PurposeThis paper outlines the approach of critical participatory action research (CPAR) and the extended case method (ECM) within an applied research context. The context for the research example explored is set within employee ownership.Design/methodology/approachCPAR is at the heart of this paper. The ECM is applied to underpin the approaches adopted. The approach to managing data is qualitative.FindingsA journey of originality is presented within this paper, which focuses upon CPAR and ECM to provide a unique and alternative methodological thinking crucial for pushing the boundaries of research approaches in organisations.Originality/valueResearchers can be encouraged by the stance adopted in the methodological positioning in combination with the participatory data approach and the action research methods underpinning the whole project, affording learning from the experience of complexity and difficulties encountered and shared. It is hoped that this approach will allow other such kindred forms of research to be developed.

Industrial clusters are central to the circular economy transition, yet how they develop into eco-clusters and the paradoxical tensions this transformation fuels remain underexplored. Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews and secondary data from a Turkish textile-recycling cluster, we develop an empirically grounded model of eco-cluster transition showing three intertwined paradoxical tensions: ambidexterity (mass recycling vs. circular innovation), coopetition (solidarity vs. rivalry) and identity (rag recycler vs. circular pioneer). These tensions reinforce one another and are amplified by contextual conditions such as economic volatility, fragmented governance and cultural-material realities, which collectively produce multiple, mutually reinforcing lock-ins that challenge the eco-cluster transformation journey. Our study extends paradox theory to the cluster level by specifying how ambidexterity, coopetition and identity tensions manifest and interact at the meso level. It also advances eco-cluster research by theorizing eco-cluster transitions as paradoxical and elevating the active role of contextual boundary conditions.

To effectively evaluate the performance of the tourism industry in terms of sustainability, it is important to understand how consumers self-present with regard to sustainable development and practices. This study presents a covert methodological approach to achieve this endeavor. The study reveals that despite the concept of "ecofeminism" feminizing "nature," when it comes to tourism or leisure activities, women do not primarily self-present through ecotourism. By using a dating app as a data collection platform, this study is offering an innovative way to explore the topic of self-presentation, as this is a key concept in research on dating apps Additionally, because dating apps access the personal life of individuals, it offers an opportunity to fully investigate the role and importance (attitude behavior gap) of nature as part of women's leisure activities.

Purpose This paper aims to offer insights into how we should retain and engage baby boomers in the workplace through a deeper understanding of their expectations and needs. Design/methodology/approach The authors discuss a unique survey of 1,234 adults who work full- or part time across different age groups. Baby boomers data were compared to three other generational cohorts, namely, Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z. Findings Broad findings reveal that baby boomers value clear goals and expectations, regular feedback and a variety within their job roles. Furthermore, the authors highlight that baby boomers prioritise the following a lot less than younger generations: remote working and flexibility, diversity initiatives, career progression and pay rises and mental health benefits. Originality/value This research offers a unique empirical view of baby boomers against other generations leading to practical strategic HR recommendations.

Purpose The recruitment and promotion of teaching academics in the UK is constrained by a complex array of career progression barriers. These barriers have led to an increasing trend of horizontal career (lack of) progression. The purpose of this paper is to reveal and discuss linearity and horizontality constrictions, challenges and issues impacting on potential careers in tourism academia. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a leading UK national academic recruitment website to gather data and insights from across 137 posted jobs related to tourism between 2020 and 2022. Findings The main findings of this work note the constrictions of the UK academic job market and the consequences it poses for academics within tourism and beyond. It is proposed that future research to further understand the realities faced by academics is needed to prompt action for change to create more enriching career development. Originality/value The contribution of this study centres around sense making a phenomenon that exists but is not often talked about within academia (whether in tourism or beyond). For academics and managers, this paper presents an opportunity to reflect more holistically on careers with a view to instigating valuable change moving forward (for oneself or others). There is also a dearth of studies relating to career progression of tourism higher education educators.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, launched during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in December 2022, encourages governments, companies and investors to publish data on their nature-related risks, dependencies and impacts. These disclosures are intended to drive businesses to recognise, manage and mitigate their reliance on ecosystem goods and services. However, there is a 'biodiversity blind spot' that is evident for most organisations and business schools. Business education rarely addresses the root causes of biodiversity loss, such as the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. As the dominant positioning of Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) presents biodiversity in anthropocentric instrumental terms inadequate for addressing ecosystem decline, we posit that a more progressive and transformative ecocentric education through ecopedagogy and ecoliteracy is needed. Both approaches include the development of critical thinking about degrowth, the circular economy and conventional stakeholder theory to include non-human stakeholders. Using comparative case studies from Northumbria University, the University of Hong Kong and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, we illustrate how business education can be transformed to address biodiversity loss, providing theoretical guidance and practical recommendations to academic practitioners and future business leaders.

