scholarly journals Developing “place leadership” when hierarchical accountability is omnipresent: the case of English sub-national government

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Ferry ◽  
Mark Sandford
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
News Media ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe relationship between central and sub-national (local) government is contentious around distribution of power and control. There is a specific concern when a (local) place has power devolved, but centralised hierarchical accountability pervades.Design/methodology/approachThis paper addresses that concern by considering recent innovative developments around place-based accountability arrangements in England, through analysis of official reports and news media.FindingsThe article illustrates aspirations towards accountability to the local electorate clash with hierarchical accountability that remains an omnipresent mechanism of central control. It is suggested, accountability forums be developed to blend hierarchy and the place leadership role of directly elected mayors. This could enable local accountability to the electorate, whilst taking account of the context of specific regional level complexities.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to consider issues of place leadership and place based accountability within the framework of hierarchical accountability for central and local government relations.

Mediation role of diversity climate on leadership and job satisfaction in the Ghanaian public sector

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Mickson ◽  
Alex Anlesinya ◽  
Ebenezer Malcalm
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Transactional Leadership ◽  
Diversity Climate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Intrinsic Job Satisfaction ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThis study examines the mediation role of diversity climate in the relationship between transformational leadership, transactional leadership and job satisfaction from the two-factor perspectives of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfactions among local government servants in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses cross-sectional data from 322 employees in local government service of Ghana in the Greater Accra Region using purposive and stratified sampling methods. Bootstrapping method of mediation estimated using structural equation modelling is employed to test the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe results find a differential effect of leadership behaviours on intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, where transformation and transactional leadership relate positively to intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction respectively. Furthermore, the empirical findings reveal that diversity climate has mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic job satisfaction, implying that diversity climate is an important process through which transformational leadership behaviours can elicit intrinsic job satisfaction among local government servants. Surprisingly, however, diversity climate does not serve as an important transmission mechanism in the relationship between transactional leadership and extrinsic job satisfaction.Practical implicationsThis means that public sector leaders or managers can improve intrinsic job satisfaction among local government servants and by extension public sector employees by creating an ideal climate for diversity by transforming the work environment through leadership, specifically, transformational leadership behaviours.Originality/valueAlthough studies abound on the link between leadership behaviours (transformational and transactional) and job satisfaction, the mediating effect of diversity climate as a mechanism in this relationship is very scarce and rare to find. Hence, our study has made original contributions to theory and practice by highlighting the role of diversity climate in converting leadership behaviours, specifically; transformational leadership into creating intrinsically satisfied workers in the public sector.

Power relations and the accounting system in the Archbishop’s Seminary of Siena (1666-1690)

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-420
Author(s):  
Michela Magliacani ◽  
Roberto Di Pietra
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Content Type ◽  
And Control ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Accounting can affect and determine power relations. Previous studies have emphasized how accounting has been used by “central” powers; less is known from the perspective of “local” power and its capacity to resist and protect its interests. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the Archbishop’s Seminary of Siena (ASS) (local) and Roman ecclesiastic institutions (central). This study contributes to filling the existing gap in the literature regarding how accounting could be used as a tool for deception in local/central power relations. Design/methodology/approach The research methodology is based on a case study and archival research. The ASS case study was analyzed through its archive, made up for the most part of accounting books. As to the approach adopted, the authors used the Foucault framework to observe power relations in order to identify possible ways in which accounting can be employed as a factor of deception. Findings Power relations between the ASS and Roman ecclesiastic institutions were maintained through a system of reporting that limited the influence of the ecclesiastical power of Rome over the Seminary’s administration and control. The relationship thus runs contrary to the findings in previous studies. The accounting system was managed as a factor of deception in favor of local interests and the limitation of central ecclesiastic power. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to enhancing the existing literature on governmentality, proposing a different perspective in which power relations are based on the use of accounting. The Foucaldian approach demonstrates its validity, even though the power relations under consideration have the unusual feature of occurring within the context of religious institutions. Originality/value This study on the ASS has allowed the identification of two relevant points: the local/central dichotomy is consistent with the logic of power relations as theorized by Foucault, even in cases where it highlights the role of a local power in limiting the flow of information to a central one; and the ASS accounting system was used as a factor of deception.

