Showing papers in "Journal of Management Inquiry in 2000"

The Organizational Learning of Safety in Communities of Practice

Abstract: n the past 10 years or so, the issues of safetyand reliability in organizations have beenmoving to the center of scientific and manage-rial interest, not only because of their public impor-tance, but also because of the increasing emphasisplaced on making firms responsible for protecting thehealth of workers and the environment. On one hand,the scientific debate stresses that ours is a risk society(Beck, 1992); on the other, that human and organiza-tional factors are at the origin of industrial disasters(Gephart & Pitter, 1993; Perrow, 1984; Sagan, 1993;Turner & Pidgeon, 1997). In organization studies, thishas given rise to a new area of inquiry that, followingsuch major industrial disasters as Seveso, Three MilesIsland,Challenger,andExxonValdez,investigatesthefactors and conditions that determine the reliabilityand safety of organizations both internally and vis-a-vis their socioenvironmental context. “From risk tosafety” might be the distinctive slogan of the culturalmovement now underway: from the study of risk asan objective factor inherent in risk conditions, to thesocial production of safety conditions sustained by acultureofsafety(Gherardi,Nicolini,&Odella,1997a).Traditional approaches to safety, as regards to bothindustrial disasters and workplace accidents, con-sider it to be a property of technical systems that is ob-jectified in “safe” technologies and artifacts. We maycall this the “technical route to safety.” This is sup-ported by the normative route that views safety as theoutcome of the application of rules and regulationsthat prescribe “safe” individual and collective behav-iors. Although one should certainly not underesti-matetheimportanceofsafety-embodyingtechnologi-cal artifacts, or of the social and organizationalproduction of norms that impose safe working condi-tions, technological and bureaucratic safety cultures

Songs of Ourselves Employees’ Deployment of Social Identity in Workplace Encounters

Abstract: Research on diversity in the workplace considers the conditions for creating a safe, equitable, and welcoming work environment. Inclusivity is a challenge when visible social identities trigger potentially judgmental and divisive reactions (e.g., Wharton, 1992). A distinct set of challenges arises when employees bring invisible, marginalized, or even stigmatized aspects of their identities into the workplace. Making a social identity visible not only sets the stage for others’ reactions, whether positive, negative, or mixed, it also lays the groundwork for social changes that may reduce the stigma and costs of the social identity. In this article, we investigate the deployment of social identity in the interest of organizational change, extending a concept used by Bernstein (1997) to describe the faceto-face lobbying practices of gays and lesbians in state and local political campaigns for nondiscrimination legislation. We also extend the concept of encounters, through which individuals who identify with a category engage in some self-conscious and intentional performances that announce and enact who they are (Goffman, 1969). This concept has been elaborated for understanding the micromobilizing moments of social movements in broader societal contexts (W. A. Gamson, Fireman, & Rytina, 1982). We examine how employees deploy their social identity in the workplace in ways that they hope will advance social

Changing Others through Changing Ourselves The Transformation of Human Systems

Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Still Servants of Power

Abstract: Baritz’s historical analysis demonstrated that in the first half of the 20th century, groups of social scientists in the service of management emerged, with their offerings being received warmly in general. The author’s reactions to an initial reading of Baritz’s story in the 1970s and a recent reading in the 1990s are presented. The principal intent of doing so is to stimulate other management researchers to question who they should serve.

Cultural Knowing As Practicing Extending Our Conceptions of Culture

Abstract: A program of research designed to provide understanding of effective cross-cultural interaction in international joint ventures led to anomalous findings. Through a grounded theory process, conside...

De/Constructing Theory A Look at the Institutional Theory that Positivism Built

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to understand and illustrate how the development of theories is influenced in part through dominant paradigms, in part through citation patterns, and in part through ...

Dark Shadows from The Bridges of Madison County Thoughts on Becoming a Technologically Correct Manager

Abstract: Kurt Lewin (1951) noted that it is useful to view any given situation as a “quasi-stationary process.” By this statement, he meant that this statement could interpret any given situation interpreted as the equilibrium of a variety of forces. This equilibrium is short-lived, however, as the forces acting on the equilibrium are dynamic. He stated, “Some forces support each other, some oppose each other. Some are driving forces, others restraining forces” (p. 173). Thus, any effort to study change in organizational environments should begin with a careful analysis of the “constellation of forces” (p. 174) acting on the situation, including both its “psychological and non-psychological aspects” (p. 174). This article is concerned with one particular restraining force—the conservation of technologies. To put it differently, how is it possible for technologies to be conserved in the hyper-technological 1990s? Furthermore, what are the strategic implications of such resistance to technological innovation? This article will seek to answer these two questions by carefully examining the socioeconomic roots of the conservation of technologies. In particular, the popular book and film The Bridges of Madison County (Waller, 1992) will be used as a lens through which the propensity to conserve technologies is examined. Although it is somewhat nontraditional to examine the organizational implications of a popular book, it is not without recent precedent (Weick, 1996).