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- Volume 1, Issue 2-3, 1996
Concepts and Transformation - Volume 1, Issue 2-3, 1996
Volume 1, Issue 2-3, 1996
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The Influence of Culture in Search Conferences: A Rare Case of Fight/Flight
Author(s): Merrelyn Emerypp.: 143–164 (22)More LessThis paper analyses an outbreak of fight/flight in a Search Conference. Knowledge ofBion's work, neglected of late because of an expedient belief in our poor communication skills, is essential for Search designers and managers. His basic group assumptions rarely appear in the Search Conference today because it is specifically designed and managed to prevent them. However, cases, commonly of fight/flight, can still occur. They usually involve mistakes in either design or management. This case also involved culture which has also been a relatively neglected dimension of Search Conference theory. Two cultural factors affected the progress of this Search. The first is a trend towards dissociation in the USA and the West generally, and the second is the culture of educated elites, including consultants and academics. Its lesson is that culture should be considered in design.
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Action Research and Trade Unions: Some Experience from the UK
Author(s): Denis Gregorypp.: 165–174 (10)More LessThis article presents three cases: (I) the employment development and assistance program (EDAP) at the Ford Motor Company; (2) participation and change at 3M's Gorseinon production plant; and (3) confronting change at the Yorkshire Water Company. The cases provide an illustration of the action research involvement of the Trade Union Research Unit (TURU) at Ruskin College, Oxford. In particular they show the importance of understanding the contextual forces shaping the action research space in the realpolitik of industrial relations. The critical importance of taking 'the question ' and not a theory as point of departure come to the fore. The studies point to the primacy of dialogue for building the understanding necessary for effective joint action.
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The Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Organizations: First Steps
Author(s): Martha Meerman and René van der Vlistpp.: 175–191 (17)More LessThe acceptance and integration of ethnic minorities in organizations is a serious problem in most Western countries. With the increase in the numbers of immigrants and refugees in these countries, while at the same time general unemployment is also tending to increase, unemployment among immigrants is becoming a serious problem. In most Western countries this has led to special regulations. In the Netherlands it has led to legislation which puts pressure on the employer to develop policies aiming at integration. As yet, this law has not been very successful.The municipality of the Hague (500,000 inhabitants, about 10,000 civil servants) approached the department of Social and Organizational Psychology of Leiden University for help. Diagnostic research was conducted in two departments of the municipality in such a way that the research itself would contribute to the solution of the problem. Preliminary steps in this process aimed at mobilizing positive attitudes among employees towards integration.
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Concept-Driven Change: The Core Element in a National Workplace Development Program
Author(s): Bjørn Gustavsen, Anders Wikman, Marianne Ekman Philips and Bernd Hofmaierpp.: 193–211 (19)More LessSweden experienced a strong increase in productivity during the first part of the 1990s. Data from the Swedish Working Life Fund show that the productivity increase is linked to changes in work organization. These changes did not break with the Swedish tradition of expanding on work roles and the potential for learning and development among shop floor workers. The new element in the changed organization of work relates first and foremost to development processes as such, and new ways in which to broaden and accelerate such processes.
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Articulating Practices: Methods and Experiences: Articulating a Practice from within the Practice Itself: Establishing Formative Dialogues by the Use of a 'Social Poetics'
Author(s): John Shotter and Arlene M. Katzpp.: 213–237 (25)More LessIn this article we describe a set of methods — which we call a 'social poetics ' —for use by a group of practitioners in coming to a more articulate grasp of their own practices, thus to develop them. Crucially influenced by Wittgenstein 's (1953) claims — that "Nothing is hidden" from us in our conduct of our practices, and that "the origin and primitive form of the language-game is a reaction " — we show how the methods of philosophical investigation he outlines can also be used to great effect in our everyday affairs. They work, not in terms of concepts or theories worked out ahead of time in committee rooms or research laboratories by experts, but in terms of certain practical uses of language, at crucial points within the ongoing conduct of a practice, by those involved in it. Crucially, they lead us to focus on novelties, on new but unnoticed possibilities for 'going on' available to us in our present circumstances, but present to us usually in only fleeting moments. If we can allow ourselves to be 'struck by' these novelties, then we can often go on, not to solve what had been seen as a problem, but to develop new ways forward, in which the old problems become irrelevant.
