Contextual Influences on Thinking in Organizations: Learner and Tutor Orientations to Organizational Learning

This paper examines the orientations, or frames of reference, of participants in five bank training programmes run by three banks in the United Kingdom. Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach and ethnographic methods of investigation, the paper attempts to elucidate the ways in which both learners and tutors thought about their roles in the learning events and the goals and strategies they adopted in order to cope with their situation. It is suggested that in order to understand the participants' behaviour it is necessary to take into account the contexts in which their actions were constructed. In particular it is proposed that the organizational context of the training programmes, which exposed the participants to the gaze of ‘hidden audiences’ of organizational superiors, inhibited the potential of the programmes as vehicles for learning. It is also argued that interactionist approaches using ethnographic methods, which enable organizational actors to be studied in situ, have an important contribution to make to the wider study of organizational cognition.     

I suppose you think that's funny! The role of humour in corporate learning events

This paper examines the uses of humour among participants in five bank training programmes in the UK. These programmes, run by the banks themselves, were studied using ethnographic methods and the observations reported here are based upon extensive field notes. The paper examines the ways in which participants deployed humour during these learning events and the role humour played in the management of their relations with their fellow learners and the course instructors. The course instructors' use of humour is also examined. It is argued that humour played a far from trivial role in the programmes studied. On the contrary, humour was vital to their maintenance as viable organizational practices. In conclusion it is suggested that the more systematic study of humour could make an important contribution to the understanding of the social realities of corporate training programmes.     

Micro-credit NGOs and strategic trust: An odd couple?

This study contributes to the micro-credit literature by addressing the lack of philosophical dialogue concerning the issue of trust between micro-credit NGOs and rural poor women. The study demonstrates that one of the root causes of NGOs’ contested roles in Bangladesh is the norm that they use (i.e., trust) to rationalize their micro-credit activities. I argue that Bangladeshi micro-credit NGOs’ trust in poor village women is not genuine because they resort to group responsibility sustained through aggressive surveillance. I maintain so by drawing on a trust-based theoretical framework that uses various philosophical insights. Drawing on the same conceptual framework, I also contend, somewhat softening the previous claim, that if micro-credit trust is trust at all, it is at most strategic, not generalized. For being strategic, it has many undermining effects on local social solidarity norms, rendering Bangladeshi micro-credit NGOs and strategic trust an odd couple with no moral compass. To bring forth the moral impetus in micro-credit activities, I lay out some recommendations intended for organizations, managers, and policymakers, consistent with normative corporate social responsibility initiatives. However, further studies can be initiated based on this paper, suggesting its importance for future research.     

Determinants of Demand for Delivery Services in Sudan: An Empirical Investigation with Reference to Khartoum State, 2004*

Abstract: Using multinomial logistic methods, we examined the determinants of the delivery care seeking behavior of women in Khartoum State of Sudan, as well as the impact of changes in the attributes of public delivery services on the market shares of delivery services. Time distance and transportation cost have significant negative effects, while the random ‘quality’ coefficient is positive but not significantly different from zero. Further, the likelihood of choosing home over public delivery services increases with order of birth. The positive effects of women's education and household income are most important for those who prefer private over home delivery whereas the use of modern antenatal services is decisive in choosing modern over home delivery. Also, shifts in demand toward public delivery services resulting from improvements in quality and qualifications of medical staff might be undermined by the reduction in demand emanating from a rise in the order of delivery, time distance and transportation cost to public delivery institutions. The income effects are more pronounced, particularly for the share of private delivery services. Educated women tend to shift from home to modern delivery services.     

Tolerance for workplace incivility,employee cynicism and job search behavior

Workplace incivility is a source of predominant stress in organizations, and a vital cause for job search behavior (JSB). Drawing upon conservation resource theory, this paper examines the relationship between tolerance for workplace incivility (TWI), JSB and cynicism among employed individuals. Utilizing data obtain from n?=?331 hotel employees in Jordan, a structural equation modeling was applied. The data revealed that (1) TWI has a positive impact on JSB; (2) that cynicism has a positive impact on JSB and (3) and that cynicism does not moderate the relationship between TWI and JSB. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.