Trust in superior and subordinate relationship in expert organization at transformative state

Being a successful leader requires building strong relationships with subordinates and colleagues, and trust is always a central figure of a functioning relationship. Trust is the glue that keeps relationships together through challenging times and it is the lubricant that gets rid of unnecessary transactional costs and the need for subordinates to protect themselves and their positions. Trust between superior and subordinate enables both parties to perform at their highest level and even overachieve on their tasks and goals. It is essential for organizations at transformative state to maintain the trust relationship between superiors and subordinates. This qualitative study was conducted in Finland in the winter of 2010 - 2011, the organization in question was a Finnish public sector organization, where 4 superiors and 7 subordinates were interviewed, both men and women were included. The research data was analyzed by phenomenographic research method and the perceptions of the transformation process and its effects on trust relationship were studied. This research enforced the previous scientific knowledge about the nature of trust relationship between superior and subordinate. The integrity of the supervisor is the central factor of the perceived trustworthiness. In addition, at transformational situations the transparency and justice of the transformation and the possibility to influence the process are central factors of successful transformations. Equal and up to date information and a clear strategy are necessities for the subordinates to feel confident and satisfied with the transformation process. To manage a successful transformation and to maintain high trust relationship with her subordinates the supervisor has to have strong moral and ethical basis behind her actions and she must be able to maintain integrity between her words and actions. The ability to support, create a clear strategy and the genuine will to want the best for her subordinates are a necessity

Imagining a Poethical Classroom

This dissertation begins at the crossroads of three fields—creative writing, contemporary poetics, and composition studies—and attempts to unite what is normally kept separate: the teaching of freshman composition and contemporary poetry. It is rooted, then, in the following anomalies: few students (unless they are English majors) encounter contemporary poetry; and few living poets (who often earn their livings as adjuncts, teaching composition) ever engage in a conversation about composition pedagogy. Fewer still teach the kind of poetry they write. Through a qualitative study of student writing in composition courses, this project investigates how encouraging students to engage with this form of experimental poetry results in unsurpassed growth in critical writing and thinking skills, as well as a shift in how students own and value language. I take poet and theorist Joan Retallack’s idea of “poethics” as my frame, and explore how a writing-based pedagogy committed to the fusing of poesis and ethics inspires students to take risks in their writing, abandon traditional modes of meaning-making, and ultimately leads to higher levels of literacy and critical inquiry-driven essay-writing. The goal of this dissertation, then, is to theorize and enact a new pedagogy, one that grows out of a linking between contemporary poetics and composition studies. It presents portraits of composition classrooms in action, ones that embrace contemporary poetry as a method for engaging students in language itself

Intellectuals as spokespersons for the nation in the post-Yugoslav context:a critical discourse study

In contemporary post-Yugoslav societies, the ongoing processes of nation-building interact and intersect with the manifold challenges of post-socialist transition, post-conflict reconciliation, democratisation and European integration. Amid growing uncertainty and insecurity, public intellectuals may play a key role in ‘making sense’ of these complexities, in particular by shaping shared representations of the nation and by defining national identities in public discourse. Engaging in symbolic practices of nation-building, however, also enables intellectuals to legitimise their own authority and social status, as reflected in the concept of national intellectual practice elaborated by Suny and Kennedy (1999). This thesis explores the multifaceted power dynamics underlying post-Yugoslav intellectuals’ engagement in nation-building from the perspective of the Discourse-Historical Approach to critical discourse studies (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009; Wodak, 2011). Using an innovative methodological framework based on the original notion of intellectual spokespersonship for the nation (drawing on Pels, 2000), I examine a sample of published opinion pieces addressing three key recent events, i.e. Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, Croatia’s accession into the EU in 2013, and the anti-government protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2014. Detailed analysis of the patterns of intellectual spokespersonship for the nation that are distinctive to each case leads to the following conclusions. The Kosovo issue seems to have led Serbian intellectuals to refurbish their attitude as ‘saviours of the nation’, similarly to what had happened during the crisis of Yugoslavia. Croatian intellectuals, on the other hand, appear to be engaged in an effort to (re)define the role and place of the Croatian nation within the volatile context of European integration. Lastly, the ambivalent stance of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s intellectuals concerning the potential of the protest movement to undermine the status quo suggests that their involvement is chiefly aimed at strengthening their influence over the country’s public opinion

The socio-political construction and experience of corporate social responsibility (CSR): An investigation into the conflict surrounding the James Price Point LNG precinct, Kimberley, Western Australia

This thesis proposes a new theoretical framework for analysing corporate social responsibility: the ‘spaces of CSR’, which draws together the concepts of governmentality and spatiality. This framework is applied to the case of the proposed LNG processing precinct at James Price Point in Western Australia to demonstrate how CSR is shaped by various forces within the political economy, and to explore the disparate ways in which CSR is experienced by the local community