Pub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1177/00187267251398388
Jean-François Harvey
How can leaders guide diverse organizations to work together on society’s biggest challenges when power is unevenly distributed? Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) bring together companies, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to address complex problems, yet their success hinges on how leaders navigate competing interests and shifting power dynamics. This study examines a high-profile CSP involving a Fortune 500 company, two international development organizations, and an NGO. Drawing on Mary Parker Follett’s ideas about “power-with” and “power-over,” I show how NGO leaders combined collaborative and more coercive tactics to move the partnership forward. My analysis reveals that responsible leadership (RL) in CSPs is not a static trait or style but evolves through a dynamic choreography of power as challenges and priorities change. The findings offer practical lessons for leaders seeking to balance ethics, inclusion, and influence in multi-stakeholder collaborations, and they extend theory by reframing RL as a shifting, context-sensitive process rather than a fixed style.
{"title":"Enacting responsible leadership in cross-sector partnerships: A dynamic choreography of power","authors":"Jean-François Harvey","doi":"10.1177/00187267251398388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251398388","url":null,"abstract":"How can leaders guide diverse organizations to work together on society’s biggest challenges when power is unevenly distributed? Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) bring together companies, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to address complex problems, yet their success hinges on how leaders navigate competing interests and shifting power dynamics. This study examines a high-profile CSP involving a Fortune 500 company, two international development organizations, and an NGO. Drawing on Mary Parker Follett’s ideas about “power-with” and “power-over,” I show how NGO leaders combined collaborative and more coercive tactics to move the partnership forward. My analysis reveals that responsible leadership (RL) in CSPs is not a static trait or style but evolves through a dynamic choreography of power as challenges and priorities change. The findings offer practical lessons for leaders seeking to balance ethics, inclusion, and influence in multi-stakeholder collaborations, and they extend theory by reframing RL as a shifting, context-sensitive process rather than a fixed style.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145752964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Why do so many organizations fail to respond to crises effectively, and what can be done to improve their crisis response? We aim to address these questions by developing a typology of boundaries that can help us understand and better prepare for future crises. Building on the existing literature on crisis management and boundaries, our typology seeks to address the critique of current crisis management models, such as these being too prescriptive and placing too much emphasis on assumptions that only the decisions made by the crisis management team (i.e., centralized decisions) will impact the crisis response. We address this critique by elaborating on four categories of boundaries that are relevant to manage crisis response, such as physical, mental, social, and temporal. Examples of these boundaries could include access to properties (physical), interpreting whether a crisis is happening (mental), shifting relationship dynamics (social), and the urgency of response time to a crisis (temporal). Our typology offers a lens to consider crisis management by taking into consideration the complexities and nuances that linear crisis management models have not yet adequately addressed. We argue that by identifying, defining, and understanding different configurations of boundaries, one can better manage crises toward a desired outcome.
