Mary Barrett

Emergence, change and precarious systems: A new lens on people and organisation

Helen M. Hasan et al. — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:20:44 PDT

Book Review: Leadership Studies: The Dialogue of Disciplines

Mary Barrett — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:20:43 PDT

This volume of insights from US scholars of leadership provides an interesting and eclectic addition to Edward Elgar’s New Horizons in Leadership Studies Series. Previous volumes in the series have been dedicated to more closely defined topics such as leadership’s relationship with capitalism, moral decision-making, democracy, dissent, the Russian view of leadership, and so on. In contrast, this volume explores leadership through various disciplinary lenses: classics (that is, ancient Greek and Roman culture and politics), philosophy, history, sociology (two chapters), psychology, management, education (two chapters), political science, literature and art. Each of these chapters does an excellent job of explaining how a particular discipline contributes to an understanding of leadership. As a spare-time painter, I was intrigued by the final chapter in this section: Anu M. Mitra’s ‘Learning how to look: The art of observation and leadership development’. This chapter shows how art and the practice of looking at and interpreting art works can teach us ‘to see comprehensively, accurately and contextually’. By learning to look at something as if for the first time, as da Vinci did, we can discover ‘how each of us is able to empower ourselves to express our full potential as leaders in our field of inquiry’.

New theoretical perspectives on family business entrepreneurial behavior

Mary Barrett et al. — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:20:42 PDT

Family business leaders are often characterized as entrepreneurs (Aldrich and Cliff 2003 ; Shepherd and Haynie 2009 ). In attempting to understand the entrepreneurial thinking of family firm leaders, scholars have typically borrowed from the extant literature on entrepreneurship, which traditionally emphasizes characteristics of individual entrepreneurs such as their personalities, propensity for risk-taking, personal values, and so on. 1 However as Aldrich and Martinez ( 2003 ) point out, there are changes afoot in how entrepreneurship is being studied, including (a) a shift in theoretical emphasis from the characteristics of entrepreneurs as individuals to the consequences of their actions, (b) a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs use knowledge, resources, and networks to construct and reconstruct fi rms, and (c) a more sophisticated taxonomy of environmental forces at different levels of analysis (population, community, and society) that affect entrepreneurship.

BCOM Asia Pacific Edition

Carol M. Lehman et al. — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:20:41 PDT

BCOM Asia Pacific Edition is specifically aimed at business students studying communication skills in a business degree. In today’s fast-paced business environment, communicating effectively with multiple audiences is more essential—and more challenging—than ever.

BCOM is a concise and engaging introduction to the principles of business communication. The text combines a strong emphasis on sound writing principles with practical coverage of real-world spoken, electronic, and written communication situations and strategies that play a vital role in modern business. BCOM is enriched with an abundance of model documents and local and global examples to help students translate communication theory into applied best practices.

A new approach to learning the principles of business communication, BCOM is the Asia–Pacific edition of a proven, innovative solution to enhance the learning experience. Concise yet complete coverage supported by a suite of online learning aids equips students with the tools required to successfully undertake a course in business communication.

Educating Teachers about the Complex Writing Processes of Preschool Students (Project)

Mary Kathleen Barrett — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:22 PDT

Preschool teachers traditionally view young children’s written literacy development as a linear continuum that progresses from making scribbles, to lines, to letter strings, to invented, and finally, conventional spellings on paper. This project seeks to change preschool teachers’ perceptions of children’s writing development to encompass a more broadened definition of literacy. On the path from emergent to conventional writing, young children naturally negotiate and mediate a number of symbol systems in order to make sense of their worlds and create meaning as they come to understand the complexities and intricacies of the writing process. Exploration of these symbol systems is a crucial step for children to come to understand written language. Unfortunately, with a push for teaching basic skills in the preschool classroom in preparation for the demands of kindergarten, the focus in most classrooms does not lie in an appreciation for these multiple symbol systems. This project, professional development for preschool teachers, will equip educators with knowledge of young children’s complex meaning-making processes and with practical resources, methods, and ideas for the classroom that are sensitive to children’s diverse paths to literacy.

Inside the 'black box': women accountants in small firms

Glenda Strachan et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:19 PDT

Research on womenÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¿s employment conditions has been based on the experiences of women in largeorganisations. There is little information about womenÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¿s employment and their employment conditionsin small businesses. This paper is the first and preliminary analysis of a segment of the findings from asurvey of CPA Australia members working in small firms. The paper reports on employmentconditions that may assist women to combine paid work and family care responsibilities such asparental leave and family care leave, as well as part-time work. The research concludes thatemployment in small firms does not offer these conditions as extensively as large firms.

