Motivating Russian workers: analysis of age and gender differences

What motivates Russians to work? Two hypotheses govern this analysis. First, worker motivation is positively correlated with organizational commitment, where organizational commitment is captured by a series of statements related to the employee’s perception of their workplace and the satisfaction expressed about the workplace and job. Second, worker motivation is positively correlated to the expectation that a desired reward will be received in exchange for doing the job well. Using survey data collected in May/June 2000 from 1200 employees in three regions of Russia, this paper: (1) documents the nature and scope of organizational commitment among Russian workers as the transition process draws to a close; (2) identifies the relative importance of select job motivators, as well as the expectation that these motivators will be received in exchange for a job well done; and (3) analyzes the extent of gender and generational differences in organizational commitment and worker motivation. The results can be used not only to begin filling a gap in the motivation literature by extending previous analyses based on US workers, but also to inform Russian and foreign managers about monetary and non-monetary factors to include in designing an effective reward structure. The results also are suitable for use in management training programs in Russia and elsewhere which focus on developing ways to construct more effective teamwork at the workplace.     

Implementing an employee performance management system in a nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organizations are not exempt from the imperatives of employee attraction, retention, and motivation. As competition for staff, donors, and funding increases, the need to manage employee performance will continue to be a critical human resource management issue. This article outlines a study of the introduction of a performance management system in an Australian nonprofit organization and analyzes its design and implementation. It explores how performance management can be introduced and used effectively within a nonprofit environment to benefit staff and the organization. However, the use of performance management is not without its challenges, and the research also identified initial employee resistance and a resulting initial spike in labor turnover. However, findings indicate that if nonprofit organizations are willing to undertake consultation with staff and ensure that the organization's specific context, values, and mission are reflected in the performance management system, it can be a useful tool for managers and a direct benefit to employees.     

Europeanization of Research and the Role of Universities: An Organizational-Cultural Perspective

Europeanization of research is a process in which the dynamics of the European Framework Programme, of national research systems and local research organizations interfere. Unlike most studies on Europeanization that focus on Europe in relation to national research systems, this article explores the relationship between Europe and universities. The main question addressed by this article is why some universities have more researchers who are active and successful at the European level than others. Our hypothesis is that participation at EU level depends on the organizational cultural bias of university researchers. Following on studies of changes in the research system, the EU framework and institutional innovations of universities, we argue that researchers within universities who develop strong affinity with their own organization will be more successful at the European level. The organizational culture of a university is conceptualized as the aggregate of cultural repertoires and biases that university researchers have at hand to legitimate themselves. To map these biases, we analysed the perception of different processes of accountability. The hypothesis was tested by calculation of the correlation between these cultural biases and different indicators of 'European behaviour'. Data were from an international questionnaire on institutional innovation and Europeanization at universities, which was circulated in eight European countries.     

Why engage?

Foundations, consultants, and nonprofit managers have become interested in learning more about how to create effective strategies and interventions to strengthen nonprofit management and organizational capacity. In this article, we examine the extent to which organizational theory can explain the motivation to engage in different types of capacity‐building efforts. Using data gathered from focus groups and interviews with nonprofit executives, foundation executives, and capacity‐building professionals, we illustrate that while different organizational theories can explain the incentive to engage in capacity building, no single theory can truly capture the complexity of the decision‐making process. We show how a multitheoretical approach not only allows us to explain the evolution of capacity‐building efforts over time, but also helps us to identify and explain the problems that can be created by misinterpreting the incentive to engage in building individual and institutional capacity.     

Work–life Balance: Is it Now a Problem for Management?

In Western Australia (WA) there is substantial interest by public sector management in work–life balance (WLB) as a strategy to address labour supply problems. This article considers whether the positioning of WLB as a problem for management provides the opportunity for change resulting in an improved quality of working life in the public sector. We report on the implementation of WLB policies in four WA public sector agencies and conclude that managers are ‘managing’ WLB in a limited way, and largely in an individualized manner, at a level that does not disrupt the usual way of organizing work and employment. For many managers, employees' requests to access WLB policies are perceived as being in conflict with operational goals. The findings highlight the inadequacy of much of the WLB discourse that obscures the tension between, on the one hand, the imperative for managers to implement WLB more effectively and, on the other, organizational practices and the broader social, political and economic context in which management and the organization are located.     

Decision-making practices in commercial enterprises: A cybernetic intervention into a business model

Abstract

This article presents a decision-making framework and a technology that senior managers can use to steer the enterprise within a volatile and competitive commercial environment. The main aim of introducing such a technology would be to maximize the enterprise's value vector by ensuring that business objectives are consistently unfolded throughout the enterprise and used by all managers to make decisions that are consistent with the purpose and objective of the organization. The article illustrates how a cybernetic intervention into the business model of a large organization can be used to achieve this.     

Organizational Sustainability and Systemic Boundary Processes

Abstract

Every day, managers work to sustain the organizations wherein they work. In this article, the authors examine certain systemic boundary processes that are intrinsic to organizations and their sustainability. For readers of this journal, whose name points to the inherent connection between organizations and society, the authors present an argument that organizational boundary processes and their influence on organizational sustainability are important considerations for those of us interested in a viable future for our society. The importance of these processes for managers also is indicated.     

