Locating Gender Neutrality in Formal and Informal Aspects of Organizational Cultures

This article describes and analyzes the practices that conceal gender at work in the contexts of different organizational cultures. The case studies on which I base my discussion derive from clerical work in two organizational settings. The interpretation I suggest is that regardless of their sex, age or hierarchical position at work, employees regard gender as a personal and intimate issue that, with the exception of pay, does not belong to the sphere of work. Gender issues raise questions that disturb the preferred harmony in everyday life in workplaces. Consequently, the employees seemed to think that hierarchical differences are located in society at large, not in their own workplaces. The analysis shows that age, position and technology shaped differences not only between women and men in organizations, but also among female clerical workers. Thus the results relate both to the practical realities at work and to the gender identities of clerical employees in their organizational cultures.     

The ambivalence of the work of the hotel managers: an approach to ergonomics

This article uses the contributions of ergonomics to understand the work performed by hotel managers. The concern to understand the job of managers is something new in the ergonomics and few studies address this issue, especially in what concerns the work of hotel managers and its aspects of performance and health, which is the focus of this article. Through a literature review on the subject, it is sought to understand the managers' work activity, the impacts on their health and their organizational performance, as managers take an ambivalent position in organizations, since they have to deal directly with the demands of upper and lower hierarchies in a context of high competition, organizational changes and user requirements. It is then inferred there is a risk of increased work density for managers, bringing negative consequences to their health and organizational performance. This phenomenon, still poorly covered by ergonomics, contributes to a certain invisibility of the manager's work in society as a whole, when the manager may suffer from health problems, which are also common in certain populations of workers who do not take the managerial function.     

The effects of perceived quality of organizationally provided meal service on employees’ job performance and mediating role of organizational identification

Contemporary managers are developing alternative ways to sustain their competitive advantages. Motivation-enhancing features such as high-quality meal service provided by organizations can be thought of as one of these methods. The effect of the perceived quality of meal service provided by organizations on the job performance of employees and the mediating role of organizational identification during this process is studied. Private security-sector employees working in Turkey (N?=?597) are being focused in this study. As a result of analyses (correlation and regression analyses, structural equation model), the authors find that the perceived quality of meal service provided by organizations improves employees’ job performance significantly and organizational identification has a partial mediating role on this association. The findings of this study will be of interest to key stakeholders such as public or private organizations, labor unions and the media.     

Sustainability trends in public hospitals: Efforts and priorities

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the previous and the current efforts and the priorities of sustainability initiatives in the public sector.Design/Methodology/approachThis study has been conducted in one industry, overcoming contextual bias as a judgmental sampling was used to select the public hospitals that were studied. Only knowledgeable key informants were approached and used.FindingsThe examination of the previous and the current efforts and the priorities of the sustainability initiatives revealed in this study indicate the existence of different trends in the public hospitals studied.Research limitations/implicationsThe results report the key trends that were disclosed in the public hospitals studied in their efforts towards sustainability. In particular, the results show that there appears to be a lack of guidelines and homogeneity in sustainability planning in public hospitals in Spain, accompanied by the near universal absence of the evaluation phase in respect to the outcomes of the sustainability initiatives that have been put in place in these organizations.Managerial ImplicationsThe multi-dimensional factors of sustainability initiatives provide managerial guidance to assess the previous and the current efforts and priorities. These factors also provide organizational guidance to assess the trends of an organization through time.Originality/ValueThis study contributes to a selection of factors regarding the previous and the current efforts and the priorities of sustainability initiatives applicable in public hospitals. It provides a multi-dimensional framework of factors that can be used in order to describe sustainability trends.     

Transformation Management and Cultural Diversity Training Through Employee Assistance Programs

ABSTRACT

This article explores motivation of black managers in two different settings. A study was conducted to explore the hypothesis that perception of organizational environment will influence both motivation and locus of control. Tt was further hypothesized that black managers working in a white management dominated organization will have a less positive perception of the organizational environment in comparison with their counterparts working in a black management dominated organization. It was hoped that such a study will help influence the focus of black advancement programs from an individual perspective to a more dynamic person-environment transactions focus. The results confirmed the hypothesis to a significant extent. This article suggests an intervention that utilizes EAP expertise in helping organizations to create and manage diversity for competitive advantage.     

Global boundary work tactics: managing work and family transitions in a 24–7 global context

ABSTRACT

This study addresses how today’s global managers navigate their work and family transitions through employing various boundary work tactics in a global context. Interviews with 25 global travelers or international business travelers in dual-career families uncovered how they handle global workflows and protect family time when working domestically or abroad. Patterns emerged across a typology of temporal, communicative, behavioral and physical boundary work tactics. A key contribution is that workplace flexibility in addition to technology allows global managers to maintain connectivity beyond spatial or temporal boundaries. Moreover, technology was perceived as an integral tool by global managers, with few cases of tensions reported from a blurring of boundaries. The research contributes to the nascent literature on work-life balance among global managers. It also provides evidence of how mobile and telepresence technologies are being used in performing global work. Companies are encouraged to foster flexibility among their global managers around viewing time and using communication techniques and technology to manage role transitions. Results suggest that global work approached in this manner can be sustainable as well as beneficial to the individual, his/her family, and the organization.     

