Organization as a theatre of performance

In this paper we introduce Bergson's philosophy of "action, process and movement" and its relevance for social science and the study of organizational culture. Bergson's philosophy of change argues against the spatialisation of thought in which phenomena are broken down into discrete components to be numbered, sequenced and manipulated: rather he argues for a view of time as qualitative; intuition as situated within experience rather than about it; the importance of the body in social experience and the importance of morality and religion in social life - in short and embodied conception of culture. Bergson's culture is socialised time actualised in experienced duration or durée - culture is always in motion, and does not need culture clash to drive change, but cultural expression and formulations are not, which runs counter to functionalist and psychoanalytic views of culture. Creativity, or the élan vital , is the human impulse to organise, but to improvise rather than to locate, divide and control. Culture grounded in experienced time and driven by the élan vital is in ceaseless motion - it is duration because its is en-dured as a multiplicity rather than as a unity. Where heroic leaders in treatments of organizational culture invite us the change our place in the world, in Bergson's thought they invite us to change out time - our qualitative experience of duration. We examine these arguments through a review of Bergson's work, concluding that Bergson's resonates with postmodern approaches to culture which shift our attention from signification to implication.     

History,Culture and Organization Studies

Research by Barley, Meyer and Gash (1988) showed that the publication of Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence (1982) coincided with culture becoming a popular and acceptable topic for organization theorists. This helped establish the dominance of a conception of culture that proffered an instrumental view of the relation between managerial practice and management knowledge, Barley, Meyer and Gash (1988) suggested. They saw this as a relatively recent occurrence. While we do not deny the possibility of the instrumental relation as depicted in Barley, Meyer and Gash (1988), we do not concur with their judgement that the study of culture is a relatively novel interruption of previously more academic concerns. On the contrary, we suggest that, while the relationship between practice and knowledge is borne out by a genealogical analysis of culture, the time period for such analysis should be drawn both more widely and more deeply to be an adequate test of Barley, Meyer and Gash's (1988) hypotheses. We argue that the relationship postulated in the hypothesis supported by their research - that academic research on culture has increasingly been prejudiced by instrumental concerns that developed in the lead up to, and in the wake of, the 'excellence' studies - defies social science traditions. We show this by enlarging the canvass of culture. The purposeful use of organizational culture as a management tool returns culture to those origins revealed by genealogical analysis that uncovers its etymology and sociology.     

高校教师组织支持、组织承诺与工作绩效关系实证研究

提高教师对高校组织的忠诚度与爱岗敬业精神,引导他们表现可靠的组织行为,促进教学与科研水平、提升教育质量和效益、培养高素质人才,已成为各高校管理人员必须关注的问题。通过文献研究总结,以人力资源管理及组织行为学的相关理论为背景,采用实地访谈和问卷调查的实证研究方法,对高校教师组织支持、组织承诺及工作绩效的内容、结构和关系、影响因素进行研究,建立了三者之间总体关系模型,揭示了相互影响关系。对高校的人才培养及科研工作、高校的人事制度改革、人力资源管理有重大的理论和实践意义。     

An Exploratory Study of the Meaning of Marriage for African Americans

Using specific tenets from symbolic interactionism as a frame, we asked 31 African Americans (18 women and 13 men) including students as well as nonstudents, across a variety of types of relationships and ages, what marriage meant to them. Two major themes, commitment and love, emerged from qualitative content analysis of the meaning of marriage. Other themes, including partnership/friendship, trust, family, and covenant, also emerged as themes, although less frequently. The overwhelming meanings of marriage were positive, with only a few negative instances (i.e., marriage as unnecessary and not fulfilling). Supportive qualitative data are presented for each theme. We discuss implications for the meaning of marriage for African Americans.     

An Exploration of the Construction of Commitment Leading to Marriage

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how newly married couples construct and reconstruct commitment through events in courtship and early marriage. Fifteen newly married couples, 30 participants, were interviewed individually. Through the use of grounded theory six different themes (friendship, gradual process, positive examples, negative examples, planning for the future, and words of affirmation) emerged in the construction, origination, and communication of commitment. The results of this study have specific implications for theory, research, and practice with young adult couples. The concept of resilient commitment is introduced and briefly discussed.     

