CONTRADICTORY COUPLINGS: PROFESSIONAL IDEOLOGY IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL LOCALES OF NURSE TRAINING

Nursing is a contemporary occupation which has developed an explicit ‘professional project’. In the UK this has centred around an occupational ideology which stresses managerialism and credentialism. This occupational ideology comes into contradiction with older conceptions of professionalism which are couched in vocational terms. The vocational meaning is shown to be situated and reproduced in organizational locales which serve to undercut the managerialist and credentialist meanings. The focus of these cross-cutting meanings is the interpretation of a ‘good nurse’. Using a ‘negotiated order’ perspective, focusing on ‘contradictions’, case study material suggests that there are important gaps between formal representations of the professionalism project and the actual, situated practice of ‘nursing’. For trainee nurses these gaps are particularly apparent. In day-to-day organizational life they have to negotiate contradictory conceptions encountered in the diverse locales of ward work and nurse training. In addition, the different meanings may be encountered even in the same locales.     

MANAGEMENT IN CONTEXT: AN ESSAY ON THE RELEVANCE OF CULTURE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

The recent interest in cultural analysis of organizations is based on the belief that organizations have symbolic aspects that affect organizational behaviour. Underlying this research, however, are different assumptions about the nature of symbols and the role they play in organizations. The majority of writers have assumed that symbols perform an expressive function and are used in a type of action they call 'symbolic action’which they contrast with ‘substantive action’. This dichotomy between symbolic and substantive action has resulted in the development of models that assume culture is a causal factor in organizational change, and should be controlled by the management of symbols. In this article, this approach - the management as symbolic action approach - is examined and found to be inadequate. An alternative approach is developed - the culture-as-context approach - that assumes all actions have a symbolic aspect, all actions are value-laden, symbols are meaningful only in terms of their relations with other symbols, and symbols are dispositions to action, not causes of it. The study of culture is seen, then, as the explication of action in terms of the system of symbolic forms - goals, plans, ideas, roles and traditions - that people use to give meaning and order to their experience. This approach is applied to the interactions of the members of the‘Transition Team’in a Bell Telephone operating company preparing for the deregulation of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, its parent corporation, in 1981. It is demonstrated empirically and explained conceptually that culture leads to a certain class of possible actions which makes certain attempts at change, or reactions to change, probable in a given situation.     

THE 'TEXTURE' OF ORGANIZING IN AN ITALIAN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT*

The texture of organizing is an elusive concept, one that embraces the intangible quality of the activities of an organization's members. In this article we use examples taken from an empirical study of a department of mathematics in an Italian university to illustrate the social processes that underlie the construction of texture. We define ‘texture’ as that imaginative domain of organizational actors where processes such as the creation of a sense of togetherness and of ownership, mutual understanding and misunderstanding of organizational life, shifting memberships and audiences link and interweave. Some methodological issues concerning the concept of texture are also examined.     

Uptake of organisational work–life balance opportunities: the context of support

This research examines the relationship between structural and cultural dimensions affecting managerial decision-making about work–life balance (WLB) opportunities. Through a top-down study of two contrasting Irish organisations, we identify how each of five dimensions of work–life culture: ‘managerial and organisational support’, ‘organisational time expectations’, ‘career consequences’, ‘gendered perception of policy use’ and ‘co-worker support’ are mediated through managers to affect availability and uptake of WLB opportunities and creating gaps between policy and practice. This study demonstrates how marked distinctions between the personal opportunities managers may wish to offer and the discretion available to them arise. Secondly, the concept of organisational work–life culture is advanced by elaborating the ‘context of support’, namely interdependencies between organisational culture and structure that affect the uptake of WLB opportunities. Implications for researchers and practitioners are also discussed.     

