制度变革里的人际学问

以往有关组织中制度变迁的理论,大致分为强调"效率"和强调"合法性"两个理论流派。长期以来,效率机制的解释逻辑在组织领域中盛行,即认为观察到的组织现象是组织追求效率的结果。20世纪70年代,新制度主义学派提     

员工工作满意度与离职意图的实证研究——以潮州陶瓷行业为例

一、预测和管理员工的离职行为 狭义上的雇员离职是指"从组织中获得物质收益的个体终止其组织成员关系的过程".一般来说,研究者将雇员离职分为主动离职和被动离职两种,前者是指离职的决策主要由雇员做出,后者是指离职的决策主要由组织做出.主动离职由于难以被组织所预料,所以长期以来受到了研究者更多的关注.     

学科制度精英、符号霸权和社会遗忘——社会心理学主流历史话语的建构和再生产

导言 :学科史的书写———辉格史或学科制度史 ?学科的研究实践 ,是一种社会行动者目的—导引的社会行动。它在时空中的演化秩序或学科历史 ,依存于学科的理智逻辑和学科制度的运作逻辑的交互影响。对其演化秩序或学科历史的勾画、梳理、编纂和书写 ,在最为抽象的层面上 ,是人类理性自我批判性的反思的必然要求 ;同时 ,它也是特定学科合法性和正当性建构的一个主要源泉。学科历史的编纂或书写过程 ,作为学科研究实践不可分割的一部分 ,站在学科过去、现在和未来的交汇点上 ,构造学科的历史意识和学科身份。其主要目的 ,在于辨明学科研究的概…     

单位成员的满意度和相对剥夺感——单位组织中依赖结构的主观层面

中国城市社会中的单位组织,其实质是国家进行政治统治的“组织化”形式和工具。它将政权的权力和财产的权力结合起来,依靠国家在行政权力和财产权力上的垄断地位,使得个人服从和依赖于它。中国社会20年来所发生的社会转型,虽然在一定程度上削弱了这种统治结构,个人对单位组织的依赖性越来越多地带有了交易性的特征,但是,基本的统治结构没有根本改变,国家、单位组织和个人仍然存在着一个明显的单向依赖结构(布鲁斯,1989)。本文所要讨论的是,单位成员对单位组织的满意度和相对剥夺感,对他们在单位组织的依赖性具有什么样的影响?这种满意度和相…     

基层政府间的“共谋现象”——一个政府行为的制度逻辑

中国一些基层上下级政府行为的一个突出现象是,在执行来自上级部门特别是中央政府的各种指令政策时,常常采取"上有政策、下有对策"的各种手段,来应付这些政策要求以及随之而来的各种检查,导致了实际执行过程偏离政策初衷的结果。本文从组织学角度,对这类现象提出一个理论解释。本文的中心命题是:在中国行政体制中,基层政府间的共谋行为已经成为一个制度化了的非正式行为;这种共谋行为是其所处制度环境的产物,有着广泛深厚的合法性基础。本文讨论组织制度的三个悖论,对这一现象提出理论解释:(1)政策一统性与执行灵活性的悖论;(2)激励强度与目标替代的悖论;(3)科层制度非人格化与行政关系人缘化的悖论。本研究强调,共谋行为不能简单地归咎于政府官员或执行人员的素质或能力,其稳定存在和重复再生是政府组织结构和制度环境的产物,是现行组织制度中决策过程与执行过程分离所导致的结果,在很大程度上也是近年来政府制度设计特别是集权决策过程和激励机制强化所导致的非预期结果。而欲改变这一状况,首先需要对政府组织现象进行深入系统的研究,提出有力的理论解释。     

