Critical Theorist,Postmodernist and Social Constructionist Paradigms in Organizational Analysis: A Paradigmatic Review of Organizational Learning Literature

In an effort to clarify alternative approaches to organizational analysis, this paper is concerned to stimulate the debate on how an inquiry into organizational phenomena, in general, and organizational learning, in particular, can be accomplished. Encouraging attention to different aspects of various paradigmatic approaches, the paper focuses on critical theory, postmodernism and social constructionism and how these paradigms have contributed and can contribute to the research in the subject domain of organizational learning. To this end, a paradigmatic review of the literature on organizational learning is offered in this paper. Organizational learning, as the study of learning processes of, and within, organizations, has attracted significant attention in academe since the early 1980s. There is a plethora of studies on organizational learning, which offer rich material for a paradigmatic review. This study highlights the need for further development of the field from alternative paradigmatic perspectives, with a view to generating more insights into the multifaceted, complex and changing nature of learning in contemporary organizations.     

End-of-life care and social work education: what do students need to know?

Social workers are major service providers to people who are facing end-of-life issues including the terminally ill and their families. Yet, exemplary models for social work education and intervention methods are limited in rural states. A statewide survey conducted in Kentucky found only two social work courses dedicated to end-of-life care currently being offered by accredited undergraduate and graduate institutions. Another statewide survey found that many hospice social workers are relatively inexperienced and have a need and desire for more education on death, dying and loss. Also, unique cultural, economic and geographic areas, such as Appalachia are enigmas when it comes to the provision of end-of-life care. This partnership provides a varied perspective on delivery of end-of-life care services with an emphasis on social work interventions and education.     

The impact of blatant stereotype activation and group sex-composition on female leaders

The individual and combined impact of blatant stereotype activation and solo status or mixed-sex groups on the self-appraisals, performance, and anxiety of female leaders was examined across three laboratory studies. The first study utilized a two-condition, two-stage design in which female leaders were exposed to a blatant stereotype threat or control condition after which they completed a leadership task. In the second stage, the threatened leaders received a solo status manipulation (leading a group of men) while the control condition did not. In the second study a 2 (blatant threat, no blatant threat) by 2 (solo status, all-female group) fully factorial design was used to test the hypotheses. Finally, in Study 3, a similar factorial design was used with a mixed-sex, rather than solo, condition. Across the studies it was hypothesized and found that receiving a single stereotype threat would result in a positive, stereotype reactance, response. However, when both threats were combined a stereotype vulnerability response was elicited, as expected. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Vice Careers: The Changing Contours of Sex Work in New York City

In the mid-1990s, changes to law enforcement strategies in New York City pushed many women working in the sex trade off of the streets and into the indoors. Increasing numbers of women began advertising sexual services in bars, over the Internet, and in print media, and conducting their work in their homes, hotels, and brothels. This study uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to examine the impact of this change on the life and work of women working in New York’s indoor sex trade. A critical finding is that as women move their work indoors, they begin to conceive of sex work as a profession and a career, rather than just a short-term means of employment. This “professional and careerist orientation” may have significant implications for the length of women’s tenure in sex work and ultimately, for their ability to exit the trade completely.

Identifying Nonlinear Relationships in Regression using the ACE Algorithm

This paper introduces an alternating conditional expectation (ACE) algorithm: a non-parametric approach for estimating the transformations that lead to the maximal multiple correlation of a response and a set of independent variables in regression and correlation analysis. These transformations can give the data analyst insight into the relationships between these variables so that this can be best described and non-linear relationships uncovered. Using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), we show how to find the best closed-form approximations for the optimal ACE transformations. By means of ACE and BIC, the model fit can be considerably improved compared with the conventional linear model as demonstrated in the two simulated and two real datasets in this paper.     

REPLY TO ULMER: Symbolic Interactionism or A Structural Alternative?

In his critique of our 1999 article "Desensitizing Herbert Blumer's Work on Race Relations: Recent Applications of His Group Position Theory to the Study of Contemporary Race Prejudice,' Jeffery Ulmer charges us with providing a "questionable' interpretation of Blumer's ideas on the grounds that we (1) neglect (or distort) Blumer's advocation for making abstract generalizations in the form of "definitive' concepts, and thus sabotage Blumer's empirical methodology as well as that of symbolic interactionism in general and (2) fail to address a body of literature that deals with "repackaging' Blumer's ideas in such a way that "solves' the sorts of tensions we raise between Blumer's theory and quantitative research. Ulmer fears that our representation of Blumer and symbolic interactionism may result in a host of "mythic facts' (a term borrowed from David Maines) that will undermine Blumer's contributions "to a viable and whole science of the social, including race relations."     

The SAM Framework: Modeling the Effects of Management Factors on Human Behavior in Risk Analysis

Complex engineered systems, such as nuclear reactors and chemical plants, have the potential for catastrophic failure with disastrous consequences. In recent years, human and management factors have been recognized as frequent root causes of major failures in such systems. However, classical probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) techniques do not account for the underlying causes of these errors because they focus on the physical system and do not explicitly address the link between components' performance and organizational factors. This paper describes a general approach for addressing the human and management causes of system failure, called the SAM (System-Action-Management) framework. Beginning with a quantitative risk model of the physical system, SAM expands the scope of analysis to incorporate first the decisions and actions of individuals that affect the physical system. SAM then links management factors (incentives, training, policies and procedures, selection criteria, etc.) to those decisions and actions. The focus of this paper is on four quantitative models of action that describe this last relationship. These models address the formation of intentions for action and their execution as a function of the organizational environment. Intention formation is described by three alternative models: a rational model, a bounded rationality model, and a rule-based model. The execution of intentions is then modeled separately. These four models are designed to assess the probabilities of individual actions from the perspective of management, thus reflecting the uncertainties inherent to human behavior. The SAM framework is illustrated for a hypothetical case of hazardous materials transportation. This framework can be used as a tool to increase the safety and reliability of complex technical systems by modifying the organization, rather than, or in addition to, re-designing the physical system.     

An old balancing act: resources v. population

Population concern is found not only among modern man, but among primitive peoples and animal groups. Although some researchers object to extrapolating from animal behavior to human behavior, it is still an oft-observed fact that crowding produces fighting, territorial aggression, or other behaviors which disperse the population and relieve the pressures on food and other resources. Female chimpanzees bear offspring at 5-year intervals although they come into estrus yearly. This may be due to the ovulation suppression effects of lactation, which is lengthy among chimps. A similar repression gives humans respite from childbearing. Among primitive peoples similar population control mechanisms are at work. The Rendille camel herders in Kenya tried to limit population by insisting on monogamy and late marriage and killing boys born on Wednesday or younger ones after circumcision of the eldest brother. Among 96 births observed to the Netsilik Eskimos, an anthropologist noted that 38 female babies were left to die from exposure before becoming "people" in a naming ceremony. Cheyenne Indians limited population by insisting a woman should not have another child until her 1st is 10-years old. This required rigorous abstinence. Anthropologist Mary Douglas suggests a group will often define optimal population by perceived scarcity of things that are important to their society. The Pacific islanders of Tikopia strongly disapprove of families with more than 2 or 3 children. This limitation seems due to the limitation of cocoanuts. The Rendille limit population because of their desire to assure enough camels to go around. Researchers have followed with interest the 1st demographic transition of the Kung tribe of Africa. When they were hunter-gathers, women had high status because they provided at least half the food and births were 4-5 years apart because the nourishment level was so low pregnancy did not occur during lactation. Now that they have become farmers women's status has dropped and birthrates have increased. It will be interesting to see if this group undergoes a 2nd transition and starts to limit its population.