scholarly journals Culture and Leadership: a Lewinian Perspective of Organizational Problem Solving

Human Arenas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enno Freiherr von Fircks
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Goal Pursuit ◽  
Uncertainty Reduction ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
Organizational Problem ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Do So ◽  
Social Leadership

AbstractLeadership is inherently social. Being grounded in the Lewinian framework of field theory, I am instancing the diverse understanding of social leadership: Uncertainty reduction, making choices, assuming responsibility, and contributing to an orchestral interplay between followers are important functions of social leadership. But this is not sufficient. Organizations are built by concrete agents with concrete needs and overreaching goals. These needs and goals structure the environment (personal culture) of various employees including the leader. Drawing on an empirical case from a bakery as well as on Lewinian cases from the past, I am showing how group atmosphere alone is not able to cover the full range of the follower’s reactions: Here, we need to rely on basic concepts of culture: Employees live and work in their related life spaces. Complexity arises in organizations if the goal pursuit between followers themselves is contradictory, thus if their life spaces are a barrier for each other. The leader needs to realize here that this is not a disadvantage; his role is neither to solve these contradictions nor to present a potential solution. The leader needs to emphasize the interdependence of his followers; s/he can do so by letting them experience the issues and difficulties of the social other encountered in their respective life spaces. Here, followers are getting a glimpse into the life space (personal culture) of a colleague. Such border experiences play a key role for the following democratic exchange of how two previously contradictory life spaces are turned into conciliatory ones.

Pakistan’s Development: Successes, Failures, and Future Tasks (Presidential Remarks)

1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4I) ◽  
pp. 321-331
Author(s):  
Sarfraz Khan Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
General Meeting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Golden Jubilee ◽  
Freedom Movement ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Do So

It is an honour for me as President of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists to welcome you to the 13th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Society. I consider it a great privilege to do so as this Meeting coincides with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the state of Pakistan, a state which emerged on the map of the postwar world as a result of the Muslim freedom movement in the Indian Subcontinent. Fifty years to the date, we have been jubilant about it, and both as citizens of Pakistan and professionals in the social sciences we have also been thoughtful about it. We are trying to see what development has meant in Pakistan in the past half century. As there are so many dimensions that the subject has now come to have since its rather simplistic beginnings, we thought the Golden Jubilee of Pakistan to be an appropriate occasion for such stock-taking.

Reflections on Human Rights: An Eastern European Perspective

1989 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-33
Author(s):  
Tamäs Földesi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Do So

To create a state-theory that can answer the social problems of today, to break away from the theses that merely interpret the classics – as the sciences dealing with the economy managed to do during the past 15–20 years – is the main task of social sciences dealing with the theoretical issues of the state these days. If they fail to do so, their work will be forced to the periphery of the social movements, will not be able to assist the processes of society. It is my conviction that this is a vast responsibility of the social sciences in our age.

scholarly journals God Is Dying in Turkey as Well: Application of Secularization Theory to a Non-Christian Society

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volkan Ertit
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Sexual Relationship ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Christian Society ◽  
Do So

Abstract It has been stated in academic studies and popular media that Islam began its rise in dominance in Turkey with the accession of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in 2002 under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, contrary to claims of societal Islamization, in light of quantitative and qualitative studies this study argues that despite the AKP and its leader Erdoğan being in power, the following evidence has been observed in Turkey: praying rates have decreased, extramarital sexual relationship has become prevalent, the number of mosques per person has decreased, the belief in virginity is a point of honour for fewer people, people‘s clothes have become more flatteringly formfitting and more attractive, including women’s head-scarves; secular experts rather than religious officials are being sought for help concerning problems in daily life, homosexuality has become more socially acceptable visible, traditional family structures has been shattered. Therefore, it is claimed that AKP (or Erdoğan) has failed in efforts to Islamize Turkey over the past 15 years (2002-2017) despite having all the governmental means and opportunities to do so. This study argues that the classical theory of secularization, which claims that modernization leads to secularization, can still explain not only the social transformation seen in historically Christian and Western European countries and their offshoots, but also the social transformation of Turkey, a Muslim-majority country that has been governed for the past 15 years by a political party with clear Islamic sensitivities.

