Cultural Complementarity: Reshaping professional and organizational logics in developing frontline medical leadership

With the rise of clinical management, new skills of medical doctors stand out, including leadership skills. Medical doctors organize medical work and improve patient care. The training of frontline leadership skills, however, is weakly developed in residency programmes. Medical professional cultures tend to resist organizational techniques and values. This paper analyses cultural interventions in health-care organizations, aimed at overcoming ‘clashes’ between professional and organizational logics in frontline domains. These interventions do not work against, but ‘use’ professional traditions, styles and customs as cultural resources. We use one particular project to illustrate this, a project in which internal medicine residents are invited to join quality improvement sessions, during which they identify critical (organizational) experiences with care provision and realize change. We show how residents feel enabled to establish results and cooperate with other professionals. We also show how this project links organizational responsibilities and medical professionalism – how complementarity (instead of conflict) is established. This is done in practical ways, which commit instead of alienate medical professionals.     

THE MANAGEMENT OF MEANING IN THE POLISH CRISIS[1]

The concept of ‘organizational culture’ proves to be fruitless when applied to organizations in socialist economies. Instead, this paper focuses on a more general relationship between organizational life and the cultural context of organizing. Three examples illustrate the proposed approach. In the first, the Polish ‘propaganda of success’, used in the years 1970–80 by the ruling élite, is analyzed as a case of the use of ideology to manage the meaning shared by participants in economic life. In the second, the battle between the government and the Solidarity movement is interpreted as a battle over meanings. In both examples, the successful management of meaning demands the fit between ideology and national culture. The third example, contrasting Polish and American myths about the origins of organizational effectiveness, shows how everyday organizational life is embedded in the historical and cultural context of a given country. The paper ends with a proposal to concentrate further research efforts on the complex relationships between organizational control and culture.     

PROFESSIONALIZATION AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT PRACTICEPROFESSIONALIZATION AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: CASE EVIDENCE FROM MEDIUM-SIZED FIRMS IN TWO INDUSTRIAL SECTORS*

High levels of occupational specialization, problems of cross-functional integration and distinct bureaucratic tendencies have traditionally been seen as problems endemic to British management practice. Over the last decade, these problems are expected to have disappeared - or at least diminished - as major developments in management and organizational theory, as well as changing economic circumstances, have redirected management thinking towards ‘new’ ideas of flatter, simpler organizational structures, increased flexibility and decentralization, improvements in the quality of inter-functional relations and the like. Yet, despite these developments, there is comparatively little research that has investigated actual patterns of change within management and, in particular, what is happening in what could be regarded as the mainstream of British industry - namely, ‘ordinary’, medium-sized firms operating in ‘traditional’ industrial sectors. Moreover, rarely does such research focus upon the implications of management change for the strategies of professionalization adopted by competing specialist occupational groups within management. This paper sets out to help fill these gaps, by reporting the findings from case studies of four such firms, taking into account the particular contexts and historical circumstances that have helped shape any such change and drawing out the key influences on changed management practice.     

GROUP IDEOLOGIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Recent developments in organization theory have seen an increase in the amount of attention being paid to competing interests and definitions of situations existing within organizations. Greater emphasis is being put on ‘micropolitics’ and on various non-rational aspects of behaviour. In line with these developments, the concept of ‘group ideology’ is used to analyze the ways in which various interests were articulated and mobilized around in a case of major organizational change in an engineering company. The relevance of social class factors to the process of organizational change is given particular attention.     

Cognitive style: Some human resource implications for managers

Cognitive style may be defined as an individual’s inherent and consistent way of organizing and processing information. It is independent of cognitive ability and may have an important bearing on individual performance within and across organizational settings, for example in the areas of selection, vocational and occupational preferences, management competence, team composition and performance, occupational-stress training and development and organizational learning. A model is suggested in which it is argued cognitive ability, cognitive style and cognitive strategies are intervening variables between individual/organizational processes and individual/organizational performance. It is suggested that managers and others within organizations who have a responsibility for human resource issues need to consider ways in which a knowledge of style may be integrated into these important areas of activity.     

