Organizational Dilemmas Research Articles

Knowledge creation in Japan: towards bridging productive communities

This paper captures the consolidation of the growing field of knowledge management in Japan and the West by bibliometric analyses, showing the importance of knowledge creation theory as a holistic view for overcoming the organisational dilemma of how to create knowledge and exploit it at the same time. Inductively developing the concepts of common ground and complementary specialisation, the paper shows similarities and differences between productive research communities in Japan and the West. Deeply rooted in epistemological traditions, the complementary specialisation in research activities offers opportunities through better integration of productive communities and dynamic knowledge creation.

Organizational Dilemmas in Voluntary Associations

Robert Michels stated that all democratic organizations sooner or later end up as ruled by the few. But are there certain dilemmas forcing organizations more or less easily into the oligarchic path? In the interview material from six small voluntary associations such dilemmas were identified. Dilemmas seemed to arise regarding representativeness and competence among leaders, handling of external forces, interpretation of goals, and maintaining commitment. Some of the dilemmas were implicit, some were more explicitly acknowledged. It is concluded that the “iron law of oligarchy” is avoidable, if the organization becomes aware of these dilemmas.

Organizational and Structural Dilemmas in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

Organizational and Structural Dilemmas in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

Strengthening the Health Claims of the Poor: Promoting Social Inclusion and Redistribution in the Health Sector

The problems for poor people generated by ‘disorganised health care markets’ in the developing world have grave consequences for their health. In many countries, processes of liberalisation and commercialisation have generated a number of dilemmas for policy-makers, non-governmental organisations and individuals seeking health care. Complex markets for health care provision and financing exist, regulation is lacking and rates of exclusion are high due to the effects of prices and a lack of concerted efforts to make health systems more accessible to the poor. Analysis of health systems and the problems they create for the poor should lead to responses that protect and enhance the rights of poor people to health.

Coalition Building in Direct Democracy Campaigns

Common to many social movement studies is the argument that ideological heterogeneity causes organizational dilemmas. Yet, few scholars consider, let alone test, the impact of ideological heterogeneity on direct democracy campaigns (DDCs). Drawing from the extant social movements literature, I argue that DDCs function like short-term social movements. Based on in-depth interviews of initiative activists, and in some cases participant-observation opportunities, I conclude that ideological heterogeneity is also a contributing cause of DDC failure. Ideological heterogeneity within DDCs either results in factionalism that wastes time and resources, or the development of homogeneous groups that pursue policies unacceptable to the median voter. I also conclude that ideological heterogeneity is more destructive to DDCs than social movements. Whereas social movements can adapt over time, DDCs must achieve a singular electoral victory, within a specific electoral cycle, in order to succeed. Therefore, time constraints make factionalism more problematic for DDCs.

Cognitive practices and collective identities within a heterogeneous social movement: the Swedish environmental movement

Recent studies on social movements have highlighted the importance of cultural and ideational factors. Concepts such as collective identity, cognitive praxis, and framing have been used to better understand the emergence, development, and political and cultural impact of social movements. In this article I draw on different schools of thought in order to develop a new use of the concept of cognitive practice. I suggest the relevance of analysing collective identities and cognitive practices at the organizational level (which does not, per se, exclude analysis at other levels). This emphasis also leads to a perspective that suggest a relational and interaction‐oriented way in which to understand how movement organizations try to influence other actors through their cognitive practices. This kind of analysis helps to question the implicit notion of unity in the concept of social movement. The analytical focal points are also useful for discussing possibilities and dilemmas for movement organizations with regard to aspects such as how frames become effective and make frame resonance possible; how compromises and delimitations are built into frames; and how cognitive autonomy may be decreased or preserved. The empirical focus in this article is the Swedish environmental movement, and the identities and cognitive practices of some its organizations in the 1990s. I also discuss the relevance of my findings for the study of movement organizations within other fields.

