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Article
Publication date: 1 October 2019

Daniel S. Alemu and Deborah Shea

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which organizational level of functionality is affected by its leadership, its staff, the way task is performed in the…

915

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which organizational level of functionality is affected by its leadership, its staff, the way task is performed in the organization (culture), and the structural and governance makeup of organizations. This study also determined the direct and indirect impacts of these variables on organizational functionality in general and drawing lessons to educational organizations in specific.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a quantitative study. Data from 185 participants were analyzed using SPSS software version 24. The data analysis procedure for this study followed various steps. First, multiple factor analysis was conducted to narrow the long list of items and to create a manageable list of construct variables for analyses. Then path analysis, using a series of multiple regression, was conducted to identify the degree of relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Finally, a path model coefficient diagram was created.

Findings

Using path analysis, a new model that depicts the level of interactions among the proposed variables and the extent and direction of influence of each variable on organizational level of functionality has been created. In addition, a path diagram that illustrates the model is provided and explained. This study also determined the direct and indirect impacts of these variables on organizational functionality. Finally, conclusions and implications of the study for educational organizations were presented.

Research limitations/implications

It should be noted that path analysis studies, by nature, are based on assumptions provided by the researchers. Hence, future studies using different variables and different assumption may not necessarily generate the same result. In addition, this study looked at a broader view of organizations rather than a specific type.

Practical implications

This study expanded the use of organizational diagnosis frameworks, beyond studying organizational performance, to study organizational level of functionality which can be used to diagnose the level of function (or dysfunction) of organizations in a holistic manner.

Social implications

The present study contributes to the body of literature in organizational diagnosis in various ways; chief of which is the creation of a new path model which shows the direct and indirect effects of specific variables in numeric terms.

Originality/value

Unlike previous studies on the topic, this study suggests that organizational level of functionality should be studied using variables internal to the organization, because any two organizations of similar purpose and capacity, located in similar environment, could function differently due to factors internal to the organizations. Investigating organizational level of functionality using variables internal to the organization is assumed to provide a deeper diagnosis and self-assessment as it minimizes the noises created by variables external to the organization. All the variables in this study are therefore carefully selected to be internal to organizations.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 33 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

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Article
Publication date: 28 February 2005

Marnie Enos Carroll

Increasing the ethicality of a project and the usefulness of the data enhances the probability that social good will result from the research; a combination of ethical and…

461

Abstract

Increasing the ethicality of a project and the usefulness of the data enhances the probability that social good will result from the research; a combination of ethical and methodological soundness is therefore crucial. From 1999‐2002 I conducted a qualitative study of women’s, men’s, and mixed Internet chat room conversations. In this article, I discuss the particular ethical issues that arose, outlining my ethical decision‐making process within the context of current debates. I also describe the methodological concerns, demonstrating why a synthesized method responsive to the advantages and disadvantages of cyberspace was necessary, and how the data were enhanced by this choice of method and by certain characteristics of cyberspace. In discussing the details of my study, my overall goal is to provide an assessment of the social good of the project with a view to increasing the probability of more ethical and useful Internet‐based research outcomes more generally.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

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Article
Publication date: 9 February 2015

Vineet Sarode, Deborah Sage, Jenny Phong and John Reeves

The purpose of this paper is to measure family member satisfaction with the care provided in an Australian private intensive care unit (ICU) at two time points separated by two…

1218

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to measure family member satisfaction with the care provided in an Australian private intensive care unit (ICU) at two time points separated by two years. The study was part of a quality improvement process for ICU, and was designed with reference to the revised Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health care.

Design/methodology/approach

This prospective study involved family members of patients admitted in ICU in February 2011 and February 2013. All patients admitted to during the study month were eligible. Questionnaire addressed staff competence, treatment of family, communication, environment and overall satisfaction, using a Likert scale. There was one free text question. The first survey was done by handing the survey package to the next of kin at the time of discharge while the second involved mailing a survey package within a week of discharge from ICU. Quantitative analysis was based on ten Likert items and qualitative analysis based on the free text question.

Findings

The response rate was 53 percent (54/102) in 2013 (mailed) compared to 44 percent (44/100) in 2011 (hand delivered). The results from second (2013) survey showed statistically significant improvement in satisfaction associated with nursing and medical competency. Other areas with improvement were the relative’s waiting room and visiting hours. The area lacking improvement was ease of finding ICU the hospital. It confirmed that families were satisfied with the care provided and highlighted areas for improvement. The results indicated high satisfaction overall, especially with the hospital staff competency and the overall care quality their relative received. Though most responses also indicated satisfaction with communication and support services, these areas did not perform as well.

Originality/value

This study provided a simple and effective mechanism to monitor consumer satisfaction with ICU.

