looking at looks – self-management, emotions and spatio-temporal arrangements of students

7/29/2019 Looking at looks – Self-Management, Emotions and Spatio-Temporal Arrangements of Students

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Benjamin Schoelzel | 2013.01.09

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Looking at looks – Self-Management, Emotions and Spatio-Temporal Arrangements of

Students

In the process of writing this paper I faced countless interruptions: the urge to fulfil basic

human needs, e.g. sleeping; as well as more negligible ones, for example distractions easily

accessible via mouse click (e.g. social networks) or chitchatting with friends. Procrastination

is a term known to most students and the author writing these lines has some familiarity with

the underlying concept: to prioritise less urgent tasks over more pressing ones. Despite the

wide array of topics covered in organisational research, less traditional research areas outside

institutionalised organisations (e.g. atypical employment situations) are not the primary focus

of most inquiries. Students are on one hand accustomed to a bureaucratic institution – their

university – yet also encounter a high level of self-organisation and the need to self-manage

in order to become independent learners. This paper will review research on changes in

working environments and current contemporary societal trends, and will then use a visual

research method – pictures of students studying – to assess their feelings, spatial set-up and

their work ethic in conjunction with a follow-up interview. A self-reflection of the research

will interweave research findings with the author’s personal experience and assess the

insights gained using pictures as visual research method.

Literature review

Post-bureaucracy

It is argued that contemporary (Western) society is turning post-bureaucratic (Grey, 2009;

Raelin, 2011). This involves a shift from formal power and control, as in a hierarchy, to

informal means of control and more decentralised ways of organising. Consequently,

responsibility is increasingly located within the individual and social norms grow in

importance in controlling work behaviour. This is reflected in the post-bureaucratic

organisation having the following characteristics (Grey, 2009: 86):

Shared values as the decisive factor to act upon.

Competence as most important in assigning tasks (meritocracy).

Spatial and temporal removal of workplaces.




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Culture & self-management

Social norms allowing these characteristics are partly implemented (successfully or

unsuccessfully) by culture management, which inter alia results in an internalised and

continuous feeling of panoptic surveillance leading to self-management (sensu Grey, 2009:

77 f.). A different picture of self-management is portrayed by Alvesson & Willmott (2002)

with self-management removing hierarchical restrictions, albeit the possibility of increased

stress and job insecurity. Despite these dichotomous valuations of self-management, Grey

(2009) as well as Alvesson & Willmott (2002) describe self-management as part of

organisational culture. Besides, growing interconnectivity and engraining corporate values

into employees have increasingly allowed to work from remote places, e.g. home (Hancock,

2006; Hislop & Axtell, 2009). Overall, the installation of post-bureaucratic organisations is

not solely perceived in terms of empowering employees, but also as setting-up a system of

intrinsic controls. Concomitant, the rise of the knowledge worker and increasing

interconnectivity resulted in less direct managerial control, heightening the need to have self-

managed employees.

The management of everyday-life

Despite a bias towards the workplace as the place to work and the only place being

influenced by management, several researchers (Grey, 2009; Hancock & Tyler, 2008) pointout that organisational studies are interwoven with the political and socio-cultural sphere.

According to Hancock & Tyler (2008: 30), “management increasingly has the capacity to

influence, and in part configure, everyday life activities and experiences formally external to

those of the work organization”. However, “the majority of the research and scholarship to

have emerged from [Critical Management Studies] remains almost exclusively focused on the

formally constituted workplace[, thus acknowledgment of] potentially pernicious effects of

various aspects of management on wider social processes” remains limited (Hancock &

Tyler, 2008: 33). It is thereof of interest to see how people in undefined work-relationships

(e.g. students) deal with a lack of organisational compulsion.

The shifting nature of workplaces

The spatial and temporal removal of workplaces – a characteristic of post-bureaucratic

societies – has consequences for employees working outside the perimeters of their

organisation. Hislop & Axtell (2009) found that tasks influence the choice of workspace for

multi-location workers, i.e. employees spending a considerable amount of time working

outside their designated office space (e.g. consultants). Several tasks are excluded from




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certain workplaces as the surroundings prohibit the execution of work, e.g. due to social

norms. Aside from this, task and work management for multi-location workers also happen

on a spatio-temporal level, as employees not only have to decide on where to do what task,

but also when to be where doing what task. These work-space relations are mediated by

social norms. Consequently, tasks, place and time are interdependent.