{"title":"Toward a typology of boundaries in crisis management","authors":"Rachel Estey, Kristina Potočnik, Lila Skountridaki","doi":"10.1177/00187267251391692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251391692","url":null,"abstract":"Why do so many organizations fail to respond to crises effectively, and what can be done to improve their crisis response? We aim to address these questions by developing a typology of boundaries that can help us understand and better prepare for future crises. Building on the existing literature on crisis management and boundaries, our typology seeks to address the critique of current crisis management models, such as these being too prescriptive and placing too much emphasis on assumptions that only the decisions made by the crisis management team (i.e., centralized decisions) will impact the crisis response. We address this critique by elaborating on four categories of boundaries that are relevant to manage crisis response, such as physical, mental, social, and temporal. Examples of these boundaries could include access to properties (physical), interpreting whether a crisis is happening (mental), shifting relationship dynamics (social), and the urgency of response time to a crisis (temporal). Our typology offers a lens to consider crisis management by taking into consideration the complexities and nuances that linear crisis management models have not yet adequately addressed. We argue that by identifying, defining, and understanding different configurations of boundaries, one can better manage crises toward a desired outcome.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"169 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145673567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1177/00187267251396579
{"title":"Human Relations Reviewer of the Year Award 2025","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00187267251396579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251396579","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1177/00187267251397801
{"title":"Human Relations Paper of the Year 2025","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00187267251397801","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251397801","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"112 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1177/00187267251392802
Yasin Rofcanin, Zhijun Chen, Smriti Anand
As Human Relations continues to attract an increasing number of quantitative methods-based research submissions from scholars worldwide, ensuring the quality, coherence, and rigor of these contributions remains central to the journal’s mission. This editorial identifies the major challenges we observe in submissions and makes key recommendations for strengthening both theoretical and methodological foundations of quantitative submissions considered by the journal. Structured around two interconnected themes, “Enhancing theoretical rigor and contributions” and “Enhancing methodological rigor and research design”, the editorial encompasses topics ranging from conceptual framing and theoretical positioning to research design and analytic coherence. Drawing on collective editorial experience, we argue that theoretical and methodological rigor are not separate aspirations but joint foundations of impactful scholarship. We analyze past publications from the journal to offer actionable guidance to help authors align conceptual development with empirical execution. Altogether, we aim to demystify the review process, foster integrative thinking, and reaffirm the journal’s commitment to publishing research that is conceptually rich, methodologically robust, and socially meaningful.
{"title":"Beyond good ideas: Strengthening theoretical contributions and methodological foundations of submissions for Human Relations","authors":"Yasin Rofcanin, Zhijun Chen, Smriti Anand","doi":"10.1177/00187267251392802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251392802","url":null,"abstract":"As <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Human Relations</jats:italic> continues to attract an increasing number of quantitative methods-based research submissions from scholars worldwide, ensuring the quality, coherence, and rigor of these contributions remains central to the journal’s mission. This editorial identifies the major challenges we observe in submissions and makes key recommendations for strengthening both theoretical and methodological foundations of quantitative submissions considered by the journal. Structured around two interconnected themes, “Enhancing theoretical rigor and contributions” and “Enhancing methodological rigor and research design”, the editorial encompasses topics ranging from conceptual framing and theoretical positioning to research design and analytic coherence. Drawing on collective editorial experience, we argue that theoretical and methodological rigor are not separate aspirations but joint foundations of impactful scholarship. We analyze past publications from the journal to offer actionable guidance to help authors align conceptual development with empirical execution. Altogether, we aim to demystify the review process, foster integrative thinking, and reaffirm the journal’s commitment to publishing research that is conceptually rich, methodologically robust, and socially meaningful.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"359 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-29DOI: 10.1177/00187267251392384
Allan Lee, Joanne Lyubovnikova, Jakob Stollberger, Geoff Thomas, Yu (Jade) Han, Gary Schwarz, Jie Cao
How can a complicated, ambivalent relationship with a boss be both draining and generative? This paper challenges the view that leader–member exchange (LMX) ambivalence is solely harmful. Using the Challenge–Hindrance Stressor Framework, we examine how conflicting feelings toward a leader can be experienced as both constraining and motivating. We focus on epistemic motivation—the tendency to seek deeper understanding—as a key factor that shapes how followers process such ambiguity. Across three studies, LMX ambivalence was linked to two distinct outcomes: emotional exhaustion and voice. These associations operated through different ruminative pathways: affective rumination, characterized by intrusive negative thoughts, and problem-solving pondering, involving reflective sense-making. Followers higher in epistemic motivation were less inclined toward affective rumination and more inclined toward problem-solving pondering, thereby strengthening the link between ambivalence and constructive voice while softening its association with exhaustion. Our findings highlight the hybrid nature of LMX ambivalence and suggest that it does not uniformly undermine followers but can also be associated with adaptive engagement. By unpacking the interplay of ambivalence, rumination, and epistemic motivation, this research provides a more balanced account of the complexities of leader–follower relationships.
