This study investigates the effect of founders socialization experiences and contextual interpretations on the deviation of recently-established law firms from the dominant organizational form in the B.C. legal profession. Through this research I address three issues fundamental to the neo-institutional perspective on organizational analysis: 1) whether consensually-understood frameworks exist in highly-institutionalized environments, 2) the extent to which new entrants to such industries reproduce or depart from these prescribed arrangements, and 3) why some conform while others deviate. In the first phase of my investigation, I ascertained the nature of the legal profession s dominant template for organizing by analyzing qualitative data collected from multiple data sources including both observers of and practitioners within this industry. I subsequently validated this template by collecting quantitative data through a survey administered to a panel of lawyers. The results support the existence of a commonly- perceived template for organizing in the B.C. legal profession. In the second phase of my research, I investigated sixty recently-established law firms in B.C. Through a background questionnaire and personal interview conducted with the founder of each firm, I collected data on multiple dimensions of form, the founder s experience, and his or her rationale for designing the firm in a certain way. I also administered a survey to a separate panel of lawyers, to obtain their perceptions of the extent to which alternative arrangements differed from those of the dominant template. This data was used to calculate deviation measures for the recentlyestablished firms. The results revealed that, despite the prevalence with which founders voiced disenchantment with the dominant template, 85% of their firms exhibited very little deviation from the normative form. Thus, it appears that most new entrants to a highlyinstitutionalized setting act primarily as agents of institutional perpetuation rather than entrepreneurship. The 15% that exhibited greater deviation tended to be headed by founders with less experience in the industry s most prominent organizations and by those who most strongly questioned the moral legitimacy of prevailing organizational arrangements. Experience in marginal organizations or other industries, as well as doubts about the dominant template s pragmatic legitimacy, were insufficient triggers of new entrant deviation.

Uždaviniai: 1. Ištirti KVSC organizacijos elgseną. 2. Atskleisti KVSC darbuotojų motyvavimo sąsajas su kitais organizacijos elgsenos komponentais. 3. Įvertinti ir palyginti patenkintų ir nepatenkintų darbu darbuotojų požiūrį į organizaciją. Tyrimo metodika. Tyrimo objektas – KVSC organizacijos elgsena. Naudojant anoniminę anketą apklausti 133 KVSC darbuotojai (atsako dažnis 73,9 proc.). Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant programų paketo SPSS 13.0 versiją bei Statistica 6.0. Rezultatai. KVSC būdinga aktyvi naujų galimybių paieška, sugebėjimas spręsti problemines situacijas, dominuojanti hierarchinė valdymo struktūra, veiksminga formali kontrolė, orientacija į veiklos kryptis, dėmesys klientui, jautrumas aplinkos pokyčiams ir greitas prie jų prisitaikymas, rizikos tolerancija, organizacijos tikslų akcentavimas ir įgyvendinimas. Darbuotojai, patenkinantys organizacijoje poreikį jaustis saugiai, būti pripažintu bei saviraiškos ir tobulėjimo poreikius, palankiau nei šių poreikių nepatenkinę vertino kitus organizacijos elgsenos komponentus individo, grupės ir organizacijos lygmenyse. Fiziologinių poreikių patenkinimas buvo nesusijęs ar silpnai susijęs su darbuotojų požiūriu į organizacijos elgseną. Patenkinti darbu respondentai dažniau nei nepatenkinti teigė, kad organizacija turi tvirtas tradicijas, kad patenkina organizacijoje poreikį jaustis saugiai, poreikį būti pripažintu ir įgyti statusą, saviraiškos bei tobulėjimo poreikį, kad organizacija sudaro galimybes... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Targets: 1. To highlight the organizational peculiarities of KVSC. 2. To unclose the correlations among motivation of KVSC employees with other components of organizational behavior. 3. To evaluate and compare the attitudes of satisfied and unsatisfied employees towards the organization. Methods of the research. Object of the research – behavior of the employees of KVSC. There were totally 133 employees of KVSC interviewed using the anonymous questionnaire (response rate 73,9%). Data was analyzed using SPSS 13.0 and STATISTICA 6.0. Results. Active searching for new possibilities, ability to deal with problem situations, dominating structure of hierarchical management, effective formal control, activity – oriented, attention to customer, sensitivity and fast adaptability to environmental changes, risk tolerance, stressing of the organizational aims and their implementation are the key elements of KVSC. More satisfied with the needs to be recognized and get the self – expression and safety respondents were more positively oriented towards the other organizational behavior components within the individual, group and organizational levels. The satisfaction of the physiological needs was not or very slightly related with the employees’ attitude towards the organizational behavior. Satisfied with the work respondents more often claimed the organization had stable traditions, that they meet the need to feel safe, the need to be recognized and obtain a status, the needs for self... [to full text]