The Provocations of Amnesty: Memory, Justice and Impunity

Prosecutions, amnesty and nation-building: Debating the questions of amnesty - a symposium convened in Cape Town, 4 October 2001 introductory remarks why prosecutions are necessary the Case for a general amnesty prosecutorial discretion four sayings and a denouement responding to the symposium - the legacy of the TRC Dumisa ntsebeza - revisiting the TRC's assumptions about racial healing. Can amnesty be reconciled with justice? restorative justice - ambiguities and limitations of a theory alternatives to revenge - building a vocabulary of reconciliation through political pardon truth commissions and judicial trials - complementary or antagonistic servants of public justice? amnesty and international law. the concept, context and controversy of Public Amnesty the choice for amnesty - did political Necessity Trump Moral Duty? easy to forget or never (Again) hard to remember? History, Memory and the 'Publicity' of Amnesty amnesty from an african point of view South Africa's amnesty revisited. amnesty at the TRC - organisational dilemmas, critical assessments an overview of the TRC amnesty process truth, evidence, and history - a critical review of aspects of the amnesty process degrees of truth - amnesty and limitations in the truth recovery project. After amnesty: Imperatives, applications, and uncertainty to prosecute or not to prosecute? constitutional and legal issues concerning criminal trials a second bite at the amnesty cherry? constitutional and policy issues around legislation for a Second amnesty the presidential pardons and the media - healing a wound with salt apartheid's victims in the Midst of Amnesty's promise truth without reconciliation, reconciliation without truth.

Changing Times: Changing Challenges for Early Childhood Leaders

The diversity and complexity of change within school management practices, over the past decade, have meant changing roles for school leaders, teachers and their communities. Early childhood leaders in school settings have not been exempt from the impact of these changes as they have striven to accommodate rapid social and educational challenges within their leadership role. This article reports on a survey undertaken with Tasmanian early childhood teachers and leaders to investigate the nature and diversity of challenges faced by leaders with responsibilities in Kindergarten to Grade 2 leadership. Analysis of the data, concerning the most challenging aspects of early childhood leadership, revealed that both teachers and leaders perceived there were significant, diverse and complex educational changes being faced by leaders. Also, there were pressing organisational dilemmas associated with time available for teaching and leading. Further, teachers perceived there were key challenges inherent in the area of leaders' knowledge and relationships which were impacting negatively on the leadership provision in schools

Promises and Dilemmas of Participation: Action Research, Search Conference Methodology, and Community Development

Participatory approaches currently occupy a prominent position in community development practice. However, despite the claims made for the benefits of participation for community members and practitioners alike, critical reflections on how participatory approaches shape the longer-term processes of community development have been relatively few. This scarcity ultimately results in a shortage of knowledge about the best practices and potential pitfalls of these approaches. This paper attempts to fill this gap through a case study assessment of two socially and organizationally distinct communities and their use of Action Research (AR) strategies, including the Search Conference, as participatory-based approaches to community strategic planning and action. We find that while Search Conferences and AR strategies effectively identified important community issues and provided an initial catalyst for community action, each case also illustrates how organizational dilemmas and pre-existing local power structures challenge some of the basic assumptions of participation. The implications for community development practice are discussed.

Hegemonic Power Processes in Team‐based Work

Cet article a pour objectif de montrer que les “processus de pouvoir hégémonique” implicites ont des retombées sur le traitement des problèmes organisationnels par les èquipes autonomes. Les processus de pouvoir hégémonique dans le travail d’équipe sont des processus en grande partie occultes de construction de l’identité et d’élaboration du sens. Ces processus incitent les membres de l’équipe à se soumettre an point de vue organisationnel dominant. Ils poussent aussi les membres de l’équipe à adopter certaines pratiques organisationnelles en dépit des inconvénients que ces pratiques peuvent présenter pour le groupe. Lors du processus de construction de l’identité et d’élaboration du sens, certaines représentations de la réalité et des attitudes spécifiques sont imposées, alors que les représentations et attitudes alternatives sont rejetées par l’organisation (Mumby & Stohl, 1991). Notre conception de ces processus est illustrée par l’analyse d’une décision prise par une équipe de soins d’un hôpital de proximité confrontée à un problème de pénurie de personnel.The purpose of this paper is to portray how implicit “hegemonic power processes” channel the way in which self‐managing teams deal with organisational dilemmas. Hegemonic power processes in team‐based work are, to a great extent concealed, processes of meaning and identity formation. These processes induce the team members to consent to the dominant organisational views. They also impel the team members to accept their insertion into organisational practices, despite the possible disadvantages these practices might pose for the team. During processes of meaning and identity formation, certain conceptions of reality and particular employee attitudes are “organised in”, while alternative conceptions and attitudes are “organised out” (Mumby & Stohl, 1991). We illustrate our elaboration of these processes by analysing a decision making process, which a nursing team in a local hospital has employed, when dealing with problems of understaffing.

