Organizing collective action: Does information and communication technology matter?

In recent years, there have been significant changes in the fields of collective action and political activism. The increasing use of ICTs in social interactions has facilitated informal ways of organizing and affected the participation, emergence, and organizing of conflictual and consensual collective actions. In this study we seek to understand how the integrated use of multiple ICTs, that is the ICT ensemble, affects the organizing of consensual collective action. We investigated the ICT ensembles used by two civic movements that successfully organized large-scale consensual collective action events in two European countries. In our results, we reveal how ICT ensembles constrained and facilitated the organizing functions and requirements of collective action. The findings show that ICTs allow organizers to operate purposefully in order to organize collective action, but the extent to which they succeed in the actual concretization of collective action actually depends on their capacities and intents. Therefore, we argue that human factors (that is, their resourcefulness and agency) are greatly implicated in the success of collective action supported by ICTs. This study extends the research on impact of technology-enabled collective action by looking at the combined use of multiple ICTs and examining the rare and overlooked phenomenon of consensual collective action.     

What is Organizational Knowledge?

Organizational knowledge is much talked about but little understood. In this paper we set out to conceptualize organizational knowledge and explore its implications for knowledge management. We take on board Polanyi’s insight concerning the personal character of knowledge and fuse it with Wittgenstein’s insight that all knowledge is, in a fundamental way, collective. We do this in order to show, on the one hand, how individuals appropriate knowledge and expand their knowledge repertoires, and, on the other hand, how knowledge, in organized contexts, becomes organizational. Our claim is that knowledge is the individual capability to draw distinctions, within a domain of action, based on an appreciation of context or theory, or both. Organizational knowledge is the capability members of an organization have developed to draw distinctions in the process of carrying out their work, in particular concrete contexts, by enacting sets of generalizations whose application depends on historically evolved collective understandings. Following our theoretical exploration of organizational knowledge, we report the findings of a case study carried out at a call centre in Panafon, in Greece. Finally, we explore the implications of our argument by focusing on the links between knowledge and action on the one hand, and the management of organizational knowledge on the other. We argue that practical mastery needs to be supplemented by a quasi‐theoretical understanding of what individuals are doing when they exercise that mastery, and this is what knowledge management should be aiming at. Knowledge management, we suggest, is the dynamic process of turning an unreflective practice into a reflective one by elucidating the rules guiding the activities of the practice, by helping give a particular shape to collective understandings, and by facilitating the emergence of heuristic knowledge.     

Transactive memory systems as a collective filter for mitigating information overload in digitally enabled organizational groups

With the increasing processing power and plummeting costs of information and communication technologies, the ability of employees to ubiquitously access and disseminate information grows. However, emerging research shows that individuals are struggling to process information as fast as it arrives. The problem of information overload is a significant one for contemporary knowledge-intensive organizations because it can adversely affect productivity, decision making, and employee morale. To combat this problem, organizations often invest in technical solutions such as business intelligence software or semantic technologies. While such technical approaches can certainly aid in reducing information overload, less attention has been directed at understanding how collective behavior, and in particular transactive memory systems, might enhance the ability of organizations to cope with information overload. In this study, we ask whether (and, if so, how do) transactive memory systems act as a collective filter to enable organizational groups to mitigate the potential for information overload. We used social network analysis and interview evidence from the R&D departments of two high-technology firms in the life science industry and found that individuals spontaneously organized without any centralized control to create a collective filter. For example, we found that one set of individuals specialized in filtering external information into the group while another set specialized in filtering that information for internal use. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.     

