Three Social Dilemmas of Workforce Diversity in Organizations: A Social Identity Perspective

This paper explores the relationship among threesocial dilemmas faced by organizations wishing to attainand maintain workforce diversity: the dilemmas oforganizational participation, managerial participation, and individual participation. Functional andsocial category diversity offer benefits fororganizations (creativity, adaptation and innovation,and access to external networks), but there are costswhich deter organizations from pursuing thesebenefits. The costs associated with organizationalparticipation in diversity initiatives arise becausemanagers and their employees perceive organizationalconflicts and organize their interactions along socialidentity lines, so that temporal traps and collectivefences surround diversity. Resolving the subordinatedilemmas of managerial and individual participation provides the key to resolving the dilemma oforganizational participation. Social identity theory isused to understand the dilemmas and to develop possibleresolutions, which should make the benefits of diversity more immediately accessible toorganizations and society.     

The enduring function of caste: colonial and modern Haiti,Jamaica, and Brazil The economy of race,the social organization of caste,and the formulation of racial societies

Abstract

Modern day social hierarchies in Jamaica, Brazil and, to a degree, Haiti find their roots in the colonial context, where planters stratified laborers in order to maximize control. During slavery planters found artificial ways of influencing African identity, dividing enslaved Africans by their occupations and by skin color. These distinctions created divisions among workers and color proved a singularly powerful and enduring symbol of social and economic mobility. The American propensity for creating racial classifications for Africans and further divisions for 'mixed-race' offspring traditionally served economic interests. Their perpetuation into the present may signal the continued utility of dividing Africans into subgroups as a means of maintaining control of racial politics in the Americas.     

When Disciplinary Worlds Collide: The Organizational Ecology of Disciplines in a University Department

This study draws from the social world perspective to examine the relationships between scientific disciplines (i.e., molecular biology, plant physiology, agronomy, horticulture, and agroecology) at a university department in the field of plant production research. The interview data obtained in the study revealed that the complex organizational ecology of disciplines in the department involved four sources of conflict: (1) a challenge of the established departmental research tradition of agronomy, (2) a struggle over working space, (3) the extension into the department of an ethical‐ideological controversy over genetically modified organisms, and (4) the anchoring of disciplines to different organizational units of the university. Thus, instead of facilitating the synergistic potential of the disciplines, the organizational arrangements at the university blocked it. From this perspective, the study challenges, but does not refute, previous symbolic interactionist research by suggesting that conflicts may function as valuable analytic devices in revealing how formal organizational structures hinder the achievement of social order at the working level.     

The Effects of Diversity on Small Work Group Processes and Performance

Diversity is an increasingly important factor inorganizational life as organizations worldwide becomemore diverse in terms of the gender, race, ethnicity,age, national origin, and other personal characteristics of their members. The exact impact ofwithin-group diversity on small group processes andperformance is unclear. Sometimes the effect ofdiversity seems positive, at other times negative, andin other situations, there seems to be no effect at all.In this article, we suggest that these types of findingsmight be explained by using agroup-development model to examine theimpact of diversity on group processes and performance. Our modeluses concepts from Jackson et al.'s (1995), Milliken andMartins' (1996), and other models, as well as our ownconcepts, to show how diversity affects group development and performance. Among the conceptsincluded in the model are readily detectable personalattributes, underlying personal attributes, cognitiveparadigm dissimilarity, cognitive costs and rewards, diversity management skills, group behavioralintegration, and cognitive performance resources. In thepages that follow, we will explain each of thecomponents of the model and suggest specific hypotheses generated from the model.     

Gender Relations and Identity at Work: A Case Study of Masculinities and Femininities in an Advertising Agency

The paper explores gender relations and genderidentity, based upon an ethnography of a Swedishadvertising agency. The organization is of specialinterest as it has a strong gender division of labor,where men hold all senior posts, at the same time ascreative advertising work seems to have much moresimilarity with what gender studies describe as"femininity" rather than with forms ofmasculinity. The paper discusses how gender is constructedin an organizational context. Emphasis on workplacesexuality is related to identity work of men in responseto the highly ambiguous and contested context of advertising work. Tendencies toward thefemininization of the work and clientrelationships put some strain on (gender) identity formen, triggering a structuring of gender relations andinteraction at the workplace to restore feelings ofmasculinity. The paper problematizes ideas ofmasculinities and femininities and argues for arethinking of their roles in nonbureaucraticorganizations. Also assumptions about a close connection between domination ofmasculinity and of males are criticallydiscussed.     