Details

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0952-6862

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Book part
Publication date: 30 June 2004

Deborah L. Balk is a social demographer at Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). Her prior work has focused on fertility…

Abstract

Deborah L. Balk is a social demographer at Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). Her prior work has focused on fertility, marriage, health and gender in Asia and north Africa. Her current work integrates demography with geography, applying both geospatial and demographic data and techniques to one another. Her current research includes a study of climate, health and migration interactions in sub-Saharan Africa, and analysis of the global spatial distribution of population with particular attention to estimates of urban extents.Alejandro Cervantes-Carson is assistant professor of sociology at Mary Washington College. Born in Mexico City, he studied both in Mexico and the United States, obtaining a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas, at Austin. His primary areas of interest and research are political sociology, social inequality, and Latin America. He has written articles on gender, human rights, population policies and reproductive rights in Mexico. He is currently part of a research team studying a transnational community that connects northern Virginia, U.S., and southern Puebla, Mexico, and developing a project on deliberative democracy in the Zapatista movement.Denise A. Copelton is visiting assistant professor of sociology at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where she teaches courses on women’s health, medical sociology, and sociology of families. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Binghamton University (SUNY) in 2003. Her dissertation examined the social experience of pregnancy in the U.S., focusing both on the social construction of prenatal norms in popular pregnancy advice books and on the ways in which pregnant women accommodate and resist these norms in their daily lives.Vasilikie Demos is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Minnesota-Morris. She has studied ethnicity and gender in the United States and is currently completing a monograph on her study of Kytherian Greek women based on interviews in Greece and among immigrants in the United States and Australia. With Marcia Texler Segal, she is co-editor of the Advances in Gender Research series and Ethnic Women: A Multiple Status Reality (General Hall, 1994). She is a past president of Sociologists for Women in Society and of the North Central Sociological Association, and has been an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales.Lara Foley is assistant professor of sociology and governing board member of the women’s studies program at the University of Tulsa. Among the courses she teaches are Sociology of Medicine and Sociology of Reproduction and Birth. Her work in this volume is based on her dissertation research examining the work narratives of midwives. Another article from this project, co-authored with Christopher Faircloth, entitled “Medicine as a Discursive Resource: Legitimation in the Work Narratives of Midwives” appears in Sociology of Health and Illness, 2003, 25, 165–184. She is currently working on a book project examining the experiences and roles of male partners in pregnancy and childbirth.Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld is professor in the Department of Sociology, Arizona State University. She conducts research in the areas of health policy, health across the life course, health behavior including preventive health behavior, and research into AIDS in geographically mobile populations. She has recently authored Health Care Policy: Issues and Trends (Praeger, 2002). She has conducted research in a variety of topics related to child health, including recruitment into CHIP (child health insurance program) and has published a book on the impact of school-based health clinics, Schools and the Health of Children (Sage, 2000). She is a past president of Sociologists for Women in Society and past chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.Marcia Texler Segal is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dean for Research and professor of sociology at Indiana University Southeast. Her research and consulting focus on education and on women in Sub-Saharan Africa and on ethnic women in the United States. With Vasilikie Demos, she is co-editor of the Advances in Gender Research series and Ethnic Women: A Multiple Status Reality (General Hall, 1994). She is a past president of the North Central Sociological Association and past chair of the American Sociological Association Sections on Sex and Gender and Race, Gender and Class.Chikako Takeshita is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech University. Her research interests include socio-cultural and political aspects of biodiversity prospecting and indigenous rights. She is the author of the article “Bioprospecting and its Discontents: Indigenous Resistances as Legitimate Politics” (Alternatives, 2001, 26, 259–282). More recently, she has been researching the social and scientific development of intrauterine devices, politics of medical representations of female bodies, and reproductive rights and population policies from a gender perspective. She has a M.S. degree from the Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech, an M.B.A. from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and a B.A. from Keio University in Tokyo.Carol A. B. Warren is Professor Emerita and former chair of sociology at the University of Kansas. Her former appointment was as associate to full professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. Among her recent publications are Gender Issues in Ethnography with Jennifer K. Hackney (Sage, 2000), “Qualitative Interviewing” in the Handbook of Interview Research (J. Gubrium & J. Holstein (Eds), Sage, 2002), Pushbutton Psychiatry: A History of Electroshock in America with Timothy Kneeland (Praeger, 2002) and “Sex and Gender in the 1970s,” in Qualitative Sociology (Winter 2003). She is working on a book, Discovering Qualitative Methods: Field Research, Interviews, and Images, with Tracy X. Karneer, to be published by Roxbury, and on articles (with Timothy Kneeland) on “Mineral Magnetism in Psychiatric Treatment” and “Natural Electricity in Psychiatric Treatment: Amber, Fish and Eels.”Terri A. Winnick earned a B.S. in psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University, Mansfield. Her area of interest is medical sociology, with a focus on professions; she is currently doing research on the reaction of the established medical profession to alternative medicine.Kathryn M. Yount is a social demographer specializing in the measurement of morbidity and mortality in less developed settings and in the integration of qualitative and quantitative data in sociodemographic analysis. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Departments of International Health and Sociology and Affiliated Faculty of the Department of Women’s Studies at Emory University. Her research focuses primarily on multi-method case studies and comparative analyses of the determinants of disparities by gender in survival, health, and access to care over the life course. Yount has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the University Research Committee at Emory, and the National Institute on Aging to study these issues in the Middle East.

