Showing papers on "Surprise published in 1980"

Surprise and sense making: what newcomers experience in entering unfamiliar organizational settings.

Abstract: Growing disillusionment among new members of organizations has been traced to inadequacies in approaches to organizational entry. Current directions of research on organizational entry and their limitations are described, and a new perspective is proposed. The new perspective identifies key features of newcomers' entry experiences, including surprise, contrast, and change, and describes the sense-making processes by which individuals cope with their entry experiences. Implications for research and practice on organizational entry are drawn.

Surprise despite warning: Why sudden attacks succeed

Abstract: Most major wars since 1939 have begun with surprise attacks. Hindsight reveals that the element of surprise in most of these attacks was unwarranted; substantial evidence of an impending strike was available to the victims before the fact. The high incidence of surprise is itself surprising. The voluminous literature on strategic surprise, however, suffers from three fixations. One is a focus on the problem of warning, and how to improve intelligence collection, rather than on the more difficult problem of how to improve political response to ample warning indicators. Another is a common view of surprise as an absolute or dichotomous problem rather than as a matter of degree. Third is the prevalent derivation of theories from single cases rather than from comparative studies. This article puts these fixations in perspective.1

The creativity of abuse

Abstract: While greetings, terms of address, jocular abuse, and other ritualised verbal exchanges, reflect and help interpret social changes, they also contain within themselves an independent dynamic. This consists of a constant alternation of fixed and variant forms and thereby throws up the opportunities for social comment and criticism. Exchanges of ritual and jocular abuse involve most linguistic awareness and, while retaining a formulaic shape, provide the most creative examples of semantic experimentation and social comment. The folk contrast between 'serious' politeness formulae and 'game-like' ritual insults reflects, at a meta-level, that within each kind of exchange between the use of 'proper' and 'improper' forms. The contrast more generally reflects the predictable and innovative aspects of language use. Terms of address, greetings, farewells, and the verbal exchanges contained in joking and insult relationships have a dual character. On the one hand, they can reinforce assumptions about the relative status and hierarchy of the speakers and listeners and so perpetuate the wider status quo (Evans-Pritchard I964: 22I; Firth I972: 7; Mitchell-Kernan & Kernan I975; Sharman I969: II5). This is to emphasise their fixed, enduring character. But they are also among those critical areas of language use which, simply because they are 'ritualised' (or at least conventional enough to trigger predictable responses), contain the potential for the starkest possible contrasts of meaning. The assumption of predictability makes the genuine element of surprise more dramatic. The recipient may well interpret such 'deviance' as abusive but is, for that reason, forced to re-consider the basis of the relationship. This potential for contrastive meaning and subsequent re-definition of relationships is clearly evident in the use of pronominal and other address terms, on which much work has been done.

Shaking off the Domestic Yoke, or the Sociological Significance of Residence

Abstract: The recent incursion of historians into the ‘history of the family’ raises a number of crucial problems from which anthropologists and sociologists seem to have shied away. Dealing with a topic new to the historical discipline, some of these historians have turned to anthropologists for theoretical inspiration. It will thus come as no surprise that what they have found and reproduced is the very conceptual discord so endemic in anthropological circles (see Laslett 1972 and Berkner 1975 for antithetical stances). This controversy, however, in one way represents only a minor aspect of the problem. Equally if not more important is the fact that the phenomena which fall under historical and sociological/anthropological investigation may not be the same after all. This is intrinsically related to their respective subject-matter and the type of evidence they have to rely upon.

American Dream, Global Nightmare: The Dilemma of U.S. Human Rights Policy

Abstract: This book began as a private odyssey, but ended somewhat to my surprise with a public destination.