Sistemas nacionais de inteligência: origens, lógica de expansão e configuração atual

This article analyzes the formation of national intelligence systems in the modern state and the basic causes of institutional differences even among countries from the same constitutional tradition, like the United Kingdom and the United States. Considering intelligence systems as a sort of bureaucracy typically associated with the state's coercive core, one can trace their origins to three different historical matrices: 16th and 17th century European diplomacy, the Napoleonic form of war management at the turn from the 18th to the 19th century, and 19th and 20th century counterrevolutionary political policing. Following a logic of expansion and functional differentiation that is simultaneously horizontal and vertical, current national intelligence systems display great organizational complexity and dilemmas in their institutionalization which provide good examples of the virtual impossibility of complete democratization of the state in the contemporary world.

Bringing One’s Self to Work

This article explores the advisability of bringing more of our “selves” to work organizations, especially our identity group memberships (e. g., ethnicity, race, gender, national origin). The question of how “whole” organizational members should be in their work roles poses a number of dilemmas both for individuals and organizations. What are the advantages and disadvantages of bringing one’s ethnicity to work? What are the costs and benefits of trying to keep such identity characteristics out? The author uses himself as a case study, examining his struggle to bring his Jewish identity into his work life. The article concludes that on balance, bringing more of our selves to work can enhance both individual and organizational vitality but that certain conditions are necessary for this to occur.

Going Public: The Organizational Restructuring of German Football Clubs

This article argues that the organizational structure of companies and professional sports clubs are becoming increasingly similar through a convergence of 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' decision-making structures. This convergence helps soccer clubs to overcome the dilemma of having to balance members' interests with achieving the aims of the organization. Companies have developed this convergence because they have recognized the importance of employee commitment in achieving their aims. Three patterns of overcoming this organizational dilemma are discussed and illustrated by case studies from the German Bundesliga.

Organisational dilemmas and workplace solutions

Organisations face unprecedented pressures to do more, and better, with less. To prosper, organisations must reduce capital and operating costs and increase flexibility and adaptability, while creating a workplace that helps attract and retain the highest quality of staff and enables them to work to their fullest potential. This paper reports on a recent study of how different types of office solutions, from closed offices and cubicles to team‐oriented bullpens, influence communication patterns, and how these, in turn, affect work effectiveness factors such as decision speed, organisational learning and the building of trust. The findings suggest that, contrary to conventional wisdom, more open team‐oriented environments support work effectiveness of individuals and teams better than do more closed environments such as cubicles. They do this while reducing cost and increasing flexibility. Implications for office planning and design are discussed.

Gender‐based learning dilemmas in organizations

Raises questions about the links between gender and organizational changes, and between gender and learning at work. The empirical base is a qualitative study of organizational changes in the pulp and paper industry, electronics industry, food industry, and laundry industry in Sweden during the late 1990s. In the studied companies, restoration responses in the work organizations brought the organization back its original form and function. Shows that gender exerts an influence on the existing work organization and on the organizational change. The learning organization, with its focus on integration and decentralization, challenges gender order, which is a strong system, built on segregation and hierarchy. Concludes that gender segregating and stereotypic gender‐coding of workplaces and work tasks were strong restoring mechanisms and obstacles to strategic organizational changes, and to individual and to organizational learning.