Purpose Organisational responses to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals depend on the competency and mindset of business leaders to lead responsibly. This study is informed and underpinned by the Principles of Responsible Management Education. This study aims to examine how embedding the “sustainability mindset principles” within a university programme can contribute to responsible management education and, by extension, leadership development. Design/methodology/approach An illustrative case study using 84 students was applied, including undergraduate, postgraduate and executive Master of Business Administration students. An exploratory, qualitative design was followed, primarily adopting focus groups. Findings Evidenced learning gains in connecting sustainability knowledge with personal beliefs and behaviours, provide a compelling basis for educational and business practitioners to focus on the sustainability mindset principles (SMPs). Mapping of mindset against leading global competency frameworks provides important theoretical insight. Learning is illustrated through multiple dimensions (i.e. cognitive, behavioural and affective) to inform leadership development approaches. Research limitations/implications The mapping of sustainability competency frameworks against the SMP, alongside qualitative research insights, provides a compelling basis for further research into the learning gains from embedding the mindset principles. The situated nature of the study and the lack of longitudinal measurement of what students take forward into their lives and workplaces is a limiting factor to be considered. Practical implications This study evidences the value of “whole-person” learning for responsible management, which can helpfully inform the design of both educational and workplace leadership development programmes. Originality/value This study is original in the pedagogic examination of the learning dimensions of the SMPs in a Business and Management programme. It also offers new insights in terms of the implications for leadership development.

Purpose This paper aims to offer a deeper understanding of Gen Z professional attitudes and expectations in the workplace through a large data set. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide reference to a unique survey of 1,234 adults who work full- or part-time across different age groups. Gen Z data were compared to three other generational cohorts, namely, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers. Findings Broad findings reveal that Gen Z have lower satisfaction levels with their job compared to other generations. Furthermore, the findings show that Gen Z craves progress, challenge and better mental health and diversity commitments from employers. Related to that, mental health is reported as significantly lower amongst Gen Z participants. Originality/value The research reinforces that there is often a negative view of “other” generations. Indeed, the findings here indicate there are often negative assumptions made about Gen Z. Importantly, these are not aligned with how Gen Z perceive themselves. The authors offer some reflections and recommendations for strategic HR approaches.

Technological change is a feature of contemporary life encompassing interactivity, collaboration and, above all, real-time content sharing and live streaming. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new dynamics in relation to digitisation and technology usage. Within organisations, these changes have been swift and profound, leading to online meetings, events and virtual team management. An explosion of literature has accompanied these changes and their human impacts. However, the generational and intergenerational issues remain under-examined and therefore constitute an important gap. The paper examines the literature on workplace technology, digitalisation and human impacts in relation to the COVID-19, and particularly, through the lens of different generational adoptive patterns. Taking an inductive qualitative approach, the paper's empirical focus is analyses of semi-structured questionnaire data from intergenerational senior executives. The findings showcase alternative understandings of technology in the late-COVID-19 era and of Xer generational (i.e. born 1961-1981) resilience and operational change dynamics. This allows a number of contributions and implications to be developed.

Purpose This study aims to examine the influence of neoliberalism and managerialism on the recruitment of tourism academics in the UK. The study analyses how sustainable the recruitment and retention of talents are in the tourism industry. Importantly, this study provides particular focus on sustainable tourism roles, as well as the impacts of COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative content analysis focuses on academic jobs in tourism advertised on Jobs.ac.uk between June 2020 and July 2021. Findings Study findings reveal how, in the case of the UK, current educational ideologies, including neoliberalism and managerialism, significantly influence curriculum and recruitment. Such an approach facilitates the hidden curriculum of undisciplined tourism programmes and significantly constrains the prominence of sustainability principles. The development of curriculum, student life course and recruitment of academics are influenced by several variables (personal, environmental, behavioural), which must be identified to enable decision-makers to engage in efficient planning. Originality/value This study provides a unique focus on the recruitment of tourism academics encompassing crucial factors like sustainable tourism and COVID-19. The proposed framework creates the foundation for the investigation and discussion of academics’ recruitment in different contexts. This study also offers several new avenues for future research.