Improving Achievement Testing

Abstract: pended, it is disturbing and frustrating to find that achievement testing has not improved substantially over the past approximately 50 years. However, that assertion is made here and it should come as no surprise; in fact, it has been made repeatedly and consistently by reviewers in recent years. For example, Thorndike (1971), in reviewing developments in achievement testing from 1950 to 1970, concluded that

Comment on "obstacles to the study of lawyer-client interaction: the biography of a failure"

Abstract: Brenda Danet and her colleagues have made a valuable contribution to identifying some of the problems that inhibit effective research by social scientists into lawyer-client interaction. The title, "Obstacles to the Study of Lawyer-Client Interaction: The Biography of a Failure" (hereafter referred to as "Biography"), is apt. The researchers tried diligently and at considerable cost to observe lawyers working with clients. Much to their surprise, they failed totally to do so. The Biography is a post-mortem. Considering why the research project failed brought to mind an important new publication by Lindblom and Cohen in which they observe: In public policy making, many suppliers and users of social research are dissatisfied, the former because they are not listened to, the latter because they do not hear much they want to listen to (1979: 1). The Biography appears to reflect this reciprocal frustration. The authors failed to reach the lawyers they hoped to observe. I suspect one reason was that the lawyers approached had considerable difficulty understanding just what the social researchers were up to. I know that I do, reading their postmortem.

Comment on Richard Merelman's "Democratic Politics and the Culture of American Education.".

Abstract: Richard Merelman is one of the more talented essayists of our discipline. His previous reflections in the areas of power, political socialization, and the politics of education have been penetrating, insightful, and even provocative. The present essay falls within this fine tradition. One can applaud with enthusiasm the application of a sensitive intellect to such a cosmic problem as the teaching of democratic values in the school system. As with all good essays, however, this one raises as many, perhaps more, questions than it answers. The first and fundamental question concerns the necessary assumption that American education in fact makes little or no contribution to the development of democratic values amongst its charges. Merelman supports this contention primarily by citing research that shows relatively little observable impact on students from teachers, the curriculum, or the school as a whole. Especially because I had a hand in some of the research efforts to which he alludes, I am not going to quarrel seriously with this argument-though here more than is usually the case one wants to utter the obligatory, "more research is needed, we need longitudinal designs, the cumulative impact may be immense, we're looking at the wrong things," and so forth. But even granting the validity of the research, does it really provide evidence for the accusation of failure on the part of the schools? The answer must be "no" on several counts. Simply because it is difficult to show specific effects does not necessarily mean that democratic values are not being instilled. Comparison with the studies of occupational and income achievement are instructive. Investigators are hard-pressed (as Merelman notes) to come up with substantial net effects from particular schools, educational practices, curricula, and the like. But no one seriously argues that most people would be literate or capable of accomplishing an extraordinary number of things if they had no formal education. The evidence is overwhelming that education is a very strong predictor of occupation and income. The analytic and theoretical difficulty has been trying to determine how education performs this task, especially in the seeming absence of strong school (socialization) effects. One resolution has been to look upon schooling as a certification process, with varying amounts and types of schooling entitling one to certain subsequent opportunities over a lifetime and building up a set of widely recognized role expectations (Meyer, 1977). From a socialization perspective it has also been acknowledged that schools tend to have a common, minimal floor of educational content, thus ensuring some commonalities in outcomes. Another socialization argument has been that education produces propensities and dispositions that are evoked later on. In any event, the contention is not that education, per se, has no impact. Now a straightforward application of this line of reasoning to the realm of schools and the teaching of democratic values would be amiss. Nevertheless, there are some striking parallels. There is a mountain of evidence showing that in adult populations education ordinarily bears a strong relation to what theorists typically describe as democratic val. ues. After conducting a massive secondary analysis of survey data drawn from the 1949-1975 period, Herbert Hyman and Charles Wright concluded, "The large, lasting, and diverse good effects on values found in this study, coupled with the very large, pervasive, and enduring effects in heightening knowledge, receptivity to knowledge, and information-seeking documented in our earlier study 11975] establish that formal education has long been an important force throughout America in molding character as well as intellect. Our findings are bound to surprise the reader who has come to accept the continuing, widespread, and severe criticisms of educational institutions. . I" (1979, p. 61, emphasis added). As with occupation and income, it is not clear to what degree this is a consequence of socialization, certification, or a combination of the two. Does more schooling in this country lead to more exposure to and internalization of democratic values or does it help slot people into subsequent social, economic, and political roles where these values have a better chance to flourish and be, reinforced? One is a direct effect, the other more indirect. Both probably operate. As in the case of occupation and