Trade unions, immigration, and immigrants in Europe, 1960-1993: a comparative study of the attitudes and actions of trade unions in seven west European countries

Chapter 1. Trapped in the Consociational Cage: Trade Unions and Immigration in Switzerland Chapter 2. The Federal Republic of Germany: Ambivalent Promotion of Immigrants' Interests Chapter 3. Austria: Protecting Indigenous Workers from Immigrants Chapter 4. Dutch Trade Unions, Immigrants and Immigration: Myopic Politics of Equality Chapter 5. Trade Unions and Immigrants in France: From Assimilation to Antiracist Chapter 6. Networking British Unions and Racism: Organisational Dilemmas in an Unsympathetic Climate Chapter 7. Sweden: Insiders outside the Trade-Union Mainstream

Managers at Work: Manage Polarities Before They Manage You

As product lifecycles shorten, functional groups must build seamless relationships to prevent schedule slips and rework. The pharmaceutical industry is a good example of this trend. Hoping to produce five or six new chemical entities per year--and aiming for blockbusters--pharmaceutical executives and professionals face the daunting dilemma of managing how scarce resources, people and time are allocated across projects. This article, based on field research in a biotechnology company, argues that good project managers are able to manage six polarities, which are intrinsic to their work. They must 1) take account of the big picture of the project versus pay attention to the details; 2) help team members advance a project versus help team members shut down a project; 3) play a supporting role to enable the project leader to lead versus provide project leadership; 4) be responsible for the outcome of a particular project versus be responsible for the outcome of the company's of projects; 5) Get resources for the team from the functional groups versus protect the functional groups from excessive demands on their time, attention and resources; and 6) focus on the project versus focus on the context for the project. I conclude with three suggestions for how project managers can acquire these skills. The Polarities Framework Barry Johnson has argued that most organizational dilemmas confront us with polarities that we must manage rather than resolve once and for all (1). For example, the skilled manager of a team is aware that she must constantly tack back and forth between focusing on the team's performance as a whole and on each individual team member's performance. Were she to focus on one to the exclusion of the other, we would surmise that she was not as effective as she could be. Similarly, a physician is required to give his or her patients undivided attention. Yet physicians are constantly allocating their attention and resources across their portfolio of patients, deciding which needs more or less attention at any given moment. How do they manage this seemingly contradictory task? How do they balance focusing on the individual patient while focusing on their of patients? Typically, experts become more proficient when they develop a rich set of of based on their experience of managing this dilemma effectively. As Gary Klein has emphasized, these rules of thumb are not so much formal decision rules as they are guidelines to help the expert recognize a particular pattern or configuration of constraints, opportunities and resources (2). For example, a patient facing an immediate life or death situation will get the physician's immediate attention, while other patients may receive painkillers to minimize their suffering as they wait for the physician's diagnosis. The effective physician knows how to use a set of tactics, administering painkillers versus doing emergency surgery, to optimize the well-being of his portfolio of patients. Following Barry Johnson, I call the process of exercising this skill, management. The concept of polarity management is often explicated in the form of a 2 x 2 table, where each dimension of the polarity is categorized into its hi or lo state. The box Hi-Hi (Table 1) represents the most expert exercise of the skill under consideration. Table 1.--Four Dimensions of Polarity Pay Attention to Individual Patients Pay Lo Hi Attention to Hi May neglect the Balances Portfolio short-term management of Patients needs of with individual patients he/she attention cannot attend to (Expert) (e.g., pain management) Lo Poor physician Does not manage practice the caseload (Novice) of patients well The Six Polarities I suggest that project managers in pharmaceutical firms (and any firm in which development projects are the lifeblood) are expected to manage the six polarities discussed below. …

Organizational dilemmas for analytical labs in industrial R&D

More than ever, analytical research labs operating in an industrial environment need to be focused on the business. A number of recommendations for organizational change are given.

(2) The NHS Plan: Maintaining the Human Touch

Although the NHS Plan stopped short of forced mergers of local authority social services departments with NHS bodies, it may nevertheless lead to a form of amalgamation by stealth. Irrespective of the organisational dilemmas this raises, this paper emphasises the need to retain a central focus on the experience of users.

The Field System Eco-Map

Rapid changes in social services have altered the organizational context of student practicum experiences. Field experiences have become increasingly complex, requiring that students demonstrate independent practice skills earlier in practicum than was required previously. As a result students need a tool to assist them in understanding the complexities of agency-based practice. The Field System Eco-map, an extension of the traditional eco-map, was developed to help students create a schema for organizing practicum experiences. Additionally the Eco-map can be used to assist students in developing strategies for independent, constructive problem solving in the face of baffling organizational systems and practicum dilemmas.