57,777 research outputs found
Equality of Participation Online Versus Face to Face: Condensed Analysis of the Community Forum Deliberative Methods Demonstration
Online deliberation may provide a more cost-effective and/or less inhibiting
environment for public participation than face to face (F2F). But do online
methods bias participation toward certain individuals or groups? We compare F2F
versus online participation in an experiment affording within-participants and
cross-modal comparisons. For English speakers required to have Internet access
as a condition of participation, we find no negative effects of online modes on
equality of participation (EoP) related to gender, age, or educational level.
Asynchronous online discussion appears to improve EoP for gender relative to
F2F. Data suggest a dampening effect of online environments on black
participants, as well as amplification for whites. Synchronous online voice
communication EoP is on par with F2F across individuals. But individual-level
EoP is much lower in the online forum, and greater online forum participation
predicts greater F2F participation for individuals. Measured rates of
participation are compared to self-reported experiences, and other findings are
discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 10 tables, to appear in Efthimios Tambouris, Panos
Panagiotopoulos, {\O}ystein S{\ae}b{\o}, Konstantinos Tarabanis, Michela
Milano, Theresa Pardo, and Maria Wimmer (Editors), Electronic Participation:
Proceedings of the 7th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2015
(Thessaloniki, August 30-September 2), Springer LNCS Vol. 9249, 201
Determinants of Managerial Intensity in the Early Years of Organizations
This paper examines how founding conditions shape subsequent organizational evolutionâ specifically, the proliferation of management and administrative jobs. Analyzing quantitative and qualitative information on a sample of young technology start-ups in Californiaâs Silicon Valley, we examine the enduring imprint of two aspects of firmsâ founding conditions: the employment blueprints espoused by founders in creating new enterprises; and the social capital that existed among key early members of the firmâtheir social composition and social relations. We find that the initial gender mix in start-ups and the blueprint espoused by the founder influence the extent of managerial intensity that develops over time. In particular, firms whose founders espoused a bureaucratic model from the outset subsequently grew more administratively intense than otherwise-similar companies, particularly companies whose founders had initially championed a âcommitmentâ model. Also, firms with a higher representation of women within the first year subsequently were slower to bureaucratize than otherwise-similar firms with a predominance of males. Our analyses thus provide compelling evidence of path-dependence in the evolution of organizational structures and underscore the importance of the âlogics of organizingâ that founders bring to new enterprises. Implications of these results for organizational theory and research are discussed
Boston University Bulletin. School of Management; Graduate Programs, 1980-1981
Each year Boston University publishes a bulletin for all undergraduate programs and separate bulletins for each School and College, Summer Term, and Overseas Programs. Requests for the undergraduat e bulle tin should be addressed to the Admissions Office and those for other bulletins to the individual School or College.
This bulletin contains current information regarding the calendar, admissions, degree requirements, fees, regulations,
and course offerings. The policy of the University is to give advance notice of change, when ever possible, to permit
adjustment. The University reserves the right in its sole judgment to make changes of any nature in its program, calendar,
or academic schedule whenever it is deemed necessary or desirable, including changes in course content, the rescheduling of classes with or without extending the academic term, canceling of scheduled classes and other academic
activities, and requiring or affording alternatives for schedul ed classes or other academic activities, in any such case
giving such notice thereof as is reasonably practicable under the circumstances.
Boston University Bulletins (USPS 061-540) are published twenty times a year: one in January, one in March, four in
May, four in June, six in July, one in August, and three in September
Metaphorical patterns in Anthropocene fiction
This article explores metaphorical language in the strand of contemporary fiction that Trexler discusses under the heading of âAnthropocene fictionâ â namely, novels that probe the convergence of human experience and geological or climatological processes in times of climate change. Why focus on metaphor? Because, as cognitive linguists working in the wake of Lakoff and Johnson have shown, metaphor plays a key role in closing the gap between everyday, embodied experience and more intangible or abstract realities â including, we suggest, the more-than-human temporal and spatial scales that come to the fore with the Anthropocene. In literary narrative, metaphorical language is typically organized in coherent clusters that amplify the effects of individual metaphors. Based on this assumption, we discuss the results of a systematic coding of metaphorical language in three Anthropocene novels by Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, and Ian McEwan. We show that the emergent metaphorical patterns enrich and complicate the novelsâ staging of the Anthropocene, and that they can destabilize the strict separation between human experience and nonhuman realities
Engineering Bureaucracy: The Genesis of Formal Policies, Positions, and Structures in High-Technology Firms
[Excerpt] This article examines the impact of organizational founding conditions on several facets of bureaucratizationâmanagerial intensity, the proliferation of specialized managerial and administrative roles, and formalization of employment relations. Analyzing information on a sample of technology start-ups in California\u27s Silicon Valley, we characterize the organizational models or blueprints espoused by founders in creating new enterprises. We find that those models and the social composition of the labor force at the time of founding had enduring effects on growth in managerial intensity (i.e., reliance on managerial and administrative specialists) over time. Our analyses thus provide compelling evidence of path dependence in the evolution of bureaucracyâeven in a context in which firms face intense selection pressuresâand underscore the importance of the logics of organizing that founders bring to new enterprises. We find less evidence that founding models exert persistent effects on the formalization of employment relations or on the proliferation of specialized senior management titles. Rather, consistent with neo-institutional perspectives on organizations, those superficial facets of bureaucracy appear to be shaped by the need to satisfy external gatekeepers (venture capitalists and the constituents of public corporations), as well as by exigencies of organizational scale, growth, and aging. We discuss some implications of these results for efforts to understand the varieties, determinants, and consequences of bureaucracy
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