A fallible safety system: institutionalised irrationality in the offshore oil and gas industry

The circumstances surrounding the explosion on platform Piper Alpha, July 6th 1988, are analysed in order to account for the failure of the principal administrative safety system, the Permit to Work. It is discovered that the system was incoherent and that failures to follow its procedures were endemic and normal. Two consequent problems are addressed. First, why were such unprocedural practices accepted, unremedied and engaged in by all levels of management; attention is drawn to the effects on work organisation of sub-contract employment and to structurally generated limitations of managerial expertise. Second, is it possible to sustain conventional sociological models of organisational rationality in a setting of such institutionalised irrationality; attention is drawn to the significance of the ritualisation of procedure in situations of limited control. Therefore, the necessity of developing models within sociology of non-rational action and organisation is noted.     

Research on the Nature and Determinants of Marital Satisfaction: A Decade in Review

Scientific study of marital satisfaction attracted widespread attention in the 1990s from scholars representing diverse orientations and goals. This article highlights key conceptual and empirical advances that have emerged in the past decade, with particular emphasis on (a) interpersonal processes that operate within marriage, including cognition, affect, physiology, behavioral patterning, social support, and violence; (b) the milieus within which marriages operate, including microcontexts (e.g., the presence of children, life stressors and transitions) and macrocontexts (e.g., economic factors, perceived mate availability); and (c) the conceptualization and measurement of marital satisfaction, including 2‐dimensional, trajectory‐based, and social‐cognitive approaches. Notwithstanding the continued need for theoretical progress in understanding the nature and determinants of marital satisfaction, we conclude by calling for more large‐scale longitudinal research that links marital processes with sociocultural contexts, for more disconfirmatory than confirmatory research, and for research that directly guides preventive, clinical, and policy‐level interventions.     

Moderators of Stress in Salvadoran Refugees: The Role of Social and Personal Resources1

Refugee research has tended to focus exclusively on the mental health consequences of migration with little attention being devoted to factors that facilitate adjustment. Recently, several cross‐cultural researchers have suggested that the growing literature on moderators of stress may elucidate why some migrants experience adverse effects whereas others remain relatively unscathed. This study examines the moderating effects of social and personal resources on the relationship between stress and subjective well‐being in 60 recently‐arrived and 60 established Salvadoran refugees in Canada. The participants completed a questionnaire that included scales pertaining to stress (life events, hassles, migration‐related events), resources (social support, locus of control, self‐esteem) and well‐being (quality of life, life satisfaction). Varying results were found for both groups. For Recent Refugees, personal resources were found to moderate migration stress. In particular, locus of control buffered the relationships between migration stress and quality of life and life satisfaction, whereas self‐esteem buffered the migration stress‐quality of life relation. For Established Refugees, social support and self‐esteem moderated the relationship between life events and life satisfaction. In addition, social support buffered the effects of hassles on quality of life. The findings underscore the relevance of integrating more firmly the study of refugee adjustment with current developments in stress research.     

Neoconservatism,bohemia and the moral economy of neoliberalism

This paper is concerned with the moral economy of neoliberalism. The goal is to show the development of this moral economy through the discourse of neoconservatism. The research pays particular attention to the incorporation of aspects of bohemia in the construction of this moral economy. The paper charts the development of the neoconservative moral critique of political modernity in the second half of the twentieth century by drawing on the leading neoconservative figures, Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol. The first part of this research makes clear the homology between the neoconservative critique of bohemia and excessive capitalism, where both are accused of nihilism as part of the moral abyss of liberal modernity. The second part of this research shows how, through the work of George Gilder, neoconservatives re-imagined a moral economy for capitalism that overcame the apparent nihilism whilst retaining the unrestrained nature of accumulation. Through a celebration of the heroic entrepreneur, neoliberalism’s moral economy is based upon a celebration of risk, an embrace of chance and an overturning of bourgeois morality. Neoliberalism incorporates the bohemian critique of bourgeois capitalism into a critique of the social democratic welfare state which, by prioritising safety over pleasure and excess, is deemed to be both incapable of offering spiritual satisfaction as well as being ill suited to a post-Fordist economy. The flexible nature of bohemia that rebelled against organised strictures of bourgeois morality and Fordist organisation is welcomed by the neoliberal turn. The spiritual satisfaction of life on the edge offered to the neoliberal subject acts as a form seduction and mirrors the creative freedom offered through bohemia. Neoliberalism’s gift, however, comes at a price, the edgy existence is coupled with removal of social safety nets and increasing insecurity and precariatisation.     

