Working in teams : the influence of rhetoric-from sensemaking to sadness

At a time when teams are increasingly and routinely being used in Public Administration (PA) organizations, the prevailing wisdom about teams continues to confirm that teams axiomatically bring increases and improvements in effectiveness, productivity and communication. There has been relatively little critical address of whether these benefits actually accrue, nor what the experience of team members actually is. The PA literature, in particular, remains silent on this important issue. This paper shares findings from an exploratory phenomenological study. Members of teams in organizations were interviewed and asked about their experiences of working in teams. In contrast to the current wisdom, not only did team members not report the anticipated improvements and benefits, their stories tended to highlight the negative influence that the rhetoric surrounding teams might have on individuals. This paper shares the responses of team members to that rhetoric, revealing themes of "Teams, Rhetoric and Sensemaking," a challenge to the notion of "Teams as One Big Happy Family?" while identifying "Teams as Crucibles of Resignation and Sadness." These findings indicate the continuing need for further research into understanding the experience of individuals within various team and organizational structures, especially as they operate in PA organizations.

New forms of organizing in Australia, 2000-2004

This paper presents preliminary results from a survey of new forms of organizing in the highest grossing Australian owned companies. The Australian NewForms Survey draws on the groundbreaking Innovative Forms of Organizing (INNFORM) Survey conducted in Europe, USA and Japan in the late 1990s (Whittington, Pettigrew, Peck, Fenton, and Conyon 1999). The NewForms study seeks to identify emerging trends in forms of organizing within Australia’s largest companies and the extent to which the uptake of new forms of organizing signals a commensurate decrease in traditional forms. The analysis focuses on changes across three organizational dimensions: structures, processes and boundaries. The results suggest that for organizational structures there has been a significant shift from operational to strategic decentralization. For organizational processes, there have been substantial increases in both horizontal and vertical linkages and in the adoption of a range of new human resource practices. In relation to boundaries, alliances and partnerships have increased, signaling a greater focus on mainstream business activities and a move away from peripheral diversification. Overall, the prevalence of new forms of organizing has increased within Australian companies, but these new forms of organizing have emerged alongside traditional forms. This finding is consistent with research in other countries, and provides further evidence of complementarities between new and traditional forms of organizing.

Working in teams: the influence of rhetoric-from sensemaking to sadness

The prevailing wisdom tells us that teams axiomatically bring increases and improvements in effectiveness, productivity and communication. There has been too little critical address of whether these benefits actually accrue, nor what the experience of team members actually is. This paper shares findings from a Heideggerian phenomenological study, where members of teams in organizations were interviewed and asked about their experiences of working in teams. Astonishingly, not only did team members not report these anticipated improvements, their stories tended to highlight the negative influence that the rhetoric surrounding teams might have on individuals. This paper shares the responses of team members to that rhetoric, revealing themes of "Teams, Rhetoric and Sensemaking", a challenge to the notion of "Teams as One Big Happy Family?", and "Teams as Crucibles of Resignation and Sadness". These findings indicate the need for future research into understanding the experience of individuals within various team and organizational structures.

Structural adjustment and change in the Australian life insurance industry post demutualization

Deregulation of financial markets has been an important platform for government policy in recent times. It has been a catalyst in the expansion of financial sector. The experience of Australian life insurers during this period represents an interesting case study into the impact of regulatory transition. The lifting of restrictions changed the institutional environment within which life insurers operated. In doing so it precipitated changes in strategies and organizational structures of these financial intermediaries. An information cost framework is used to analyse the consequences of deregulation and its implications for the Australian life insurance industry in emerging global financial markets.

E-government in developing countries: a Sri Lankan experience

Even though there is an emerging literature on information age reform of the public sector, research focused on potential and problems related to introduction of information-based reforms in developing countries is still limited. Thus in this chapter, experience in one developing country, Sri Lanka, is examined. Problems related to information-based technology is analysed and the lacuna in the literature is narrowed. It is argued that despite the great potential for IT in enhancing effective and efficient public sector in Sri Lanka, there are a number of difficulties hindering the development of computerised information systems. The upgrading of infrastructure facilities in Sri Lanka is long overdue. A lack of competent and committed individuals who could provide effective guidance in developing IT services in the public sector is another concern. The issues such as appropriate training, attractive promotion systems and remunerations for public officials need to be addressed urgently. Reforming existing organizational structures and changing officials' attitudes towards change are essential. The increasing public awareness of the potential of IT services enhancing the quality and timeliness of the public service is essential.

