Workforce participation: developing a theoretical framework for longitudinal research

This paper describes and evaluates an action research project on workforce participation at Viewpoint Research Community Interest Company (CIC). By setting out the research protocols devised by Viewpoint to stimulate and study co-operative management, it is possible to abstract a theoretical framework that emerged from a pilot case study. The paper contributes to theory by highlighting not only the potential of action research to catalyse interest in co operative management but also how to engage theoretically with the paradox of a workforce voting to limit its own participation in ownership, governance and management. In this study, the authors interpreted that participants did not automatically equate participatory management with workplace democracy leading to a theoretical perspective that “democratic management is the propensity and capacity of management systems to respond to members’ desires regarding the scope, depth, level and quality of participation in management”. The paper concludes by evaluating the efficacy of Viewpoint’s action research methodology as a strategy for deepening knowledge on workforce participation in co-operatives and employee-owned businesses

Workforce Participation: developing a theoretical framework for longitudinal research

This paper describes an action research methodology and theoretical framework developed during a pilot study into workforce participation at Viewpoint Research CIC. The study suggests a set of protocols for generating case studies that describe the framing, operationalisation and evaluation of workforce participation in organisations. In the paper's conclusions, the authors argue that the concept of workplace democracy needs reframing to takes account of the level of alignment between the systems of participations that are desired by workforce members and those designed by the organisation's managers

Workforce Participation: developing a theoretical framework for longitudinal research

This paper describes an action research methodology and theoretical framework developed during a pilot study into workforce participation at Viewpoint Research CIC. The study suggests a set of protocols for generating case studies that describe the framing, operationalisation and evaluation of workforce participation in organisations. In the paper's conclusions, the authors argue that the concept of workplace democracy needs reframing to takes account of the level of alignment between the systems of participations that are desired by workforce members and those designed by the organisation's managers

Member-Employee Engagement Project: Developing a Theoretical Model for Funded and Commercial Research

This document provides feedback on a Member-Employee Engagement Methodology piloted by Viewpoint Research CIC in collaboration with Sheffield Business School. This project, funded by a Business Link Innovation Voucher, is a discussion document for the staff at Viewpoint Research CIC that is being shared with sector, professional and industry bodies, client organisations, and policy makers who want further information on the underlying principles and purposes behind Viewpoint's member-engagement methodology and survey research instrument

Pundit for post-industrial times? Walter Lippmann as an information society theorist.

Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) was perhaps the most prominent pundit of the late-industrial era. His place in the annals of journalism is secure, but his legacy should not stop there. The article argues for a fresh interpretation of Lippmann as an early theorist of the information society. This thesis rests on three propositions. First, in Public Opinion and other less famous books, Lippmann focused productively on the empirical and normative aspects of information's role in a democratic polity. Second, Lippmann's comments upon the nature of social morality, especially his defence of the idea of a universal natural law, are shown to be serviceable for coming to terms with some of the profound challenges and dilemmas of the information age. Third, and decisively, a little-known manuscript, one of Lippmann's final essays, faced directly the issue of technocracy, arguably the paramount threat of the cyber century. The Lippmann corpus, both published and archival, is therefore highly relevant to post-industrial times

Privacy Fundamentalism: An Essay on Social Responsibility

No abstract available

The Fellowship of the Net

The article revisits the tradition of religious socialism as a potential resource for the information age. It begins with a detailed exposition and defence of the ideas of network society theorist Manuel Castells. However, the article questions Castells’ reliance on contemporary social movements as a response to what he calls the bipolar opposition between the net and the self. Arguing for a more universal and ontological solution, it seeks to mobilise the nineteenth-century Christian socialism of Maurice, Ludlow and Kingsley, specifically their powerful doctrine of mere brotherhood. Updated as the fellowship of the net, the brotherhood and sisterhood of humankind under the fatherhood of God turns into an attractive and plausible twenty-first century ideal

Castells versus Bell: A comparison of two grand theorists of the information age

Daniel Bell (1919–2011) and Manuel Castells (1942–) are the grand theorists of the information age. The article provides a detailed, up-to-date, comparative analysis of their writings. It begins with their methodologies, identifying numerous commonalities in their post-Marxian frameworks. The substance of their theories is then examined, where it is shown that both plausibly explain contemporary social reality in terms of the interplay of three forces: the information technology revolution, the restructuring of capitalism and the innovational role of culture. There are found to be major similarities in their accounts (the Kantian interpretation, social stratification) but also significant divergences (role of science, the fourth world, the normative content of culture). Suitably combined, Bell’s and Castells’s thought goes a long way towards delivering a persuasive sociological theory of the global information society. However, the article concludes by suggesting that extensive further work is needed to clarify the precise relationships between the three factors and their relative weightings in the equations required to explain recent social change

Rating the revolution: Silicon Valley in normative perspective

Silicon Valley, California – home of Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and so on – is widely regarded as the epicentre of the information revolution. However, it is not just a technical or economic phenomenon; it has also made a social revolution. The article evaluates Silicon Valley from a normative perspective, seeking toidentify its real societal impact, negative as well as positive. A select review of significant literature is followed by exposition of primary data, based on in situ face-to-face interviews with Valley occupants; these range from the chief technology officer of a global brand to a homeless, unemployed Vietnam War veteran.The article organises its findings under three headings: the nature of information revolution; iCapitalism as a new technoeconomic synthesis; and the normative crisis of the information society. It concludes with a warning about ongoing attempts to clone Silicon Valley around the world

Cyber-Green: idealism in the information age

PurposeThis paper retrieves relevant aspects of the work of idealist thinker T.H. Green in order to improve comprehension of, and policy responses to, various dilemmas facing contemporary ‘information societies’.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an exercise in interdisciplinary conceptual research, seeking a new synthesis that draws upon a range of ethical, metaphysical, empirical and policy texts and ideas. It is an application of moral and political principles to post-industrial problems, part of an ongoing international effort to develop viable normative approaches to the emergent information society. The background research included in situ study of archival papers.FindingsGreen’s version of idealism illuminates current, technologically-induced shifts in our understandings of important categories such as self, substance and space. The paper finds that Green’s doctrine of the common good, his alternative to the (still prevalent) school of utilitarian welfarism, combined with his famously ‘positive’ theory of the state, is highly relevant as a normative template for applied philosophy and policy. The article demonstrates its applicability to three vital contemporary issues: freedom of information, intellectual property and personal privacy. It concludes that Green’s work provides exceptional resources for an original, anti-technocratic, theory of the information society as good society. Practical implicationsIt is hoped that, as part of the wider rediscovery of the work of Green and other idealists, the paper will have some impact on public policy.Originality/valueThe paper contains a new scholarly interpretation of Green’s theories of the common good and of the state. In addition, it is believed to be the first major attempt to apply idealism to the information society and its problem