Language bias is a common yet undiscussed practice that can significantly constrain the rigor and generalization of place-based studies and literature reviews. This article discusses how research published in English compared with other languages is considered or not when conducting literature reviews. This research focuses specifically on tourism research and explores specific journal article examples in the contemporary subject area of overtourism within destination-based studies. To do this, we take a critical linguistic, postpositivist approach to three case studies drawn from the literature on the phenomenon of overtourism. The study highlights how research in languages other than English is often discounted or omitted in academic fields that are dominated by English language publications. Nevertheless, our findings strongly support the proposition that place-specific research, to be rigorous and generalizable, should be supported by research carried out in relevant languages for its location. This research provides evidence that place-based research, based on literature from multiple languages and interdisciplinarity, can be reliable, valid, and trustworthy. The study also notes the recommendations for conducting literature reviews within place-specific research and avenues for future research.

This article discusses whether, as academics, we are behaving irresponsibly in the manner in which we deliver the much-vaunted Principles for Responsible Management Education. The Principles for Responsible Management Education constitutes an association and ethos which seeks to promote and infuse responsible management education into business schools and organisations. RME seeks to, inter alia, surface and challenge hegemonic neo-liberal and capitalistic meta-narratives with a view to replacing these with more value-driven, ethical, sustainable and corporately socially responsible education in business schools and business. In our article, we propose a more complementary approach – one in which Principles for Responsible Management Education/RME might work in parallel with dominant capitalistic perspectives. We do this by considering the impact of the hidden curriculum, sustainability competencies and related symbolization (through rankings and accreditations) all within the paradox-explanatory framework of organisational ambidexterity. The argument proposes that a paradoxical approach is needed that is aligned with both the capitalist norms of business society and yet, achieves the more socially orientated United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Business schools and Principles for Responsible Management Education can play an essential role in ensuring this happens. In essence, we hope to provoke thought, change and action towards the achievement of more socially and societally focused United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on which Principles for Responsible Management Education is predicated.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on the experience of attempting a “collaboratory” approach in sharing knowledge about leadership development evaluation (LDE). A collaboratory intertwines “collaboration” and “laboratory” to create innovation networks for all sorts of social and technological problems. Design/methodology/approach The authors, alongside a variety of public and private sector organisations, created the collaboratory. Within the process, the authors collected various forms of qualitative data (including interviews, observations, letter writing and postcards). Findings The findings show key areas of resonance, namely, the ability for participants to network, a creation of a dynamic shift in thinking and practice and the effective blending of theory and practice. Importantly, there are some critiques of the collaboratory approach discussed, including complications around: a lack of “laboratory” (hence bringing into question the idea of collaboratory itself), and the need to further develop the facilitation of such events. Originality/value The originality is to ultimately question whether the network actually achieved the collaboratory in reality. This study concludes, however, that there were some distinct benefits within our collaborations, especially around issues associated with LDE, and this study provides recommendations for academics and practitioners in terms of trying similar initiatives.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the real-life examples made by a single small and medium-sized enterprise to address organisational inequalities and develop a more inclusive culture. Design/methodology/approach This paper considers the approach taken by Punter Southall Aspire to manage their gender balance through a case study of documents, policies and interviews. Findings There is still plenty of work to do, but the multiple actions taken by the leadership have been positive, well-received and importantly progressive. By taking a focused approach to manage gender equality within an small and medium-sized enterprise, the outcome has been far reaching. Originality/value By showcasing the leadership and positive action within a single small and medium-sized enterprise, the authors hope other organisations are able to take inspiration to make their own changes.