Organisational factors and Australian ICT professionals' views of wireless network vulnerability assessments

Mary Barrett et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:17 PDT

Paradoxes and pathways to learning family business leadership

Ken Moores et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:14 PDT

The paper reports on a qualitative analysis of case studies and learning narratives of CEOs of successful family firms (FCBs) to understand how they undertake the learning necessary for their leadership roles. A review of the literature on leadership theory and learning shows specific theoretical gaps and tensions in leadership theory that are important for understanding theoretical and practical issues in how leadership is learned in the FCB context. Specifically, the intangible resources of FCBs, especially high levels of trust, reliance on networks, and specific knowledge management practices, which are the basis of their competitive advantage, also affect how they need to be led, and how leaders acquire the skills to lead them. Results showed family firm CEOs followed four discrete, sequential learning phases, each characterized by a specific learning priority. The family nature of the firm meant each learning priority had a specific paradox: truths or realities held in tension or contradiction. Successful family firms had devised particular pathways through each learning paradox to achieve the learning priority for each phase. Results are summarized in a framework which we use to discuss other patterns in the learning process and to link our work with other research. We conclude with propositions for further research.

Australia: the challenge of father-daughter succession in family business: a case study from the land down under

Mary Barrett et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:06 PDT

Gender and communication at work: an introduction

Mary Barrett et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:04 PDT

Gender diversity and family firm governance: Towards a research agenda

Mary Barrett et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:02 PDT

Diversity has recently become an important topic in the context of corporate governance, particularly in view of the low percentage of women represented on company boards. While evidence is emerging suggesting that gender diversity on boards is associated with increased organizational financial performance, it is not clear that this is a causal link. We outline various theoretical lenses relevant to the area of corporate governance to distil recurring themes pertinent to potential predictors of women’s board membership in privately-held firms. We summarize as research propositions the special characteristics and circumstances of family controlled businesses (FCBs) and how their governance models are likely to affect female board membership, especially in terms of whether they make the board more conducive to female participation than in more widely held corporations.

Women's entrepreneurship in Australia: present and their future

Mary Barrett — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:43:00 PDT

Just don't call me a feminist: Senior and junior women managers' perceptions of communication dilemmas at work

Mary Barrett — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:42:58 PDT

Barrett (2004) found senior women managers evaluated workplace communication strategiesdifferently according to whether they thought a man or a woman was using the strategy. Butorganisationally junior younger women often reject overt feminist standpoints and might evaluatethese strategies differently. To test this, 255 junior women managers evaluated strategies for the samedilemmas older women had. When evaluating strategies for short and medium term dilemmas (egbeing interrupted, getting credit for an idea), junior women managers evaluate less than older womenmanagers on the basis of the communicatorÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¿s gender. However with longer term dilemmas (eg gettingachievements noticed for promotion), junior women managers avoid some strategies they believe areeffective, and which they think men would use. Implications and limitations of these findings andfurther research possibilities are discussed.

Australia: The challenge of father-daughter succession in family business: A case study from the land Down Under

Mary Barrett et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:42:56 PDT

This chapter examines the case of an Australian woman, Roz, who succeeded her father as the CEO of a large fourth generation family business, "Hawkins Family Group", in the traditionally male-dominated transport industry. The case is described in three phases. First, we outline Australian culture and how it influences business life, including the position of women in the Australian workforce especially as managers and entrepreneurs. We then describe the history of the Hawkins Family Group and how Roz eventually came to lead it. Finally, we return to aspects of Australian values and culture and other literature to draw conclusions about the case. The chapter ends with a discussion of limitations and suggestions for further research.

Looking anew at women¿s entrepreneurship: How the family firm context and a radical subjectivist view of economics helps reshape women¿s entrepreneurship research (Women Entrepreneurs in Family Business: A Radical Subjectivist View)

Mary Barrett et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:42:52 PDT

Taking care of (e)-business? Australian IT professionals' views of wireless network vulnerability assessments

Keir Dyce et al. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:36:08 PDT

M-commerce, a growing sub-category of E-business, allows business to be done 'anywhere, anytime'. However security of wireless devices remains problematic. It is unclear whether protocols to alleviate security problems, such as wireless vulnerability assessments (WNVAs), are being used or are effective. The paper reports on a survey-based study of Australian computer security professionals' use of and opinions about two types of WNVA: wireless monitoring and penetration testing. An initially surprising finding was how little both types are used, despite the ease with which wireless networks can be attacked and the fact that penetration testing is fairly well understood. In the light of organizational culture the survey findings become more explicable. Senior management, and even IT staff, may still hold a traditional, 'wired network' view of their organization. Aspects of organizational culture also appear to limit the way WNVA users go about the assessment process. A cultural shift could help change users' perceptions about the risks and rewards of WNVAs. This could threaten IT staff's professional identity, however, and needs further research.

