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A bureaucratically structured education system employs formal communication to a high degree, since incumbents of the various hierarchical authority levels authorize actions to be undertaken by their subordinates. The process of authorization is here subjected to an analysis in terms of message structure and communication flow. A comparison of the ways in which authorizations are communicated at the various levels of the bureaucratic system leads to a number of hypotheses. It was hypothesized (1) that the mode of communication used by the superordinate Department of Education to authorize the actions of intermediate headteachers will be used in turn by these intermediates to authorize the actions of their subordinate teachers, (2) the prevailing mode of communication employed by the superordinate Education Department to authorize the actions of intermediate headtcachers will be used by intermediates to authorize the actions of their subordinates teachers even in specific cases where exceptions to the prevailing superordinate communication mode are present, and (3) inconsistency or asymmetry between Phase I and Phase II communication modes is a function of the personality of the intermediate role‐incumbent. These hypotheses were tested in a recent study of the communication of authority by headteachers of Queensland State primary schools. The first two hypotheses were supported; because of lack of data the last hypothesis could not be tested.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a dystopian situation with special reference to how a panoptic monitoring system emerges in schools. To satisfy this aim, there will be a close analysis of the city of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, where there is a huge debate over the new US Marine base construction and how it greatly influences people’s lives.

This study will employ a self-study by the first author, who is a clinical psychologist under the board of education in the city. This self-study aims to examine the lived experiences of the author based on interactions with critical friends.

The government’s selection of the site for the new base created a schism in the community, and the introduction of compensations led to the establishment of a communal panoptic monitoring system. This communal panoptic monitoring largely influences the relationships between pupils, teachers and parents. Further, another panoptic monitoring system has developed inside the Nago schools due to the intensification of the assessment policies given by the ministry in Tokyo.

This investigation purports to analyse a dystopian situation with special reference to how a panoptic monitoring system, a key element of a dystopia, emerges in schools.

A central theme in the literature on entrepreneurship in remote communities – be they religious, indigenous, rural or migrant communities – is the balance between continuity and change or tradition and modernity and the role of entrepreneurship in maintaining or uprooting this balance. The purpose of this paper is to examine this dynamic in the context of Springfield, a small settlement of Old Order Mennonites in Belize, Central America.

This study draws on ethnographic research conducted in the Mennonite settlement of Springfield, Belize, between 2002 and 2019, as well as written correspondence with key stakeholders from Springfield.

This paper identifies three issues of contention between the Springfield Mennonites and the Belizean state: the agricultural census issue, the buying land issue and the cow tagging issue. Each of these revolves around state demands for assimilation into (digitalized) administrative systems and Mennonite resistance to these demands based on their religious-moral code. This study describes the negotiations around these issues.

The focus in most literature on entrepreneurship in remote communities is on how internal community dynamics shape the balance between continuity and change and, in extension, the space for entrepreneurship. The originality of the paper lies in shifting the focus to the relationship between the community and external stakeholders, especially the state.

Focuses on contemporary law enforcement institutions, in Canadian and US cities, to illustrate the service limitations and public conflicts that are increasingly being generated into violent encounters by the failure to move beyond the authoritarian organizational operational model. The capacity of public policing institutions to provide effective, non‐violent police services to meet the needs of the communities is determined by the nature of the police institutional and/or organizational model employed. This analysis assesses the appropriateness of current police training models, race relations training, non‐violent conflict resolution training and all other police training that may be grounded and generated from a paramilitary authoritarian hierarchical composition. This applied approach discloses much needed systemic and policy reformation by considering a more expanded understanding of this prominent social agency, the actors and the interconnectedness with other institutions.

Reviews the roots of management theory, and discusses how, in the early part of this century, an overlooked, different interpretation of Max Weber’s work could have affected those roots. Examines Lowell L. Bennion’s dissertation, Max Weber’s Methodology, published in 1933, which is the first book‐length interpretation in the English language of Weber’s sociological thought. Maintains that this interpretation of Weber is central to the argument that the greater contribution of Weber to management theory lies in the central role of power and conflict in relationships, and the important question of “Why do people obey?”. Concludes that this view of Weber prompts a rich array of research questions confirming the importance of Weber’s thinking for management scholars today, and demonstrates the relevance of Weber far beyond his contribution of bureaucracy as an efficient organizational form.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges facing Iranian women in the workforce. While Iranian women's participation in higher education is exceptionally high, their participation in the workforce, especially the public sector, is low.

The paper compares the bureaucratic structures in public organizations with the “ideal” type of bureaucracy as defined by Weber (1922). Moreover, occupational segregation, which limits women's choices, is examined as another barrier for Iranian women's participation in the workforce.

