Axel van den Berg and Emre Amasyalı
Since its introduction by Anthony Giddens in the early 1980s, the use of the concept of “agency” as a way to accommodate an irreducible element of voluntarism into sociological…
Abstract
Since its introduction by Anthony Giddens in the early 1980s, the use of the concept of “agency” as a way to accommodate an irreducible element of voluntarism into sociological explanations has grown exponentially in the literature. In this chapter, we examine the most prominent theoretical justifications for adopting the notion of “agency” as an integral part of such explanations. We distinguish three broad sets of justifications: the meaningfulness/intentionality of social action, the need for “agency” to explain change in social structures, and the link between agency, social accountability, and human dignity. We find that none of these provides a convincing rationale for the analytical utility of agency. This raises the question of what work it actually does perform in the sociological literature.
Details
Keywords
Barry Barnes, John H. Humphreys, Jennifer D. Oyler, Stephanie S. Pane Haden and Milorad M. Novicevic
Although communal forms of leadership are being called for to provide contemporary organizations with more responsive leadership platforms, the paper can find no compelling…
Abstract
Purpose
Although communal forms of leadership are being called for to provide contemporary organizations with more responsive leadership platforms, the paper can find no compelling description as to how such leadership might develop in a world of hierarchy. The purpose of this paper is to fill this void.
Design/methodology/approach
Attempting to comprehend the sharing of leadership will require contemplation of unconventional approaches in opposition to the dominant logic associated with conventional organizational leadership. One current example of such unorthodox deliberation is the emerging awareness of the Grateful Dead's influence on business management and leadership. Accordingly, the paper examined and interpreted the experiences and expressed beliefs of Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead to offer a conceptualization of how shared leadership could emerge in traditional organizational settings.
Findings
The analysis indicates that Jerry Garcia exhibited aspects of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and authentic leadership that allowed him to influence the environment needed for the emergence of shared leadership.
Research limitations/implications
As a single case study, the primary limitation is one of generalizability. The paper accepts the trade-off, however, due to the significant conceptual insights available with a case methodology.
Practical implications
Without greater understanding of how shared leadership might unfold practitioners will assume the construct of shared leadership is laudable but naïve. The paper must begin developing plausible conceptualizations if the notion of sharing leadership is to be taken more seriously in organizations.
Originality/value
The paper offers a counterintuitive, counterculture conceptualization of how shared leadership could emerge and flourish in traditional hierarchical settings.
Details
Keywords
Emre Amasyalı and Axel van den Berg
The use of the concept of “agency,” in the sense of action that is to some extent free of “structural” constraints, has enjoyed enormous and growing popularity in the sociological…
Abstract
The use of the concept of “agency,” in the sense of action that is to some extent free of “structural” constraints, has enjoyed enormous and growing popularity in the sociological literature over the past several decades. In a previous paper, we examined the range of theoretical rationales offered by sociologists for the inclusion of the notion of “agency” in sociological explanations. Having found these rationales seriously wanting, in this paper we attempt to determine empirically what role “agency” actually plays in the recent sociological literature. We examine a random sample of 147 articles in sociology journals that use the concept of “agency” with the aim of identifying the ways in which the term is used and what function the concept serves in the sociological explanations offered. We identify four principal (often overlapping) uses of “agency”: (1) purely descriptive; (2) as a synonym for “power”; (3) as a way to identify resistance to “structural” pressures; and (4) as a way to describe intelligible human actions. We find that in none of these cases the notion of “agency” adds anything of analytical or explanatory value. These different uses have one thing in common, however: they all tend to use the term “agency” in a strongly normative sense to mark the actions the authors approve of. We conclude that “agency” seems to serve the purpose of registering the authors' moral or political preferences under the guise of a seemingly analytical concept.
Details
Keywords
Kenneth D. Mackenzie and F. Barry Barnes
The purpose of this article is to report on the underlying consensus in the major leadership approaches. This led to an assessment of the comprehensiveness of 11 leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to report on the underlying consensus in the major leadership approaches. This led to an assessment of the comprehensiveness of 11 leadership approaches and the role of place in achieving it.