Public Life in Gulfton: Multiple Publics and Models of Community Organization

Summary

Based on a case study of six community organizations in the Gulfton neighborhood in Houston, Texas, this paper proposes that community organization models need to consider that highly diverse and often contentious community efforts within a single community represent well the context of life in contemporary heterogeneous urban neighborhoods. Despite reservations, we find this diversity of organizational efforts and even the tensions among them generally positive, as they often reflect the most vibrant forms of public life in our otherwise privatizing world. Rethinking the diversity of community organizations as multiple publics in a privatizing context provides new openings for the importance and value of community organization within schools of social work and the larger society.     

Tailoring Organizational Characteristics for Empowerment

ABSTRACT

Empowerment is an important value orientation and intervention approach in social work and other disciplines. Viewed from an ecological perspective, a good fit between organizational characteristics and the life circumstances of individuals should provide empowerment benefits. By studying interaction effects of material resources and organizational characteristics on empowerment, this research sought to extend understanding of empowerment dynamics in community organizations. Using hierarchical regression analyses to investigate socio-economic status (SES) in a moderator model, findings of the study demonstrated that, among a diverse group of participants in two different faith-based community organizations, perceptions of organizational characteristics were more strongly related to empowerment for participants of lower SES. A substantive implication of the study is that community practitioners should attend to the fit between specific organizational processes and economic circumstances of community based organization participants. Strategies weighted toward attention to relationships among members linked to availability of and participation in a variety of organizational roles may be more salient for empowerment of the disadvantaged. Our findings are consistent with an ecological orientation to empowerment, and they add further support to the importance of ecological specificity in empowerment theory.     

Theoretical and Practical Imperatives for Reflective Social Work Organizations in Health and Mental Health

Summary

This article describes the common challenges to health and mental health organizations that require these agencies to become more “reflective” in their culture and structures. This necessitates integrating practice and research at all organizational levels. Schon's concept of reflective practice to health and mental health organizations is extended to develop the construct of a reflective organization, in which direct practitioners are integral to organizational learning through ongoing service evaluation and redesign. The theoretical and practical reasons why social work administrators and clinicians alike are obliged to integrate practice and research are discussed. University-based models of practice-research integration impede this process; Epstein's Practice-Based Research approach facilitates it.     

An Interface Between Mental Health Systems and the Community: Italian Social Cooperatives

ABSTRACT

For more than two decades, Italian B-type social cooperatives have represented a sustainable social business model of working with disadvantaged people, especially the mentally disabled. The purpose of this article is to identify the major factors that make this business model successful. By drawing on his recent work of Italian social cooperatives, including a case study, the author explores organizational goals and repertoires as well as support structures and networks of those organizations. This study explores three major factors that account for the sustainability and growth of this model: good regulation; a supportive system of infrastructures; and democratic operational governance. These make the social cooperative an inspiring example of the outcomes that are possible when the mentally disabled are properly trained in a supportive environment. The social cooperative is a model that could well prove similarly successful if copied in other parts of the world.     

Innovative Use of Computers for Planning in Human Service Organizations

Summary

This paper deals with the question of why some human service organizations are more innovative in their use of computers than others, particularly in the area of strategic planning. Rather than focus upon the technology, per se, it explores the propensity for and context within which human service managers apply computers to matters of strategic importance. It begins with a summary of the two dominant theoretical traditions within which organizational behavior has been viewed. These contrasting perspectives are then applied to the extensive body of empirical findings related to organizational innovation. The result is a discernment of key variables or variable clusters, which provide the basis for alternative accounts of innovative behavior. The emergent use of computers for strategic planning serves as the focus of the study.     

Assessing corporate planning of future sustainability initiatives in private healthcare organizations

PurposeThe research objective is to assess the corporate planning of future sustainability initiatives in private healthcare organizations.Design/methodology/approachPrivate hospital organizations have been selected using a judgmental sampling. A qualitative case study was followed in this research.FindingsThe findings shed light on corporate planning of future sustainability initiatives in private healthcare organizations.Research limitations/implicationsThe diversity of similarities and differences that has been uncovered between private healthcare organizations on corporate planning, reveals the complexity faced in trying to achieve sector-wide and or industry-wide uniformity of sustainability initiatives.Managerial implicationsThese findings offer opportunities to examine criteria to examine the corporate planning of future efforts and priorities in private healthcare sectors across countries and continents.Originality/valueThis paper distinguishes between corporate planning approaches in relation to the assessment criteria to examine future sustainability initiatives in private hospitals.     

Coffee and the Business of Pleasure: The Case of Harbucks vs. Mr. Tweek

In this paper, I examine the representation of organizations in the television cartoon series South Park . In particular the South Park episode 'Gnomes' is reviewed - this episode contains a direct parody of the role and conduct of organizations in society as its story revolves around a 'fictitious' coffee chain, Harbucks', attempt at a hostile takeover of a small town coffee shop. Drawing on the episode's roman a clef (or perhaps cartoon a clef ) depiction of the global coffee retailing organization Starbucks, it is argued that this popular culture representation offers opportunities to critique and debate organizational behaviour in a way not available to modes of representation common to Organization Studies. Following Bakhtin's model of the carnival, South Park is read as exemplary of a subversive culture of folk humour that mocks, satirises and undermines official institutions - a culture rich in understandings of contemporary organizations and their relationship with society.     

