Communiquer la genèse de l’organisation : l’invention rhétorique de Québec solidaire

La thèse aborde le « trou noir de la genèse » dans l’étude des organisations, c’est-àdire comment une organisation en vient à exister pour la première fois. Elle montre comment la genèse s’accomplit à travers l’agencement de multiples composantes (humaines, symboliques, matérielles), articulées à travers les interactions. S’appuyant sur une analyse détaillée des interactions performées durant le congrès fondateur d’un parti politique au Québec tenu durant l’année 2006, elle identifie et discute les diverses stratégies et tactiques employés par les artisanes et artisans de cette fondation pour mettre en acte l’existence de ce nouvel agent collectif. Autrement dit, la thèse mène à une recension des manières de « communiquer la genèse ». Cela inclut l’usage de narratifs unificateurs, la gestion des identités, la mise en place de principes à travers des documents fondateurs, et la création d’une voix collective, à la fois partagée et négociée par les divers agents impliqués dans ce processus. Ces accomplissements mettent en lumière la dimension résolument rhétorique de l’organisation, conçus en tant que « stratégies pour rendre compte d’une situation », pour nommer sa structure et ses composantes primordiales à travers « l’usage du langage comme moyen symbolique d’induire la coopération ». La configuration rhétorique de discours, d’objets, de corps, de dispositifs spatiaux et physiques, et d’impératifs économiques, politiques et institutionnels à l’oeuvre dans les organisations procure un nouvel éclairage sur les modes d’existence de l’organisation. Par le fait de recenser les composantes « essentielles » ou « fondatrices » du parti politique investigué, et par l’analyse de celle-ci à l’aide des concepts de la théorie rhétorique du dramatisme, la thèse développe une perspective novatrice pour l’étude de la constitution communicative des organisations.

Building an organizational change communication theory

The difficulty of communicating during organizational change has intensified with the prevalence of continuously changing organizations (Buchanan, Claydon & Doyle, 1999). The difficulty faced by managers is compounded by the lack of studies examining organizational communication within a context of organizational change (Eisenberg, Andrews, Murphy, & Laine-Timmerman, 1999; Lewis & Seibold, 1996). Not surprisingly then, is there a paucity of organizational change theory to guide further research and practitioners. This paper addresses the lack of organizational change communication research and contributes to theoretical development of communication during organizational change. A model of change communication during continuous change is presented from the analysis of two longitudinal empirical studies. Central constructs of the model are the monologic change communication, the dialogic change communication and the background talk of change. Further Van de Ven and Poole's (1995) Process Theories of Change are extended to consider the sequencing of the three constructs. The findings suggest that the sequencing of the dominant change communication approaches is informed by an alignment of individual communication competences and organizational change communication expectations.

Organizational ambidexterity and corporate entrepreneurship : the differential effects on venturing, innovation and renewal processes

Most corporate entrepreneurship studies have focused on either innovation, venturing or strategic renewal making comparison between the antecedents of all three aspects of corporate entrepreneurship difficult. Moreover, studies on corporate entrepreneurship hardly address organizational antecedents, while simultaneously managing and organizing CE and mainstream activities has been seen as a major challenge for incumbent firms. Our findings show that organizational ambidexterity has strong and differential effects on venturing, innovation and renewal. We find, for example, that innovation is affected by horizontal integration, while strategic renewal is significantly influenced by integration on top management team level.

The critical competences needed for innovative organizational inter-firm and intra-firm integration

In today's highly challenging business environment, an innovative and systemic approach is imperative to survival and growth. Organisational integration and technological integration, are often seen as a catalyst of change that could lead to significant improvements in organisations. The levels of improvement in inter and intra firm integration should arise from a detailed understanding and development of competences within and between organisations. Preliminary findings suggest that lack of trust across organisational cultures within the firms has a negative influence on the development of the capabilities to integrate and align technological innovations and hinders implementation and the effectiveness of the operations. Additionally, poor communication and conflict effects customer satisfaction. Firms need to transfer the competences that support cooperative integration, developed through interaction with supply chain partners, to their relationship arrangements with other supply chain partners, as these are key to ensuring low operational costs.

How environmental and organizational complexity affects opportunity recognition in development projects

New product development projects are experiencing increasing internal and external project complexity. Complexity leadership theory proposes that external complexity requires adaptive and enabling leadership, which facilitates opportunity recognition (OR). We ask whether internal complexity also requires OR for increased adaptability. We extend a model of EO and OR to conclude that internal complexity may require more careful OR. This means that leaders of technically or structurally complex projects need to evaluate opportunities more carefully than those in projects with external or technological complexity.

Psychosocial predictors of intentions to engage in change supportive behaviors in an organizational context

This study utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to understand employee change readiness. The extent to which attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control predicted employees’ intentions to carry out activities that were supportive of a change event were investigated. The impact of group norm was examined as a further predictor of change-related intentions. The context of the research was a sample of 82 employees in the early stages of a re-brand. Results indicated that direct measures of attitude and subjective norm, as well as group norm, emerged as significant predictors of employees’ intentions to perform re-brand behaviors. To capture the indirect beliefs underlying attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, participants also provided an assessment of their behavioral, normative, and control beliefs in regards to the change event, respectively. A series of MANOVAs revealed significant differences between moderate and high intenders on a range of underlying beliefs. Findings are discussed in terms of the application of the TPB for effective change management.

The differential effects of organizational antecedents on dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship

This study seeks to further delineate how organizational antecedents differentially influence the three components of corporate entrepreneurship: innovation, venturing or strategic renewal. We argue that structural differentiation may help organizations to maintain multiple and often conflicting demands of entrepreneurial and mainstream activities. Taking a social capital perspective, our study further examines two contingencies in the form of informal integration mechanisms (i.e. connectedness and TMT social integration). Our findings show structural differentiation has a positive effect on all three components of corporate entrepreneurship, yet the effect is moderated by integration mechanisms. Interunit connectedness has a positive moderation effect regarding innovation and venturing, and TMT social integration has a negative moderation effect regarding strategic renewal. This reveals that innovation is influenced by informal integration mechanisms on the organizational level, strategic renewal on top management team level, while venturing is influenced by integration mechanisms on both levels.

The genesis of science education research in Australasia

Although the sciences were being taught in Australian schools well before the Second World War, the only evidence of research studies of this teaching is to be found in the report, published by ACER in 1932 of Roy Stanhope’s survey of the teaching of chemistry in New South Wales and a standardized test he had developed. Roy Stanhope was a science teacher with a research masters degree in chemistry. He had won a scholarship to go to Stanford University for doctoral studies, but returned after one year when his scholarship was not extended. He went on to be a founder in 1943 of the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), which honours this remarkable pioneer through its annual Stanhope Oration. In his retirement Stanhope undertook a comparative study of science