Post-bureaucratic organisational forms have brought with them: shared values, meritocracy

and the spatial and temporal remove of workplaces. The dislocation of work and the

workplace is cause and result of societal changes, with an increasing computerisation of work

allowing working from remote locations. This has created the need for self-managed

employees, which can be achieved by having a strong organisational culture in place. This

coincides with multi-location workers that interact with spaces to create workplaces and

ascribe meaning to their environment. Despite these contemporary trends, wide arrays of

organisational research revolve around the modern conception of work and the workplace as

being separated from private life and tied to a specific location. Students are in an ambiguous

position with regards to their social as well as spatial work environment: they are not part of

active identity forming processes in a distinct work location, yet they face deadlines and the

need to be self-motivated and self-managed not to miss these. This dichotomous relationship

is the focus of this paper.

Research design

As outlined above, the face of contemporary work is changing, yet organisational research is

still biased towards modernistic forms of organising work. Students are facing a similar

work-environment: wide arrays of their work have to be done self-managed. Using pictures

taken with a webcam, it will be analysed how students construct workplaces and how they

implement self-management. Additionally, their emotional expressions will be assessed and

discussed to get an insight into their perception of their work.

Stages in the research process:

1. Two programmes (“WebCamImageSave”, www.nirsoft.net & “Auto Screen Capture",

www.autoscreen.sourceforge.net) were downloaded onto participants’ laptops.

2. The programmes were set-up to take pictures every 15 minutes.

3. Images were discussed with the participants in a semi-structured interview: a hybrid

mode of analysis according to Vince & Warren (2012).

http://www.nirsoft.net/



http://www.autoscreen.sourceforge.net/







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4. Images were, after participants’ agreement, transferred onto the researcher’s laptop

for further analysis resulting in data generation through the image (cf. Vince &

Warren, 2012).

5. The study finds that participants perceive themselves as hardly self-managed;

distractions are more tied to their close vicinity; and spatial settings influence – and

are influenced – by the work done.

Analysis & methodology

Using the webcam of their laptops, two students reading undergraduate degrees at a British

university were researched. Photos were taken in a time interval of 15 minutes while

simultaneously creating a screenshot with participants writing a work log. The research was

conducted on two different days, with students knowing of being researched, as well as

voluntarily picking dates where they planned on immersing themselves extensively in work.

To make sense of the data collected, follow-up interviews with both students in their

respective study rooms were conducted (photo-elicitation). The pictures were analysed in a

threefold way:

Effectiveness of self-management.

Emotions via looking at the pictures taken with the participant.

Space and surroundings loosely according to Taylor & Spicer’s (2007) work .

Self-management

Perceptions of being self-managed were explored verbally in both interviews by looking into

the degree of organisation and the structuration of everyday life.

Emotions

Emotions are an innate part of human beings, yet “the dominance of rationality in Western

[masculinist] thought (…) has led to the relative neglect or dismissal of emotions as

‘irrational’, private, inner sensations” (Williams & Bendelow, 1996 cited in Sturdy, 2003:

85); resulting in emotions not being a conscious aspect of research. This is due to emotions

being diametric to the idea of the rational, managed organisation. It is nevertheless of

importance to analyse emotions, and an increasing interception of work and private life

encourages a glance into emotions of participants while working/not working.




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Space

According to Taylor & Spicer (2007), academic research into spatial structures has identified

three constructions of space: space as distance, space as materialised power relations and

space as experience. The first conception treats space as the physical distance/proximity it

stands for. However, solely regarding space as physical distance omits the social construction

of meaning to space, as well as how space shapes power. This is remedied in the second

conception of space as materialised power relations. This idea is for example represented in

assigning larger offices to higher ranked employees. Yet, a sole focus on space as power

ascribes power relationships to all kinds of spatial arrangements, thence neglecting other

processes configuring spaces. Additionally, it omits the process by which inhabitants explore

the space and ascribe meaning to it. This shortcoming is addressed in treating space as

experience. This social constructivist point of view ascribes meaning to space by the

individuals that inhabit it. Research of this kind revolves around linguistics and semiotics,

albeit leaving the other two perspectives aside.

Research methods and justification

Pictures were identified as most suitable research method, as they literally allow a snapshot

while limiting the amount of data gathered, contrary to film. Additionally, using participants’

laptop cameras captured their facial expression, work location and time spent in front of theirlaptops. Together with follow-up interviews and iterative screenshots, this approach allowed

delving into participants’ emotions while they were working and simultaneously offered a

quantitative glance into the work done. Neither projective drawing nor crafts would have

allowed researching actual spatial settings, or elicited an insight into participants’ facial

expression when working. Consequently, researching into self-management, spatio-temporal

arrangements and emotions could only be achieved by using photos, screenshots and a

follow-up interview. Overall, pictures of the participants allowed researching their location

and surroundings, their emotions and offered a quantitative glance into work done.

