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Group Boundaries (group + boundary)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting40%

Selected Abstracts

Evaluation and change management: rhetoric and reality

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2004
Denise Skinner
Despite its inclusion in prescriptions that are offered for successful change management and the benefits this could bring, it is widely recognised that systematic, planned evaluation of initiatives rarely takes place. On the basis of the findings from qualitative case study research undertaken in the public sector, this article explores both the rhetoric, as represented by the literature, and the reality of evaluation in the context of three change initiatives. What emerges is the importance of informal, personal evaluation which appears both to negate the need and to act as a replacement for systematic planned evaluation for the management group. Equally significant is the evidence of informal evaluations occurring at every level of the organisation that were not recognised by management as important , and which were being neither captured nor shared, other than in a very restricted sense. Consequently, decisions were being made on the basis of an assumed reality that did not necessarily reflect the experience of those affected by the change. Rather than emphasising the need for planned, systematic evaluation processes for change initiatives, it is suggested that inclusion of approaches that facilitate recognition and sharing of perception and experience across group boundaries may be more acceptable and productive. [source]

The interplay between learning and the use of ICT in Rwandan student teachers' everyday practice

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 6 2009
E. Mukama
Abstract The paper describes a study conducted in Rwanda involving 12 participants selected from a larger cohort of 24 final-year university students who were part of a group-based training programme. The programme was about how to search, retrieve, and use web-based literature. Empirical data were collected through interviews and focus group discussions. The purpose was to explore ways of using information and communication technology (ICT) in student teachers' everyday learning practice. The study draws from a sociocultural perspective and emphasis is put on a literature review involving ICT in teacher education. The findings reveal that utilization of ICT pertains to three major types of variation among student teachers who use ICT: passive, reluctant, and active users. The active ICT users demonstrated a capacity to cross group boundaries and play a central role as agents of change in learning practice. The point is that more experienced student teachers can assist their colleagues in the zone of proximal development and, therefore, enhance the integration of the new technology in teacher education. This implies that having access to ICT together with some instruction is not sufficient to prompt students to start using this technology as a pedagogical tool. Moreover, confrontation of different experiences regarding the use of ICT can spearhead change in student teachers' learning practice through critical reflection. [source]

Mexican American High School Students' Ethnic Self-Concepts and Identity

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 1 2010
Stephen M. Quintana
Mexican American high school students (N= 24) were administered semistructured interviews about their psychological experience of ethnicity. The interview focused on individual, friendship, peer group, and family domains. Qualitative analyses of the interview transcripts revealed six domains including ethnic identity, socialization, intraethnic support and challenge, interethnic relations and attitudes, ethnic transcendence, and ethnic differences and similarities. These six domains were graphically depicted that differentiated ethnic self-concepts from ethnic identity processes and identified the intraethnic and interethnic influences of the ethnic self-concepts and identity processes. There were three ethnic self-concepts (i.e., cultural self, possible minority self, and self that transcends ethnic group boundaries). These basic three ethnic self-concepts are consistent with other researchers' identification of analogous ethnic self-concepts and socialization messages across a wide range of contexts. Implications for future empirical and theoretical research are discussed. [source]

Dispute Resolution and the Politics of Cultural Generalization

NEGOTIATION JOURNAL, Issue 1 2003
David Kahane
This essay argues that generalizations about cultural identities and values should play a key role in designing procedures to resolve disputes. Generalizations about cultures are risky given the complexity of memberships and group boundaries, not to mention the power dynamics within and between social groups. But it is important to take the risk: attempts to avoid or transcend culture in resolving disputes pose an even greater danger, of reiterating the understandings of dominant cultural groups under the guise of neutrality. The author explores the "politics of cultural generalization" in theoretical terms, then considers its implications for concrete elements of dispute resolution training and process design. [source]

Getting Together to Get Ahead: The Impact of Social Structure on Women's Networking

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2009
Mette D. Hersby
This paper examines the impact of socio-structural variables (i.e. perceptions of permeability, stability and legitimacy of intergroup relations) on the extent to which professional women perceive a women's network as a collective strategy for status enhancement. A survey among network members (n=166) suggests that the extent to which women support and consider a network to benefit women as a collective is dependent on perceptions of whether individual mobility is possible (permeability of group boundaries) and beliefs that organizational conditions will improve for women in the future (stability of conditions for women). Specifically, the network is less likely to be perceived as a collective vehicle for change when individual advancement is possible (because intergroup boundaries are perceived as permeable) and status improvement in the future is unlikely. However, regardless of beliefs about the future, when female participants perceive that many barriers to individual advancement exist (due to the impermeability of intergroup boundaries), the network is considered in more collective terms presumably because the only way to challenge the status quo is through a collective effort. The practical implications for organizations that wish to or have established a women's network are discussed. [source]