Storying Organizational Change: A Story of a Storyteller

The thesis tells a story of change from the perspective of the change agent as storyteller. It explores the importance of change agents being credible and listened to storytellers of change and the impact on change when change agents fail to deliver a story that is acceptable to the audience and enactors of change. The research adopts a storytelling approach to analysis and review and draws on the storytelling literature and the literature of change agents and change leaders. However, in exploring the literature on storytelling, the researcher takes issue with writers who tend to ‘close-down’ and constrain stories to frameworks that undermine the organic and evolutionary nature of stories in situ. Consequently, the exploration and analysis of the data draws from a variety of ideas, models and perspectives to enable an interpretation to emerge, and sense-making based upon grounded theory, moving to abductive analysis. This shying away from induction to abductive analysis arises from the researcher’s reconsidered perspectives, developed over time and intellectual positions, aided by the methodological data analysis. These characteristics enabled enrichment of the research through the processes of revisiting data, defamiliarization of the data from its original focus, and alternative casing of the stories that emerged. The empirical research was conducted 25 years ago and the presentation of the story demonstrates testament to the value and importance of secondary analysis of qualitative data. The data has already yielded a previous research analysis which was reviewed successfully and addressed the role and impact of senior management on change initiatives. Again, the revisiting of the researcher to empirical data collected during an era when organizations were ‘hooked’ on Total Quality Management, the focus of the original research, shows both the endurance of areas of organizational interest, in this case, organizational change, and the resilience of the data to enable fresh analysis and contemporary discussion and interpretation. As such, the thesis calls in to question the tendency for research institutions to propose to discard data after a relatively short period of time

Doing Good or Doing Better

The world is changing, and so is the unquestioning belief that development policies are always right. Instead of focusing on the rather limited notion of poverty, this book aims to deepen our understanding of the broad issue of development. What are the drivers of development? What new issues have arisen due to globalization? And what kind of policies contribute to development in a world that is changing rapidly? The articles in this book provide insight into the muddled trajectories of development on various continents and rethink the notion of development in a globalizing, interdependent world. Taken together, the still fuzzy contours of a paradigm shift emerge from the 'Washington Confusion'. Development can no longer be the ambitious, moral project based on a standard model of economic European or American modernization. 'Doing better' means being less moralistic, more modest and pragmatic, and taking seriously the path dependencies and social realities that exist in each country

It Was Handed to Them : The Origins of Targeted Delivery and the Spirit of Nanomedicine

Nanotechnology is widely recognized as an important field. Since the 2000s, nano-based targeting has been a cutting-edge approach in cancer research. To specify what nanomedicine means and describe its significance at the cultural level, this study harnesses data from peer-reviewed articles published in leading scientific journals. Balancing precariously between sociological theory and science and technology studies, this project turns to nanomedicine’s origins to address broader questions regarding the relationship between science and society and the causes of scientific discovery and technological innovation. It tells the story of nanotechnology\u27s discursive formations taking on a life of their own and congealing into a zeitgeist or spirit, as is reminiscent of the one described by Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic. It concludes that nanotechnology-based targeted delivery was not merely a scientific idea or a technical solution to the problem of cancer, but a broad cultural logic based on the waning of thinking in terms of warfare and blunt force, and the rise of an ethos centered around designing, creating and managing relationships, affinity, and engineering compatibility between things normally understood as incompatible

The position of the child in Irish literature

The thesis is fundamentally an interrogation of what is called the 'position of the child' vis-à-vis the 'position of the father'. The concept of the child as defined by age, knowledge, experience, or innocence is dismissed. The concept of position is drawn from Lacan's Schema L and Schema R which map out relations between the registers of the Symbolic, Imaginary and Real. Schema L is used to define the position of the child, or the subject who is both defined and excluded from a relation, and also what is called the position-as-child in a father-occluded Imaginary, produced from a culture with phallic jouissance as its dominant mode of pleasure and pain. The logic of such a culture is of the phallic exception. Schema R is skewed in Figure 3 to sketch a model of 'phallic mobility' and 'feminine mobility' between the father and child positions, as well as a Law of the Father and a Law of Desire. Foucault's analysis of Western sexuality from the eighteenth century onwards is proffered as the historical basis for the Law of the Father, when the parent-child relation becomes preponderant as the socialisation process. Around this period, literature develops a notably half-articulated (Imaginary) relation between writer and reader in Sentimental and Romantic discourse, and the position-as- child becomes a staple of aesthetic as well as regulatory, political interest. The military and structural violence of colonialism forcibly imposes an English 'position-as-child' on a native populace. The colonial ideology comprising a half-articulated, nostalgic, analeptic and Imaginary framing of both native culture and the child is considered a means for overdetermining a proleptic path the native and child then must follow towards a colonial and patriarchal position of the father. The glaring (phallic) exception to half-articulation is Romantic Hamlet. Dispossessed of land and title, incredibly articulate yet politically inept, Hamlet falls every time in Act 5 just like MacPherson's ideal for the Celt in Ossian (1765). How the reception of Hamlet in Romanticism peculiarly ignores the question of land, and how Hamlet invites a neighbouring, Nordic nation to establish a government is, at a period of colonial expansion, eminently gratuitous. Hamlet is the idealised position-as-child in a historically situated, colonial-inspired, father-occluded Imaginary. The main body of the thesis then proceeds by chapters on authors and the voices of characters reaching for a healing in a father-occluded Imaginary

