Challenged by the effects of organisational flexibility and high corporate real estate costs, organisations are increasingly seeking flexibility and operational efficiency in their office spaces. To date, the literature relating to flexible office spaces has focused mainly on their physical characteristics. The full effects of such spaces on human reactions and the corporate culture of organisations are less understood. The objective of this paper is to examine the influence of introducing activity-based working (ABW) on existing organisational culture. It was addressed from the perspective of the management of large corporate organisations. A mixed-method research that included a qualitative approach followed by a quantitative approach was adopted. The first stage included semistructured interviews with 19 large organisations who had introduced flexible layouts. The second stage involved a questionnaire survey of 32 organisations which had experienced office layout changes. Findings identify that the nature of workplace designs has a considerable impact on the corporate culture of an organisation and can be used to leverage and change its culture. Workplace designs directly influence culture by supporting the systems, symbols, engagement/motivation and behaviours of the organisation and employees. However, some differences between the perceptions of public and private organisations were identified. In conclusion, office layouts are artefacts that can either support, or change, the existing organisational culture. Therefore, the critical achievement of workspace design is to integrate the cultures, values and behaviours of organisations to meet their ultimate goals.

This contribution commemorates Geert Hofstede, who recently passed away, as a pioneer in the study of culture and institutions. It does so by touching on some of the details of his personal life and connecting these with his professional career. The latter was devoted to developing the paradigm of national cultures based on empirical analysis, and to relate it to organisational behaviour. Closer scrutiny reveals that four distinct phases may be identified. Hofstede first started as an ‘undercover’ engineer and next moved to social psychology. During the second phase, he developed the first four dimensions of natural culture. During the third, Hofstede connected these national dimensions to organisational ones. During the last, he added two new cultural dimensions and developed additional practical applications. Finally, the article considers the reception, criticism, and further elaborations of Hofstede's contributions.

In this article we develop a theoretical perspective of how professional identities in multi-professional organisational settings are co-constructed in daily interactions. The research reported here is located in a healthcare context where overlapping knowledge bases, unclear divisions of responsibilities, and an increased managerialist emphasis on teamwork make interprofessional boundaries in healthcare operations more complex and blurred than ever. We thereby build on a research tradition that recognises the healthcare sector as a negotiated order, specifically studying how professional identities are invoked, constructed, and re-constructed in everyday work interactions. The perspective is employed in an analysis of qualitative data from interviews and participant observation at a large Swedish hospital, in which we find three main processes in the construction of space of action: hierarchical, inclusive, and pseudo-inclusive. In most of the interactions, existing inter-professional divides and power relations are sustained, preventing developments towards integrated interprofessional teamwork.

There is a considerable body of literature on the importance of effective shift handovers in hospitals and other health-care settings but less is known about the transfer of information between staff starting and completing stints of paid work in care homes. In the first of two articles considering this under-explored topic, we report findings from a scoping review examining what is known about shift-to-shift handovers in care homes for older people and their equivalents. It is based on systematic searches of electronic databases of English-language journals on ageing and internet searches for material published between January 2005 and October 2016. Guidance from the regulatory body for health and social care in England, the Care Quality Commission, highlights the importance of handovers in care homes but the degree to which they are embedded into care home routines appears to be variable, influenced by factors such as workplace culture, shift patterns and the extent to which they involve all those on duty or just those with professional qualifications. Staffing shortages and whether or not members of staff are paid for their time attending handovers appear to be further constraints on their use. We conclude that there is considerable scope for further research in this field to identify and develop good practice.

Older people living in long-term facilities (nursing and residential homes providing 24-hour care) spend the majority of their time inactive, despite the known health and wellbeing benefits of physical activity and reduced time spent sedentary. In order to successfully embed interventions that aim to increase physical activity or reduce sedentary behaviour, it is necessary to understand the features of the care environment that influence residents’ routine patterns of movement. Drawing on an organisational perspective, this paper explores the structures and mechanisms that shaped different care practices concerning residents’ movement in two contrasting care homes in the north of England. This study adopted an ethnographic approach, using a combination of qualitative observations, informal conversations and interviews. A grounded theory approach to data analysis was adopted. The findings illustrate the importance of translating espoused values of care into tangible and acceptable care practices, systems of management, staff training and development, and the use of care planning in residents’ routine patterns of movement. Understanding how organisational factors shape routine movement among care home residents will help inform the development of embedded and sustainable interventions that enhance physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. This study is part of a wider programme of research developing and testing a complex intervention, embedded within routine care, to reduce sedentary behaviour among care home residents.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has uncovered evidence that organisations sometimes provide opportunity for the sexual abuse of children. How do organisations go about preventing this? The authors of this paper consider the case of an out-of-home care (OOHC) agency which failed to protect children. By identifying gaps in practice and culture in this case, the authors suggest that protecting children in OOHC requires a “weave” of organisational structures, staff development and cultural competence. In this case, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organisation was able to create an opportunity for access to vulnerable young people by using strategies we can now identify as grooming behaviours. He did this by using his positional power. He ignored standards, isolated protective adults and therefore children and young people, rewarded compliance, discouraged reflective practice, used his culture to avoid scrutiny from funding and oversighting agencies, and created an organisational culture of fear and secrecy. In effect, he used culture to trump safety. Even in the stressful conditions of managing an OOHC service, good practice is important, not only because it meets the standards and legislation, but because this is how services maintain the safety of children and young people in care.