Without feedback from the participants and discussing the pictures, these would have

remained a relict without context and hence provided little or no insight (vide Vince &

Warren, 2012). Downsides of pictures are their selectivity with regards to time taken and

frame taken, i.e. little longitudinal insights and exclusion of wide parts of the environment.

Aside from this, due to confidentiality, none of the pictures used for this research can be

published and made accessible to further elaborate on the findings and allow for a critical

debate (e.g. to access polysemic meanings). Another downside is that participants might have




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behaved differently, with one participant denying a change in behaviour while the other

participant seemed to have felt some sort of obligation to justify deviant (i.e. not working)

behaviour. Both participants picked a day where they actually planned on studying. Pictures

of the workplace were not taken as the surroundings were not pivotal to this research,

although participants’ surroundings were discussed with them. The problem of ethics, as

pictures were automatically taken for an entire day, was solved by discussing in advance how

participants wished to hand over the images to the researcher: after reviewing them or

discussing them straight away with the researcher. Both participants agreed on discussing the

images without prior sightings with the researcher and all images were passed on to the

researcher.

This paper looks into reflections of contemporary changes in society in students’ lives. This

is achieved by taking pictures of two student participants throughout their workday, and then

ascribing monosemic meaning to these pictures by reflecting with the participants on these.

Three dimensions were used for this reflection: emotions, spatial-temporal settings and

efficacy of self-management. The selectivity and snapshot character of pictures is a drawback

of using these as visual research method, yet insights can be gained as they facilitate

discussions and allow the research of the three dimensions.

Research results

The research revealed that self-management was not perceived by participants as necessary,

although appears to be factually undertaken. Emotions seem to be an essential part of the

participants’ work, e.g. displeasure in one case and pleasure in the other; with both

participants ranging at the end of both extremes. Hislop & Axtell’s (2009) concept of multi-

location workers can be confirmed in this research with regards to both participants spatially

separating work; however a temporal separation, possibly also leading to the perception of

not needing self-management, cannot be confirmed. Both interviews were undertaken in the

respective study rooms.

Effectiveness of self-management

Both participants rejected claims that they self-manage their everyday-life. Participant 1

(2012) perceived no need for self-management, as his workload is not too high and he could

easily cut-down on leisure activities. Both participants described highly structured tasks as

easier to do, with participant 1 (2012) reasoning that he knows “the full infrastructure of thetask ”, and described a feeling of unease about tasks that were not structured. Besides,




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participant 1 (2012) was surprised by the time spent on Facebook (7 out of 61 screenshots

showed Facebook) and referred to "bad luck ” as possible explanation. However, he rejected

the claim that higher activity on Facebook (e.g. more news updates) would be detrimental to

his work spirit – his direct social surroundings (i.e. two flatmates) were more decisive in the

amount of work done. This was a finding not confirmed by participant 2 (2013), who

perceived noise as a distraction with then resorting to music to focus on work. Both

participants claimed not to be self-managed, yet this is incoherent to the findings of this

research: Participant 1 (2012) set himself a goal of six hours of work a day, while

simultaneously also setting daily goals of work to be done. Successfully finishing the day

meant fulfilling both. A similar, yet more flexible approach was pursued by participant 2

(2013), who shifted during the interview from stating not to plan his day at all to having “a

study plan in [his] head” and setting himself trailing daily goals. Participant 2 (2013) also had

his, usually unscheduled, dinner in front of his laptop while browsing or playing videogames

in order not to “waste” any time. Participant 2 (2013) also avoided working in front of his

laptop at all as “it's a disaster with a laptop”. How such a work ethic is promoted (e.g. via a

certain self-identity or social norms) could not be elevated and is a question for further

research.

EmotionsOf great interest were the facial expressions and emotions the participants displayed. Both

participants did not listen to music or undertook side tasks whilst studying as this would

reduce the effectiveness of them working (another hint on self-management), save menial

tasks. Participant 1 described his studies as not enjoyable and rested his forehead on his hand

with occasionally rubbing through his hair, "I think it is a, ahh, habitual way (…) of how I'm

feeling (…) it's just a habitual stress thing, I guess" (2012). He was generally looking forward

to finishing work. Contrary to this, participant 2 (2013), who expressed lower perceived self-

management and described his studies as enjoyable does not use any rewards to motivate

him.

