Polycentric Order in Organizations

De afgelopen tien jaar is er in bedrijfskunde een grote interesse onstaan voor het belang van kennis voor organisaties. Deze benadering was vaak nogal eenzijdig. Er werd gevraagd naar hoe organisaties kennis konden ontwikkelen, maar re werd niet de omgekeerd vraag gesteld: “Hoe kan kennis de organisatie ontwikkelen?” Als we begrijpen dat het toegenomen belang van kennis ingrijpende gevolgen heeft voor organiseren, is het dan niet consistent om ook de aard van kennis intensieve organisaties opnieuw te bekijken? Dit proefschrift probeert door de wederzijdse afhankelijkheid tussen kennis en organisatie voorop te stellen, een alternatief te conceptualiseren voortbouwend op de filosofie van Michael Polanyi. Polanyi is bekend binnen bedrijfskunde voor zijn onderscheid tussen impliciete en expliciete kennis. Helaas wordt de wederzijdse afhankelijkheid tussen kennis en organisatie die Polanyi aangeeft met behulp van het concept polycentrische orde, zelden onderkent. Polycentrische orde gaat over het organiseren in een context waarin meerdere perspectieven relevant zijn, en een omvattend kader niet gegeven is. Dit proefschrift diept het concept polycentrische orde uit door Polanyi’s filosofie in “dialoog” te brengen met dat van ethnografisch onderzoek onder een groep van IT-professionals. Aan de ene kant wordt vanuit een Polanyi perspectief de ontwikkelingen binnen deze groep beschreven. Aan de andere kant wordt Polanyi’s filosofie aan een onderzoek onderworpen door te reflecteren op de ervaringen, conversaties, en praktijken van deze professionals. Hierdoor wordt een beschrijving gegeven over het ontstaan, belang en kwaliteiten van polycentrische orde op het niveau van kleine groepen professionals binnen organisaties. In één zin: it proefschrift gaat over het creëren van een vrijplaats voor ontwikkeling voor en door professionals.René Brohm was born in 1971 in Amsterdam. After completing secondary school in 1989 he studied computer science at the University of Amsterdam. From his first year on, he pursued a wide variety of classes in philosophy, comparitive religion, psychology, linguistics, maths, and of course computer science. He specialized in the application of mathematical concepts for modeling techniques. His Masters thesis was on the modeling of a translation system using category theory, which he completed in 1995. He graduated cum laude. René went to India to work in a refugee camp for the Tibetans that had fled the border between India and Tibet. There he taught English to a group of Tibetans that ranged in age from 17 to 28 years old. In 1995, René took a job as a software designer, applying his mathematical design techniques. The problems he encountered in this projects, and the problems that he saw at other projects taught him that modeling techniques and software methodologies were not enough to develop information technology. The crucial factor seemed to lie in how people collaborated and and the fact that hierarchical relations frustrated collaboration. At the end of the year 1997, René started a Ph.D. in knowledge management, assuming that such a study could clarify the problems he had encountered in his job as software designer. His original approach was that of a typical engineer, but soon he found that phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches more promising. Unaware of any lurking postmodern crises and the complexity of the involved literature he dived in. In 2000, he stopped his Ph.D. to work as a software manager in an IT-startup. In 2001, René obtained a position at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam as a lecturer teaching on methodology and on the relation between information technology and organizations.The last decade there has been a tremendous interest in organization studies and management practice for the role of knowledge in organizations. The predominant approach has been fairly one-sided. The question usually was “How can organizations develop knowledge?” without posing the reverse: “How can knowledge develop organizations?” When we realize that the increased importance of knowledge has in some cases altered the fundaments of the firm, it is time to reconsider the nature of knowledge intensive organizations. Through increasing specialization and a reliance on professionals the knowledge can no longer be centralized in a managerial hierarchy. Thereby the legitimacy of the manager’s ability to decide, and the rationality of the organization is in question. This thesis is to envision an alternative that goes under the name polycentric order, a concept forwarded by the Hungarian philosopher Michael Polanyi, well-known for his concept tacit knowledge. Polycentric order entails the idea that decisions develop from open conversations, and organization emerges from participation. This thesis describes how professionals can create a safe haven (Dutch: “vrijplaats”) for their professional development in an organization. In contrast to a community of practice it is a means for professionals to negotiate on dedicated resources for a longer period of time. In this way professionals have responsibility for their own development, and do not yield this responsibility to their organization

