): "Deconstructing Difference: The Rhetoric of Human Resource Managers' Diversity Discourses." Organization Studies, 25 (1), 55–74.

 

Mario Pezzillo Iacono is an Associate Professor of Organization Studies at the Department of Economics, Second University of Naples, Italy, where he currently teaches Human Resource Management and Organizational Design. His research interests are focused on human resource management and organizational diversity/identity; organizational control in private and public sectors, knowledge management and innovation.
Katharina Chudzikowski works as Associate Professor for the Group of Organisational Studies at the School of Management, University of Bath, UK. Her research focuses on changing work practices and working careers across cultures. Particularly, she is interested in the interrelatedness of individual actors and forms of organizing. She has several scientific and practical publications, including articles in the 'Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology', 'Human Relations', 'Journal of Vocational Behaviour' and 'International Journal of Human Resource Management'.
Paul L. du Gay is Professor at the Department of Organization at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark. He has worked in sociology, cultural studies, public management and organization studies. He is the author, inter alia, of "Consumption and Identity at Work" and "In Praise of Bureaucracy". His recent publications include "New Spirits of Capitalism? Crises, Justifications and dynamics" (ed. with G. Morgan, OUP), and "The Oxford Handbook of Sociology, Social Theory and Organization Studies: Contemporary Currents" (ed. with P. Adler, G. Morgan& M. Reed, OUP). At CBS, he is Academic Director of the School's Public Private Platform and leads the Velux Foundation project "'Office as a Vocation'. For Formal Organization: the past in the present and future of Organization Theory" (with Signe Vikkelso) will be published by OUP in the autumn of 2016.