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Journal Articles | 2018

Target experiences of workplace bullying on online labour markets: Uncovering the nuances of resilience

Premilla D’Cruz and Ernesto Noronha

Employee Relations

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report a study of bullying on online labour markets (OLMs), highlighting how abuse unfolds in digital workplaces and depicting the trajectory of target resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology, targets’ lived experiences of bullying on OLMs was explored. Data gathered from Indian freelancers located on Upwork via conversational telephonic interviews were subjected to sententious and selective thematic analyses.

Findings

The core theme of “pursuing long-term and holistic well-being” showed how targets tapped into yet augmented their resilience while navigating the features of OLMs as they coped with their experiences of bullying. The interface between targets’ internal and external resources, including platform support, vis-à-vis the concreteness and permanence of the site as targets asserted agency, sought control and realized positive outcomes while preserving their reputation, relationality, success and continuity was captured. It may be noted that bullying in digital workplaces is exclusively virtual in form.

Research limitations/implications

Alongside theoretical generalizability, statistical generalizability of the findings should be established.

Practical implications

Recommendations for action for platforms and targets are forwarded. In particular, the critical role of formal workplace support in influencing employee resilience is emphasized.

Originality/value

The paper makes several pioneering contributions. First, it reports the first empirical inquiry examining bullying in digital workplaces. Moreover, OLM research on abuse and harassment has not been undertaken so far. Second, it furthers theorization of resilience, especially with regard to workplace antecedents. Apart from identifying the new organizational antecedent of formal workplace support, it uncovers the complexities of resilience. Third, it extends knowledge on workplace cyberbullying, positive outcomes of workplace bullying and OLMs in India.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Power, subjectivity and context in workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment: insights from postpositivism

Premilla D’Cruz, Ernesto Noronha, and Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal

Workplace bullying encompasses subtle and/or obvious negative behaviours embodying aggression, hostility, intimidation and harm. Generally characterized by persistence, these unwelcome acts are displayed by an individual and/or group to another individual and/or group at work, privately and/or publicly, in real and/or virtual forms (D’Cruz, 2015). Alternatively known as workplace emotional abuse or workplace harassment (and referred to as such henceforth), workplace bullying falls under the rubric of dysfunctional and counterproductive workplace behaviours (Fox and Spector, 2005) and is captured by metaphors of nightmares, demons, slaves and heart-brokenness (Tracy et al., 2006) which underscore its unbelievable, demoralizing, humiliating and damaging nature (Lutgen-Sandvik, 2005). It is not surprising, then, that workplace bullying is described as unethical behaviour which goes against universal social rules of acceptability (Ramsay et al., 2011).

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Journal Articles | 2018

Group identity in a network formation game with cost sharing

Pritha Dev

Journal of Public Economic Theory

This paper introduces the choice of group identity, which is comprised of characteristics and commitments to these characteristics, in a network formation model where links costs are shared. Players want to link to the largest group given that linking costs for players of the same (different) characteristic are decreasing (increasing) in their commitments. The equilibrium concepts used are Nash equilibrium as well as one that looks for stability allowing for bilateral negotiations. Conditions are shown under which the endogenous choice of characteristics and commitments allow for multiple groups with segregated or connected networks. When group identity is partly endogenous, such that characteristics are fixed and players only choose commitment, it is shown that the equilibrium population commitment profile dictates whether the resulting network is segregated or connected. When group identity is fully endogenous, it is shown that multiple groups and segregated networks are possible equilibrium outcomes but such outcomes are not stable unless the group size additionally affects the costs of link formation.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Networks of information exchange: Are link formation decisions strategic?

Pritha Dev

Economic Letters

This paper presents an empirical investigation into whether the decision to form a link with a node takes into account how well connected that node is. Given data in the form of a random sample from a network, this paper proposes a novel way to measure the degree of a node to adjust for mismeasurement and also controls for the endogeneity of this variable. It is shown that in fact the probability of forming a link with a node is increasing in the links received by that node but decreasing or unaffected by the links made by that node.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Stitching infrastructures to facilitate telemedicine for low-resource environments

Rajesh Chandwani and Neha Kumar

Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Telemedicine can potentially transform healthcare delivery in low-resource environments by enabling extension of medical knowledge to remote locations, thus enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the larger healthcare infrastructure. However, empirical studies have shown mixed results at best. We present a qualitative investigation of a long-standing telemedicine program operating from Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh, India). Invoking the lenses of human infrastructure and seamful spaces, we highlight the factors that determine the success of this telemedicine program. We identify and describe three important aspects: (1) conceptualizing telemedicine as the connectedness of two nodes rather than doctors and patients alone, (2) identifying the critical 'carrying agent' (local doctors at peripheral nodes) and engaging them in program design and implementation, and (3) ensuring co-creation by engaging patients in the process. Finally, we discuss how our lenses allowed us to recognize the seams made visible through the juxtaposition of the infrastructures at the central and peripheral nodes, and to emphasize the human elements that addressed these seams for ensuring the facilitation of a successful telemedicine program.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Telemedicine for low resource settings: Exploring the generative mechanisms

