In order to guide the effective administration of an organization in an unfamiliar culture, it is incumbent on the educational administrator to become responsive to the new…
Abstract
In order to guide the effective administration of an organization in an unfamiliar culture, it is incumbent on the educational administrator to become responsive to the new environment and initiate correspondingly appropriate administrative practices. A review of literature from management, administration and intercultural communication suggests a conceptual approach useful to the western trained educational administrator working in a less developed country. Practices which prove effective and are taken for granted in the administrator's native culture may prove ineffective or dysfunctional when applied elsewhere. On the other hand, practices that prove to be the most effective for a given cultural environment may appear either contradictory or counterproductive to the western trained administrator. Further, administrators may approach their new responsibilities from within a framework of norms and values which are in conflict with, or unrelated to those of the new environment. Existing societal conditions may present challenges to western bureaucratic models resulting in a discrepancy between formal power and actual power. Traditional status and authority bases contribute to differing concepts of participation, specialization, loyalty and motivation, as well as the degree to which an organization can tolerate decentralization. Although historically cultural dominance models guided cross‐cultural administration, initiatives and exchanges depend increasingly on mutual understanding and acceptance. The concept of cultural synergy suggests an interactive administrative model combining elements from two or more cultures and resulting in more effective and relevant outcomes.
Anne Douglas and Melehat Nil Gulari
The purpose of this paper is to address the following questions: in what sense does experimentation as improvisation lead to methodological innovation? What are the implications…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the following questions: in what sense does experimentation as improvisation lead to methodological innovation? What are the implications of artistic experimentation as improvisation for education and learning?
Design/methodology/approach
The paper tracks the known concept within research of “experimentation” with a view to revealing how practice-led research in art works distinctively with experimentation. It proposes experimentation as improvisation drawing on a research project Sounding Drawing 2012 as an example. The paper situates art experimentation as improvisation in art (Cage, 1995) anthropology (Hallam and Ingold, 2007; Bateson, 1989) and the theoretical work of Arnheim (1986) on forms of cognition.
Findings
Arts research as improvisation is participatory, relational and performative retaining the research subject in its life context. The artist as researcher starts with open-ended critical questions for which there are no known methods or immediate answer. By setting up boundary conditions from the outset and understanding the situatedness and contingencies of those conditions, the artist as improviser seeks ways of not only avoiding chaos and the arbitrary but also being trapped by what is already known.
Originality/value
This approach is important within and beyond the arts because it consciously draws together different forms of cognition – intuition and relational knowledge and also sequential knowledge. It is also significant because it offers a different epistemology in which new knowledge emerges in the relationship between participants in the research taking form in co-creation. These qualities all position improvisation as a research paradigm and a counterpoint to positivism.
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Keywords
Jane Farmer, Tracy De Cotta, Katharine McKinnon, Jo Barraket, Sarah-Anne Munoz, Heather Douglas and Michael J. Roy
This paper aims to explore the well-being impacts of social enterprise, beyond a social enterprise per se, in everyday community life.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the well-being impacts of social enterprise, beyond a social enterprise per se, in everyday community life.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory case study was used. The study’s underpinning theory is from relational geography, including Spaces of Wellbeing Theory and therapeutic assemblage. These theories underpin data collection methods. Nine social enterprise participants were engaged in mental mapping and walking interviews. Four other informants with “boundary-spanning” roles involving knowledge of the social enterprise and the community were interviewed. Data were managed using NVivo, and analysed thematically.
Findings
Well-being realised from “being inside” a social enterprise organisation was further developed for participants, in the community, through positive interactions with people, material objects, stories and performances of well-being that occurred in everyday community life. Boundary spanning community members had roles in referring participants to social enterprise, mediating between participants and structures of community life and normalising social enterprise in the community. They also gained benefit from social enterprise involvement.
Originality/value
This paper uses relational geography and aligned methods to reveal the intricate connections between social enterprise and well-being realisation in community life. There is potential to pursue this research on a larger scale to provide needed evidence about how well-being is realised in social enterprises and then extends into communities.
Details
Keywords
References should follow the APA (American Psychological Association) standard. References should be indicated by giving (in parentheses) the author's name followed by the date of…
Abstract
References should follow the APA (American Psychological Association) standard. References should be indicated by giving (in parentheses) the author's name followed by the date of the journal or book; or with the date in parentheses, as in ‘suggested by Canada (2005).’