COGNITIVE LEGITIMACY, RESOURCE ACCESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of developing legitimacy initiatives in order to create new business opportunities, satisfy shareholders, and obtain access to resources. Within this framework, cognitive legitimacy plays a key role. Through a case study of six Spanish public universities, the authors measure the relationship between cognitive legitimacy, access to resources, and organizational results. The results support the assertion that organizations with more cognitive legitimacy have greater access to resources and improved their results. This study contributes with muchneeded empirical research on cognitive legitimacy and demonstrates its usefulness as an explanative factor of organizational success.

MICROFINANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS: THE CASE OF AGROAMIGO IN BRAZIL

ABSTRACTThis paper reports an empirical case study on the interface between microfinance and climate change actions. Climate change, which until recently seemed a luxury for the microfinance sector, now appears to be crucial for its future. For their low adaptive capacity, the millions of microfinance clients worldwide happen to be the most vulnerable to a changing climate. However, such an arena is still blurred from an academic viewpoint, and inexistent among Brazilian academia. Therefore, by investigating Brazil’s largest rural MFI, Agroamigo, we aim at providing an empirical contribution to green microfinance. The main conclusion is that, albeit Agroamigo offers important links to climate change initiatives, it will need to take better account of specific vulnerabilities and risks to protect its portfolio and clients better from climate change impacts.

EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY PROGRESS WITH TECHNOLOGY IN A SPANISH HOTEL CHAIN

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the changes in the total factor productivity index of a Spanish hotel chain in the period from 2007 to 2010 with the purpose of identifying efficiency patterns for the chain in a period of financial crisis. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) Malmquist productivity index was used to estimate productivity change in 38 hotels of the AC chain. Results reveal AC hotels' efficiency trends and, therefore, their competitiveness in the recession period; they also show the changes experienced in these hotels' total productivity and its components: technological and efficiency changes. Positive efficiency changes were due to positive technical efficiency rather than technological efficiency. The recession period certainly influenced the performance of AC Hotels, which focused on organizational changes rather than investing in technology.

Recensao de: I. K. Healy, Social Work Practices: Contemporary Perspectives on Change, London, Sage, 2000.

Revista Lusófona de Ciências Sociais

A blockmodel study of managerial hierarchies, verbal networks, and organizational culture in four hospitals

This study demonstrates and applies a social network methodology for studying the dynamics of hierarchies in organizations. Social network (blockmodel) analysis of verbal networks in four hospitals contrasted hierarchical and structurally equivalent partitions of the sociomatrices of frequent ties and perceptions of organizational culture. It was found that the verbal networks in these organizations follow a center periphery pattern rather than a hierarchical logic and that perceptions of culture vary more by verbal network than by formal hierarchy. The perceptions of culture of central groups in one organization are much like those of peripheral groups in another. In all four hospitals, structurally equivalent social networks are more important in predicting subcultures than are hierarchical groupings and hierarchy has a limited impact on the development of verbal networks. These findings suggest the value of an amoeba rather than a pyramid metaphor in interpreting the cultures and relational structures of organizations.

Metamorfoses em espelho de água : identidade, perfil, contextos e mudança nas (auto)representações dos professores

RESUMO: Nos últimos trinta anos, em Portugal, ocorreram processos de democratização política e de modernização da sociedade e das instituições, tendo como impulso as vontades nacionais e as mudanças ocorridas no Mundo em globalização, lideradas, no campo da educação, por agentes como a OCDE ou o Banco Mundial, e pela integração de Portugal na União Europeia. À implementação da(s) reforma(s), correspondeu uma mudança de paradigma educativo e organizacional, a criação de uma escola para todos, a emergência de novos alunos e de novos mandatos à Escola, a contingência de novas respostas educativas. Tais reformas constituiram instrumentos de mudança das organizações escolares e do sistema educativo, mas também do que significa ser professor, reformulando o desempenho e a “performatividade” docente (Ball, 2002), induzindo uma nova “identidade social” (Bernstein, 1996 e Dubar, 2006), produzindo novos modos de “fabricação da alma dos professores” (Foucault, 1996). Neste sentido, a autora procurou analisar, numa perspectiva crítica, as representações de professores do Ensino Básico, sobre os mecanismos de (re)configuração das suas identidades/perfis profissionais, recorrendo a uma investigação qualitativa descritiva, que privilegia a análise de conteúdo dos seus discursos sobre o tema, recolhidos segundo a técnica focus group. O estudo indiciou que os alunos são factor de realização, de risco e de mudança do perfil docente, actuando como uma quinta dimensão da (re)construção identitária dos Professores, a par da formação, do associativismo, do Estado e do Mercado, constituindo factor importante a ter em conta nos estudos sobre identidade docente. ABSTRACT: In the past thirty years, in Portugal, radical changes on politics and policies have been occurring, to achive the society and its institutions democratization and modernization, led by national wills and the changes occured in the World, stimulated, in the Education area, by global agencies like OECD, or the World Bank, and the integration of Portugal in the European Union. These reforms are connected to a new educational and organizational paradigm, the creation of a school for all, the emergence of new pupils, new demands to School and teachers, the imperative of new pedagogical solutions for educational problems, and are not only changing instruments in schools and in the educational system, but are also a powerful way to change “what to be a teacher” means, to re-formulate the teaching performance and “performativity” (Ball, 2002), to recompose his/her “social identity” (Bernstein, 1996; Dubar, 2006), or, in Michel Foucault (1996) words, to produce “new ways to manufacture teachers soul”. In this sense, the author intended to analyze, on a critical perspective, the representations of portuguese teachers of basic education (K12), on the mechanisms of (re)configuration of their professional identities/profiles, appealing to a qualitative descriptive research, which privileges the analysis of content of their speeches on the subject, collected according to the focus group technique, what, in its development, was brought near a circle of culture (in the sense of Paulo Freire‟s pedagogy). At least, pupils are the most important references and motivation to teachers changes, reflecting professional satisfaction and well done, but also risk, acting like a fifth dimension of teachers identity (re)construction, together with training, associative involvement, State and Market, and they must be considered on teatching identity studies.

