Search results

Democratic therapeutic communities (TCs), use a “flattened hierarchy” model whereby staff and clients are considered to have an equal voice, sharing administrative and some therapeutic responsibility. Using the sociological framework of interaction ritual chain theory, the purpose of this paper is to explain how TC client members negotiated and enforced community expectations through an analysis of power within everyday interactions outside of structured therapy.

The study used narrative ethnography, consisting of participant observation with two democratic communities, narrative interviews with 21 client members, and semi-structured interviews with seven staff members.

The findings indicate social interactions could empower clients to recognise their personal agency and to support one another. However, these dynamics could be destructive when members were excluded or marginalised. Some clients used their interactions at times to consolidate power amongst dominant members.

It is argued that the flattened hierarchy approach theoretically guiding TC principles does not operate as a flattened model in practice. Rather, a fluid hierarchy, whereby clients shift and change social positions, seems more suited to explaining how the power structure worked within the communities, including amongst the client group. Recognising the hierarchy as “fluid” may open dialogues within TCs as to whether, and how, members experience exclusion.

Explorations of power have not specifically focused on power dynamics between clients. Moreover, this is one of the first papers to look at power dynamics outside of structured therapy.

Humans care about things. The truth of this claim is obvious, yet scholars who have evaluated student interventions and outcomes in higher education have largely neglected how student values might inform their experience with those interventions and outcomes. This chapter will rely on a philosophical conceptualization of a particular type of value known as “caring” to explore what students value as they weigh various collegiate decisions. Elaborating on findings from a qualitative study of 143 college students from eight American universities, I will summarize previous findings related to what students cared about, how those cares were structured, and what the cares and structures meant for students' pathways through college. The categorical and theoretical patterns I share demonstrate how students approached values in ways that have not typically been considered by scholars or institutional administrators. After summarizing my previous findings, I offer a conceptual argument for a “dialectical” approach that considers the mutually formative interaction between student and institutional values. The practical result of naming and understanding the dialectic realities of values in higher education is the opportunity for institutions to use their relatively greater agency to help individual students pursue what is worth pursuing without reducing the agency of those students. Thus, the dialectic places necessary boundary lines on both the institution and the student while also clarifying the opportunity to help students develop moral expertise and navigate their collegiate pathways successfully.

The purpose of this paper is to assist an organization to restructure as a bi‐modal organization in order to achieve sustainability in today's highly complex business world.

The paper is conceptual and is based on relevant literature and the authors' research and practice.

Although fluid self‐organizing networks are the natural state for humankind, in most organizations “organizing” entails the process of autopoiesis. This process does not produce the open fluid organization that is required for success in today's business world. While autopoiesis is taking place, informal socialization is taking place across the organization's interpersonal networks. Under supportive conditions, this leads to the development of a bi‐modal organization where one or more open systems may emerge and co‐exist concurrently with the autopoietic system; these open systems include fluid networks and complex adaptive system. The bi‐modal organization achieves sustainability by balancing a certain amount of organization versus a certain amount of instability, leading to predictability with disorder, and planned long‐term strategy achieved through many concurrent short‐term actions.

Future research will involve an empirical study that will further examine the bi‐modal organization, its development, and its properties.

The systems that surround a business organization now and for the foreseeable future are highly dynamic, competitive, and socially individualized, and demand a new organizational form and competencies that may only be exhibited by a bi‐modal organization based on an open system. The paper describes how an organization can restructure to become a bi‐modal organization.

The paper should help improve quality of work‐life and organizational structure.

The paper describes a new organizational form designed to flourish in today's complex business contexts.

Purpose – In this chapter, we review the research on status hierarchies in groups and teams to assess the relative validity of two major models – the dominance and functionalist theories of status hierarchies. We find that these models cannot fully account for empirical evidence in the literature, and thus propose a new model of status hierarchies, Micropolitics.

Methodology/approach – We examine the relative validity of current major theories by reviewing the literature on status hierarchies in groups.

Findings – We find that, although most of the literature supports the functionalist theory of status hierarchies, this theory cannot explain some of the existing empirical evidence. Drawing on both functionalist and dominance perspectives, we propose a new theory of status, the Micropolitics model, to account for this evidence. Specifically, we propose that in the “micro” context of groups and teams, individuals attain status by convincing their group that they possess the skills and abilities needed to take charge – just as political candidates must convince voters they are the right people for the job.

Originality/value of paper – This paper proposes a new theory of status hierarchies in groups that may provide additional explanatory power for status researchers. It suggests that groups strive to attain meritocracy, but may put the wrong people in charge.

