Action Orientation Research Articles

Kaupungin strateginen spatiaalinen suunnittelu – Navigointia eri mittakaavatasojen ja rationaliteettien välillä

This article scrutinises the role of communicative and strategic rationalities in the strategic spatial planning of a city. With an analytical framework that draws on Habermas’ theory of communicative action, the article identifies communicatively and strategically rational action orientations in competitive and collaborative settings at different scales of strategic spatial planning. The analytical feasibility of the framework is examined by analysing strategic spatial planning in the city of Turku (Finland). By providing insights on the central role of strategic rationality, the article contributes to the theoretical discourse on strategic spatial planning that has been strained by an overemphasis on communicative rationality. Regarding relevance to planning practice, the article adds to the understanding of the complex governance networks in which a city engages in its strategic spatial planning.

Community Trust: A Social Indicator Related to Community Engagement

A review of the literature has highlighted that some studies have defined an indicator of trust regarding one’s geographical community, but that few studies refer to the community, in relation to the role of its social interactions used to attain and promote personal and collective planning. Therefore, this study introduced community trust as a composite indicator used to measure community opportunities, as perceived by citizens, in addition to discovering their local culture. A third-order construct model was proposed, specifying community trust as a multidimensional construct, which is composed of two different domains: Community Action Orientation and Community Future Opportunities (CFO). Each domain was considered separately, although they are integral parts of community trust. The results showed that the proposed model performs well in measuring community trust. All blocks of variables indicated good internal consistency, and factor analysis results were consistent with the hypothesized dimensions in each block. Furthermore, the social ties indicator, known as sense of community, was measured using the Italian-version of the Sense of Community Scale. Factor analysis was applied to analyze data and to provide an indicator for sense of community. Finally, through a logistic regression, the relationship between both community trust and sense of community with community engagement were analyzed. We found that community trust is significantly associated with community engagement, while sense of community is not. The proposed community trust indicator offers some guidance to urban planners and local governments, when promoting urban development, social empowerment, and community wellbeing.

Translating Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Interdependencies into Policy Advice

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, and their 169 targets, are interdependent and interlinked. The successful implementation of all SDGs will rely upon disentangling complex interactions between the goals and their targets. This implies that implementing the SDGs requires cross-sectoral processes to foster policy coherence. Over recent years, academic research has produced a number of different proposals for categorizing the SDGs, systematically mapping the linkages between them, and identifying the nature of their interdependencies. The aim of this review article is to provide ideas of how to move from generic appraisals of SDG interdependencies towards translating these interdependencies into policy action. To do so, the article first provides an overview of existing frameworks for the systematic conceptualization of the SDGs and the interlinkages and interdependencies between them. Secondly, the article critically discusses advantages and limitations of these frameworks, with a particular focus on methodological weaknesses, practical applicability to specific contexts, and utility for the development of policy strategies for coherent SDG planning and implementation. Based on this discussion, the article proposes a roadmap for how research on interdependencies can meaningfully provide orientation for policy action.

Taking Action or Thinking About It? State Orientation and Rumination Are Correlated in Athletes.

Athletic performance in competitive sports relies heavily on the ability to cope effectively with stressful situations. In contrast, some athletes report that their thoughts revolve around the future or past and not around the actual demands during competitions. In those specific stressful situations, the lack of focus like an unintended fixation on repetitive cognitions can have fatal consequences with regard to the performance. Especially when competitors are close in their athletic capabilities, differences in effectively coping with stress and mental stability may decide about winning and losing. One established factor of performing effectively under pressure is the individual tendency to either focus on taking action (i.e., action orientation) or on focusing on the own emotions (i.e., state orientation). It is widely acknowledged that state-oriented athletes have disadvantages in performing under stress. Moreover, the action control theory claims that state orientation is related to ruminative cognitions, which itself is assumed to impair performance in the long term. We tested this hypothesis in 157 competitive athletes from different sports (including individual and team sports). Regression analysis demonstrates a substantial correlation of failure-related action orientation (i.e., state orientation) with different measures of rumination (including general, clinically relevant, and competition-related rumination). In addition, general (i.e., content independent) rumination also correlated substantially with a rumination scale adapted specifically to sports-related competition. These results suggest (1) that a sports and competition-related ruminative mechanism exists and (2) that ruminative cognitions are related to the cognitive basis of state orientation. While our study does not allow for a causal interpretation, it provides an additional approach to investigate mental factors underlying inter-individual differences in athletic performance under stress and pressure.

