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PurposeDespite the need for such, little scholarly attention has been paid to transdisciplinary enquiry into gender inequities in workplaces. The authors provide a pragmatic evaluation of the transdisciplinary research (TDR) model by Hallet al.(2012) for framing the study of this societal issue, shedding light on the challenges, principles and values that could usefully inform subsequent TDR in organisational settings.Design/methodology/approachThis paper evaluates the model in relation to TDR on gender inequities in New Zealand's public service by Hallet al.(2012) Content analysis on our reflective narratives from research team meetings, email exchanges, informal discussions and a workshop reveals TDR study insights. Findings show support for the model and its four broad phases and surface principles and values for applied TDR enquiry that addresses societal challenges in the organisational context.FindingsThe adoption of a TDR model to examine a study of equity in the public service revealed practical and conceptual challenges, encouraging ongoing reflection and adaptive behaviour on the researchers' part. The pragmatic evaluation also highlighted environmental constraints on undertaking TDR, with implications for the ambition of future studies.Research limitations/implicationsThis evaluative enquiry encourages similar research in other organisational and national settings to validate the use of TDR to gain insightful, contextualised understandings of social challenges centred in the organisational setting.Practical implicationsThis pragmatic evaluation of a TDR model's capacity to approximate the approach and phases of our applied enquiry lays the groundwork to refining TDR approaches used in subsequent studies aimed at addressing societal issues in the organisational setting.Social implicationsThis paper can potentially promote greater collaboration between research scholars and other stakeholders wanting to develop TDR paradigms and applied enquiry that can meaningfully inform workplace and societal impacts.Originality/valueThis pragmatic evaluation of a TDR approach involves its initial application to the study of equity at work and develops principles and values that could inform TDR paradigms and methodologies of subsequent enquiries in the field.

This chapter discusses One Welfare, which is an influential approach to understanding the vital relationship between human and animal welfare in a variety of industries and organizations around the world. One Welfare Aotearoa recognizes the need for both a trans-disciplinary approach and partnership with Māori (the tangata whenua or Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand), around human-nonhuman-environmental interfaces to do with human and animal health and welfare. The One Welfare concept extends beyond physical health, recognizing that human wellbeing, animal welfare, and the natural environment are all interconnected. The chapter introduces a research project on attitudes to companion animals in Aotearoa to discuss a Te Ao Māori approach to One Welfare. The research project involved a Whānau Ora (family wellbeing) collaborative action research case study between local educators, tertiary students, researchers, and the PatuTM Aotearoa gymnasium and its whānau (staff and members) who were predominately Māori, along with their pets. The chapter discusses the Whānau Ora study to show how Indigenous worldviews contribute to understanding human-animal relations in both research and in local bodies such as regional councils. A focus on human-kurī (dog) relations and the issue of dog registration illustrate the chapter’s arguments and contributions to developing animal organizational studies is discussed.

Posthuman affirmative ethics relies upon a fluid, nomadic conception of the ethical subject who develops affective, material and immaterial connections to multiple others. Our purpose in this paper is to consider what posthuman affirmative business ethics would look like, and to reflect on the shift in thinking and practice this would involve. The need for a revised understanding of human–animal relations in business ethics is amplified by crises such as climate change and pandemics that are related to ecologically destructive business practices such as factory farming. In this analysis, we use feminist speculative fiction as a resource for reimagination and posthuman ethical thinking. By focusing on three ethical movements experienced by a central character named Toby in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, we show how she is continually becoming through affective, embodied encounters with human and nonhuman others. In the discussion, we consider the vulnerability that arises from openness to affect which engenders heightened response-ability to and with, rather than for, multiple others. This expanded concept of subjectivity enables a more relational understanding of equality that is urgently needed in order to respond affirmatively to posthuman futures.

Editorial

This paper analyses a photographic essay of older adults and workers in a nursing home environment, as a day-in-the-life documentary photographic essay Who cares published in Kai Tiaki, Nursing New Zealand in 2006. We discuss the essay, which intended to make eldercare work more visible and valued. The purpose of this paper is to ask, 'Why were these photographs so uncomfortable to view, and why did they elicit such strong polysemous reactions from viewers?' We argue that in order to address this question, sites of eldercare may be understood as heterotopias, or places of exclusion from social norms. While the photographs were meant to make it possible for viewers to look into the daily reality of eldercare work, we suggest the visual essay instead acted as a heterotopic hall of mirrors, revealing tensions that obscured the labour value to viewers. As observers looked into the mirror of their own lives, the utopian discourse of a residential care 'home' was disrupted, as the idealised version of eldercare work we have become attuned to in the media was punctured by the powerful heterotopia of the photographic essay. This article illustrates the way in which eldercare work is made invisible through complex social processes involving sight and site related to contemporary visual and spatial practices of aging and eldercare.

Wearable technology (WT) use in organizations is accelerating despite ethical concerns about personal privacy, data security, and stress from increased surveillance. Technology media, a key producer of meanings about WT, gives some attention to these issues but they also routinely promote WT as if they are a panacea for employee wellness. We critically analyze 150 media articles to understand how they justify the adoption of WT into organizational life. We contribute by extending previous work on surveillance technology to show how and why WT media discourses use neo-liberal justifications to justify WT implementation. We explore implications including competing health and wellness discourses and make suggestions for further research.

Companion animals (CA) are seen as part of the family by their human guardians. However, guardians’ intense attitudes towards CA can lead to tensions with larger society. Recent scholarship has argued for more critical work exploring interspecies family relations. The present research is framed by previous scholarship exploring CA family relations and the role that storytelling about animals plays in developing ethical relations with animals. We examine 369 stories told by guardians of companion animals as part of a One Welfare study examining attitudes to companion animal welfare. Our analytical frame was a genre discourse approach sensitive to questions of animal ethics. Our theoretical contribution is to contribute a new sub-genre of domestic drama, more-than-human domestic drama. We explore the implications of this genre of family stories and why it matters beyond families to wider society.

We contribute to management and leadership education research by arguing that women’s literary fiction has been largely ignored in both scholarship and practice. We provide a systematic approach to...

BACKGROUND Montagnard refugees, an indigenous multilingual tribal people from Vietnam, experience lifestyle changes and post-resettlement challenges in the United States that contribute to chronic health conditions. Foundational research and health data are lacking. OBJECTIVES We describe the Montagnard Hypertension Study, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project documenting chronic disease risk. METHODS We developed a Montagnard dictionary of hypertension-specific terminology and conducted two focus group discussions (FGD), 131 biological assessments (blood pressure, height, weight, waist circumference, scalp hair and saliva sample collection), and 127 behavioral surveys. We implemented two health fairs that offered services to the community. LESSONS LEARNED This is the first study to examine chronic disease using a CBPR framework for Montagnard health. We highlight lessons learned specific to constituents and their capacities, historical and current conflicts, and the iterative processes in CBPR design. CONCLUSIONS CBPR is a practically achievable approach to studying chronic disease risk within indigenous, tribal communities, with implications for future research with Asian American subgroups and other minority populations.

This special issue of Culture and Organization is a Gedenkschrift – a commemorative publication – for our beloved friend and colleague Heather Hopfl, who died on 3 September 2014. Heather was Chair...