Wealth in Australia

Abstract: Art imitates life in the social sciences no less than in any other creative activity, and it should be no surprise, given our common assumptions regarding the shape of Australian society, that so little attention has been paid by scholars to the development of the great personal fortunes of the wealthy in Australia, or to the relationship between Australia's richest men and the rest of society.

The one-interview client

Abstract: A census of National Marriage Guidance Council cases showed that a third of them lasted for one interview only. This finding was met with some surprise by the counsellors. An investigation into one-interview cases was therefore undertaken, with the result that several distinct categories were identified. In some cases one interview seems to be all that is needed by the client.

Spectral lines: A secret that's no surprise

Abstract: A number of observers have recently expressed chagrin that Japanese manufacturers have moved into a position where they are claiming superiority in quality and productivity of high technology products over those of other advanced countries, including the U.S. To seasoned Japan-watchers, however, it is not a surprise.

What We Don't Know about Schooling.

Abstract: In contemplating our "educational ig norance," one's thoughts turn natu rally to the unsolved mysteries of the mind. What we have yet to learn looms to challenge generations of explorers. One's thoughts turn much less readily to the fact that the pervasive process of schooling is a relatively unstudied phenomenon. We study learning and teaching but only re cently have we begun to study schools holistically. Perhaps because attending school is part of growing up, most people assume, apparently, either that they know all about schools or that there isn't much to understand. In the early 1970s, when I was beginning to tool up for an inquiry still under way ("A Study of Schooling"1), many of those to whom I broached the subject expressed surprise or lack of in terest or both. Surprise came in the form of a statement such as, "We already have the data." I suggested that definitive studies be sent to me; they never came. In difference surrounded the notion that we needed research into something so ob vious. "We know what's wrong; let's just get on with the basics." There is no doubt in my mind that ex tensive knowledge about the functioning of hundreds or even dozens of schools would deepen our understanding of schooling and, therefore, help us to im prove it. And I am convinced that secur ing basic data about a given school is es sential to building an agenda for improve ment of that school. But quite apart from these practical motivations, I am simply curious about all of those school phe nomena we take for granted while know ing so little about them. For example, what do 5and 6-year olds think about as they approach and enter "school" for the first time? I clearly remember, that first day of school, with children converging from all directions (we walked to school in those days), sud denly panicking and running home. Was it the number of others? Was it sudden realization of freedoms about to be lost? Was it fear of the unknown? What mean ings do young children derive from their first few days in school? How do these meanings influence what follows? Indeed, what meanings are children de

Development and communication: a view from India

Abstract: Any urban do-gooder going into the countryside to bring the “good news” of development to his backward countrymen may be in for a surprise. The backward rural-dwellers may be illiterate, but they receive an education from waging a daily struggle with the elements. The urban genius, on the other hand, learns at the feet of Western savants. In the meeting of town and country, it may be the urbanite who has much to learn from his “backward” cousins.

Sights, Sounds, and Scents: The Physical Side of Foreign Study.

Abstract: through enriched understanding of divergent attitudes, customs, and social organizations. We do not go abroad to drink water; give or take a few impurities, water tastes the same everywhere. Yet when students return from a sojourn overseas, they frequently dwell on unexpected cultural differences discovered while in a foreign culture. To a great extent students are referring to differing physical experiences they have known. There are several reasons why new physical experiences surprise Americans abroad. For one, to oversimplify Wordsworth slightly, the world is too much with us. Basic physical experience, the sights and sounds of everyday life, is simply too commonplace, too routine to harbor lasting significance. But, equally, the American public has been desensitized. Products offered for