Sexual harassment and abuse in sport: The research context

This special issue of the Journal of Sexual Aggression draws on the contributions to a Symposium on ‘Sexual Harassment in Sport – Challenges for Sport Psychology in the New Millennium’, held at the Xth Congress of the International Society for Sport Psychology, Skiathos, Greece from May 28th to June 2nd 2001. The symposium, which was organised by the authors of this editorial, was intended to move forward the international research agenda on sexual harassment and abuse in sport and to examine professional practice issues for sport psychologists. It was clear from the attendance of over 60 delegates at that symposium that international interest in this subject is growing. Further evidence of this came from the attendance of 26 members states – from Azerbaijan to Sweden - at a Council of Europe seminar on The Protection of Children, Young People and Women in Sport, held in Helsinki in September 2001

Representations of sport in the revolutionary socialist press in Britain, 1988–2012

This paper considers how sport presents a dualism to those on the far left of the political spectrum. A long-standing, passionate debate has existed on the contradictory role played by sport, polarised between those who reject it as a bourgeois capitalist plague and those who argue for its reclamation and reformation. A case study is offered of a political party that has consistently used revolutionary Marxism as the basis for its activity and how this party, the largest in Britain, addresses sport in its publications. The study draws on empirical data to illustrate this debate by reporting findings from three socialist publications. When sport did feature it was often in relation to high profile sporting events with a critical tone adopted and typically focused on issues of commodification, exploitation and alienation of athletes and supporters. However, readers’ letters, printed in the same publications, revealed how this interpretation was not universally accepted, thus illustrating the contradictory nature of sport for those on the far left

Bile Acids Specifically Increase Hepatitis C Virus RNA-Replication

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients with high serum levels of bile acids (BAs) respond poorly to IFN therapy. BAs have been shown to increase RNA-replication of genotype 1 but not genotype 2a replicons. Since BAs modulate lipid metabolism including lipoprotein secretion and as HCV depends on lipids and lipoproteins during RNA-replication, virus production and cell entry, BAs may affect multiple steps of the HCV life cycle. Therefore, we analyzed the influence of BAs on individual steps of virus replication.</p> <h3>Methods</h3><p>We measured replication of subgenomic genotype (GT) 1b and 2a RNAs as well as full-length GT2a genomes in the presence of BAs using quantitative RT-PCR and luciferase assays. Cell entry was determined using HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp). Virus assembly and release were quantified using a core-specific ELISA. Replicon chimeras were employed to characterize genotype-specific modulation of HCV by BAs. Lunet CD81/GFP-NLS-MAVS cells were used to determine infection of Con1 particles.</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>BAs increased RNA-replication of GT1b replicons up to 10-fold but had no effect on subgenomic GT2a replicons both in Huh-7 and HuH6 cells. They did not increase viral RNA translation, virus assembly and release or cell entry. Lowering replication efficiency of GT2a replicons rendered them susceptible to stimulation by BAs. Moreover, replication of full length GT1b with or without replication enhancing mutations and GT2a genomes were also stimulated by BAs.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Bile acids specifically enhance RNA-replication. This is not limited to GT1, but also holds true for GT2a full length genomes and subgenomic replicons with low replication capacity. The increase of HCV replication by BAs may influence the efficacy of antiviral treatment in vivo and may improve replication of primary HCV genomes in cell culture.</p> </div

Intracellular Proton Conductance of the Hepatitis C Virus p7 Protein and Its Contribution to Infectious Virus Production

