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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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- Politics (3)
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- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (2)
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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Organisational Control And The Self: Critiques And Normative Expectations, Karin Garrety
Organisational Control And The Self: Critiques And Normative Expectations, Karin Garrety
Karin Garrety
This article explores the normative assumptions about the self that are implicitly and explicitly embedded in critiques of organisational control. Two problematic aspects of control are examined – the capacity of some organisations to produce unquestioning commitment, and the elicitation of ‘false’ selves. Drawing on the work of Rom Harré, and some examples of organisational-self processes gone awry, I investigate the dynamics involved and how they violate the normative expectations that we hold regarding the self, particularly its moral autonomy and authenticity. The paper concludes by arguing that, despite post-structuralist challenges, some notion of a ‘core’ or ‘real’ self still …
Performing And Agential Selves: Employees As Targets Of Control, And How We, As Academics, Theorise About Them, Karin H. Garrety, Simon Down
Performing And Agential Selves: Employees As Targets Of Control, And How We, As Academics, Theorise About Them, Karin H. Garrety, Simon Down
Karin Garrety
Critical management scholars have noted how contemporary management practices encourage and sometimes require workers to adopt multiple identities, and that cynicism, irony and resistance are often manifested in those identities. In this paper, we explore some attributes of modern selfhood that make these positions possible. We concentrate on two related aspects: (1) the capacity of people to reflect on, and manipulate, the selves that they present to the world, and (2) different forms of agency that actors can effect. We argue that closer attention to these attributes can sharpen our analyses of organisational control and its impacts on the self.
Electronic Documentation In Residential Aged Care Facilities - A Review Of The Literature On Organisational Issues And Early Findings On Initial Conditions From A Case Study, Kieren Diment, Ping Yu, Karin H. Garrety
Electronic Documentation In Residential Aged Care Facilities - A Review Of The Literature On Organisational Issues And Early Findings On Initial Conditions From A Case Study, Kieren Diment, Ping Yu, Karin H. Garrety
Karin Garrety
This paper discusses the theoretical rationale for an empirical study of organisational change arising from introduction of electronic nursing documentation in residential aged care facilities. The study draws on a processual view of organisational change, which is related to the theory of complex adaptive systems. First we review existing literature on electronic nursing documentation with an organisational focus to provide a context to help outline the research aims of the present study. Then we describe a method to explore the hierarchical nature of the work environment based on the sociological theory of Institutional Ethnography. Finally we use this approach to …
Beyond Istj: A Discourse-Analytic Study Of The Use Of The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator As An Organisational Change Device In An Australian Industrial Firm, Karin Garrety
Karin Garrety
Although the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is widely deployed in work organisations, very little is known about how HR practitioners customise it for use, how employees react to being typed, and how (or if) they apply it in their daily work. This article reports the findings of a study that used interviews with HR practitioners and employees to investigate perceptions and uses of the MBTI in an Australian manufacturing site. A variety of interpretations and uses was found, illustrating that the effects of a device like the MBTI cannot simply be read off from the normative claims contained within it. …
Integrating Communities Of Practice In Technology Development Projects, Karin Garrety, P L. Robertson, R. Badham
Integrating Communities Of Practice In Technology Development Projects, Karin Garrety, P L. Robertson, R. Badham
Karin Garrety
Technology development projects usually benefit when knowledge and expertise are drawn from a variety of sources, including potential users. Orchestrating the involvement of people from disparate groups is a crucial task for project managers. It requires finding a balance between differentiation, when teams work in isolation, and integration, when groups come together to exchange knowledge. This article argues that a “community of practice” perspective can help project managers to achieve this balance, by drawing attention to the assumptions, interests, skills, and formal and tacit knowledge of the different groups involved. Successful integration can be achieved by ensuring that the developing …
Reflexivity And Normative Change, Karin Garrety
Reflexivity And Normative Change, Karin Garrety
Karin Garrety
Normative change programs - that is, programs that attempt to effect organisational change through altering employees’ beliefs, values, emotions and self-perceptions - have been heralded by some as the royal road to corporate ‘excellence’. Academic literature on the phenomenon, however, is pervaded by a sense of unease. Critics claim that these programs invade employees’ subjectivity, and erode their autonomy and capacity for critical thought. In this paper, I employ concepts from the work of George Herbert Mead and Rom Harré to explore the reflexive processes of managers subjected to a normative change program that was carried out in an Australian …
User-Centred Design And The Normative Politics Of Technology, Karin Garrety, R Badham
User-Centred Design And The Normative Politics Of Technology, Karin Garrety, R Badham
Karin Garrety
A long tradition of discourse and practice claims that technology designers need to take note of the characteristics and aspirations of potential users in design. Practitioners in the field of user-centred design (UCD) have developed methods to facilitate this process. These methods represent interesting vehicles for the pursuit of normative politics of technology. In this article, we use a case study of the introduction and use of UCD methods in Australia to explore the politics of getting the methods to work in practice. Drawing on the work of Bruno Latour and Marc Berg, we argue that UCD methods are tools …
The Politics Of Sociotechnical Intervention: An Interactionist View, Karin Garrety, R Badham
The Politics Of Sociotechnical Intervention: An Interactionist View, Karin Garrety, R Badham
Karin Garrety
