Crafting Blindness: Its Organizational Construction in a First Grade School

This article is based on a case study conducted in an Italian primary school where the interactions between a sightless girl (named Jasmine, aged 8) and her classmates were extensively observed. The initial aim was to understand and describe the problems encountered by the sightless pupil, who acted in a social, organizational and physical environment which was not designed for handicapped people. However, other theoretical issues emerged during the research. The main finding was that sightlessness seems socially and organizationally constructed before it becomes a biological/physical handicap. The organizational processes through which the blindness is slowly and routinely constructed were extensively described.

Sustainability Culture of Polish Universities in Professionalization of Management

The process of management professionalization is progressing in many universities in the world. It results from the growing importance of technology, globalization, social and economic transformations, including the requirement of competitive operation in market conditions. This process is based on the principles of social responsibility for the quality of services provided with transparency as well as respect for the idea of sustainable development. The subject of the considerations in the article is the impact of sustainable development on the culture of the quality of professionalization of management in universities operating in Poland. The exploratory inspiration came from the authors' own experiences and secondary sources, including books, articles and reports. The research methods used were participant observation and critical analysis of the content of the collected materials. The obtained results made it possible to design and conduct a descriptive and explanatory nomothetic study based on survey with direct questionnaire. The collected material became the basis for implementation of the idea of sustainable development and its impact on the quality culture of professionalization of university management in the future. The suggestions proposed by the authors may be used by university managers to define a development roadmap in the field of professionalization of teaching and organizational processes management based on the concept of sustainable development.

Spillover Benefits and Achieving Sustainability of Age-Friendly Communities

As the age-friendly movement grows in its second decade, urgent questions of initiative sustainability have taken hold in the academic literature and among advocates implementing age-friendly changes. The creation of authentically age-inclusive environments requires not just the continuation of the initiative itself, but that its principles become embedded in formal and informal organizational processes, across sectors and beyond familiar networks focused on older populations. This paper argues that sustainability of age-friendly initiatives is enhanced by “spillover” effects, in which a behavioral or policy change in one environment spurs change in another environment. Evidence for such spillover and an understanding of how and when it occurs is currently limited in the context of age-friendly environments. This paper draws on the experiences of Age-Friendly Boston, which has been working towards age-friendly goals for more than five years. Based on Boston’s experience, we identify, describe, and exemplify three pathways to positive spillover across environments: 1) branding positively; 2) publicizing successes; and 3) embarking on new relationships, while strengthening existing ones, in pursuit of shared goals. We also draw conclusions about what positive spillover means for the sustainability of age-friendly environments.

Evolution of Sustainable Tourism Concepts

This paper aims to present the evolution and change in content in tourism, over time, as well as the emergence of different sustainable tourism concepts (ST). For this purpose, a comparative Automated Content Analysis (ACA) is herein applied to scientific articles published between 1990, when the first article in this field was published in the Web of Science, and the end of 2020. The results show some overlaps between the concepts that have emerged over the periods. According to the analysis results, it can be concluded that the theme focuses on business model changes, adoption of organizational processes related to the provision of mitigation measures, implementation of cleaner and smarter technologies, the importance of cultural heritage for sustainable tourism product concepts, rural development, green investment, sustainable standards and sustainable reporting.

Evaluation of Appreciative Inquiry Interventions

<p>As a relatively new tool for organization development, action research, training and team building, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has gained popularity worldwide (Messerschmidt, 2008). Whilst much research has addressed the approach and its philosophy, AI still remains an approach with little self-reflection or critique (Grant & Humphries, 2006). It has been suggested that evaluation of past AI interventions is needed to inform managerial action in conducting future interventions and contribute to the literature on AI (Dunlap, 2008). In this thesis, three large-scale AI interventions (between 130 and 320 participants in the summit) were evaluated. Three organizations operating in New Zealand and Australia agreed to participate in this research. Across these three organizations, data were collected through 23 semi-structured interviews of employees who were involved in the AI summit. Evaluation of these interventions was carried out by comparing the findings of the interviews with the intended goals and outcomes for each organization in initially performing an AI summit. In addition, the findings were contrasted with the existing literature on AI and recommendations for future implementations are made. This research shows that the interviewees across the three organizations consistently reflected very positively on the AI summit. They commonly used words like 'fun', 'great', 'amazing', 'exciting', 'energizing', 'motivating' and 'making you feel special' to describe the event. Particularly, the involvement of a diverse group of people (co-workers from different management levels, customers, suppliers, external partners, etc.) in the summit was highly appreciated by the interviewees. While the literature puts a great emphasis on the AI summit and the planning of the event, the findings indicate that the things that happen post the summit are at least as important as the actual summit itself. Two out of three organizations appear to have underestimated the importance of what should happen after the event and ultimately failed in integrating AI into their organizational processes or capturing significant benefits following the AI summit. In contrast, the third organization put a strong emphasis on planning actions that followed the summit and consequently managed to make AI part of their way of operating.</p>

