Co-existing institutional logics and agency among top-level public servants: A praxeological approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toke Bjerregaard
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Institutional Organization ◽  
Passive Strategies ◽  
Action Strategies ◽  
Strategy As Practice ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Combining Logics

AbstractWhile institutional organization research to some extent has neglected the micro agency of organization members, parts of the strategy-as-practice research have tended to bracket off wider societal environments shaping the practices-in-use of top-level strategy practitioners. This article attempts to address parts of this void. This study examines the agency exerted by top-level public servants through their everyday strategy and policy work in face of co-existing logics of public administration. The findings illustrate how their action strategies span from more passive strategies of coping with coexisting logics of administration to more skilled agency of combining logics aimed at enhancing their opportunity and action space. The study suggests that the interplay between co-existing institutional logics, action strategies and the practical skills of top-level public servants provides the basis for both coping and more proactive strategies in pluralistic public administrations. Findings illustrate the role of public servants' practical sense of realizable opportunities that inform such strategies of handling co-existing institutional logics. Implications for institutional studies of organizations are outlined.

Co-existing institutional logics and agency among top-level public servants: A praxeological approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toke Bjerregaard
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Institutional Organization ◽  
Passive Strategies ◽  
Action Strategies ◽  
Strategy As Practice ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Combining Logics

AbstractWhile institutional organization research to some extent has neglected the micro agency of organization members, parts of the strategy-as-practice research have tended to bracket off wider societal environments shaping the practices-in-use of top-level strategy practitioners. This article attempts to address parts of this void. This study examines the agency exerted by top-level public servants through their everyday strategy and policy work in face of co-existing logics of public administration. The findings illustrate how their action strategies span from more passive strategies of coping with coexisting logics of administration to more skilled agency of combining logics aimed at enhancing their opportunity and action space. The study suggests that the interplay between co-existing institutional logics, action strategies and the practical skills of top-level public servants provides the basis for both coping and more proactive strategies in pluralistic public administrations. Findings illustrate the role of public servants' practical sense of realizable opportunities that inform such strategies of handling co-existing institutional logics. Implications for institutional studies of organizations are outlined.

scholarly journals Information security: Listening to the perspective of organisational insiders

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 752-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
SeEun Choi ◽  
Jorge Tiago Martins ◽  
Igor Bernik
Keyword(s):  
Information Security ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Strategy As Practice ◽  
Security Incidents ◽  
Information Security Practices

Aligned with the strategy-as-practice research tradition, this article investigates how organisational insiders understand and perceive their surrounding information security practices, how they interpret them, and how they turn such interpretations into strategic actions. The study takes a qualitative case study approach, and participants are employees at the Research & Development department of a multinational original brand manufacturer. The article makes an important contribution to organisational information security management. It addresses the behaviour of organisational insiders – a group whose role in the prevention, response and mitigation of information security incidents is critical. The article identifies a set of organisational insiders’ perceived components of effective information security practices (organisational mission statement; common understanding of information security; awareness of threats; knowledge of information security incidents, routines and policy; relationships between employees; circulation of stories; role of punishment provisions; and training), based on which more successful information security strategies can be developed.

scholarly journals NGO–Public Administration Relationships in Tackling the Homelessness Problem in the Czech Republic and Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Monika Sidor ◽  
Dina Abdelhafez
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
The Czech Republic

Recently, the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Poland and the Czech Republic has increased, which has translated into a growing tendency to change the procedures for social assistance provision. However, the relationships between public administration and non-governmental organisations differ in both countries. The Najam Four-C’s Model is used in this paper to describe how NGOs and public administration approach the problem of homelessness in the Czech Republic and Poland. To explore this issue, the authors conducted interviews with public servants and NGOs’ mangers in both countries. The findings show that, as far as homelessness is concerned, NGOs and state authorities function on the basis of complementarity in Poland as well as in the Czech Republic.

The Case for Generic Working in Mental Health Occupational Therapy

2003 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
British Journal ◽  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Opinion Piece ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
Future Practice

There has been a lively exchange of views in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy about the role of occupational therapy in mental health. This opinion piece presents an argument that occupational therapy must be more flexible and develop generic working. Suggestions are made for future practice, research and education.

Leadership and innovative work behaviour within Ghanaian metropolitan assemblies: mediating role of resource supply

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Baafi ◽  
Abraham Ansong ◽  
Kennedy Etse Dogbey ◽  
Nicodemus Osei Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Transactional Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovative Behaviour ◽  
Innovative Work ◽  
Innovative Work Behaviour

PurposeThis study explores the role of transformational leadership, transactional leadership and resource supply in enhancing innovative work behaviour using the mediation model.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data was gathered from 314 local government staff from the six metropolitan assemblies in Ghana. Structural equation modelling was used for the analysis.FindingsThe results suggest that transformational and transactional leadership behaviours provided an impetus for innovative behaviours. Also, resource supply was found to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership behaviours and innovative work behaviour.Practical implicationsPublic managers can improve the innovative behaviour of public servants by providing resources for innovation, setting up proper reward structures, communicating vision clearly and clarifying performance expectations.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate innovative work behaviour within the Ghanaian local government sector and the context of a developing country in Africa. The study extends the literature on innovative work behaviour by exploring the role of leadership and resource supply.

New Directions in the Study of Institutional Logics: From Tools to Phenomena

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lounsbury ◽  
Christopher W.J. Steele ◽  
Milo Shaoqing Wang ◽  
Madeline Toubiana
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Dynamic Phenomena

In this article, we take stock of the institutional logics perspective and highlight opportunities for new scholarship. While we celebrate the growth and generativity of the literature on institutional logics, we also note that there has been a troubling tendency in recent work to use logics as analytical tools, feeding disquiet about reification and reductionism. Seeding a broader scholarly agenda that addresses such weaknesses in the literature, we highlight nascent efforts that aim to more systematically understand institutional logics as complex, dynamic phenomena in their own right. In doing so, we argue for more research that probes how logics cohere and endure by unpacking the role of values, the centrality of practice, and the governance dynamics of institutional logics and their orders. Furthermore, we encourage bridging the study of institutional logics with various literatures, including ethnomethodology, phenomenology, professions, elites, world society, and the old institutionalism, to enhance progress in these directions. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

The Role of Local Actors in Peacekeeping: The Cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Sempijja ◽  
Ekeminiabasi Eyita-Okon
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Policy Work

With the advent of multidimensional peacekeeping, in considering the changing nature of conflicts in the post–Cold War period, the role of local actors has become crucial to the execution of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mandate. Just as peacekeeping does not have space in the UN charter, local actors do not have a clearly defined space in the UN-led conflict resolution process. However, they have gained recognition, especially in policy work, and slowly in the academic discourse, as academics and practitioners have begun to find ways of making peacekeeping and peacebuilding more effective in the 21st century. Therefore the construction and perception of local actors by international arbitrators play an important and strategic role in creating and shaping space for the former to actively establish peace where violent conflict is imminent. Local actors have independently occupied spaces during and after the conflict, and although they bring a comparative advantage, especially as gatekeepers to local communities, they have largely been kept on the periphery.

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