{"title":"Can’t get you o u t of my head: The stress-driven dual effects of LMX Ambivalence","authors":"Allan Lee, Joanne Lyubovnikova, Jakob Stollberger, Geoff Thomas, Yu (Jade) Han, Gary Schwarz, Jie Cao","doi":"10.1177/00187267251392384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251392384","url":null,"abstract":"How can a complicated, ambivalent relationship with a boss be both draining and generative? This paper challenges the view that leader–member exchange (LMX) ambivalence is solely harmful. Using the Challenge–Hindrance Stressor Framework, we examine how conflicting feelings toward a leader can be experienced as both constraining and motivating. We focus on epistemic motivation—the tendency to seek deeper understanding—as a key factor that shapes how followers process such ambiguity. Across three studies, LMX ambivalence was linked to two distinct outcomes: emotional exhaustion and voice. These associations operated through different ruminative pathways: affective rumination, characterized by intrusive negative thoughts, and problem-solving pondering, involving reflective sense-making. Followers higher in epistemic motivation were less inclined toward affective rumination and more inclined toward problem-solving pondering, thereby strengthening the link between ambivalence and constructive voice while softening its association with exhaustion. Our findings highlight the hybrid nature of LMX ambivalence and suggest that it does not uniformly undermine followers but can also be associated with adaptive engagement. By unpacking the interplay of ambivalence, rumination, and epistemic motivation, this research provides a more balanced account of the complexities of leader–follower relationships.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145614123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-26DOI: 10.1177/00187267251394567
Benjamin W. Walker, Nimbus A. Staniland, Jarrod Haar, Phoebe Turner, Gray Ryburn, Ryan Meachen
Although scholarly interest in minority employees has grown in recent years, Indigenous Peoples’ experiences of work still largely appear on the margins of management and organizational scholarship. For Indigenous employees, the interplay of colonialism and features of Indigenous cultures and communities can lead to distinct work experiences. We thus explore the question of how being Indigenous shapes life at work by reviewing findings from 127 empirical studies, spanning multiple Indigenous groups and scholarly disciplines. We canvas four factors that existing literature suggests are especially relevant for understanding Indigenous work experiences: colonialism and Indigenous employment ; the work-culture interface ; relationships ; and perceptions . We highlight how different constellations of these factors can lead Indigenous workers to experience the relationship between their Indigenous identity and their work as broadly synergistic , strained , or ambivalent . To conclude, we present a constructive critique of the literature on Indigenous employees, and in doing so, propose three key priorities for future research: engaging with the complexities of Indigenous identities, exploring the varied contexts in which Indigenous employees experience work, and developing solutions to common challenges Indigenous employees face at work.
{"title":"Indigenous employees’ experiences of work: An interdisciplinary review","authors":"Benjamin W. Walker, Nimbus A. Staniland, Jarrod Haar, Phoebe Turner, Gray Ryburn, Ryan Meachen","doi":"10.1177/00187267251394567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251394567","url":null,"abstract":"Although scholarly interest in minority employees has grown in recent years, Indigenous Peoples’ experiences of work still largely appear on the margins of management and organizational scholarship. For Indigenous employees, the interplay of colonialism and features of Indigenous cultures and communities can lead to distinct work experiences. We thus explore the question of how being Indigenous shapes life at work by reviewing findings from 127 empirical studies, spanning multiple Indigenous groups and scholarly disciplines. We canvas four factors that existing literature suggests are especially relevant for understanding Indigenous work experiences: <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">colonialism and Indigenous employment</jats:italic> ; <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">the work-culture interface</jats:italic> ; <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">relationships</jats:italic> ; and <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">perceptions</jats:italic> . We highlight how different constellations of these factors can lead Indigenous workers to experience the relationship between their Indigenous identity and their work as broadly <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">synergistic</jats:italic> , <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">strained</jats:italic> , or <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">ambivalent</jats:italic> . To conclude, we present a constructive critique of the literature on Indigenous employees, and in doing so, propose three key priorities for future research: engaging with the complexities of Indigenous identities, exploring the varied contexts in which Indigenous employees experience work, and developing solutions to common challenges Indigenous employees face at work.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145599926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-19DOI: 10.1177/00187267251394583
