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1 – 10 of over 10000The purpose of this paper is to investigate how spontaneous volunteers make sense of their actions at the scene of accident. More specifically, this paper focusses on the moral…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how spontaneous volunteers make sense of their actions at the scene of accident. More specifically, this paper focusses on the moral aspects of this sense-making process in terms of how spontaneous volunteers justify their own and others actions at the scene of accident through moral positioning.
Design/methodology/approach
This is done through a narrative analysis of volunteers’ retrospective stories from the scene of accident. The empirical material consists of interviews with 12 witnesses to traffic accidents.
Findings
The narrative analysis identifies two central storylines: the interviewees frame their own and others’ actions through norms of how one should act, and the interviewees frame their own actions by presenting themselves as a person of a certain type, sometimes positioned against an real or imaginative “other”.
Originality/value
Disaster sociologists have long argued that emergent behaviours and norms are one of the phenomena distinguishing disasters from everyday emergencies. However, as this paper shows, emergent behaviours and norms are also present at everyday emergencies such as traffic accidents where spontaneous volunteers can play an important role by filling the void before the arrival of emergency services.
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Francis J Flynn and Jennifer A Chatman
Social categorization processes may lead work groups to form different types of group norms. We present a model of norm formation and suggest that group norms may emerge…
Abstract
Social categorization processes may lead work groups to form different types of group norms. We present a model of norm formation and suggest that group norms may emerge immediately following the group’s inception. Further, the content of such norms may be influenced by group members’ demographic heterogeneity. We outline a profile of work group norms and describe how social categorization processes influence norm formation. We also develop a series of testable propositions related to these norms. Finally, we discuss the implications of our social categorization model for future research on work groups in organizations.
Drawing on the model of technology-in-practice and the literature on bona fide approaches and technological affordances, the purpose of this paper is to argue that collectives…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the model of technology-in-practice and the literature on bona fide approaches and technological affordances, the purpose of this paper is to argue that collectives involved in emergency response may exhibit similar and different usage patterns for technology due to the combined influence of the temporal development of the response actions and the existing and newly enacted organizational, social, and technological structures.
Design/methodology/approach
To enrich the argument about the inter-related influence on response organizations’ use of technology across phases of the disaster response, this research uses a multi-method and longitudinal case study of citizen-based response organizations after Hurricane Sandy.
Findings
Findings show that technologies were used similarly by response organizations immediately after the hurricane, whereas the later use of technologies exhibited variations. Moreover, Twitter was used consistently for diverse purposes across the phases of the disaster response, whereas Facebook usage among organizations first diverged and then converged two months after the hurricane. The organizations’ different patterns of social media use also reflected the construction and reconstruction of resource networks for relief operations over time.
Research limitations/implications
This study integrates multiple theoretical frameworks in explaining the processes and outcomes of technology use for collectives in emergency response, which presents an example of bridging and enriching the theoretical constructs from the areas of technology adaptation and emergency management.
Practical implications
Findings of this study provide practical knowledge about the mechanisms of integrating multiple information systems into the building of resilient social systems for emergency response.
Social implications
Findings of this study enrich social understanding about how the use of technologies for collective activity in emergency situations can go beyond one-time events and lay the foundation for long-term resilient emergency management.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its mixed-method and longitudinal design, which allows for the examination of the timing, circumstances, and outcomes of citizen-based response organizations’ technology use.
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– The purpose of this paper is to highlight the dilemma of exponential growth in economic policy and its implications on sustainable development.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the dilemma of exponential growth in economic policy and its implications on sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
The future of the world economy is premised in part on the assumption of an implicit law of increasing returns that has remained unchanged for centuries. Drawing on current data in per capita gross domestic product and population data, this paper explores the relationship between growth in populations and the distribution of wealth. Implications on economic and social policy reform are discussed, with an exemplar focus on economic incentives employed in several nations that are premised on an assumed relationship between population growth and economic return.
Findings
This paper demonstrates that much of current economic and social policy is grounded in centuries-old assumptions that may be inadequate for today's highly interrelated global and economic society, and that changing these policies would require a fundamental shift of mindset to recognise domestic human values within a global context.
Originality/value
Previous literature has paid less attention to the underlying assumptions of perpetual growth inherent to social and economic policy and the practicalities of its reconceptualization on global society.
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Muhammed Bolomope, Abdul-Rasheed Amidu, Olga Filippova and Deborah Levy
Decision-making behaviour of property investors has been the focus of real estate research for decades. Yet, there is no consensus on a generally accepted behavioural model that…
Abstract
Purpose
Decision-making behaviour of property investors has been the focus of real estate research for decades. Yet, there is no consensus on a generally accepted behavioural model that suits all market conditions and investment peculiarities. While scholars have emphasized the significance of rational reasoning and cognitive influences on property investment decision-making preferences, gaps remain regarding the impacts of market disruptions on property investment decision-making behaviour. This paper, therefore, explores the institutional framework as a theoretical basis for understanding property investment decision-making behaviour amidst market disruptions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports a systematic review of pertinent theories that have explored decision-making behaviour. Commencing with an index search of high impact peer-reviewed journals, a snowball identification of relevant citations was also deployed to assemble theories from the field of psychology, sociology, economics and urban studies. Although a preliminary dataset of 82 papers with relevant decision-making theories was identified, the final dataset comprised 27 papers and 7 theories. The identified theories were reviewed accordingly.