THE CONCEPT OF DECISION: A DECONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS*

Decision-making as a central concept in management and organization theory has had a colourful and controversial career spanning some 50 years. During this time its image and meaning has shifted substantially to the point where its explanatory value as an established conceptual category in management and organizational analysis has been questioned. In this article, I attempt a critical study of the concept of decision and try to show that the various attempts to replace it by other terms such as ‘action’, and ‘change’, overlook the ontological status of the decision-making process. I argue here that decision is better understood as a series of interlocking pre-definitive acts of punctuating the flow of human experiences in order to facilitate sense-making and to alleviate our Cartesian anxiety. Decisions are not so much about ‘choice’or ‘intentions’as about the primordial ‘will to order’whereby interlocking configurations of micro-incisions punctuating our phenomenal experiences contrive to construct and reinforce a stable but precarious version of reality. When viewed thus, decision-making takes on a very different meaning - one that accentuates the concrete everydayness of micro-decisional acts which re-enact the ongoing contestation between order and disorder, routinization and breakdown, organization and disorganization, chaos and cosmos. Such micro-decisional ontological acts are what produces and sustains a version of reality to which we then subsequently respond. It is this ‘becoming’theory of decision-making which is offered as an alternative to the ‘event’driven model of decisional theorizing.     

Placing Knowledge Management in Context

ABSTRACT We welcome the increased emphasis on practice‐based theories of knowing as an alternative to the more representational, knowledge‐as‐object approaches which have characterised many organizational attempts at ‘knowledge management’ to date. Building on the findings of a short empirical study into the ‘knowledge management’ initiatives of a global software organization, which highlighted the value of rich context in the generation of meaning, we seek to shed some light on a perceived confusion about the nature of organizational context. We show such context to be an inseparable part of knowing, which it creates and by which it is defined, and re‐use Blackler's (1995 ) taxonomy of ‘knowledge types’ to illustrate the relational interaction between shared and deeply personal components of context. Finally, we use these insights to suggest a way in which organizations may be able to derive more value from their investments in internal initiatives by increasing their ability to support knowing – and hence the generation of meaning – amongst their employees.     

Mobilizing consent: paternalism and cellular manufacturing

In this paper we explore the dynamics of the introduction of New Systems and Structures of Work Organization (NSSWO) in the context of the forces impacting upon organizational change in the unionized sector of manufacturing industry throughout the Thatcher period. This we do by way of a detailed case study of a major UK auto-components manufacturer. We explore a number of changes in work organization, including the introduction of a cellular-based system of manufacturing, from its initial strategic conception through to its implementation; the delegation of responsibility for quality to shop-floor operators and the use of more flexible working practices. In doing so, we reconsider the context of change, the detailed processes of change and the pattern of accommodation between labour and management. Drawing upon our previous work on the nature of paternalism (Ackers,and Black, 1991), we explore its significance in terms of management’s constant drive for more economic work practices and patterns of organization. Specifically we explore the significance of paternalism as a relevant concept in interpreting the case, and hence, also, as a relevant concept in understanding HRM. The case challenges the prevailing ideology that the ‘successful’

economic organization requires (a) a de-regulated labour market and (b)

a trade union free environment, or, failing this, that management needs to

develop an individualistic approach towards the work-force, moving from the

more pluralist‘industrial relations’approach towards an essentially ‘unitarist framework, as found in certain interpretations of ‘uman resource management’(Guest, 1987)

The paper is thus a contribution to the continuing analysis of those ‘tensions and struggles through which the open ended potential of labour power have been managed, through shifting patterns of coercion, accommodation and compliance into profitable forms of production’(Elger and Smith, 1994: 12; Thompson, 1990). By means of this case we attempt to explore this issue with respect to three interconnected

themes:

The place of paternalism as a relevant concept in the age of HRM.

The extent to which organizations may be better advised to look towards ways

to build upon their existing organization culture, rather than seeking solutions

from overseas models.

Linking with previous work on the ‘Joint Process’in the US (Black and Ackers, 1994), the paper raises issues concerning the ‘strategic issue . . . which managers have to face . . . the balance between joint regulation and joint consultation’(Storey and Sissons, 1993: 221), and hence the role of trades unions in organizational change programmes.     