The In-Laws

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-153
Author(s):  
Steven M. Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
Marital Relationship ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
Control Work ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Distinctive Role

This chapter examines power and control issues that emerge in the marriage as a result of the relationship between wives and their mothers-in-law, and how the husband, wife, and mother-in-law use control work in various types of power struggles. In an attempt to move beyond negative stereotypes, a more realistic interpretation of the origins and construction of in-law relationships in the sport marriage is analyzed, including the origins of a durable mother-son bond and its effect on the marital relationship. The chapter introduces the concept of subordination work, which allows for an insightful evaluation of how the wives manage their subordinate status as they try to preserve their marital relationship and avoid offending their mothers-in-law. Attention also is given to a distinctive role reversal initiated by some mothers-in-law, resulting in the mother taking on the surrogate role of wife in public life.

scholarly journals Overeducation and job satisfaction: the role of job demands and control

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Verhaest ◽  
Elsy Verhofstadt
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Job Demands ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Compensation Mechanisms ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how job demands and control contribute to the relationship between overeducation and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on data for Belgian young workers up to the age of 26. The authors execute regression analyses, with autonomy, quantitative demands and job satisfaction as dependent variables. The authors account for unobserved individual heterogeneity by means of panel-data techniques. Findings – The results reveal a significant role of demands and control for the relationship between overeducation and job satisfaction. At career start, overeducated workers have less control than adequately educated individuals with similar skills levels, but more control than adequately educated employees doing similar work. Moreover, their control increases faster over the career than that of adequately educated workers with a similar educational background. Finally, demands have less adverse effects on satisfaction for high-skilled workers, irrespective of their match, while control moderates the negative satisfaction effect of overeducation. Research limitations/implications – Future research should look beyond the early career and focus on other potential compensation mechanisms for overeducation. Also the role of underlying mechanisms, such as job crafting, deserves more attention. Practical implications – The results suggest that providing more autonomy is an effective strategy to avoid job dissatisfaction among overeducated workers. Originality/value – The study connects two areas of research, namely, that on overeducation and its consequences and that on the role of job demands and control for workers’ well-being. The results contribute to a better understanding why overeducation persists. Moreover, they are consistent with the hypothesis that employers hire overeducated workers because they require less monitoring and are more able to cope with demands, although more direct evidence on this is needed.

The role of management accounting and control in making professional organizations horizontal

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustaf Kastberg ◽  
Sven Siverbo
Keyword(s):  
Management Accounting ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Professional Organizations ◽  
Professional Identities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Swedish Health Care ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – In the last decade, greater attention has been paid to the role of management accounting and control (MAC) in making professional organizations more horizontal. The authors argue that earlier research has not shown how the interrelatedness between professional identities and MAC influences attempts to make organizations more horizontal. In this paper the authors respond to the call for more research on the relationship between horizontalization and accounting and control. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging literature on the relationship between accountability arrangements and professional identities. Design/methodology/approach – Theoretically the authors have an actor-network theory (ANT) approach. Empirically, the authors followed two episodes where actors at top management levels in two Swedish health care organizations introduced horizontalization. Findings – The two episodes support the view that the role of MAC when making professional organizations more horizontal is limited. Professionals dominate what happens at the operational level and they do not act on MAC rules and performance targets in opposition of their professional identity. However, in alliance with other interessement devices MAC may have a role in creating overflows, that is, pointing out imperfections in the existing frame. The authors noticed no signs that professionals developed hybrid identities as in previous research. Originality/value – The authors apply ANT to move beyond the commonly used contingency and new institutional sociology perspectives.

Learning and knowledge: a dream or nightmare for employees

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Newman ◽  
Dunstan Newman
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Power Control ◽  
Learning Organization ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
Concepts Of Knowledge ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – The paper aims to focus on the issues relating to the concepts of knowledge management (KM) and the learning organization and discusses the relationship between these concepts and the issues of power and control. It looks at Coopey’s (1998) critical review of the “Foucauldian gloom” with regard to the learning organization and helps to assess whether the concept is a dream or a nightmare for the employees and the organizations as a whole. While both concepts have many positive attributes and have helped to transform many organizations, the issues of power, control, trust and empowerment have been overlooked and disregarded. This paper will attempt to answer some of these questions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an analysis of literature in the field of KM and learning organizations and its relationship with the concepts of power, control and trust. Findings – This paper shows that one of the main features of the management of organizational culture is to comprehend and effectively deal with the perceived connection involving knowledge, learning and power in organizations. It notes that while some writers are disproving of the learning perception in research on organizations, they also obscure issues of politics and power in organizations and do not focus on the more important question of whose interests are being provided. To spread democracy and liberation and create a democratic utopia in the learning organization requires more focus on the issue of power in the concepts of the learning organization and KM. Originality/value – This paper will bring together research which links learning, knowledge and power. It also builds on the literature in learning and KM and offers essential information to human resource practitioners.