Biological Ideas and Their Cultural Uses

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 111-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Benton
Keyword(s):  
Biological Evolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Human Species ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

The topic of my talk is a very ancient one indeed. It bears upon the place of humankind in nature, and upon the place of nature in ourselves. I shall, however, be discussing this range of questions in terms which have not always been available to the philosophers of the past when they have asked them. When we ask these questions today we do so with hindsight of some two centuries of endeavour in the ‘human sciences’, and some one and a half centuries of attempts to situate the human species within a theory of biological evolution. And these ways of thinking about ourselves and our relation to nature have not been confined to professional intellectuals, nor have they been without practical consequences. Social movements and political organizations have fought for and sometimes achieved the power to give practical shape to their theoretical visions. On the one hand, are diverse projects aimed at changing society through a planned modification of the social environment of the individual. On the other hand, are equally diverse projects for pulling society back into conformity with the requirements of race and heredity. At first sight, the two types of project appear to be, and often are, deeply opposed, both intellectually and politically.

Norms: An Integrated Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 467-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Horne ◽  
Stefanie Mollborn
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Integrated Framework ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Do So

Norms are a foundational concept in sociology. Following a period of skepticism about norms as overly deterministic and as paying too little attention to social conflict, inequalities, and agency, the past 20 years have seen a proliferation of norms research across the social sciences. Here we focus on the burgeoning research in sociology to answer questions about where norms come from, why people enforce them, and how they are applied. To do so, we rely on three key theoretical approaches in the literature—consequentialist, relational, and agentic. As we apply these approaches, we explore their implications for what are arguably the two most fundamental issues in sociology—social order and inequality. We conclude by synthesizing and building on existing norms research to produce an integrated theoretical framework that can shed light on aspects of norms that are currently not well understood—in particular, their change and erosion.

scholarly journals MASK MANDATES REDUCE COVID-19 MORTALITY: Analysis of 37 States and the District of Columbia, with a further analysis of the impact of demographic and medical factors on efficacy.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Maloney
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
District Of Columbia ◽  
Incarceration Rate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Native Alaskan ◽  
Optimal Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Do So

As the number of COVID-19 deaths in the US increased, various policies were enacted to slow the spread of the pandemic. While the situation has improved in recent months, determining how best to combat the current pandemic is still essential. Failure to do so invites both further resurgences of the current pandemic, and more pandemics in the years to come. As a result of the widespread failure to contain the spread of COVID-19, enough deaths have occurred that the impact of policy on mortality may be statistically evaluated. This paper uses Optimal Discriminant Analysis (ODA) to evaluate the hypothesized ability of limited mask mandates (MM) to reduce the daily number of COVID-19 deaths in the states analyzed. The mandates were found to reduce mortality in half the states analyzed and did not result in increased mortality in any states. A full range of cofactors were analyzed to determine which, if any, influenced the efficacy of the mandates in the states in which mandates had an effect. Institutional Health Subindex of the Social Capital Index, state health score, population density, portion of the population with nongroup health insurance, state GDP, and the rate of pregnancy related diabetes were all correlated with increased mandate efficacy. In contrast, incarceration rate, overcrowded housing, severely overcrowded housing, portion of the population with military provided insurance, portion of the population uninsured, the portion of the population unable to see a doctor due to cost, and the portion of the population who were American Indian/Native Alaskan were all correlated with reduced mandate efficacy.

scholarly journals On extending the truncated parameters of transformation in higher education in South Africa into a language of democratic engagement and justice

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuraan Davids
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Engagement ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Real Challenge ◽  
Do So