Collective action in the face of international environmental regulation

Most studies of environmental impacts operate at the level of the individual firm. However, firms can act collectively in the face of threats such as that described in this paper: the banning of CFCs. A framework based upon concepts from theories of collective action is used to explain why two different forms of collective action were initiated by producers of CFCs. Economic calculation operating within the social institutions of the industry seemed to provide a plausible explanation for the occurrence of co‐operative behaviour. In particular the concepts of collective goods and free riding proved to be helpful in explicating the driving forces that led to joint action in these circumstances. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Refugee-entrepreneurship: a social capital perspective

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify the characteristics of refugee-entrepreneurial startups, which distinguish them from other immigrant entrepreneurial ventures. The author employed a single case analysis as a means of qualitative research into the phenomenon under study, from the perspective of social capital theory. A typical case of a refugee entrepreneur was selected based on his propensity to tell his story in a way that transparently reveals the various peculiarities of his entrepreneurial behavior. The case study involved the use of interviews with key individuals, the review of printed materials, and member checking. The findings revealed five distinctive attributes that characterized that startup and which corresponded to the three dimensions of social capital. Those attributes were: a ‘one-way-ahead’ attitude, a pseudo family business perception, collective bootstrapping, a distinct network structure, and opportunity-seizing proliferation, thereby depicting how social capital is used by refugee-entrepreneurs to maximize the pool of opportunities in their host nations.     

The geography of talent: entrepreneurship and local economic development in Oxfordshire

This paper considers the interaction of stocks of talent, entrepreneurship, processes of institutionalization and networking in local development. The main theme is that although innovation necessarily involves social networks and collective action, it should not be overlooked that the quality of those networks is dependent on the quality or talent of individuals who have initiated particular developments. The paper argues that the literature on local and regional development tends to overlook the agency of individuals and that to do so ignores processes that lead to the distinctive characteristics of localities. Using Oxfordshire as a case study, it demonstrates how the expertise of talented individuals has been translated in the fastest growing high-tech economy in the UK. This has brought visibility to the county's techno-economic and institutional achievements feeding into high-level professional and political policy agendas.     

Determining the influence of national culture: insights into entrepreneurs’ collective identity and effectuation

While prior research demonstrates that an entrepreneur’s behavior and perceptions are essentially shaped by national culture, little is known about how cultural values impact effectual behavior among entrepreneurs. We outline a conceptual model of how entrepreneurs’ effectual behavior is shaped by collective identity under different levels of cultural conditioning (i.e., national cultural values). Based on a survey of 235 Thai and German entrepreneurs we analyze the impact of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation on the relationship between collective identity and effectuation. Results show that national culture is dispositive for the causal effects of collective identity on effectual behavior. Our findings demonstrate that the entrepreneur’s effectual behavior differs due to their national cultural conditioning.

     

Collective Action and Property Rights: A Planner's Critical Look at the Dogma of Private Property

The focus of this essay is success in collective action. It is based on a critical review and synthesis of the literature on collective action and property rights. I make three key arguments in the essay. First, contrary to the narrow conventional wisdom, self‐interested behavior can lead to successful collective action in both commonly managed resources and open‐access situations. The literature documents and explains a number of examples of success. Second, and nonetheless, collective action can be problematic and may require institutional responses, but privatization is not a panacea. Paradoxically, privatism can be a key source of the problems in collective action. And third, since the conventionally postulated, simple one‐to‐one relationship between a private property rights regime and an efficient outcome is not true, and given planners’ institutional interests, they should take a leading role in publicly advocating the potential viability of common property and collective action. Another important objective of the essay is to introduce to the readers a vast body of non‐traditional literature that has relevance for urban studies and planning practice. I include the literature on private property rights, ‘the tragedy of the commons’, ‘the inverse commons’, ‘the comedy of the commons’, and ‘the tragedy of the anticommons’. Cet essai s’intéresse au succès de l’action collective. Il s’appuie sur une critique et une synthèse des références sur l’action collective et les droits de propriété. Trois arguments sont exposés. D’abord, a contrario d’un avis étroit et conventionnel, l’intérêt personnel peut conduire à une action collective réussie tant pour des ressources gérées en commun que pour des situations en accès libre; des documents retracent et expliquent bon nombre de cas de succès. Ensuite, et néanmoins, une action collective peut poser problème et exiger des réponses institutionnelles, quoique la privatisation ne soit pas la panacée; paradoxalement, le ‘privatisme’ peut se révéler une source essentielle de difficultés en cas d’action collective. Enfin, comme le principe classique de relation simple, un pour un, entre un régime de droits de propriété privée et un résultat efficace n’est pas vérifié, et compte tenu des intérêts institutionnels des urbanistes, ceux‐ci devraient prendre un rôle moteur en défendant publiquement la viabilité de la propriété commune et de l’action collective. L’essai a comme autre objectif important de présenter aux lecteurs un vaste corpus de textes non traditionnels pertinent pour les études urbaines et la pratique de l’urbanisme. La conclusion inclut des références sur les droits de la propriété privée, ‘la tragédie des biens communs’, ‘les communs inversés’, ‘la comédie des communs’ et ‘la tragédie des anti‐communs’.     