Vijayta Doshi, Paulina Segarra, Martyna Śliwa
This paper provides an interdisciplinary critical integrative review of research on precarious work. Based on a review of 311 records, we develop an integrated framework that brings together the antecedents, outcomes and responses to precarious work found in the literature. We also explain the discrepancy between the ideas of key influential thinkers about the existence of political potential of precarity, and the lack of fieldwork evidence that would suggest that this potential is coming to fruition. We highlight that prevailing theorisations do not take appropriate account of the historico-cultural embeddedness, or the intersectional experiences, outcomes of and responses to precarious work in different locations. We outline a pathway for future research, arguing for: (1) shifting the empirical focus of studies towards greater inclusion of members of currently under-represented geographical contexts , occupations and social groups , and towards appreciation of the different, context-specific forms, impacts and responses to precarious work; (2) developing a nuanced understanding of the experiences and outcomes of precarious work as an intersectional phenomenon; (3) decolonising our thinking about precarious work through engagement in reflexivity about the assumptions underlying the extant knowledge. Finally, we put forward policy recommendations for addressing the prevalence and impacts of precarious work worldwide.
{"title":"Precarious work: A critical review and a proposal for future research","authors":"Vijayta Doshi, Paulina Segarra, Martyna Śliwa","doi":"10.1177/00187267251394583","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251394583","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides an interdisciplinary critical integrative review of research on precarious work. Based on a review of 311 records, we develop an integrated framework that brings together the antecedents, outcomes and responses to precarious work found in the literature. We also explain the discrepancy between the ideas of key influential thinkers about the existence of political potential of precarity, and the lack of fieldwork evidence that would suggest that this potential is coming to fruition. We highlight that prevailing theorisations do not take appropriate account of the historico-cultural embeddedness, or the intersectional experiences, outcomes of and responses to precarious work in different locations. We outline a pathway for future research, arguing for: (1) shifting the empirical focus of studies towards greater inclusion of members of currently <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">under-represented geographical contexts</jats:italic> , <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">occupations and social groups</jats:italic> , and towards appreciation of the different, context-specific forms, impacts and responses to precarious work; (2) developing a nuanced understanding of the experiences and outcomes of precarious work as an <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">intersectional</jats:italic> phenomenon; (3) <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">decolonising</jats:italic> our thinking about precarious work through engagement in reflexivity about the assumptions underlying the extant knowledge. Finally, we put forward policy recommendations for addressing the prevalence and impacts of precarious work worldwide.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"180 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145545671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1177/00187267251385967
Matthew B Perrigino, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Marcello Russo
Everyone experiences major life transitions (e.g. relocation, job loss, birth of a child), and increasingly so as economic, technological, and social environments become more turbulent. Yet in accounting for how work-life decision-making associated with these transitions occurs, we argue that extant theory overfocuses on individual agency and rational thinking. In this article, we bridge an epistemological divide between the study of major life transitions and work-life decision-making by advancing a narrative theory of aberrant work-life navigation. Our theory overcomes blind spots around the study of “real life,” lived experiences, introducing work-life navigation as a messy, complex, and volatile process, capturing the ontology of how individuals experience major life transitions. We point out factors that inhibit rationality and constrain agency traditionally ascribed to work-life decision-making at the individual (intuitive and unconscious thoughts, emotions, impulsivity, and inaction) and contextual (work-life stakeholders, cultural norms, and regulations) levels. Further, we apply our theorizing to the most studied outcomes associated with major life transitions—work-life balance, conflict, and enrichment—to highlight how these are inherently subjective and, at times, determined by factors entirely beyond one’s control. We conclude by offering a future research agenda to empirically test our theory of aberrant work-life navigation.