Findings
The outcome of this study suggests that the institutional framework offers a robust approach to property investment decision-making amidst market disruptions, especially because it recognizes the dynamism in the investment environment and the roles of formal and informal rules that exist therein.
Originality/value
This study advances the current understanding of property investment decision-making behaviour by recognising the dynamism of the investment environment and how factors such as principles, laws, tradition and routines can lead to an established and legitimate standard of reasoning. By integrating both rational and cognitive attributes, the study provides a holistic perspective to property investors' decision-making behaviour in response to market disruptions.
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Recognizing heterogeneity of legal/social status, historical experience, and the resulting variation in the constraints faced by different groups can be a valuable complement to…
Abstract
Recognizing heterogeneity of legal/social status, historical experience, and the resulting variation in the constraints faced by different groups can be a valuable complement to forms of heterogeneity already recognized by Austrian economists. This is particularly true for empirical analyses of caste-based societies, women’s history, and the experiences of other currently or historically persecuted minority populations. When (1) political institutions and/or other emergent social structures establish rules that apply to some individuals but not others, (2) these non-general rules are constructed in such a way that individuals cannot easily move in and out of established groups, and (3) some of the groups created by this process hold authority over others, class structures are created that can be understood without violating methodological individualism and other key tenets of Austrian economics. Like other heterogeneities that have now become incorporated into mainstream economic thought, the development of an Austrian theory of class could advance both the Austrian tradition and economic science in general.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a modified network performance assessment method to address issues of coordination among organizations in the context of disaster response…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a modified network performance assessment method to address issues of coordination among organizations in the context of disaster response.
Design/methodology/approach
The study introduces affiliation networks to map disaster response system integrated with task/function and unit identifications. The study also assesses performance in two successive procedures including ineffective networks identification and assessment on organizational effectiveness.
Findings
The study emphasizes problems in the current emergency management system in China with a focus on Sichuan earthquake experience. Specifically, some problems with the traditional central planning and control mechanisms in coordination across boundaries are highlighted, including participants’ inexact perception of information or resource accessibility, confusion of functional designation of organizations.
Originality/value
The study builds network performance assessment method to other contexts where different emergency management systems exist and modifies them to facilitate quick complex networks evaluation. The theoretical insights from affiliation networks and cognitive accuracy provide additional contributions to the literature.
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This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign investments in light of the latter's recent inauguration of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) as a basic norm of regional customary international law and strategy for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule on their territories for over half a century.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is textual analysis and deconstruction of emergent SADC BEE legislation, substantive BIT legislation provisions, dispute settlement mechanisms and emergent jurisprudence on the tensions between BEE policy and BIT obligations.
Findings
The strong elements of exclusivity between European/SADC BIT dispute settlement mechanisms on the one hand, and the “ouster clauses” of SADC BEE legislation and regulations on the other, are mutually incompatible. This incompatibility threatens the sustainability of the EU/SADC states' BIT dynamic for the promotion and protection of foreign direct investments (FDIs).
Originality/value
Demonstration of BEE as SADC's emergent basic norm of social reconstruction for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule in affected states and implications of that for EU/SADC policy on the promotion and protection of FDIs.
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Miguel Pina E. Cunha and João Vieira Da Cunha
Change has become one of the most studied topics in management research. Although literally hundreds of research initiatives on this theme are carried out annually, there are…
Abstract
Change has become one of the most studied topics in management research. Although literally hundreds of research initiatives on this theme are carried out annually, there are still important questions in this area that have been left unanswered. There are two, logically possible, modes of change that have yet to be identified and there are at least two tensions that go unresolved: the punctuated versus incremental change and the emergent versus deliberate change tensions. Drawing on a “grounded theory” research on organizational improvisation, we argue that this phenomenon contributes toward filling one of the gaps in a taxonomy of organizational change modes and toward a synthesis between the poles of the two tensions mentioned above.
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Thomas E. Drabek and David A. McEntire
Research on emergent behavior has been a significant topic within disaster studies. Through a detailed review of the literature we provide background information about this…
Abstract
Research on emergent behavior has been a significant topic within disaster studies. Through a detailed review of the literature we provide background information about this particular branch of disaster sociology. Following a brief discussion of the process by which literature was selected, important trends and areas of debate are discussed. These include the validation of previous findings, an expansion of the discussion on emergent phenomena and a critique of the bureaucratic approach. We conclude with implications for the theory and practice of emergency management.
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