Management Logic Research Articles

Nurses’ sensemaking of contradicting logics: An underexplored aspect of organisational work in nursing homes

Organisational work, understood as the practices by which care services are organised, is often referred to as the glue in healthcare organisations. In response to healthcare reforms, organisational work in Norwegian nursing homes has undergone extensive changes. With increased standardisation and efficiency demands, new managerial logic often stands in stark contrast to traditional professional logic. Although organisational work is essential for all action in care, there is a lack of research on how contradicting logics influence organisational work in nursing homes. In this study, we combine the institutional logic perspective with sensemaking to demonstrate how nurses create new patterns and routines in organisational work. Our analysis indicates that contradicting logics create incongruous events that nurses attempt to clarify through sensemaking. To illustrate nurses’ sensemaking, we rely on new theoretical developments from the institutional logic perspective. The study contributes with a new understanding of nurses’ organisational work in nursing homes. In addition, by combining the institutional logic perspective with sensemaking, the study adds to previous knowledge in the institutional literature by demonstrating how sensemaking enables contradicting logics to co-exist.

Anticipatory States: Tsunami, War, and Insecurity in Sri Lanka

In 2004, a tsunami caused unprecedented damage and destruction in the Indian Ocean region. For Sri Lanka, the second-most affected country, with over thirty-thousand deaths and five-hundred-thousand displaced, the tsunami resulted in the introduction of new disaster management institutions, logics, and technologies. The formation and implementation of these new institutions, logics, and technologies must be understood alongside a human-made disaster: the decades-long civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the militant insurgent group of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). I outline the ways that the tsunami opened the door for national and social restructuring in Sri Lanka: the devastation of the tsunami and the logics of disaster risk management that followed it offered a political opening for new techniques of state power and projects of nation-building—a process I call disaster nationalism. This governmentality of disaster risk management plays out through an anticipation of disasters, in which disasters, both natural and human-made, are ever-possible future threats that justify ongoing practices and technologies of securitization. Yet state attempts to control the future remain in constant tension with the attitudes and opinions of people who have been affected by both the tsunami and war. These collective relations, practices, and structures of feelings are what I refer to as anticipatory states. From the calculative risk management projects of the Sri Lankan state to the everyday state of being ready and aware in the spaces of disaster, anticipation weaves into and out of experiences and encounters, its different forms and possibilities shaped by complexly layered histories and landscapes of disaster and violence, and, even, forces beyond the control of the anticipatory state.

Managing Knowledge Integration: Balancing Professional and Managerial Logics in an Engineering Consulting firm

Integrating professional expertise in professional service firms (PSFs) is a key strategic challenge in the contemporary economy and individual firms. Previous research has pointed out that the governance of key aspects of PSFs, including knowledge integration, is shifting from a professional to a managerial logic, a shift that is often pictured as conflict laden based on the incompatibility of the two logics. Based on a study of knowledge integration in an engineering consulting firm, the current paper shows how managerial and professional logics interplay in shaping knowledge integration practices. We identify both aspects in which the logics reinforce each other in enabling knowledge integration and tensions that threaten knowledge integration. We conclude that the professional logic is a key driver of knowledge integration, but that the managerial logic, including its formal HR practices, may support knowledge integration through secondary effects if applied in a thoughtful way.

An Intelligent Trading System with Fuzzy Rules and Fuzzy Capital Management

In this work, we are proposing a trading system where fuzzy logic is applied not only for defining the trading rules, but also for managing the capital to invest. In fact, two fuzzy decision support systems are developed. The first one uses fuzzy logic to design the trading rules and to apply the stock market technical indicators. The second one enhances this fuzzy trading system adding a fuzzy strategy to manage the capital to trade. Additionally, a new technical market indicator that produces short and long entry signals is introduced. It is based on the moving average convergence divergence indicator. Its parameters have been optimized by genetic algorithms. The proposals are compared to a classical nonfuzzy version of the proposed trading systems and to the buy-and-hold strategy. Results favor our fuzzy trading system in the two markets considered, NASDAQ100 and EUROSTOXX. Conclusions suggest that the use of fuzzy logic for capital management is promising and deserves further exploration.