KNOWLEDGE AND THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATIONS: ORGANIZATIONS AS ACTIVITY SYSTEMS AND THE REFRAMING OF MANAGEMENT*

Recent developments in the theory of knowing and doing contrast with conventional rational-cognitive assumptions about management and organization. This, and the emphasis that is currently being placed on the importance of esoteric knowledge for business success, suggests that a review of the relationship between knowledge, organization and management is timely. Activity theory offers a way of synthesizing and developing relevant notions. the approach has its origins in Russian psychology which endeavoured to avoid the dichotomies between thought and action and between individuals and society which have characterized Western theory. Activity theory examines the nature of practical activities, their social origins, and the nature of the ‘activity systems’ within which people collaborate. Modifications to Engestrom's contemporary presentation of the approach are suggested, and a theory of organizations as activity systems is offered. the theory reframes management by modelling the recurrent and embedded nature of human activities, by revealing the tentative nature of knowledge and its action orientation, and by highlighting the opportunities for individual and collective development that engagement and dilemma can provide. the article concludes by reviewing implications for the management of knowledge work, organizational capabilities and organizational learning.     

THE INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: STRATEGIES FOR ACTION IN HIGHLY-ORDERED CONTEXTS*

Writers in the management literature use one of three general concepts of culture: homogeneous organizational culture, heterogeneous subgroup cultures, and ambiguous cultures. In spite of their differences, each of these conceptualizations focuses attention primarily on the context in which the individual member of an organization acts, and suggests that the latitude for individual action increases as the orderliness of that context decreases. In doing so, the culture literature has underestimated the role of individual actors as active agents in their contexts, regardless of the degree of orderliness prevailing in them. By incorporating a more dynamic perspective of action into the cultural analysis of organizations, this article develops a framework which focuses attention on how individuals not only adhere to, but also depart from even highly-ordered organizational and subgroup cultures. This framework is then used to investigate managerial interactions during a planning meeting in HAPCO (a pseudonym), a Fortune 500 company. Two general conclusions emerge from these analyses. First, the normative force of HAPCO culture suppresses conflict, as well as the discussion of alternative ideas during decision-making meetings. Thus, this particular organizational culture severely limits the range of individual action. Second, even in large, highly-ordered organizations such as HAPCO, culture never completely dominates action because individuals comment critically on their situation. Consequently, individuals possess the capacity not only to adapt to, but also to challenge and depart from cultural rules. Four general types of strategies for individual action are empirically observed and conceptually distinguished.     

The Contraction of Meaning: The Combined Effect of Communication,Emotions, and Materiality on Sensemaking in the Stockwell Shooting

In this paper, we seek to understand how individuals, as part of a collective, commit themselves to a single, and possibly erroneous, frame, as a basis for sensemaking and coordinated actions. Using real‐time data from an anti‐terrorist police operation that led to the accidental shooting of an innocent civilian, we analyse how individual actors framed their circumstances in communication with one another and how this affected their subsequent interpretations and actions as events unfolded. Our analysis reveals, first, how the collective commitment to a framing of a civilian as a terrorist suicide bomber was built up and reinforced across episodes of collective sensemaking. Second, we elaborate on how the interaction between verbal communication, expressed and felt emotions, and material cues led to a contraction of meaning. This contraction stabilized and reinforced the overall framing at the exclusion of alternative interpretations. With our study we extend prior sensemaking research on environmental enactment and the escalation of commitment and elaborate on the role of emotions and materiality as part of sensemaking.     

