scholarly journals Cultural Processes Shaping Stop-And-Check Practices and Interaction Dynamics in a Large Dutch City: Police Vulnerabilities, thought Styles and Rituals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Brown ◽  
Nathalie van Eijk
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Large City ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Police Decision Making ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Analyse Data ◽  
Thought Styles

Abstract Existing scholarship on police decision-making notes the importance of categories and ‘governing mentalities’ in shaping front-line discretionary practices. Much of this work explores categories of race and ethnicity. Important questions remain regarding how micro-level practices connect to organizational dynamics and why ethnic profiling endures despite attempts to counter such practices. Drawing on critical approaches to uncertainty and risk, not least Mary Douglas’s cultural theory, we analyse data drawn from an ethnographic study of police work in a large city in the Netherlands. Our analysis emphasizes the multiple lines of accountability that render officers vulnerable in different ways, officers’ combining of different rationalities of decision-making and the influence of everyday rituals that cultivate and reinforce particular organizational thought styles and discretionary practices.

The contamination of trauma. Traumatized minds, broken families and dysfunctional work groups: Organizational and interpersonal dynamics in complex child welfare court proceedings

2021 ◽  
pp. 053331642110150
Author(s):  
Stuart Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Work Groups ◽  
Work Group ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
History Of ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Court Proceedings

Professional work groups engaging with traumatized and dysfunctional families are presented with a disproportionate challenge to an already inevitably painful process that can be an obstacle to balanced decision-making in the children’s best interests. Trauma, abuse and neglect can influence the professional culture that condenses around these families. This occurs more often with the most challenging families with a possible history of professional failure resulting in professional conflict, impulsive and poor decision-making due to the occasions that these destructive dynamics have become unmanageable. Serious case reviews into the deaths of children regularly outline professional failures relating to a breakdown in communication within the professional system and essential and potential lifesaving information having been lost or failing to have been acted upon. The ability to understand complex group and organizational dynamics and the ability to manage relationships with traumatized adults and children, as well as within traumatized work groups is, therefore, an essential skill set for professionals working with the most vulnerable children and families. This article explores trauma and its impact on a work group and why this process was disturbed by uncontained anxiety resulting in professional conflict.

Knowing bears: An ethnographic study of knowledge and agency in human–bear cohabitation

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110150
Author(s):  
Svetoslava Toncheva ◽  
Robert Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Human Research ◽  
Research Challenges ◽  
Living Together ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

This article explores a case of human–wildlife cohabitation in the Rodopi mountains of Bulgaria, wherein people and brown bears ( Ursus arctos) have adapted to living together in relative harmony. While this is due to a variety of factors, chief among these is the way both people and bears appear to pursue knowledge of one another and act on this knowledge so as to actively minimize potential for conflict. We draw on this case to contribute to growing discussion concerning how nonhumans should be understood and included within conservation policymaking. While conservation has conventionally been understood as something humans do on behalf of other species, a growing body of “more-than-human” research challenges this perspective as “anthropocentric” in arguing that nonhumans should be considered “co-constitutive actors” of the spaces they occupy. Based on this understanding, some go so far as to assert that a “multispecies ethics” demands that nonhumans be actively included in decision-making concerning such spaces’ governance. While our study indeed demonstrates that both humans and bears seem to mold their behavior in relation to their sensing of the other’s behavior, it also demonstrates that knowledge of bears’ behavior is ultimately always interpreted by humans in conservation management. Moreover, different groups of stakeholders hold different knowledge of bears that influence their attitudes and behavior towards the animals. The study thus raises important questions concerning how to incorporate bears (and other nonhumans) within conservation decision-making, and whose knowledge should be privileged in the process.

