Communitas/Corporatas Tensions in Organizational Rhetoric: Finding a Balance in Sports Public Relations

Sports public relations always serves two masters—both corporatas and communitas. In this article, a close textual analysis of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA's) Stay in Bounds community relations program reveals that the NCAA is both a defender of amateur, communitas values, and a participant in professionalized, corporatas organizational rhetoric. This article offers a typology of the specific competing commitments of communitas and corporatas in sports rhetoric and argues that all sports rhetoric, from little league to big league, must negotiate with publics a balance between these extremes.     

Higher Education's Role in the Dialogue on Race

The university is a logical locus for discussionof the role race has played in our society. Perhaps noAmerican institution is more committed to free andopen dialogue than the university. Higher educationcan thus provide a context for the recognition ofissues as well as a forum for the resolution ofinitiatives. To date, however, university attempts atdiversity training have often imbued recipients withself-consciousness, usurping the unity implicit in theword `university' and evoking an even greater tendencytoward separatism. The university's traditional questfor truth has been subverted by a subtle and pervasivesense that some views are more correct than others,that openness is dangerous, and that some issues mighteven be taboo. At best, such an approach to diversityleads to a fragile stalemate among self-containedenclaves. By championing President Clinton's call fora dialogue on race, the university can restore itselfas an institution that puts honesty above all else.Not only is there a resonant rationale for theuniversity's central responsibility in this debate,but there is also a pedagogical means by which itsrole can be realized. This paper proposes a model forethnic dialogue relevant to either a text-based orissues-based class. Borrowing from pedagogy developedin professional schools, we believe that the tenets ofthe `case method' can create a climate conducive tothe substantive scrutiny of race, ethnicity, andprejudice in general. We argue that this dialogueshould not be a mere add-on to college life, butintegrated into existing curricula in the socialsciences, literature, and history. Heated debate canthen occur without anger, and race/ethnicity can bediscussed without fear of recrimination.Paradoxically, the very expression of ethnicity may bethe catalyst that eventually moves multiculturalismtoward interculturalism – where differences are nolonger articulated, measurable or even discernible.     

Sex differences in occupational skill: Canada, 1961–1986

Cet étude, basée sur les données du recensement canadien, examine la ségrégation occupationelle et les différences dues au genre dans la distribution d'habileté professionnelle entre les annees 1961 et 1986. L'apprentissage à long terme à de niveaux supérieurs d'habileté professionnelle caractérise autant le marché du travail féminin que masculin. Cependant, la magnitude de cet apprentissage est plus grande pour les femmes que pour les hommes, notamment entre les années 1981 et 1986 lorsque la distribution des habiletés professionnelles des hommes à changés très peu. En dépit de la direction de ces changements, il est peu probable que les femmes se retrouvent dans les occupations à niveaux supérieurs d'habileté comparé aux hommes. La main d'oeuvre féminine se retrouve done aux niveaux moyens d'habileté professionnelle comparéà la main d'oeuvre masculine, et ceci est en grande partie attribuéà la concentration féminine dans les occupations de bureau inférieures. Quand la comparaison entre les femmes et les hommes se limite à l'intérieur des niveaux de travail comme le travail de bureau, le travail ouvrier et le travail dans les secteurs de service, la tendance de retrouver les femmes dans les niveaux inferieurs d'habileté professionnelle devient plus prononcée. Using Canadian census data, this study examines occupational segregation and sex differences in the distribution of skill between 1961–1986. Skill upgrading over time characterizes both the female and male labour force. However, the magnitude of skill upgrading is larger for women than men, particularly between 1981 and 1986 when the skill distributions of men change very little. Despite these upgrading trends, women are less likely to be in higher skilled occupations than are men. Instead, the female labour force more than the male labour force is found in the middle levels of skill, largely as the result of their concentration in lower white collar occupations. When comparisons are made within white collar, blue collar and service sectors, the employment of women in less skilled occupations becomes far more evident.     

Workforce localization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: issues and challenges

Despite some progress, the issue of equality at work remains more of an aspiration than achievement for organizations in developed economies across the world. In the UK, the debate on equality at work has been rekindled with a Labour government taking office, in 1997, with a commitment to equality generally and for women specifically. Fuelling the debate is the notion of managing diversity, which has emanated from the USA in recent years. This article seeks to explore the current nature of equality at work in the UK and gauge if managing diversity is in any way manifest in current organizational approaches to equality management. The exploration is rooted in four case-study organizations and is conducted through the lens of key organizational stakeholders. Beyond exposing the contemporary nature of equality at work in the case-study organizations, the empirical work allows the issues involved in the implementation of managing diversity in the UK context to be signalled.     

Costs and distortion of U.S. regulation policy in intercoastal lumber shipping

This article quantitatively analyzes the various impacts of current U.S. coastal restrictions on the Northwest lumber industry. The history of U.S. maritime regulation is briefly reviewed and a simulation model is developed to measure its affect on lumber shipments and transport costs. The results of the model indicate that aggregate cost redutions obtained through deregulation are likely to be small. The pattern of intercoastal shipments could change a great deal, however, with U.S. producers picking up a large share of the Northeast market.