Towards a postmodern research agenda for public relations

The theory and practice of public relations are largely based on a modernist understanding of organization that privileges management perspectives and a strategic focus in the field. This article explores the possibility of postmodernism as an alternative theoretical approach to public relations. Postmodernism rejects the manager as a rational being who has the ability to determine organizational outcomes through strategies. Modernist public relations is examined as a hegemonic practice that interpellates practitioners into the system to legitimize the perspectives and actions of corporate managers as objective knowledge, particularly through discursive practices in organizational media. Public relations’ media relations role is critiqued for its creation of a hyperreality and the resulting crisis of representation. The paper concludes with suggestions for a postmodern research agenda based on reflexivity.     

Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives on Contributing Factors to Retention and Turnover: Recommendations for Improvement

Rates of turnover are high in child welfare settings, impacting the organization, remaining workers and the children and families under their care. A number of demographic, psychological, social and organizational features have been associated with increased staff turnover, although we have limited understanding about how and why these factors are important; differences in influence at varying levels of seniority and career duration; and workers’ perspectives on how to address workplace issues. This qualitative study assessed how factors impact employee retention and turnover in focus groups with 25 employees at different stages of employment: resigned case managers, case managers employed for less than one year and more than three years, and supervisors. Results suggested few differences in themes identified by groups. Two broad themes emerged for retention: supportive environment (including themes relating to children/parents, co-workers, and the organization) and opportunities within the agency (including new positions, experience and knowledge and job security). Two broad themes emerged for turnover: organizational issues (including themes about low compensation, challenging work demands, and system issues) and stress. Workers’ perspectives and recommendations on how to address workplace problems were reported. Results are consistent with the existing literature, although a number of unique issues were identified, including workers’ desire for clear communication flow through hierarchies, increased collaboration, and revisions to the way data is used/integrated. Workers expressed a strong desire to be heard by management, and this study reflects an important effort to provide feedback. These findings are relevant for informing organizational policy in child welfare agencies.     

The Influence of Perceived Supervisor Listening Behavior on Employee Commitment

This study seeks to examine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment in an organization. Research suggests that in today's organizations managers spend the largest percentage of their time listening, followed by speaking, reading, and writing. Although training addresses speaking and public presentations, interpreting technical reports, and instruction in technical writing, little has been done to either research or train listening skills.

Listening research has primarily focused on listening measurements and assessment (see Rhodes, Watson & Barker, 1990), and identification of specific behaviors associated with listening (see Lobdell & Gluc, 1990). Few studies have examined listening in the organizational setting (see Husband, Cooper, & Monsour, 1988; Husband, Schenck, & Cooper, 1988). A study by Husband, Cooper, and Monsour (1988), explored the initial question of supervisor's perceptions of their own listening behaviors in organizations. Further research by Husband, Schenck, and Cooper (1988) suggests that the subordinate's perception of supervisory listening may be different than the supervisor's actual listening behavior or the supervisor's perception of their own listening behavior. They found that subordinates did not feel at ease when communicating with their supervisors, and that the subordinates perceived that their supervisors were unwilling to listen to them.

As Husband, et al. (1988) suggests, there could be many starting points at which to address organizational listening. Based on some of the findings in their research, supervisor-subordinate listening seems to offer a logical beginning. The supervisor-subordinate relationship represents an essential link in the organizational structure (see Jablin, 1979). Given their argument, if subordinates differ in their perceptions of supervisory listening behavior, and perceive their supervisor's listening negatively, there may be a direct influence on their commitment to their jobs or the organization as a whole. This study attempts to determine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment to the organization.

The respondents were 225 occupational employees and 53 managerial employees in a large southwestern utility company. The survey was a 69 item organizational listening questionnaire developed by Arnold (1989). The questionnaire was broken down into four dimensions: (1) feelings about the organization, (2) perception of relationship with supervisor, (3) perception of own communication behavior, and (4) organizational listening behaviors.     

Testing How Management Matters in an Era of Government by Performance Management

Public administration finds itself in an era of government byperformance management, which is reflected in the widespreadassumption that management is a key determinant of performance,and that it is reasonable to expect managers to measurably improveorganizational effectiveness. This article joins a growing literaturein seeking to conceptualize and empirically test how externalenvironmental influences and internal management factors combineto create performance, relying on data from the 2002–2003National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II) survey ofstate government health and human services officials. We categorizemanagerial efforts to facilitate organizational performanceas determined either through their interactions with the organizationalenvironment, or through employing workable levers to changeinternal organizational culture, structure, and technology.Among the external environmental variables we find that thesupport of elected officials and the influence of the publicand media have a positive impact on effectiveness. Among internalmanagement choices, the ability to create a developmental organizationalculture, establish a focus on results through goal clarity,and decentralize decision-making authority are all positivelyassociated with organizational effectiveness.     