ADAM SMITH AND THE ROLE OF THE METAPHOR OF AN INVISIBLE HAND

Daniel Klein and Brandon Lucas's ‘In a Word or Two, Placed in the Middle: The Invisible Hand in Smith's Tomes’, following a vague hint by Peter Minowitz (2004) , offers original physical evidence that Smith ‘deliberately placed the phrase “led by an invisible hand”– at the physical centre of both his masterworks’. Further, it suggests that the invisible‐hand paragraphs are a response to Rousseau (1755 ); and that in ‘numerous and rich ways’, centrality holds ‘special and positive significance in Smith's thought’. This paper acknowledges the physical centrality of the invisible‐hand metaphor, but questions whether centrality alone gives weight to wider claims that the ‘invisible hand’ was Smith's ‘central idea’. It draws upon Smith's Rhetoric Lectures (1763), and argues that the invisible‐hand paragraphs in The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations identify the actual objects of the invisible‐hand metaphor. This paper insists that Adam Smith is the most reliable source for revealing what he meant. In contrast, most modern attributions of special meaning to Adam Smith's use of the metaphor ignore Smith's teaching on the use of metaphors and, instead, make numerous, and often mutually exclusive, claims that Smith had a ‘doctrine’ of ‘an invisible‐hand’.     

‘Kindergarten Cop’: Paternalism and Resistance in a High‐Commitment Workplace*

abstract This article investigates how organizational paternalism, often considered a traditional and rather archaic management style, is evoked by a culture management programme in order to increase control. Most research assumes that paternalism does successfully capture the subjective commitments of employees because they appreciate the ‘caring’ and ‘nurturing’ environment it engenders. Lacking in this literature is a consideration of how and why employees might resist organizational paternalism. An empirical study is presented that suggests some workers resist paternalism because it casts them as irrational children and undermines their dignity. The structure of this resistance is explored in detail and the relationships between paternalism, culture management and HRM examined.     

THE INTERPRETATION OF ORGANIZATION: A CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE*

This article is concerned with examining the development of interest in organizational interpretation (exemplified by a decade of analyses of culture and symbolism in organization) as a rhetorical and philosophical episode in Organization Studies. the presumed ‘productivity’ of this recently developed arena of Organization Studies, for both the theory and practice of organization, is carefully considered through the discussion of a broad range of work from the past decade. This body of work is examined as a ‘genre’ of Organization Studies that both manifests particular issues for interpretation and articulates particular styles of representation. The article argues that the rise of interest in organizational interpretation represents a late-modern phase in Organization Studies, whereby traditional priorities and subordinations in the theory and practice of organization have been rewritten and renewed. In this way, organizational interpretation has come to articulate the most recent form of avant-garde activity in the continuing modernization of Organization Studies. In contrast, the article concludes with the consideration of a theory and practice for such work which would contribute to the articulation of a postmodern Organization Studies.     

Within and Beyond Communities of Practice: Making Sense of Learning Through Participation,Identity and Practice*

abstract Situated learning theory offers a radical critique of cognitivist theories of learning, emphasizing the relational aspects of learning within communities of practice in contrast to the individualist assumptions of conventional theories. However, although many researchers have embraced the theoretical strength of situated learning theory, conceptual issues remain undeveloped in the literature. Roberts, for example, argues in this issue that the notion of ‘communities of practice’– a core concept in situated learning theory – is itself problematic. To complement her discussion, this paper explores the communities of practice concept from several perspectives. Firstly, we consider the perspective of the individual learner, and examine the processes which constitute ‘situated learning’. Secondly, we consider the broader socio‐cultural context in which communities of practice are embedded. We argue that the cultural richness of this broader context generates a fluidity and heterogeneity within and beyond communities. Finally, we argue that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish conceptually between the terms ‘participation’ and ‘practice’ because of occasional duplication of meaning. We propose, instead, a refinement of the definition to allow for greater conceptual clarity.     