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) p7 protein is critical for virus production and an attractive antiviral target. p7 is an ion channel when reconstituted in artificial lipid bilayers, but channel function has not been demonstrated in vivo and it is unknown whether p7 channel activity plays a critical role in virus production. To evaluate the contribution of p7 to organelle pH regulation and virus production, we incorporated a fluorescent pH sensor within native, intracellular vesicles in the presence or absence of p7 expression. p7 increased proton (H+) conductance in vesicles and was able to rapidly equilibrate H+ gradients. This conductance was blocked by the viroporin inhibitors amantadine, rimantadine and hexamethylene amiloride. Fluorescence microscopy using pH indicators in live cells showed that both HCV infection and expression of p7 from replicon RNAs reduced the number of highly acidic (pH<5) vesicles and increased lysosomal pH from 4.5 to 6.0. These effects were not present in uninfected cells, sub-genomic replicon cells not expressing p7, or cells electroporated with viral RNA containing a channel-inactive p7 point mutation. The acidification inhibitor, bafilomycin A1, partially restored virus production to cells electroporated with viral RNA containing the channel inactive mutation, yet did not in cells containing p7-deleted RNA. Expression of influenza M2 protein also complemented the p7 mutant, confirming a requirement for H+ channel activity in virus production. Accordingly, exposure to acid pH rendered intracellular HCV particles non-infectious, whereas the infectivity of extracellular virions was acid stable and unaffected by incubation at low pH, further demonstrating a key requirement for p7-induced loss of acidification. We conclude that p7 functions as a H+ permeation pathway, acting to prevent acidification in otherwise acidic intracellular compartments. This loss of acidification is required for productive HCV infection, possibly through protecting nascent virus particles during an as yet uncharacterized maturation process

'It's just superstition I suppose ... I've always done something on game day': The construction of everyday life on a university basketball team

Research in sport has tended to focus on ‘spectacular’ or ‘extra-ordinary’ experiences, at the expense of discussing how particular phenomena are embedded in everyday life. Drawing on ethnographic research with a university basketball team in the North of England, this article considers the meanings that amateur players attach to basketball and how such meanings go beyond their participation in competitive games. Analysis reveals the rhythms and rituals which are hugely important in determining the players’ sense of self. It also highlights the carnivalesque celebrations which allow the players to temporarily disrupt the status quo and experiment with alternative identities. In conclusion, it is argued that the meaning of sport should not be seen as rigid, determining and predictable, but rather a creative experience that is largely dependent on the subjective appropriation of time and place

Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science

This article explores the ethical implications of recent discussions that naturalize the relationship between race, the body and sport within the frame of genetic science. Many suggestions of a racially distributed genetic basis for athletic ability and performance are strategically posited as a resounding critique of the `politically correct' meta-narratives of established sociological and anthropological forms of explanation that emphasize the social and cultural construction of race. I argue that this use of genetic science in order to describe and explain common-sense impressions of racial physiology and sporting ability is founded on erroneous premises of objectivity and disinterest, and inflates the analytical efficacy of scientific truth claims. I suggest that assertions of a value-free science of racial athletic ability reify race as inherited permanent biological characteristics that produce social hierarchies and are more characteristic of a longer history of `racial science'

A Single Polar Residue and Distinct Membrane Topologies Impact the Function of the Infectious Bronchitis Coronavirus E Protein

The coronavirus E protein is a small membrane protein with a single predicted hydrophobic domain (HD), and has a poorly defined role in infection. The E protein is thought to promote virion assembly, which occurs in the Golgi region of infected cells. It has also been implicated in the release of infectious particles after budding. The E protein has ion channel activity in vitro, although a role for channel activity in infection has not been established. Furthermore, the membrane topology of the E protein is of considerable debate, and the protein may adopt more than one topology during infection. We previously showed that the HD of the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) E protein is required for the efficient release of infectious virus, an activity that correlated with disruption of the secretory pathway. Here we report that a single residue within the hydrophobic domain, Thr16, is required for secretory pathway disruption. Substitutions of other residues for Thr16 were not tolerated. Mutations of Thr16 did not impact virus assembly as judged by virus-like particle production, suggesting that alteration of secretory pathway and assembly are independent activities. We also examined how the membrane topology of IBV E affected its function by generating mutant versions that adopted either a transmembrane or membrane hairpin topology. We found that a transmembrane topology was required for disrupting the secretory pathway, but was less efficient for virus-like particle production. The hairpin version of E was unable to disrupt the secretory pathway or produce particles. The findings reported here identify properties of the E protein that are important for its function, and provide insight into how the E protein may perform multiple roles during infection