Altruism and Economic Behavior, I Developments in the Theory of Public and Private Redistribution

A bstract . The principal recent contributions from economics toward the understanding of behavior that is, or seems to be, altruistic , are discussed. Relevant developments in anthropology, biology and psychology are also introduced. Most of these models rely on some form of sophisticated goal maximization (attainment of power, genetic propagation, long-term influence or even material benefit by means of a complex dynamic game strategy) and hence describe quasialtruistic behavior which is, in fact, consistent with individual welfare maximization. When looking at the public sector, government redistributive programs are considered by some to be expressions of collective altruism but these in fact have their roots in an implicit social contract enforced by the coercive power of the State. Genuine altruism must be action taken without expectation of reward or coercion and it is not to be found in models of concealed requirement or in forcible redistribution. A subsequent article discusses the area in which private activity can achieve more efficiently the redistributive objective.     

Investment and concern for relative position

Economists typically analyze individuals' market behavior in isolation from their nonmarket decisions. While this research strategy has generally been successful, it can lead to systematic errors when agents' nonmarket behavior affects their market choices. In this paper we analyze how individuals' investment behavior changes as a result of nonmarket behavior. Specifically, we analyze a model in which individuals must decide how to allocate their initial endowment between two random investments, where the returns are perfectly correlated across individuals for the first investment but independent across individuals for the second. We consider an environment in which men and women match, with wealthier individuals more successful in matching. We show how individuals' concern about relative wealth can affect their investment decisions, and we provide conditions under which individuals bias their investments either toward or away from the investment with correlated returns. A modification of the model is used to explain why agents' investments might exhibit a home country bias.     

“Imagine That—A Wildcat at Biomed!” Organizational Justice and the Anatomy of a Wildcat Strike at a Nonunion Medical Electronics Factory

Although the occurrences of wildcat strikes are inextricably linked to violations of organizational justice, only a minimal amount has been written with respect to the relationship between the occurrence of organizational injustice and the presence of employee collective action. And while research on wildcat strikes in unionized settings is fairly extensive, there has virtually been no treatment of nonunion wildcat strikes in the scholarly literature. This paper presents an industrial ethnographic account of a nonunion wildcat strike in terms of analyzing the conditions and process under which a breakdown in organizational justice leads to employee collective action. In analyzing this nonunion wildcat strike, Sheppard, Lewicki, and Minton's seven propositions are utilized to understand the conditions under which a breakdown of organizational justice increases the likelihood of the occurrence of employee collective action (Sheppard, B. H., Lewicki, R. J., & Minton, J. W. Organizational Justice: The Search for Fairness in the Workplace. New York: Lexington Books, 1992). The paper concludes with a discussion of an inexpensive human resource management practice that can be implemented for achieving some type of organizational justice in order to minimize the occurrence of nonunion wildcat strikes.     

试论如何加强会计人员职业道德教育

会计职业道德,是会计人员在长期的职业活动中逐步形成和总结出来的,调整会计人员与社会之间、会计人员个人之间、个人与集体利益之间的职业道德主观意识和客观行为的统一。随着我国加入WTO和市场经济改革的不断深化,要求会计市场、会计行业、会计行为必须规范有序,因此加强会计人员职业道德教育就显得十分必要和迫切。笔者就如何加强会计人员职业道德教育,谈一些肤浅的认识。     

From Self-Interest Motives to Justice Motives: The Challenges of Some Experimental Results

A bstract .   This article begins by presenting experimental evidence that remains unexplained by standard and utility-extended economic models: experimental subjects tend to honor their promises even on occasions when an assessment of consequences asks them to defect; subjects voluntarily contribute to collective goods, and this contribution is highly conditional on others contributing as well; subjects evaluate and value the intentions behind actions as well as the consequences of actions. Arguments are sought for in moral philosophy that would more plainly explain the collected experimental evidence and that would help economists revise their explanatory frames. The hypothesis advanced is that the observed behavior may be interpreted as resulting from the moral strength of indignation and justice norms.     

