The Use of Humor in Employee-to-Employee Workplace Communication: A Systematic Review With Thematic Synthesis

The aim of this systematic review was to develop a thematic synthesis of existing qualitative studies to explore the use of humor in employee-to-employee workplace communication and provide a greater understanding of this area of research through the experiences of employees. A number of databases were searched using key terms and papers were selected using pre-specified criteria. The thematic synthesis approach of Thomas and Harden was used to review the final 23 papers. The findings from the thematic synthesis resulted in four temporal themes that described how humor was utilized during an employee’s organizational transition: (1) initiation into organizational humor, (2) joining a “tribe”—in-groups and out-groups, (3) exerting influence—humor as power, and (4) using the safety valve—humor to relieve tension. The temporal themes described in this study crossed organizational and cultural divides, where humor formed an essential part of work-based dialog.

The Role of Agile Managers’ Practices on Banks’s Employees Performance in The Kingdom of Bahrain

This paper explores the significance of managers' impact on the level of employee success in the banking sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the contribution of managers to successful banks as agile managers, and argues that management reform in a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic can be done well by managers. The banks positively by managers who possess the employees' imagination and technical innovation skills, which makes the employees capable of facing the different types of challenges and difficulties they encounter in an unexpected or anticipated way, who constitute vital components in the continuity and progress of the organizational transition in a volatile economy. With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, institutions all over the world have attempted to respond successfully to transition, and banks have been especially hard hit by self-responses. These methods, however, have shown for agile management the potential to excel under and survive global economic conditions. This paper examines current research on the role of bank managers in the positive development of internal change during crisis situations. The findings revealed that assisting managers in the private banking industry is critical to instilling a sense of transformation in other direct and related parties within the company. As a result, this paper leads to clarifying successful employee assessment by inspiring managers to them which led to the performance of the most effective managers from the old conventional managers who were happy with the banks after these new circumstances that inspired new managers to the imagination and innovation through prior expectations.

Collaboration, compassion and conversation: Exploring change management trends and strategies

This research project explores current trends in organizational change management as characterized in online business publications. Specifically, with the intention of developing an understanding of current trends, I examine areas of consensus and debate within change management content by analyzing blogs and articles on the topic of organizational change. With a particular emphasis on the role of communication and communicators, the goal is to develop an understanding of how business journalists and bloggers explain the role of communication during times of organizational transition. Developing a greater understanding of current trends in change management has the potential to assist employees who are responsible for implementing change by providing up-to-date insights and best practices for executing change programs. Furthermore, by focusing on the role of communication during and about change efforts, this project could also contribute to an understanding of how professional communicators should engage in organizational change efforts.

Collaboration, compassion and conversation: Exploring change management trends and strategies

This research project explores current trends in organizational change management as characterized in online business publications. Specifically, with the intention of developing an understanding of current trends, I examine areas of consensus and debate within change management content by analyzing blogs and articles on the topic of organizational change. With a particular emphasis on the role of communication and communicators, the goal is to develop an understanding of how business journalists and bloggers explain the role of communication during times of organizational transition. Developing a greater understanding of current trends in change management has the potential to assist employees who are responsible for implementing change by providing up-to-date insights and best practices for executing change programs. Furthermore, by focusing on the role of communication during and about change efforts, this project could also contribute to an understanding of how professional communicators should engage in organizational change efforts.

Voluntary flexible working arrangements and their effects on managers and employees

This paper explores the effects of flexible working arrangements on employees and their managers in a service sector. Analyzing a case study of a global management consultancy, the study concerns the impact of flexible working arrangements on job satisfaction, commitment and performance as well as well-being. While it is generally accepted that flexible working arrangements have a positive impact on employees, there has been only limited theorizing and research explaining how and why such impact is generated and which contextual organizational factors might be significant in shaping the outcome. The study provides mixed evidence for benefits from flexible working arrangements where potential for increased employee performance, well-being and job satisfaction is offset by work intensification, blurred work/home boundaries, professional isolation and perceived organizational injustice. Practical implications of the study results have been intensified by accelerated organizational transition into flexible working arrangements caused by restrictions imposed as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.