Charity,Volunteering Type and Subjective Wellbeing

We examine the impact of volunteering and charitable donations on subjective wellbeing. We further consider if the model of the volunteering work (formal vs. informal) and the geographical location of the charity organisation (local vs. international) people donate to has any impact on subjective wellbeing. Using UK’s Community Life Survey data, we find that volunteering and engagement in charity are positively associated with subjective wellbeing, measured by individual life satisfaction. We show that while there is a positive effect of volunteering and charity on life satisfaction, the level of utility gained depends on the type of charity or volunteering organisation engaged with (i.e. local or international). Specifically, donating to local (neighbourhood) charities as opposed to international/national charities is associated with higher wellbeing. Similarly, engaging in informal volunteering, compared to formal volunteering, is associated with higher wellbeing. To explain our results, we use the construal-level theory of psychological distance, which suggests that people think more concretely of actions and objects that they find spatially and socially close.

     

Factors Influencing the Break Even Probabilities of Agency Recruited Low Value Charity Donors

This study examined the considerations that may affect the likelihood of a charity donor, who was recruited face-to-face by a paid external agency and who gave through a low value monthly standing order, reaching the point of financial break even within a certain period of time; taking into account the person’s additional ad hoc contributions to the organisation. Break even was defined as the situation pertaining when a supporter’s total donations covered the external agency’s fee, induction costs, and annual donor maintenance expenses over an anticipated supporter lifetime of 5 years. A questionnaire was mailed or emailed to two thousand agency recruited donors to a UK healthcare charity, resulting in 669 replies. Each of the participants had initially signed standing orders for between £2 and £5 a month, and had been with the charity for at least 4 years. The questionnaire contained items concerning, inter alia, a donor’s sense of obligation, relationship proneness, level of involvement with the charity’s cause, personal inertia, emotional benefits obtained from giving, and satisfaction with the organisation’s work. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was completed to determine the main factors that influenced the probability that a person would break even within 4 years following recruitment. In addition, logistic and least squares regression analyses were undertaken to establish the variables that affected low value donors’ propensities to respond positively to requests to uplift the values of their standing orders.     

The Sociologist as Teacher in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

A recent wave of research promotes the idea that anonymity or deindividuation precipitates collective behavior. Specifically, anonymous individuals are more likely to participate in collective behavior events than people among friends and acquaintances. To reconsider this recent resurgence of a more contemporary contagion theory, we replicate and expand upon Aveni's (1977) study of crowd behavior. Our survey data of crowd and collective behavior participants show that anonymity actually hinders the emergence of collective behavior. Rather, collective behavior participants are more likely to be in small groups rather than isolated individuals. Our data do suggest that one form of anonymity (i.e., anonymity from formal agents of social control) can facilitate the emergence of collective behavior.     

Spaces of Pride: A Visual Ethnography of Gay Pride Parades in Italy and the United Kingdom

Gay pride parades represent an active site of production of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), intersexual and queer identities, featuring a spatial and social articulation of political and human rights claims. While the multiplication of these events in different countries suggests the existence of a coherent and cohesive community which shares the same collective identity beyond national borders, different patterns in the organisation, part-taking and social and political connotations given to these events can be observed in different contexts. By means of a comparative visual ethnography of Italian and British Gay Pride Parades, this article investigates how the creation, mobilisation and challenge of quasi-normative LGBT identities occur within the spatial context of gay pride marches. It is argued, in particular, that while gay pride parades are sites in which the socio-political status quo can be successfully challenged, participants are also faced with the possibility of falling prey to dynamics of identity commodification and homonationalism which may ultimately deprive their claims of their subversive potential.     

Sexual abuse prevention programme fidelity: video analysis of interactions

This paper identifies key themes from research into programme fidelity of sexual abuse prevention programmes. It presents a detailed analysis of programme fidelity within a study of the Tweenees school‐based abuse prevention programme (Barron and Topping, 2010 ). The paper reports how programme fidelity was addressed in a programme delivered to survivors of child sexual abuse by experienced survivor organisation workers. There was also study of programme fidelity in the delivery of the programme to grade‐seven pupils through co‐working between survivor organisation workers and teachers. Video was taken of all four sessions delivered to the survivors' group. To begin to explore programme fidelity when lessons were co‐delivered by survivor organisation workers and a teacher, the first session of a grade‐seven class was videoed. Survivor organisation workers achieved high levels of programme fidelity characterised by facilitative communicative behaviours (e.g. affirming responses, seeking clarification, checking understanding and summarising). The grade‐seven teacher's communication was characterised by a behaviour management focus. Video analysis of interactions was a useful measure for programme fidelity and analysing appropriate communication underpinning delivery of the programme. Recommendations for future programme fidelity measures are provided for researchers and practitioners in the field. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Constructing pride,shame, and humiliation as a mechanism of control: A case study of an English local authority child protection service

This paper reports on findings from the first study into the role of self-conscious emotions in child protection social work practice. This ethnographic case study employed constructionist grounded theory methods to develop a conceptual understanding of the emotional experiences of the social workers. Integrating data from 246.5 h of observations, 99 diary entries, 19 interviews, and 329 pages of documents, a conceptual framework is presented to understand the emotional experiences of the social workers, before using this framework to analyse the case organisation and experiences of those within it. Pride, shame, and humiliation can be considered to be strategically used as a mechanism of control by constructing contextually specific boundaries for shameful and praiseworthy behaviour. By policing these boundaries the actions of the organisation and the social workers could be regulated to ensure they developed institutionally acceptable identities, enabling the organisation to gain legitimacy. While the analysis that has been provided here is specific not only to the organisation that the research took place in, but also to the time in which the data were collected within the organisation, case studies provide important insights into one context that can be useful to understand the processes in others.     