Focal Concerns and Police Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802199128
Author(s):  
David S. Lapsey ◽  
Bradley A. Campbell ◽  
Bryant T. Plumlee
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Campbell Collaboration ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Police Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

Sexual assault and case attrition at the arrest stage are serious problems in the United States. Focal concerns have increasingly been used to explain police decision making in sexual assault cases. Because of the popularity of the focal concerns perspective and potential to inform evidence-based training, a systematic review and meta-analysis are needed to condense the literature. In this study, we assess the overall strength of the relationship between focal concerns variables and police decisions to arrest in cases of sexual assault. Our assessment of the effects of focal concerns variables on arrest decision making in sexual assault cases followed the systematic review protocols provided by the Campbell Collaboration of Systematic Reviews. Specifically, we used the Campbell Collaboration recommendations to search empirical literature and used meta-analysis to evaluate the size, direction, and strength of the impact of focal concerns variables on arrest decisions. Our search strategy detected 14 eligible studies and 79 effect sizes. The meta-analysis found several robust and statistically significant correlates of arrest. In fact, each focal concerns concept produced at least one robust arrest correlate. Overall, focal concerns offers a strong approach for explaining police decisions in sexual assault cases. Although practical concerns and resource constraints produced the strongest arrest correlates, results show the importance of additional case characteristics in officers’ decision to arrest.

The role of agency in project initiation decisions

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 518-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Mullaly
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Substantive Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Board Level

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of decision rules and agency in supporting project initiation decisions, and the influences of agency on decision-making effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – The study this paper is based upon used grounded theory methodology, and sought to understand the influences of individual decision makers on project initiation decisions within organizations. Data collection involved 28 participants who were involved in project initiation decisions within their organizations, who discussed the process of project initiation in their organization and their role within that process. Findings – The study demonstrates that the overall effectiveness of project initiation decisions is a product of agency, process effectiveness or rule effectiveness. The employment of agency can have a direct influence on decision-making effectiveness, it can compensate for organizational inadequacies of a process or political nature, and it can be constrained in the evidence of formal and effective organizational practices. Research limitations/implications – While agency was recognized by all participants, there are clearly circumstances where actors perceive the ability to exercise agency to be externally constrained. The study is exploratory, contributing to the development of substantive theory. Theory testing as well as a more in-depth investigation of the underlying drivers of agency would be valuable. Practical implications – The study provides executives and individuals supporting the initiation of projects with insights on how to effectively influence the effectiveness of project initiation decisions, and the degree to which personal characteristics influence organizational dynamics. Originality/value – Most discussions of agency has been framed the subject as an executive- or board-level phenomenon. The current study demonstrates that agency is in fact being perceived and operationalized at all levels. Those demonstrating agency in the majority of instances in this study do so in exercising stewardship behaviours. This has important implications for how agency is perceived by executives, and by how agency is exercised by actors at all levels of the organization.

Policing in a Largely Minority Jurisdiction: The Influence of Appearance Characteristics Associated with Contemporary Hip-Hop Culture on Police Decision-Making

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1310-1338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean A. Dabney ◽  
Brent Teasdale ◽  
Glen A. Ishoy ◽  
Taylor Gann ◽  
Bonnie Berry
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Police Decision Making

scholarly journals (Trans)Formative Trajectories of Decisions: An Analysis from The Translation Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-391
Author(s):  
Eduardo Guedes Villar ◽  
Karina De Deá Róglio ◽  
Natália Rese
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
The Status ◽  
Process Perspective

Motivated by an agenda for empirical research on decisions, we seek to understand how an issue or idea is labelled as a "decision". Based on the relational ontology, we used the Actor-Network Theory as a theoretical frame, and particularly the translation perspective. In order to understand the "process of formation and stabilization of decisions" focused on what makes actors act, we conducted an ethnographic study in a social enterprise for 30 months. Through narrative analysis, we propose the (trans)formative trajectories of decisions in which we describe the trajectory of these hybrid entities achieving the status of relative fixity labelled as "the decision". We understand the trajectory as an ongoing translation journey; thus, we tracked decisions in their trajectories of translation, packaging and legitimation. The elements of the organizational decision-making are re-signified as performative texts, which enter the network of relations. Therefore, decisions are (trans)formed on a journey of mediation among multiple actants. When objectified as crystallized texts, the decisions become performative, because they start to organize and participate in the constitution of the ongoing reality. This theoretical framework allowed us to extend the processual understanding of decision-making aligned with the relational ontology and the time-process perspective.

