Search results

This chapter examines the moral dilemmas mentors from three different groups (Jewish, Druze, and Arab) encountered in Israeli Arab schools, how they manage these dilemmas, and how the nature of particular dilemmas might connect to their management strategies. Given the multicultural and politically conflictive context of Israeli society, a cultural and political reading of in-service mentors' moral dilemmas reveals that mentors' encounter and management of recurrent moral dilemmas is embedded in cultural and political issues that seem to hinder their mentoring practice. Preparation programs need to highlight awareness of mentors' own culture and that of their mentees in order to implement a culturally and politically responsive practice.

Today’s business leaders face a global environment that is marked by increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions. Design thinking offers a proven way to navigate in a VUCA environment. I used this approach while serving as a military officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. This chapter focuses on what I learned from applying design thinking to our operations as well as on insights from businesses that have also successfully integrated design thinking. I use the framework “inspire, ideate, and implement” to describe how I utilized design thinking. I finish the chapter with key factors for successfully employing a design methodology to VUCA problems.

Design thinking empowers organizations to tackle successfully VUCA challenges. Inspiration allows designers to frame relevant problems that clients care about. With the pressing challenge in hand, designers immerse themselves in the context of a problem to empathize with a customer’s concerns. They synthesize input from a variety of diverse sources, and meet experts who can give meaning to their collected data. With this comprehensive picture in hand, design teams brainstorm new possibilities as they move into ideation. Taking their ideas out for a test run, they iterate the most promising ways to move into action. They conduct pilot projects, adapt to what works best, and share their learning from the process. Leaders with a design mindset, aligned with a collaborative organizational culture and congruent support systems, can build an innovative enterprise that is primed to thrive in a VUCA world.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and summarize the primary themes and issues examined in relevant international research dealing with the relationship between culture and mentoring. The focus is on formal mentoring programs for educators in primary and secondary schools and higher education settings.

The literature surveyed covered the direct and indirect impacts of culture on mentoring in primary, secondary and higher education settings. Manuscripts were organized around the topics of teacher education, teacher and leader development, and higher education. A thematic synthesis approach was used to summarize the findings.

Findings indicated that research on cultural aspects of mentoring in education has focused on three primary themes: cultural aspects of the mentoring relationship; the impact of organizational structures on mentoring programs and relationships; and the manner in which ethnicity and societal beliefs relate to the purposes and structures of mentoring.

There is a lack of research that deals specifically with the manner in which culture influences mentoring programs and relationships.

It is vital for those involved in developing mentoring programs and relationships to be culturally aware of and sensitive to cultural dynamics in order to counteract and overcome possible barriers to success.

Fresh insights are offered into the research that has been conducted within these educational settings. Areas and topics are identified where research is lacking and recommendations for future research that would enlighten the field are presented.

The purpose of this study was to explore young Arab women's understandings of mentoring as part of a pre-service teacher training program both before and after an extended internship throughout which a collaborative approach to mentoring was practiced. It aimed to identify the opportunities and challenges such an approach would bring in the quest to support trainee teachers' professional development.

Data for this small-scale qualitative study were collected using a brainstorming class-based activity, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. Data were analyzed using word clouds, and the identification of themes through the coding of transcripts.

The dominant findings in this study were that mentoring was perceived as emotional support, pedagogic and professional support, evaluation and relationship. While understandings of mentoring amongst participants did shift as a result of mentors adopting a collaborative approach, data indicated that the strength of cultural assumptions held by the participants hindered the rate of change, creating an obstacle to the desired outcome of increasing trainees' agency.

While perceptions of mentoring reported within this study indicate considerable overlap with those in other geographical and cultural contexts, closer examination of the data identified differences also. Without an understanding of the nature and influence of the social assumptions that underlie these differences, mentors who participate in culturally diverse mentor–trainee pairings can misinterpret an unwillingness of trainees to fully engage with the mentoring process and thus fail to provide the required scaffolding and support needed to maximize professional development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the usability of the Cultural Framework Analysis Process, a strategy designed to examine cultural factors in mentoring endeavors and to identify whether there are patterns of cultural elements that served to hinder or facilitate mentoring programs across a variety of organizations and contexts. The process also involves identifying methods for overcoming the barriers and enhancing the facilitating factors.