The chapter aims to bring out the dynamic nature or hierarchy in organizations and presents a conceptual framework for making sense of hierarchy in contemporary work. We describe hierarchy as the result of a contradictory dynamic that incorporates both vertical and horizontal practices of organizing. The vertical practice, verticalization, draws on and reproduces the formal organization, whereas the horizontal practice, horizontalization, orders people on the basis of their knowledge and initiatives. The dynamic between these two practices varies, we argue, depending on the social and epistemic distance of formal managers' from the operative work process. Three different dynamics between verticalization and horizontalization – loose coupling, translation, and integration – are identified and illustrated, drawing on three ethnographically inspired studies of knowledge work. Through these three dynamics, the chapter casts light on and provides nuances to the current discussion in the literature on postbureaucracy.

Discusses how public sector organisations should respond to emerging social and demographic trends, the changing nature of work set against the context of globalisation, the knowledge economy and the influence of information and communication technologies. Argues that the new ways of doing things, which emphasise collaborative action and learning, mandates the adoption of a high performance governance model instead of “command‐based” management. Proposes an integrated parcel of workforce strategies that supports organisational change, addresses noted social and demographic trends, builds social and human capital, recognises the value of life‐long‐learning, accommodates the rise of Self, embraces flexibility and provides for quality employment and tailored opportunities for the public sector's diverse workforce as the preferred corporate policy option.

To propose a conceptual framework that facilitates the benchmarking of strategic processes necessary for entrepreneurial survival and success.

Drawing on extant literature on entrepreneurial survival, this paper considers the chaotic and emergent nature of the entrepreneurial organization and how benchmarking can contribute to a newly established firm's chances for survival and prosperity. The paper incorporates the concept of a sustainable competitive advantage in the discussion, and offers organizational culture as being the imperfectly imitable element which will contribute to the entrepreneurial firm's success.

Four key processes are identified that contribute to entrepreneurial viability – cooperation, sharing founder's vision, time management, and developing organizational competencies – and suggestions are offered for developing appropriate benchmarks for these processes. The paper also highlights two instruments that may be useful in this endeavor.

The paper draws attention to the usefulness of benchmarking processes and not just metrics in fostering entrepreneurial survival. Key processes are identified, and suggestions are provided for researchers to begin work on developing the necessary benchmarks.

The paper not only offers a theoretical discussion of the usefulness of benchmarking processes as opposed to focusing only on outcomes, but also helps the practitioner to implement such benchmarking activities by highlighting practical instruments for this purpose.

This paper brings to bear literature from several streams of research. It takes benchmarking from its metric‐oriented focus to a more process‐focused approach, and applies it in the context of entrepreneurial survival.

In an educational landscape fraught with demands and limited finances, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) of teachers are a coveted resource. In this regard, transformational leadership (TL) is often attributed with the achievement of such organizational outcomes. This conceptual essay considers the relationship between teacher culture, teacher OCBs, and TL, arguing that the characteristics of teacher culture predispose those who become teachers to perform OCBs. Furthermore, due to its participatory style, TL may result in either a motivating or de-motivating influence on teacher OCBs depending on the perceived values congruence between teacher culture and leadership goals and behavior. Implications and suggestions for practice are offered.

Our research analyzes how organization dynamics develop in order to initialize telebanks, which can facilitate (or hinder) the enactment of enabling (or coercive) structures. The data revealed that sometimes actors accept the constraints of social roles and technology and, at other times, they exercise agency to circumvent those constraints. The differences in organizational development are explained with the concept of bricolage and the structural characteristics that facilitate its occurrence. A culture supportive of learning and perceptions of psychological safety were found to be preconditions for enabling organizing, in that they increase the deployment of previously acquired knowledge, resources, and routines; facilitate the enactment of design and planning; and nurture improvisation and bricolage, thus increasing familiarity with resources and the willingness of people to actively participate in the organization’s design.

The best‐selling book Megatrends, written by John Naisbitt, has been cited in numerous library and information science publications and talks since its appearance in 1982 Megatrends was bound to capture the attention of the librarians, since it boldly proclaims on page one that no shift “is more subtle, yet more explosive” than the change from an industrial to an information society. It has further appeal because many of the changes documented in Megatrends can be observed in libraries and the institutions and organizations they serve; moreover, the trends provide a framework from which to assess the status and direction of the information professions. This article will examine the several megatrends as they apply to the electronic library and will suggest appropriate plans of action.