Online Fundraising in the Human Services

SUMMARY

This paper examines emerging possibilities for use of the Internet in human service fundraising. Human service managers must compete for limited funds with their counterparts in educational, religious, health, and other nonprofit organizations. There is enormous potential for raising funds over the Internet; yet, this approach to resource development may not be appropriate or effective in some instances for certain human service agencies. The selection of fundraising approach must be consistent with the organizational context in which it is used. This paper provides examples of cases where use of the Internet may prove to be an effective method for human service fundraising. It also examines cases where use of the Internet may not be a good match for the organizational context, whether in terms of ethics or dollars raised.     

‘Anger is Why We're All Here’: Mobilizing and Managing Emotions in a Professional Activist Organization

The emotions involved in social activism are central factors in the recruitment to, motivation for, and sustainability of social movements. But this perspective on the role of emotions within social movements contrasts with studies of emotions within mainstream organizations where employees are called on to manage their own emotions and those of others. Thus, while much social movement research focuses on how activists actively cultivate emotional expression, these ideas rarely intersect with the organizational research that examines how a diminished quality of working life may result from the need for employees to modify, suppress or emphasize emotions. Using in-depth interviews with activists at Amnesty International, this article bridges this theoretical divide by examining emotional labour and emotional regulation among paid activists in a professional social movement organization. I explore the ways in which employees struggle with the emotional component of their work and the implications of these emotions for the quality of their working life, the stability of such organizations and the maintenance of social movements.     

Family‐Supportive Organizational Culture and Fathers' Experiences of Work–family Conflict in Sweden

This study explores fathers' experiences with work–family conflict and their perceptions of how supportive the organizational culture at work is regarding fathers' work–family needs, and whether a family‐supportive organizational culture is associated with less work–family conflict. A total of 377 fathers working in private Swedish companies were surveyed. While a modest proportion of fathers experienced high levels of work‐to‐family conflict, less family‐to‐work conflict was reported. Further, fathers perceived little work–family support from top managers, supervisors, and co‐workers. Our results indicate that the cultures in the examined companies have norms that separate work and family from each other. Fathers seem likely to experience work–family conflict as long as the family‐supportive organizational culture, especially at the work group level, is not well‐developed. When fathers experience their work organizations as family‐supportive, they are likely to be better able to combine work and family and thus to help Swedes achieve a more gender‐equal society.     

Leaning Out: Exploring Organizational Advocacy Activities From an Open Systems Perspective

This article explores the effect of organizational culture on engagement with advocacy activities, both traditional and electronic. The Competing Values Framework offers a model for understanding how organizations’ culture influences behavior. Using a sample of nonprofit providers from across the country, the author hypothesized that organizations that use electronic advocacy tools are more involved with advocacy activities of all types. A paper and pencil survey was used to collect data on organizational culture, advocacy tools and techniques, perceived effectiveness of the advocacy tools, policy goals, organizational sustainability goals as well as barriers and facilitators of electronic advocacy. The study used path modeling to describe the connections between organizational culture and engagement in advocacy activities. The article examines the barriers and facilitators of electronic advocacy, the penetration of electronic advocacy use in this sample of agencies and the perceptions of effectiveness associated with using these strategies; lastly, the implications of these findings for managers and organizational leaders are discussed.     

Intranet use: a study of five Swedish organizations

Abstract

This article presents a study carried out in 2002, concerning the use of an Intranet in five Swedish organizations. The purpose is to investigate in what way different aspects influence the use and understanding of an Intranet. An explorative approach is used, based on two interview guides. The first guide is aimed at managers and information systems (IS) representatives and covers background aspects of the Intranets, as well as data about the businesses and their Intranets. The second guide is directed to all kinds of users and covers aspects of the use of an Intranet and in what way users can influence the content and understanding of it. The persons interviewed represent end-users, managers and members of the IS staff. Results show that the Intranets in the study are poorly matured and that the main-use mode is ‘publishing’. The underlying philosophy of the Intranets seems to be self-information rather than informing others. Furthermore, the use and understanding of the Intranet differs between end-users, managers and IS staff, according to trust and ideas of responsibilities. Finally, important aspects to be considered when investigating the use of Intranets in further research are identified. These aspects are strategies, social context, further development processes, competence and the Intranets' organizational affiliation as well as the culture of the organization.     

The Impact of Hopelessness and Hope on the Social Work Profession

Abstract

Burnout and turnover are detrimental to social service organizations, social service providers and clients. Very often organizational characteristics are part of the cause for burnout. Burnout in a job can lead to hopelessness for social service providers and begin a vicious cycle of continued burnout and increased hopelessness. Knowing the characteristics of hopelessness can help social welfare institutions nurture their employee's level of hope thus impacting the way the social service providers work with their clients.