A decision-making formula for value engineering applications in the Sri Lankan construction industry

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayani Karunasena ◽  
Kosala Rajagalgoda Gamage
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Cognitive Mapping ◽  
Value Engineering ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
Research Outcome ◽  
Analyse Data

Purpose The construction industry in many developing countries is reluctant to apply value engineering (VE) due to uncertainty of outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing practices of VE techniques and make recommendations to organisations and national construction regulatory bodies, to standardise VE practices. A decision-making formula is introduced to determine profitability of VE applications prior to implementation. Design/methodology/approach A broad literature review and six case study projects that applied VE were selected. Thirty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data within cases. Six expert interviews were conducted as confirmatory interviews to clarify and validate research outcome. Content analysis and cognitive mapping were used to analyse data among case studies. Findings Application, knowledge and experience on VE techniques among construction professionals are unsatisfactory. Recommendations include reducing contractor’s design responsibility, introducing proper VE guidelines and statutory regulations. A framework is introduced to assist authorities to standardise application of VE techniques. A decision-making formula is suggested to determine margins of contractor’s portion due to VE techniques and original profits gained. Originality/value The formula can be used as a decision-making tool by construction industry practitioners to determine successfulness of proposed VE techniques, and the proposed framework can be used to guide construction professional bodies to standardise VE practices.

Parental Agency in Educational Decision Making: A Mexican American Example

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 3074-3101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margy Mcclain
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
American Family ◽  
Mexican American Family ◽  
Educational Decision ◽  
Children's Schooling ◽  
Educational Decision Making ◽  
Urban Parents

Background/Context This article explores the experiences of one Mexican American family as they make a key curriculum choice for their 9-year-old son. Relatively little attention has been paid to parents’ beliefs, attitudes, and, in particular, experiences as they actively engage in—and sometimes affect—their children's schooling. Parents’ agency in utilizing various kinds of educational strategizing, especially immigrant and urban working-class parents, has been overlooked. Deficit theories of low-income families have a long history in educational thought. Although more recent scholarship has debunked these theories, they remain pervasive across the country. Educators often do not recognize the many ways in which urban parents may be involved in their children's schooling. Voices of parents themselves speaking to their experiences with schools are just beginning to emerge. Purpose This article offers a rich example of the educational decision-making process of one Mexican American family. I take a phenomenological approach to examine human agency in specific familial decisions about this child's schooling that support the parents’ own vision of education. Here is a story of thoughtful, reflective decision-making that took place over a period of several years, when the parents finally decided to move their son from a transitional bilingual program at a public school to a parochial school taught in English. Research Design This is a narrative inquiry based on interviews and observations that took place with one family and one focal child through the course of a calendar year. It is situated within the frame of an ethnographic study on the educational life worlds of the family. The analysis draws on van Manen's use of phenomenology to examine how parents reflected upon experience to better understand a situation, resulting in “lived experience,” an understanding of the meanings a particular person finds in an event. Conclusions/Recommendations Immigrant and other urban parents may be actively engaged in their children's education, asking important and valid curriculum questions in ways that remain invisible to educators. I suggest alternatives to deficit theories that render parents’ perspectives invisible. Terms usually reserved for teachers can also be applied to parents: “knowledgeable observers” who make “pedagogically thoughtful” decisions about “curriculum.” This perspective would recommend that educational practice and policy use theoretical frameworks stressing parents’ roles as strong, positive, and active agents on behalf of their children and the need to develop dialogue based on respect. Further qualitative research in particular can provide needed depth in our understanding of parents’ struggles to negotiate the boundaries of culture, history and biography as they guide their children through the complex maze of school.

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