Making Sense of Student Performance Data

In the accountability era, educators are pressed to use evidence-based practice. In this comparative case study, we examine the learning opportunities afforded by teachers’ data use conversations. Using situated discourse analysis, we compare two middle school mathematics teacher workgroups interpreting data from the same district assessment. Despite similarities in their contexts, the workgroups invoked different data use logics that shaped teachers’ learning opportunities. The first workgroup’s instructional management logic linked increasing student achievement to individualization. The second workgroup’s instructional improvement logic focused on students’ thinking and linked it to instructional changes but was limited by broader instructional management logics. Evidence-based practice cannot be understood apart from the data use logics in teachers’ communities, which are shaped by policy constraints.

Methodological Approaches to the Management of Innovative Development of an Enterprise

This article deals with the approaches to implementation of the strategy of management of innovative development of an industrial enterprise. Application of the existing approaches to innovative development of industrial enterprises has allowed to consider the innovative activity as a whole and to single out the main elements and their relationships. The author has proposed the concept of management of innovative development of an enterprise based on the logic of qualitative management. This concept allows ensuring control over processes and improving their reliability and predictability.

“Expect the unexpected”

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse event management by using three value creation logics, value chain, value network and value shop. In event management, value is generated through intermediation where the dominant creation logic is a value network. However, the complexity of events and danger of unexpected problems is increasing, which, in the worst case, leads to event failure. This fact makes it necessary to change the general attitude towards this topic from risk management to uncertainty management and use the value shop in order to solve problems efficiently.Design/methodology/approach– This paper is based on the methodology of phenomenological hermeneutics which analyzes the object of study by interpreting the facticity and provides basics to generate a conceptual model.Findings– The dominant value creation logic must be changed to prevent the value network from failure in generating value, since only the value shop provides high quality problem solving. Trust not only in planning but also in the own problem-solving competence and available tools is a major part of the value shop. As a practical example of high quality problem solving, the performance of high reliability organisations can be used by event managers.Research limitations/implications– Using these hermeneutical gained logic, additional empirical research projects in event management, leadership and problem-solving competence of top managers, are promptly intended. Additionally, studies concerning competences and structures of the uncertainty management team have to be determined and developed as well as education and coaching has to be generated in order to achieve best results in problem solving.Practical implications– Practical implications of this paper are: considering the value shop as the dominant value creation logic in uncertainty management; establishing a specially trained Complex Problem-Solving Team; and considering trust to be an essential element of the value shop.Social implications– The basic job requirements a successful value net (event-) manager has to provide in such a complex system are: acting as integrator, mediator and problem solver simultaneously. Additionally event managers need to be trained to rethink the value creation logic and use the value shop within the value net to stay flexible and work successfully during their events.Originality/value– Derived from this new perspective the necessity of enhancing the implemented value creation logic according to uncertainties allows event managers to solve unexpected problems faster and more efficiently.

Do task- and relation-oriented customers co-create a better quality of service?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how task- and relation-oriented customers co-create high quality services with frontline employees from the perspective of customer-dominant (C-D) logic. Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed the service management literature and identified a number of critical components that help service providers understand the psychology and behaviour of their customers, and how their customers perceive service encounters. The authors tested the theoretical model using a random survey sample of 707 consumers in Hong Kong. Findings – The authors found that information sharing fully mediated the interactive effects of customer involvement and customer motivational orientation on customer perceived service quality and customer satisfaction. These findings support the C-D logic that customers as co-creators of value play a dominant role in service encounters. Research limitations/implications – The authors contribute to the existing management literature by identifying the importance of the C-D logic for service delivery and management. In particular, the involvement of customers with different motivational orientations through information sharing significantly affects customers’ perceived service quality and satisfaction. Originality/value – The paper enhances the understanding of customer’s logic by exploring the conditions and process between customer involvement and service delivery. Further directions for theoretical and empirical research are suggested.

Public Policy and the Administrative Government of Unlawful Detention: The Landmark Case of Lumba and Mighty

This article critically analyses the landmark case of wl (Congo) 1 & 2 v. sshd; km (Jamaica) v. sshd [2011] uksc 12 (Lumba and Mighty) which examined whether certain breaches of public policy and law were capable of rendering unlawful the detention of foreign national prisoners pending their deportation under the Immigration Act 1971. The liability finding in this case is a welcome reminder of the critical role that the Courts can play in this field of litigation as well as the great difficulty within which they are placed. Yet the award of nominal damages not only dilutes the significance of the nature of liberty as a fundamental right, but forces the Court into having to read down its role along the lines of a managerial logic of immigration control which has increasingly displaced a principled approach to immigration law and policy.

