Discourses of Work–Life Balance: Negotiating ‘Genderblind’ Terms in Organizations

This article examines current debates about gender equality, work‐life balance and flexible working. We contrast policymakers’ and organizational discourses of flexible working and work–life balance with managers’ and employees’ talk about these issues within their organizations. We show how, despite the increasingly gender‐neutral language of the official discourses, in the data studied participants consistently reformulate the debates around gendered explanations and assumptions. For example, a ‘generic female parent’ is constructed in relation to work–life balance and flexible working yet participants routinely maintain that gender makes no difference within their organization. We consider the effects of these accounts; specifically the effect on those who take up flexible working, and the perceived backlash against policies viewed as favouring women or parents. We argue that the location of work–life balance and flexibility debates within a gender‐neutral context can in practice result in maintaining or encouraging gendered practices within organizations. Implications of this for organizations, for policymakers and for feminist researchers are discussed.     

The evolving role of organizational theory within economic sociology

Organizational theory was one of the roots of the “new” economic sociology. In recent years, a set of complementary research programs have come to the fore that augment our understanding of the social structuring of markets. These include an interest in the role of conventions and commensuration, market devices, the performativity of economics, and the role of morality in the construction of markets. These other interests have come to enrich our conception of the ways in which “the social” structures market activities. While this has decentered some of the emphasis on organizations, there are still active research programs pushing forward new ideas that are focused on organizations, institutions, and networks in economic sociology. We discuss some of the recent work on organizational logics, inter‐ and intra‐organizational networks, and social movements and organization. We note there has also been some hybridity as scholars borrow from each other's toolkits in order to deepen our knowledge of the way the economy works. Organizational theory remains a main theoretical mainstay of economic sociology, but it has now been joined by additional perspectives.     

Tracking ‘the transnational’: studying transnational organizations and managements,and the management of cohesion

This article argues for greater clarity in researching transnational organizations and management, and the need for gendered multi‐level theory and gendered multi‐actor analysis. It examines different understandings and conceptualizations of ‘the transnational’ in studying transnational organizations and management, and their implications for understanding and conceptualizing the ‘management of cohesion’. In so doing, three conceptual and theoretical questions are considered: what are the major meanings of ‘the transnational’ in studying transnational organizations and management? What are the major different disciplinary frameworks in studying transnational organizations and management? What are the major epistemological debates in studying transnational organizations and management? Particular emphasis is placed on: the field of studies on transnational organizations and management; transnational research projects on transnational organizations and management; and the lives of transnational researchers. Two ongoing research projects – on gender relations in transnational organizations and managements, and men's changing organizational practices in Europe – are focused on to illustrate these issues. The theme of gender critique is developed throughout.     

Blurring the Boundaries of Environmentalism: The Role of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society as a Boundary Organization in Northern Conservation Planning

Boundary organizations facilitate the transfer of practical knowledge between scientific and political realms. In the Northwest Territories of Canada the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), an environmental nongovernmental organization (ENGO), increasingly undertakes boundary work as a partner or leading organization in the development of novel arrangements in natural resource management. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted over three years’ participation in working groups for Great Bear Lake watershed management planning and the protection of an Aboriginal cultural landscape, I examine how CPAWS served an atypical ENGO function as a boundary organization. Historically ENGOs in Canada have taken a strong preservationist and anti‐industrial development stance to environmental governance issues. CPAWS, in these contemporary cases, was sensitive to multiple interests and values and assisted in both community and government projects by taking a proactive and participatory role, recognizing the need for community economic development including resource‐extractive industries. At the same time, however, CPAWS strategically promoted its status in other national conservation projects. An indirect outcome is increased perceived efficacy and influence of the boundary organization in larger forums and contexts. CPAWS effectively transformed its historically perceived preservationist, litigious, and watchdog stance to a position as active, positive, and even powerful organizational actor in conservation and development in Canada.     

Rehearsals in Citizenship: BBC Stop‐Motion Animation Programmes For Young Children

This paper examines new managerial discourses and practices in which the dialectic of labour is reconstructed as a series of acts of self‐understanding, self‐examination and “self‐work”, and through which the “self qua self” is constituted as the central object of management technologies. We interrogate concepts such as “excellence”, “total quality”, “performance”, “knowledge”, “play at work” and “wellness” in order to decipher the ways in which managerialism deploys what we term therapeutic habitus, and projects a new horizon of “human resourcefulness” as a store of unlimited potentialities. We invoke management’s wider historical–cultural context to situate managerialism within the framework of modernity as a cultural epoch whose main characteristic is what we term “derecognition of finitude”. It is the modern synthesis — with the “self” at the centre of its system of values — that provides the ground for current elaborations of subjectivity by managerialism. The paper examines how current vocabularies and practices in organizations use “work” to rearticulate discursively the human subject as an endless source of performativity by configuring work as the site of complex and continuous self‐expression. Management thus acquires a new discursive outline: instead of appearing as an authoritarian instance forcing upon workers a series of limitations, it now presents itself as a therapeutic formula mediating self‐expression by empowering individuals to work upon themselves to release their fully realized identity.     