Details

Gendered Perspectives on Reproduction and Sexuality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-088-3

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Book part
Publication date: 12 January 2021

Michael Lounsbury, Deborah A. Anderson and Paul Spee

Volumes 70 and 71 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations combine to comprise cutting edge theory and empirical scholarship at the interface of practice and institution in…

Abstract

Volumes 70 and 71 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations combine to comprise cutting edge theory and empirical scholarship at the interface of practice and institution in organization studies. As we highlight, this interface has spurred particularly generative conversations with many open questions, and much to explore. We provide a review of scholarly developments in practice theory and organizational institutionalism that have given rise to this interest in building a bridge between scholarly communities. As signaled by recent efforts to construct a practice-driven institutionalism, we highlight how connecting practice theory with the institutional logics perspective provides a particularly attractive focal point for scholarship at this interface due to a variety of shared ontological and epistemological commitments, including the constitution of actors and their behavior. Collectively, the papers assembled unlock exciting opportunities to connect distinct, but related scholarly communities on practice and institution, seeding scholarship that can advance our understanding of organizational and societal dynamics.

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Book part
Publication date: 12 January 2021

Michael Lounsbury, Deborah A. Anderson and Paul Spee

Volumes 70 and 71 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations combine to comprise cutting edge theory and empirical scholarship at the interface of practice and institution in…

Abstract

Volumes 70 and 71 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations combine to comprise cutting edge theory and empirical scholarship at the interface of practice and institution in organization studies. As we highlight, this interface has spurred particularly generative conversations with many open questions, and much to explore. We provide a review of scholarly developments in practice theory and organizational institutionalism that have given rise to this interest in building a bridge between scholarly communities. As signaled by recent efforts to construct a practice-driven institutionalism, we highlight how connecting practice theory with the institutional logics perspective provides a particularly attractive focal point for scholarship at this interface due to a variety of shared ontological and epistemological commitments, including the constitution of actors and their behavior. Collectively, the papers assembled unlock exciting opportunities to connect distinct, but related scholarly communities on practice and institution, seeding scholarship that can advance our understanding of organizational and societal dynamics.

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Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Deborah J. MacInnis, Vanessa M. Patrick and C. Whan Park

Abstract

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Review of Marketing Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7656-1305-9

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Article
Publication date: 1 September 1999

Harriet Bradley and Gail Hebson

Questions why the analysis of class is being overlooked in the sociological mainstream. Presents some symptoms of this development followed by an evaluation. Suggests some new…

540

Abstract

Questions why the analysis of class is being overlooked in the sociological mainstream. Presents some symptoms of this development followed by an evaluation. Suggests some new directions for class research which could appeal to younger researchers. Advocates work in this area to bridge the lack of information now available.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 19 no. 9/10/11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Book part
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Heather Yaxley

Informal conversational encounters are explored using free indirect discourse (FID) as a novel storytelling method to gain a multi-generational understanding of the experiences of…

Abstract

Informal conversational encounters are explored using free indirect discourse (FID) as a novel storytelling method to gain a multi-generational understanding of the experiences of women working in public relations (PR) in 1960s/1970s Britain.

Echoing a literary tradition, anonymised transcripts of recordings provide impressionist accounts that immerse the reader in the thoughts and feelings of novelistic characters. An informal network of women narrate their stories with a much younger listener enabling exploration of intergenerational relationships and the intersection of gender and age.

This unstructured approach develops a complex yet natural flow to create unique withness-understandings. The author/narrator introduces a conception of informal conversational encounters, supporting an organic approach of interweaving storying, everyday performance, situated accountings, narrative unfoldings and inside/outside points of view.

An interplay of multiple female voices reveals a degree of symmetry in fractal patterns of women's early career experiences over the duration of a generation. Facilitation of sense-making through intergenerational conversations connects with Mannheim's theory of generational unity.

Women's beginnings of PR careers in 1960s/1970s Britain demonstrate a liberal feminist perspective in taking responsibility for their careers and enjoyment beyond the workplace in a man's world.

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

Deborah Lee

The transition from graduate student to new faculty member can be an exciting and challenging period in an academic career. New faculty members must successfully balance service…

7494

Abstract

The transition from graduate student to new faculty member can be an exciting and challenging period in an academic career. New faculty members must successfully balance service obligations, research demands, and teaching responsibilities. Numerous guides have been developed to assist new faculty members in developing their careers. This selective bibliography identifies sources that can assist both graduate students and new faculty members as they develop their academic career.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

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