草根动员与农民群体利益的表达机制——四个个案的比较研究

本文首先提出研究农民群体利益的表达机制是事关社会稳定和社会和谐的一个重大问题,然后从一个特定的角度——草根动员——来切入对这个问题的分析。作者通过四个个案的比较研究,突破了西方社会运动研究范式与印度底层社会研究范式在有组织的精英场域与无组织的底层场域之间的简单对立;作者拓展了对“依法抗争”概念的理解,并批判了国内目前流行的农民群体利益表达已进入“以法抗争”新阶段的观点。作者认为草根行动者是一个既不完全认同于精英、也不完全代表底层,而是有着自身独特行动目标和逻辑的行动者。草根行动者所进行的草根动员,使农民群体利益表达机制在表达方式的选择上具有权宜性,在组织上具有双重性,在政治上具有模糊性。草根动员既是一个动员参与的过程,同时也是一个进行理性控制并适时结束群体行动的过程。     

“权力—利益的结构之网”与农民群体性利益的表达困境——对一起石场纠纷案例的分析

本文以华中地区A镇一起石场纠纷为案例,分析农民群体性利益表达的困境,讨论了目前学界关于农民维权"以法抗争"等理解模式所存在的简单政治化倾向,指出非政治化仍然是农民维权的基本特征。论文还认为,以"合法性困境"为基点所推导出来的农民维权的弱组织和非政治化观点虽然足以批判有关农民维权行为的激情化想象,但却有忽略转型期中国政治之复杂性和过渡性特点之嫌,其对农民维权特征的基本判断虽然表面上与激情化想象不同,但两者在思维逻辑上却存在着某种内在一致性与贯通性,本身也不自觉地陷入了"民主—极权"这一泛政治化思维陷阱,将复杂的问题简单化。在此基础上,本文提出:农民利益表达之难以健康和体制化成长的原因,从场域而非结构的角度看,更直接导因于乡村社会中各种既存"权力—利益的结构之网"的阻隔,与"合法性困境"相比较,这一结构之网已经越来越成为影响和塑造具体场域中农民维权行为的更加常态和优先的因素。     

五个结合推动“敬老文明号”创建活动

甘肃省确定了"1234"的"敬老文明号"创建计划:即在2012年至2013年用两年时间,在10个涉老窗口服务行业,20个养老机构、30个老龄委成员单位、40个大中型企事业单位(含大专院校、科研院所、涉老社团)重点实施.甘肃省老龄办根据"敬老文明号"创建活动要求,结合涉老部门、服务窗口行业和为老服务组织特点,提出了"五个结合"工作思路. 创建活动与惠老政策落实结合 针对甘肃省近年出台的多个为老优待维权政策文件的实际,一方面,在优待措施落实上有新举措,要求成员单位和相关部门认真检查敬老优待政策的落实情况;另一方面,在优待制度建设上有新突破,要求各市州积极争取党委政府的重视支持.     

不完全逆群体性:“空巢青年”的社会关联

伴随现代性日益彰显出多元形态,个体化与群体性成为社会行动的二元对立统一。当"空巢青年"逆群体性行动对规则遵从与社会关联产生影响,该群体就会在自我确证与反思中进行合法性探寻。"空巢青年"逆群体性张力结构造成传统规则衰微,将行动合法性诉求纳入"抽象社会"规则遵从的工具化轨道。"空巢青年"的社会关联是规则遵从下秩序建构与社会整合方式,它使得个体化背景下理性社会发展的自诀得以可能。"规则—行动—秩序"的解释框架可对"空巢青年"的产生基础、行动逻辑和功能的合法性进行论述。     

维斯瓦行动始末

波兰政府1947年执行的维斯瓦行动,是指将其东南部领土上的乌克兰人迁移到新并入的"德国领土上",波兰共产主义政府为了获得人民对其政权合法性的认可,为了永久的解决乌克兰这个"麻烦问题"建立起单一民族国家,从而采取了维斯瓦行动,维斯瓦行动是经久不息的波乌民族冲突的终结事件。     

二十国集团的定位与机制建设

作为一种非正式国际机制,二十国集团(G20)的定位是在发达经济体与新兴经济体之间寻求政治共识,这一机制定位决定了G20的机制建设要走出一条加强"机制化"但不要"正式化"的特色道路。当前G20的机制建设正面临着共识、延续性、合法性与执行力四大困境,为克服这些困境,G20未来的机制建设必须坚持非正式性和领导人的战略引领,进一步完善峰会轮值主席国的"三驾马车"制度,构建与其他国际组织和多边机制的伙伴关系,完善机制架构,改进相互评估程序,提高协议的执行力。     

