Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater: The Undesirable Effects of National Research Assessment Exercises on Research

The evaluation of the quality of research at a national level has become increasingly common. The UK has been at the forefront of this trend having undertaken many assessments since 1986, the latest being the “Research Excellence Framework” in 2014. The argument of this paper is that, whatever the intended results in terms of evaluating and improving research, there have been many, presumably unintended, results that are highly undesirable for research and the university community more generally. We situate our analysis using Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction and then focus on the peculiarities of the 2008 RAE and the 2014 REF the rules of which allowed for, and indeed encouraged, significant game-playing on the part of striving universities. We conclude with practical recommendations to maintain the general intention of research assessment without the undesirable side-effects

The uses of qualitative data in multimethodology:Developing causal loop diagrams during the coding process

In this research note we describe a method for exploring the creation of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) from the coding trees developed through a grounded theory approach and using computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). The theoretical background to the approach is multimethodology, in line with Minger’s description of paradigm crossing and is appropriately situated within the Appreciate and Analyse phases of PSM intervention. The practical use of this method has been explored and three case studies are presented from the domains of organisational change and entrepreneurial studies. The value of this method is twofold; (i) it has the potential to improve dynamic sensibility in the process of qualitative data analysis, and (ii) it can provide a more rigorous approach to developing CLDs in the formation stage of system dynamics modelling. We propose that the further development of this method requires its implementation within CAQDAS packages so that CLD creation, as a precursor to full system dynamics modelling, is contemporaneous with coding and consistent with a bridging strategy of paradigm crossing

A cook's tour : towards a framework for measuring the social impact of social purpose organisations

For over 50 years Operational Researchers have advocated that Operational Research (OR) could be considered as a useful set of ideas and methods for the benefit of society. However, this aspiration, while still chiming today, has yet to realise its full potential. This paper focuses on organisations whose remit is to alleviate social problems, and therefore have a social purpose. They are under considerable pressure to demonstrate the impact of the work they do. However, showing the value of these organisations is not easy. The paper contributes to this research gap by developing a framework for measuring the impact of social purpose organisations. This is accomplished by bringing together current research on Sen's capability approach and configurational theory, and arguing for an integrative view to show the value of social purpose organisations

Two-dimensional shapes in space

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Master of Science

thesisThe environment of man has been profoundly changed in the recent past. Two centuries ago the world was much different from the one which we see today. The modern urban centers were not known, and social relationships were very simple in nature. "During the Middle Ages the land was worked primarily for the support of the immediate group that lived upon it. The typical community of the Middle Ages was the self-sufficient village."1 August Jessup, an English essayist, gives us a picture of the living conditions during the thirteenth century. About the same conditions existed up to the time of the Industrial Revolution

Spontaneous emergence of Community OR : self-initiating, self-organising problem structuring mediated by social media

We develop a new constitutive definition of Community OR as a self-initiating, self-organising community actor network emerging spontaneously in response to a triggering event and showing evidence of non-codified OR behaviours leading to action to improve the problem situation. From this new definition we have re-conceptualised Community OR as a construct that can be empirically observed emerging from suitable behavioural data. Social media play an instrumental role, acting as both the source of data and the enabling mechanism through which this form of Community OR occurs. Social media afford new possibilities for community empowerment and participation, with consequences for social enterprise and citizenship. We use Actor Network Theory, and specifically the language of translations, hybrid forums, and Callon's Co-production of Knowledge Model (CKM), as the methodological basis for our definition and analysis. The appearance of hybrid forums as a self-organising response to community needs after an event would seem to be a natural milieu for a range of OR competencies. However, unlike traditional practitioner-led engagements, here the OR practitioner's competency enters in a supportive rather than leading role. We support our argument through the analysis of social media data arising from the community response to a devastating flooding event – the Carlisle floods of December 2015

Pluralized leadership in complex organizations : exploring the cross network effects between leadership influence and informal network relations

Understanding the connection between leadership and informal social network structures is important in advancing understanding of the enactment of pluralized leadership. in this article we explore how the enactment of pluralized leadership is shaped by leadership influence and informal (advice and support) networks and the interactions between the two. building on recent developments in exponential random graph modeling, we empirically model the cross network effects across three leadership networks and explore different forms of cross network effects and under what conditions they occur. our findings suggest that patterns of pluralized leadership have important endogenous qualities, as shaped through actors’ leadership and informal networks, and are important for understanding the required capability for facing increasingly complex organizational situations