Making the Most of Volunteers

No one doubts the potential value of volunteers; the tougher issue is getting the most out of them. Unfortunately, volunteers are both scarce and much-needed in the human service field. This report summarizes P/PV's work over the years with organizations that use volunteers. The analysis discovered that three functions -- screening, training and ongoing management -- are key to maximizing volunteer value and minimizing damage. The report also links those functions quantitatively to the impact that programs achieved, and estimates their cost

The Tourism of the Authentic in a Rural Idyll: The Case of a Family Organized Activity in the South of France

Ethnography is a multi-method human-conducted examination of what humans do, say, think and believe. As Sherry Ortner flawlessly explains: “ethnography has always meant the attempt to understand another life world using the self – as much of it as possible – as the instrument of knowing.” (2006: 3) My thesis will be devoted to study how people experience alternative lifestyles and new ways of living in rurality, among nature and natural resources. We will meet a Parisian couple Yann and Corinne, with their two daughters, Emma and Camille who decided to move from Paris to the South of France in Eoulx. More precisely, the focus will be on the authenticity of my protagonists’ approach – namely eco-tourism. Their story begins three years ago, when they decided to change their life and adopt an alternative lifestyle in the mountains, surrounded by animals and nature. My research starts there, when they decided to leave urban areas to go to what they imagined as being peaceful and natural rural environments: here is the story of a ‘a journey to a rural idyll’. Mark Schucksmith stated: “Rural studies have highlighted a rural idyll as something to which many aspire, perhaps as a vision of a good place to live or as a repository of values.” It is clear that Yann, Corinne and their two daughters pursued a ‘Quest for Authenticity’ by thinking of the rural as being ‘authentic’ and ‘refreshing’ compared to loud, polluted and sickening urban environments that they left. Indeed, this led them to migrate to the South of France and established an activity based on eco-tourism, namely ‘Destination Ailleurs,’ which aims at inviting their guests to a new destination

The Internet society and its struggle for recognition and influence

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Applying Problem Based Learning educational method for improving Human-tech competencies in Computer Engineering students: a research proposal

This paper resumes the background theory of the likewise entitled research project. The project aims to give a contribution to software programming quality improving “Human-tech” competencies in Computer Engineering students as a means to prevent, or at least avoid in a great extend, the rate of unsuccessful software implementation projects. We are specially interested in researching what Human Factors competencies must be profiled in Computing Curricula outcomes that may contribute to better prepare students as “Human-tech” experts. We will apply Problem Based Learning educational method for delivering those competencies to students. We believe it is possible to do better than what as been done, to have a better degree of adequacy between the Human user and the software he uses for his/her activity. All background theory that support the axiomatic principles of this research project is explained in the first section. Then the project is outlined as well as its plan and expected outcomes and contribution in the following sections

Objects of knowing: Collaborative craft analyzed as a platform for knowledge articulation

Previous research has thoroughly investigated knowledge creation from various perspectives and fields of expertise, although only a few studies have presented integrated discussions on the topic. This thesis situates knowledge creation at the intersection of two domains: organizational studies and craft and design research. While theories in organizational studies outline how tacit knowledge can be explicitly articulated through structured social practices, craft and design research inquires into knowledge creation through the process of materializing artifacts. In arguing for the integration of both perspectives, the present research examines collaborative craft as an organized activity and highlights the agency of objects in social practices where knowledge is articulated. Conceptually, this thesis draws on poststructuralist thinking and materialist approaches to organization in order to propose a material-discursive practice theory. Methodologically, it employs a multiple case study conducted in distinct geographies and cultural contexts, which allowed the designer-researcher to collaborate with craftspeople, collect rich empirical data, and confirm that social practices can yield knowledge via the production of artifacts. The research findings reveal the type of knowledge that can be articulated when craftspeople and designers collaborate, drawing attention to the relationship between the knowledge created and the artifacts produced. The study also emphasizes the significance of materiality in generating meaning and enacting discourse, especially in work settings where communication is hindered by sociocultural phenomena

Organizational communication and cultural studies: A review essay

Recently, we have been struggling to interpret a series of minor yet absurd spectacles that span the industrial and popular-cultural realms. These events have compelled our scholarly interest, but lack a ready-made frame for diagnosing their significance. Consider these examples: In the summer of 1996, vivacious 'TV talk-show cohost Kathie Lee Gifford was criticized by activists who linked her line of Wal-Mart clothing to human-rights abuses and wage violations among factory workers in Honduras and New York City. Tearful and contrite, Gifford quickly adopted a policy of independent monitoring and assigned her husband, celebrity sports-announcer Frank Gifford, to deliver envelopes of compensation for the affected workers. Relatedly, in the fall of 1997, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams—famed for his satire of corporate foibles—disguised himself as a management consultant. With the help of a company official, he conducted an executive retreat in a computer firm that produced a tortured "revision" of its mission statement. Additional examples appear in the flickerings of our TV screens: the lithe, androgynous figures of Intel's technicians, clad in hooded, colorful "clean room" suits, energetically installing computer chips to a soundtrack of 1970s funk; and quasi-documentary images of rolling golf carts, filled with visitors to the Saturn car plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, watching assembly workers at their tasks—and being watched in return

Volume X, 1983 Speech Association of Minnesota Journal

Complete digitized volume (volume 10, 1983) of Speech Association of Minnesota Journal

Transforming Organizational Climate after a Transitional Change in Leadership at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Catawba Valley

In the summer of 2016, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Catawba Valley saw the retirement of its long-time minister and the hiring of a quarter-time consulting minister. In the 3-5 years leading up to that, the church had been experiencing a drop in general attendance, a decrease in overall membership, minimally functioning committees, defunct committees, and low morale. Applying Morgan’s (2006) metaphor of organizations as cultures, which shows “how organization ultimately rests in shared systems of meaning, hence the actions and interpretive schemes that create and re-create that meaning” (p. 138), and which allows organizations “another means of creating and shaping organized activity: by influencing the ideologies, values, beliefs, language, norms, ceremonies, and other social practices that ultimately shape and guide the organized action” (p. 142), as the driving theory of this project, yet knowing “the change goal[s] must be defined concretely in terms of the specific problem you are trying to fix, not as ‘culture change’” (Schein, 2010, p. 311), I embarked on a 2-year project to address the problems at the church while influencing the culture as a necessary by-product of the change iniative. After nearly 22 months of project implementation, membership rose from 32 members in 2016 to 63 as of May 2018, a 97% increase. Average weekly attendance rose from 35 to 50, an increase of 42%. Finally, pledges increased from six in 2016 to 34 in 2018, an increase of 466%. A descriptive study also helped define the church membership in preparation for evaluating the mission and strategic planning

The project Digital Medellín and how to examine the triad of ICT, practice, and learning through change processes with an ethnographic case study approach

The main goal of this article is to describe the investigation conducted in themasters’ thesis project: Digital Medellín – communities of practice and informationand communication technology for organizational development. This is done by givinga description of the background, problem area, the method and theories suchas ethnography, a socio-cultural perspective and the concept of communitiesof practice. Two case studies are presented and discussed. The findings of theresearch are stated in the form of three principal conclusions