scholarly journals Situating Organizational Action: The Relational Sociology of Organizations

Organization ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Mutch ◽  
Rick Delbridge ◽  
Marc Ventresca
Keyword(s):  
Relational Sociology ◽  
Sociology Of Organizations ◽  
Organizational Action

Gaining Organizational Entry and Developing Partnerships for Applied Research and Experience: A Perspective From Industrial-Organizational Psychology Master's Programs

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 606-612
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. Shoenfelt ◽  
Nancy J. Stone ◽  
Janet L. Kottke
Keyword(s):  
Applied Research ◽  
Graduate Programs ◽  
Organizational Psychology ◽  
Master's Level ◽  
Organizational Entry ◽  
Master's Programs ◽  
Industrial Organizational Psychology ◽  
Organizational Action ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Guidelines And Recommendations

As faculty in master's industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology graduate programs, we read with great interest the focal article on initiating and maintaining partnerships with organizations (Lapierre et al., 2018). We applaud the efforts of the authors to present guidelines and recommendations for successful applied research in organizations. Although Lapierre et al. directed their recommendations primarily to doctoral faculty and their students, there currently are 159 I-O psychology master's programs listed on the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) webpage (http://my.siop.org/GTP). Because of the applied nature of most master's programs, by necessity we work continuously to gain entry into and partner with organizations for internship placements, applied course projects, and applied service opportunities. We, along with other master's faculty colleagues, have published and presented on the topic of partnering with organizations (e.g., Shoenfelt, 2003; Shoenfelt, Kottke, & Stone, 2012; Shoenfelt et al., 2015; Shoenfelt, Stone, & Kottke, 2013; Shoenfelt, Walker, Long, Smith, & Whelan, 2012; Stone, Shoenfelt, Huffcut, Morganson, & Frame, 2018; Stone, Shoenfelt, Morganson, Moffett, & Van Hein, 2017). In this response, we offer an analogous perspective from the master's level based on tacit knowledge garnered from more than a century of combined experience. We note that many of the recommendations in this focal article likewise surfaced in our work. Here we highlight the challenges unique to master's-level and teaching-intensive faculty in implementing these recommendations. In our response, we embrace Lewin's (1946) definition of action research that there is no action without research and no research without action. Thus, we broadly define applied research as asking an important applied question and systematically collecting data to answer that question in a manner in which the results inform organizational action (whether or not it results in a peer-reviewed publication).

Uneven worlds of hegemony: towards a discursive ontology of societal multiplicity

2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110103
Author(s):  
Viacheslav Morozov
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Relational Sociology ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Fundamental Condition ◽  
Uneven And Combined Development ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Ontological Individualism

The neo-Marxist literature on uneven and combined development has made significant progress towards a comprehensive theory of the international. Its point of departure is societal multiplicity as a fundamental condition of the international. This article identifies an important lacuna in the ontology of multiplicity: there is no discussion of what constitutes a ‘society’, or the basic entity capable of entering a relationship with other entities. Existing solutions, including those relying on relational sociology, gravitate towards ontological individualism. Building on poststructuralist neo-Gramscian theories, I propose to ground the conceptualisation of ‘society’ in the notion of hegemony. This implies a discursive ontology, which attributes the inside/outside dynamic to hegemonic formations rather than states or societies. Coupled with the understanding of hegemony as a scalar phenomenon, this ontology can account for the primacy of the state in modern times, while also enabling a research focus on other types of collectivities.

scholarly journals The Organizational Meaning of Research

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Adria ◽  
Patricia Boechler
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Life Time ◽  
Cognitive Change ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Organizational Models ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
University Continuing Education ◽  
Organizational Action ◽  
Extended Reflection

Practitioners and theorists have given attention recently to the role and status of research activities in Canadian university continuing education units. For individuals in units that are increasing the proportion of their organizational activities devoted to research, there will be an ongoing process of cognitive change and development as a new organizational culture emerges. Sensemaking is used in this article as a heuristic for exploring the process of incorporating and developing research activities in university continuing education units. Sensemaking is the cognitive process of justifying or legitimating a decision or outcome after the decision or outcome is already known. It is associated with organizational models that reject an exclusively rational decision-making paradigm of organizational action. Sensemaking recognizes the centrality of the following elements in the interpretation of research activities and their relationship to organizational life: time, identity construction, and the ongoing creation of context. The authors provide an extended reflection on the process of meaning-making that may be experienced by individuals as conventional research becomes a more important part of organizational life. Such a reflection may support and inform the change process as it occurs in university continuing education units.

Organizational Action Sets in the U.S. and German Labor Policy Domains

1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 509 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Knoke ◽  
Franz Urban Pappi
Keyword(s):  
Labor Policy ◽  
Organizational Action ◽  
The U.S

Institutional Logics and Low Skills: The Case of the Private Security Sector in Singapore

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1029-1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soon Joo Gog ◽  
Johnny Sung ◽  
David N Ashton
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Relational Sociology ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Services Sector ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Low Pay

This article introduces the concept of institutional logics to provide a more adequate understanding of the interaction between firms and the institutions within an economy that impact on skills and pay. We argue that the most prominent institutionalist approaches suffer from a number of major weaknesses that have contributed towards the failure of policy initiatives derived from them. We then demonstrate how developments in relational sociology offer the promise of remedying these deficiencies. The case of the private security services sector in Singapore, which has suffered from low skills and low pay, is then used to illustrate how this new approach, highlighting the institutional logics of the sector, can provide a more productive approach to policy in this area.

scholarly journals Norm transformation and the institutionalization of targeted killing in the US

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 723-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Frankel Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Use Of Force ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Network Synthesis ◽  
Relational Sociology ◽  
Targeted Killing ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
The Us ◽  
Norm Change

This article explains the emergence and institutionalization of the US’s targeted killing practices as a case of norm transformation. I argue that international and domestic US prohibitions on assassination have not disappeared, but have changed as a result of practitioner-led changes in the conventions, technologies, and bureaucratic structures governing the use of force in counterterrorism activities. After discussing the limits of alternative explanations, and drawing inspiration from practice theory, pragmatist social theory, and relational sociology, I posit three causal mechanisms as responsible for the transformation: convention reorientation, which was the redefinition of targeted killing to distinguish it from assassination; technological revision, which was the development and use of unmanned aerial vehicles (“drones”) to bypass normative and strategic concerns over precision; and network synthesis, which was the support of the Bush administration and especially of the Obama administration, overruling dissenters from within the Central Intelligence Agency (who were often very highly placed). I trace the processes by which these mechanisms operated and interacted in simultaneous and mutually reinforcing ways from the start of the millennium until now. Finally, I discuss some of the ways in which this contributes to institutional analysis and the study of norm change more generally, and, in particular, how it considers the role of technology and the reciprocity of means and ends.

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