Evaluation of Appreciative Inquiry Interventions

<p>As a relatively new tool for organization development, action research, training and team building, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has gained popularity worldwide (Messerschmidt, 2008). Whilst much research has addressed the approach and its philosophy, AI still remains an approach with little self-reflection or critique (Grant & Humphries, 2006). It has been suggested that evaluation of past AI interventions is needed to inform managerial action in conducting future interventions and contribute to the literature on AI (Dunlap, 2008). In this thesis, three large-scale AI interventions (between 130 and 320 participants in the summit) were evaluated. Three organizations operating in New Zealand and Australia agreed to participate in this research. Across these three organizations, data were collected through 23 semi-structured interviews of employees who were involved in the AI summit. Evaluation of these interventions was carried out by comparing the findings of the interviews with the intended goals and outcomes for each organization in initially performing an AI summit. In addition, the findings were contrasted with the existing literature on AI and recommendations for future implementations are made. This research shows that the interviewees across the three organizations consistently reflected very positively on the AI summit. They commonly used words like 'fun', 'great', 'amazing', 'exciting', 'energizing', 'motivating' and 'making you feel special' to describe the event. Particularly, the involvement of a diverse group of people (co-workers from different management levels, customers, suppliers, external partners, etc.) in the summit was highly appreciated by the interviewees. While the literature puts a great emphasis on the AI summit and the planning of the event, the findings indicate that the things that happen post the summit are at least as important as the actual summit itself. Two out of three organizations appear to have underestimated the importance of what should happen after the event and ultimately failed in integrating AI into their organizational processes or capturing significant benefits following the AI summit. In contrast, the third organization put a strong emphasis on planning actions that followed the summit and consequently managed to make AI part of their way of operating.</p>

Screen Mediated Work in an Ethnography of Official Statistics

The omnipresence of screen mediated work has consequences for researchers interested in ethnographically observing digital work ‘in action’ in co-located, face-to-face, fieldwork. Researchers can encounter difficulties such as deciding how and when to observe the role of screens, and observing screen mediated work when figures and graphs appear briefly or out of view. Focussing on organizational knowledge practices, the chapter first discusses how we can conceptualize the roles of screens in digital work by reviewing five ethnographic research traditions: (1) symbolic interactionism; (2) ethnomethodology; (3) panoptic theories of power; (4) actor-network theories; (5) sociomateriality in organizational processes. Next, the chapter considers how to practically study screen mediated work via an ethnographic research project in a statistical office. On the basis of this project, we can distinguish five ‘small m’ methodological positions for conducting fieldwork in screen mediated workspaces, illustrating how ‘screen demonstration interviews’ and (participant) observation are conducted.

Antecedents of Dynamic Capabilities and IT-Dependent Initiatives in the Context of Digital Data

Firms automatically and continuously capture a high amount of digital data (DD) through social media, RFID tags, clickstreams, manufacturing sensors. However, empirical evidence on the effects of the generation of such digital data on firms remains scarce. Therefore, this paper examines the antecedents of companies' ability to leverage DD, which the authors refer to as DD dynamic capability and DD initiatives, and investigates whether this ability directly leads to better data accessibility. They empirically test the hypotheses, and they find that the antecedents have specific influences on both DD initiatives and DD capability, such that all the antecedents support the initiatives; however, only organizational processes strengthen DD capability. Furthermore, DD initiatives and DD capability improve the accessibility of DD. The results show that organizational processes of sensing, coordination, integration, and learning emerged as the most important sources of DCs. By contrast, the firm's assets and history played only a marginal, supporting role.