This thesis seeks an explanation for the existence of corporate "fast tracks". Part One surveys four existing fast track models from the literature. In tournament theory, fast tracks have been viewed as a response to the adverse selection problem. In models where the firm uses junior positions for on-the-job screening, they may be a possibility permitted by a particular technology. Alternatively, they may arise from the signalling engaged in by workers when there is asymmetric information. Finally, they can be used as a way of overcoming a lack of precise information on worker ability. / In the second part of the thesis an alternative explanation is proposed. A firm is considered to consist of two levels: production workers and managerial workers. If a worker is an able manager, the firm will lose valuable production time by slow promotion. However, slower promotion allows more information to be revealed for a given expenditure. Different track lengths are created depending on the firm's initial assessment of managerial competence.

<p>An abstract of a dissertation that examines the motivational foundations of social networks. Five studies using diverse methods examine goal pursuit as an antecedent to social network structure, finding that self-oriented and affiliation-oriented goal pursuit evoke unique patterns of interpersonal perception and motivation which lead to the development of sparser and denser social networks, respectively. Study 1 serves as an empirical summary of our theorizing: individuals primed with dense networks feel more efficacious pursuing affiliation-oriented goals versus self-oriented goals, and individuals primed with sparse networks feel more efficacious pursuing self-oriented goals than individuals primed with dense networks. Study 2finds a correlation between personal goals and network structure. Studies 3 and 4 experimentally demonstrate that reminders of self versus affiliation-oriented goals lead to different cognitively-activated network structures. Study 5 finds that individuals entering a new social network with strong career goals (self-oriented goals) develop significantly sparser local networks and attain more central network positions; the opposite pattern emerges for individuals pursuing strong social goals (affiliation-oriented goals). Individuals strongly motivated to pursue both goals lose the network structure benefits of having a strong career goal. Findings support the hypothesis linking personal goal pursuit to network structure, a novel approach to integrating psychology and networks research.</p> / Dissertation

Certain properties of individuals’ social networks within their organizations are known to be associated with benefits. However, these properties are not universally beneficial for all individuals. To explain the differing utility of social connections for different actors, network research has tended to focus on factors relating to the actor’s characteristics, agency and cognition. With this dissertation, I explore a different contingency affecting actors’ abilities to leverage their networks: how observers perceive and evaluate the behavior of actors as they craft and use their networks, and how these attributions impact actors’ job performance. I develop a theoretical framework that incorporates social capital theory to develop a taxonomy of networking behaviors. I build upon network cognition research to explore how observers’ perceptions and attributions of actors’ networking behaviors rather than perceptions of network ties or structure affect actors’ outcomes. I draw upon attribution theory to suggest how observers’ attributions about actors may affect observers’ behavior towards actors, thus impacting actors’ outcomes. Results suggest that networking behaviors that are seen as serving the collective positively impact actors’ outcomes, while networking behaviors that are seen as self-serving negatively impact the actors’ outcomes by limiting access to high-status friends. However, attributions about an actor’s self-serving behavior augment the benefits the actor receives when he or she has access to high-status friends. When it comes to performance, networks matter, but it also matters how observers evaluate actors’ networking behaviors.

<p>The rapid growth of the retail economy has created an abundance of low wage work. The retail sector often employs black and Latina women in low middle management and part-time positions while, white men and women hold top managerial and human resource positions. Consequently, a distinctive pattern of inequality emerges for women of color in retail work. Utilizing data from 20 in-depth interviews, I find black and Latina women's raises and promotions are stifled by the surveillance and bodily control they encounter on the retail floor. This study explores the simultaneous ways race, gender, class and body type intersect to place women of color in subordinate positions within the workforce. Moreover, this research provides insight into how the "white racial frame" is used to exploit women of color by both white management and the self-surveillance women of color conduct onto their own bodies. </p>