Managing Out

ABSTRACT

With the advent of welfare reform and managed care, the nature of managerial practice has increasingly shifted from a primary focus on internal operations to a more external, community focus which involves actively monitoring and managing the boundary between the external environment and internal organizational arrangements. This article explores the boundary spanning aspects of community practice, the related theories of inter-organizational relations, and the process of “managing out” by those in top management and middle management positions in human service organizations.     

The Architecture of Complexity

In this paper we reflect on organizational space and its implications for organization and management. In contrast to dominant discourse in management and organization theory we address the ways in which corporate buildings, as social objects, provide a materiality to organization. Developing the concept of the architecture of complexity, we focus on space as the precondition of processes of organizing. The productive power of space lies in its potential to create and trigger complexity, as it pre-structures movement and flows of communication. Reflecting on two concrete spatial organizations (the fold and heterotopia) we suggest that the interplay of order and disorder and inside/outside relation, which these spaces provide, are spatial preconditions of organizational change and creativity.     

THE ORGANIZATION AND CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL PASTS IN CRIMINAL COURTS

This article demonstrates the contributions of Katovich and Couch's (1992) formal theory of social pasts to conceptualizations of social world contexts and processual order (Strauss 1978; 1993). Using interview and observational data from three criminal courts, I focus on the interrelationship of two social world contextual features: (1) the organization of participants' social pasts, and (2) the degree of ideological consensus between participants in terms of sentencing goals. These two factors interact to influence interorganizational relationships in the three courts; and, in combination with individual criminal case characteristics, influence actors' case processing strategies. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the organization of social pasts in criminal courts and organizational arenas in general for the availability and attractiveness of alternative action strategies, as well as the management of uncertainty in organizational decision making. I also suggest several directions for further research.     

Access to Networks in Genderized Contexts: The Construction of Hierarchical Networks and Inequalities in Feminized,Caring and Masculinized,Technical Occupations

This article aims to contribute knowledge on how access to hierarchical networks of communication is constructed through organizational contexts associated with the gendered nature of feminized, caring work and masculinized, technical work, respectively. The article is based on interviews with 43 middle managers. Both men and women in male‐dominated technical occupations and female‐dominated caring occupations were interviewed. Eight interviews with politicians and strategic managers were also carried out. The results show that middle managers' access to hierarchical networks differs between feminized and masculinized contexts; hierarchical networks between organizational levels are common in male‐dominated technical jobs, while such networks are almost non‐existent in female‐dominated caring occupations. The results illustrate how organizational conditions follow the gender segregation in organizations and the labour market and, further, how these contexts shape men's and women's access to hierarchical networks. The results also illustrate how the patterns of networks create and reproduce inequalities in sex‐segregated organizations.     

Cultural Capital of Recruitment Decision‐Makers and its Influence on their Perception of Person‐Organisation Fit of Skilled Migrants

This article examines how recruitment decision‐makers’ cultural capital can influence their concerns about the organizational fit of skilled migrants (SM). We used survey data and interviews with Information Technology organizations in Australia. The study highlights the decision‐makers’ relatively poor understanding of non‐western cultures and how it negatively influences their perception of candidates from non‐western backgrounds. Furthermore, this study also notes how organisational cultural values and decision‐makers’ exposure to diverse cultures can influence their assumptions about the value of international qualifications and work experiences. Similarly, it can also influence how they assess the perception of fit based on a candidate's appearance and communication style. Consequently, the cognitive biases and judgements of resource acquisition managers can act as gatekeepers who keep non‐western SM out of the organizational resource pool. The article concludes by noting the importance of human resource practices that seek to develop cultural capital of decision‐makers.     

Managing metaphorically

While the relevance of metaphor to management and organizational analysis is now accepted in theory, if not by managers themselves, the way metaphor organizes us is not as well understood. This is because accounts of metaphor and organization neglect the embodied working of metaphor and of language in general. Metaphor works by enacting the relational quality of the world within our embodied experience. A metaphoric capacity is a capacity for organization. Poets develop this capacity through language; a good manager develops it through organization of themselves, other people and the material world. Such managing requires an openness to experience that allows organization to develop within a situation, rather than being imposed from outside or on top of it.     

Towards an Anti-Racist Social Service Organization

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines key concerns for social sendee agencies working toward the establishment of an anti-racist organization. The spectrum of barriers at the individual, client-professional, organizational and community levels will be presented. These issues will be surfaced for the purpose of alerting professionals and administrators to both the discrete and concomitant sets of multicultural issues that can affect an organization's functioning. Moving towards an anti-racist stance requires: (1) awareness of those issues impacting the agency's capacity for serviceability, psychological safety and a value added environment for the worker, the consumer and the neighboring community; and (2) a willingness to seek out expert consultation and information about a needed process of sustained diversity intervention.     

Managing Organizational Emotions: Framing Feelings of Illegitimacy in the Radical Women's Prison Movement

Abstract

This article examines how activists manage the potentially deleterious emotions that arise in social movement organizations. Using data from a case study of an organization in the contemporary radical women's prison movement in California, I explore how feelings of illegitimacy are managed and sublimated by activists, during the course of organizational life, to sustain participation in the movement. Drawing on framing theory, I find that organizational frames serve as mechanisms that manage and focus activists' feelings, delimit movement strategies, and inspire and legitimate collective action.