{"title":"A Theory of Aberrant Work-Life Navigation","authors":"Matthew B Perrigino, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Marcello Russo","doi":"10.1177/00187267251385967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251385967","url":null,"abstract":"Everyone experiences major life transitions (e.g. relocation, job loss, birth of a child), and increasingly so as economic, technological, and social environments become more turbulent. Yet in accounting for how work-life decision-making associated with these transitions occurs, we argue that extant theory overfocuses on individual agency and rational thinking. In this article, we bridge an epistemological divide between the study of major life transitions and work-life decision-making by advancing a narrative theory of aberrant work-life navigation. Our theory overcomes blind spots around the study of “real life,” lived experiences, introducing work-life navigation as a messy, complex, and volatile process, capturing the ontology of how individuals experience major life transitions. We point out factors that inhibit rationality and constrain agency traditionally ascribed to work-life decision-making at the individual (intuitive and unconscious thoughts, emotions, impulsivity, and inaction) and contextual (work-life stakeholders, cultural norms, and regulations) levels. Further, we apply our theorizing to the most studied outcomes associated with major life transitions—work-life balance, conflict, and enrichment—to highlight how these are inherently subjective and, at times, determined by factors entirely beyond one’s control. We conclude by offering a future research agenda to empirically test our theory of aberrant work-life navigation.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145491831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1177/00187267251388629
Ive D. Klinksiek, Eline Jammaers, Laurent Taskin
Organisations are increasingly adopting activity-based working, replacing assigned desks and private offices with open, shared workspaces while shifting some tasks to employees’ homes. Management promotes these changes through explicit ‘efficiency-gain claims’ and subtler promises of flexibility and de-hierarchisation, thus making an implicit ‘inclusion-gain claim’. Drawing on 35 interviews, this study challenges the inclusion-gain assumption by examining activity-based working through the lens of visibility. The case of disabled workers reveals how the nature of disability and impairments complicate visibility in diverse and often ambiguous ways. Our findings show that while perceptions of diversity have increased with activity-based working, meaningful inclusion relies on universal flexibility and higher accessibility standards. Yet, disabled workers’ exclusion from the design phase resulted in retrofitting and exceptional territoriality, threatening inclusion. We contribute to the flexibility–visibility debate by showing that flexible organisational spaces not only influence the visibility of employees in terms of work recognition through spatial dispersion but also shape the visibility of embodied differences through spatial othering. Finally, this study reconceives disabled individuals and their allies not as passive users but as active re-designers of ableist workspaces, redefining visibility as a socially constructed, contested process shaped by the spatial and organisational structures of work.
{"title":"The inclusive potential of activity-based working: The case of disability","authors":"Ive D. Klinksiek, Eline Jammaers, Laurent Taskin","doi":"10.1177/00187267251388629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251388629","url":null,"abstract":"Organisations are increasingly adopting activity-based working, replacing assigned desks and private offices with open, shared workspaces while shifting some tasks to employees’ homes. Management promotes these changes through explicit ‘efficiency-gain claims’ and subtler promises of flexibility and de-hierarchisation, thus making an implicit ‘inclusion-gain claim’. Drawing on 35 interviews, this study challenges the inclusion-gain assumption by examining activity-based working through the lens of visibility. The case of disabled workers reveals how the nature of disability and impairments complicate visibility in diverse and often ambiguous ways. Our findings show that while perceptions of diversity have increased with activity-based working, meaningful inclusion relies on universal flexibility and higher accessibility standards. Yet, disabled workers’ exclusion from the design phase resulted in retrofitting and exceptional territoriality, threatening inclusion. We contribute to the flexibility–visibility debate by showing that flexible organisational spaces not only influence the visibility of employees in terms of work recognition through spatial dispersion but also shape the visibility of embodied differences through spatial othering. Finally, this study reconceives disabled individuals and their allies not as passive users but as active re-designers of ableist workspaces, redefining visibility as a socially constructed, contested process shaped by the spatial and organisational structures of work.","PeriodicalId":48433,"journal":{"name":"Human Relations","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145491833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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