Diversity Trouble

In line with Judith Butler’s famous “Gender Trouble”, this article starts by challenging some basic assumptions. What are the conceptual premises of diversity and its management? How do these concepts define identities? How do they decide and influence the entrepreneurial management of these identities? And what patterns of action are typical for diversity conscious organizations? Following these questions by focusing on the discussion of diversity in the German-speaking world, the authors discuss three distinct issues they have had with current diversity management concepts: first, the personalization of social systems; second, the monolithic construction of organizational cultures; and third, an understanding of change that follows a rather mechanistic logic. Trying to light up different blind spots, the article argues for a different approach to diversity management, paying more respect towards organizational dynamics, coping with complexity in a mindful manner, and a sense of ambivalence that should be at the heart of diversity leadership.     

Performance measurement: Some conceptual issues

Measures of how well a system is operating are clearly of interest to a wide range of users, from organizational researchers to system managers. The current literatures in such areas as “performance measurement, ” “organizational effectiveness, ” and the like show little consistency in their definitions of terms or in their methods for generating measures. The present paper attempts a clarification of these issues in the form of a conceptual minimalist position which requires only three basic definitions, and leaves, as far as possible, all remaining issues open to empirical investigation.We first review the literature on “organizational effectiveness” contrasting the organizational goals and systems paradigms, and note the lack of either theoretical or empirical convergence between the two. An examination of the nature of effectiveness statements suggests that this failure of convergence flows mainly from the different criterion sets generated by the two paradigms — and, importantly, that one should not expect convergence on a single measure or set of measures which uniquely define how well a system is performing. One's view of how well a given system is performing is a function of where one stands (either theoretically or in relationship to the system), and pursuit of the one true set of performance measures is a futile exercise. Instead, we propose to redirect attention to the identification of the various individuals and groups (“constituencies”) with an interest in system performance, and to the investigation of those items of system relevant information (their “performance measure sets”) which do, in fact, change their evaluations of how well the system is performing. This perspective will, we hope, redirect effort from futile theoretical debate to empirical investigations of what measures are used, by whom, and to what effect, in specific settings.     

Organizational Contradictions in Public Bureaucracies: Toward a Marxian Theory of Organizations*

An alternative approach to organizational theory is outlined, based on Marxian categories and propositions. The concepts of “productive force” and “social relations of production” are specified in terms of various organizational phenomena such as organizing activity vs. organization; historical contradictions between organizational control structures and new forms of organizing work activity (e.g., occupational and professional status groups vs. administrative rationalization and bureaucratization; bureaucratic and technocratic administration vs. self-organization of labor and workers' control); the contradictions between such organizational dimensions as labor-power and its manifestations in terms of skills and knowledge, the object of labor (complexity of task structure), the means of labor (technology), the division of labor, the control of labor (cost-accounting and hierarchical authority relations), and the organization of labor (e.g., either in terms of occupations and professions or unions, corporate management, state bureaucracies, or self-organization and workers' control). Organizational contradictions between functional as well as historical phases of the work process are described for work organizations, in general, and for public service bureaucracies and courts of law, in particular. For example, administrative and technical innovations designed to increase productivity tend to come into contradiction with strategies of established authority structures (e.g., of the professional judicial elite) designed to expand domain, thus impeding or nullifying various organizational reform efforts. The paper concludes with a more general discussion of Marxian method.     

Neue Arbeitswelt,Führung und organisationaler WandelNew Economy,Leadership and Organizational Change.

This article of the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation.” analyzes and discusses current changes in the working environment with regard to the associated opportunities and risks. Due to the growing dynamism of the markets, digitization, the demographic change and the change of values the importance of flexibility and changeability as central prerequisites for organizational survival is rising constantly. At the same time organizations and employees make higher demands on each other. This shift in the “psychological contract” between employees and organization is discussed in the light of the characteristics of “generation Y”. The article concludes by summarizing consequences of these developments for work in organizations, leadership, change processes and consulting.     