For some years now there has been growing enthusiasm amongst practitioners, managers and some academics about the value of promoting fun at work, resulting in a substantial body of managerial literature. As a result, the authors believe that fun at work deserves further research attention. In this paper the authors critically review the large body of practitioner and management literature promoting fun at work. We find this literature dependent on a number of untheorised, untested assumptions about the nature of fun, its desirability and usefulness to business. Utilising Schein’s organisational theory, alongside ethnographic research into fun at work, we highlight the complexity of implementing fun at work initiatives in practice. Drawing on organizational psychology we also make a short case study of the current use of fun at work as a job marketing tool by recruitment agencies in New Zealand. Our discussion does make it possible to come to some conclusions about fun at work. However, we also pose a series of research questions that emerge from our discussion that will provide a framework for ongoing research.

Organisational culture is considered an important influence on performance, particularly for service firms that rely on values-driven social controls to enhance human interactions. Using a qualitative approach, we show how the modified Organisational Culture Profile developed by Sarros, Gray, Densten, and Cooper to assess Australian organisations provides a framework for exploring the cultural drivers of high performing knowledge-intensive service firms in New Zealand. Our study provides rich insights into how six key cultural dimensions – competitiveness, innovation, performance orientation, emphasis on rewards, supportiveness and social responsibility – are translated into strategic human resource management practices.

For more than a century, McCord Hospital, a partly private and partly state-subsidised mission hospital has provided affordable health-care services, as well as work and professional training opportunities for thousands of people in Durban, a city on the east coast of South Africa. This article focuses on one important aspect of the hospital’s longevity and particular character, or ‘organisational culture’: the ethos of a ‘McCord Family’, integral to which were faith and a commitment to service. While recognising that families – including ‘hospital families’ like that at McCord – are contentious social constructs, with deeply embedded hierarchies and inequalities based on race, class and gender, we also consider however how the notion of ‘a McCord family’ was experienced and shared in complex ways. Indeed, during the twentieth century, this ethos was avidly promoted by the hospital’s founders and managers and by a wide variety of employees and trainees. It also extended to people at a far geographical remove from Durban. Moreover, this ethos became so powerful that many patients felt that it shaped their convalescence experience positively. This article considers how this ‘family ethos’ was constructed and what made it so attractive to this hospital’s staff, trainees and patients. Furthermore, we consider what ‘work’ it did for this mission hospital, especially in promoting bonds of multi-racial unity in the contexts of segregation and apartheid society. More broadly, it suggests that critical histories of the ways in which individuals, hospitals, faith and ‘families’ intersect may be of value for the future of hospitals as well as of interest in their past.

The study examined attitudes toward work–life balance (WLB) using survey data from 292 employees in an Australian university. Organisational culture, as it relates to how and when employees can use WLB initiatives, was investigated. In particular, the study examined employees' differing perceptions of organisational culture within a single organisation, with particular reference to: managerial support of WLB initiatives, career consequences of using WLB initiatives, organisational time expectations that may interfere with non-work activities, and the level of employee control over workload and when employees can take time off. As predicted, perceptions of managerial support of WLB initiatives were related to initiative use; however, overall initiative use was not related to perceived career consequences (e.g. using initiatives will damage one's career progress), organisational time expectations (e.g., long working hours), or levels of employee control (e.g., employee control over workload). Results showed that perceptions of a supportive organisational culture were positively related to organisational commitment and negatively related to work–life conflict and employees' intentions to leave. Further, the study results show that employees' perception of organisational culture was more strongly associated with the outcomes (e.g., work attitudes, work–life conflict) than the number of WLB initiatives used by employees.

Research on person–environment fit theory has largely developed within the context of people and organisations in urban settings. There has been little research of this kind within organisations in isolated and confined contexts. The purpose of this article was to examine the implications of person–environment fit theory within the context of the complementary fit and supplementary fit paradigm (Muchinsky & Monahan, 1987), for people working in isolated and remote organisational settings. Using a sample of Antarctic personnel, this study examined the extent to which psychological need fulfilment and subjective fit with Antarctic station culture were equally important in predicting individual attitudes, including satisfaction with being an expedition member, intent to return and willingness to recommend the Antarctic to others. Results showed that gender and subjective fit with Antarctic station culture predicted satisfaction with station membership. Results also showed that subjective fit predicted willingness to recommend the Antarctic as a good place to work, while psychological need fulfilment was not a predictor of any of the outcome variables examined. Results suggest that outcomes such as intention to return (or to stay) may be less relevant in such settings because of the unique and temporary nature of the experience and the work. Results also attest to the need for further development of organisational theories, including person–environment fit theory, using data collected from organisations in isolated, confined and extreme environmental contexts.