Transnational lives,transnational marriages: a review of the evidence from migrant communities in Europe

Abstract Whom do migrants marry? This question has become a popular topic of research, and existing studies identify a common trend: most of the non‐European, non‐Christian migrants in Europe marry someone from their country of origin. The motivations for such practices are to be found in the characteristics of transnational spaces and in the social structures that emerge in such spaces. Based on a review of research from several European countries, three such constellations are discussed: first, the obligations to kin, especially when migration regulations become more restrictive, and marriage becomes the last route by which to migrate to Europe. Second, new forms of global inequality, between the metropolitan centre and countries of the global periphery, give migrants in Europe improved status and standing in their society of origin and therefore excellent opportunities on the marriage market there. Third, gender relations have started to shift in both host society and migrant families. Men and women alike are trying to rebalance power relations within marriage and to shift them in their favour. In this process marriage to a partner from the country of family origin may promise strategic benefits. The article ends with suggestions for future research.     

Organizational Transparency and Sense-Making: The Case of Northern Rock

Organizational transparency is associated with mutual understanding and consensus between the organization and its constituents, but is typically defined as information disclosure. Such definitions pose the risk of simplification and provide incomplete understandings of the transparency phenomenon. Additionally, research rarely focuses on how transparency is translated within crisis situations. This article presents a sense-making and discourse analysis perspective of transparency. We use the case of the British bank Northern Rock to show how this bank and its stakeholders enacted transparency in a critical moment, and to demonstrate how different zones of meaning emerged among the players involved.     

Technological Innovation and Organizational Survival: A Population Ecology Study of Nineteenth-Century American Railroads*

The population ecology model of formal organizations is used to study how adaptive maneuvers enable organizations to maintain themselves in a distribution of like organizations and, ultimately, to understand how the process of selection leads to survival and reproduction of certain types of organization and attrition of other types of organizations. Selection is readily affected by organization innovation, whether administrative or technological. This research dealt with how the steel rail may have affected the survival of 214 railroads in a fourteen-state area of the U.S. from 1860 to 1890. The findings indicate that two organizational characteristics, age of railroad and size of a rail operation, contributed more to rail survival than did technological innovation. Several methodological and theoretical issues are discussed which surround the choice of the population ocology model and the conduct of this research.     

The Decoupling of Organizational Society: The Case of Norwegian Voluntary Organizations

The means, motives, and opportunity of cooperation must be present if organizations are to establish mutual ties. Public benefit and conflict oriented organizations are hypothesized to have stronger motives for cooperation than member benefit and consensus oriented groups, and organizations with broad activity scope are likely to face more opportunities of cooperation than specialized organizations. These hypotheses are strengthened by results from regression analyses. The article further shows a historical decline in both the motives and opportunities for such cooperation in the case of Norway through processes of depoliticization, individualization, and specialization. Thus, here, the preconditions for cooperation within organizational society are gradually deteriorating. Such developments are likely to weaken the interconnectedness of voluntary organizations and the potential micro, meso, and macro benefits of such ties.     

Organizational Support in the Workplace: The Case of Korean Hospital Employees

This paper tests three hypotheses on who getsmore support from his or her work organization: (1) Thevalidation hypothesis predicts that employees withgreater social support from their co-workers and supervisors receive more organizationalsupport, because their support validates or legitimizesorganizational support; (2) the positive affectivityhypothesis predicts that employees high on positiveaffect receive more organizational support, becausethey are more likable; and (3) the moderation hypothesispredicts that positive affect and social support do notgenerate organizational support independently, but each acts on the other to affectorganizational support. An assessment of the hypothesesover a sample of 1882 hospital employees in Koreaprovided strong support for the validation hypothesisand partial support for the moderation hypothesis. Contraryto the positive affectivity hypothesis, employees' gooddisposition in itself works against the bringing forthof relevant organizational support, net of support from their supervisors and co-workers.Additional findings related to the unique features ofthe current hospital employees in Korea are alsoreported. Finally, we discuss cross-cultural research implications of the study in moredetail.     