In this article, we apply concepts from symbolic interactionism - a well-established tradition of interpretivist sociology - to investigate the social and political processes involved in a sociotechnical intervention. The intervention was designed to elicit operator involvement in an experimental trial of an advanced manufacturing system at an industrial site in Australia. The interactionist concepts of social worlds, boundary objects and trajectories are used to explore the interrelationships among the theoretical, practical and contextual elements of intervention. We believe that these concepts are flexible intellectual resources that can extend and enrich our understanding of the politics involved in the shaping …
The Use Of Personality Typing In Organizational Change: Discourse, Emotions & The Reflexive Subject, Karin Garrety, R Badham, V. Morrigan, W. Rifkin, M. Zanko
The Use Of Personality Typing In Organizational Change: Discourse, Emotions & The Reflexive Subject, Karin Garrety, R Badham, V. Morrigan, W. Rifkin, M. Zanko
Karin Garrety
This article is based on a study of an organizational change program that sought to alter employees’ self-perceptions, emotions and behavior through the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a popular personality-typing tool. The program affords an opportunity to explore the various ways in which discourses advocating personal and organizational change work through employees’ subjectivity.We argue that theoretical approaches that view the targets of such programs as passive – as either ‘colonized’ or constructed by discourses – fail to capture the complex and contradictory nature of organizational control, and subjects’ changing positions within it. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, we argue …
Living In The Blender Of Change: The Carnival Of Control In A Culture Of Culture, R. Badham, Karin Garrety
Living In The Blender Of Change: The Carnival Of Control In A Culture Of Culture, R. Badham, Karin Garrety
Karin Garrety
Traditional structural-functional approaches to organisational change, as well as critics of those approaches , often offer overly structured and rationalised views of how change occurs. This paper attempts to build upon processual studies of change and critiques of overly hegemonic views of managerial control by seeking to capture the complex, emotive and fluid character of organisational ‘changing’. In pursuit of this aim, the paper documents these characteristics of change through a personalised ethnography of a micro-incident – a critical change meeting – in an Australian steelmaking plant undergoing cultural change. In conclusion, it is argued that even the more sophisticated …
Humanistic Redesign And Technological Politics In Organizations, R. Badham, Karin Garrety, Christina Kirsch
Humanistic Redesign And Technological Politics In Organizations, R. Badham, Karin Garrety, Christina Kirsch
Karin Garrety
The political nature of technology design and implementation is explicitly addressed in human centered projects to introduce technologies that support job enrichment, group autonomy and industrial democracy. Yet the political meaning of such projects does not simply manifest itself in pure form from the methods employed or the intentions of the humanistic actors but, rather, from the complex configuration of these and other factors present in the design and implementation context. This paper illustrates this theme in an analysis of a case study human centered project. It argues that an improved understanding of the configurational politics surrounding such projects is …
The Steel Leadership Program: Telling The Stories, Karin H. Garrety, Viviane Morrigan, Richard Badham, Michael Zanko
The Steel Leadership Program: Telling The Stories, Karin H. Garrety, Viviane Morrigan, Richard Badham, Michael Zanko
Karin Garrety
Introduction Between October 1999 and June 2000 fifteen interviews were conducted with Springhill employees who had participated in the SLP course. The OD Team at Port Kembla intends using these stories to help build a new culture. An analysis and representation of participants' stories of their experiences arising out of the BHP Steel Leadership Program (SLP) does not lend itself readily to executive summary and bullet points. However, we have been able to discern a number of key themes from the process of gathering these stories and, of course, from the stories themselves.
Interorganizational Dynamics In Collaboration In University-Industry Research Projects: Context, Politics And Social Construction, Michael Zanko, Richard Badham, Karin H. Garrety
Interorganizational Dynamics In Collaboration In University-Industry Research Projects: Context, Politics And Social Construction, Michael Zanko, Richard Badham, Karin H. Garrety
Karin Garrety
University-industry partnerships (UIPs) are widely viewed as essential in leveraging research capability and economic performance in organizations and the nation as a whole. In Australia, as in many other countries, the national government commits significant funds to such ‘strategic’ collaborations. Despite this interest, there is still a relatively poor understanding of the interorganizational dynamics of these industry and university partnerships and their projects. This paper examines such dynamics by focusing on a management-related research project we were involved in negotiating and undertaking with industry partner managers over a four-year period. Of particular relevance was the complex interplay between UIP politics, …
Rebels Without Applause: Time, Politics And Irony In Action Research, R J. Badham, Karin Garrety, M. Zanko
Rebels Without Applause: Time, Politics And Irony In Action Research, R J. Badham, Karin Garrety, M. Zanko
Karin Garrety
Purpose of this paper: This paper seeks to raise for discussion and reflection some of the key dynamics of action research projects-in-practice. It focuses in particular on how action researchers broker academic and client interests, and how this brokering shifts over time. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on participant observation, drawing on the reflective and processual accounts of action researchers involved in a collaborative academic-industry-government project. Findings: The paper argues that the scope of action research projects to effectively address the needs of both audiences is compromised by managerialism in universities and organizations. However, the emergent and chaotic nature of …
Information And Computer Technology Security: Furthering The Research Agenda, Karin Garrety, M Barrett
Information And Computer Technology Security: Furthering The Research Agenda, Karin Garrety, M Barrett
Karin Garrety
Despite the development of advanced technical devices and procedures, the information held in computer systems remains vulnerable to attack and/or inadvertent mishandling, resulting in security breaches. Increasingly, researchers and practitioners are recognising that information security is not merely a technical issue, but is heavily influenced by social and cultural factors. This paper argues that post-cognitivist approaches to human computer interaction, which focus on situated reasoning and the contextual, relational aspects of computer-mediated activities and interactions, provide a promising set of concepts with which to explore non-technical users’ everyday security practices and beliefs. We review the limited research that has been …