The Scots' Society of St Andrew,Hull, 1910–2001: Immigrant,Ethnic and Transnational Association

As a broad research endeavour within studies of migration, examining the associational culture of migrants is a particularly important field of research. This article examines the activities of the Scots' Society of St Andrew in Hull and argues that the Society exhibited elements of an immigrant, ethnic and transnational organisation. While it was demonstrably Scottish in its early years, in later decades its regular monthly meetings, events, connections to other clubs, financial assistance and excursions were as likely to be non-Scottish. The history of the Society also echoes overarching transformations among British clubs and societies in the twentieth century, including the eventual inclusion of female members, urban dominance and gradual decline from the mid-1950s.     

Adolescent Perceptions of Interparental Conflict, Stressors, and Coping as Predictors of Adolescent Family Life Satisfaction

Using family stress theory, this study examined the relationship between adolescent reports of selected demographic variables (gender, age, family form), interparental conflict (style, content, intensity, resolution), stress due to the pileup of stressors, coping strategies (social support, detrimental coping), and adolescent family life satisfaction. The sample was comprised of 155 adolescents ranging from 14 to 18 years of age who completed self-report questionnaires at one of three rural Oklahoma high schools. Four dimensions of interparental conflict (overt conflict style, conflict about childrearing, conflict about family roles/finances, conflict resolution), stress due to pileup, social support coping, and detrimental coping were significantly related to family life satisfaction. Adolescent age was positively related to family life satisfaction. Within the scope of family stress theory, scholars have addressed how the combination of stressors and coping strategies relates to the adaptation of individuals within family systems (McCubbin and Patterson 1983). Further, investigations of the relationship of parental divorce to well-being in children and adolescents suggest that interaction patterns within various family forms may be more fruitful in explaining the adaptation of youth than parental marital status (Demo 1992). The perception by youth of conflict between their parents (i.e., interparental conflict) has emerged as a key family stressor that has the potential to explain variation in adolescent adaptation in a variety of family forms (Buehler, Krishnakumar, Anthony, Tittsworth, and Stone 1994). Stressor events for adolescents such as interparental conflict generally do not occur in isolation. Rather, they exist within the context of other stressors such as economic stress, difficulties at school, or normative developmental tasks for families with adolescents (e.g., changing family roles to allow greater adolescent autonomy; McCubbin and Patterson 1986). Further, considerable variation exists in the coping strategies (e.g., social support, avoidance) that adolescents use in response to stress (McCubbin and Patterson 1986). Finally, previous research shows variation between certain demographic variables and adolescent adaptation. Thus, the current study was developed to examine how selected demographic variables (gender, age, family form), adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict (style, content, intensity, degree of resolution), stress based on the pileup of stressor events, and coping strategies relate to adolescent satisfaction with family life (one indicator of adaptation).     

Crowding‐Out and Fundraising Efforts

The crowding‐out of private donations by government grants is an integral element in designing an efficient method of financing nonprofit activity. This article looks at elements of crowd‐out, both the direct impact on donors and the indirect impact caused by the response of nonprofits. We include both theoretical and empirical analyses of the reactions by donors and nonprofits to an increase in government funding based on data from the League of American Orchestras’ annual reports from 2004 to 2007. To combat indirect crowd‐out, renewed emphasis should be placed on grant design; for direct crowd‐out, theories of collective action are appropriate.     

Associations Between Prior Deployments and Marital Satisfaction Among Army Couples

Although the experience of deployments has been described as devastating to married life, evidence linking deployments directly to poorer marital functioning has been sparse. The analyses described in this article compare associations between prior deployments and current marital satisfaction across four different ways of measuring prior deployment within a large and representative sample of married Army service members and their spouses. Results indicate that the experience of prior deployments is associated with significantly lower current marital satisfaction among military couples. The association is disproportionately strong for first deployments and first cumulative months of deployment and weakens over subsequent deployment experiences. Most of these associations, but not all, can be accounted for by the fact that service members who have been deployed are more likely to have experienced traumatic events and to experience posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, both of which are independently associated with lower levels of marital satisfaction.     