Spatial and temporal arrangements

Participants structured their surroundings according to the task at hand, and flexibly adjusted

their daily routines according to the places accessible and the urgency of work to be done.

Participant 1 (2012) had a functional study room, with no distractions, save a globe not

having space anywhere else and his sports gear, both of these were “annoying” in his study

room. He also works in the living room sometimes, yet this is done in order to socialise more




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than to do serious work. He described the separation of his spaces and time by using the

following tautology: "I firmly believe, when I'm in the zone, I'm in the zone and you have to

facilitate that" (Participant 1, 2012). Participant 2 (2013) either studies in the library or in his

room with his room displaying an “environment that [he] likes”. Overall, the findings of

Hislop & Axtell (2009) appear to be transferrable to students and their organisation of spatio-

temporal arrangements.

Assessment of the research method

The use of pictures as visual research method proved highly valuable. The pictures revealed

information about the emotional state of both participants, and despite me knowing them

well, I learnt a lot about how they perceive their studies and the anxiety faced about their

future. Aside from this, I also realised despite describing myself as more self-managed than

both participants, I am not necessarily more productive and efficient in the use of my time as

I get distracted more easily. This can most likely be improved by reducing the tasks I am

facing and so mentally reducing the threshold to achieve a certain goal, which in turn would

increase my motivation and zeal to work towards this smaller, yet more attainable goal.

Research limitations

The research is limited in several ways. Firstly, work is not observed over an entire day, but

solely the work done in front of the laptop with one of the participants not using his laptop for

work. This was due to practical reasons as it was impossible to monitor students for an entire

day and due to privacy concerns. Nevertheless, this might bias results and not accurately

represent a normal working day for the participants. This assumption is further bolstered as

both participants voluntarily selected a day on which they would spend a considerable

amount of time studying. This effect is mediated by participant 1, who spontaneously

changed his schedule and started his work later that day – student work is to a considerable

degree revolving around flexibility and self-managed working times. In consequence,

participant 1 stayed up longer to catch up – a hint of a strong sense of obligation and self-

management in place. Secondly, the research is limited as participants knew they were

observed and adjusted their behaviour accordingly. Thirdly, the pictures taken are snapshots,

not catching every occasion and event happening. Additionally, the scenery captured is

limited. Another point to consider is the personal relationship of the researcher with both

participants. This had positive effects, as participants were more trusting towards the

researcher and agreed on handing over all pictures taken; yet it might also negatively affect

what participants did and what they said in their interviews as their social identity is already




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set with the researcher thence limiting anonymity and emotional distance. Overall, this limits

external validity and findings are not necessarily transferrable to other situations (e.g. to post-

modern employment situations).

The research provides insights into how students structure work, how they feel while working

and how they arrange their workplace.

References

Alvesson, M. & Willmott, H. (2002). ‘Identity Regulation as Organizational Control:

Producing the Appropriate Individual’. Journal of Management Studies, 39(5): 619-644.

Grey, C. (2009). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About

Studying Organizations. London: Sage.

Hancock, P. (2006). ‘The Spatial and Temporal Mediation of Social Change’. Journal of

Organizational Change Management, 19 (5): 619-639.

Hancock, P. & Tyler, M. (2008). ‘Beyond the Confines: Management, Colonization and the

Everyday’. Critical Sociology, 34 (1): 29-49.

Hislop, D. & Axtell, C. (2009). ‘To Infinity and Beyond?: Workspace and the Multi-Location

Worker’. New Technology, Work and Employment, 24(1): 60-75.

Participant 1 (2012) Interview with participant 1. Interviewed by Benjamin Schoelzel [inperson] York, 16.12.2012.

Participant 2 (2013) Interview with participant 2. Interviewed by Benjamin Schoelzel [in

person] York, 07.01.2013.

Raelin, J. (2011). ‘The End of Managerial Control?’. Group & Organization Management, 36

(2): 136-160.

Sturdy, A. (2003). ‘Knowing the unknowable?: A Discussion of Methodological and

Theoretical Issues in Emotion Research and Organizational Studies’. Organization, 10(1):

81-105.

Taylor, S. & Spicer, A. (2007). ‘Time for space: A narrative review of research on

organizational spaces’. International Journal of Management Reviews, 9 (4): 325-346.

Vince, R. & Warren, S. (2012). ‘Participatory Visual Methods’, in Cassell, C & Symon, G.

(eds.). ‘The Practice of Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current

Challenges’. London: Sage.




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Appendix

Work diaries

Participant 1

Participant 2




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Selected images

Participant 1 rubbing through his hair

Participant 2 having a study break

Further data can be accessed via the researcher.

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