MANAGING INSTITUTIONAL COMPLEXITY IN PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM: HYBRIDIZATION IN FRONT‐LINE SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

ABSTRACTIn this article, we explore how public front‐line service organizations respond to contradictory demands for institutional reform and the types of hybridization this entails. Our research context is a major administrative welfare reform in Norway characterized by a dominant New Public Management (NPM) logic of uniform user service and central administrative control, and a subordinate post‐NPM logic of holistic user service and local organizational autonomy. We elucidate four types of responses by the front‐line organizations as they have incorporated these contradictory demands: ‘non‐hybridity’ (ignoring post‐NPM demands), ‘ad hoc hybridity’ (indecisive adherence to both demands), ‘negative hybridity’ (separation of the demands), and ‘positive hybridity’ (integration of both demands). On the basis of these findings, we argue that hybridization and agency are possible in fields of public reform characterized by a highly institutionalized NPM logic and explore the key organizational characteristics that facilitate hybridization in such fields.

Coping with contradictions: hybrid professionals managing institutional complexity

This article deals with how organizations cope with institutional complexity. By applying theories of translation, we follow the lead of those arguing that attention has to be given to the microprocesses of institutional complexity. Thus far, empirical studies focusing on such processes have been rare. Among those studies undertaken, analyses of structures and practices have dominated while analyses of the interpretations and construction of meaning of involved actors have been neglected. We thus undertook an empirical study of the introduction of a national report on quality comparisons in health care. This report contained four conflicting institutional logics—a democratic logic, a professional logic, a managerial logic, and a market logic. We investigated the conflicts between these logics and how the conflicts were managed. The findings of the study contribute to institutional theory by suggesting that a new type of soft actor—the hybrid professional—is likely to be influential in organizations characterized by institutional complexity. The reason for this is found in the character and work of the hybrid professionals, where an important part of their work was to construct problems and solutions that aligned with all the logics at play.

Commodifying Global Justice: Economies of Accountability at the International Criminal Court

The field of international criminal law operates on multiple overlapping registers, including the ideological, the economic and the political. As part of a symposium exploring the claim that international criminal law constitutes a form of ‘global justice’, this article takes up the relationship between the political interests and material conditions of possibility that inform and sustain the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC). As the field’s sole permanent institution, the ICC relies upon annual funding from its member states, producing a shareholder economy that draws upon managerial logics and reflects the interests of its constituency. This article considers the implications of regarding states as ‘shareholders’ of global justice, as well as the effects of the ICC’s ethos of austerity at the level of practice. It argues that international criminal law risks diminishing its value as a public good through turning to the logics of the private realm.

From Metrics to Knowledge? Quality Assessment in Higher Education

AbstractThe qualification frameworks in higher education organizations have initiated standardization across countries. These reform initiatives build on managerial logics from the business world, which create dilemmas as academic institutions have been governed by professional academic logics. Institutions have thus moved from homogeneity towards heterogeneity and multiple institutional logics. How has the concept of students’ learning outcomes been turned into practice? The study is based on the construction of the Norwegian Quality Assessment System and the Swedish development of the External Program Quality Model. These systems are not addressing the students’ learning outcomes, but focus on input and processes. Further, discursive processes enhance multiple logics in the institutions.

Value and meaning: Paradoxes of religious diversity talk as globalized expertise

Based on linguistic anthropological research conducted among British interfaith dialogue advocates, this article analyzes the changing value of “diversity talk” in the UK, highlighting new understandings of global religion as a source of communication anxiety. Paradoxically, British interfaith dialogue advocates promote Taylorist linguistic prescriptions for religious diversity management across the globe, yet flout the social stratification inherent in managerial logic. I analyze these globally shared techniques, revealing advocates' desire to upscale linguistic prescriptions from the vertical authority of clergy, local and state politicians to what they see as the highest scale: the global ecumene.

Coming Up Short: Knowledge Limits and the Decomposition of the Professional Managerial Class

The failures of knowledge to assure a desired outcome, and the gains made by those who bet against it, point to a larger paradox. The rise of the professional managerial class whose specialized expertise would reign in a knowledge society has continued apace yet seen their autonomy wither and mastery fade. The formation and decomposition of this now prevailing class entwines the fate of those engaged in financial services and academic labor, where knowledge was to be formulated, instructed and applied. The question of this larger entanglement, the interdependencies and principles of association that would give the notion of class substantive meaning point to a circumstance in which knowledge cannot rule itself and the collision of knowledge claims creates a generalized condition of volatility that both disperses and binds diverse kinds of human agency. Hence, rather than treating crisis as a momentary break-down in the normal state of affairs, the antinomies of the financial logics of risk management, derivatives and securitization disclose a critical turn in the course of our social surround, the terms in which it might be evaluated, and the sense of time and space through which its changes are negotiated and contested.

