Paradox management delegation: inter and intra-individual variability

While paradox is increasingly presented in organisational literature as a normal, even advisable element, it is still seen as a problem by individuals who are confronted with it on a daily basis. Thus there is a clear gap between researchers' conclusions and real-life situations experienced by practitioners, or maybe a tension between two levels of analysis, organisational and individual levels. We have found that this tension has seldom been studied. In a nutshell, existing literature tends to be divided into two groups. Our research work therefore aims to study the positions of health sector professionals with respect to the paradox management that has been delegated to them, to analyse the extent to which this delegation might alter the pluralistic organisational management of paradoxes. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 of 16 new physician-managers working in a large teaching hospital where the reform was initiated. Our results show that individuals adopt four types of positions when faced with paradox : rejection, detachment, absorption, and transcendence.Paradox ; management ; delegation ; individual variability

Entrepreneurship and community economic development : exploring the link.

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN014423 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Ambivalence and ambiguity in social enterprise: narratives about values in reconciling purpose and practices.

Social enterprises are unusual change organizations; typically their purpose is to bring about change to improve social well-being. Yet they do so in unusual ways. Traditional entrepreneurs generate social value as a by-product of economic value; whereas for social entrepreneurs the reverse is true. This brings about an ambiguity in integrating business and social well being, most manifest in identity and in managing the enterprise. Moreover, the values which drive social enterprise are different. Consequently, we examine how values shape practices and how they give direction and purpose to what social enterprises do and how this shapes identity over time. Using the social organisation as the unit of analysis, we collected the narratives about tensions and how these were reconciled. We contribute by improving our understanding of social enterprise by showing how values are worked, used and deployed to give direction in reconciling ambiguity. Moreover, these ambiguities provide a unique identity and purpose for social enterprise

Microfranchise emergence and its impact on entrepreneurship.

Our investigation uses structuration theory to explore the emergence of a microfranchise whose aim is to raise the income of smallholder farmers in Kenya by enabling an increase in productivity. This longitudinal real time qualitative study tracks the key actions taken in developing the venture, beginning in the conception phase of startup and continuing through to the initial stage of operations. In doing so it focuses on how agency and structure reciprocally influence the resulting social enterprise. The findings indicate that agency is not exclusive to the founders. Rather it was distributed among the micro-franchisor's stakeholders to significantly shape the nature and scope of the enterprise. While franchising, generally, is not noted to provide autonomy and independence to franchisees, we find the opposite in this emerging market context. Implications are discussed

How to Assess and Increase the Value of a Co-Design Experience: a Synthesis of the Extant Literature

Franke & Piller (2003) stress the success of mass customization (MC) depends upon optimal toolkit design and underscore the importance of the MC co-design experience. However, what do we know about the value of this experience? How do we increase its value? How do we optimize toolkit design? Based upon the academic literature, this paper aims to answer these questions. First, we discuss results of previous studies on the four key variables used to assess how the consumer values self-design: enjoyment, control, pride of authorship and complexity. Second, we analyze the best solutions to increase the value of the co-design experience on these key variables: we explore toolkit functionality and how it can be endowed with features that enhance the MC user's perception of the process. This paper contributes to the body of mass customization theory regarding the value of the co-design experience and emphasizes how to design efficient toolkits.

When Commitments Conflict: Making Ethical Decisions Like a Funambulist

Given the complexity of organizations, individuals nowadays are handling an increasing number of commitments. When these commitments conflict, they can turn into ethical dilemmas. However, little is known about how individuals make ethical decisions in the face of such conflicting commitments. We investigated this issue within the context of executive coaching since coaches often interact with multiple stakeholders as part of their assignments. We conducted 37 semi-structured interviews using the critical incident technique, i.e., by asking executive coaches to share a situation that was ethically challenging for them. Based on our study, we derive the metaphor of funambulism to depict how individuals make decisions in the case of conflicting commitments. By building on the systemic framework, we show that executive coaches manage an equilibrium \u201calong the way\u201d through an emergent system of practices, which involves making adjustments that can maintain or restore their system\u2019s equilibrium (i.e., compatibility between commitments). This contribution alludes to the dynamic and constructed nature of ethics

Using information technology (IT) to add value to the learning process: pre-conditions for success

An undergraduate management professor and her technology assistant use an Information Technology based project to explore how IT can be used to create value-added learning experiences. Undergraduate students from three international universities participated in the project. Structural constraints and the processes key in overcoming these constraints are discussed. Recommendations are made with the intention of helping similar projects in the future

"Two sides of the same coin"? Coaching and mentoring and the agentic role of context

Our article depicts and interrogates the claims for seeing coaching and mentoring as being distinct from each other, and rather suggests that context is agentic in determining which aspects of these two helping orientations are likely to be used by practitioners. To start with, our article traces the development of coaching and mentoring as two separate discourses. Traditionally, coaching has been associated with a shorter term performance focus, with the coach portrayed as a process‐ rather than a content knowledge−based expert. By contrast, mentoring has a longer‐term holistic focus, where the mentor has direct experience and knowledge in the setting that the mentee is operating in. Then, we discuss some limitations of seeking conceptual distinctiveness in purely theoretical terms, including accentuating differences of practices that cannot easily be disentangled from each other in practice. Therefore, on the basis of a case study, where coaching and mentoring behaviors are used by leaders and managers, we argue that context plays an agentic role and influences which of the helping orientations is used by practitioners. We conclude that, context being multifaceted, it leads to a kaleidoscope of coaching/mentoring behaviors, which supports a practice‐based approach to the debate

Internal representation and factional faultlines as antecedents for board performance in social enterprises

There is an increasing scholarly interest in how social enterprises manage their hybrid nature. As hybrid organizational forms, social enterprises combine mission-driven social goals and revenue generating activities in a variety of organizational constellations and in diverse institutional contexts. Acknowledging the potentially conflicting demands that institutional environments impose on social enterprises there is an increasing research interest in the existence and proliferation of these conflicting demands at the organizational level. Some researchers have pointed to the importance of particular management practices and governance characteristics – such as authority relations and internal representation – as mechanisms to deal with the conflicting demands at the organizational level. This paper adds to this stream of literature by taking into account the organizational level dynamics of internal representation and the proliferation of factional groups in the boards of directors of hybrid organizational forms and their impact on board performance, ultimately influencing the organizational performance