Communities of Practice: Developing IdentitiesofEmerging Scholars

Participating in a doctoral program can be a transforming experience shaping the learner’s identity. What learning spaces best facilitatesthis development? This roundtable presents findings of a study where a Community of Practice was used intentionallyto foster emerging scholars. We invite a discussion of others experience of becoming scholars

Technical Support Section Annual Work Plan for FY 1999

oRNL/TM-13709 The Technical Support Section (TSS) of the Instrumentation and Controls (I&C) Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) provides technical services such as fabrication, modification, installation, calibration, operation, repair, and preventive maintenance of instruments and other related equipment. It is the mission of TSS to support programs and policies of ORNL, emphasizing safety and ensuring cost-effective support for research and development (R&D). Work performed by TSS supports basic and applied R&D, engineering, and instrument and computer systems managed by ORNL. Because the activities and priorities of TSS must be adapted to the technical support needs of ORNL, the TSS Annual Work Plan is derived from, and is driven directly by, current trends in the budgets and activities of each ORNL division for which TSS provides support. Trends that will affect TSS planning during this period are reductions in the staffing levels of some R&D programs because of attrition or budget cuts. The new Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC contract for waste management operations at ORNL has added a lot of uncertainty to the overall workload for TSS in the upcoming year. The continued separation between Lockheed Martin Energy Systems (LMES) and Lockheed Martin Energy Research (LMER) also adds to the uncertainty of the TSS workload. TSS does not have an annual budget to cover operating expenses incurred in providing instrument maintenance support to ORNL. Each year, TSS collects information concerning the projected fimding levels of programs and facilities it supports. TSS workforce and resource projections are based on the information obtained and are weighted depending on the percentage of support provided to that division or program. Each year, TSS sets the standard hourly charge rate for the following fiscal year. The standard rate is based on the projected annual inflation rate, proposed increases or decreases in staffing because of perceived changes in program or division finding, upgrade of aging equipment or facilities, overhead burden, compliance with new requirements or directives, labor contract negotiations, and the fringe-benefit rate. The standard rate is charged to customer accounts or work orders as the work is performed. `A cost variance occurs when there is a difference between the actual cost per hour and the standard rate per hour. Typically, this variance is positive during months of high fringe-benefit cost (holidays and vacation) or when materials or equipment are costed by Accounts Payable. Variances are negative during months with minimal fringe-benefit cost and when materials purchased for maintenance support are charged back to customer accounts. I&C/TSS Technical Training and Development and Nuclear Facility Qualification programs continue to meet the intent of oversight rules, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) orders, ORNL directives, and program descriptions. To ensure compliance, training events were conducted, documented, and tracked with state-of-the-art database management and tracking report formats designed by TSS personnel. Developmental training enhanced the overall effort for personnel to remain qualified to perform work in nonreactor nuclear facilities. Hard copy documentation provides an auditable record filed in employee training folders, standardizing formal record keeping. Environmental Safety and Health and Nuclear Facility checklists provide standardized matrices to customize individual training needs. Additionally, employees receive unescorted access training to nuclear facilities based on customer requests and work assignments

Simplistic vs. Complex Organization: Markets, Hierarchies, and Networks in an 'Organizational Triangle'

Transaction cost economics explains organizations in a simplistic ‘market-vs.-hierarchy’ dichotomy. In this view, complex real-world coordination forms are simply considered ‘hybrids’ of those ‘pure’ and ideal forms, thus being located on a one-dimensional ‘line’ between them. This ‘organizational dichotomy’ is mainly based on relative marginal transaction costs, relative lengths of value-added chains, and ‘rational choice’ of coordination form. The present paper, in contrast, argues that pure ‘market’ and ‘hierarchy’, even including their potential hybrids, are a theoretically untenable and empirically void set. Coordination forms, it is argued, have to be conceptualized in a fundamentally different way. A relevant ‘organizational space’ must reflect the dimensions of a complex world such as dilemma-prone direct interdependence, resulting in strong strategic uncertainty, mutual externalities, collectivities, and subsequent emergent process. This, in turn, will lead either to (1) informally institutionalized, problem-solving cooperation (the instrumental dimension of the institution) or (2) mutual blockage, lock-in on an inferior path, or power- and status-based market and hierarchy failure (the ceremonial dimension of the institution). This paper establishes emergent instrumental institutionalized cooperation as a genuine organizational dimension which generates a third ‘attractor’ besides ‘market’ and ‘hierarchy’, i.e., informal network. In this way, an ‘organizational triangle’ can be generated which may serve as a more relevant heuristic device for empirical organizational research. Its ideal corners and some ideal hybrids on its edges (such as ideal clusters and ideal hub&spoke networks) still remain empirically void, but its inner space becomes empirically relevant and accessible. The ‘Organizational Triangle’ is tentatively applied (besides casual reference to corporate behavior that has lead to the current financial meltdown), by way of a set of criteria for instrumental problem-solving and a simple formal algorithm, to the cases of the supplier network of ‘DaimlerChrysler US International’ at Tuscaloosa, AL, the open-source network Linux, and the web-platforms Wikipedia and ‘Open-Source Car’. It is considered to properly reflect what is generally theorized in evolutionary-institutional economics of organizations and the firm and might offer some insight for the coming industrial reconstructions of the car and other industries