Access to multiliteracies: A critical ethnography

This paper reports the key findings of a critical ethnography, which documented the enactment of the multiliteracies pedagogy in an Australian elementary school classroom. The multiliteracies pedagogy of the New London Group is a response to the emergence of multimodal literacies in contemporary contexts of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. Giddens' structuration theory was applied to the analysis of systems relations. The key finding was that students, who were culturally and linguistically diverse, had differential access to multiliteracies. Existing degrees of access were reproduced among the student cohort, based on the learners' relation to the dominant culture. Specifically, students from Anglo-Australian, middle-class backgrounds had greater access to transformed designing than those who were culturally or socio-economically marginalized. These experiences were influenced by the agency of individuals who were both enabled and constrained by structures of power within the school and the wider educational and social systems

Modeling functional requirements using tacit knowledge: a design science research methodology informed approach

The research in this paper adds to the discussion linked to the challenge of capturing and modeling tacit knowledge throughout software development projects. The issue emerged when modeling functional requirements during a project for a client. However, using the design science research methodology at a particular point in the project helped to create an artifact, a functional requirements modeling technique, that resolved the issue with tacit knowledge. Accordingly, this paper includes research based upon the stages of the design science research methodology to design and test the artifact in an observable situation, empirically grounding the research undertaken. An integral component of the design science research methodology, the knowledge base, assimilated structuration and semiotic theories so that other researchers can test the validity of the artifact created. First, structuration theory helped to identify how tacit knowledge is communicated and can be understood when modeling functional requirements for new software. Second, structuration theory prescribed the application of semiotics which facilitated the development of the artifact. Additionally, following the stages of the design science research methodology and associated tasks allows the research to be reproduced in other software development contexts. As a positive outcome, using the functional requirements modeling technique created, specifically for obtaining tacit knowledge on the software development project, indicates that using such knowledge increases the likelihood of deploying software successfully

Adapting structuration theory to understand the role of reflexivity: Problematization, clinical audit and information systems

This paper is an exploratory account of the further development and application of a hybrid framework, StructurANTion, that is based on Structuration Theory and Actor Network Theory (ANT). The use of social theories in general and their use in information systems (IS) research in particular is explored leading to the use of the framework to examine the concept of what are termed humanchine networks in the context of clinical audit, within a healthcare Primary Care Trust (PCT). A particular focus is on the manner in which information systems-based reflexivity contributes to both entrenching a networks’ structurated order as well as contributing to its emancipatory change. The case study compares clinic-centric and patientcentric audit and seeks to further extend the understanding of the role of information and information systems within structurated humanchine activity systems. Conclusions indicate that the use of more socially informed IS methods and approaches can incorporate more emancipatory ideals and lead to greater adoption and usage of more relevant and useful clinical information systems and practices

Online social lending: Borrower-generated content

This article explores online social lending, an innovative venture that represents a reintermediation in financial services. Borrowers and lenders now have access to online financial information services such as Motley Fool, http://www.fool.com/ , and the opportunity to communicate directly with each other online, sharing user-generated content, in the spirit of Web 2.0. In this environment, new possibilities emerge. Drawing on the literature of community banks, finance, and online banking, we conducted a structurational analysis of ZOPA(2007) a newly founded venture in online social lending whereby borrower/lender interactions take place within an open and transparent environment using discussion boards and blogs. ZOPA offers a service as an intermediary but one that differs from the intermediating role played by a traditional bank. We analyzed the possible attractions and risks of ZOPA’s service to customers, from the perspective of social lending and social networking, using public data from ZOPA’s website. Our intention is to understand the nature of this reintermediation and explain the development of this process through Giddens’ propositions

Understanding Power-related Strategies and Initiatives:The Case of the European Commission Green Paper on CSR

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of a struggle for power over the regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) within the European Union. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines insights from institutional theory (Lawrence and Buchanan, 2017) with Vaara et al.’s (2006) and Vaara and Tienar’s (2008) discursive strategies approach in order to interrogate the dynamics of the institutional “arena” that emerged in 2001, following the European Commission’s publication of a Green Paper (GP) on CSR policy and reporting. Drawing on multiple sources of data (including newspaper coverage, semi-structured interviews and written submissions by companies and NGOs), the authors analyse the institutional political strategies employed by companies and NGOs – two of the key stakeholder groupings who sought to influence the dynamics and outcome of the European initiative. Findings The results show that the 2001 GP was a “triggering event” (Hoffman, 1999) that led to the formation of the institutional arena that centred on whether CSR policy and reporting should be voluntary or mandatory. The findings highlight how two separate, but related forms of power (systemic and episodic power) were exercised much more effectively by companies compared to NGOs. The analysis of the power initiatives and discursive strategies deployed in the arena provides a theoretically informed understanding of the ways in which companies acted in concert to reach their objective of maintaining CSR and SEAR as a voluntary activity. Originality/value The theoretical framework outlined in the paper highlights how the analysis of CSR and SEAR regulation can be enriched by examining the deployment of episodic and systemic power by relevant actors.PostprintPeer reviewe

From Individual Cognition to Social Ecosystem: A Structuration Model of Enterprise Systems Use

