Neo-colonial dynamics in global professional service firms: a periphery perspective

ABSTRACT

This article analyses neo-colonial dynamics at peripheral units of a Western global professional service firm. Drawing on postcolonial theory, an empirical study at global news agency Reuters’ subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bangalore shows how socio-ideological and technocratic control mechanisms allow subsidiary workers to elevate their status, while still cementing their role as dominated in the global hierarchy and silencing any resistance. Thus, on the one hand, it might appear that the global service firm provides periphery units the opportunity to become equals of core units, representing a ‘nurturing’ role achieved by instilling aspirational values and shaping imaginations. On the other hand, coercive and universalising routines such as performance assessments highlight the ambivalent nature of global firm initiatives to incorporate the periphery on an equal footing with core units, demonstrating the countervailing nature of contemporary power relations.     

The influence of perceived shared risk in crisis communication: Elaborating the situational theory of publics

The study explored whether perceived shared experience with a media portrayal could influence various cognitions—such as concern, sense of personal involvement, and desire to learn more—that are important for behavior change. This research used the situational theory of publics in order to evaluate whether perceived shared risk is an antecedent to the factors leading to communication behavior. In general, the findings from this experiment supported the idea that shared risk experience with portrayals in news coverage has the potential to influence problem recognition, involvement recognition, and a new variable that combines information seeking and processing: that of information gaining.     

Explorations on mediated communication and beyond: Toward a theory of social media

Although robust theories of radio, television, cinema, journalism, and other areas of mass media already exist, the social media sphere has received relatively little original theorizing. Modeled after Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) seminal “axioms of human communication” article, this essay takes stock of the existing research on social media, and uses the same approach to theorizing about social media, advancing 7 axioms and 21 theorems, and exploring how the propositions chronicled can be used to build social media theory and improve public relations practice.     

Role of rural camps in nurturing field practicum: narrative from a faculty of social work,Delhi, India

Rural camps are an integral part of practice learning for most schools of social work in India. The paper locates the relevance of rural camps in social work education and unveils its pedagogy and broad learning framework. Based on the experiential account of the author in a rural camp as a teacher educator, the paper situates the role of camps in professional development of social work students and how it enables to bridge the gaps between academic knowledge base and the complex realities of practice. The unique standpoint of the paper is the students’ account of their experiences, challenges faced and its impact on their personal and professional growth.     

How publics react to situational and renewing organizational responses across crises: Examining SCCT and DOR in social-mediated crises

The prevalence of social media among networked publics calls for more research regarding how organizations can conduct effective crisis communication on social networking sites. Based on the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and the discourse of renewal (DOR) theory, this study examined how social media publics’ sentiments were affected by situational and renewing organizational responses in various clusters of crises. Twitter data of six crises representing three crisis clusters varying in the responsibility attribution (i.e., ambiguous, accidental, and preventable) were collected. We conducted a content analysis on organizations’ official tweets during crises (N = 59) and sentiment analysis on publics’ replies on Twitter (N = 4,340). The results showed that publics’ positive sentiments toward organizations were affected by organizational crisis responses that included instructing information, sympathy, systemic organizational learning, and effective organizational rhetoric. We recommend that crisis managers express sympathy toward publics as well as organizational learning that prevents a crisis from happening again.     

Evidence in action: a Thompsonian perspective on evidence-based decision-making in social work

Evidence-based practice presupposes evidence-based decision-making. In the debate it is argued that a social work fashioned after evidence should be more rational, less authoritarian, and built on scientific knowledge, respect and ethics. Yet the empirical evidence that this idea works is weak. In fact, the difficulties met during efforts to implement evidence could be a sound reaction. Indeed, difficulties experienced could be a defensive organizational reaction to a new, disturbing technology. In this article, James D. Thompson's classical study Organizations in Action from 1967 is applied to evidence-based decision-making in social work. It shows, to date, that many problems have been given, at best, tenuous attention. It is argued that a focus on evidence will raise ambiguity and complexity levels within organizations, and that new professional specialists will emerge. Further, new constellations of power will appear, leading to a change of balance within the domains of social work.     

The Chinese writer as empty signifier: a corpus-based analysis of the English-language reporting of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature

This study examines the English-language reporting of the award in 2012 of the Nobel Prize in Literature to the Chinese author, Mo Yan. Through the corpus-based analysis of news reporting in four countries, the study found that Mo was discursively produced as an “empty signifier” through which significant cultural-political work was done in an attempt to make sense of and manage a resurgent China. Specifically, the global cultural event of the Nobel Prize in Literature was used in the USA, Australian, and French news media largely to reproduce the dominant human rights discourse in which China's dissidents were highly prominent and highly valued. In the news media of the more culturally proximate India, the literary achievement was given greater prominence. The study's keyword and concordance analyses found a high degree of commonality in the linguistic strategies through which China was represented. The findings revealed that the English-language reporting of the Nobel Prize was characterized by narrow cosmopolitanism, in which “they” were invited to become part of “our” free world.     

Warriors in suits: A Bourdieusian perspective on the construction and practice of military masculinity of Korean men

Within masculinity scholarship, there is a gap about how masculinity carries over from a broad social context to an organizational context. This article explores the construction and capitalization of masculinity through a series of experiences in social fields such as the military and college, and the transfer of militaristic masculinity into the workplace. Drawing on grounded theory methods, we conducted in‐depth interviews with 20 Korean men who completed their mandatory two‐year military service and subsequently joined large corporations in Korea. We uncovered a four‐phase model that depicts how Korean men's masculinity is constructed during military service and transferred to their organizational positions characterizing them as warriors in suits. Informed by a Bourdieusian perspective, this study shows how masculinities are constructed, reinforced and legitimatized by the structural influences of society, and how masculinity becomes the desired image of men at work, which perpetuates the gender and power gaps among organizational members.     

Coming out in camouflage: A queer theory perspective on the strength,resilience, and resistance of lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender service members and veterans

ABSTRACT

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) service members have made profound contributions to the U.S. military despite serving under anti-LGBT military policies. Little is known about their everyday acts of strength and resistance, which is vital information for developing strengths-based services. This article utilizes a queer theory framework to (a) discuss LGBT military contributions and anti-LGBT military policies, (b) explore three LGBT-specific military minority stressors, and (c) identify four strategies of strength and resistance used to manage an anti-LGBT military environment. Clinical suggestions are proposed for integrating military and LGBT identities and designing interventions that blend military and LGBT cultures.     

Scrutinizing impacts of conspiracy theories on readers' political views: a rational choice perspective on anti‐semitic rhetoric in Turkey

Although conspiracy theories have been politically significant throughout history, only a few empirical studies have been about their influence on readers' views. Combining a rational choice approach with a content analysis of an anti‐Semitic best‐selling conspiracy theory book series in Turkey – the Efendi series – and semi‐structured interviews with its readers, this paper reveals the effects of the conspiracy theories on readers' political perspectives. The findings suggest that whereas the rightists are reactive to the Jewish origins of the Dönmes, the leftists oppose the Dönmes as dominant bourgeois figures. This paper concludes that left‐ and right‐wing adherents use the conspiratorial accounts in line with their political views and ontological insecurities. It expands the existing academic literature, which conceptualizes conspiracy theories either as paranoid delusions or as neutral, rational narratives, by showing that they can be both.