Writing resistance together

This piece of writing is a joint initiative by the participants in the Gender, Work and Organization writing workshop organized in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2019. This is a particular form of writing differently. We engage in collective writing and embody what it means to write resistance to established academic practices and conventions together. This is a form of emancipatory initiative where we care for each other as writers and as human beings. There are many author voices and we aim to keep the text open and dialogical. As such, this piece of writing is about suppressed thoughts and feelings that our collective picket line allows us to express. In order to maintain the open‐ended nature of the text, and perhaps also to retain some ‘dirtiness’ that is essential to writing, the article has not been language checked throughout by a native speaker of English.     

New masculinities in universities? Discourses,ambivalence and potential change

In this article, we explore forms and possible implications of new masculinities in universities, and elucidate how they relate to hegemonic masculinity. ‘New masculinities’ coins a particular tradition of naming in Nordic masculinity studies. In the Nordic context, gendered social relations are shaped by State policies and equality discourses, which are increasingly embracing father‐friendly initiatives. New masculinities refers to the increased involvement of men in caring practices and especially in fathering. Our empirical study comprises in‐depth interviews with young male academics in a Finnish business school. We elucidate, first, the ambivalence and struggles between masculinities in the discourses of these men and, second, how the construction of masculinities is specific to societal, sociocultural and local contexts. Relations of class, and middle‐class notions of the ‘good life’ in particular, emerge as central for understanding the experiences of these men. Beyond the Nordic countries, we argue that while the change potential of caring masculinity stems from particular contexts, the concept of new masculinities is helpful in capturing the ambivalence and struggles between hegemonic and caring masculinities rather than dismissing the latter as subordinate to the former.     

The First Wave Washed up on Shore: Reform,Feminization and Gender Resegregation

The purpose of this paper is to specify the longitudinal relationship between organizational reform and feminization of a managerial position, and thereby elaborate on the nature of gender (re)segregation. Four complementary explanations for increased female representation in middle management in large, established firms are derived from the existing literature. This is done to identify paths for distinguishing the intertwining set of triggers and mechanisms that are mobilized at a given place and time. An in-depth empirical analysis of a long-term reform process in two banking firms is presented: transformative leaps (Kansallis, Finland) and gradual prudence (S-E-Bank, Sweden). Despite differences in the form of the process, the gender outcomes are similar. The bureaucratic hierarchy is seemingly flexible, but gender segregation is inherently rigid, a self-fulfilling process.     

Managing testing activities in telecommunications: A case study

This paper examines ways of managing testing more efficiently and effectively. The importance and the workload of testing have been growing constantly in the telecommunication industry, as a result of shorter product lifecycles and decreased time-to-market. At the same time, the complexity of products has increased with a decrease in physical dimensions. Managers face enormous challenges in developing knowledge and effective testing processes. This case study proposes the application of two models, a testing optimization model and an extended V2M2 (Verification Validation Maturity Model) model, for managing the value of testing. In the empirical part of the study, the present state of testing management is examined.     

Effective assessment: a key knowledge and skill for a sustainable profession

Assessment is an essential element of social work practice. However, by trying to realize the so-called triple-mandate of social work, professionals and students on qualifying training sometimes struggle to consider simultaneously client and organizational aspects, and to embrace both outcome-orientation and process-orientation. Societal requirements focus on outcomes and standardized procedures whereas client’s needs require individualized and situationally appropriate consideration. The tensions are more acute with demands for rigorous professional decision making based on evidence, with increased attention to risks. Multiprofessional working has many benefits for clients, but places new demands on social work assessment. Current models are limited in embracing these tensions, and more integrated models are required. Established frameworks together with practice and teaching experience are applied in this paper to extend the traditional Taylor and Devine model to address these contemporary challenges. Elements of a new model (ALOHA) have been trialled on professionals as well as students on qualifying social work training. Such robust assessment models synthesized from theory, research, and best practice are essential to meet contemporary practice challenges, maintain public credibility, and sustain social work internationally.     

Who Participates?

Reported membership of voluntary organizations is taken as an index of community participation. Data derived from a Mental Health Survey in Canberra in 1971 are analysed and participation behaviour compared with information from American participation studies. A high participation rate was expected because of Canberra's high ranking on socio-economic variables compared with Australia as a whole. However, nearly half of the adults sampled report belonging to no formal organizations. Sex, age and socio-economic status are found to be related to joining behaviour and conform to well-established findings in the United States.     

Immigrant-origin youth and the indecisiveness of choice for upper secondary education in Finland

The educational transitions of Finnish youth of immigrant background are challenging. They confront more difficulties in a twofold manner: they have more difficulties in transitioning to upper secondary education and they seem to drop out of education more often than their Finnish-origin counterparts. This study aimed to accomplish a view of the complex intertwinement of attitudes and experiences with upper secondary education choices, gender and origin. We compared immigrant- origin students (n?=?161) with Finnish-origin students (n?=?156) in a survey conducted during the final year of comprehensive school. Our objectives were to analyse the variation in attitudes, experiences and aspirations concerning post-comprehensive transition in gender and origin of the youth, and to analyse the factors behind the indecisiveness of the transitions. We concluded that youth with immigrant origin in general, and boys in particular, share a contradiction we termed the ‘paradox of immigrant schooling’, which refers to the combination of a positivity toward education and difficulties in learning and studying. We also found an immigrant-related contradiction between determinant and quite high occupational aspirations, and uncertainty of upper secondary choices. Our outcomes indicate that the immigrant-origin youth confront the upper-secondary choices in a much more complex and multidimensional situation than their Finnish-origin counterparts.     

An exploration of third parties’ preference for compensation over punishment: six experimental demonstrations

Research suggests that to restore equity, third parties prefer compensation of a victim over the punishment of a perpetrator. It remains unclear, however, whether this preference for compensation is stable or specific to certain situations. In six experimental studies, we find that adjustments in the characteristics of the situation or in the available behavioral options hardly modify the preference of compensation over punishment. This preference for compensation was found even in cases where punishment might refrain a perpetrator from acting unfairly again in the future, and even when punishment has a greater impact in restoring equity than compensation does. Thus, the preference of compensation over punishment appears to be quite robust. Implications and ideas for future research are discussed.     

Antisocial Propensity,Adolescent School Outcomes,and the Risk of Criminal Conviction

Data from the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study (n = 4,645) were used to examine the influence of mid‐adolescent (age 15) school outcomes on late‐adolescent (ages 17–19) risk of criminal conviction. Consistent with social‐developmental theories of offending, we found that poor academic performance and reduced school attachment increase the risk of criminal conviction independently of pre‐existing differences in antisocial propensity and other confounding factors identified in prior research. Moreover, in support of an integrated model, our research suggests that academic performance and school attachment mediate the effects of childhood antisociality and learning difficulties on late‐adolescent risk of criminal conviction. The implications of findings for policy and future research are discussed.