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1 – 10 of over 79000Decoteau J. Irby and Shannon P. Clark
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether race-specific language use can advance organizational learning about the racialized nature of school problems. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether race-specific language use can advance organizational learning about the racialized nature of school problems. The study addressed two questions: first, is teacher use of racial language associated with how they frame school discipline problems during conversational exchanges? Second, what do patterns of associations suggest about racial language use as an asset that may influence an organization’s ability to analyze discipline problems?
Design/methodology/approach
Co-occurrence analysis was used to explore patterns between racial language use and problem analysis during team conversational exchanges regarding school discipline problems.
Findings
When participants used race-specific and race-proxy language, they identified more problems and drew on multiple frames to describe school discipline problems.
Research limitations/implications
This paper substantiates that race-specific language is beneficial for organizational learning.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that leading language communities may be an integral, yet overlooked lever for organizational learning and improvement. Prioritizing actions that promote race-specific conversations among school teams can reveal racism/racial conflict and subsequently increase the potential for change.
Originality/value
This paper combines organizational change and race talk research to highlight the importance of professional talk routines in organizational learning.
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Jorge Sanz-Llopis and Matthias Ostermann
This paper investigates the framing and redefinition of innovation challenges as an approach to generate creative solutions in the field of project management.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the framing and redefinition of innovation challenges as an approach to generate creative solutions in the field of project management.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies the Innovation Challenge Canvas (ICC), a new conceptual model that redefines innovation challenges. The research undertakes a review of the literature in the field of project management, followed by seven in-depth interviews with innovation directors to ascertain the professional view. Finally, usefulness of ICC was tested in three case studies.
Findings
An innovative approach focusing on redefining a challenge instead of proposing solutions to a problem fosters creative thinking and encourages innovative proposals. This ideation challenges the organization's traditional way of managing innovation projects. The ICC provides a better means by which to manage projects that embody high uncertainty, while helping to generate more innovative solutions.
Originality/value
The review of the literature shows that project management has given little attention to the redefining of innovation challenges. This study aims to fill this gap by orienting and adapting the traditional literature on framing to project management. From a practical point of view, the ICC is proposed as a model that can be used to consider the most relevant elements needed to redefine an innovation challenge and enhance the management of those projects.
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Troy C. Payne, Kathleen Gallagher, John E. Eck and James Frank
The purpose of this paper is to examine how initial frameworks for understanding police problems influence how police analyze and address those problems in the context of problem…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how initial frameworks for understanding police problems influence how police analyze and address those problems in the context of problem-oriented policing. The paper shows why researchers, and police, should pay more attention to problem theories.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for this case study were obtained from the Middletown, Ohio Police Department, the Middletown housing authority, and the Butler County auditor. Frequency tables and simple graphs were used to identify patterns in the calls for service. Discussions with police officials were used to describe how police originally conceptualized the problem described.
Findings
The paper found that initial problem framing has a significant impact on the available interventions and that problem solvers should be vigilant against errors of problem identification.
Research limitations/implications
Caution must be taken when generalizing from a single case study. Nevertheless, more attention needs to be placed on problem identification and framing in the problem-solving process.
Practical implications
Police problem solvers should be vigilant against errors in problem identification, particularly when the original problem identification is broad or when interventions based on the original problem frame do not produce the desired effect.
Originality/value
There are few studies that specifically examine the problem identification and definition process. This paper adds to the literature on problem-oriented policing by examining the critical yet understudied process of problem framing. It also adds to our knowledge of place-specific analysis.
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Sonia Pedro Sebastiao and Isabel Soares
The concept of environmental diplomacy appears associated with events (conventions) promoted between states and transnational organisations to discuss aspects related to…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of environmental diplomacy appears associated with events (conventions) promoted between states and transnational organisations to discuss aspects related to regulating the use of natural resources and regulating pollution. In this study, the authors intend to highlight the contribution brought to environmental diplomacy by leading television figure David Attenborough and his focus on the destruction of biodiversity by humans (the problem). It is intended to analyse the frames of his public interventions, comparing them with the prevailing frames in the UNFCCC policies.
Design/methodology/approach
A predominantly inductive method of qualitative and interpretative nature is used. In epistemological terms, the framing analysis stems from a social constructivist perspective. A theoretical model for frame analysis was defined by combining the frameworks proposed by Entman (1993) and Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) and considering previous studies (Anholt, 2015; Seelig, 2019). Analysis scrutinised a two-fold corpus comprising articles regarding actions and statements by David Attenborough published in The Guardian between 2018 and 2020, and the UN's legal framework for climate change.
Findings
The most prominent frames regarding climate crisis in transnational policies are responsibilities. Attenborough's calls for action highlight the frames of “morality”, “responsibilities” and “problems”. However, it is necessary to make a distinction between the discourse used in transnational treaties and that by Attenborough. In the former, discourse is more technical and impersonal, presented in a structure of legal diplomas and barely accessible to the public. In contrast, Attenborough's speech is more emotional, appealing and sometimes dramatic. His message is transmitted straightforwardly to the public in a pedagogical, personal tone.
Social implications
The choice of high-profile personalities like David Attenborough as ambassadors has implications in the visibility of the environmental cause, and in the multiplication of initiatives that denounce environmental degradation.
Originality/value
This study explores and analyses the narrative construct regarding climate change as carried out by a trusted and respected media voice. The authors intend to contribute to understanding the amplification role of public figures in controversial issues and diplomatic matters. The main contribution of this study is to highlight the strategic nature of the choice of SDA by political powers to voice the drama of climate emergency.
