Katie Willocks - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Katie Willocks
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 2020
This study asks what behaviours might convert professional disturbances in maternity wards into o... more This study asks what behaviours might convert professional disturbances in maternity wards into opportunities for learning within healthcare and how that process is influenced by models of management and leadership. A framework of Cultural History Activity Theory helped to analyse moments of fractured collaboration in which uncertainty about roles and differences in professional status was a factor. Implications for professional learning are discussed along with the frames that might give coherence and utility to future research. We conclude that any interventions to support professional learning should reflect the broadly compassionate ethos that informs the commitments and activities of healthcare workers.
This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an ‘adapted’ action learning interv... more This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an ‘adapted’ action learning intervention (a change laboratory) introduced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, enabled learning and action to emerge within an educational programme. We utilise the theoretical lens of activity theory to illustrate the challenges and tensions of promoting and sustaining an employee wellbeing agenda. Follow-up questioning (Q) of key informants, using the insights (P – programmed knowledge) generated during the change laboratory provide evidence of learning (L). This provides insight into the learning and action that occured after the initial intervention. We explore employee wellbeing from a socio-cultural perspective and illustrate how action and learning are intertwined to produce goal-oriented outcomes. This socio-cultural perspective contributes to the theory of action learning by illuminating how activity is mediated by cultural means, the rules and tools operating in an activity ...
Managing Healthcare Organisations in Challenging Policy Contexts, 2021
Educational Action Research, 2019
British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 2011
Workforce challenges in the NHS have lead to maternity care assistants (MCAs) playing an ever-inc... more Workforce challenges in the NHS have lead to maternity care assistants (MCAs) playing an ever-increasing role in maternity services. However, with the development of the role of the MCA, it is important to recognize the potential for confusion regarding the tasks and responsibilities to be undertaken by the MCA. In some cases, uncertainty may lead to to role ambiguity and unclear boundaries between these two groups of staff. This article presents findings from a qualitative study into the perceptions of MCAs and midwives as to the role boundaries of the MCA. Findings illustrate that while many MCAs felt confident about the appropriate parameters of their practice, others recounted some instances when they had considered the boundary to be ambiguous. This article examines potential sources of this ambiguity, discusses some wider implications and offers some suggestions for more effective management of role boundaries to prevent ambiguity.
Management Learning
Across the globe, organisations are facing significant challenges and operating in increasingly v... more Across the globe, organisations are facing significant challenges and operating in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments. In the context of such complexity, effective leadership is ever more important. Recently, a body of work known as ‘Leadership as practice’ and leadership as practice development has been developed as a useful way of thinking about leadership that is shared across organisational members as opposed to being inherent in the traits of individual leaders. At present methodological approaches for capturing and exploring leadership as practice remain in their infancy. This article contributes to leadership learning by arguing that we can learn a great deal about how leadership unfolds and is developed in practice by utilising a theoretical framework called Cultural Historical Activity Theory. Data from two leadership workshops are drawn upon to demonstrate the value of Cultural Historical Activity Theory for making visible the specificitie...
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 2020
This study asks what behaviours might convert professional disturbances in maternity wards into o... more This study asks what behaviours might convert professional disturbances in maternity wards into opportunities for learning within healthcare and how that process is influenced by models of management and leadership. A framework of Cultural History Activity Theory helped to analyse moments of fractured collaboration in which uncertainty about roles and differences in professional status was a factor. Implications for professional learning are discussed along with the frames that might give coherence and utility to future research. We conclude that any interventions to support professional learning should reflect the broadly compassionate ethos that informs the commitments and activities of healthcare workers.
This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an ‘adapted’ action learning interv... more This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an ‘adapted’ action learning intervention (a change laboratory) introduced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, enabled learning and action to emerge within an educational programme. We utilise the theoretical lens of activity theory to illustrate the challenges and tensions of promoting and sustaining an employee wellbeing agenda. Follow-up questioning (Q) of key informants, using the insights (P – programmed knowledge) generated during the change laboratory provide evidence of learning (L). This provides insight into the learning and action that occured after the initial intervention. We explore employee wellbeing from a socio-cultural perspective and illustrate how action and learning are intertwined to produce goal-oriented outcomes. This socio-cultural perspective contributes to the theory of action learning by illuminating how activity is mediated by cultural means, the rules and tools operating in an activity ...
Managing Healthcare Organisations in Challenging Policy Contexts, 2021
Educational Action Research, 2019
British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 2011
Workforce challenges in the NHS have lead to maternity care assistants (MCAs) playing an ever-inc... more Workforce challenges in the NHS have lead to maternity care assistants (MCAs) playing an ever-increasing role in maternity services. However, with the development of the role of the MCA, it is important to recognize the potential for confusion regarding the tasks and responsibilities to be undertaken by the MCA. In some cases, uncertainty may lead to to role ambiguity and unclear boundaries between these two groups of staff. This article presents findings from a qualitative study into the perceptions of MCAs and midwives as to the role boundaries of the MCA. Findings illustrate that while many MCAs felt confident about the appropriate parameters of their practice, others recounted some instances when they had considered the boundary to be ambiguous. This article examines potential sources of this ambiguity, discusses some wider implications and offers some suggestions for more effective management of role boundaries to prevent ambiguity.
Management Learning
Across the globe, organisations are facing significant challenges and operating in increasingly v... more Across the globe, organisations are facing significant challenges and operating in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments. In the context of such complexity, effective leadership is ever more important. Recently, a body of work known as ‘Leadership as practice’ and leadership as practice development has been developed as a useful way of thinking about leadership that is shared across organisational members as opposed to being inherent in the traits of individual leaders. At present methodological approaches for capturing and exploring leadership as practice remain in their infancy. This article contributes to leadership learning by arguing that we can learn a great deal about how leadership unfolds and is developed in practice by utilising a theoretical framework called Cultural Historical Activity Theory. Data from two leadership workshops are drawn upon to demonstrate the value of Cultural Historical Activity Theory for making visible the specificitie...