An integrative literature review of the CSR-HRM nexus: Learning from research-practice gaps

Evidence-based approaches to management receive support from both academics and practitioners, with momentum for this growing as research-practice gaps widen. Knowledge transmission is central to research-practice gaps with ‘knowledge lost before translation’ and ‘knowledge lost in translation’ identified as two areas of concern. To enhance communication channels between academia and practitioners, these gaps require illumination. This study analyzes research and practice literatures connected to the corporate social responsibility/sustainability (CSR/S) and human resource management (HRM) nexus. Findings show there exists broad consensus across these literatures about outcomes (e.g. its salience to employee attraction, retention, involvement with sustainability and organizational performance). However, when it comes to potential approaches to integration (e.g. mechanisms through which CSR/S and sustainable HRM impact outcomes and the role played by contextual factors), research findings are not being disseminated to the practitioner community. This and other points of disjuncture, along with their implications for research and practice, are addressed in this paper.     

Situating gender in situated learning

This article discusses the situated learning approach to the study of organizational learning (based on Lave & Wenger) in the light of the ‘doing gender’ approach in the study of gender in organizations (based on West & Zimmerman). It claims that studies of situated learning have not taken sufficient account of gender aspects. Gender appears to be highly relevant to the situated learning approach whereby learning is perceived as socialization in the context of a community of practice, because, according to the doing gender approach, all socialization implies learning to ‘do gender’ in an appropriate way. The present article discusses how and why gender is neglected in studies of situated learning in organizations and exemplifies ways in which the inclusion of gender aspects could affect the basic assumptions and conclusions of the approach.     

Metaphor and the Dynamics of Knowledge in Organization Theory: A Case Study of the Organizational Identity Metaphor*

abstract Despite the increased salience of metaphor in organization theory, there is still very little conceptual machinery for capturing and explaining how metaphor creates and/or reorders knowledge within organization theory. Moreover, prior work on metaphor has insufficiently accounted for the context of interpreting a metaphor. Many metaphors in organization theory, including the ‘organizational identity’ metaphor, have often been treated in singular and monolithic terms; seen to offer a similar or largely synonymous interpretation to theorists and researchers working along the entire spectrum of disciplines (e.g. organizational behaviour, organizational psychology) in organization theory. We argue in this paper that contextual variation however exists in the interpretation of metaphors in organization theory. This argument is developed by proposing and elaborating on a so‐called image‐schematic model of metaphor, which suggests that the image‐schemata (abstract imaginative structures) that are triggered by the metaphorical comparison of concepts may vary among individuals. Accordingly, once different schemata are triggered the completion and interpretation of a metaphor may equally vary among different individuals or, indeed, research communities. These points associated with the image‐schematic model of metaphor are illustrated with a case study of the ‘organizational identity’ metaphor. The case study shows that this particular metaphor has spiralled out into different research communities and has been comprehended in very different ways as different communities work from very different conceptions, or image‐schemata, of ‘organization’ and ‘identity’, and use different theoretical frameworks and constructs as a result. The implications of the image‐schematic view of metaphor for knowledge development and theoretical progress in organization theory are discussed.     

SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE RELATED TO THE CASE OF THE SUPERORDINATE INTEGRATOR

This empirical study seeks to characterize processes of integration in complex organizations. The need for integration is examined initially in terms of the ideas of Weber, Pugh et al., Child, Lawrence and Lorch, and Pettigrew. Subsequently integration is related to a system's view of the problem of organizational control that underlines how the environment tends to both ‘fractionalize’ and ‘factionalize’ an organizational decision-making system. The integrative task is then represented in terms of processes that seek to effect stable combinations of interrelationships between differntiated sub-units. The evidence is presented in the form of a series of cases and incidents obtained during a one-year participant observation study in a large multi-national company. The research aims to identify ‘contingency’ guidelines in the design of integrative mechanisms by exploring differences in: the characteristics of integrative sub-systems, the organizational environments in which they operated and the kinds of (intergroup) decision conflicts in which they were engaged. This exploratory study suggests that important conditions include: the identification of the integrative unit members, how ‘ill-structured’ the decision problems encountered are and the degree of support for integrators that is perceived to be provided by senior management.     

