Religion in the Workplace

This chapter is an exploratory study that explores the issues of the religious fact in Bahraini banks. The chapter will produce an understanding of this phenomenon, the different religious forms it takes, and its impact on the management of organizational functioning in Bahraini banks. First, a questionnaire will be distributed among 125 employees and managers working in Bahraini banks. The questionnaire will report the workplace religious positions and manifestations perceived by the employees. It will also say what religious facts and managerial solutions based on religion employees observe in the workplace. Then, semi-direct interviews conducted with 15 managers will help explore the challenges and issues related to religious practices. Finally, the data collected will be analyzed based on themes developed from the literature review. The results will show how religious values impact Bahraini bank management practices and functioning.

Gaining a Better Understanding of the Types of Organizational Culture to Manage Suffering at Work

Organizational culture is a central concept in research due to its importance in organizational functioning and suffering of employees. To better manage suffering, it is necessary to better understand the intrinsic characteristics of each type of culture and also its relationships with the environment. In this study, we used the multiple regression analysis to analyze the capacity of eight environment variables, five business strategies, and eight organizational competencies to predict the presence of Clan, Market, and Hierarchy cultures (Cameron and Quinn, 1999) in a subsample of Spanish managers (n1 = 362) and a subsample of Peruvian managers (n2 = 1,317). Contrary to what most of the literature suggests, we found almost no relationship between the environmental variables and the culture types. Strategy and competencies, in contrast, do have a significant predictive capacity, showing 9 links with the Clan culture, 7 with the Hierarchy culture, and 10 with the Market culture. In conclusion, this study has found the important characteristics of the types of organizational culture that could be useful to better manage the suffering of employees.

Organizational Hybridity

In many ways, research on organizational hybridity seeks to understand how some organizations mix together elements analytically considered opposed to or in tension with one another. Scholars of organizational hybridity have studied how such unconventional mixing of organizational elements is possible, how this impacts organizational functioning, and how it shapes organizational relations to various internal and external stakeholders. Since the mid-1980s, organizational scholars have used a range of theoretical lenses to shed light on these overarching questions posed by organizational hybridity. Each lens with its unique conceptual tools and assumptions has focused on distinct, yet often connected, aspects of organizational hybridity. For example, organizational forms research has emphasized questions concerning the emergence of hybrid organizations. Identity and institutional logics research has focused on tensions between the distinct elements of hybrids. Categories research has primarily investigated external evaluations of hybridity. Publication activity within different theoretical lenses has varied over time. While much work on organizational hybridity early on used organizational form lenses, more work from an identity perspective followed, and recently institutional logics has offered a much-used meta-theory in hybridity research. Along with the waxing and waning popularity of theoretical lenses over time, a shift has occurred from primarily considering hybrid organizations to attending to hybrid organizing. That is, while early work conceived of organizational hybridity as a matter of type (effectively suggesting differences between hybrids and nonhybrids), more recent work understands hybridity as a matter of degree (some organizations have more while others have less hybrid characteristics). Notwithstanding some cross-fertilization between theoretical lenses and overlaps, different streams of hybridity research have developed in parallel. As such, organizational hybridity as a concept has been (and continues to be) used in different ways in the literature. The aim here is to offer useful resources to navigate the burgeoning literature on organizational hybridity. While necessarily painting the literature with a broad brush, this article offers brief introductions to specific research streams. It lists key references in each section that will allow readers to further pursue each stream. Although varied empirical contexts and theories have been and continue to be pertinent to organizational hybridity research, work on social enterprise and from institutional theory lenses has been particularly vibrant in the recent expansion of the field. This article acknowledges and follows this trend in the literature.

Reflecting Backward to Project Forward: Refocusing on Values in Organizational Change

As ideals about what is worth having, doing, and being, values are core to organizational functioning. Various organizational elements, such as design, identity, and culture, as well as organizational practices, are infused with values, pointing to the critical role values play during organizational change. While we know that the congruence between established values and those of prescribed changes influences change outcomes, our understanding of the role of values in organizational change processes remains largely speculative. In this paper, I outline how taking a value-centered approach to organizational change can enhance our understanding of organizational change processes.