Doing hard labour: gendered emotional labour in academic management

Linda Hort et al. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:36:07 PDT

This paper explores, from the authors' experiences, emotional labour as gendered experience in the area of university management in Australia. University work (teaching and research) clearly involves high levels of emotional labour. Commitment, passion and curiosity in the self and created in others are keys to developing and transmitting knowledge. But what of the managerial roles within universities? To explore the gendered nature of managerial work in the university context, the authors related to each other three critical incidents associated with their work as senior managers. These narratives were explored to determine themes within our experiences. Some of the new forms of emotional labour found in our critical incidents suggest a need for further research and theorising. For example, our stories revealed a common theme of high levels of self-monitoring. We found that high levels of self-monitoring in this context entail endless self-questioning of how we might be doing the job, at least doubling the work requirements, time and energy invested. This self-monitoring often leads to self-punishment and selfdeprecation and the conduct of 'repair work' when perceiving that one has behaved 'badly'. We found it also led to self-justification and deficits in credits or the let offs given for perceived transgressions. Other similar experiences are explored in the paper. We conclude by analysing these experiences as a part of the identity construction of women as managers and raise the inherent contradiction that this identity formation presents. A final discussion of our methodology raises issues of self-disclosure and authenticity and concludes by noting that many of the issues we have raised remain unresolved but are deeply embedded in our everyday experiences as women managers in academia.

Spotlights and shadows: Preliminary findings about the experiences of women in family business leadership roles

Mary Barrett et al. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:36:06 PDT

In an earlier study (Moores &amp; Barrett 2002) we found successful CEOs had learned leadership of family controlled businesses (FCBs) in a series of distinct learning phases. Because that study's sample did not include many women, our present study focuses on women in FCBs to better understand how they exercise leadership and entrepreneurship in the family firm context. Case study analysis of an international sample of women FCB leaders, using frameworks which avoid essentialist assumptions about women's and men's approach to leadership, suggests there are some characteristic ways women leaders learn FCB leadership and entrepreneurship roles. We have tentatively labelled them stumbling into the spotlight, building your own stage, directing the spotlight elsewhere, and coping with shadows. Some interviewees had failed to attain leadership; we labelled their journey becoming invisible. This paper uses Eisenhardt's (1989) framework to elaborate on the stumbling into the spotlight and coping with shadows journeys and what can be learned from them.

Research as Praxis: a research mentoring platform for academic women

Mary Barrett et al. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:36:04 PDT

In response to the continuing under-representation of women in academic positions of higher rank, the Faculty of Commerce and the Employment, Equity and Diversity unit at the University of Wollongong jointly supported a Women in Commerce Research Platform (WICRP) with the view to increasing research of women in commerce. We describe the WICRP and evaluate it in the context of prior research related to the specific challenges faced by female academics. The WICRP pilot period was reviewed using surveys and open ended questions and our findings are generally consistent with prior research. This paper draws on these findings and in writing about them (both as researchers and participants) we focus on the role of research as praxis. We discuss the potential impact of specific strategies to support academic women in research and its contribution to the ideal of community. In suspending methodological and theoretical differences we note the imperative for a shared space to also accommodate diversity as an empowering strategy. Just as dichotomies between work and family need to be problematised, so must the differentiation between research, teaching and administration in evaluating career progression.

Understanding Tensions and Conflict: A phases of learning approach to family business

Ken Moores et al. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:36:02 PDT

Tensions inevitably arise from time to time in most business settings. But in family businesses these tensions potentially can be especially acute and even result in the cessation of the enterprise. These tensions manifest at various times and for many reasons but they generally arise when the business is undergoing a transition. Understanding these transitions and how to prepare for them enable family business leaders to lessen the threats to survival. In this paper we present results from our research into the transitions that Australian family firms typically experience and how they influence four key stages of learning for family business leaders seeking to discover pathways for managing the paradoxes they confront.