In Memoriam

This article discusses the origin of social work education in Africa as an export of colonial powers. Social work or social work education has not been the product of a progressive social metamorphosis but rather that of foreign methodologies imposed on African societies. Consequently, the essence of social work education lacks relevance in terms of its philosophical, value and ideological base. Thus students who graduate from such a system of education tend to remain, to some extent, unfamiliar with indigenous knowledge systems and lack adequate knowledge in working with the people. The paper further argues that, while the origin of social work education is well known, its future direction, development and focus on the continent remain unknown, at worst haphazard, ad hoc and undirected with serious implications for the mission and vision of the profession. Social work in Africa has been without a platform to foster discourse on its nature, character and direction. Transformation of social work education from being Euro-centric to being Afro-centric has to be spearheaded by an organization that can provide a forum for dialogue, leadership and a contextual framework. The article therefore examines the need for such a forum and briefly discusses past efforts in this direction in an attempt to provide a direction for transformation.     

高校教育管理工作者工作状态及影响因素分析

高校教育管理工作者在高校人才培养过程中发挥着重要作用,他们的工作状态影响着高校教育教学质量。工作满意感、工作投入、组织承诺构成高校教育管理工作者工作状态测度的指标体系。运用SPSS统计软件对高校教育管理工作者的工作状态进行研究分析表明：不同性别、不同职称、不同职务、不同编制身份的人在工作状态方面均存在显著差异,工作性质、工作条件、人际关系、组织氛围、晋升发展的满意度以及对工作的投入程度对工作状态有正向影响,其中,晋升发展对管理人员的工作状态影响最大,其次为组织承诺。高校管理者应该从性别、职称、职务、编制方面改善高校教育管理工作者的工作状态,以营造积极向上、和谐融洽的组织文化氛围。     

拒绝职场边缘化:模型与检验

初入职场,大学生员工希望被组织接纳而不是被边缘化。本文试图建模表现在如同"政治舞台"的职场中员工努力避免被边缘化的过程。为达到以上研究目标,执行了两项研究:预研究在国务院11个部委机关的公务员群体中收集数据,开发了职场边缘化的测量工具;主研究对16家制造型企业中的343个员工、662个同事及343个直接领导的配对数据进行实证分析,发现员工工作绩效、公民行为以及与上司的私人关系(Guanxi)与职场边缘化之间呈负向关联。相对而言,在政治氛围淡漠的企业中,上司关系与职场边缘化之间的负向关联更强。     

托育师资职业身份的边界划定与角色丛构建——基于组织边界理论

托育师资是支持婴幼儿身心发展的重要引导者,是高质量托育服务水平的关键,其质量的提升能够满足我国不断扩大的 托育照护服务需求。基于组织边界理论,能够从物理、社会和心理层面明确托育师资职业身份的边界及其作用,同时在边界属 性作用的发挥下构建出托育师资应具备的六种职业角色：分别是基于组织规制的制度遵守者和托育发展者、基于服务环境的 照护培育者和支持指导者、基于心理认知的职业契合者和认知调节者。鉴于此,为保障托育师资对职业角色的理解和能力具 备,从确定师资准入标准、完善师资培养体系、支持师资职业认知三方面完善托育师资职业发展体系,确保托育师资职业身份 确立和角色丛构建。     

低碳经济下企业生存的组织结构优化研究

红皇后理论研究了竞争逻辑变化下企业的生存与发展,证明了竞争对企业生存力的重要意义,特别强调了近期竞争经验对企业的正面作用。低碳经济给企业所处环境和竞争规则带来变化的同时,也带来了新的竞争逻辑。通过结合研究资源基础理论和组织理论,将环境职能部门交叉在其他部门流程中组成新的矩阵式组织结构,并将该结构通过红皇后理论加以验证。这种用组织创新来迎接新经济时代挑战的方式,是企业在低碳环境下提高自身竞争力的一种有效手段。