Casa de Esperanza [Part B]

When nonprofit organizations make significant changes in mission, there are many issues of organizational structure and culture that must be re‐examined and re‐aligned. As the second segment in the case of Casa de Esperanza illustrates, there are many human issues that must be navigated by leaders making such changes. Case B illustrates the challenges that must be confronted as leaders embrace the agency's identity as a community‐based Latina organization, rather than a government‐funded domestic violence organization. The case describes the management planning and implementation processes, including changes in leadership, programming, and operations. Staff responses to these changes are also stressed, revealing the very human elements of organizational change. © 2004 Jodi Sandfort     

Entwicklung einer auf Resilienz ausgerichteten OrganisationskulturDevelopment of an organizational culture aiming resilience

This article examines how resilience of organizations can be enhanced by promoting their capability for adaptation. In a first step, the current understanding of the conceptualization of organizational resilience is compared to the resilience of individuals and teams. In a second step, the article also aims to illustrate the relationship between organizational resilience and organizational culture. Based on this, the applied research and development project “TeamSafe” in collaboration with a nuclear power plant is described as an example of a resilience-oriented training concept and a method for coping with unknown situations. In this project a multi-methodological approach (observational methods, video analysis and workshops) was chosen in order to identify relevant competencies and combine them with scientific findings. By involving simulator instructors and operating teams during the development process of the training concept, crucial action knowledge of operating teams in a nuclear power plant was gained by observations in the simulator and shared between different teams. This enabled the resilience-oriented development of the organization’s culture.     

‘A Blinding Lack of Progress’: Management Rhetoric and Affirmative Action

In this study we explore how versions of organizational reality and gender are constructed in management discourse and whether such patterns change over time. Specifically, we examine management explanations and accounts of the gendered nature of their organizations through their commentaries on their affirmative action programmes. In Australia private sector organizations with 100 or more employees are required to report to government on their affirmative action programmes for women. In these documents, management representatives outline objectives for the coming year and report on their progress in reducing employment‐related barriers for women. In doing so they account for the ‘problem’ of gender‐based discrimination that affirmative action is designed to address, justify their actions (or lack of action) and reproduce versions of gendered identity. Thus we use affirmative action reporting as cases of management rhetoric to explore how aspects of gender and organization are constructed, taken for granted, challenged or problematized. Comparing reports from the hospitality sector over a 14‐year period, we explore whether there is any evidence of discursive change in management accounts of the gendered nature of their organizations.     

The learning camera: A personalized learning model for online pedagogy in human services education

Abstract

This article describes the development of a personalized learning approach to human services online education that utilizes a “learning camera” as a metaphorical tool for undergraduate students’ development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions required for successful transition to professional practice. By highlighting students’ ongoing development as knowledge builders and constructivist learners, the online curriculum is enacted within each student’s area of interest and in their home communities. This “learning camera” model of online pedagogy for human services education is intended to serve as a resource for other institutions interested in praxis-oriented approaches to personalized online teaching and learning.     

Does Anti‐Hispanic Bias Motivate Opposition to Non‐English Languages?*

Contemporary political debates about language policy in the United States focus on three primary policy issues: bilingual education in public schools, English‐only legislation, and the access of non‐English speaking citizens to political rights. Using the “Multi‐Ethnic United States” module from the 2000 General Social Survey (GSS), this article tests multiple attitudinal, behavioral, demographic, and contextual hypotheses for how Anglos and African Americans view bilingual policy issues. We examine the role of linguistic contact, self‐interest, group threat, and discriminatory views of Latinos, finding that the latter—as measured by the “Three Ds” (Derogation, Disrespect, and Distance)—are the strongest predictors of attitudes toward bilingualism. Distance (social distance from Latinos) is consistently significant, disrespect (doubts about Latino contributions to the United States.) is mostly significant, and derogation (Latino stereotypes) is occasionally significant. Also, political ideology and knowledge of a non‐English language play important roles in the formation of favorable bilingualism opinions. However, the self‐interest and group threat variables were largely insignificant. Taken together, these findings indicate the importance of understanding how policy views may be structured by opinions about out‐group individuals and cultures. Language can serve as a proxy for immigrants themselves, as negative attitudes toward Latinos are associated with negative attitudes toward bilingualism.     