Between consultation and collective bargaining? The changing role of non‐union employee representatives: a case study from the finance sector

This article reviews the roles and activities of non‐union employee representatives (NERs) acting as forum officers in a large Internet finance company. Currently there is little academic coverage concerning NERs in this sector, including their contributions to employment relations, their motivations and orientations towards representative role and activities, or relations with management and fellow employees. An important precondition to answering one of the main questions asked of NERs is whether such representation constitutes the foundation of some nascent trade unionism, or whether by acting as forum representatives, they are positioning themselves to support management agendas and outlook? The range of data from this article's longitudinal case study, indicating time usage including individual and collective representation, suggests that NERs allegiances and roles remain ambiguous, existing as they do in the intersection between consultation and collective bargaining. An important factor may be their capacity for independent action and independence from senior management.     

Determinants of Economic Interaction: Behavior or Structure

Experimental economics originated as examination of the behavior of aggregate phenomena, especially markets, populated by human participants motivated by their desire to attain their goals. The past two decades have brought two newer trends. One is a gradual but steady shift in the focus of the questions sought to be addressed through human experiments towards examination of micro level phenomena – individual preferences and behavior. The second is the expansion in the role of computer simulations to examine questions about aggregate level phenomena. This shift to individual behavior has accentuated the ever-present dilemma of social sciences in trying to be a science on one hand, and to understand our own self-conscious selves – human beings – on the other. To address this dilemma, it would be useful to recognize three streams of experimental economics: (1) macro stream to examine the properties of social structures, (2) micro stream to examine the behavior of individuals, and (3) agent stream to explore the links between the micro and macro phenomena using computer simulations. At least the structural stream can be firmly rooted in the tradition of sciences (bypassing the free-will dilemma of social sciences), while the agent stream can span the gap between the behavioral and structural streams.The author is thankful to Dorota Dobija and Juergen Huber for their helpful comments. Science does not know its debt to imagination. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character. – George Bernard Shaw The theoretical broadening which comes from having many humanities subjects on the campus is offset by the general dopiness of the people who study these things. – Richard P. Feynman Economics has an amazing capacity to summarize staggeringly complex phenomena by the application of only a handful of principles. – Charles R. Plott Being outside and above individual and local contingencies, collective consciousness sees things only in their permanent and fundamental aspects, which it crystallizes in ideas that can be communicated. – Emile Durkheim     

SAVINGS IN TIMES OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE: LESSONS FROM THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE

Pension reforms in many developed countries make individuals shoulder a bigger share of longevity and income risks. The desired response is that individuals accumulate private assets for retirement. Whether this actually takes place, is of paramount relevance for scientists and policy makers. We take Germany as an example: Twenty years of pension reform have transformed the monolithic German pension system into a multipillar system. Formerly generous public pension benefits are gradually being reduced, whereas substantial incentives are granted to occupational and private saving schemes. Has this transition worked out? We survey the reform steps and households’ reactions: How did individuals adjust their labor market behavior? How did private and occupational pension plans take off? How do behavioral adjustments vary in the population? Most Germans adapted to the new situation. Both actual and expected retirement decisions changed and the share of households without supplementary pensions decreased from 73% to 39% in little more than a decade. This is a remarkable success. Nonetheless, households with low education, low income and less financial education did neither adjust their retirement behavior nor pick up supplementary pension plans and are thus likely to face difficulties in bridging the gap arising in future pension income.     

Member and leader satisfaction with a professional association: an exchange perspective

The theories of exchange and of collective action were used to guide a study of the sources of satisfaction of the participants in a medical specialty society. This survey of two groups of participants, leaders and members, showed that the leaders of this nationally recognized professional association were more satisfied than were the regular members; that even though leaders and members have similar professional interests, the two groups evaluated the association differently; and that the involvement of leaders in the activities of other professional associations affected their satisfaction with this association. These results indicate empirical support for exchange theory and for the distinction among kinds of rewards made by the theory of collective action. Structural sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction are identified for future research.