ON 'MAELSTROMS LARGE AND SMALL,METAPHORICAL AND ACTUAL': 'GRAY ZONES' IN THE WRITINGS OF PRIMO LEVI

This article examines the work of Primo Levi, with a focus on the tensions between ‘witness’ and ‘public intellectual’ in Levi's work. It analyses the notion of ‘gray zones’ in Levi's writings, where it functions as a way of indicating transformations in political action and public discourse in the wake of Auschwitz: most importantly, the Nazi genocide undermined the position of ‘spectator’ crucial to liberal discourse by implicating the spectator as a ‘bystander’. The study goes on to discuss the concepts of ‘work’, ‘science’ and ‘intellect’ in Levi's writing, showing how these categories reflect Levi's ultimately unsuccessful struggle to uncover a mode of political thought and public intervention adequate to the changes in political space of which the ‘gray zone’ is symptomatic, i.e. a condition of universal complicity and powerlessness. It concludes that implicit (and undeveloped) in Levi's thought is a set of ‘aesthetico-political’ presuppositions concerned with the articulation of founding, legitimacy and judgement. These presuppositions challenge the reliance of emancipatory discourses upon subjectivity and the logic of self-determination, indicating the need for a politics based on ‘pedagogical accountability’. Resisting the postmodern logic of ‘testimony’, which emerges in the gap between universal claims and their performance and hence dismantles the ‘outside’ as a space of judgement, i.e. the determination of the legitimacy of actions, the politics of pedagogical accountability grounds such an outside in the conjoining of power, responsibility for the world and boundary thinking. This space ‘outside’ ideology and the circulation of subjectivities emerges via resistance to the specifically ‘anti-political’ violence pervasive in late capitalism, and through the clarification of the distinction between this mode of violence and that (‘pre-political’) violence aimed at ‘subjects’.     

Building on users' knowledge as a basis for professional expertise? An example from Swedish social care services

Implementing new occupations in social care services as a solution to social problems challenges the knowledge base for social care. This has been particularly evident in services for persons with disabilities. Social policy has emphasized influence over services for persons with disabilities and hence has implemented personal assistance and case management services. Using these as examples, this article explores the professional logic developed, and the ways it relate to existing social professions. The results are presented in a typology defining two occupations as examples of a professional logic based on users’ knowledge. This logic, here called ‘user-mandated professionalism’, is denoted by wide discretion, relationships with users built on trust, and legitimacy mainly stemming from user organizations. The analysis then raises the challenge for social professionals in social care occupations based on users’ knowledge to be explicit about the knowledge base they build on in their arguments and in decision-making.     

Against exceptionalism: the legitimacy of the neoliberal age

ABSTRACT

After the financial crisis of 2007–08, many commentators, adopting a broadly Polanyian logic of reasoning, expected a departure from neoliberalism. The failure of this shift to materialize has typically been accounted for in ‘exceptionalist’ terms: the persistence of neoliberalism is understood not as a function of a specific legitimacy it has itself engendered, but in terms of external interventions by elites who manage to ‘capture’ executive and regulatory institutions and so to bypass democratic pressures. This paper argues that such an approach underestimates the endogenous sources of legitimacy and resilience that neoliberal governance commands. It criticizes the idea that neoliberalism is at its core dependent on a Schmittian exceptionalism and suggests a perspective on Hayek's articulation of neoliberalism that dissociates it from such an exceptionalist approach. The article proceeds to interrogate the rationality of neoliberalism by examining its distinctively secular temporal logic, rooted in speculation, preemption and reaction.     