Heretical Social Movement Organizations and Their Framing Strategies*

This article is an exploratory study of heretical social movement organizations (HSMOs) and the challenges that they face in framing their issue positions. It examines how identity communities’ core issue positions serve to demarcate the boundaries of authentic group membership, making “heretics” out of community organizations that have contrary positions. It also analyzes how these organizations finesse their heretical status by utilizing specific framing strategies. It illustrates these processes using data on two social movement organizations involved in the American abortion controversy, Catholics for a Free Choice, a Catholic pro‐choice organization, and Feminists for Life of America, a feminist pro‐life organization, during the period between 1972 and 2000. I begin by demonstrating the Catholic and feminist communities’ use of an abortion litmus test to maintain community boundaries. I, then, describe the two organizations’ use of value amplification and boundary framing to frame their “heretical” issue positions both within and against their identity communities, respectively. I conclude by discussing the trend toward orthodoxy in many identity communities and the role of heretical social movement organizations in challenging this trend.     

The ‘New Institutionalism’ in Organization Theory: Bringing Society and Culture Back In

This investigation will discuss the emergence of an economistical perspective among the dominant approaches of organization theory in the United States since the inception of “organization studies” as an academic discipline. It maintains that Contingency theory, Resource Dependency theory, Population Ecology theory, and Transaction Cost theory analyze predominantly for-profit organizations within the context of the current economic environment. It further holds that the political and cultural environments, as well as the role of communities, are widely neglected by the economistical perspective. The New Institutionalism departs from this line of thinking and offers an implicit critique. With this focus, this article addresses a sociology of knowledge theme and aims to account for this theoretical limitation by drawing on social developments in the American economy, in American politics, and in the academy. Finally, this study argues that the economization of organization studies is strongly supported by the increasing proliferation of American business schools. Here the science of organization studies has found its new institutional home.     

Problems recruiting volunteers: Nature versus nurture

In a national study of public charities in the United States, we find that some organizations experience little difficulty recruiting volunteers while others report substantial problems. We study which organizations are more likely to report recruitment problems, separating the underlying forces for those problems into two camps. One, which we label “nature,” represents organizational conditions that cannot readily be overcome by a management response. The other, which we label “nurture,” represents organizational conditions that volunteer resource managers and other members of the top management team can directly influence as they seek to make their organization more inviting to prospective volunteers. We find some support for both camps, concluding that managers must be prepared to work with both immutable and malleable conditions when devising strategies for recruiting volunteers whose schedule and skills fit the organization's needs.     

Critical standpoint: Leaders of color advancing racial equality in predominantly white organizations

Organizations are often core sites for the production and perpetuation of social inequality. Although the United States is becoming more racially diverse, organizational elites remain disproportionately white, and this mismatch contributes to increasing racial inequality. This article examines whether and how leaders of color within predominantly white organizations can help their organizations address racial inequality. Our analysis uses data from a national study of politically oriented civic organizations and ethnographic fieldwork within one predominantly white organization. We draw on institutional work research, the outsider‐within concept, and insights from critical whiteness theory to explain how leaders of color can use their position and “critical standpoint” to help guide their organization toward advancing racial equality. The qualitative analysis shows how such leaders, when empowered, help their organization address race internally by (a) providing alternatives to white‐dominated perspectives, (b) developing tools to educate white members about racial inequality, and (c) identifying and addressing barriers to becoming a more racially diverse organization. The qualitative analysis also shows how leaders of color help their organization address race externally by (a) sharing personal narratives about living in a white‐dominated society and (b) brokering collaborations with organizations led by people of color. This research has implications for organizations seeking to promote social equality: Organizational leaders from marginalized status groups can help their organizations address social inequality, if those leaders possess a critical standpoint and sufficient organizational authority.     

Presidential Address Rural Sociology at the Crossroads*

Abstract A complex array of socio‐historical, demographic, and organizational factors have combined in recent years to threaten both the current status of and future prospects for the discipline of rural sociology, and for the Rural Sociological Society (RSS). This paper examines the somewhat problematic recent trajectories of the RSS as a professional organization and of rural sociology more generally and notes a degree of disciplinary and organizational inertia that have limited the pursuit of new directions. It also presents a discussion of selected factors that have contributed to these concerns, including both “external” factors that are largely beyond the organizational reach of RSS and “internal” factors that are more directly linked to organizational characteristics and actions. Drawing upon the distinctions between “red ocean” and “blue ocean” strategies outlined by market strategists Kim and Mauborgne, the discussion then shifts to a focus on action alternatives that, if pursued, could help to create an expanded set of opportunities and a brighter future for rural sociology, and for the Rural Sociological Society.