Understanding attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in physicians: workplace implications and management strategies

Physicians with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have unrecognized workplace difficulties because of inattention and impulsivity. If these behaviours interfere with patient care or organizational functioning, leaders may erroneously attribute the physician’s actions to unprofessionalism. As such, corrective efforts with punitive measures may be ineffective. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that responds to evidence-based treatments, including medications, accommodations, and supports. Physician leaders who understand the unique presentations of ADHD in physicians may better identify when this condition may be contributing to workplace behaviour. Furthermore, physician leaders may have a professional or legal duty to accommodate or support physicians with underlying medical and/or psychiatric conditions, such as ADHD. Using our own clinical experience, we provide a general overview of ADHD in physicians and guide physician leaders on how to help physicians who may be struggling with ADHD in the workplace. We hope that our clinical experience and observations of this hidden problem will spur discussion, awareness, and action for further research and support.

We’re Not Gonna Fall: Depressive Complaints, Personal Resilience, Team Social Climate, and Worries about Infections among Hospital Workers during a Pandemic

Maintaining hospital workers’ psychological health is essential for hospitals’ capacities to sustain organizational functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers’ personal resilience can be an important factor in preserving psychological health, but how this exactly works in high stakes situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, requires further exploration. Similarly, the role of team social climate as contributor to individual psychological health seems obvious, but how it exactly prevents workers from developing depressive complaints in prolonged crises remains under investigated. The present paper therefore applies conservation of resources theory to study the relationships between resilience, team social climate, and depressive complaints, specifically focusing on worries about infections as an important explanatory mechanism. Based on questionnaire data of 1126 workers from five hospitals in the Netherlands during the second peak of the pandemic, this paper estimates a moderated-mediation model. This model shows that personal resilience negatively relates to depressive complaints (β = −0.99, p < 0.001, 95%CI = −1.45–−0.53), partially as personal resilience is negatively associated with worries about infections (β = −0.42, p < 0.001, 95%CI = −0.50–−0.33) which in turn are positively related to depressive complaints (β = 0.75, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.31–1.19). Additionally, team social climate is associated with a lower effect of worries about being infected and infecting others on depressive complaints (β = −0.88, p = 0.03, 95% CI = −1.68–−0.09). These findings suggest that resilience can be an important individual level resource in preventing depressive complaints. Moreover, the findings imply that hospitals have an important responsibility to maintain a good team social climate to shield workers from infection related worries building up to depressive complaints.

The Sources of Organizational Gossips in Schools

Informal and evaluative speech about a person who is not present in a conversation environment is defined as gossip. Gossip is one of the informal forms of communication that is also important in school life, because schools have an intense network of communication. This research aims to detect the sources of organizational gossips in schools that have the potential to harm organizational functioning. A descriptive survey model was applied in the research. Gossip Sources Questionnaire (GSQ) prepared by the researcher was used to investigate the topic. In the research the factors causing gossips in schools are classified as; individual factors stemming from the people themselves, social factors arising from the social environment in which the individuals stay and organizational factors arising from the characteristics of the organizational structure of the workplace. According to the teacher views individual features such as jealousy, envy, unethical behaviors, curiosity, vanity and aimlessness are the most common sources of gossips in schools. At the end of the research, there are some suggestions for teachers and principals about coping techniques of organizational gossips.

Challenges and Opportunities to Advancing Telehealth: US Telehealth Resource Centers’ Approach

For the past thirty years, the United States Office for the Advancement of Telehealth has promoted the use of technology for health care, education, and health information services, and funds the National and Regional Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) to provide technical assistance to support stakeholder telehealth adoption. To assess the challenges and opportunities for the TRCs to advance telehealth, we reviewed publications, national and regional telehealth strategies, guidance from government agency reports and the TRC websites. We summarized information about the mission, funding and structure of the TRC program in terms of the shared service center model of organizational functioning, followed by a description of the TRCs’ recent response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.

Effective Organizational Functioning Capacity Needs of Rural Advisory Service Networks: A Delphi Study

This study expands on previous research within an international extension context with a particular focus on identifying the capacities associated with effective organizational functioning. A panel composed of 31 experts participated in a three-round Delphi process and identified a list of 38 specific capacities associated with effective organizational functioning related to extension networks. Among the 38 specific items, five primary themes emerged: (1) an extension network should be transparent about its policies, procedures, and organizational intent; (2) knowledge sharing and collaboration within an extension network is critical; (3) general policies and management guidelines should be in place; (4) the development and maintenance of intentional, long-term relationships with various actors in extension, including stakeholders, policy-decision makers, and the private sector is critical; (5) reasonable expectations and guidelines should be established for both extension network officers and network members. The study’s results provide a guide within which extension networks and organizations may evaluate current capacities from both a developmental and strengths perspective.