Bystanders in “sketchy” sexual situations: Their constructions of the “girl,” the “guy,” and themselves

In this paper we explore through discourse analysis the written personal narratives (vignettes) of “sketchy” sexual situations that students found themselves in as bystanders. We asked for these vignettes in a larger study examining the relationships between moral judgment/reasoning and intervening or not in situations of potential sexual assault. Through a Foulcauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), we explore in these narratives discursive constructions, positioning of potential victims, potential perpetrators, and bystanders of sexual assault, as well as the action orientations these discourses suggest, and the implications for rape prevention programs.

Critically studying openness: A way forward

Critically studying openness: A way forward

Building traits for organizational resilience through balancing organizational structures

This paper describes and explains how balancing organizational structures can build traits for organizational resilience. Organizational resilience is a holistic and complex concept. In this paper, we move beyond focusing on sudden and disruptive events in favour of anticipating the unexpected in daily organizing. Organizational resilience is understood here as building traits of risk awareness, preference for cooperation, agility and improvisation and is analysed by means of a longitudinal qualitative case study. The paper contributes to the field by showing how balancing organizational structures can foster organizational resilience traits. We show that power distribution and normative control can create preparedness for unexpected events and foster action orientation at the same time as supporting organizational alignment.

The Devil You Know: Self-Esteem and Switching Responses to Poor Service

Abstract We investigate a psychological factor regulating consumers’ switching in response to poor service quality: chronic global self-esteem. Whereas high-self-esteem consumers tend to switch to other providers in response to poor service quality, low-self-esteem consumers often do not. This happens because low-self-esteem consumers who experience poor service become risk-averse, and therefore reluctant to engage in new committed service relationships. Indeed, low-self-esteem consumers’ likelihood to switch to an alternative provider in response to poor service quality increases when this provider offers a less risky, low commitment (vs. more risky, high commitment) contract. Moreover, experimentally reducing low-self-esteem consumers’ risk aversion increases their likelihood to switch to alternative providers in response to poor service quality. Finally, low-self-esteem consumers’ risk aversion mediates their reluctance to switch in response to poor service. We rule out failure severity perceptions, power, autonomy, affect, and action orientation as alternative explanations. The implication of this research for public policy makers is that promoting competition (by offering consumers options and by reducing switching costs) may not be enough to protect the welfare of low-self-esteem consumers. We also suggest ways in which firms can untie vulnerable consumers from negative service relationships.

Weapon target assignment optimization for land based multi-air defense systems: A goal programming approach

This study addressed the issue of allocating the air defense missiles to incoming air targets to maximize the air defense effectiveness of land-based air defense systems. A constraint based nonlinear goal programming (multi-objective) model for weapon assignment problem to minimize survival probability was developed. The model not only gave optimum assignment but also resulted in engagement times and defense success for multi-defense sites. The model utilized parameters belonging to defense systems such as engagement duration, setup duration between engagements, command and control structures, fire doctrines, and defense strategies and parameters belonging to target such as probability of kill values, position, orientation, weapon load, target type, and course of actions inferred by current detection information. The simulation model has two-way usages. In the first usage, it obtains solution for the parameters given above under limited number of missiles. In the second usage, the model shows the amount of missile to be used to achieve the possible highest success with the parameters given above. To be able to use the optimization model in a simulation environment, a simulation model as an optimizer agent is developed and located in air defense simulation scenarios. The model collects input data, optimize assignments, calculates fire times, and schedules fire orders. This solution is exemplified by a land-based air defense example.

Rationalizing the Decision to Cheat: An Empirical Analysis to Determine Whether Social Rational Orientation Can Predict Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty is a wide-spread issue in educational institutions, including higher education. This study determined if there was a correlation between social rational action orientations and the likelihood of engaging in academically dishonest acts. The relationship between course value and academic dishonesty was also examined. The researchers obtained data from 357 undergraduate students at a large public university in the Southwest. The instrument included a scale that was created to determine student social rational orientation membership. To measure potential academic dishonesty behaviors, vignettes were created and manipulated to portray either low or high perceived course value. Overall, this study found that social rational orientation and perceived course value predicted the likelihood of engaging in academically dishonest acts. This study uncovered new variables that can be used to predict academic dishonesty by elucidating how students rationalize their decision to cheat.

India Inc. and globalization: The rise of neo-liberalism and a transnational managerial elite?