Universities, in their multiplex roles of social, political, epistemological and capital reform, are by their constitution expected to both symbolise and enact transformation. While institutions of higher education in South Africa have been terrains of protest and reform – whether during apartheid or post-apartheid – the intense multiplex roles which these institutions assume have metaphorically come home to roost in the past 2 years. Not unlike the social-media-infused rumblings, coined as the ‘Arab Spring’, the recent cascades of #mustfall campaigns have brought to the fore the serious dearth of transformation in higher education and have raised more critical questions about conceptions of transformation, and how these translate into, or reflect, the social and political reform that continues to dangle out of the reach of the majority of South Africans. What, then, does transformation mean and imply? How does an institution reach a transformed state? How does one know when such a state is reached? These are a few of the concerns this article seeks to address. But it hopes to do so by moving beyond the thus far truncated parameters of transformation – which have largely been seeped in the oppositional politics of historical advantage and disadvantage, and which, in turn, have ensured that conceptions of transformation have remained trapped in discourses of race and racism. Instead, this article argues that the real challenge facing higher education is not so much about transformation, as it is about enacting democracy through equipping students to live and think differently in a pluralist society.

scholarly journals Moveable Production Systems for Sustainable Development and Trade: Limitations, Opportunities and Barriers

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fox
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Social ◽  
Do So

It has been claimed that technological advances will make it possible to make anything anywhere and to do so sustainably. In particular, making anything anywhere would increase the diversity of locations and participants involved in production, with positive effects for sustainability. For example, increasing the diversity of locations can reduce the long-distance transportation of materials and goods, which can improve the ecological sustainability of production. At the same time, increasing the diversity of people included in manufacturing can contribute to the spread of manufacturing communities, which can improve the social sustainability of production. However, physical production continues to be dominated by the same countries that have dominated global manufacturing in recent decades. Meanwhile, trade imbalances between rich and poor countries are similar to those of the past. In this paper, limitations and opportunities are explained for moveable production systems to increase the diversity of locations and participants in global production and trade. In addition, potential geopolitical barriers to the deployment of moveable production systems are explained.

scholarly journals Hausa Calligraphic and Decorative Traditions of Northern Nigeria: From the Sacred to the Social

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustapha Hashim Kurfi
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Social Domain ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Domains ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Do So

In the past, sacred Islamic calligraphies were used strictly in sacred places, whereas profane calligraphies were used in secular spheres. However, the trend now among some Hausa artists is to extend the sacred Islamic calligraphic tradition to the social domain. Some Hausa calligraphers do so by “desacralizing” their Islamic-inspired calligraphies. This article deals with the extension of Islamic decorations to secular social domains in Kano, Northern Nigeria. Such works are produced by calligraphers like Sharu Mustapha Gabari. I show how Hausa calligraphers like Mustapha Gabari creatively extend their arts, talents, and skills to other social domains. These domains include the human body, clothing, houses, and other objects. This article describes the ways in which the sacred and the secular realms overlap, and illustrates some key processes of enrichment the Islamic arts have undergone in sub-Saharan Africa. These processes exemplify the ʿAjamization of Islamic arts in Africa, especially how sub-Saharan African Muslims continue to creatively appropriate and enrich the Islamic calligraphic and decorative traditions to fit their local realities and address their preoccupations.

scholarly journals Schweden: Vom „Dritten Weg“ der achtziger Jahre zur „globalisierten Sozialdemokratie“ des 21. Jahrhunderts?

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (119) ◽  
pp. 301-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimund Feld
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Past ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Continental Welfare States ◽  
Do So

There was an impact of neoliberalism on the Swedish model over the past twenty years. Its main political driving force was the social democratic party. It is argued that neoliberalism had a major impact first on the level of discourse and then, from 1990 onwards, on the policy level as well. As a result, the gap between the Swedish model and continental welfare states is found to be narrowing, the universalism of the model itself being undermined as those who can afford to do so more and more frequently choose to pay for better services on the market while others are relegated to means-tested social assistance and social services increasingly starved of resources.

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