Perceptions of trust in physician-managers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dual role of physician-managers through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The healthcare sector needs physicians to lead. Physicians in part-time managerial positions who continue their medical practice are called part-time physician-managers. This paper explores this dual role through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The study takes a qualitative research approach in which interviews and focus group discussions with physician-managers and nurse-managers provide the empirical data. An analytical model, with the three elements of ability, benevolence and integrity, was used in the analysis of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The respondents (physician-managers and nurse-managers) perceived both an increase and a decrease in physicians' trust in the physician-managers. Because elements of distrust were more numerous and more severe than elements of trust, the physician-managers received negative perceptions of their role. This paper's findings are based on perceptions of perceptions. The physicians were not interviewed on their trust and distrust of physician-managers. The healthcare sector must pay attention to the diverse expectations of the physician-manager role that is based on both managerial and medical logics. Hospital management should provide proper support to physician-managers in their dual role to ensure their willingness to continue to assume managerial responsibilities. The paper takes an original approach in its research into the dual role of physician-managers who work under two conflicting logics: the medical logic and the managerial logic. The focus on perceived trust and distrust in physician-managers is a new perspective on this complicated role.

Logic and probabilistic risk models for management of innovations system of country

In the present paper, we discuss a strategy of the country development, combining the management of the innovations system and the creation of logical probabilistic (LP) risk models in socio-economic systems. The aim of the strategy is to reduce the losses from corruption and drug addiction and increase the profits from socio-economic systems. The global innovations index is analysed and its methodological drawbacks are revealed. The logical probabilistic innovative index is developed (LP-model) and its advantages are described. The development of the innovative technology of risk management in structurally complex systems is analysed. We have developed the hybrid LP-model of the success of solving the innovation problem in which the subjects-events are represented by the state, business, banks, scholars and public opinion. We have also developed the indicative LP-model of the failure risk of the innovations system of the country. We have demonstrated that for the innovations to appear we have to carry out a structural reform of education, science and economy of Russia. It has been proved that it is impossible to solve the difficult socio-economic problems of Russia without the involvement of scholars and public opinion.

The Logic of Long-Term Management by Family Manager

The Logic of Long-Term Management by Family Manager

Managerial cognition and dominant logic in innovation management: empirical study in media industry

Increasing number of innovation and organisational researchers have suggested more emphasis on socio-psychological aspects of innovation and management processes such as managerial attitudes and beliefs, sense-making capabilities, and individual and shared representations affecting organisational management processes. Researchers have become increasingly interested in cognitive drivers of innovation management. It has argued that innovation is a socio-cognitive process involving social as well as cognitive aspects, including an interactive motivated social context (e.g., firm) and representations of knowledge of external reality (i.e., shared cognitions). Shared cognitive maps of the management store the dominant logic of the firm that channels attention to organisational activities, e.g., innovation activities, and shape the strategy of the firm. The main argument of the study is that the dominant logic and innovation activities do not have a direct independent impact on business performance, but their interaction has. The problem is approached by taking the relationship between the firm's dominant logic and innovation activities and further effects on innovation outcomes under scrutiny among the media industry firms.

APPLYING CFMAE METHOD TO BUILD A SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN HO CHI MINH CITY

The paper provides an application which is a combination between decision making technique and fuzzy logic to build a supply chain performance measurement system in textile industry in Ho Chi Minh City. The methodology is a combination of theoretical analysis, Delphi quantitative method and Combined Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Evaluation (CFMAE) method. First of all, based on theories on textile supply chain, we developed a hierarchical system for performance measurement. After three Delphi rounds to seek opinions of experts on the system, the CFMAE which consists of two phases (fuzzy integral and fuzzy analysis hierarchy process – FAHP) was conducted to build a supply chain performance measurement system in textile industry with general attributes. The study has constructed a supply chain performance measurement system in textile industry in Ho Chi Minh City with suitable attributes. The weight of attributes is determined as a general viewpoint of the industry of the importance of the attributes to the supply chain performance. In terms of practicality, this paper provides an approach in the performance measurement for the textile supply chain that serves as a framework for a centralized and effective improvement. The scientific meaning of this paper is the application of the fuzzy logic in economics and management to eliminate the subjectivity in the decision making process.