ABSTRACTIn our paper, we present an empirical study that tests claims regarding the purported impact of economic globalization on business elites, namely that elites become increasingly transnational in their careers and life style and neo-liberal in their action orientations. We draw upon the results of a study that (a) tapped life course data for 100 current top managers in India and (b) implemented a collective mindset analysis using in-depth interviews that were conducted in India with retired and serving senior business managers. Our findings indicate that endogenous institutions have an important and enduring role to play in the shaping of careers, as well as generating embedded cognitive frameworks. Drawing from this exploratory study, we propose a set of hypotheses and a research agenda to argue that socio-cultural mechanisms of selection and socialization must be taken into account in discussions regarding the emergence of a global corporate elite.

How policymakers’ demands for usable knowledge shape science-policy relations in environmental policy in Poland

This article discusses how aspects related to policymakers’ demands for knowledge shape preferences for science-policy models such as Mode 1 and Mode 2. It focuses on the demands that Polish policymakers make of science and how they envision their role in the knowledge production process in the field of environmental policy. The article applies a set of criteria on how policymakers define usable knowledge to better understand preference and use in practice of different science-policy models. Results show that preferences for Mode 1 or Mode 2 are in part the result of trade-off between criteria of quality, relevance, conformity, and action orientation. While science can provide truth and usable knowledge in both Mode 1 and 2, Mode 1 is attractive when policymakers have specific political demands: they may use it to avoid responsibility for negative policy outcomes or to discredit undesirable results.

Temporality in social movement theory: vectors and events in the neoliberal timescape

ABSTRACT Existing theories of social movements have a weak conception of temporality, which is generally tied to truncated protest waves or else to micro-scale sequences of interaction. Neither approach enables an understanding of continuity and change in the content and form of social movements over longer periods. This article develops a new conceptual terminology intended to bring temporal sensitivity to our understanding of the interplay between movements and their socio-political environments. Vectors highlight evolving patterns of interaction that carry ideas and action orientations into a range of social settings over a period of decades. Examining the interplay of different vectors, and accounting also for the unfolding character of historic events, enables the apprehension of an overarching timescape within which movements move. This theoretical approach is illustrated with an examination of three significant periods of transnational contention associated with the Alter-Globalization, Anti-War, and Occupy movements. Analysis of vectors that shape discourses of conflict, organizational preferences, and practices of individual autonomy explain dynamics of continuity and change across different movements, each of which is shaped by a dynamic neoliberal timescape. Abbreviation CBDM: Consensus-based Decision Making; ICT: Information and Communication Technology; IFI: International Financial Institution; IMF: International Monetary Fund; WTO: World Trade Organisation

People’s Space-Time-Action Orientations: How Minds Perceive, Cultures Work, and Eras Differ

Myriad anthropology, psychology, sociology, and other studies show that people’s space, time, and action (agency) orientations are key shapers of cognition and culture. Most studies focus on only one, sometimes two, of the three orientations. It would be better to study them as a triplex bundle. The better we learn to analyze people’s space-time-action perceptions together, the better we may ascertain why people think and behave as they do, how societies and cultures evolve, and what makes historical era’s different from each other. This paper makes its case for triplex cognition analysis partly by depicting and analyzing renowned writings of Henri Lefebvre on space, Philip Zimbardo & John Boyd on time, and Albert Bandura on agency from a preliminary triplex perspective.

Responding to climate change: Surakarta city tourism on legal and policy perspectives

Like other destinations in the Asia region, Surakarta’s tourism policy is vulnerable to the impacts and implications of climate change. The city reliance on its culture and service product which is potentially under threat, coupled with the potential for changing consumer demand patterns, particularly in long-haul markets, should be concerning for the tourism. Yet, the tourism has been criticized for its short-term, profit orientation and lack of action regarding climate change, mainly on legal and policy perspectives. It is against this background that a qualitative study was undertaken with primary and secondary data of Surakarta’s tourism policy to explore the legal perspectives on current challenges and future directions regarding climate change.