Design/methodology/approach
Overall, 11 leadership approaches are analyzed and coded according to their emphasis and purpose and their organizational place (organizational content/context and the follower content/context).
Findings
A total of eight consensus items are found which range from “leadership is a good thing and more of its is better” to “leadership is a type of holonomic process”. In addition, ten of the 11 leadership approaches lack comprehensiveness, and that this lack is possibly the reason for their popularity.
Research limitations/implications
This paper does not include all possible leadership approaches. The analysis and coding of those selected leave room for different interpretations and possibly different conclusions.
Practical limitations
The inability of most leadership approaches to incorporate actual content of the work and the context of the group or organizations limits their usefulness to actually improve leadership. Theorists need to consider and incorporate place in their formulations.
Originality/value
This paper uses the philosophical concept of place to analyze leadership approaches. This paper also introduces the LAMPE approach to organizational leadership because it points the way to having more comprehensive leadership approach.
Details
Keywords
Jacqueline Douglas, Alex Douglas and Barry Barnes
The purpose of this paper is to report on the design and use of a questionnaire to measure student satisfaction at Liverpool John Moores University's Faculty of Business and Law.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on the design and use of a questionnaire to measure student satisfaction at Liverpool John Moores University's Faculty of Business and Law.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilised the concept of the service‐product bundle to design the survey questionnaire and then used SPSS and Quadrant Analysis to analyse the results to determine which aspects of the University's services were most important and the degree to which they satisfied the students.
Findings
The most important aspects were those associated with teaching and learning, while the least important were those associated with the physical facilities.
Practical implications
The concept of the service‐product bundle is a valid and reliable tool for the design of a satisfaction survey and segments a University's service offering in such a way as to allow management to target resources at those areas that are perceived to be low satisfaction and high importance. The questionnaire can be utilised in most education establishments.
Originality/value
Utilising the concept service‐product bundle places responsibility for questionnaire content and design firmly on the service provider rather than the user.
Details
Keywords
Chris Carter, Stewart Clegg and Martin Kornberger
This paper aims to analyse the rise and institutionalization of the discourse of strategic management. It seeks to advance an agenda for studying strategy from a sociologically…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the rise and institutionalization of the discourse of strategic management. It seeks to advance an agenda for studying strategy from a sociologically informed perspective. Moreover, it aims to make a case for a critically informed, interdisciplinary approach to studying strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an overview to studying strategy critically. It is a theoretically informed paper.
Findings
The findings can be summarised as: first, strategy emerged as a major discipline in the 1970s; second, as a body of knowledge strategy has remained close to its industrial economics origins; and third, an agenda for the sociological study of strategy revolving around concerns of performativity and power is outlined.
Originality/value
The paper offers a sociologically informed account of strategy.
Details
Keywords
Van den Berg and Amasyali make a persuasive (though not yet definitive) case that, in practice, appeals to ideas about agency do little to advance our sociological understanding…
Abstract
Van den Berg and Amasyali make a persuasive (though not yet definitive) case that, in practice, appeals to ideas about agency do little to advance our sociological understanding. However, they seem to treat the antithesis of this (vague as it is) notion, explanatory determinism, as if it were stable. Not only are the two concepts equally paradoxical, but one calls out for the other, and we cannot criticize and dispense with one while retaining its twin.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this chapter is to study the mathematisation of finance – excessive use of mathematical models in finance – which has been widely blamed for the recent financial…
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to study the mathematisation of finance – excessive use of mathematical models in finance – which has been widely blamed for the recent financial and economic crisis. We argue that the problem might actually be the financialisation of mathematics, as evidenced by the gradual embedding of branches of mathematics into financial economics. The concept of embeddedness, originally proposed by Polanyi, is relevant to describe the sociological relationship between fields of knowledge. After exploring the relationship between mathematics, finance and economics since antiquity, we find that theoretical developments in the 1950s and 1970s lead directly to this embedding. The key implication of our findings is the realization that it has become necessary to disembed mathematics from finance and economics, and proposes a number of partial steps to facilitate this process. This chapter contributes to the debate on the mathematisation of finance by uniquely combining a historical approach, which chronicles the evolution of the relation between mathematics and finance, with a sociological approach from the perspective of Polyani’s concept of embedding.