Category Archives: HE

It’s good to talk

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Woman whispers to the girlfriend secrets

Dr Stefanie Reissner, a lecturer in organisational studies from Newcastle University Business School, has revealed that what is widely considered gossip in the workplace can actually help boost work performance.

My research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), found that a company is a community that is maintained by sharing personal stories, which I call peer storytelling. Organisations that use peer storytelling well, establish constructive working relationships that are vital for effective operations, leading to improved business outcomes.

From childhood, individuals are conditioned to respond to and understand problems and issues, through storytelling. This translates into the world of work.

The research shows that sharing personal stories, from the funny to the emotional, can allow individuals to connect with others at work. Such a ‘connection’ enables them to understand colleagues and their actions in the workplace. This leads to improved judgement about behaviour, with benefits such as employees feeling more comfortable challenging one another. The result is more robust decision making and, arguably, better work performance.

Informal work conversations often get a bad press because they allegedly distract from the task at hand. But I ask: does being professional mean to be authoritative and impersonal on all occasions? My study shows that peer storytelling can alleviate pressure at work. If people are more at ease at work, they can be more focussed and productive in their daily routines.

I would encourage firms to appreciate the importance of peer storytelling as employees can convey everything from what makes them ‘tick’ to their ethics at work. In fact, far from distracting, peer storytelling can be good for an organisation.

This is pertinent nowadays when we are seeing rises in new business models like ‘hot-desking’ and limited personal interaction with colleagues and managers. Appreciating the human side of an organisation is vital in building a cohesive workforce in today’s network economy.

But, despite the potential benefits of peer storytelling, there can be negative effects on individuals and the organization. For example, the communication grapevine – an informal network by which unofficial information is transmitted within a place of work – can be harmful when rumour or inaccurate detail leads to misunderstanding and destroys relationships, trust and reputation.

I hope that the findings from this research can challenge the way employers think about how they build staff relationships and HR policies to foster meaningful interaction in the workplace.

The findings come from data collected from interviews with 75 individuals, between 2010 and 2012, and are now available in print. The book Storytelling in Management Practice, authored by Stefanie Reissner and Victoria Pagan, explores how managers use storytelling in practice, as well as its functions at different levels within an organisation.

Shifting perspectives on management

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Professor John Wilson, the Director of Newcastle University Business School (UK), introduces a blog which will offer new perspectives on topical issues in management, economics, and innovation.

What does the term management mean to you?

We live in a world of uncertainty and with this we have witnessed some huge failures of management, namely, failure of those in charge to make sense of a business issue and make the right decision.

Management is a term that has become imbued with tales of disaster, from Enron and the current financial recession to the BP Gulf oil spill of 2010.

In many scenarios top management have set targets – often financial – related to sales and returns to shareholders; meaning that the focus of the organisation has become the achievement of these targets at the expense of customer service and, in extreme cases, legality.

Here, at Newcastle University Business School, we want to make management a career of choice for people who want to make a difference. Our mission is to build excellence in our teaching while providing new, global business perspectives that contribute to the responsible and ethical shaping of society.

So how do we start to solve this issue and make sure our future leaders can manage safely, efficiently and sustainably; not focused on the bottom line, but on the holistic picture? How can we start to shift this current perspective on management?

Quite simply, we must go back to the basics: the education of management practice and how we teach this craft.

At school and university there is a risk that management (business studies) is seen as either a second-rate subject or studied primarily as a route to employment, rather than having a passion for the subject.

Here, at Newcastle University Business School, we want to inject it with a new perspective: to give it a true meaning that has been lost and overwritten during recent crises.

The true meaning of management is centered upon some key principles:

• responsibility – changing the world for the better through ethical supervision;
• bravery – employees standing up to forces driving them to do the wrong thing;
• innovation – constantly seeking and adopting improvements to products, services and ways of working;
• collaboration – enabling individuals from different backgrounds, disciplines and cultures to work together effectively to create value and to develop their effectiveness; and
• being ambidextrous – exploring and innovating to create the ‘business for tomorrow’ and at the same time making sure that the ‘business of today’ operates effectively and continues to develop.

