Towards a Smarter organization for a Self-servicing Society

Traditional social organizations such as those for the management of healthcare are the result of designs that matched well with an operational context considerably different from the one we are experiencing today. The new context reveals all the fragility of our societies. In this paper, a platform is introduced by combining social-oriented communities and complex-event processing concepts: SELFSERV. Its aim is to complement the "old recipes" with smarter forms of social organization based on the self-service paradigm and by exploring culture-specific aspects and technological challenges.Comment: Final version of a paper published in the Proceedings of International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAI'16), special track on Emergent Technologies for Ambient Assisted Living (ETAAL

Organizational mechanisms of inclusive growth: A critical realist perspective on scaling

We investigate the challenge how the outcomes of innovation for inclusive growth, the novel organizational recipes, can be scaled to match the dimension of poverty. We conceptualize scaling as sustained event regularities between doing A and expected outcomes B. Building on a critical realist perspective, we develop an analytical framework of organizational closure and apply it to an extreme case, an organization with an inclusive growth model that has sustained event regularities for more than two decades. Our analysis reveals closure as an organizational competence with important implications for achieving scale in the context of poverty. We develop of a number of propositions between the link of organizational closure and scaling with implications for practice and further academic research.Organizational closure; social entrepreneurship; counterfactual analysis; retroduction;

Born in the USA: Exceptionalism in Maternity Care Organisation Among High-Income Countries

In lay terms, childbirth is regarded as a purely biological event: what is more natural than birth and death? On the other hand, social scientists have long understood that \'natural\' events are socially structured. In the case of birth, sociologists have examined the social and cultural shaping of its timing, outcome, and the organization of care throughout the perinatal period. Continuing in this tradition, we examine the peculiar social design of birth in the United States of America, contrasting this design with the ways birth is organised in Europe. We begin by showing how several key characteristics of the US health care system – including its inherent social inequality, its high level of medicalisation, and the substantial influence of private medical practice and insurance companies – influence the organization of maternity care there. We then explore how cultural characteristics of American society – its emphasis on individuality, the influence of moral conservatism in US politics, and the ease with which ordinary people take court action (the so-called \'litigation culture\') – shape the delivery of care at birth. We conclude with a consideration of the implications of US maternity care exceptionalism for comparative sociological analysis.Pregnancy, Comparative Studies, Exceptionalism, United States, Midwifery, Maternity Care, Birth

Discovering social networks from event logs

Process mining techniques allow for the discovery of knowledge based on so-called “event logs”, i.e., a log recording the execution of activities in some business process. Many information systems provide such logs, e.g., most WFM, ERP, CRM, SCM, and B2B systems record transactions in a systematic way. Process mining techniques typically focus on performance and control-flow issues. However, event logs typically also log the performer, e.g., the person initiating or completing some activity. This paper focuses on mining social networks using this information. For example, it is possible to build a social network based on the hand-over of work from one performer to the next. By combining concepts from workflow management and social network analysis, it is possible to discover and analyze social networks. This paper defines metrics, presents a tool, and applies these to a real event log from a Dutch organization

Creating a ‘new space’: code-switching among British-born Greek-Cypriots in London

This paper, located in the traditions of Interactional Sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982) and Social Constructionism (Berger and Luckmann 1966), explores code-switching and identity practices amongst British-born Greek-Cypriots. The speakers, members of a Greek-Cypriot youth organization, are fluent in English and (with varying levels of fluency) speak the Greek-Cypriot Dialect. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of recordings of natural speech during youth community meetings and a social event show how a new ‘third space’ becomes reified through code-switching practices. By skilfully manipulating languages and styles, speakers draw on Greek-Cypriot cultural resources to accomplish two inter-related things. First, by displaying knowledge of familiar Greek-Cypriot cultural frames, they establish themselves as different from mainstream British society and establish solidarity as an in-group. Secondly, by using these frames in non-serious contexts, and at times mocking cultural attitudes and stereotypes, they challenge and re-appropriate their inherited Greek-Cypriot identity, thereby constructing the identity of British-born Greek-Cypriot youth

Child Sacrifice Awareness is Goal of Social Work Organization

The Cedarville University social work honors organization, Phi Alpha, will present “Exposed: Voices Against Child Sacrifice” on February 8 at 7 p.m. in the student center event rooms. The program is open to the public and free of charge

The Effect of Negative Events and Firm Responses on Brand Associations, Organizational Associations, and Brand Evaluations.

This dissertation examines the impact of negative events and firm responses to such events on an associative network of brand knowledge; key consumer brand and organizational associations, risk perceptions, and brand response variables. To accomplish this objective the issue of how negative event information is integrated with an existing brand/organizational image was assessed within the framework of a consumer-brand relationship. Two between-subjects experiments were conducted using adult consumers as subjects. In Study One, negative events were found to affect associations linked to the brand and limit the brand\u27s ability to fulfill the consumer-brand relationship. Two types of events were identified, product-related events and organization-related events. Product-related events involve specific product attributes and call into question the ability of the brand to meet functional needs. Organization-related events do not involve product attributes, but rather are values-oriented events that might involve social or ethical issues. Product-related events were found to primarily impact associations (i.e., quality, corporate ability) linked to functional benefits and functional risk. Organization-related events were found to affect associations (i.e., corporate social responsibility, brand sincerity) linked more closely to symbolic and experiential benefits and social and psychological risk. While both types of events impacted brand response variables, a product-related event had a greater impact on important brand response variables. Study Two examined the effectiveness of three firm responses in restoring damaged associations and brand response. These image restoration strategies were assessed from the consumer\u27s perspective utilizing cognitive response, source credibility, and attribution theories. A denial strategy was found to be least effective due to source derogation and counterarguments of the firm being motivated by self-interest. A reduction of offensiveness strategy was found to be effective only for an organization-related event. A corrective action strategy was found to be the most effective response given a product-related event due to handling functional risk concerns associated with a product-related event. In general the results are consistent with the conceptualization of brand knowledge as an associative network of information and the predictions drawn from theory. The dissertation concludes by providing the key theoretical and managerial implications of the dissertation

Electronic Social Networks as Supporting Means of Educational Process in Higher Education Institutions

Given research describes experience of electronic social networks use in educational practices. It was determined that electronic social networks can be a powerful tool for support of educational process in higher education institutions, namely to support study of different disciplines. There are main advantages of electronic social networks use for education: universal accessibility and free of charge; possibility of instant messaging and multimedia data; user-friendly intuitive interface; ability to search data and information; availability of event scheduling, invitations, reminder settings; support for synchronous and asynchronous communication between network members; access from different devices. It is emphasized that one of the main advantages of electronic social networks is receipt of quick feedback and convenience of their tools and services. Nowadays, it is important to include network educational interaction in existing models of study organization. It is advisable to use electronic social networks to manage educational process in higher education institution. Efficiency of electronic social networks use depends on intensity and need for their use in educational system management for implementation of organizational, educational, psychological and pedagogical functions and ensuring universal communication with subjects of educational process. Expediency of electronic social networks use to carry out research work at university is described. Electronic social networks are convenient tool to conduct surveys and questionnaires, to create thematic groups for specific issue discussion. Also it is possible to interact with researchers from different countries, share experiences and disseminate research findings, invite those who wish to participate in various scientific activities using these networks