Rajesh Chandwani and Rahul De

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Information Communication and Technology for Health (ICT4H) initiatives, such as telemedicine, can potentially bridge the gap between the health care services available in rural and urban areas. However most of such initiatives have not been able to sustain or obtain optimal results. Comprehending knowledge about what drives success in telemedicine initiatives would be highly valuable for practitioners, policymakers and academicians. In this study, through a qualitative analysis of doctor-patient interactions over a telemedicine initiative in India, we attempt to identify the mechanisms that can enable successful telemedicine interventions. Based on the perspective of critical realism, we explore the phenomenon through the lens of ‘generative mechanisms’. Specifically, we identify three different mechanisms that underlie successful telemedicine, namely, (1) Mechanism of rich connectivity, which refers to the expanding scope of information flow between the nodes to include multiple aspects- clinical, managerial and technological; and both online and offline communication; (2) Mechanism of tutoring, which involves learning and skill development of the peripheral doctor; and (3) Mechanism of moulding, which concerns the moulding of naïve patients to expert patients, both in technology use and self management of disease. In addition, the paper demonstrates the efficacy of critical realism as a philosophical perspective for providing substantive insights in the field of ICT4H initiatives.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Exploring linkages between industrial innovation and public policy: Challenges and opportunities

Rakesh Basant

Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

It is widely understood now that innovation is critical for development and growth of an economy. World over, governments have worked with a variety of policies to encourage innovative activity. Significant research has gone into the analysis of the complex linkages between public policy and innovation. While this research has generated a lot of interesting insights, it has also identified several gaps in our understanding of these linkages. This article is an attempt to pool together some of the ideas that academic research has highlighted on the linkages between innovation and public policy and identify the current challenges as well as opportunities for meaningfully exploring these linkages further. While it draws a lot on existing studies, the article does not provide a comprehensive or rigorous review of the literature on this subject. It is, at best, a tentative attempt to provide a broad perspective on where we stand vis-à-vis our understanding on the relationship between innovation and public policy. And admittedly, it is one of the many perspectives that a researcher can potentially have on this complex relationship.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Food waste due to retail power in suppy chains: Evidence from Sweden

Ranjan Ghosh and Mattias Eriksson

Global Food Security

Trading practices such as the take-back agreement (TBA) can become a tool for retailers to exert coercive power over suppliers when market concentration is high. We explore the implications of TBAs for the Swedish bread industry using unique company data from a premium bread supplier and find that powerful buyers over-order and, thereby, waste. This supplier faced 30% returns on total volume produced in the period 2011–2015 and had to bear the entire cost of bread rejections, collection and disposal. It received payment only for bread sold to end-customers, not the quantity supplied. To our knowledge, this is first time there is substantial evidence of the negative consequences such trading practices lead to with respect to waste. The EU has been considering banning the practices of ‘forcing the supplier to pay for wasted product’ and ‘a buyer returning unsold food products to the supplier’. However, such behaviour is very difficult to prove, given that suppliers-buyers are either tied up with bilateral confidential contracts or operate under relational norms. Yet, TBAs are common in certain food supply chains, presenting a global challenge for prevention of food waste and requiring deeper policy engagement.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Employees' Provident Fund Organization: Empowering members by digital transformation

Ravichandran Narasimhan, Joy P. Vazhayil, and Sundaravalli Narayanaswami

Journal of Public Affairs

Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) was established by the Government of India with the purpose of ensuring financial and social security for industrial workers and their dependents. With more than 150 million accounts of its members, EPFO is the world's largest social security organization. Operational processes of EPFO were riddled with over emphasis on rules and regulations but were weak on transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency. Consequently, the primary purpose of social security of industrial employees was compromised. Business process reengineering combined with adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and social media brought a sea change to the functioning of EPFO. This paper documents the transformation of EPFO from a bureaucratic, opaque organization to a customer-centric, stakeholder-friendly, transparent, and accountable organization.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Estimating labour quality index for India.

Ravindra H. Dholakia

Journal of Labour Economics

Present paper provides a detailed critique of the traditional methodology of taking wage differential as equal to the differential of marginal productivity of labour and proposes to replace it by the differential of average productivity of labour types. The purpose in this paper is not to provide a concrete estimate of the labour quality index, but to discuss possibility of following an alternative method and expand the scope of measurement from the traditional age–sex–education classification to a wider range including some directly non-quantifiable labour qualities. The traditional method and the previous efforts made in India ignored classifications of workers based on the urban–rural residence, organized–unorganized sectors, public versus private sector employment, self-employed versus hired workers versus casual employees, and health and nutritional status. If all these qualitative aspects are properly considered, we can get a reasonably accurate marginal contribution of formal education, urbanization, privatization, self-employment and health and nutrition status of workers to the economic growth.

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IIMA