Steering as Path Creation: Leadership and the Art of Managing Dependencies and Reality Effects

We develop a perspective on steering in governance which understands steering as intended path creation. Inspired by evolutionary governance theory, critical management studies and social systems theory, we argue that steering is shaped and limited by co-evolutions, disallowing for any formulaic approach. In order to illuminate the space for steering in governance, we analyze the interplay between different dependencies. Those dependencies are not just obstacles to path creation, they can also be pointers and assets. The steering discussion is further complicated by always unique sets of couplings between a governance system and its environment. After introducing the ideas of reality effects and governance strategy, we further develop our concept of steering and present it as the management of dependencies (in governance) and reality effects (outside governance) towards path creation. This management is ideally strategic in nature and requires leadership in a new role.

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Managing uncertainty in healthcare interpreter-mediated interaction

Communication & Medicine ◽

10.1558/cam.38677 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 150-164

Author(s):

Claudio Baraldi ◽

Laura Gavioli

Keyword(s):

Systems Theory ◽

Conversation Analysis ◽

Social Systems ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Social Systems Theory ◽

Intercultural Mediators ◽

Or History

This paper analyses healthcare interactions involving doctors, migrant patients and ‘intercultural mediators’ who provide interpreting services. Our study is based on a collection of 300 interactions involving two language pairs, Arabic–Italian and English–Italian. The analytical framework includes conversation analysis combined with insights from social systems theory. We look at question-answer sequences, where (1) the doctors ask questions about patients’ problems or history, (2) the doctors’ questions are responded to and (3) the doctor closes the sequence, moving on to another question. We analyse the ways in which mediators help doctors design questions for patients and patients understand and eventually respond to the doctors’ design. While the doctor’s question design aims at obtaining details which are relevant for the patients’ care, it is argued that collecting such details involves complex interactional work. In particular, doctors need help in displaying their attention to their patients’ problems and in guiding patients’ responses into medically relevant directions. Likewise, patients need help in reacting appropriately. Mediators help manage communicative uncertainty both by showing the doctor’s interest in what the patient says, and by exploring and rendering the patient’s incomplete, extended and ambiguous answers to the doctor’s questions.

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Management and the human resource function: a model based on social systems theory

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management ◽

10.1504/ijhrdm.2004.004768 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 235 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jai Ghorpade

Keyword(s):

Systems Theory ◽

Human Resource ◽

Social Systems ◽

Social Systems Theory ◽

Model Based ◽

Resource Function

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Determinants of family meetings in private family businesses

Journal of Family Business Management ◽

10.1108/jfbm-11-2020-0110 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Akif Cicek ◽

Rüveyda Kelleci ◽

Pieter Vandekerkhof

Keyword(s):

Systems Theory ◽

Family Firms ◽

Social Systems ◽

Governance Mechanisms ◽

Social Systems Theory ◽

Content Type ◽

Family Governance ◽

Family Meetings ◽

The Social ◽

The Family

PurposeFamily governance mechanisms serve to govern and strengthen relations between the family and the business, as well as the relationships between the members of the business family itself. However, despite agreement on the importance of adopting family governance structures, explicit research on the determinants of family governance mechanisms is currently missing. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to uncover the determinants of family meetings. In order to do so, the social systems theory is used to unravel several determining factors of this crucial form of family governance mechanisms in private family firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors perform a qualitative study by conducting semi-structured interviews in eight Belgian private family firms in order to discover the antecedents of the implementation of family meetings. The authors use a pattern-matching technique as an analytical strategy.FindingsThe findings of the study highlight the importance of “soft,” relational, qualitative issues as antecedents of family meetings as opposed to previous research on family governance, which predominantly focused on “hard,” quantitative measures (e.g. family ownership). The findings of the study also provide novel insights into the origins of the family component (i.e. family meetings) of family business governance.Originality/valueWhile the current literature has only focused on describing the different types of family governance and their positive consequences for the family firm, the authors take a step back to explain why family meetings, as a form of family governance, are adopted in the first place. Second, the authors demonstrate the instrumentality of the social systems theory in understanding the family's needs that necessitate the implementation of family governance mechanisms.

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