The relationship between the withdrawal of the digital economy's innovators, government interventions, the marketization level and market size based on big data

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Zhao ◽  
Xiaohui Chen
Keyword(s):  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Market Size ◽  
Nonlinear Relationship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeDigital economic innovation is associated with risks. The lack of a platform's profitability weakens the operation's ability to sustain innovators and increases the possibility of the business' termination. Relevant data demonstrate a significant upward trend in the exit of Chinese innovators of the digital economy. The study aims to clarify the role of an effective government and effective market in the prevention and control of the withdrawal of innovators.Design/methodology/approachBased on balanced panel data of 31 provinces and cities from 2010 to 2018, this study uses the individual fixed effect model to study the impact of the marketization level, the market's scale and government interventions on the withdrawal of innovators. Simultaneously, based on the spatial econometric model, this study examines the spatial spillover effect of the withdrawal of innovators.FindingsResults indicate that government interventions have an inhibiting effect on the withdrawal of innovators. Moreover, there was a positive “U”-shaped nonlinear relationship between the marketization level and the withdrawal of innovators, and an inverse “U”-shaped nonlinear relationship between the market size and the withdrawal of innovators.Originality/valueThe paper first studies the relationship between the exit of innovators and government intervention, marketization level and field scale; takes the lead in the research on the role of the government and effective market in the prevention and control of the exit of innovators from the perspective of the exit of innovators and puts forward policy suggestions to promote the sustainable and healthy development of fintech innovation in China from the market scale and other aspects.

scholarly journals Getting lost to be found: the insider–outsider paradoxes in relational ethnography

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Yeo ◽  
Sue Dopson
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Dual Role ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Knowledge ◽  
Getting Lost ◽  
Relational Ethnography ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of practical insider and theoretical outsider. The duality helps the researcher to live “in” and think “out” of the research context to develop a theory for practice and then transpose it to a practice for theory through the collaboration of an external theoretical insider.Design/methodology/approachThis is a theoretical account of the reflexive experience of the practitioner reintroducing relational ethnography, where the researcher regards processes and spaces as the objects of analysis rather than bounded groups and places. It emphasizes the relational significance of the researcher, researched, and theoretical insider in exploring the structures of relations and meanings in the field of professional practice.FindingsThe paper argues that understanding the complementariness and paradoxes of the dual role helps the researcher to identify knowledge gaps and contest commonsense knowledge in search of critical knowledge and theoretical insights. The transition between the bounded (restrained) and unbounded (unrestrained) selves occurs in the holding space of research, influencing the position from which the researcher views himself, his subjects, and his social world.Originality/valueThe paper extends the dimension of ethnographic research, which de-centers the authority and control of the researcher to that of the relationship between the researcher and informants, by focusing on the relational significance between the researcher, researched, and theoretical insider. This perspective gives rise to a deeper understanding of relational ethnography, seen largely in sociological research, as relevant to organizational research, where structures of relations and actions explored in real time could account for the configuration, conflict, and coordination of work practices.

Purchasing management and the role of uncertainty

IMP Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Erik Gadde ◽  
Finn Wynstra
Keyword(s):  
Supply Management ◽  
Purchasing Management ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Supplier Relationships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of uncertainty in purchasing and supply management, and the changes of this role over time. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a literature review of the development of purchasing and supply management over time and how these issues have been related to uncertainty and dependence. This examination also required analysis of the impact of other concepts from behavioral sciences: interdependence, power and control. Findings The paper shows that the relationship between purchasing management and uncertainty has changed substantially over time. Traditionally, uncertainty was avoided, while firms today are engaged in efforts of handling the consequences of uncertainty. This modification affected the features of buyer-supplier relationships, as well as the perspectives and the exploitation of power, control and dependence. Originality/value The paper demonstrates both positive and negative consequences of uncertainty, depending on the approach applied in purchasing. Moreover, the analysis shows that uncertainty cannot be avoided. Modifications of purchasing management will reduce certain types of uncertainty. But the same modification also results in increases of other forms of uncertainty.

From Container to Claustrum: Projective Identification in Couples

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Projective Identification ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intimate Partners ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
As If

This paper is a contribution to the growing literature on the role of projective identification in understanding couples' dynamics. Projective identification as a defence is well suited to couples, as intimate partners provide an ideal location to deposit unwanted parts of the self. This paper illustrates how projective identification functions differently depending on the psychological health of the couple. It elucidates how healthier couples use projective identification more as a form of communication, whereas disturbed couples are inclined to employ it to invade and control the other, as captured by Meltzer's concept of "intrusive identification". These different uses of projective identification affect couples' capacities to provide what Bion called "containment". In disturbed couples, partners serve as what Meltzer termed "claustrums" whereby projections are not contained, but imprisoned or entombed in the other. Applying the concept of claustrum helps illuminate common feelings these couples express, such as feeling suffocated, stifled, trapped, held hostage, or feeling as if the relationship is killing them. Finally, this paper presents treatment challenges in working with more disturbed couples.

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