In this paper, we argue that one can understand the adoption and routine use of enterprise systems by examining the fit between the system and the social structures of the organization. We develop a model of the adoption and long- term use of enterprise systems based on sociological concepts (Lord Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory) rather than the usual cognitive psychology concepts. We focus on the adoption and use of three versions of an enterprise KMS to support sales representatives at a multinational pharmaceutical firm. Our first study (a five-year case study of the KMS that went through one failed deployment and two successful ones) shows that the structures of signification, legitimation, and domination all influence loyal use, although domination may be less important. Our second study (a survey of 893 users at the firm) shows that the structures of signification, legitimation, and domination explain about 50 percent of the variance in ongoing loyal use but that their relative importance depends on the job experience of the users: signification and legitimation influence novices more, and signification and domination influence experts more. We believe that this parsimonious three-factor model offers a useful approach for future research and practice

Structuring social and environmental management control and accountability: behind the hotel doors

Purpose: This study sets out to investigate the construction of social and environmental strategies and the related implementation of management control by a key organization located in a pivotal Asian location in the global hospitality industry. In doing so it sets out to elucidate the forms and processes of strategic social and environmental control as well their relationship to the traditional financial control system. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs field based case study of a single case operating in both a regional and global context. Drawing upon documentary, survey and interview sources, the study employs structuration theory to inform its design and analysis. Findings: The findings reveal the interaction of top-down global corporate framing and bottom-up local level staff initiatives that combine to develop a locally focussed and differentiated social and environmental program and expedite an associated management control and accountability system. The study also reveals the dominance of the traditional financial control system over the social and environmental management control system and the simultaneously enabling and constraining nature of that relationship. Practical implications: Signification and legitimation structures can be employed in building social and environmental values and programs which then lay the foundations for related discourse and action at multiple levels of the organisation. This also has the potential to facilitate modes of staff commitment expressed through bottom-up initiatives and control, subject to but also facilitated by the dominating influence of the organisation’s financial control system. Originality/value: The paper offers an intra-organisational perspective on social and environmental strategising and control processes and motivations that elucidates forms of action, control and accountability and the relationship between social/environmental control and financial control agendas. It further reveals the interaction between globally developed strategic and control frameworks and locally initiated bottom up strategic initiatives and control

A silent cry for leadership : organizing for leading (in) clusters

Leadership research so far has neglected clusters as a particular context for leadership, while research on networks and clusters has hardly studied leadership issues. This paper fills this dual gap in the abundant research on leadership on the one hand and on networks/clusters on the other by investigating leadership in photonics clusters from a structuration perspective. Apart from giving an insight into the variety and patterns of leadership practices observed, the paper addresses the dilemma that regional innovation systems such as clusters usually have a critical need of some kind of leadership, but that neither individual nor organizational actors wish to be led. This dilemma can only be ‘managed’ by organizing for leading (in) clusters in a certain way

Health Information Systems and Accountability in Kenya:a Structuration Theory Perspective

Health information systems (HIS) in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been often implemented under the international pressure of accounting for healthcare investments. The idea behind robust and efficient HIS is that health information can allow healthcare managers and providers to better plan and monitor health services, which may translate into better health outcomes. Yet, researchers have often criticized the use of HIS as accountability tools as being counterproductive by making health information more meaningful to national governments and international agencies than those in charge of local health services. In this paper, I analyze how HIS influence the emergence of local accountability practices and their consequences for healthcare provision. I build a theoretical perspective from structuration theory and integrate it with the technology domain of HIS. I use this perspective to analyze a case study of HIS in Kenya. This study raises implications for the use of structuration theory in understanding accountability and the role of IT materiality in processes of structuration. It contributes to a better understanding of how HIS can foster improved healthcare and human development. It also contributes to the understanding of IS as means not just for governing people’s behavior but also of socialization through which users can negotiate multiple accountability goals

Knowledge structuring-Knowledge domination. Two interrelated concepts

“Sociology for me is not only about the big institutions, such as governments, organizations, business firms or societies as a whole. It is very much about the individual and our individual experiences. We come to understand ourselves much better through grasping the wider social forces that influence our lives.” ( Anthony Giddens, published at www.polity.co.uk, a leading social science and humanities publisher. ) This quotation helps identify one reason for integrating ideas about knowledge management with concepts from Anthony Giddens structuration theory in the theoretical framework that I use as an analytical tool in this research. Structuration theory concerns itself with the “social forces that influence our lives” and these forces interest me. In the same article Giddens continuous: ”We live in a world of quite dramatic change…There are three major sets of changes happening in contemporary societies and it is the task of sociology to analyze what they mean for our lives today. First there is globalisation….The second big influence is that of technological change. Information technology is altering many of the ways in which we work and in which we live. The nature of the jobs people do, for example, has been transformed….The third fundamental set of changes is in our everyday lives. Our lives are structured less by the past than by our anticipated future”. In this paper I agure that there is a continous structuring going on in society. I therefore concern myself with a pair of twin concepts that are interrelated. The first one is knowledge structuring; the second is knowledge domination. These two concepts are of vital importance when trying to understand, assess and monitor implications of transformations of work processes and tools at work.Knowledge structuring; knowledge domination; knowledge management; structuration theory; cognitive theories; transformations; information technology; globalisation.