The Case for Prefigurative Feminist Organizing

Contemporary feminist community organizing is not entirely consistent in practice. Drawing from current and historic examples, as well a feminist literature, this article examines tensions and contradictions between feminist ideas and praxis. The author suggests that contemporary feminist organizing ideas and practices adhere to masculinist models, and do not offer a liberatory and inclusive model for social change. Recommendations for a consistency between the public and private spheres, and processes and outcomes, are discussed.     

The role of age in the relationship between work social characteristics and job attitudes

Despite the amount of research on the link between work social characteristics and job attitudes, there is a lack of work on moderators of this relationship. In the present study, we examine the role of age as a moderating effect of this relationship using life-span development theory. The aim of this paper is to study the moderator effect of age in the relationship between two work social characteristics (interaction outside the organization and interdependence) and job attitudes (i.e., general job satisfaction and work engagement). Participants were 258 workers from private organizations. Data were collected at two time points (2 to 4 weeks between T₁ and T₂). Results showed that the relationship between interdependence and work engagement was stronger for older workers than for younger workers. In addition, the relationship between interaction outside the organization and general job satisfaction was stronger for younger than for older workers. Because increased engagement and satisfaction in an age-diverse workforce is important, organizations may benefit by challenging older workers with interdependent tasks, and younger workers with interaction with stakeholders outside the organization.     

Learning empathy through literature

ABSTRACT

In the field of organization studies, little consideration has thus far been devoted to the study of literature. The lacuna in the extant scholarship is unfortunate insofar as there is much to be gained for researchers interested in understanding organization to critically engage with literature. As an illustrative example of how literature can inform myriad pertinent discourses in organization studies, in this piece we study the question of empathy. That is, we describe just some of what may be gleaned about empathy from literature using anecdotes from a pedagogical exercise. Finally, we close this piece with a brief overview of the articles selected for this special issue.     

Organizational Change in Intrusive and Non-intrusive Environments

This article discusses the importance of environments for managers’ successful introduction of a new management technique. Two empirical examples illustrate the interrelatedness of external and internal environments and its consequences for the propensity of organizations to accept and implement managerial propositions. It is suggested that an intrusive external environment, which clearly relates to generally accepted facts, facilitates managerial action and makes organizations change prone. Mangers, who seek to forestall future environmental problems, in contrast, seem likely to meet with a hostile and conservative internal environment. In both instances managers depend on the social construction of the external environment of their organizations.     

Italo Calvino and the organizational imagination: Reading social organization through urban metaphors

This article explores the way in which uses or abuses of urban metaphors can inform differing polities and ethics of human organization. From its earliest inception, the city has taken on a metaphorical significance for human communities; being, at one and the same time, a discursive textual product of culture and, reciprocally, a provider of artefacts and architecture that produces culture and meaning. The city can be interpreted as a trope that operates bidirectionally in cultural terms. It is a sign that can be worked to serve the principles of both metonymy and synecdoche. In metonymical or reductive form, the city has the propensity to become weighty and deadening. The work of Michael Porter on competitive strategy is invoked to illustrate this effect. In the guise of synecdoche, on the other hand, the city offers imaginative potential. Drawing inspiration from the literary works of Italo Calvino (in particular, his novel Invisible Cities), the article attempts to reveal the fecundity of the city for interpreting technologically mediated organizational life. Calvino's emphasis on the principle of ‘lightness’ provides a link to the social theoretical writing of Boltanski and Chiapello on the ‘projective city’. A synthesis of these two stylistically different literatures yields a novel way of critically approaching and understanding the reticular form and emerging ethics of contemporary human organization.     

亚太空间法国际合作机构的构建

外空领域的国际合作开展得如火如荼，此类合作可以在不同的层次、不同的领域展开。亚太地区一直以来注重外空活动的合作，但迄今为止，还没有一个区域性的机构涉足空间法的合作。建立亚太空间法中心的提议正是对此需求做出的一个回应，希望该中心的建立能够促进亚太地区空间法的教学和研究。此中心应该是独立、中立的学术机构；至于建立的模式，认为在没有一个其他更好的平台的情况下，亚太空间合作组织下设空间法中心不失为次好方案。并以此为契机，进一步推动区域空间法的发展。     

Using Task Clarification and Feedback Training to Improve Staff Performance in an East African Nongovernmental Organization

The present study used a multiple-baseline design to illustrate the effectiveness of an intervention package consisting of a multipurpose job aid and feedback training in improving the performance of supervisors and animal trainers in a nongovernmental organization headquartered in East Africa. Prior to the intervention, the performance of three supervisors and three animal trainers was suboptimal. Performance improved when supervisors were taught to use the job aid and provide feedback, and reached a high and consistent level during a subsequent phase, in which supervisors used the job aid independently. Limited maintenance and generalization data suggest that the intervention package produced lasting and generalized effects, and social validity data suggest that supervisors viewed the intervention as acceptable. These findings appear to be the first experimentally controlled demonstration of the potential value of organizational behavior management in improving performance in nongovernmental organizations working in resource-poor areas.     

计划生育系统战略领导能力调查分析

借鉴迈克尔·马奎特的学习型组织综合模型,结合计划生育系统构建学习型组织的特点,从学习、人员、知识和技术四个子系统对镇江丹阳市计划生育组织的战略领导能力进行了全面的调查问卷分析,得出了相应的结论和改进的建议。     

西部城市近郊提高农民进入市场组织化程度的实践与思考

组织农民进入市场是解决城市化进程中促进农民增收、发展农村经济的核心所在。文章通过对西部城市近郊农民进入市场的组织化情况的调查,发现农民进入市场不仅需要保障民办、民管、民受益,而且还需要提高政府的组织和引导水平,同时也需要在土地使用性质、征地安置、金融支持等方面有一定突破,提高农民经济组织抗风险能力和持续经营的水平。