Purpose Psychological resilience, defined here as the capacity to bounce back from adversity and failure, has been studied in various leadership contexts. However, the literature demonstrates less consensus concerning how psychological resilience manifests in, and interacts within, the leadership role and, equally, the focus on resilience development is underdeveloped. This paper addresses these issues by focusing on the interactions between psychological resilience and leadership and presents practical development strategies. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review employing 46 empirical studies followed a thematic synthesis within an associated model encapsulated as building-up resilience and being effective. Findings First, resilience is identified as essential and can benefit individuals and organizations' work outcomes across leadership contexts, including work performance, job engagement, well-being, and enhanced leadership capability. Secondly, leaders may build up their resilience by obtaining coping skills and improved attitudes toward challenges. Resilient attitudes, which are presented as paradoxical perspectives towards challenges, may help leaders adapt to challenges and adversities leading to beneficial outcomes. Research limitations/implications Even though this study provides a deeper understanding of the essential function of psychological resilience in leadership, the findings are limited to the workplace contexts investigated, e.g. exploring small sample sizes (13,019) or country contexts (22). Future research could expand the rhetoric around interactions between psychological resilience and leadership. Furthermore, the underlining mechanism between the paradoxical perspective and resilient attitudes is still largely unclear. Thus, more research is needed to disclose the interaction of paradoxical perceptions and leadership resilience. Further research can investigate how resilient attitudes demonstrate in actions in dealing with challenges and adversities. Practical implications The authors further an argument that leaders may enhance their resilience through embracing a paradoxical perspective towards challenges (resilient attitude), e.g. being adaptive to adversities, and the attitude of learning from failures. These enhanced resilient attitudes could help leaders deeper understand and examine their reality and persist under high pressures and develop an innate ability to utilise resources more effectively to help them survive and thrive in challenging circumstances, instead of becoming overwhelmed by the burden of complexity or giving up. This will offer a practical contribution to resilience development. Social implications Importantly, this study found that resilience is an essential leadership trait and can benefit individuals and organizations' work outcomes across leadership contexts. These positive effects of resilience may encourage organizations or society to promote psychological resilience, including a resilient attitude, to deal with adversities and uncertainties. Originality/value Fundamentally, the synthesized model applied may encourage further studies to focus on how to build up resilience and practically apply it in workplaces across leadership contexts. In particular, this study found that adopting paradoxical perspectives and ambidextrous leadership approaches toward adversities is an original resilience development strategy, which serves to contribute to the gap in the literature.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the establishment of a National Pension Tracing Day in an attempt to address the national problem of employees not telling their pension provider when they change address, which has resulted in £19.4bn in unclaimed pensions. Design/methodology/approach This paper considers the approach taken by Punter Southall Aspire to build employee engagement to trace lost workplace pension through a summative content analysis. This paper then applies an ambidextrous leadership lens to develop greater meaning. Findings The combination of a simple narrative, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach allowing cooperation across the industry and an engaging campaign allowed the first National Pension Tracing Day to build momentum and spread across the workplace. Originality/value The first National Pension Tracing day was established on 31 October 2021 by a small team within an small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). This paper attempts to raise awareness of how the lost pension challenge can be addressed for the purpose of future research.

Aim/Purpose: Grounded Theory (GT) has grown and developed into several strands making its application all the more problematic, argumentative and remaining potentially as a research methodology to avoid when it comes to doctoral research, early-career research. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to revisit GT as a general approach and present an evolved and more considered step-by-step guide to conduct research using this methodology. A leadership development context is applied in this paper to examine how this methodology could work for a new generation of researchers, i.e., new to doctoral research or an early career researcher. Background: Since its academic inception in the seminal text in 1967 (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), GT has emerged and developed to become a popular choice for researchers contemplating qualitative data approaches amongst a variety of subject backgrounds. However, the divergent development and criticized approaches within GT families can lead researchers to avoid such a research methodology. This can especially be the case within doctoral research or other early-career research. Indeed, a specific/explicit GT guideline or framework to assist doctoral students in conducting GT research does not currently exist. Methodology: There is a general review of GT approaches followed by theoretical development of a framework and an applied doctoral example. Contribution: The three evolved methods in GT research and the developed supporting author-designed three-phase research framework will contribute to two aspects. Firstly, the step-by-step guideline can reduce the sense of confusion within an area where criticisms and conflicting approaches exist. This will hopefully assist the next generation of GT researchers in conducting their research through detailed processes and applications. Secondly, there is arguably a need for more GT applications and evolvements to further enrich the body of knowledge that exists in this area and further support a diversity of subject research. Findings: The authors outline numerous differences and similarities within divergent GT practices. By integrating Glaser’s four core principles and three evolved methods, the authors design a three-phase research framework that presents a transparent step-by-step guide. This framework attempts to mitigate criticisms within GT approaches whilst maintaining clarity, flexibility, depth, and rigour within a study. Recommendations for Practitioners: Three GT evolvements (the two-step literature review method, two-step open-coding method, and two-step theory-constitute method) provides greater clarity within a rigorous author-designed three-phase research framework that demonstrates a transparent step-by-step guide. These techniques can encourage a new generation of GT researcher through confident and structured analytical techniques. Recommendation for Researchers: We hope the presented framework and concise view of GT in action will inspire other doctoral students and new GT researchers to conduct GT research following an evolved GT framework. Impact on Society: The debates and innovations around GT, like in this paper, are needed within a methodological society to keep the area contemporary and constantly evolving. Future Research: The framework presented will need further testing beyond the parameters set out here. We hope future research can adopt the evolved GT techniques and procedures to enforce research quality overall and inspire further GT methodological developments.