Firms as adaptive organizations : the case of Australian trading banks

The conventional accounting notion of ‘going concern’ — that a firm will continue its business operations in the same manner indefinitely — has underpinned accounting practice for over one hundred years. This idea has provided a rationale for spreading costs over accounting periods and for deferring costs as assets in balance sheets. An alternative idea that is widely regarded as reliable in the literatures of economics and deliberate action is that firms continually adapt to changes in market and economic conditions. That is economic behaviour. The implications of that view of a firm for accounting have been systematically explored by Chambers (1966). While not examining those particular implications, many other accounting theorists have been critical of the conventional accounting idea of 'going concern' and of its impact on accounting practice. The two notions of ‘going concern’ - as static or adaptive enterprises - are examined by referring to the business operations of the four major Australian trading banks over the period 1983-1991. Banks were selected because they are commonly thought to be particularly ‘conservative’ organizations. The period 1983—1991 was chosen because it covers the era of deregulation of the Australian financial system. The evidence adduced by this study indicates that the Australian trading banks have continually adapted their organizational structures and business operations in the light of changes in technology, markets for financial services, government policies and domestic and global economic conditions. Illustrations of adaptive behaviour by banks ate drawn from their normal operating procedures such as the provision of products and services, loan services, acquisitions, sale of property, non-core banking operations and international banking. It is argued on analytical grounds that the cost basis of accounting does not yield financial statements that provide factual and up-to-date information about the financial capacity of firms to pay their debts and to continue trading generally; that is, to be going concerns. At any time, those financial capacities are determined by the amount of money commanded by a firm, including the money's worth of its assets, and by its level of debt. It is concluded on empirical grounds that the Australian trading banks, at least, are adaptive entities.

A social network analysis model for analysing stakeholder-associated safety risks in infrastructure projects

An important strategy in the long-term blueprint for making Australia's 18 capital and major regional cities more productive, sustainable and liveable is to develop high quality public infrastructure systems to improve civic quality of life. Because of the unique features of construction activities, such as long period, complicated processes, and dynamic organizational structures, infrastructure projects normally involve multiple stakeholders and are subject to various risks, especially safety issues. Any negligence or mismanagement of critical safety risks will have huge impact on achieving project objectives and success. Although many previous studies have identified and assessed various safety risks in construction industry, a main research gap is that these studies ignored a fact that most risks are interrelated and associated with internal and external stakeholders of the projects. The lack of a theoretical foundation and appropriate methods for analysing stakeholder-associated safety risks and their interdependencies in infrastructure projects hinders effective risk management processes and the formulations of decision strategies. This research aims at enabling higher performance in strategic safety risk management in infrastructure projects through the development of a holistic risk analysis model using Stakeholder and Social Network Theories. The outcomes can broaden project managers' awareness of emerging influential safety risks and enhance their ability to perceive, understand, assess, and mitigate safety risks in an effective and efficient way; thereby higher performance in strategic risk management could be achieved in infrastructure projects.

Customer-owned banking in Australia: from credit union to mutual bank

Since the 1990s financial sector regulation in Australia has treated credit unions and building societies the same as banks under the designated title of authorized depository institutions. This allows credit unions to choose between different organizational structures: cooperative; convert to customer-owned banks or to demutualize. This article utilizes semi-structured interviews to analyse the key motivations for organizational change. It examines a number of credit unions and their conversion experience to customer-owned banks. It finds that adaptation of the credit union model was necessary to change customer perceptions, ensure future growth in the customer base and assets, and facilitate access to capital raisings with the credit rating of a bank. Despite this change customer-owned banks retain the core principals of mutuality.

Organizing forms in change management: the role of structures, process and boundaries in a longitudinal case analysis

This paper examines change management at William Angliss Institute of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) against the three organizational dimensions of structures, processes and boundaries identified by the INNFORM Study. Its experience confirms that even when an organization adopts a systemic approach and implements change across each design dimension, optimal performance benefits depend on mutually reinforcing and complementary changes. Furthermore, improvement to processes, particularly communications and human resources practices, plays a pivotal role, as complementary change across all dimensions depends ultimately on the contribution and commitment of organization members. Case findings also highlight the need for ambidextrous forms of organizing that combine 'controllability' with 'responsiveness'. The conceptual notion of organizing dualities has been employed to provide a practical interpretation of the ostensibly competing imperatives implied by ambidexterity. This case explores the dualities that can be demonstrated for the INNFORM triumvirate of structures, processes and boundaries. The dualities interpretation emphasizes an acceptance of texture and the simultaneous presence of what are conventionally viewed as incompatible organizing forms. This was considered a useful conceptual vehicle in the analysis of a case study covering nearly ten years of serious change interventions, where one theoretical view can be misleading in understanding the subtleties and complexities of the actual changes that occurred.