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Debbie H. Kim, Jeannette A. Colyvas and Allen K. Kim
Despite a legacy of research that emphasizes contradictions and their role in explaining change, less is understood about their character or the mechanisms that support them. This…
Abstract
Despite a legacy of research that emphasizes contradictions and their role in explaining change, less is understood about their character or the mechanisms that support them. This gap is especially problematic when making causal claims about the sources of institutional change and our overall conceptions of how institutions matter in social meanings and organizational practices. If we treat contradictions as a persistent societal feature, then a primary analytic task is to distinguish their prevalence from their effects. We address this gap in the context of US electoral discourse and education through an analysis of presidential platforms. We ask how contradictions take hold, persist, and might be observed prior to, or independently of, their strategic use. Through a novel combination of content analysis and computational linguistics, we observe contradictions in qualitative differences in form and quantitative differences in degree. Whereas much work predicts that ideologies produce contradictions between groups, our analysis demonstrates that they actually support convergence in meaning between groups while promoting contradiction within groups.
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Greg Watts, Peter McDermott and Shaba Kolo
“Transforming construction” is a wide-ranging strategic term, under which sit numerous initiatives. It is the latest, in a long line of strategies and reports introduced to with…
Abstract
Purpose
“Transforming construction” is a wide-ranging strategic term, under which sit numerous initiatives. It is the latest, in a long line of strategies and reports introduced to with the intention of industry improvement. Arguably, many of these fail to achieve their aim. The barriers preventing the adoption of transforming construction initiatives are therefore limiting the potential benefits of the strategy. The aim of this research is to formally identify and understand how these barriers are framed and how these frames can be changed so that the barriers can be overcome, and the wider strategy benefits realised.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review is undertaken to identify “transforming construction” initiatives. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews are then undertaken with construction professionals and analysed via narrative analysis to identify and understand perceived barriers to these initiatives. Framing is utilised as a theoretical lens to categorise these barriers and understand how “shifts” in the frames held can be achieved and the barriers overcome.
Findings
Barriers to transforming construction initiatives are identified as wicked problems. This allows a new perspective on such initiatives to be gained. The results also reveal how construction professionals frame such barriers, viewing themselves as bystanders with initiatives and practices “bigger” than themselves and their roles. How these frames can be “shifted” from bystander to active participant is identified. Such a shift can serve as a blueprint for industry professionals so that the initiatives identified can be successfully implemented thereby increasing the success of the transforming construction strategy.
Originality/value
This paper addresses a gap in current research around the perceptions held by construction professionals of the initiatives that sit under the transforming construction strategy. Addressing this gap allows the diagnosis of barriers that have previously served to prevent initiatives gaining traction. The findings contribute to both the existing literature and current industry practice by highlighting how the barriers are framed, and how such frames can be “shifted” to support the realisation of long promised strategy benefits.
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Gabriel Szulanski, Yves Doz and Yulia Ovetzky
The quest to explain how incumbents respond to changes in their industry is affirming the role that managerial cognition plays in those decisions. Recent empirical evidence…
Abstract
The quest to explain how incumbents respond to changes in their industry is affirming the role that managerial cognition plays in those decisions. Recent empirical evidence suggests that anticipating the nature and timing of industry changes could increase the likelihood that the organization develops an effective response. Mounting evidence suggests also that such ability to anticipate and respond may depend on decision-makers’ prevailing and emerging cognitive frames. This raises a number of questions about the nature of those cognitive frames and how they impact the decision making processes and ultimately organizational response. In this paper we report the findings from three case studies of how established incumbents respond to changes to their industries brought about by the emergence of the Internet.
Tamara Steger and Milos Milicevic
In this chapter, we “occupy the earth” with an overview of the anti-fracking discourse(s) of diverse local initiatives converging as a global movement opposed to fracking. By…
Abstract
In this chapter, we “occupy the earth” with an overview of the anti-fracking discourse(s) of diverse local initiatives converging as a global movement opposed to fracking. By mapping the discourse(s) of the anti-fracking movement, the articulation of the problems and solutions associated with fracking raise questions not only about the environment but draw attention to a crisis of democracy and the critical need for social and environmental justice. With the help of a multiple theoretical framework we draw on insights about environmental movements and their democratizing potential; conceptualizations about power and (counter) discourse; and depictions of the environmental justice movements in the United States. Toward this end, we analyze the framing of the anti-fracking movement: the many local voices engaging in political struggles to sustain their communities, places and ways of life, and the global movements’ forum for collective solidarity, recognition, and civic action. Shedding light on the multiple frames employed by movement members, we discuss the implications and potential embodied in this widening debate.
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Managerial decisions ultimately determine the success or failure of a business strategy, and difficulties often arise when managers must decide how best to allocate scarce…
Abstract
Purpose
Managerial decisions ultimately determine the success or failure of a business strategy, and difficulties often arise when managers must decide how best to allocate scarce resources between activities. Adopting a cognitive framing perspective, this study aims to explore managers’ accounts of decision-making problems and how they solve them.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews with 18 managers from the Austrian beverage industry were analysed to identify the kinds of decision-making problems they encounter and to understand how they solved those problems.
Findings
The participating managers perceived challenging decision-making problems as either a dilemma or a paradox. Dilemmas were resolved by committing entirely to one alternative or by focussing on one alternative at a time. In the case of paradoxes, managers looked for creative solutions, blending experimentation, humour and past experiences to create outside-the-box solutions that would simultaneously engage all alternatives.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence of how managers frame challenging problems as dilemmas or paradoxes, and what types of coping mechanisms they use to identify and execute feasible solutions. While the current literature tends to emphasize the benefits of framing problems as paradoxes, the present findings also confirm the usefulness of dilemma-based solutions. A better understanding of these processes can help managers to make more thoughtful and better decisions.
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