Family Man or Conqueror? - Contested Meanings in an Engineering Company

This paper explores significant symbols within a multi-national company called Engco . First, the metaphor of Engco as a family was prevalent among middle and junior managers. Second, there was a corporate image conveyed by top management through glossy publications, a masculine image of conquering competitors and the physical environment. These contradictory symbols appeared to co-exist at different levels of the organisation. Third, a symbol that appeared common to the entire organisation, although increasingly contested, was that of engineering, an image generally associated with male actors. Fourth, more equivocal, were references to a 'golden age' for the company in the post war period, when manufacturing was in its heyday. The paper discusses how these symbols worked with and against each other. All the symbols were found to differing degrees to shape particular constructions of masculinity and femininity within the organisation, which limited the expression of identity of both men and women. The paper suggests that Engco's organisational culture was in flux, and discusses both the role of management at different levels of the organisation as creators and consumers of image and identity, and the organisational construction of gender. The paper takes a symbolic interpretative approach and discusses both the theoretical background and methodology employed.     

Lives and Labours in the Emergence of Organised Social Research, 1886–1907

Abstract Charles Booth's seventeen volume Life and Labour of the People of London has been called the first social survey. It demonstrated the techniques of organised social research, and proved an impetus to the Social Survey Movement. In spite of its key position in the emergence of empirical sociology, little attention has been paid to the organisation of Booth's research team which was to provide a template for the subsequent development of organised social research, nor to the identities of the twenty people who made up the research team. Remarkably for the time, one-quarter of the researchers were women, including the young Beatrice Webb and Clara Collet. This paper looks closely at the personalities and the organisation.     

MOB SOCIOLOGY AND ESCALATED FORCE: Sociology's Contribution to Repressive Police Tactics

Mob sociology is a theory of crowd behavior that is found in U.S. police literature and that has been used to design and justify demonstration management practices. Mob sociology is derived from sociological theories about crowd behavior but ignores their originators'assertions that crowds occur within a larger social context. Mob sociology was diffused throughout the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s through a national civil disorder training program and a variety of police manuals and magazines. It is highly compatible with the escalated force style of protest policing and has lost much of its influence since the introduction of negotiated management practices. However, it is still present in police literature and training programs and should be replaced by contemporary social science research and theory.     

Death and the Penguin: modularity,alienation and organising

ABSTRACT

The originality of this paper lies in the ways in which it explores how the depiction of organised crime within Andrey Kurkov’s novel Death and the Penguin can inform our understanding of organisational modularity. This non-orthodox approach might open up new avenues of thought in the study of organisational modularity while further illustrating how novelistic worlds can inform accounts of organisational realities. Two main research questions underlie the paper. How can Andrey Kurkov’s novel further our understanding of the complexity of organisational worlds and realities by focusing our attention on different landscapes of organising? How does Kurkov’s novel help us grasp the concept of modularity by drawing attention to new forms of modular organisation? Drawing from our reading of Kurkov’s novel, we primarily explore organisational modularity through Kurkov’s depiction of organised crime and consider the themes of alienation and isolation in the context of modular organising.     

‘At home,he’s a pet,at work he’s a colleague and my right arm’: police dogs and the emerging posthumanist agenda

ABSTRACT

Increased attention is being paid to non-human animals, inspired in part by Human-Animal Studies and theoretical frameworks which reveal the fragility of human/animal dualism. Via the application of posthumanist performativity, we explore the recruitment and careers of police dogs via organisational analysis. It reveals a complex process of a dog becoming a police dog. Police dogs are placed within a speciesist hierarchy where they hold a position of ‘good’ non-human animals, rather than instrumental tools of the organisation. However, this position is tenuous, with dogs’ retirement often resulting in death. The paper concludes by arguing that posthumanist frameworks can be used to decentre the human subject. Contributions of our work include empirical insights on the use of non-human animals in policing coupled with the theoretical application of posthumanism to intersubjectivity in organisations.     

The impact of attitude strength on customer-oriented priority setting by decision-makers: An empirical investigation

A key question in marketing decision-making pertains to what makes decision-makers focus on various types of information in different ways. Particularly in relation to a key marketing and management variable such as customer satisfaction this is an important issue. Costly derived customer satisfaction measures need to provide customer-oriented guidance regarding where to prioritise. Traditional research on intelligence use has mainly focused on objective research attributes, such as research quality. In this article, however, we will adopt the idea that decision-makers weigh information differently based on their perception of its relevance. With respect to crucial customer satisfaction information this represents an exciting, but nevertheless unexplored field of research. The results of latent variable modelling show that the strength of decision-makers’ attitudes toward customer satisfaction leads to a differentiated usage of satisfaction intelligence. By taking this into consideration, management and intelligence providers will be able to more effectively disseminate customer satisfaction information and facilitate a more customer-oriented perspective within firms.