General and Organizational Religious Elites: The Case of Lutherans in Indiana

Abstract

Historical and cross-cultural data call into question the concept of profession as formulated by British and American sociologists. A common underlying theme, however, is the monopolization of esoteric knowledge as a basis for professional authority. Because of the rapid proliferation of knowledge and technology, Daniel Bell has forecast a professionalized society, in which knowledge will be a source of power. This paper projects an alternative hypothesis based on several societal trends, using medicine as the prototypical profession and providing some cross-cultural evidence. These trends include an erosion of the knowledge monopoly as a result of rising levels of public schooling and sophistication and specific patient education, as well as computerization—which changes accessibility patterns—and new divisions of labor, which disseminate practice skills and information more widely. The consequences are decline of trust in professional decisions and diminution of professional power and authority over clients. Ideological challenges to professional status accompany these developments, which coverge to suggest a deprofessionalized future.     

The Revitalization of a Popular Movement: Case Study Research from Sweden

This article tries to enhance knowledge about organizational characteristics and processes that are important for mitigating oligarchic tendencies in the governance of CSOs, and to discuss the factors that condition the operation of these characteristics and processes. Civil society is frequently seen as an important part of societal governance and discussed as the intermediary link between the individual and society. This connection is often made through the aggregate function of civil society organizations (CSOs). Currently there are discussions regarding the decline of traditional cross-class federative CSOs and the possible effect of this on democracy in society. This article presents a longitudinal case study of the governance within a large, membership-based federative CSO and illustrates the revitalization of a CSO and its mission through the influx of a new group of members from the surrounding environment. The author argues that this revitalization process was possible partly because the proposed changes were in keeping with the organization’s original ideological core and partly because of the organization’s open democratic governance system. This permeability is found at two levels: first, the borders are open for individuals to enter the organization as members, and second, the borders of the internal governance system are open for members to take part in the decision-making process. This enabled ideas to percolate up from the members through the democratic decision-making system to the top of the organization, and some ideas are translated into statutes and policies, which then trickle down to the members again through the executive structure. The conclusion is that a functioning democratic governance system, which is able to stay true to the organization’s ideological core at the same time as it is able to modify it in light of societal change, seems imperative for this kind of organization. By doing this, the organization is not just staying true to its original mission but also actively contributing to democracy in society by including new groups into the decision-making process.     

Managing Organizational Paradoxes in Social Enterprises: Case Studies from the MENA Region

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This study aims to examine the question around how small- and medium-scale hybrid social enterprises within the context of...     

The Organizational Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity: The Case of the US Navy

This article examines the construction of hegemonic masculinity within the US Navy. Based on life history interviews with 27 male officers, this study explores alternative discourses and identities of officers from three different communities in the Navy: aviation, surface warfare, and the supply corps. Definitions of masculinity are relationally constructed through associations of difference: aviators tend to draw upon themes of autonomy and risk taking; surface warfare officers draw upon themes of perseverance and endurance; and supply officers draw upon themes of technical rationality. Further, these masculinities depend upon various contrasting definitions of femininity. Finally, this article explores a series of contradictions that threaten the secure construction of masculinity within this military culture.     

Institutional Pressures and Organizational Capacity: The Case of Outcome Measurement1

A central claim of new institutional theory is that organizations in a field come to exhibit shared characteristics over time. Recent literature emphasizes variation across field members, but has yet to concur on why differences occur. This study tests institutional explanations for the uneven implementation of one organizational practice—outcome measurement, an evaluative technique used to assess the impact of an organization’s programs. We analyze data from a new survey investigating the practices of nonprofit organizations (N = 379) and argue for the inclusion of the concept of organizational capacity to account for the uneven implementation of outcome measurement. As predicted by new institutional theory, organizations are more likely to adopt outcome measurement if key actors promulgate its use. However, the implementation of outcome measurement is best explained by the addition of the concept of organizational capacity alongside variables drawn from new institutionalism. Nonprofits with adequate organizational capacity, operationalized—following Weber’s concept of bureaucracy—as the presence of written rules and members with specialized knowledge, are better able to respond to isomorphic pressures to implement a new organizational practice. Our findings expand scholarship that examines the intersection of institutional dynamics and organizational traits in accounting for patterns of implementation of practices across an organizational field.