The paper argues that the main reason for the low participation of women in public organizations is the ill-structured bureaucracies in these organizations. Also, occupational segregation limits the career choices of Iranian women. Some of the challenges caused by these two factors are the result of discriminative rules and regulations.

The paper contributes to the limited knowledge concerning the issues faced by Iranian women attempting to enter and progress in public organizations. While literature suggests that western women also face the same challenges in organizations, the unique characteristics of Iranian public organizations calls for separate analysis of these barriers in the Iranian context. By introducing readers to this unique subgroup of employees, the paper represents a starting point to an important area of research.

Given the context of accountability-driven policy environments, research has shown that school leaders perceive bureaucratic rules and protocols in negative ways, but they also utilize organizational structures and routines to lead changes. To better understand both enabling and hindering mechanisms of bureaucracy in schools, this study explores how Korean school principals understand and perceive bureaucratic structures using a lens of ambivalence. The authors draw on Weber's theory of bureaucracy, with a particular focus on the paradoxical aspect of bureaucracy that might be experienced by individuals within the system.

This study analyzed qualitative data collected from 26 in-depth interviews with 10 Korean school principals between 2013 and 2015. The authors used the multiple cycles of coding to explore patterns and themes that emerged from the participants' responses.

The analysis of this study showed that the participants' ambivalent responses toward bureaucracy were particularly salient in three areas where formal organizational structures were changing through policy initiatives: teacher evaluation, electronic approval system and school-based management promoting decentralized decision making. The study participants reflected on how such changes can enable and/or hinder schools to achieve organizational goals and collective values, from the viewpoints of multiple aspects, which led to their ambivalent responses to bureacratic structures in school settings.

This study contributes to the understanding of school organizations by revisiting Weber's theory of bureaucracy in school settings. Using the lens of ambivalence enabled us to reconcile school principals' contradictory perceptions toward bureaucracy, which complicates analyses of tensions and paradoxical responses found in leadership practices within school systems.

This exploratory study describes an empirical comparison of organization citizenship behavior (OCB) between samples from the United States and Romania. The economic and work environment distance between the U.S. and Romania was theorized to result in a dissimilar structure and strength of good citizenship behaviors and differential contributions of OCB to productivity. Data from Romania produced a unique factor structure with lower factor scores than those of the comparable organization in the United States. The citizenship behaviors in both countries were positively related to productivity, but links were stronger in the U.S. There were significant differences in the individual citizenship behaviors and productivity between the U.S. and Romania. National and organizational cultures appear to be significant determinants of OCB. The results are interpreted with respect to the stage of development, histories, and economies of the two countries.

In 2019, civil servants in Hong Kong publicly protested against their government as part of the anti-extradition bill movement. This study aims to understand how civil servants formed their support to the movement despite a deep-rooted bureaucratic culture. The authors argue that moral values (e.g. impartiality and integrity) and aspirations to liberal democracy are powerful motivations that override bureaucratic values (e.g. political neutrality and political loyalty) in the context of social movement.

Based on a protest on-site survey (n = 277), this study analyzes the relationship between civil servants’ value orientations and their political demands and actions.

Regression analyses show that civil servants’ consideration of moral values relates positively to support to investigative demands, while a more liberal orientation predicts greater support to consequential demands and action intentions. A moderation effect is found in which greater consideration of moral values attenuates the negative effect of bureaucratic values on the support to both types of demands. In addition, the two types of values interact with each other to influence support to consequential demands, which, in turn, predicts willingness to further political actions.

This study seizes a valuable opportunity to examine the political participation of civil servants in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong and the civil service system face tightening authoritarian controls, the findings shed light on the dynamics of moral values, bureaucratic values and liberal orientation in motivating resistance among civil servants.

The aim of this paper is to expose the power of informal control mechanisms over explicit knowledge transfer through information communication technology (ICT) systems in subsidiaries of a multinational enterprise (MNE).

The research used a case study approach consistent with the purpose of exploring control/knowledge transfer relationships. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with managers across 19 sites in an MNE. Analysed data were thematically organised into two case studies for comparison.

The results show that when control is exerted from bottom-up, knowledge transfer barriers are overcome, quality of outcomes is increased and new and incremental knowledge innovation is more likely to become organisational.

The findings signal a caution for managers to assess the suitability of control type on knowledge transfer incentives to leverage quality knowledge outcomes. By using informal methods, subsidiary managers’ local autonomy and power to resist centralised management objectives was positively moderated.

The paper exposes alternative control methods for exploiting subsidiary knowledge within an MNE. The research is unique in that it identifies a superior role for bottom-up social control to elicit explicit knowledge sharing behaviours through ICT where bureaucratic reward-based control had failed.