The Confluence of Intersubjectivity and Dialogue in Postmodern Organizational Workgroups

Nascent revival of dialogue is struggling to reach its potential within the postmodern organizational milieu. Concurrently, interpersonal intersubjectivity has steadily been de-pathologized, via reassessments of countertransference in the psychoanalytic sphere, allowing exploration of its utility in other domains of relational process. Effective use of dialogue is critical and foundational to developing meaningful and sustainable enterprise in the immediate future. Despite the risks, intentionally explored intersubjectivity is a powerful tool to enrich the container of dialogue. This paper qualitatively explores the literature on intersubjectivity and dialogue with an hermeneutic approach to discern the implications of their convergence for collaborative workgroups in emergent enterprise

A Bricolage of Critical Hermeneutics, Abductive Reasoning, and Action Research for Advancing Humanistic Values through Organization Development Practice

This is an emergent and auto-ethnographic study to find ways for the practice of organization development (OD) to recover and sustain humanism in the workplace. It begins with a literature review hermeneutically exploring the history and relevance of three modes of inquiry—hermeneutics, abductive reasoning, and action research—paratactically, which is to say, separately without overlap or reference to each other—to future OD practice. These three modes were selected from an extended literature search for non-reductive modes of inquiry that could address the range of human interests and workplace disease as I understand them. I combined my strong background reading on hermeneutics with the abductive reasoning of C. S. Peirce as two of the modes for review and also reflexively as part of my own methodology. The third mode, action research, is borrowed from the work of Kurt Lewin and his tradition in OD, known for its humanistic and democratic aims. Also included in the literature review is a report on the some of the more salient challenges and opportunities currently confronting the practice of organization development (OD) to provide a context for practical expression of my emerging discoveries. Following the literature review, I hermeneutically surfaced submerged, tacit (hidden-from-consciousness) generative connections from the confluence (flowing together) of the three modes, as they abductively emerged from within my expanding hermeneutic experience (known as a horizon) with the literature review. I then interpret the tacit relevance of that confluence through my life experience, for illuminating those OD challenges and opportunities. Finally this study integrates a sequence of critical hermeneutic and abductive processes in a participatory action research (PAR) pathway leading to plateaus of discovery and renewal through facilitation by humanistically oriented OD praxis. I conclude with five abduced interventions hypothetically drawn from personal case studies. My audience are OD practitioners inclined to develop wholistic humanism in the workplace through facilitative immersion with small groups and micro-cultures. Here they may find enlarged conceptual frames to reconceptualize OD, engage clients in transformative dialogue, and create actionable knowledge in their practice

Retirement self-efficacy: the effects of a pre-retirement strengths-based intervention on retirement self-efficacy and an exploration of relationships between positive affect and retirement self-efficacy

2011 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.A quasi-experimental waitlist comparison group design investigated if a strengths-based retirement workshop, based in positive psychology, helped to develop retirement self-efficacy. Retirement self-efficacy, as defined by this study, is one's belief, or confidence, in her/his ability to successfully negotiate the retirement transition to find purposeful and affirmative life engagement upon entering this new life chapter. The study also explored relationships between positive and negative affect and retirement self-efficacy. The convenience sample of adult volunteers (n = 66) were primarily white and highly educated, with a blend of males (n = 29) and females (n = 37). The sample was divided into a control/waitlist treatment group (n = 34 and 29, respectively) and an initial treatment group (n = 32). Results indicated that those participating in a strengths-based workshop made greater gains in retirement self-efficacy, with those in the waitlist treatment group making greater gains (p = .002, d = .65) than those in the initial treatment group (p = .068, d = .22). Overall, approximately 59% of participants made gains in retirement self-efficacy, and about 31% had decreases. It was also found that negative affect was more strongly correlated to pre-workshop retirement self-efficacy (r = -.50) than was positive affect (r = .26). Furthermore, while not reaching statistical significance, results indicated that participants with high negative affect made greater gains following the workshop (d = .36) than did those with low negative affect. Implications from these findings suggest that while strengths-based approaches hold promise in helping individuals develop greater retirement self-efficacy, it is a process that must also integrate one's readiness for change. Thus, a series of workshops or continued career counseling may benefit individuals approaching or in retirement. Additionally, it is important to consider that those with higher negative affect appear to have less retirement self-efficacy, but may make greater gains in developing it upon receiving a strengths-based intervention. Recommendations from this study point to the importance of defining and designing one's next life chapter rather than adhering to the notion that retirement is a pre-defined endpoint

Conditional Surrender—Conflict Termination in the Pacific, 1945

As early as mid-1943, the strategic political and military leadership on both sides began to see the inevitability of a U.S. victory over Japan. The combatants each sought an end on terms favorable to their respective national interests: the United States pushed relentlessly for unconditional surrender, while Japan sought to force a negotiated settlement. What were the factors and actions that led from military victory to a conditional surrender that set the conditions for a smooth transition to postwar stability in Japan

Short period attractors and non-ergodic behavior in the deterministic fixed energy sandpile model

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the Bak, Tang, Wiesenfeld sandpile automata as a closed system with fixed energy. We explore the full range of energies characterizing the active phase. The model exhibits strong non-ergodic features by settling into limit-cycles whose period depends on the energy and initial conditions. The asymptotic activity $\rho_a$ (topplings density) shows, as a function of energy density $\zeta$, a devil's staircase behaviour defining a symmetric energy interval-set over which also the period lengths remain constant. The properties of $\zeta$-$\rho_a$ phase diagram can be traced back to the basic symmetries underlying the model's dynamics.Comment: EPL-style, 7 pages, 3 eps figures, revised versio

Carbon Sequestration in Biogenic Magnesite and Other Magnesium Carbonate Minerals

The stability and longevity of carbonate minerals make them an ideal sink for surplus atmospheric carbon dioxide. Biogenic magnesium carbonate mineral precipitation from the magnesium-rich tailings generated by many mining operations could offset net mining greenhouse gas emissions, while simultaneously giving value to mine waste products. In this investigation, cyanobacteria in a wetland bioreactor enabled the precipitation of magnesite (MgCO3), hydromagnesite [Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2·4H2O], and dypingite [Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2·5H2O] from a synthetic wastewater comparable in chemistry to what is produced by acid leaching of ultramafic mine tailings. These precipitates occurred as micrometer-scale mineral grains and microcrystalline carbonate coatings that entombed filamentous cyanobacteria. This provides the first laboratory demonstration of low temperature, biogenic magnesite precipitation for carbon sequestration purposes. These findings demonstrate the importance of extracellular polymeric substances in microbially enabled carbonate mineral nucleation. Fluid composition was monitored to determine carbon sequestration rates. The results demonstrate that up to 238 t of CO2 could be stored per hectare of wetland/year if this method of carbon dioxide sequestration was implemented at an ultramafic mine tailing storage facility. The abundance of tailings available for carbonation and the anticipated global implementation of carbon pricing make this method of mineral carbonation worth further investigation