Effects of Diversity and Neuropsychological Performance in an NFL Cohort

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of ethnicity on neuropsychological test performance by comparing scores of white and black former NFL athletes on each subtest of the WMS. Participants and Methods: Data was derived from a de-identified database in South Florida consisting of 63 former NFL white (n=28, 44.4%) and black (n=35, 55.6%) athletes (Mage= 50.38; SD= 11.57). Participants completed the following subtests of the WMS: Logical Memory I and II, Verbal Paired Associates I and II, and Visual Reproduction I and II. Results: A One-Way ANOVA yielded significant effect between ethnicity and performance on several subtests from the WMS-IV. Black athletes had significantly lower scores compared to white athletes on Logical Memory II: F(1,61) = 4.667, p= .035, Verbal Paired Associates I: F(1,61) = 4.536, p = .037, Verbal Paired Associates: II F(1,61) = 4.677, p = .034, and Visual Reproduction I: F(1,61) = 6.562, p = .013. Conclusions: Results suggest significant differences exist between white and black athletes on neuropsychological test performance, necessitating the need for proper normative samples for each ethnic group. It is possible the differences found can be explained by the psychometric properties of the assessment and possibility of a non-representative sample for minorities, or simply individual differences. Previous literature has found white individuals to outperform African-Americans on verbal and non-verbal cognitive tasks after controlling for socioeconomic and other demographic variables (Manly & Jacobs, 2002). This highlights the need for future investigators to identify cultural factors and evaluate how ethnicity specifically plays a role on neuropsychological test performance. Notably, differences between ethnic groups can have significant implications when evaluating a sample of former athletes for cognitive impairment, as these results suggest retired NFL minorities may be more impaired compared to retired NFL white athletes

Distinguishing Performance on Tests of Executive Functions Between Those with Depression and Anxiety

Objective: To see if there are differences in executive functions between those diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and those with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).Participants and Methods: The data were chosen from a de-identified database at a neuropsychological clinic in South Florida. The sample used was adults diagnosed with MDD (n=75) and GAD (n=71) and who had taken the Halstead Category Test, Trail Making Test, Stroop Test, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Age (M=32.97, SD=11.75), gender (56.7% female), and race (52.7% White) did not differ between groups. IQ did not differ but education did (MDD=13.41 years, SD=2.45; GAD=15.11 years, SD=2.40), so it was ran as a covariate in the analyses. Six ANCOVAs were run separately with diagnosis being held as the fixed factor and executive function test scores held as dependent variables. Results: The MDD group only performed worse on the Category Test than the GAD group ([1,132]=4.022, p\u3c .05). Even though both WCST scores used were significantly different between the two groups, both analyses failed Levene’s test of Equality of Error Variances, so the data were not interpreted. Conclusions: Due to previous findings that those diagnosed with MDD perform worse on tests of executive function than normal controls (Veiel, 1997), this study wanted to compare executive function performance between those diagnosed with MDD and those with another common psychological disorder. The fact that these two groups only differed on the Category Test shows that there may not be much of a difference in executive function deficits between those with MDD and GAD. That being said, not being able to interpret the scores on the WCST test due to a lack of homogeneity of variance indicates that a larger sample size is needed to compare these two types of patients, as significant differences may be found. The results of this specific study, however, could mean that the Category Test could be used in assisting the diagnosis of a MDD patient

The Effect of Ethnicity on Neuropsychological Test Performance of Former NFL Athletes

Objective: To investigate the effect of ethnicity on neuropsychological test performance by specifically exploring differences between white and black former NFL athletes on subtests of the WAIS-IV. Participants and Methods: Data was derived from a de-identified database in Florida consisting of 63 former NFL athletes (Mage=50.38; SD=11.57); 28 white and 35 black. Participants completed the following subtests of the WAIS-IV: Block Design, Similarities, Digit Span, Matrix Reasoning, Arithmetic, Symbol Search, Visual Puzzles, Coding, and Cancellation. Results: One-Way ANOVA yielded a significant effect between ethnicity and performance on several subtests. Black athletes had significantly lower scaled scores than white athletes on Block Design F(1,61)=14.266, p\u3c.001, Similarities F(1,61)=5.904, p=.018, Digit Span F(1,61)=8.985, p=.004, Arithmetic F(1,61)=16.07, p\u3c.001 and Visual Puzzles F(1,61)=16.682, p\u3c .001. No effect of ethnicity was seen on performance of Matrix Reasoning F(1,61)=2.937, p=.092, Symbol Search F(1,61)=3.619, p=.062, Coding F(1,61)=3.032, p=.087 or Cancellation F(1,61)=2.289, p=.136. Conclusions: Results reveal significant differences between white and black athletes on all subtests of the WAIS-IV but those from the Processing Speed Scale and Matrix Reasoning. These findings align with previous literature that found white individuals to outperform African-Americans on verbal and non-verbal tasks after controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variables (Manly & Jacobs, 2002). These differences may also be a reflection of the WAIS-IV’s psychometric properties and it is significant to consider the normative sample used may not be appropriate for African-Americans. This study highlights the need for future research to identify how ethnicity specifically influences performance, sheds light on the importance of considering cultural factors when interpreting test results, and serves as a call to action to further understand how and why minorities may not be accurately represented in neuropsychological testing