Other stories of resilient safety management in the Norwegian offshore sector: Resilience engineering,bullshit and the de-politicization of danger

This paper explores the different conceptual meanings of the term resilience as it is used and interpreted by industry actors in the Norwegian oil and gas industry, as well as the possible wider ramifications of this use. This is done by presenting three different theoretical readings, or stories, of the recent proliferation of the term in the industry. The stories are supported by empirical material stemming from document studies, interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the industry. Safety Management academics and practitioners in the industry generally rely on conceptions derived from Resilience Engineering (RE), which is consequently the perspective used in the first story. Here, we outline the RE-perspective and explore how it might justify the spread of, and apparent need for, resilience, as well as those empirical qualities of operations that the concept purports to refer to. The second story utilizes the concept of organizational bullshit in order to examine some of the ways in which the resilience concept is used to impress and invoke organizational legitimacy, without necessarily having much tangible connection to day-to-day operations. The third reading connects the resilience concept to the rise of neoliberalism, and explores its potential for depoliticizing risk and danger as well as facilitating the responsibilization of offshore workers. In addition to presenting the different conceptual meanings of resilience in the Norwegian oil and gas sector, the paper also provides resources for discussing the potential ramifications of these conceptions     

Limits to and prospects of entrepreneurship education in the academic context

Process philosophy has drawn attention to the world as ambiguous and ever changing, however also enactable. This makes entrepreneurship a processual phenomenon, rightly addressed as ‘entrepreneuring’. Recognizing not only their cognitive, yet also affective and conative capabilities, makes it possible for human actors to mobilize forces that bring the world to a standstill long enough to create a venture for value creation. This, however, calls for the insight that is different to universal scientific knowledge – episteme and techne – namely, the situated insights that Aristotle addressed as mētis and phronesis. Mētis then concerns alertness and shrewdness and phronesis is about prudence in the context of action. Academic education can only provide these competencies needed to train for entrepreneuring by letting the students travelling across the boundaries of the university. In addition, the dominance of management as an ideology must be proactively dealt with. Three cases in academic training for entrepreneuring, all in the Swedish context, which show radically different ways of dealing with these challenges, are presented in a comparative analysis. The lessons are summarized in general conditions for providing training that advances entrepreneurship students’ situated and actionable insights.     

高职英语教师职业倦怠探析

当前,高职英语教师职业倦怠已经成为职业教育中的一大危机。本文试从社会环境、组织机制职业现状和教师个体等方面探析高职英语教师职业倦怠产生的原因,并针对性地提出缓解对策。     

CONSTRUING ORGANIZATIONAL TEXTURE IN YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS

In a young entrepreneurial firm, two developmental processes are identified. One reflects the emergence of a social network whilst the other reflects the emergence of a task domain. The concept of ‘organizational dialogue’ is introduced to describe the action strategies through which these two processes are connected. The resulting textures may critically be examined to produce ‘process’ knowledge. It is argued that organizational theory can benefit from more work of this kind.     

Development of a project management model for a government research and development organization

This article presents the results of an undergraduate project to develop a project management model for integration into a government research and development (GR&D) organization. The project was divided into three main phases: literature review, creation and execution of an organizational culture survey, and the development of a project management model compatible with GR&D organizations. It was found that, although there are cultural gaps between the GR&D and project management cultures, it is possible to bridge these gaps by a combination of training, organizational structure, and the application of project management techniques blended to match the type of research project and fundamental cultural assumptions.     

The Meanings of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. An Explanation for the Forbid/Allow Asymmetry

Survey questions worded with the verb ‘forbid’ prove not to elicit opposite answers to equivalent questions worded with the verb ‘allow’ (Rugg 1941). Although ‘forbid’ and ‘allow’ are generally considered each other’s counterparts, respondents rather answer ‘no, not forbid’ than ‘yes, allow’. In order to find out which question is a more valid measure of the underlying attitude, this asymmetry in the answers has to be explained. Experiments show that the asymmetry arises because respondents translate similar attitudes differently into the answering options to forbid/allow questions are equally valid, but the way the attitudes are expressed on the answering scale differs due to the use of ‘forbid’ or ‘allow’. How does this translation process work? The leading hypothesis in forbid/allow research predicts that respondents holding moderate opinions feel that ‘yes forbid’ and ‘yes allow’ are very extreme, causing moderate respondents to prefer answering ‘not forbid’, or ‘not allow’. This article presents the results of 10 experiments investigating the meanings of the answering options to forbid/allow questions. Extreme connotations are shown to only provide part of the explanation for the occurrence of the forbid/allow asymmetry. In order to describe the answering process for forbid/allow questions, well-definedness of meanings proves to be an important additional factor. The meanings of answering options to allow questions are ill-defined compared of those to forbid questions, which causes allow questions to be less homogeneous measures of the underlying attitude than forbid questions.     