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WORK GROUP BEHAVIOUR: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

This paper reports on a research study about the organizational cultures of a number of textile manufacturing plants from both the public and the private sector in Ahmedabad, India. These plants were shown to vary along one aspect of their work-group behaviour, namely the rate of ‘loitering’ among loomshed workers. The concept of ‘culture’ is defined in terms of the shared beliefs, values, norms and traditions within the organizations. Methods of observation and informal open-ended interviews were used to identify elements and/or dimensions of organizational culture, which were subsequently measured through structured interviews with loomshed workers. The study shows a definite relationship between ‘culture’ and ‘loitering’; however, the critical elements of culture influencing loitering behaviour vary from public to private sector plants. The implications of the findings of the study for the plants under reference, for production organizations in general as well as for organization theory are discussed.     

Harmony and organizational citizenship behavior in Chinese organizations

From the divergence perspective in human resource management (HRM), this paper develops an indigenous framework exploring the mechanisms between the prominent cultural characteristic of harmony originating from Confucian ideology, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as well as job satisfaction in the Chinese context. By employing structural equation modeling, our findings demonstrate that the degree of harmony is positively related to employees' OCB and job satisfaction, and that job satisfaction positively mediates the relationship between the degree of harmony and OCB. This research – that examines the relationships between Chinese harmony grounding in an art-based view and employees' display of OCB derived from Western theories – is a response to the recent calls for introducing valid context-specific measures and considering the cultural impact on individual behaviors in HRM. This study suggests that firms in China may encourage employee OCB and job satisfaction by boosting harmonious level at workplace. It provides a useful guideline for multinational enterprises eager to effectively manage Chinese employees, and enriches non-Chinese managers' understanding of the values of harmony in China.     

THE CULT[URE] OF THE CUSTOMER

Much organizational restructuring, at least in the UK and USA, seeks to replace organizational regulation by that of the market. These developments centre around an emphasis on relations with customers - the ‘sovereign consumer’- as a paradigm for effective forms of organizational relations; they are apparent in, and underpin, a wide variety of organizational developments: just-in-time, total quality management, culture change programmes. Understanding these developments requires consideration of the discourse of enterprise of which the culture of the (internal) customer constitutes a key element. Defining internal organizational relations ‘as if’they were customer/supplier relations means replacing bureaucratic regulation and stability with the constant uncertainties of the market, and thus requiring enterprise from employees. This discourse has fundamental implications for management attempts to define working practices and relations and, ultimately, has impact on the conduct and identities of employees. Understanding these developments is not possible if analysis remains at the level of the organization. It requires that organizational restructurings, and the discourse which supports them, be located within the social and political rationality of enterprise. The certainties of management, the conviction that environmental challenge and competitive threat must be met by the cult[ure] of the customer, are due to managements’largely unquestioned acceptance of the normality and perceived good sense of the discourse of enterprise.     

The role of organizational culture in the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment: an empirical study in a Greek organization

The aim of this paper is to explore the nature of relationships between organizational culture and leadership behaviours in affecting employees' commitment to their work organization. Building on organizational commitment literature, this study used a survey methodology. Empirical evidence was obtained from 300 employees working in a large Greek service company. The analyses indicated that the culture orientations examined served as mediators in the relationship between leader behaviour and followers' affective and normative commitment to the organization. The findings also indicated that continuance commitment is a two-dimensional construct; the ‘personal sacrifices’ dimension was found to be related to organizational culture and transactional contingent reward. This research paper has key messages for practitioners contributing to the fields of commitment, organizational culture, leadership and human resource management.     

LIBERTY BETWEEN THE LINES IN A STATIST AND MODERNIST AGE: UNFOLDING THE ADAM SMITH IN FRIEDRICH HAYEK

This article interprets F. A. Hayek as having been constrained by the statism and modernism of his times, and as writing in a way that obscured some of his central ideas. I suggest that between the lines we can see a focus on liberty understood hardily as others not messing with one's stuff– even though Hayek in The Constitution of Liberty defined liberty in ways that tended to obscure this hardy definition, and Hayek often used code words like ‘competition,’‘the market,’ and ‘spontaneous’ where ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ would have been plainer, albeit more offensive to the culture. Seeing the hardy definition of liberty between the lines in Hayek enables us to see his focus on the liberty principle and his case for a presumption of liberty. Such a reading of Hayek, I suggest, is true to Adam Smith, who expounded a central message that by and large the liberty principle holds, and that it deserves the presumption in our culture and politics.     