Graduate students in a class on mentoring were given an assignment to analyze a mentoring program using the Cultural Framework Analysis Process. They were also asked to share their most significant learning outcomes. Data were gathered by two student groups over a two-year period. Researchers determined the usability of the analysis process by evaluating the quality of the student submissions. They aggregated the data and conducted a content analysis on the facilitating and hindering factors to determine commonalities and the lessons learned.

The Cultural Framework Analysis Process appears to be a useful tool in examining and dealing with cultural elements in mentoring programs and relationships. The barriers and facilitating factors were closely related to one another. The five barriers to success were matching processes; mentee attitude toward matching; lack of organizational support; static or closed organizational culture; and organizational or community culture. The five factors that facilitated mentoring endeavors were: comprehensive and flexible matching; mentee/mentor attitudes; training; organizational culture and demonstrated commitment; and a focus on mentees.

The ability to examine the cultural elements in the context of mentoring is vital in assuring mentoring success. Having a description of how the process was conducted should be of value to those wanting to engage in similar analyses. The findings related to the factors identified should help guide those engaged in mentoring endeavors to become more aware of elements to consider and deal with as they create and operationalize their programs.

There is a need to enhance the knowledge about the cultural factors involved in mentoring programs and relationships. This research study expands the understanding and presents findings about barriers and supports to mentoring that have not been previously reported. It also provides a mechanism for others to conduct similar analyses as they develop, implement and research mentoring endeavors.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to further develop Paul Edwards’ concept of “data friction” by examining the socio-material forces that are shaping data movements in the cases of research data and online communications data, second, to articulate a politics of data friction, identifying the interrelated infrastructural, socio-cultural and regulatory dynamics of data friction, and how these are contributing to the constitution of social relations.

The paper develops a hermeneutic review of the literature on socio-material factors influencing the movement of digital data between social actors in the cases of research data sharing and online communications data. Parallels between the two cases are identified and used to further develop understanding of the politics of “data friction” beyond the concept’s current usage within the Science Studies literature.

A number of overarching parallels are identified relating to the ways in which new data flows and the frictions that shape them bring social actors into new forms of relation with one another, the platformisation of infrastructures for data circulation, and state action to influence the dynamics of data movement. Moments and sites of “data friction” are identified as deeply political – resulting from the collective decisions of human actors who experience significantly different levels of empowerment with regard to shaping the overall outcome.

The paper further develops Paul Edwards’ concept of “data friction” beyond its current application in Science Studies. Analysis of the broader dynamics of data friction across different cases identifies a number of parallels that require further empirical examination and theorisation.

The observation that sites of data friction are deeply political has significant implications for all engaged in the practice and management of digital data production, circulation and use.

It is argued that the concept of “data friction” can help social actors identify, examine and act upon some of the complex socio-material dynamics shaping emergent data movements across a variety of domains, and inform deliberation at all levels – from everyday practice to international regulation – about how such frictions can be collectively shaped towards the creation of more equitable and just societies.

The paper makes an original contribution to the literature on friction in the dynamics of digital data movement, arguing that in many cases data friction may be something to enable and foster, rather than overcome. It also brings together literature from diverse disciplinary fields to examine these frictional dynamics within two cases that have not previously been examined in relation to one another.

This work seeks to offer a greater understanding of Lean healthcare implementation challenges conceptually taking a situated cultural organizational change perspective.

A descriptive model of healthcare organizations’ Lean adoption trajectories is built using ripple and bridging modelization strategies from elements of three classic organizational change theories and knowledge from Lean, organizational culture, healthcare and operations management literature.

The “contingent Lean culture adoption” (CLCA) model suggests five theoretical trajectories the healthcare organizations may experience when conducting a Lean transformation. These trajectories evolve from a new concept of Lean cultural friction (LCF) which represents cultural friction that a healthcare organization encounters toward an ultimate Lean culture proficiency state through time. From high to low initial LCF, a healthcare organization may in its Lean proficiency course end up in three states: lower, similar or higher LCF situation.

The CLCA model demonstrates the potential to be developed into a framework and possibly a Lean cultural friction theory pending further qualitative and quantitative validation.

The CLCA model may help healthcare managers to use more appropriate cultural change strategies during their organization’s Lean journey.

This work enriches the concept of Lean cultural change which may apply not only to healthcare organizations but also to other ones. It suggests the existence of a healthcare organization Lean culture proficiency archetype and introduces the notion of Lean cultural friction.