Balancing Control and Coaching in CSO Governance. A Paradox Perspective on Board Behavior

How can the internal governance of civil society organizations be conceptualized more adequately by accounting for the dual and simultaneous requirements of controlling and coaching in board behavior? Empirically, we seem to agree that effective governance of a civil society organization is crucial to its sustained viability. Conceptually, however, we observe a lack of consensus on how to best understand CSO governance. By critically juxtaposing two major theoretical lenses to conceptualize governance, namely, agency and stewardship theory, we identify a number of challenges when dealing with board–management relations that deserve our attention. While agency theory privileges controlling behavior, stewardship theory emphasizes the coaching behavior of boards. The purpose of this article is to offer a concept of governance that is informed by a paradox perspective advancing a subtler, more adequate conceptualization of board governance that accounts for these often conflicting demands on CSO governance. Drawing on illustrations from a longitudinal interpretive case study, we exemplify our propositions empirically. The article concludes with discussing the implications of our argument for CSO governance research and practice.     

Context Matters: Explaining How and Why Mobilizing Context Influences Motivational Dynamics

The emphasis in the social-psychological collective action literature is on why individuals take part in collective action; however, it does not elaborate on how different mobilizing contexts may appeal to distinct motivational dynamics to participate. The present study connects the microlevel of motivational dynamics of individual protesters with the mesolevel of social movement characteristics. To do so a field study was conducted. Protesters were surveyed in the act of protesting in two different demonstrations in two different town squares simultaneously organized by two social movements at exactly the same time against the same budget cuts proposed by the same government. But with one fundamental difference, the movements emphasized different aspects of the policies proposed by the government. This most similar systems design created a unique natural experiment, which enabled the authors to examine whether the motivational dynamics of individual protesters are moderated by the social movement context. Previous research suggested an instrumental path to collective action, and the authors added an ideology path. The authors expected and found that power-oriented collective action appeals to instrumental motives and efficacy and that value-oriented collective action appeals to ideological motives, and, finally, that efficacy mediates on instrumental motives and motivational strength, but only so in power-oriented action.     

Interjurisdictional placement of children in foster care

As the population of children in foster care has increased and more children are freed for adoption, foster and adoptive families are needed in ever increasing numbers. One avenue for expanding the pool of families is through placement of children with families in other counties and states. This article considers the policy and practice implications of interjurisdictional placement in the context of foster care, adoption, and kinship care and suggests directions for interjurisdictional adoption practice and policy.     

Tactical coordination in a multi-location and multi-stage operations structure: A model and a pharmaceutical company case

In this paper, we look at the internal supply chain of an internationally operating firm characterized by a multi-location and multi-stage operations structure. We address problems at three levels, namely the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Our approach goes beyond the operational literature, and focuses primarily on the tactical level. We specify a model and a case that capture strategic and tactical issues and relate the tactical issues to organizational issues. We simulate coordination in different organizational forms pertaining to the ‘tactical control’ of the firm. Our analysis suggests that a functionally organized multi-location and multi-stage operations structure using traditional planning will not work. The choice is between a strongly IT-based, centralized organization or a more decentralized organization using transfer prices as the coordination device.     

Commons and the nature of modernity: towards a cosmopolitical view on craft guilds

Theory and Society - This paper argues that historical research on late medieval and early modern craft guilds fails to escape teleological and anachronistic views, including when they are...     

Challenging Professional Roles: Lay Carers' Involvement in Health Care in the Community

The bulk of care in the community is carried out by lay carers. Recent policy initiatives to support them in the United Kingdom are outlined. There remains evidence of significant gaps in support from professional health and social‐care workers including community nurses. This paper reports three studies of lay carers: those caring for older people, carers of technology‐dependent children, and home‐care workers involved in the “direct payments” scheme. Findings are reported in the areas of decisions about appropriate caring roles, the lay–professional boundary, training and respite opportunities and the expertise of lay carers. Recommendations for policy and practices are made.     

Charles Horton Cooley,Pragmatist or Belletrist? The Complexity of Influence and the Decentering of Intellectual Traditions

This essay treats recent attempts to identify symbolic interaction (SI) founding theorist Charles Horton Cooley as a pragmatist sociologist exemplifying, and even influenced by, the pragmatism of Charles Saunders Peirce, as an example of the American exceptionalist character of SI. Beginning with Cooley's creative approach to conceptualizing the social, these attempts are scrutinized and measured against the contention that Cooley's thought can be equally if not more understood as a product of influence of the literary essay tradition. A close reading is given of the concordance of his personal journal with a selection of his published writings concerning the influence of members of Cooley's essayistic “genre matrix” – Emerson, Montaigne, and Walter Pater – on the development of his intellectual self and thought. Further substantiation is supplied by an analysis of the essayistic influence on Cooley's rigorous treatment of qualitative methodology. It is concluded that a decentered positioning of Cooley's work is preferable to a single‐origin one.