Good management practice is vital for new enterprises, growing successful organisations, tackling complex issues including societal challenges, research commercialisation and the successful development and operation of the public sector and not-for-profit and social enterprises.

The Business School draws on its research strengths, learning community and business engagement to engage students in active, learning activities that help develop higher level managerial competences.

We are working hard to ensure that management graduates are ready to share their knowledge with colleagues, teams and organisations, in a bid to develop their ability to make a difference, and start to develop a new perspective on management.

Professor John Wilson, Director of Newcastle University Business School.

Response to media coverage of early-stage research into cannabis use

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Responding to articles in today’s Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, Dr Nils Braakmann of Newcastle University Business School, clarifies his provisional research findings, which are part of a working paper ‘Cannabis consumption, crime, anti-social behaviour and victimization – Evidence from the 2004 cannabis declassification in the UK’.

The research, which was recently presented at the annual conference of the Royal Economic Society, is still in the early stages and does not demonstrate an absolute increase in real-terms in cannabis consumption since declassification.

In fact, the increase presented is a relative increase between previous consumers and previous non-consumers, pre and post declassification, of between 18-26% depending on a number of social and demographic variables.  This does not therefore represent an absolute increase in consumption and it is misleading to represent this research in this way.

This situation does, however, raise some interesting questions for educators. The difference between absolute and relative difference is significant in this case, and shows how important it is to understand these terms before we interpret them in any meaningful way.

I look forward to sharing the findings when the research is complete, at which point it would be appropriate to interpret the research in a social context.

Dr Nils Braakmann

Budget reaction from Professor John Wilson

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Penny for your thoughts 

As with any budget, the devil is in the detail.

And after watching today’s Budget for an ‘aspirational nation’, I feel that while the political analysis takes up the margins of our newspapers, as a region and nation we must stick together to make this work for us.

I am a business historian and have analysed many fiscal policies and Budget announcements over the last sixty years; I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly.

What is clear from Osborne’s budget today is the need to ‘fix’ our state through monetary activism, supply-side reform and fiscal policy.

From curing the ethics within our banks to attracting new businesses to our shores, as a nation we need to be ensuring that confidence in investment is the foundation on which we build our reformed state.  And how do we get this confidence? Through innovation stimuli, is how. Innovation acts as a bedrock for demand, job creation and, ultimately, assurance in the system that generates real wealth.

Many commentators will be discussing the implications of Osborne’s policies, but I want to talk about what we can control.  And that is our networks and knowledge economy.

As part of a civic university, the Business School needs to work with business and regional policy makers to build an industrial and business strategy that can work for us.  From cutting edge research, leadership and management training to harnessing innovation, the Business School’s doors are open to support the needs of the region to help us grow again.

In this spirit, open collaboration between higher education and businesses can lead to some of the most disruptive and ingenious work: bringing with it vital market share and wealth creation.

The importance of academia, industry and commerce working together as a triple helix for success can also be seen in Heseltine’s review ‘No stone unturned in pursuit of growth’.  And with Osborne’s nod to Heseltine’s suggestion of creating a single funding pot for skills, housing and transport, I am looking forward to further details being released.  Regions need to know how much and when to expect this to be implemented.

Moreover, with emerging business models like employee ownership and cooperatives operating in a rapidly changing business world, universities and businesses need to work together to decide how we can best do things differently.

As Osborne said today ‘Britain is open for business’, but what I would like to stress is that, yes the economic and fiscal policies outlined today will have some impact in the coming months and years, but we are the people who can add value through being ‘truly’ open for business through collaborative networks leading to innovation.

Welcome to the Business School blog!

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We’re delighted to (finally) bring our Business School blog into the world. This is a place for academics, support staff, guests, and students to share their views on life inside and outside the Business School.

Through our musings and knowledge exchange, we hope to stimulate thought and debate on topics ranging from the sublimely intellectual, to, occasionally, the downright frivolous. It’s all part of life’s rich tapestry here at the Business School!

Please use this site to keep in touch and tell us what you think. We’d love to hear from you, no matter who you are.