The Organization as a Person: Analogues for Intervention

Attempting to understand an organization as though it were a person can offer insights into how organizations grow, develop, prosper, falter, and regenerate or decline. Several analogues are offered to be used as an addition to a consultant\u27s approach in determining what is right and wrong with an organization in planning an appropriate intervention, if needed. The author suggests that a clinical sociologist has a role in promoting the health of organizations and in preventing problems, as well as in intervening to solve problems

The Clinical Sociologist as Health Broker

One of the key aspects that distinguish clinical sociologists from other sociologistsis the former\u27s more active role in intervention and change. The clinical sociologistperforms several functions as a broker. This paper discusses the role of healthbroker and the opportunities it provides for clinical sociologists, especially in largeorganizations

Mixing Apples and Oranges: Sociological Issues in the Process of an Academic Manager

This paper describes and analyzes key sociological issues that arise during the merger of a campus with a college within a large university. The issues arising in this case study are analyzed within the framework of a model for reframing organizations. The skills that a clinical sociologist can bring to a merger situation to help minimize delay and failure are discusse

The Clinical Sociologist as a Health Broker

One of the key aspects that distinguish clinical sociologists from other sociologists is the former\u27s more active role in intervention and change. The clinical sociologist performs several functions of a broker. This paper discusses the role of health broker and the opportunities it provides for clinical sociologists, especially in large organizations

The Clinical Sociologist as a Boundary Manager: The Case of University Administration

Managing conflicts at the interfaces or boundaries at the individual, group and organizational levels is an essential part of the job of a university administrator. As universities become subject to increasing external pressures, especially financial, administrators are called upon to reorganize, restructure and reallocate resources. These interventions substantially challenge academic administrators and the clinical sociologists who occupy these roles to utilize their skills as conflict and risk managers. This paper describes and discusses the experiences and observations of the authors as boundary managers in university settings

lincRNAs act in the circuitry controlling pluripotency and differentiation

Although thousands of large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been identified in mammals, few have been functionally characterized, leading to debate about their biological role. To address this, we performed loss-of-function studies on most lincRNAs expressed in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells and characterized the effects on gene expression. Here we show that knockdown of lincRNAs has major consequences on gene expression patterns, comparable to knockdown of well-known ES cell regulators. Notably, lincRNAs primarily affect gene expression in trans. Knockdown of dozens of lincRNAs causes either exit from the pluripotent state or upregulation of lineage commitment programs. We integrate lincRNAs into the molecular circuitry of ES cells and show that lincRNA genes are regulated by key transcription factors and that lincRNA transcripts bind to multiple chromatin regulatory proteins to affect shared gene expression programs. Together, the results demonstrate that lincRNAs have key roles in the circuitry controlling ES cell state.Broad InstituteHarvard UniversityNational Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.)Merkin Family Foundation for Stem Cell Researc

Managing formalization to increase global team effectiveness and meaningfulness of work in multinational organizations

Global teams may help to integrate across locations, and yet, with formalized rules and procedures, responsiveness to those locations’ effectiveness, and the team members’ experiences of work as meaningful may suffer. We employ a mixed-methods approach to understand how the level and content of formalization can be managed to resolve these tensions in multinationals. In a sample of global teams from a large mining and resources organization operating across 44 countries, interviews, observations, and a quantitative 2-wave survey revealed a great deal of variability between teams in how formalization processes were enacted. Only those formalization processes that promoted knowledge sharing were instrumental in improving team effectiveness. Implementing rules and procedures in the set-up of the teams and projects, rather than during interactions, and utilizing protocols to help establish the global team as a source of identity increased this knowledge sharing. Finally, we found members’ personal need for structure moderated the effect of team formalization on how meaningful individuals found their work within the team. These findings have significant implications for theory and practice in multinational organizations

Cryptic Diversity of African Tigerfish (Genus Hydrocynus) Reveals Palaeogeographic Signatures of Linked Neogene Geotectonic Events

The geobiotic history of landscapes can exhibit controls by tectonics over biotic evolution. This causal relationship positions ecologically specialized species as biotic indicators to decipher details of landscape evolution. Phylogeographic statistics that reconstruct spatio-temporal details of evolutionary histories of aquatic species, including fishes, can reveal key events of drainage evolution, notably where geochronological resolution is insufficient. Where geochronological resolution is insufficient, phylogeographic statistics that reconstruct spatio-temporal details of evolutionary histories of aquatic species, notably fishes, can reveal key events of drainage evolution. This study evaluates paleo-environmental causes of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) based phylogeographic records of tigerfishes, genus Hydrocynus, in order to reconstruct their evolutionary history in relation to landscape evolution across Africa. Strong geographical structuring in a cytochrome b (cyt-b) gene phylogeny confirms the established morphological diversity of Hydrocynus and reveals the existence of five previously unknown lineages, with Hydrocynus tanzaniae sister to a clade comprising three previously unknown lineages (Groups B, C and D) and H. vittatus. The dated phylogeny constrains the principal cladogenic events that have structured Hydrocynus diversity from the late Miocene to the Plio-Pleistocene (ca. 0–16 Ma). Phylogeographic tests reveal that the diversity and distribution of Hydrocynus reflects a complex history of vicariance and dispersals, whereby range expansions in particular species testify to changes to drainage basins. Principal divergence events in Hydrocynus have interfaced closely with evolving drainage systems across tropical Africa. Tigerfish evolution is attributed to dominant control by pulses of geotectonism across the African plate. Phylogenetic relationships and divergence estimates among the ten mtDNA lineages illustrates where and when local tectonic events modified Africa's Neogene drainage. Haplotypes shared amongst extant Hydrocynus populations across northern Africa testify to recent dispersals that were facilitated by late Neogene connections across the Nilo-Sahelian drainage. These events in tigerfish evolution concur broadly with available geological evidence and reveal prominent control by the African Rift System, evident in the formative events archived in phylogeographic records of tigerfish