scholarly journals The Revitalization of the CWA: Integrating Collective Bargaining, Political Action, and Organizing

ILR Review ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry C. Katz ◽  
Rosemary Batt ◽  
Jeffrey H. Keefe
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
Integration Strategy ◽  
Organizational Theories ◽  
The Face ◽  
Organizational Linkages

This case study of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) demonstrates the value of resource dependence and contingency organizational theories—two branches of organization theory, which has most commonly been used to interpret firm behavior—for analyzing union revitalization. Consistent with predictions of those theories, the CWA responded to a changed environment by abandoning strategies that no longer achieved organizational objectives, but retaining and bolstering strategies that continued to be effective. Furthermore, like the organizations analyzed in Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald Salancik's classic exposition of resource dependency theory, in the face of heightened environmental complexity and uncertainty the CWA used political action, growth strategies, and inter-organizational linkages to gain advantage. The CWA conformed to another prediction of contingency theory by using an integration strategy—specifically, by making simultaneous and interactive use of activities in collective bargaining, politics, and organizing—to spur innovation and respond to environmental complexity and uncertainty.

Organization theory in humanitarian operations: a review and suggested research agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Prakash ◽  
Maria Besiou ◽  
Parikshit Charan ◽  
Sumeet Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Resource Dependence Theory ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Future Application ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Humanitarian Operations ◽  
Thomson Reuters ◽  
Organizational Theories

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the current application of organization theory (OT) in the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) and identify the future OT-based research opportunities that can advance knowledge of humanitarian operations.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a systematic literature review methodology to identify the current status and future direction of the OT-based study in HSC literature. The applied theories are those that have been mentioned in at least two research articles in the HSC literature. The proposed theories are either adopted from the top four referred organizational theories in the supply chain literature or those that can explain the issue of information asymmetry in HSC.FindingsThe study identifies and describes eight organizational theories and their possible future research questions in HSC. Among these, the first four theories (i.e. resource-based theory, resource dependence theory, social exchange theory and contingency theory) have already been initially applied in the humanitarian field, while the remaining theories (i.e. institutional theory, stakeholder theory, transactional cost theory and information theory) have potential for future application.Research limitations/implicationsThe reviewed literature is limited to peer-reviewed journals listed in Thomson Reuters’ journal citation reports.Practical implicationsThis study may help future researchers better understand and solve, using organizational theory, the behavioral challenges faced by humanitarian operations.Originality/valueThe study presents current applications of and future prospects for OT-based research in HSC, effectively providing the first review of OT applications in this area. The novel framework and new theories proposed herein may enable fresh directions for HSC research.

Essal: On Paragrammatic Uses of Organizational Theory — A Provocation

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiannis Gabriel
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Theory ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Folk Knowledge ◽  
Organizational Theories ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Way

Having indicated some of the recurring difficulties in establishing a conceptual or philosophical link between theory and practice, the author examines the relation between organization theory and the practices of academics, managers and other organizational participants. He argues that this relation is shaped by the way organizational theories are disseminated in the face of an expanding hegemony of consumerization and consumerism. Like other commodities, organizational theories are not used passively, in general, but in a creative, opportunistic and individualistic way. In this, they resemble folk knowledge, such as cooking recipes and cookery books, which different users employ or experiment with in widely differing ways, for widely differing ends. In contrast to both programme and paradigm, the author uses the term `paragramme' to indicate a shifting stock of ideas, routines, images and ingredients which invite improvization and elaboration, rather than copying or adherence.

Self-Undermining Rhetoric in the Past and Present

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Seth Levine
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
The Face

This chapter considers the prospects for political change in the face of communicative barriers to collective action. It begins to address this question by identifying several of the most well-known historical and recent moments in which there was large-scale mobilization on some economic insecurity issues. This discussion, in concert with the empirical findings in this book, helps clarify the prospects for political action (and policy change) on these issues. The chapter then uses the findings from the book to identify three types of people that are most likely to become active. It also talks about the implications of having this (narrower) set of people active as opposed to the full range of people that find the issues to be important. It concludes by reiterating how self-undermining rhetoric is a broad concept that can apply in many different situations beyond those considered herein.