POSTMODERN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS: TOWARD A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This article discusses a new approach to organizational analysis — postmodernism. We contrast modern and postmodern forms of explanation and explore a family of terms derived from these two concepts. In so doing, we discuss whether postmodernism is best described as an ‘epoch’or an ‘epistemology’, a distinction which underpins current debates. Through reference to the works of Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Francois Lyotard, we produce an inventory of key concepts for postmodern organizational analysis —‘representation’, ‘reflexivity’, ‘writing’, ‘differance’ and ‘de-centring the subject’. By explicating the main arguments associated with these concepts — and by developing the middle ground between the epoch and epistemology positions — we lay conceptual foundations for a nascent postmodern approach to organization studies.     

The Politics of Standards in Modern Management: Making ‘The Project’ a Reality*

abstract In this paper, we explore the standardization of contemporary management knowledge, focusing in particular upon the role of ‘standards’ in creating and reifying ‘organizational objects’, with powerful consequences and with often unrecognized ethical implications. It is our argument that modernist beliefs in ‘general, abstract and timeless ideas’ ( Brunsson et al., 2000 , p. 173), enshrined in a universal and abstract rationality, results in the marginalization of more reflexive forms of rationality and the suppression of autonomy, creativity and discretion in organizations. To investigate the consequences of standardization, we take as the focus of our analysis a specific management model which has a significant and growing impact on many sectors of contemporary industry; that of project management. Drawing on the work of Timmermans and Berg (1997) , Bowker and Star (1999) and Brunsson et al. (2000) , we draw attention to the reification of the object of management; in this case, the project itself, as a transhistorical, ‘real world’ object. By tracing efforts to establish and institutionalize ‘standards’ in this and other fields of management, in particular through the creation and dissemination of a universal ‘body of knowledge’ for this field, we draw attention to the political and moral significance of the ‘blackboxing’ of knowledge. It is our broader intention here to help to denaturalize this organizational object, to legitimize other modes of knowledge and practice in the field, and thereby to reopen debate in this and other arenas of standardization.     

The Continuity–Change Duality in Narrative Texts of Organizational Identity*

abstract This paper focuses on how continuity and change are managed discursively in narrative texts of organizational identity and thus helps move forward the discussion about persistence and change in organizational identity. The study reports on the content, context and authorial elements of the evolving narrative composed by a Canadian bank's senior managers. The analysis indicates that the discursive strategies employed by organizational authors to establish confluence (or simultaneous continuity and change) include the selective reporting of elements from the past, present and future, the juxtaposition of the ‘modern and attractive’ with the ‘outdated and undesirable’, the persistent use of expansive labels that allow the addition and subtraction of meanings attached to the labels, and the importation of selected themes from the wider macro‐discourses. In keeping with the view that organizations are plurivocal, evolving narratives of the organization in the business press are also presented. These narratives contribute themes that are at times concordant with senior managers’ accounts and thus confirm the value of the changes in identity elaborated by management; at other times, press accounts are discordant with senior managers’ narratives and provide alternative evaluations of the changes. The paper concludes with reflections on the indeterminacy of both organizational identity – for the texts that constitute it remain open to multiple readings and to subsequent re‐writing that continually destabilize it – and the narrative research enterprise that falls short of providing comprehensive and incontrovertible accounts of the voices that constitute organizations.     

Parenthetic Learning in Organizations: Toward the Unlearning of the Unlearning Model

The organizational ‘unlearning’ model is discussed. It is argued that the model fails to capture the individual and organizational processes necessary to achieve the objectives for which it is proposed. To achieve these objectives, an alternative, ‘parenthetic learning’ model of organizational learning and change is proposed.     

New Public Management

The paper presents an assessment and evaluation of what is termed ‘new public management’ at the end of the 1990s. In order to provide this assessment, new public management is defined in several ways: as a movement, as an academic commentary, and as reformed organizational practice in the public sector. The paper uses the UK health sector to examine some of the assumed relationships between ideology, actions and consequences implied within a broad understanding of new public management. Developments in the UK health sector are used to address assumptions focusing on different aspects of the ideology (private sector practices and markets can increase efficiency in the public sector), actions (introduction of market mechanisms and business-like, practices) and consequences (operational performance, strategic direction, governance and values). Drawing on developments in the UK health sector, an assessment of new public management at the end of the 1990s sees it much diversified and expanded from original conceptions, which are ensuring its contested survival as a movement, as an academic commentary, and as reformed organizational practice in the UK despite a change of government in 1997.