Professional blinders? The novel as an eye-opener in organizational analysis

ABSTRACT

Scholarly textbooks often follow a logic where suitable empirical cases are selected to illustrate the theoretical and analytical points that we as scholars want to make. But what would happen if we would do the opposite: build a textbook on a novel written by a novelist for such purpose and let the theories explain the actions and emotions of fictional characters? In this article, we share and reflect upon our experiences of co-authoring a textbook in organization theory together with a professional novelist. We argue that the novel can function as an eye-opener in organizational analysis, forcing us to look beyond more static and rationalistic perspectives on organizations as well as the stereotypes of such. We build and relate our experiences to the growing literature about using fiction in scholarly work and discuss the potential of such genre-bending work when we bring in flesh and blood into the analyses.     

公司价值形成的反身性机制与中国上市公司的实证研究

该研究把人的非完全理性和市场非有效对公司经理人投融资行为的影响融入公司价值的形成过程,构建了公司的价值体系,分析了公司价值形成的反身性机制。用公司价值预期与公司真实的价值创造之间的关系来建立实证模型,检验公司市场价值与内在价值之间的相关性。以中国上市公司为样本进行了实证研究,发现公司价值创造效率与市场的价值预期之间存在显著的相关关系:首先,市场对上市公司的价值预期存在偏离,表现为高估低内在价值的公司和低估高内在价值的公司;其次,这种市场预期的偏差对上市公司的价值创造具有显著的影响,表现为阻碍公司价值的创造。实证结果证明了公司价值形成反身机制的存在性。     

L'Intervention Sociologique After Twenty-Five Years: Can It Translate into English?

The sociological intervention is a research method developed in France by Alain Touraine in 1976 to explore social movement action. Since then it has undergone significant development, both in terms of the type of social experience explored and the broader research program framing it. Despite its importance, the intervention remains little known and virtually untested within English-language sociology. This article examines key dimensions of this research method through discussing several examples, and argues that the intervention has much to offer English-language sociologists concerned with questions of agency and reflexivity, relationship, narrative and experience.     

Insider research,validity issues,and the OHS professional: one person’s journey

Validity in the context of qualitative research may take on many different definitions depending on the philosophical perspective. When a researcher conducts research within their place of employment, this will also influence the approach and interpretation. Insider research has been under scrutiny for the very fact that the insider is an actor within the setting. This paper explores my journey, conducting insider research and working as an occupational health and safety practitioner, by presenting an example of the methods used, including reflectivity and reflexivity, to address validity issues which may arise prior, during and post data collection.     

Contingent Eclecticism

For more than a century, methodological diversity within the social sciences has been the source of recurrent paradigm wars, and no obvious winner seems to be in sight. The aim of this article is to explore the contingencies underlying this diversity. It is argued that the shared condition of complexity forces us to adopt a pragmatic perspective from which even relevant ontological and epistemological assumptions should be thought of as contextual rather than absolute. In particular, the extent to which social causality is perceived as stable and universal vs. dynamic and contextual and the extent to which research‐related reflexivity is an issue appear to set apart the different approaches. Towards the end of the article examples of methodological fit and misfit are provided to illustrate the relevancy of the “contingent eclecticism” observed in practice.     

思想政治教育学与伦理学对人的反身性的共同建构

思想政治教育学是一门指导人们形成正确思想行为的科学,它以人的思想行为形成变化的规律,以及实施思想政治教育的规律作为自己的研究对象。而伦理学的本质是关于道德问题的科学,是道德思想观点的系统化、理论化。虽作为两门不同的科学,有着各自的研究对象,但实际上二者存在着一定的学科交叉。其中一个很重要的共同点就是二者对于人的反身性具有重要的建构作用。追求自由而又全面的发展作为人的最本质需求,客观上要求人们对自我反身性进行建构,而这种建构需要科学知识的指引。这是思想政治教育学与伦理学的学术使命以及价值体现。文章就如何更好地发挥二者对于人的反身性的建构作用进行了论述。     

团队反省理论研究述评

团队反省(team reflexivity)的概念构思基于对创新任务团队作业过程的考察而提出.有关团队反省的维度划分及测量尚未达成共识.已有研究中涉及的影响团队反省的前因可归为个体特征、任务特征和团队特征三大类;而团队反省的结果主要表现为对团队效能、效率以及创新的影响.此外,团队反省还在结果依赖性、意见不一致及其在与团队产出变量间的作用关系中起调节作用.文章在对该构思相关研究进行梳理的基础上,对其未来的发展趋势进行了初步探讨.     

‘What Was I Thinking?!’ Rhetorical Questions as a Technique to Identify and Explore Impasses in Therapy

Rhetorical questions emerging spontaneously in consultations can be used as a tool for developing self‐reflexivity and exploring the therapeutic alliance in the process of therapy with couples and families. This paper presents a technique based on the enunciation of rhetorical questions, which can point to an impasse in the process of therapy and contain a key to its resolution. The technique focuses on the distinctive feature of rhetorical questions as convening a paradoxical injunction: a question not intended as a question, while uttered as such. The technique in four steps is illustrated by examples from therapy, supervision, consultation, and self‐supervision. Its focus is the interlink between the therapeutic relationship and the process of therapy and it is informed by a second‐order cybernetics approach, dialogical practice, and the systemic literature on emotion. The technique can help develop curiosity in working with families, lead to unforeseen developments, and touch on prejudices not made explicit in previous therapeutic encounters. Whether we are acting as supervisors, therapists, or clients, the creation of a ‘secure enough’ context for rhetorical questions becomes critical to allow freeform exploration.     

When difference creates dissonance: understanding the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning in study abroad

Why do some study abroad students improve their intercultural skills, while others revert to less sophisticated ways of making sense of cultural difference? Both intercultural competence theory and transformative learning theory attempt to explain why student intercultural learning occurs, but they only provide partial answers. Building on our previous study assessing intercultural competence in a 2015 field school in India, this article applies the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain the process behind intercultural learning. In the context of study abroad, students experience cognitive dissonance when they encounter cultural differences or similarities that confound previously held expectations about culture. Adapting Maertz, Hassan, and Magnusson’s cognitive dissonance resolution framework, we employ qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections to show how the resolution of cognitive dissonance could act as the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning.