bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strategic HRM through the Cultural Looking Glass: Mapping the Cognition of British and Indian Managers
Authors: Budhwar Pawan S. , Sparrow Paul R.
Published: March 2007

This study examines the issues of `integration' of human resource management (HRM) into the corporate strategy, `devolvement' of HRM to line managers and the perceived influence of national culture on HRM in a cross-national comparative context. In order to achieve this, the cognition of personnel specialists from a matched sample of 48 Indian and British firms in the manufacturing sector using the `Visual Cards Sorting' and `CMAP2' methodologies are analyzed. The findings show that even where there is an apparent convergence of strategy — e.g., the desire of both Indian and British personnel managers to increase integration between HRM and business strategy, and to increase the level of devolvement to line managers, the two sets of specialists clearly follow a different logic of action, which is subject to a different set of cross-cultural influences. The implications of pursuing apparently similar HRM solutions in different cross-national contexts are considered. The analysis shows that HRM strategies, when considered in a cross-national context, vary a lot. Different logic leads to the adoption of similar HR strategies, and similar strategies in turn are perceived as producing different outcomes. This variance centres around the existence and perceived influence of several contextual variables such as industrial relations systems, operation of labour markets, and changes in business systems. Specific cross-cultural influences, along with different aspects of competitive business environment associated with the generic HR strategies of integration and devolvement in the two countries are highlighted. This research contributes to the fields of cross-cultural management research, international HRM and managerial and organizational cognition. It also has important messages for policy makers.
The Political Ecology of Automobile Recycling in Europe
Authors: Orsato Renato J. , den Hond Frank , Clegg Stewart R.
Published: March 2007

This paper addresses the relationship between organizations and the natural environment from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. In doing so, it contributes in three ways. First, it satisfies the need for more political perspectives in environment-related research. Second, by analyzing the end-of-life vehicle issue that the European automobile industry addressed in the 1990s, the paper satisfies the need of developing research that integrates organizational and field-level analysis. Finally, the use of the political ecology framework for the analysis of the end-of-life vehicle issue contributes to the development of a more politically charged institutional theory in which, as the study shows, both inertia and change in organizational fields depend on circuits of political ecology.
Knowledge-Sharing Dilemmas
Authors: Cabrera Angel , Cabrera Elizabeth F.
Published: March 2007

The exchange of information among organizational employees is a vital component of the knowledge-management process. Modem information and telecommunication technology is available to support such exchanges across time and distance barriers. However, organizations investing in this type of technology often face difficulties in encouraging their employees to use the system to share their ideas. This paper elaborates on previous research, suggesting that sharing personal insights with one's co-workers may carry a cost for some individuals which may yield, at the aggregate level, a co-operation dilemma, similar to a public-good dilemma. A review of the research on different types of public-good dilemmas provides some indications of the specific interventions that may help organizations encourage the kind of social dynamics that will increase overall knowledge sharing. These interventions can be classified into three categories: interventions aimed at restructuring the pay-offs for contributing, those that try to increase efficacy perceptions, and those that make employees' sense of group identity and personal responsibility more salient.
National Business Systems and Industry-Specific Competitiveness
Authors: Haake Sven
Published: March 2007

Countries have been shown to be competitive in specific industries. This paper contends that this industrial specialization can be understood in terms of an affinity between national `models of capitalism' and the characteristics of industrial task environments. Put differently, industry-specific competitiveness is conceived to arise out of a fit between patterns of national business systems and patterns of industrial task environments. Specifically, the paper will propose a relationship between the communitarian or individualistic nature of national business systems and the organization-specificity of knowledge in an industry. More communitarian business systems are thought to enjoy a competitive advantage in industries with a high organization-specificity of knowledge, i.e. in industries that rely more on the long-term accumulation of organization-specific knowledge within tightly-knit corporate communities. More individualistic business systems, on the other hand, are thought to enjoy a competitive advantage in industries with a low organization-specificity of knowledge, i.e. in industries that thrive more on the speedy dissemination or reallocation of company-unspecific knowledge through a constant reconfiguration of social relationships. The paper will offer some illustrations of these proposed relationships in terms of the competitive profiles of the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain.
Essai: The Ghost in the Organism
Authors: Cummings Stephen , Thanem Torkild
Published: March 2007

The emergence of the idea that organizations are like organisms is generally seen as having saved organization studies (OS) from its mechanistic precepts. We argue that it has not. Rather, the mechanistic underpinnings of organization merely found a new medium of expression in the organism metaphor. This is largely due to the particular legacy that first informed so-called organic thinking about organizations in the 20th century. This essai investigates the history of the words organization and organism and asks how it became possible for one to be used as a metaphor for the other. Then it examines the way that the organism was brought into the fold of organization so as to reinforce the Modernist and mechanistic underpinnings of the field. We conclude that if the mechanistic ghost in the organism is to be exorcised, OS needs to recognize and rethink these underlying premises. Towards this end, we offer two alternative ways of thinking organization via the organism: one pre-Modern and one post-Modern.
Time and Reflexivity in Organization Studies: An Introduction
Authors: Antonacopoulou Elena , Tsoukas Haridimos
Published: March 2007

The theme of this collection of essays arose from the broader theme of the American Academy of Management 2000 Conference in Toronto on `A New Time'. The five short papers included here, plus one by Christopher Grey (University of Cambridge) were presented at a special (All Academy) symposium, under the title `Organization Studies: It's Time for Reflection', organized by Elena Antonacopoulou. Following on from the discussion that ensued at the symposium and the comments made by the guest editors, five out of the initial six presenters revised their contributions and the symposium theme evolved into the present `Time and Reflexivity in Organization Studies'.
From Freemasons to Industrious Patriots. Organizing and Disciplining in 18th Century Germany
Authors: Kieser Alfred
Published: March 2007

Formal organizations or corporate actors came into existence in the 18th century. They required from their members a radical change in behaviour. At least some members had to be able to discipline themselves and to design organizations in order to discipline other members. Based on a review of theories of disciplinization, the question of how the early organizers acquired self-discipline and organizing skills, is pursued. Associations such as freemasons' lodges, reading societies, and patriotic societies which were founded in Germany in the 18th century are identified as the first formal organizations which provided their members with platforms for training in self-discipline and for experimenting with organizational rules. This paper attempts to reconstruct how, over time, these early organizations evolved towards a more rational organizational design, and how their members developed organizational behaviour.
Institutional Transformation and Enterprise Change in an Emergent Capitalist Economy: The Case of Hungary
Authors: Whitley Richard , Czaban Laszlo
Published: March 2007

The collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe has transformed many of the institutions governing state enterprises and was expected to lead to radical changes in enterprise structures and practices. This was especially so where ownership had changed. However, just as new constitutions do not create liberal democracies overnight, so too the withdrawal of the state from direct control over the economy and privatization does not automatically generate dramatic enterprise transformations. This study of 27 Hungarian enterprises in the early 1990s shows that products and the markets served changed remarkably little, and the employment and organizational changes that have taken place in most enterprises have been less radical than might be expected. Ownership changes have not always led to major shifts in control, nor have private owners implemented sharply different policies from state controllers. The highly fluid institutional environment limited the commitment to, and capacity for, major strategic changes in most substantial Hungarian enterprises. Where changes have occurred, they have been most significant in: (a) state enterprises that are in severe financial difficulties, and (b) companies controlled by foreign firms.
Essal: How Far is a Sociology of Organizations Still Needed?
Authors: Thoenig Jean-Claude
Published: March 2007

Any scientific discipline experiences a life cycle. As a specific discipline, the sociology of organizations may well have reached a stage of maturity and entered a declining return of the knowledge process. This is clearly the case with what might be called its standard platform or agenda of research. A major change in recent years has been the emergence of an extended platform or domain. This raises the question: Does this emergence renew the core identity of the discipline or does it dilute the sociology of organizations as a specific discipline? This essai discusses the ambiguity of such a redefinition of the domain ground. It also calls for a more solid and interactive dialogue between general sociology and sociology dealing with organizations.
The Question of Technology, or How Organizations Inscribe the World
Authors: Joerges Bernward , Czamiawska Barbara
Published: March 2007

This article relates technology studies to organization research and examines the technology-as-text metaphor. The study of organization is incomplete as long as tangible technology remains in its blind spot. Linguistic metaphors and analogies, while capturing and indeed amplifying much of received understandings of technology, succeed only partially in repairing the situation. The image of the palimpsest is used to highlight this critique and to visualize ways out. Thus, while the main concern of the paper is to re-situate technology to the study of organization, an argument is also put forward for a specific approach to the study of technology.
The Determinants of Employee Responses to Total Quality Management: Six Case Studies
Authors: Edwards Paul , Collinson Margaret , Rees Chris
Published: March 2007

Total quality management has been a central element in many efforts directed towards organizational change. Theories tend to fall into two extreme camps, which hold either that TQM transforms attitudes and behaviour or that it is nothing but a means to intensify work and tighten managerial control. More recent analysis is more balanced, but lacks quantitative data on employee responses and also neglects the varying contexts in which TQM exists. This study addresses these issues by taking six named organizations from different sectors of the UK economy and by blending qualitative interviewing with a survey of 280 employees. Findings show a wide acceptance of quality principles but (in contrast to the transformation view) little evidence of substantial empowerment of workers. Compared with the intensification view, growing work effort was not widely disliked, and, crucially, favourable views of quality were strongest, not weakest, where the monitoring of workers was most intense. Multivariate analysis supports the 'disciplined worker' thesis, that quality is most accepted where there is a controlled work environment. Case material indicates that the conditions for success in quality programmes are notably high job security and a co-operative relationship with trade unions.
Embedded Patterns of International Alliance Formation
Authors: Osborn Richard N. , Hagedoorn John , Denekamp Johannes G. , Duysters Geert , Baughn C. Christopher
Published: March 2007

Using a combination of institutional, systems contingency and ecological theory, this paper argues and empirically demonstrates that key founding characteristics of international alliances are embedded (interactively related) in one another. Specifically, the technical area of the alliance activity, the intended direction of product/knowledge flows among sponsors, and the administrative form of the alliances are shown to be interactively related. Further, the concept of embeddedness was combined with Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and technological views to show two founding patterns. One pattern called Hybridization was consistent with technological explanations while the second called Dominance was suggested by TCE approaches. The new interactive relationships were identified in two large samples involving US, Japanese and European firms during a period from 1970 to 1989.
One, a Hundred, Thousands of Industrial Districts. Organizational Variety in Local Networks of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Authors: Paniccia Ivana
Published: March 2007

This paper discusses the nature of industrial districts as effective organization modes and some of their claimed distinctive features, such as 'extended division of labour' and 'co-operation' as a rule governing inter-firm relationships. Over a period of 40 years, 24 local productive systems of SMEs in Italy are compared with respect to both economic and social characteristics. The 'canonical' features of the industrial district were only found in a few local systems and at certain periods of time. The model of the industrial district is not always associated with superior performance, and other typologies of local systems may show even better results.

The comparison also highlights different models of labour organization combined with different sets of socio-economic factors and apparently conflicting rules governing inter-firm relationships. Trust, 'confidence', co-operation, price, power and conflict as well as deceit may co-exist in the same typology of local system. These rules flow into one another as contingencies evolve in what appears to be a sort of biological pattern of evolution.
Organizational Diversity and Change in Institutional Theory
Authors: Kondra Alex Z. , Hinings C. R.
Published: March 2007

Institutional theory has focused on the movement towards, and maintenance of, isomorphic institutional environments. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the forces that change institutional environments. Starting with a discussion of the implications of isomorphism on performance, this article attempts to develop a taxonomy of organizations within an institutional environment in order to develop a theory of how organizations respond to violations of institutional norms with possible implications for institutional change. Essential to this theory is the importance of organizational diversity, risk aversion, the effect of isomorphism on performance, and the role of relative performance in maintaining isomorphism and providing incentives to change.
Cultural Theory and Organizations: Analytical Method and Cases
Authors: Altman Yochanan , Baruch Yehuda
Published: March 2007

Within the context of the ongoing debate on the understanding of organizational culture, this paper presents a cultural theory of organizations (grid/group analysis) originating in anthropology. It is a generic model which proposes a conceptual framework for comparing organizations, organizing and change. The model identifies particular configurations of social relationships, dictating 'ways of life' (organizational cultures) which are both exclusive and differentiating. Three active cultures (and one passive) are identified: hierarchical, sectarian, market (and fatalistic). Two case studies demonstrating the descriptive power of the model are presented. One is a meta-organizational analysis of a large, complex organization: the Israeli Armed Forces. The other is an Israeli high-tech industrial enterprise undergoing a major organizational and cultural change. Finally, comparisons with other typological organizational models, and current cross-cultural theories of organization are discussed.
`Are there no Limits to Authority?': TQM and Organizational Power
Authors: Knights David , McCabe Darren
Published: March 2007

In this paper we examine some of the problematic assumptions and concepts underlying Total Quality Management (TQM) through a case study of a major UK retail bank. We question traditional approaches towards power which assume it to be the property of individuals or groups. For us, power should be understood to be a condition of social relations. Thus, it is erroneous to ask who has power. Instead, it is necessary to explore how power is exercised. Notwithstanding this, it is essential to recognize that power is not simply an external agency, but that it penetrates the very essence of our being. We explore the structural and inter-personal tensions which emerge between the bank's mortgage division and its branches over mortgage applications. We examine how TQM, through the medium of `quality partnerships' is used to address these tensions. The article reveals that TQM is both a condition and a consequence of organizational power relations. Not only is TQM constituted by these power relations, but it is itself a vehicle for struggle between competing groups and individuals. This suggests that the problems confronting TQM are far more embedded than is often assumed to be the case. Critically, through opening up the notion of power as `relational' rather than `propertied', it is our aim to illuminate the continuing exercise of, and potential for, resistance during the operation of TQM regimes.
National Employment Systems and Job Autonomy: Why Job Autonomy is High in the Nordic Countries and Low in the United States, Canada, and Australia
Authors: Dobbin Frank , Boychuk Terry
Published: March 2007

We present evidence that, across countries, similar jobs carry very different levels of autonomy. Workers in Nordic countries have greater discretion than workers in the United States, Canada, and Australia, all else being equal. This suggests that students of job autonomy, who emphasize task complexity and human capital, should heed the role of the wider institutional environment. We examine three explanations of the link between national location and autonomy. The Taylorism/de-skilling thesis suggests that work control is a zero-sum game between workers and managers, such that in countries where managers exercise great control, workers will exercise little. The collective bargaining thesis suggests that union bargaining strategy is the key: unionists will have high autonomy in `co-determination' countries and low autonomy in `job control' countries. We argue more broadly that national management, training, bargaining, and unemployment systems operate according to different logics. Where they are oriented to rule-governed work, autonomy will be low. Where they are oriented to skill-governed work, autonomy will be high. Detailed data on job autonomy from over seven thousand jobs in seven countries support our contention that national employment systems shape job autonomy.
Organizational Culture and Business History
Authors: Rowlinson Michael , Procter Stephen
Published: March 2007

The concept of culture promised to make organization studies more historical and to provide theoretical relevance for business history. This promise has not been fulfilled. The conventions at various levels of organizational culture studies prevent them from becoming more historical, and the conventions of business history make it difficult to engage with the concept of culture. Corporate culturism imposes a narrative structure that privileges the role of founders in history. Similarly, corporate sponsorship reinforces the tendency for business historians to endorse the unity and continuity of corporate cultures. The influence of economics in business history reduces culture to a residual variable and subordinates narrative to economic models. Organizational symbolists are suspicious of narrative, which they associate with founder-centred corporate culturism. Instead, ethnographies emphasize verisimilitude and the subjective experience of the author at the expense of verifiable historical narratives. Business historians adopt an objective stance that allows them to write definitive company histories, but makes it difficult to engage with the subjectivism and relativism of organizational symbolism or the scepticism of post-modernism. Unlike organizational culture studies, post-modernism in history is identified with a return to narrative. A serious engagement with organizational culture studies might engender the much-needed critical reflex in business history. We use the rare examples of historical deconstruction in organizational culture studies (Boje 1995) and of deconstruction in business history (Church 1996) to highlight the differences between the two discourses. We argue that a more historical approach in organizational culture studies and a more reflexive engagement with the concept of culture in business history would facilitate the deconstruction of founder-centred narratives of corporate culture.
The Role of Political Language Forms and Language Coherence in the Organizational Change Process
Authors: Sillince John A.A.
Published: March 2007

This paper views organizational change from a linguistic perspective. Concepts are taken from the theory of speech acts, the theory of political language forms, and the theory of language coherence and applied to two case studies of companies undergoing major organizational change. Two criteria for coherent language use during organizational change are developed and illustrated empirically using two contrasting cases (which are re-interpreted from the extant literature). These cases are modelled sequentially in their own terms, one case forming five stages, the other forming four stages. The first case involves AT&T (Schlesinger et al. 1987), which satisfies the two criteria of coherent language use. The second case, involving Chrysler (Moritz and Seaman 1981), does not satisfy these two criteria.
The Cultural Performance of Control
Authors: Munro Rolland
Published: March 2007

Ideas about control are enriched by attending to cultural performances taking place in everyday organizational life. While much literature conflates culture with control, purists try to exclude control devices altogether, as if these artefacts cannot be expressive of real forms of culture. This view overlooks how managers make an `exhibition' of such artefacts on a daily basis in order to cut a figure of being `in' control. By closely examining which material is made visible and available, and when, the paper also challenges assumptions about the `performed order' being hegemonic. The paper illustrates how everyday `exhibitions' of membership over-lap into `displays' of self as the successful, or charismatic manager. In that cultural performances set a performer apart (as different) at the same time as figuring them as members (as the same), the paper argues that the performed order is always motile to the precise artefacts being made visible and available.
Socializing Aesthetics and `Selling Like Gangbusters'
Authors: Rusted Brian
Published: March 2007

If Cultural Studies has contributed anything to aesthetics in recent decades, it has been a sense of political immediacy: matters of style, taste, and judgement are now unquestionably matters of power. Organizational research on aesthetics does not reflect this development. For almost twenty-five years Cultural Studies and organizational research have had parallel interests in the study of culture, symbolism, ritual, and so on. Critical perspectives on power and ideology have had currency for both fields, but organizational researchers have not reflected these topics in discussions of taste, style, and aesthetics.

After reviewing aesthetics as a paradigm of cultural research in organizations, this article suggests some consequences of marginalizing the concern with power and aesthetics in Cultural Studies. The discussion is grounded in an ethnography of a Chicago-based entertainment firm. In the business of producing live entertainment for Fortune 500 clients, the company's roots extended deep into American vaude-ville traditions. The aesthetic knowledge of musical style and entertainer traditions formed the basis of this company's practice. Data is drawn from interviews with theatrical agents, producers, orchestra leaders and performers. Mapping the recuperation of vaudeville into corporate settings suggests the radically contextual nature of aesthetic practice.
Barry Turner for the Ages of Living Dangerously: Risk, `New Capitalisms', and Life in the Coming Century
Authors: Cals Marta B.
Published: March 2007

This essay explores some implications of Barry Turner's work on risk and insurance, both in its symbolic and substantive aspects, in relation to analyses of organizational life in the future. I develop the paper's central propositions by focusing on `emerging new capitalism' as articulated in Steinberg's (1993) potential `new ages': information age, postmodernism, global interdependence, new mercantilism, corporate control, flexible specialization, new social movements, and new fundamentalisms. I discuss `risk', and Turner's conception of it among others, as a new epistemological and political space for analyzing these new ages. Finally, I reconsider `risk' as the metaphor of choice for productive life in the coming century, since it allows for both on-going construction and deconstruction of possible worlds within the uncertainties that the new capitalisms might bring about.
Managing Transitions: The Reorganization of Two Clothing Manufacturing Firms in Hungary
Authors: Taplin Ian M , Frege Carola M
Published: March 2007

The emergence of market-oriented economies in eastern and central Europe has produced an extensive debate on institutional transfer. Whilst it is generally recognized that new regulatory systems are being created out of a de facto consensus between unions, employers and government, less is known about the firm-specific organizational ramifications of such changes. This case study examines the interplay between institutional constraints and management decision making in the organization of production and work in two recently privatized Hungarian clothing manufacturing firms. We focus upon managerial action and the implementation of strategy; specifically on how managers have sought to re-shape the organization of production in an attempt to meet the market exigencies of a changing global production system in apparel. We show contrasting ways in which firms have sought to introduce new production paradigms that emphasize quality, cost and productive efficiencies, arguing that even where firms have more resources than others, efforts to restructure time discipline amongst workers are not necessarily successful.
Domination, Self-Determination and Circular Organizing
Authors: Romme A. Georges L.
Published: March 2007

The emergence of self-organizing forms of control, based on the idea of self-determination, have challenged traditional forms of control based on the concept of domination. As such, self-determination has been put forward as an alternative rather than as a complement to domination. This paper describes and explores the circular forms of organizing that have been emerging in several parts of the world, viewing them as a possible synthesis of two existing archetypical concepts of power-self-determination and domination. In particular, the emergence of circular organizing in the Dutch company Endenburg Elektrotechniek is documented and interpreted. This case illustrates how a circular structure can be superimposed on the administrative hierarchy, with the latter continuing to play a substantial role in controlling and managing work processes. In the absence of a single ultimate authority, organizational control is exercised through feedback rather than power. As a result of this study, circularity of power is shown to be an interesting theoretical and instrumental concept.
Central Agencies in the Diffusion and Design of Technology: A Comparison of the UK and Sweden
Authors: Swan Jacky , Newell Sue , Robertson Maxine
Published: March 2007

This paper compares the adoption and design of Computer-Aided Production Management (CAPM) technologies in Sweden and the UK and examines the influence of technology suppliers and Professional Associations (PAs) as central agencies in shaping this diffusion process. Members of professional operations management associations in each country were surveyed and interviews were carried out with key stakeholders. These revealed differences in diffusion patterns with earlier adoption of standardized packaged solutions in the UK and a stronger reliance on in-house customized systems in Sweden. An explanation for this is that highly codified and portable notions of `best practice' have been promoted more strongly both by technology suppliers and PAs in the UK than in Sweden. The paper suggests that objectified forms of knowledge communication and fashion setting have dominated diffusion and design processes more heavily in the UK than in Sweden. This may be problematic because objectified notions of `best practice' under-emphasize the context-sensitivity of the technology and the need for organizational redesign. It is argued that the observed differences in the patterns of diffusion require an explanation at the level of societal effects.
Strategy, Structure and `Systemness': National Institutions and Corporate Change in France, Germany and the UK, 1950-1993
Authors: Mayer Michael C.J. , Whittington Richard
Published: March 2007

This paper distinguishes between `tight' and `loose' perspectives on national business systems. These two systems perspectives are compared in the light of new and existing European data on corporate strategies and structures, on the one hand, and national institutions of business finance, management control and top management development on the other. Despite broadly stable and distinctive institutional backgrounds, European corporations are found to have been transforming their strategies and structures steadily and in very similar ways during the whole post-war period. The paper concludes in favour of loose, rather than tight systems perspectives in contemporary Europe and considers implications for comparative research and economic restructuring.
Time in Organizational Studies: Towards a New Research Direction
Authors: Lee Heejin , Liebenau Jonathan
Published: March 2007

While there is much `time-related research', there is little `research on time'. This is striking since time is a key point in understanding organizations, their actions, culture, efficacy, etc. Most studies of time in management and organizational theory take time for granted. While there are numerous studies that address temporal issues, they are widely dispersed and unsystematic. This paper provides a classification of temporal studies of organizations and management. The scheme is built around two criteria: concepts of time and the role of time in research design. In the former, there are two contrasting concepts of time: clock time and social time. In the latter, time plays the roles of independent or dependent variables. By intersecting the two criteria, four notions of temporality (`deciding', `working', `varying' and `changing' times) are introduced to account for a variety of studies of time. The resulting classification not only reveals the current situation of studies about time, but it also indicates a direction which further research effort should take. We conclude by showing that temporally sensitive approaches will benefit research on organizations.
Trial and punishment: pardon and oblivion
Authors: De Greiff Pablo
Published: March 2007

While acknowledging the difficulties, both pragmatic and moral, involved in the efforts to try to punish those involved in atrocious crimes, I try to block the quick move to a policy of pardon and oblivion by interposing a moral commitment to the past that stems from a reflection about the nature of moral deliberation and moral identity. I argue in favor of a policy that is both compatible with such commitment, and practically feasible, one centered around forms of remembrance.
Time of ethics
Authors: Kantor Alon
Published: March 2007

Our essay examines Levinas's ideas of time and their relation to his ethical discourse. We read 'his' texts deconstructively and show how the notions of time and of the ethical are closely inter connected. We argue that Levinas deconstructs the concept of time, as it is traditionally developed by Western philosophy, and that this concept is part and parcel of and cannot be detached from his philo sophical venture. By following two major shibboleths, jouissance and language, we trace the deconstructive effort of Levinas to dismantle Western philosophy's traditional conceptualization of time. Our dis cussion points not to the failure of Levinas's toil but rather to the aporetic structure of his itinerary and to the ethical significance of this aporia.
Dead or alive?
Authors: Tate John W.
Published: March 2007

The Enlightenment heritage has meant that we have tended to conceive of tradition as inevitably opposed to reason, and that the exten sion of one as a major constitutive element in social affairs, implies the retraction of the other. However, this paper attempts to conceive the relationship between tradition and reason in a more articulated context, suggesting that this dichotomy between reason and tradition may itself be what Hans-Georg Gadamer calls an 'Enlightenment prejudice'. By drawing on the work of thinkers within a broad hermeneutic tradition, this paper attempts to articulate an alternative means of thinking about the relation ship between reason and tradition, which suggests that it is only when we adopt a particular Enlightenment perspective that we are hermeneutically confined to confirming Enlightenment presuppositions that there is such a dichotomy between reason and tradition.
A critique of pure politics
Authors: Connolly William E.
Published: March 2007

This essay examines lines of connection between disgust, the effect of disciplines upon such intensive appraisals, political action, and the shape of ethical responsiveness. Philosophies that espouse purity in moral ity or politics mask these lines of connection; they thereby disparage the sig nificance of techniques of the self to ethical and political life. Immanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt provide the two main figures through whom these themes are explored. Arendt and Kant are brought into relation with each other through the way each comes to terms with disgust and common sense. Kant's attempt to purify morality draws upon the spontaneity of common sense even more than it does upon a set of transcendental arguments. The Kantian metaphysic of the supersensible and the sensible then authorizes a concept of morality that almost removes the will beyond the reach of disci plines. But aporias he confronts within the will may bring these tactics back in. Arendt, while rising above the command conception of morality pro jected by Kant through her invocation of gratitude for being and appre ciation of new beginnings, reinstates purity in the concept of 'the political'. Arendt's drive to bracket the body - often treated as an assemblage of com pulsive moods and interests - from the realm of ethical and political life also disparages tactics by the self on the self. To challenge the metaphysic of the supersensible and the sensible with a metaphysic of the infrasensible and the sensible is to confirm the nobility of such tactics. The presentation of this alternative perspective calls into question the pretension of many contemporaries to be 'post-metaphysical'; it also helps to show why meta physical pluralism sets a condition for a politics of plurality attuned to the velocity and scope of late-modern life.
Impartiality and evil
Authors: Vetlesen Arne Johan
Published: March 2007

Confronted with Adolf Eichmann, evildoer par excellence, Hannah Arendt sought in vain for any 'depth' to the evil he had wrought. How is the philosopher to approach evil ? Is the celebrated criterion of impartiality ill-equipped to guide judgment when its object is evil - as exhibited, for instance, in the recent genocide in Bosnia? This essay questions the ability of the neutral 'third party' to respond adequately to evil from a standpoint of avowed impartiality. Discussing the different roles of perpetrator and victim, I argue that in any knowledge about evil the victim is the supremely privileged source; this being so, the non-party to the occurrence of evil must privilege the testimony of the victimized - even at the cost of strict impartiality of moral judgment.
A fissure in the distinction
Authors: Long Christopher Philip
Published: March 2007

By way of an analysis of Arendt's defense of the public/private distinction in The Human Condition, this essay offers a re-interpretation of the status of the family as a realm where the categories of action and speech play a vital role. The traditional criterion for the establishment of the public/private distinction is grounded in an idealization of the family as a sphere where a unity of interests destroys the conditions for the categories of action and speech. This essay takes issue with this assumption and argues that the traditional conception has had a pernicious effect not only on women, but on men as well. This argument is supported by locating a fissure in Arendt's analysis of this distinction that suggests a profound structural affinity between the public realm and the family.
The fact of pluralism and Israeli national identity
Authors: Kook Rebecca
Published: March 2007

Much of John Rawls' later work is concerned with the appli cation of his philosophical conceptions to the reality of liberal-democratic polities. I suggest that given the modern democratic reality of ethno national pluralism, Rawls' political conception of justice is insufficient to ensure democratic stability. Democratic states manage to contain ethnic pluralism while remaining compatible with liberal principles by promoting a corporate national identity. The key, I argue, lies in the particular member ship criteria devised and implemented by the state. Hence, the promotion of a corporate national identity negates state neutrality, but not necessarily political liberalism.
Running Away from Home
Authors: Edelbrock Craig
Published: March 2007

PARENTratings of the behavior of 2,967 children aged 4-16 who had been referred for mental health services and 1,300 nonreferred children were analyzed with the goal of determining the incidence and correlates of running away from home. Running away was from 5-30 times more frequent among referred children than among normal children. Several behavioral problems were significantly associated with running away among referred children, including truancy, bad friends, poor relations with parents, disobedience, stealing, use of alcohol and drugs, lying, suicidal threats and gestures, cruelty, and destructiveness. Results suggest that for a substantial portion of runaway youth, the act of running away may be symptomatic of broader syndromes of psychopathology and patterns of maladaption, and that programs for runaways should be linked more directly to mental health services for disturbed children and their families.
Pregnancy and Parenting among Runaway Girls
Authors: Perlman Sylvia B.
Published: March 2007

WHILE sexual activity is often assumed to be frequent among runaway girls, the natural outcomes of that activity—pregnancy, childbearing, and child-rearing—are rarely discussed in the literature. Both theoretical and clinical evidence, however, suggest that the alienated adolescent is not only likely to be sexually active, but she is also likely not to use effective contraceptives and not to terminate a pregnancy. On the contrary, she may tend to welcome pregnancy, to fantasize about the benefits of motherhood, and to believe that her baby will solve her own life-long problems. The alienated young mother's poverty, her inadequate nutrition, her failure to seek prenatal care promptly and her substance abuse put her offspring at high risk.
A Theoretical Perspective on Running Away
Authors: Nye F. Ivan
Published: March 2007

THIS article draws from the concepts and general propositions of exchange theory to fashion an explanation of the varied motivations and behaviors in children who run away from their families. Among these are analyses of the runaways whose family and school experiences are as favorable as those of nonrunaways, and of the youths who are rejected and abused by parents, yet do not run. The institutionalized costs imposed by parents and schools are described, as well as the rewards they provide to some youth. Known facts concerning running are examined for consistency with this theoretical perspective, and some hypotheses are offered.
From Dual-Earner to Dual-Career Families and Back Again
Authors: Aldous Joan
Published: March 2007

HISTORICAL data indicate that dual-earner families are not a new phenomenon. Reasons for the apparent failure to take this tradition into account in the literature, as well as the interest in the dual-career segment among these families are discussed. Women's continuing commitment to family roles, as shown by their lesser attachment to the labor market in terms of full-time employment, is shown. The implications of this commitment to the issue of household division of labor is examined, along with the contributions the following articles make to the literature.
Women's Jobs and Family Adjustment
Authors: Piotrkowski Chaya S. , Crits-Christoph Paul
Published: March 2007

THIS study investigated the relationship between multiple characteristics of women's jobs and their family adjustment in a sample of 99 women in dual-earner families. Six work-related variables were considered simultaneously as predictors of family adjustment: intrinsic job gratification, satisfaction with job security, job-related mood, time spent at work, occupational prestige, and salary. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that women's paid work lives influence their family adjustment. Women's experiences of their work were significantly related to two of three measures of family adjustment. Salary was negatively associated with satisfaction with family relations for women in low-status occupations only. Time spent at work and occupational prestige showed no significant associations with reported adjustment. Of the three indicators of family adjustment, marital satisfaction appeared to be relatively immune from work influences. We hypothesized that the marital relationship may be less sensitive to women's paid work than are other aspects of their family relations.
Hours Worked by Husbands and Wives
Authors: Marsh Lawrence C.
Published: March 2007

THIS article uses a simultaneous equation model to explain the number of hours of paid market work by husbands and wives. The analysis is restricted to married couples living together where both wife and husband have jobs working for money. Within this context, whites and blacks are compared as salaried, union hourly, and nonunion hourly groups. The substitutability or complementarity of husbands' and wives' hours of market work is examined. Black husbands appear to treat their wives' work as complementary to their own hours of work. On the other hand, white husbands on salaries appear to see their wives' work as a substitute for their own work.
Housework by Husbands Determinants and Implications
Authors: Model Suzanne
Published: March 2007

WOMEN continue to carry disproportionate responsibility for household tasks. A study of 650 Detroit women reveals that attitudes, employment status, life cycle, and husband's income all contribute to husband's housework effort. Some evidence is presented that the greater the earnings differential of husband over wife, the less he contributes in help at home.
Re-Viewing Photographs: Unexplored Resources for Communication Research
Authors: Ohrn Karin Becker
Published: March 2007

Photographs can offer insights into the structure and content of human communication, for they illustrate how people frame reality when translating it into a static mode for particular purposes. To continue to ignore photographs as resources for communication research in favor of modes of communication which appear more amenable to our understanding and which have established methods of analysis is to ignore the im pact of what we see on how we think.
The Confirmation of Selves: Moral Obligation in Argument
Authors: Branco David
Published: March 2007

This paper contends that confirrna tion of the self is a product of argu mentation-a product manufactured in accordance with rule-governed moral obligations and expectations that are influential also in the com position of social systems. Relying heavily on the works of Chaim Perelman, Erving Goffman and Kenneth Burke, much of this pa per will be devoted to outlining and describing what seems to be the crucial point-that the indivi dual who participates in argument, even for matters of self interest, must and does rely on the coop eration of his interlocuters.
Technical Rationality and the Public Realm: A Critical Theory of Responsibility as Mass Communication Theory and Practice
Authors: McLuskie C. Edward
Published: March 2007

This perspective [critical theory], once derived from Habermas' inves tigations, can be further clarified and be made relevant to U.S. mass media through comparison with the investi gations by an American media critic, Herbert Schiller, whose analyses of mass communication have explicated those media techniques which frus trate the realization of informed, par ticipating citizens. Based upon the Habermas-Schiller comparison, the consequences of a critical mass com munication theory for communica tors should suggest a mass media praxiology.
Consequences of an Individualist Theme in American Views of Journalistic Responsibility
Authors: Trapp Mary
Published: March 2007

Thus, to criticize an individualist ethic is to deny neither the importance nor the romantic appeal of individual responsibility. The point of this discussion is not that individual action is wrong or impossible, or that an individual sense of responsibility is bad or impossible. The point is that insti tutional constraints set definite limits on individual action and also help to shape an individual's sense of responsibility.
A Holistic Ontology for a Holistic Epistemology
Authors: Self Charles
Published: March 2007

The nature o f learning may be conceived as non- empirical. The work of the researcher in learning about a system may likewise be conceived of as non-empirical. The researcher wields, not the knife o f methodology ... but rather the net o f methodology....