A gestão do conhecimento na administração pública municipal em Curitiba com a aplicação do método OKA - Organizational Knowledge Assessment

O presente artigo objetiva analisar como a gestão do conhecimento se manifesta na administração pública da Prefeitura Municipal de Curitiba; para tanto, buscou-se a aplicação do método Organizational Knowledge Assessment (OKA), criado pelo Banco Mundial e organizado pela Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (Enap). No que tange aos procedimentos metodológicos, utilizou-se o estudo de caso como instrumento de pesquisa e coleta dos dados. Como resultado, identificaram-se o processo de avaliação organizacional, indicando as similaridades e distinções do desenvolvimento do método de cada área-fim, e a importância de implantar sistematicamente um processo de avaliação aliado ao planejamento da organização pública com estratégias para disseminar, compartilhar e aplicar o conhecimento produzido.

Aplicação de ferramentas associadas à filosofia lean

A competitividade entre as empresas e a busca por modelos de gestão e organização cada vez mais eficientes, tem dominado a actualidade. A filosofia de gestão Lean vem dar resposta a essas necessidades de aumento dos níveis de competitividade e eficiência, através de uma mudança da cultura organizacional, que assenta na redução ou eliminação de desperdícios e na melhoria contínua dos processos de fabrico de bens ou do fornecimento de serviços. A gestão Lean é suportada e implementada pela aplicação de um conjunto de ferramentas correctamente seleccionadas e adaptadas ao contexto organizacional da empresa ou organização. A presente dissertação visa caracterizar as ferramentas mais comuns da filosofia Lean, tendo em consideração a sua aplicabilidade na indústria e no sector dos serviços. É igualmente abordada a forma de aplicação das ferramentas Lean de maneira a que não constituam um acto isolado que conduz seguramente ao fracasso da implementação Lean na organização. Por essa razão são discutidas algumas regras e critérios, com base na proposta de um método de aplicação das ferramentas Lean que evite erros cometidos no passado e que levaram ao insucesso da aplicação do Lean em algumas organizações. Recorreu-se a um estudo de caso do ramo dos serviços, cujos resultados permitiram verificar a aplicabilidade do método proposto na aplicação de ferramentas Lean ao ramo dos serviços. O estudo de caso revelou a existência de uma elevada percentagem de desperdícios no processo em análise e permitiu melhorar o funcionamento desses mesmos processos. As melhorias alcançadas foram realizadas com base na eliminação dos desperdícios, na resolução de problemas e consequente uniformização de processos que melhoraram a qualidade e eficiência do serviço prestado, evidenciando que a organização alvo do estudo se encontra no bom caminho para atingir com sucesso a alteração da cultura organizacional para a filosofia Lean.

Contributos para a implementação dum modelo de gestão da qualidade num serviço de tomografia computorizada: uma análise prospectiva

Mestrado em Intervenção Sócio-Organizacional na Saúde - Área de especialização: Políticas de Administração e Gestão de Serviços de Saúde.

Technology for creativity and innovation: tools, techniques and applications

It is widely accepted that organizations and individuals must be innovative and continually create new knowledge and ideas to deal with rapid change. Innovation plays an important role in not only the development of new business, process and products, but also in competitiveness and success of any organization. Technology for Creativity and Innovation: Tools, Techniques and Applications provides empirical research findings and best practices on creativity and innovation in business, organizational, and social environments. It is written for educators, academics and professionals who want to improve their understanding of creativity and innovation as well as the role technology has in shaping this discipline.

Detection of Change in Fluorescence Between Reactive Cyan and the Yellow Fluorophores Usinga-SiC:H Multilayer Transducers

Optical colour sensors based on multilayered a-SiC:H heterostructures can act as voltage controlled optical filters in the visible range. In this article we investigate the application of these structures for Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) detection, The characteristics of a-SiC:H multilayered structure are studied both theoretically and experimentally in several wavelengths corresponding to different fluorophores. The tunable optical p-i'(a-SiC:H)-n/p-i(a-Si:H)-n heterostructures were produced by PECVD and tested for a proper fine tuning in the violet, cyan and yellow wavelengths. The devices were characterized through transmittance and spectral response measurements, under different electrical bias and frequencies. Violet, cyan and yellow signals were applied in simultaneous and results have shown that they can be recovered under suitable applied bias. A theoretical analysis supported by numerical simulation is presented.

Alianças estratégicas: análise do sector exportador de produtos português

Dissertação de Mestrado em Finanças Empresariais