Purpose -The effects of lean on employees have been debated ever since the concept was introduced. The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific literature on the effects of lean on the working environment and employee health and well-being. Design/methodology/approach -Relevant databases were searched for studies of lean and the working environment. In total, 11 studies with quantitative effects of lean are included in this review. The methodology and results are analysed to extract information about lean and the effects on working environment. Findings -There is strong evidence for the negative impact of lean on both the working environment and employee health and well-being in cases of manual work with low complexity. However, since examples of positive effects were also found in the literature, it is important to move from a simple cause-and-effect model to a more comprehensive model that understands lean as an open and ambiguous concept, which can have both positive and negative effects depending on the actual lean practice used on the shop floor.Research limitations/implications -The evidence remains limited with regard to the effect of lean on the working environment outside of manufacturing industry. The literature reflects, only to a limited extent, on the significance of implementation strategy and production context. Practical implications -Organizations working with lean should make efforts to avoid an impaired working environment for manual employees. Involvement of employees in lean's practical application is one possible way of developing a healthy working environment. Originality/value -This is the first paper to make use of the existing research evidence to examine the complex and ambiguous relations between lean and the working environment.

The spread of COVID‐19 acutely challenges and affects not just economic markets, demographic statistics and healthcare systems, but indeed also the politics of organizing and becoming in a new everyday life of academia emerging in our homes. Through a collage of stories, snapshots, vignettes, photos and other reflections of everyday life, this collective contribution is catching a glimpse of corona‐life and its micro‐politics of multiple, often contradicting claims on practices as many of us live, work and care at home. It embodies concerns, dreams, anger, hope, numbness, passion and much more emerging amongst academics from across the world in response to the crisis. As such, this piece manifests a shared need to — together, apart — enact and explore constitutive relations of resistance, care and solidarity in these dis/organizing times of contested spaces, identities and agencies as we are living–working–caring at home during lockdowns.

No abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore a visual method, snaplog (snapshots and logbooks) from a performativity theory approach. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses empirical examples from a three-year qualitative research project where snaplogs are used as an experimental method. The paper presents a reading of performativity theory and discusses the performativity of using visual methods in the research process. Findings -The paper concludes that visual methods have a special ability to activate the field in a way that avoids preconceived ideas, and creates possibilities to observe the researched phenomenon and how it practices, resists and revoices the questions asked by the researchers.Research limitations/implications -The paper explores and discusses the authors' experiences and reflections on the positioning and scope of using snaplogs as a visual method. It does not report a systematic evaluation of its implications. Practical implications -Snaplogs offer the researcher the possibility to activate and cooperate with the researched phenomenon. Originality/value -The potential value of the paper is that it offers inspiration to organization researchers looking for innovative/performative research methods.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to give concrete ideas to the development of MPA programmes in the light of the changing public sector. Following the introduction of ideas and practices from New Public Management, public managers face new requirements. The paper aims to deal with some of them and argues that in order to be a competent manager in the public sector today, one needs to be able to self‐develop four types of competence‐in‐practice: methodological competencies; theoretical competencies; meta‐theoretical competencies; and contextual competencies.Design methodology/approachThe approach in the paper is explorative and normative. The paper explores the changes and challenges in the public sector based on the aforementioned four types of competence‐in‐practice. Following that the paper presents a normative model for curriculum design and exemplify the development and possible processes of learning‐centered MPA programmes.FindingsThe paper finds that learning‐centred MPA programmes are fruitful for the development of said the types of competence‐in‐practice.Practical implicationsWith its particular focus on public sector management education this article may be relevant to curriculum developers, academics and practitioners interested in education and employability of public managers.Originality/valueThe paper shows that building on theories about learning, competencies, and curriculum development suggests a processual model for curriculum development that can inspire faculty members to develop learning‐centred MPA programmes where focus is learning and competence development.