The human right to health and the struggle for recognition

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICK HAYDEN
Keyword(s):  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Treatment Action Campaign ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
Struggle For Recognition

AbstractPersistent health inequalities exist globally, affecting high-income countries and blighting the developing world. Health inequalities currently are one of the greatest challenges facing realisation of the human right to health. This article argues that the struggle for the right to health in the face of such inequalities requires embracing three critical considerations: redistribution, representation, and recognition. While the analysis of the right to health has been formulated predominantly around theories of distributive justice, I suggest that a more normatively compelling account will link the politics of economic redistribution to the politics of sociocultural recognition. A recognition approach, which views rights claims as grounded on the vulnerability of the human condition, can show how rights are emergent in political action and that the ability to claim and exercise the human right to health is contingent upon recognition of diverse sociopolitical statuses. From this perspective, there are no ‘neutral’ constructions of the rights-bearing subject and conflict between different political framings of the right to health is a consequence of the struggle for recognition. This theme is illustrated by comparing conservative, affirmative, and transformative processes of recognition in the struggle for access to essential antiretroviral medicines by South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign.

scholarly journals OUR DEAD CAN SPEAK: SOCIAL DISPLACEMENTS, AFFECTS, AND POLITICAL ACTION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Sanjurjo
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Political Action ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
The Face

Abstract Grounded in ethnographic research with activist organisations-families of the victims of state violence in Argentina and Brazil-this article seeks to critically reflect on the relationships between gender, kinship, and the politics and social practice of memory, together with devices for the management of life and social order in specific ethnographic situations. Using a comparative approach, the article argues that relationships established between these groups enable the construction of shared strategies of political action and the production of shared meanings in the face of overlapping confrontations with inequalities and violence. The central problematic questions how the these activists’ displacements (often transnational) disseminate practices, skills, experiences, and repertoires of political mobilisation that compose a field of action directed towards the construction of memories, the rendering visible of victims, and the denunciation of previous regimes of selectively perpetrated violence.

The Covenant Transformed: The Jeremiad Tradition and the War of 1812

1971 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-305
Author(s):  
William Gribbin
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
The Face ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Revolution

In his essay, “From the Covenant to the Revival”, Perry Miller suggested that after the Revolution America's traditional concept of the Covenant between Jehovah and His people gradually changed. No longer did a calamity bring abject self-debasement and pleas for mercy in the face of well-deserved punishment. No more would Americans look upon a crisis in their national affairs as an occasion for jeremiads, for confessing their sins and begging relief from the retribution they merited. Miller wrote,A theology which for almost two centuries had assumed that men would persistently sin, and so would have to be recurrently summoned to communal repentance, had for the first time identified its basic conception with a specific political action. Then, for the first time in the lite of the conception, the cause was totally gained. Did not a startling inference follow: these people must have reformed themselves completely, must now dwell on a pinnacle of virtuousness?

scholarly journals Inclusion of strategic management theories to project management

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 552-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Parker ◽  
Nicholas Parsons ◽  
Fitri Isharyanto
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Resource Dependence Theory ◽  
Theory Of Constraints ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Industrial Sectors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of integrating the theory of constraints (TOC), resources-based theory (RBT), resource advantage theory (RAT), with a structured project-based methodology e.g., Project Management Body of Knowledge. This paper describes each theory and explores what benefits a unified model would bring to project management. This paper represents the conceptual development of an integrated framework that will be tested in a range of project management scenarios in various industrial sectors. Design/methodology/approach – Extant literature is used to develop a conceptual framework of an integrated model that will be tested in the field for robustness. The model has been applied to published projects to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Findings – The work shows important implications for improved success of projects from the use of TOC, RAT and resource dependence theory (RDT). Specifically, it emphasizes the need for application of strategic theories to project management. Research limitations/implications – While TOC, RAT and RDT are well established in the context of organization theory, there is limited application in project management. Moreover, the model has yet to be applied in the field. The hypotheses identified in this research are currently being tested using field-based surveys. Practical implications – The research falls short in addressing some resources, e.g. innovation, tacit knowledge and decision making methods in traditional project management context. Therefore, identifying these critical resources in future work and exploiting them as the means of improving project performance would enhance the success of project-based management. Social implications – Project management is an emergent discipline and a project is temporary in nature. Therefore, new ideas and development of theories for project management practices are required. This innovative research, for example, may change the way projects are executed in future. Originality/value – This paper examines the components of a successful project according to the iron triangle, i.e. scope, quality, time and cost. However, through the application of TOC, RAT and RDT into an integrated project-based management framework gives new insights to resources management.

scholarly journals Public Funding of Higher Education and Student Access

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredua Kwasi-Agyeman
Keyword(s):  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Resource Dependence Theory ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Student Access ◽  
The Face ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

This study explores the question of how two public universities in Africa seek to improve student access, given the decline in public funding. Using resource dependence theory as a guide, qualitative approach via semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis are used to gather data to explore the study’s objective. To examine the reduction in public funding and student access, this study first examines the changes in public funding and student access at the University of the Western Cape and the University of Ghana from 2007 to 2016. This is followed by an analysis of factors that influence the changes in public funding, and their implications for student access at the two universities. The last to be explored is the actual strategies that the University of the Western Cape and the University of Ghana have employed to improve student access in the face of cutback in public funding. 

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