Sverige har bidragit med trupp till internationella insatser sedan 1950-talet. Detta har gjorts med bidrag från framför allt markstridskrafter men även med luftstridskrafter. Det dröjer fram till 2006 innan beslut tas om en marin internationell insats i form av korvettförband som bidrag till FN-insatsen UNIFIL i Libanon. Denna insats har fram till idag följts av fyra marina insatser, en förlängning av UNIFIL i Libanon 2007 och tre insatser i Somalia under åren 2009-2013. Beslutet om den marina insatsen i Libanon är för marinen banbrytande. Syftet med uppsatsen är att ge en ökad förståelse och insikt kring bakgrund och orsaker till beslutet. Bakomliggande orsaker till beslut om insats kan förklaras med hjälp av olika teorier och förklaringsmodeller. Denna uppsats använder sig av den amerikanske forskaren Graham Allissons modeller framtagna i boken ”Essence of decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis”. Två av tre modeller används för att anlysera beslutet, the Rational Actor och Organizational Behavior. Resultatet av analysen visar att det fanns en politisk enighet och uttalad målsättning att Sverige skulle bidra till en fredlig lösning i konflikten. Vidare framkommer att det vid tillfället för beslutet fanns få alternativ till det marina korvettförbandet, framför allt beroende på ekonomiska och personella förutsättningar i Försvarsmakten. Allisons modeller har fungerat som analysverktyg för att ge en ökad förståelse och insikt kring bakgrund och orsaker till beslutet. Modellerna ses som kompletterande till varandra då de belyser och framhäver olika aspekter och orsaker till det valda alternativet.

Work groups are a major component of newspaper newsrooms. Similar to other organizations, newsrooms divide employees into work groups based on work roles and titles such as reporters, graphic artists, and photographers. Studies have shown that although intergroup bias can help group members to create and maintain a positive view themselves, it can also contribute to members' levels of alienation toward opposing work groups.Based on the premise that group-based interactions may be negatively affecting newspaper productivity, the purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between reporters, designers, and photographers in Midwestern newsrooms. From this study, it was found that ingroup favoritism is more prominent among reporters than designers and photographers. It was also determined that education plays a role in the formation of in- and out-groups in the newsroom. Additionally, it was found that job satisfaction has little or no bearing on an employee's level of bias or ingroup favoritism within the newsroom. / Department of Journalism

Research indicates that many factors may impede teachers' ability to develop caring relationships with students such as the school environment (Schaps, 2009), lack of cultural understanding (Thompson, 1998), the teacher's beliefs and attitudes about care (Goldstein, 2002), and personal experience of being cared for (Noddings, 1984). Yet, little research exists on how schools can address these and other potential limiting factors in order to help teachers cultivate caring relationships with students. The purpose of this study was to examine how one school in India, which claims to emphasize the importance of the teacher-student relationship, develops and supports teachers' capacities to create caring relationships with students. The hope was that the outcomes might provide insight for policy-makers, school administrators, and teachers about what is needed to best support teachers in their relationships with students. The research site for this study was a pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade private school in India. The choice of India as a cultural context stemmed from the historical precedence of the importance of the teacher-student relationship. A mixed-methods descriptive case study served as the design for this study. Qualitative methods included interviews of teachers, administrators, and students, classroom and event observations, and document analysis. Quantitative methods included surveys of teachers and students. The qualitative data were analyzed using Noddings' (1984) four methods for teaching care (modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation) with other themes added as needed. Descriptive statistics and factor analyses of both surveys were used to triangulate and expand upon the qualitative data. Findings indicated that schools can support teachers' capacity to care for students through a strong commitment to the teacher-student relationship, deliberate fostering of relationships between students, teachers, and parents, and through the modeling by and direct receipt of care from administrators. Other factors that may help teachers to care for students include cultural respect for the teaching profession and acknowledgement of care from both students and parents. However, teachers' efforts to care may be impeded by intense testing environments. Recommendations were made for the implementation of resources and support needed by teachers to create caring relationships with students.

National cultural and institutional factors and the influence of the parent company affect the ways in which Multinational Corporation subsidiaries train and develop their staff. However, existing studies have not compared training and development using a comprehensive range of comparative factors. Thus the key determinants of the organization, planning and conduct of training and development are not identified or explained. This study develops a comprehensive series of factors that can be used to compare training and development in the British and French subsidiaries of a Swedish Multinational Corporation. The hypothetical implications of national culture, the national institutional context and the national origin of the parent company are identified. It is expected that national cultural and institutional factors will have a greater influence upon training and development than the actions of the parent company, and that cultural factors will be more influential than institutional factors. The hypotheses are tested in a study that involves interviewing company staff and training providers in Britain, France and Sweden. A range of company documents is also gathered. Analysis of the data reveals that the parent company has virtually no influence on the training and development actions of the subsidiaries, although there are signs that this ‘lack of management’ may be under review. Further analysis reveals that national culture is the key determinant of the ways in which training is conducted in the subsidiaries. However, cultural explanations for the ways in which the subsidiaries organize and plan training and development are rejected. The competitive market environment that the subsidiaries operate in, especially the ability (or not) to gain market share seems to be the key determinant of the organization and planning of training and development in the subsidiaries. It is concluded that this is a significant finding which should be explored in future studies