What do stress tests test? Experimentation,demonstration, and the sociotechnical performance of regulatory science

After their successful introduction during the 2007–2009 financial crisis, central bank stress tests were adopted as a fixture of international banking supervision. However, in recent years a new normal has emerged where banks are expected to pass the tests, raising questions about the tests’ usefulness and legitimacy. Combining a dramaturgical interpretation of regulatory science with the idea of performativity in the sociology of finance, this article understands stress tests as a sociotechnical Goffmanian performance. With a focus on the Bank of England’s program, the paper argues that the Bank’s decision to make their tests “predictable” is an attempt to shore up central bank legitimacy by constraining regulatory discretion. This is accomplished through the use of calculative and procedural stage management techniques which allow the Bank to control the contingency of the testing process while demonstrating its objectivity. Nevertheless, the conclusion suggests that in the context of low levels of trust in central banks, routine declarations of “all clear” may undermine public confidence in the tests’ credibility and necessity. The study draws on 20 interviews with high-level regulators, financial practitioners and other stakeholders in the Bank of England’s stress tests.     

Leadership and emerging cultural patterns in a new television station

This longitudinal case study explores cultural patterns in a new British television company, tracking it from its inception into its third year. Qualitative research methods provide evidence to suggest that despite formal leaders’ intentions to achieve control and consensus, organisation members produce their own, diverse interpretations of leaders’ deliberate (and unintentional) messages. By drawing on inherited expectations and professional associations, members construct their own cultural worlds. Yet, the same professional norms and associations, which the literature suggests are salient in all media organisations, also provide legitimacy for individual leaders’ actions and therefore reinforce their cultural integrating role. Therefore, it is suggested that although organisation members are active in shaping culture, leaders of new media organisations of this nature are significant as sources of cultural cohesion, division and ambiguity, and thus they are influential in encouraging the formation of complex cultural patterns.     

The Primal Scene in and about Psychoanalytic Institutions

ABSTRACT

Drawing on notions of primal scene and Bion’s theorizing of groups, this essay looks at the elements in institutional groups where transgressions and corruption may appear and develop and examines the difficulties group members have in working through the violations and potential disruptions to the institution’s functioning.     

“Such Trivial Matters:” How staff account for restrictions of residents' influence in nursing homes

National policies emphasize older people's right to autonomy, yet nursing home residents often have restricted opportunities to make decisions about everyday matters. We use qualitative interview data to analyze staff members' explanations of actions that conflict with both social norms and national policies. Two types of problematic actions are discussed: restrictions of elderly residents' influence in decision making and neglect of residents' complaints. While staff members describe residents' influence as desirable, they simultaneously formulate accounts that justify their inability to live up to this ideal. Further, we demonstrate how certain complaints are “made trivial” when they are described and treated in specific ways by the staff. We argue that the accounts offered by staff members draw on an implicit folk logic, a logic in which residents are allowed to exercise influence only as long as it does not conflict with the efficient running of the institution as a whole.     

Situated legitimacy: Deliberative arenas and the new rural governance

Rural governance in the UK and elsewhere has undergone far-reaching changes, as partnerships and other collaborative approaches have emerged to address the challenges of rural sustainable development. The legitimacy of this ‘new rural governance’ is purportedly grounded in deliberation between stakeholders, but this is problematic—it is not clear how ‘legitimacy’ is to be understood now that the criteria of legitimacy appropriate to representative democratic government are not obviously applicable.Here we propose an analysis of legitimacy as situated—that is, given meanings by actors in specific contexts—and continuously constructed through discursive processes, where it also plays a reciprocal, highly political role in shaping those processes. We use this framework to analyse decision making in three distinctive deliberative arenas for sustainable transport policy making in the Peak District National Park in England. Legitimacy claims were found to be significant elements in each arena, but no single, overriding legitimacy discourse was successfully established. Instead, each arena's legitimacy was a hybrid, justified through a complex mix of competing rationales.While no single conclusion can be drawn about the legitimacy of ‘the new rural governance’, the strongest legitimising principles remained those grounded in representative democracy. In contrast, the ‘new’ approaches rely on deliberative norms accepted only by (some of) the relatively limited circle of stakeholders directly involved. More generally, if such norms are to become accepted principles for legitimate rural governance, then more work is needed to discursively establish their acceptability both in networks of governance and with the wider population.     

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.