Philosophische Praxis für persönliche fragen

Abstract The claim, renewed some years ago, of being able to advise on personal questions of life seems to bring philosophy into a fundamental conflict with its other claim of promoting human self-determination. However, the conflict only arises if philosophy does not sufficiently distinguish between the social orientation of self-determination towards universality and the subjective orientation of action execution. This is the case both in subjectivist mentalism and in the tradition of philosophy of language. The insufficient distinction prevents philosophy not only from being able to be helpful in the case of action but also from adequately explaining its object, the human orientation of validity. Plessner clarifies the basis of the practical distinction between social validity and subjective action orientation. Against this background we can better understand Socrates’ and Wittgenstein’s views on how philosophy must proceed in discourse if it is to provide assistance in personal questions without paternalism.

Are you talking to me?

Abstract Police use of social media has increased in the United Kingdom since 2008 (Crump, 2011), yet there has been little qualitative exploration of how police-owned Facebook sites work to shape the identity of forces. This study explores the action orientation of small stories on the Facebook site of a UK metropolitan police force. The research considers the collaborative ways in which stories are positioned and constructed collectively by multiple narrators (both formal police posts, and the commenting public). Given the ability of social media to enact identity through interaction, this research explores how the identity of the police force is positioned, and repositioned, by social media activity. It concludes that both the opportunity for dyadic interactions that may underpin effective community policing, and the potential benefits of harnessing the opportunity for effective identity work, are currently being under utilised on police Facebook sites.

Critical review of organisation-technology sensemaking: towards technology materiality, discovery, and action

ABSTRACTMore than two decades of sensemaking research has brought thorough knowledge of how people understand organisational phenomena and attach meaning to them. This stream of research explores varied social and cognitive aspects of the process in the context of organisations and information technology (IT). However, such a large body of literature exhibits some significant shortcomings: there is a lack of IT materiality; a neglect of the discovery aspect of perception; and a lack of action orientation. So, there is limited understanding of the role that the material artefact plays in shaping users’ sensemaking of new IT, as well as how users’ actions affect their sensemaking. Moreover, while the literature mostly focuses on sensemaking as the creation of new meanings to rationalise user experiences, it neglects the discovery aspect of sensemaking that refers to perception of the meaning already available. To address these issues, this article provides a thorough review of the literature on organisation-technology sensemaking and synthesises our current understanding of the phenomenon. It then analyses the major shortcomings in our knowledge and highlights the need to address those shortcomings. It subsequently discusses an ecological approach consistent with the tenets of critical realism that can address some of the existing shortcomings.

You\u2009\u2260\u2009me: individual differences in the structure of social cognition

This study investigated the structure of social cognition, and how it is influenced by personality; specifically, how various socio-cognitive capabilities, and the pattern of inter-relationships and co-dependencies among them differ between divergent personality styles. To measure social cognition, a large non-clinical sample (n = 290) undertook an extensive battery of self-report and performance-based measures of visual perspective taking, imitative tendencies, affective empathy, interoceptive accuracy, emotion regulation, and state affectivity. These same individuals then completed the Personality Styles and Disorders Inventory. Latent Profile Analysis revealed two dissociable personality profiles that exhibited contrasting cognitive and affective dispositions, and multivariate analyses indicated further that these profiles differed on measures of social cognition; individuals characterised by a flexible and adaptive personality profile expressed higher action orientation (emotion regulation) compared to those showing more inflexible tendencies, along with better visual perspective taking, superior interoceptive accuracy, less imitative tendencies, and lower personal distress and negativity. These characteristics point towards more efficient self-other distinction, and to higher cognitive control more generally. Moreover, low-level cognitive mechanisms served to mediate other higher level socio-emotional capabilities. Together, these findings elucidate the cognitive and affective underpinnings of individual differences in social behaviour, providing a data-driven model that should guide future research in this area.

What autobiographical narratives tell us about the life course. Contributions of qualitative sequential analytical methods.

The paper discusses the benefits of certain qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis for research into the life course. These methods of data collection (i.e., the extempore narrative interview by Schütze) and sequential analytical approaches of data analysis (i.e., narration analysis by Schütze and documentary analysis by Bohnsack and Nohl) provide unique insight that can address some of the current challenges and open questions of life course research. This is because the sequential analysis of autobiographical narrative interviews makes it possible to distinguish between reported and experienced life history and to reconstruct tacit knowledge and action orientations, which are partly unconscious. In particular, autobiographical extempore narrations offer unique avenues to understanding biographical decision-making and the layers of biographical experiences and planning, to investigating the question of how individuals link different spheres of life, and to exploring different types of agency and thus driving forces of a person's life course. To illustrate the potential of these methods, data from a project on modes of living in the German middle class are presented that illuminate biographical decision-making in the transition to the labor market.