Budget and life cycle in family business in succession process,

ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to analyze how the budget need is conceived in family businesses in the process of succession. There is a gap about the reasons for using the budget in the context of a family business succession process, whose characteristics and purposes of the budget reflect their need depending on the antecedents the reasons for use. The relevance of the theme lies in understanding the intergenerational succession as a part of the life cycle in family companies and the interface with the management control system (MCS) from the need of the budget with a planning and control tool. As an impact on the area, this study broadens the field of research on budget considering its characteristics and purposes in a context of organizational transition that involves succession in a family business. We adopted the single case study with data collected through semi-structured interviews, observations, and documents. Data were analyzed from the discursive textual analysis whose focus is the contents related to succession from the organizational life cycle, changes in the MCS, and budget need. The results showed that changes resulting from the succession process on the strategies of its planning (professionalization of management, creation of the holding company, and governance) interact and influence the need of the budget. This stems from the reasons for operational planning and strategic training from its antecedents associated with the organizational characteristics of the success and renewal phase of the life cycle. The contribution of the study is based on the combination of succession in family business and budget by making it possible to reflect on the need for a specific tool (the budget) to support goal setting and decision-making in this context. It will contribute to the MCS and family business by understanding the need for budgeting in the succession process. In addition, it will validate the three-phase model of the succession process in a family business as part of the organizational life cycle.

Newly Credentialed Athletic Trainers' Perceptions of Their Transition to Practice

Context Newly credentialed athletic trainers (ATs) have reported stress and role ambiguity during the transition to practice. Previous researchers focused on their qualitative experiences, yet no investigators have explored how characteristics such as the setting or type of educational program affect the transition to practice. Objective To determine how newly credentialed ATs perceived their transition to practice. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Online survey. Patients or Other Participants Of 1835 newly credentialed ATs (18%) certified and employed between January and September, 332 completed the survey within 3 months of employment (129 men, 203 women; age = 23.58 ± 2.54 years). Main Outcome Measure(s) The survey consisted of demographic information (eg, employment setting, job title) and 3 sections: (1) comfort level during the transition (CL), (2) feelings of mentorship and support (MS), and (3) feelings of organizational transition. Participants identified their feelings of nervousness, support, and understanding organizational values using a Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). Descriptive statistics were calculated for each survey item. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis (H) tests were used to determine associations between different demographic characteristics and responses regarding orientation and CL, MS, and feelings of organizational transition. Results Most participants agreed or strongly agreed that they felt nervous (n = 264, 79.2%) and that the transition was stressful (n = 227, 68.1%) but they felt prepared for their job (n = 262, 78.7%). No differences in CL were present among settings (H = 5.64, P = .228), job titles (H = 4.88, P = .087), or types of professional program (U = 6488, P = .279). Respondents who were assigned a mentor reported better perceptions of MS (U = 6250, P < .001). Most participants felt that supervisors adequately explained administrative procedures during orientation (n = 169, 54.3%) and felt they were adequately oriented to organizational values (n = 252, 75.7%). Conclusions New ATs felt nervous when entering their new role, but having a mentor and receiving a detailed orientation helped alleviate stress during the transition to practice.

Digitalization Impact on Transformations of Mass Customization Concept: Conceptual Modelling of Online Customization Frameworks

This paper summarizes the main theoretical points within the scientific discussion on the issue of digitalization in Mass Customization concept and online Mass Customization frameworks. Origins of a stand-alone Mass Customization concept drawback to the second half of the 1990s, but major theoretical content changes and development have been identified in the last 2 decades. An intensive application of combined technology and management solutions, digital society and business transformations in the past decade has shifted the orientation of the concept to intangible products management, customer involvement and mutual value creation via frameworks in the online environment. The main purpose of the research is to reveal and present the role and impact of the digitalization sub-domain to the Mass Customization concept, its transition to the e-concept version and modelling of new combined online customization frameworks. The decision relevance of this scientific problem is multiple issues in transitions of practical organizations to the modern and mixed technological-management approach-based Mass Customization version as well as application limitations of existing online customization frameworks. The analysis of the research topic is carried out in the logical sequence. Firstly, the author presented the influence of the digitalization sub-domain to theoretical transformations of traditional Mass Customization concept. Then, a case study of the organizational transition to electronic Mass Customization and Personalization and online customization frameworks was conducted. Methodological tools and research methods used in the paper have been integrative literature review and narrative synthesis of qualitative findings of 53 articles, and a simplified Robinson conceptual modelling framework together with a c-tuple method for the simulation of new combined online customization frameworks. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that within last decade both practical and academic attention to sustainable and agile development of new, fully digital customized products and personalized services as well as flexible online customization frameworks and solutions significantly have increased. Furthermore, here the extent by 6 new online customization frameworks is offered next to 3 standard theoretical online customization frameworks, which became difficult to apply in the environment and preferences of modern e-business organizations and digital end-users. The results of the research can be useful for continuous scientific researches to test and validate 6 new online customization frameworks in a feedback loop part and evaluate the influence of these frameworks to a digital end-user behaviour, their role in frameworks and attitude aspects. Keywords customization, digital, online frameworks, personalization, standardization