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Articulating Practices: Methods and Experiences: Resonances from within the Practice: Social Poetics in a Mentorship Program
Author(s): Arlene M. Katz and John Shotterpp.: 239–247 (9)More LessIn this article we describe an experimental mentoring program conducted in a major medical school in the Northeast of the United States. In it, primary care physicians mentored medical students in the course of conducting their daily practices. All involved were trained in a special reflecting practice that led them to focus on, and to discuss, concrete events occurring during the day. We illustrate how, both in pairs and in larger meetings, in discussing events within their practice together that they were 'struck by', student-mentees not only came to a more practical grasp of the medical knowledge of the classroom and textbook, but that all involved in the program came to create between them a resourceful community. At work within this program was a practice that functioned, not only to help the students, but the whole ongoing practice: for within it, besides moments of teaching, where other kinds of shared moments to do with the details of clinical practice, ethical issues, administrative problems, and so on — with all involved helping each other with what we have called the appreciative evaluation and elaboration of their practices.
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Articulating Practices: Methods and Experiences: Practical Traditions of Knowledge among Physicians
Author(s): Ingela Josefsonpp.: 249–256 (8)More LessTraditional medical education focuses on scientific knowledge, it concentrates on the technical aspects of diseases not on the sick person. In a study with three different groups of doctors an attempt has been made to start reflecting with the dilemmas in practical work as a point of departure. Perspectives from the field of the humanities have been used in order to offer other ways of looking at problems with which the doctors are familiar in their daily work.
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Self Action Research: An Institution Reviews Itself
Author(s): Derek N. Raffaelli and J. Alan Harrowpp.: 261–279 (19)More LessThe Scottish Institute of Human Relations, a psychoanalytically based training/therapeutic organization undertakes to "action research" itself. The need for this study comes at a time of rapid expansion and development which coincides with the death of its founder, J.D. Sutherland. Uncertain about the appropriateness of involving the total institution from the beginning (e.g. a search conference), the researchers begin by setting up and working with an incipient research group (IRG) which represents the Institute. How an Institution manages this phase in the change process is here described, with a particular emphasis on understanding the psycho-dynamics of the process of containment.
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Action Research and Epistemology: Some Remarks Concerning the Activity-Relatedness and Contextuality of Human Language
Author(s): Kjell S. Johannessenpp.: 281–297 (17)More LessIt is argued that more attention should be paid to the epistemological foundations of action research. Doing this from a pragmatic point of view, the author points to the decisive role of human practices regarding such fundamental issues as the constitution of meaningful signs, the application of concepts as rule-following, the contextuality of knowledge, and the marginal relevance of theory. The concept of practice not only points to the ways in which our concepts are established, it also comprises the skills involved in handling the conceptualized phenomena, our pre-reflective familiarity with them, expressed in the sureness of our behavior towards them, and the discernment exercised in applying or withholding a given concept on a particular occasion. These factors are all relevant to the establishment of knowledge, but they cannot themselves be fully and straightforwardly articulated by verbal means. Nevertheless, they represent what we go by when we apply concepts and other types of rules.
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Towards a Social Global Contract
Author(s): Riccardo Petrellapp.: 299–306 (8)More LessAn analysis of six possible alternative world scenarios, which might characterize the evolution of our societies in the four decades to come, reveals the need for the development of a Social Global Contract. The most important policy goal does not relate to higher competitiveness in the global economic wars, but should be concerned with creating more common wealth to satisfy the material and immaterial needs of the world's population. The Social Global Contract means the start of a process that favors the establishment of a cooperative system of global governance. To that end a set of practical tasks to be implemented within the framework of four major global contracts are identified and discussed.
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