`Building bridges`: a case study of a collaborative research process

'Building bridges' is a metaphor we have used to describe a collaborative research process involving social work academic and senior practitioners from government and non-government child protection and family service organizations in Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the research was to develop a 'practice-generated approach to policy implementation' in child protection practice. The research sought to explore the appropriateness of social constructionist approaches for child protection practice that might enhance the existing risk paradigm. This article aims to critically evaluate the process of 'building bridges' and its outcomes, by focusing on how potential and actual differences between organizational contexts, namely universities and various serviceproviding organizations, may influence relationships between theory and practice. We critically reflect on our research process comparing it with idealized forms of collaborative research discussed in the literature.

The organizational legitimacy of the Bauhaus

Gaining and maintaining organizational legitimacy can be a major issue
for social and political structures such as cultural organizations. Legitimacy, sometimes called credibility, brings with it access to resources needed for survival and development. Organizations without legitimacy tend not to be successful in attracting grants, subsidies, and sponsorships. Research suggests that legitimate organizations may be seen as valuable social structures (Hybels 1995; Suchman 1995) and come to be “taken for granted” as part of the social fabric. In this article, I explore organizational legitimacy using the framework of institutional theory. I first define legitimacy and then discuss the key concepts of organizational legitimacy. Next, I present a case study based on an art/craft/design school. The school, known as the Bauhaus, existed between 1919 and 1933 in three German cities—Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. Deterministic views of the pre–World War II environment suggest that the Nazi party was responsible for the closure of the Bauhaus. I argue that other factors were apparent. The Nazi regime was becoming a significant force in the late 1920s, but the story of the Bauhaus becomes more complex when viewed under the rubric of arts management and organizational legitimacy. In this article, I discuss how the Bauhaus sought and managed legitimacy and the role that the state and other actors played in granting that legitimacy. In conclusion, I offer a summary of the relevance of legitimacy to contemporary arts organizations.

Teaching and learning in collaborative group design projects

The 200 years of apprentice/master tradition that underpins the atelier studio system is still at the core of much present-day architectural design education. Yet this tradition poses uncertainties for a large number of lecturers faced with changes in the funding of tertiary education. With reductions in one-to-one staff/student contact time, many educators are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain an atelier teaching model. If these deficiencies remain unchecked and design-based schools are unable to implement strategies to reduce the resource intensity of one-to-one studio teaching programmes, then, for many higher-education providers, current architectural education may be based on an untenable course structure. Rather than spreading their time thinly over a large number of individual projects, an increasing number of lecturers are setting group projects. This allows them to coordinate longer and more in-depth review sessions on a smaller number of assignment submissions. However, while the group model may reflect the realities of the design process in professional practice, the approach is not without shortcomings as a teaching and learning archetype for the assessment of individual student skill competencies. Hence, what is clear is the need for a readily adoptable andragogy for the teaching and assessment of group design projects. The following is a position paper that describes – with a focus on effective group structures and assemblage and fair assessment models – the background, methodology and early results of a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant currently running at the School of Architecture and Building at Deakin University in Australia.

Collaborative knowledge creation in electronic mail

With organisational work increasingly performed by the collaboration of distributed groups, an improved understanding is needed of the co-creation of knowledge in emerging virtual structures. We explore the potential of the ubiquitous organisational tool, electronic mail (e-mail), for supporting collaborative knowledge creation in such settings. This research draws on a case study of knowledge creation occurring in e-mail conversations in a large Australian university and adopts a discourse analysis research approach. We describe a model of collaborative knowledge creation derived from the study and identify a preliminary set of key factors for organisational knowledge tools and their use by groups to support collaborative knowledge creation. The paper also provides insights into the role of e-mail in collaborative knowledge creation, not only in facilitating this process, but in shaping a participatory, multi-perspective, team-based approach to knowledge building. Organisational implications arising from this type of knowledge creation are also discussed in the paper.

Creating collaborative spaces : the pleasures and perils of doing multi-disciplinary, multi-partner qualitative research

This paper describes our experience of managing a two-year research project that involved University staff from two different disciplines and three industry partners. It describes the benefits we gained from the involvement of multiple parties, such as the ability to call upon diverse expertise, the capacity to study a complex issue and the ability to make a direct contribution to industry practice. It also describes some of the difficulties such as managing across University structures, maintaining the collaborators' interest in the project, gaining approval from multiple ethics committees and managing the expectations of various stakeholders. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for senior University staff and for researchers and points to ways universities could better facilitate involvement in these types of complex research projects.