THE SUBSTITUTABILITY OF STRATEGIC CONTROL CHOICES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY*

In one stream of literature, organizational control has been observed to have two types - bureaucratic and cultural - and to be related to strategic adaptation. In another stream of literature, societal culture has been discussed as influencing the choice of organizational control types. This empirical study combines these two streams of literature. Drawing on Child (1981) we argue that the choice of organizational control types is a cultural choice. Within this context, the substitutability of one organizational control type for the other is examined using data from two culturally distinct sets of organizations - Japanese and American. The results of canonical correlation analysis suggest that the substitutability hypothesis is supported in only a very limited sense and that the relationship between the two control types may be better viewed as balanced. Implications of these results for strategic managers are discussed.     

Emerging Cultural Capital in the City: Profiling London and Brussels

This essay examines how the contemporary city is being redefined as a fundamental crucible in which new and emerging modes of cultural capital are being forged. Drawing inspiration from the links Bourdieu draws between physical and social space, we use comprehensive quantitative surveys from Belgium and the UK to explore the accelerating interplay between large urban centres and the generation of ‘cosmopolitan cultural capital’. We show a close association between urban sites and the location of residents with new kinds of emerging cultural capital. This appreciation allows us to understand the increasing prominence of large metropolitan centres, which stand in growing tension with their suburban and rural hinterlands. This process is simultaneously cultural, economic, social and political and marks a remaking of the nature of cultural hierarchy and cultural capital itself, away from the older model of the Kantian aesthetic, as elaborated by Bourdieu in Distinction, which venerates a ‘highbrow’ aesthetic removed from everyday life, towards ‘emerging’ forms of cultural capital that valorize activity, engagement and intense forms of contemporary cultural activity.     

The Effects Of Organizational Context And Teamworking Activities On Performance Outcomes

Abstract

This article seeks to evaluate the effects of organizational context and teamworking activities on the performance outcomes of public sector workers. Ability, Motivation and Opportunity (AMO) theory is used as the basis of this study in which it is predicted that employees' ability, motivation and opportunities to participate will affect organizational performance. Procter and Mueller's (2000) framework is used to identify relevant HR contextual features, namely discretionary rewards, appraisal, training and development, industrial relations and organizational culture. Data based on the 2003 Local Government Workplace Survey (N = 3,165) were used to test six research hypotheses and related sub-hypotheses. The findings show that individually, the effects of organizational context and teamworking activities were as hypothesized and consistent with AMO theory. However, the interaction effects were far less pronounced in that they were either non-significant or negative, with the exception of the interaction term teamworking X appraisal, which positively predicted organizational commitment. However, the teamworking X appraisal interaction also led to increased stress, something we consider to be a ‘sting in the tail’ for workers. Thus we argue that even though the interaction effects of teamworking and organizational context are minimal, the individual effects contribute to enhanced worker attitudes and perceived organizational performance.     

The three Cs for cultivating organizational culture in a hybrid world

For years we have known that effective organizational culture is critical to ensuring revenue growth, employee retention, and even stock price acceleration. Yet, culture change is hard. Today, in the hybrid world, most employees still spend the majority of their time working within small work teams, but team members are often remote from one another. These employee interactions are essential to sharing and modeling the norms and behaviors necessary to cultivate the desired culture. Combining behavioral data with the use of organizational network analysis helps to overcome these limitations and provides a deeper understanding of the employee cultural experience—even in the hybrid context. In our research, we evaluated 10 attributes critical to an organization’s culture from more than 50,000 employees across three years. Using passive data, we also re-constructed the employee network based on primary interactions. Our research highlighted three critical cultural patterns that will help to more deeply evaluate culture in a hybrid context, but even more importantly,help target local solutions that can be quickly implemented. We call these the three“C’s” of cultivating culture. We show that organizational culture clusters in the employee network, is contagious among employees, and is contextually dependent.We discuss our key insights on the three C’s, concluding with practical applications for leaders applying these insights in their organization.