Charlotte Jonasson

Managing Unstable Institutional Contradictions: The Work of Becoming

An institution is often considered to be a stable, taken-for-granted ‘being’. The consequence is that agency is primarily associated with the rather exceptional creation or disruption of a relatively stable structure. In this article, we suggest an alternative ontology for understanding an institution as something unstable and always ‘becoming’. This opens a range of new and distinct opportunities for theorizing and researching institutional work involved in the everyday practice of managing institutional complexity. It allows us, in this study, to contribute with a new form of agency in terms of the continuous, active work of managing novel contradictions. Further, it induces us to take a more fine-grained look at the accompanying dynamics of work, in addition to work itself, whereby we provide a novel way of accounting for whether work effort is amplifying or subsiding, and whether it is likely to result in greater or lesser volatility within – on the surface – an otherwise seemingly stable institution. The argumentation is supported by an ethnographic field study of the work of managing novel contradictions within a single South Korean credit card company in the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis in 1997.

Organizational Responses to Contending Institutional Logics: The Moderating Effect of Group Dynamics

This paper advances knowledge on how the forms of institutional logics that emerge and become venerated among members of a singular organization in a heterogeneous field are influenced by struggles between contending interest groups. It examines the moderating effect of group dynamics that occur when an organization attempts to balance novel institutional complexity within organizational bounds through its hiring and promotion systems. The authors argue that, while the specific institutional oppositions of heterogeneous fields compel organizational changes, the institutional forms that emerge and become legitimate among members of an organization in such fields are the effects of indeterminate social processes of regularization and breaking of coexisting logics. The paper provides insights into how the negotiations among groups of organizational actors over the process and outcome of institutional change are influenced by asymmetric power relationships yet significantly mediated by their social strategies. The findings reported are from an ethnography of the enactment of institutional changes at a South Korean credit card company following the economic crisis in 1997 and the International Monetary Fund bailout programme.

Defining boundaries between school and work: teachers and students’ attribution of quality to school-based vocational training

School-based vocational training has been organised to support students’ boundary crossing between school and work. Such training has the potential to engage students in relevant work-oriented schooling. Drawing on theories of boundary connections and symbolic resources, it is argued that school participants define and attribute quality to school-based vocational training based on their experiences and expectations of past, present, and future boundaries between school and work contexts. Empirical findings from an ethnographic study conducted at a Danish vocational school illustrate that students and teachers in some cases attribute negative qualities to school-based vocational training, whilst, in other cases, they find it difficult to define the boundaries between school and work, thus questioning the relevance and organisation of school-based vocational training in supporting students’ boundary crossing between school and work. It is therefore argued that boundaries between school and work practices do not exist per se. Instead, more attention needs to be directed to the negotiations in which particular boundary connections between school and work practices are developed. This may have important consequences for the preparing of students for apprenticeship.

The Dynamics of Absence Behaviour: Interrelations between Absence from Class and Absence in Class.

Background: Studies of absence in educational settings have primarily been concerned with the causes for and results of student absence. However, recent research has argued that distinguishing between different forms of absence could be important. In consequence, studying the way in which different forms of absence are interrelated provides important novel insights into student absence behaviour. Purpose:  The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the concept of absence and the way absence behaviour is developed. This may help to provide a basis for further research on how and when absence is best prevented. Sample: Fieldwork was conducted at a vocational school containing 850 students. In this particular study, 24 student interviews were used in combination with interviews from four teachers and three school managers. Design and methods: The study is an ethnographic case study of a single school conducted over a continuous six-month period. It used participant observation followed by semi-structured interviews and school documents. Results: Findings suggest that student absence consists of interrelated forms of absence behaviour that have specific consequences for student performance. It is helpful to describe these findings using theoretical frameworks from sociology and psychology: specifically, spill-over theory and symbolic capital theory. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated how different forms of absence become dynamically interrelated through ongoing negotiations in the social practice of students, teachers and school managers. Evaluations of both absence from class and absence in class are important for understanding how absence behaviour can be identified and prevented.

Cultural differences in use: the power to essentialize communication styles

Purpose – Intercultural communication problems are most often argued to be caused by differences in cultural values. This exploratory paper aims to argue that attention should not only be directed at national differences. Alternatively, it aims to argue that more interest should be paid to the actual use of those differences in communication.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an ethnographic field study including 12 interviews and observations. It uses a short case on interaction between expatriates and local managers in a Chinese subsidiary of a Danish multinational corporation.Findings – The paper illustrates how individuals and groups may essentialize cultural differences during intercultural business encounters and how this fixation of cultural traits can be used in social stratification.Originality/value – Only scant extant research has focused on the active use of cultural differences in an intra‐subsidiary context.

Job resources and demands for expatriate academics: Linking teacher-student relations, intercultural adjustment, and job satisfaction

Purpose While there is a growing interest in expatriate academics, their specific role as teachers with daily contact to local students seems to have been largely ignored when examining their adjustment and work outcomes. Based on the job demands-resources model the authors predict that good teacher-student relations, as a supportive job resource, will have a positive effect on expatriate academics’ job satisfaction. This effect, however, will be even stronger for individuals experiencing high job demands and challenges in terms of intercultural job adjustment. In other words, expatriate academics that have difficulties adjusting will benefit more from the social support that can originate from good relations to their students. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed expatriate academics adjusting to a university position in China by use of 124 responses from foreign university employees. Findings The authors found that teacher-student relations had a positive association with job satisfaction and that positive teacher-student relations increased job satisfaction more for individuals being slow to adjust. Originality/value This is one of the few papers to explore the impact that students can have on expatriate academics and treat this relationship as a potential resource for universities to capitalize upon in socializing their new foreign academic staff members.

Teachers’ dilemmatic decision-making: reconciling coexisting policies of increased student retention and performance

In recent years, many countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have formulated educational policies aimed at providing better education to more students. However, this may be perceived as constituting dilemmatic spaces, where teachers must make efforts to reconcile coexisting political demands in their everyday work. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into how teachers handle coexisting educational policies of increased student retention and performance. Empirical findings from a one-year field study at a Danish vocational school explore how teachers’ decision-making as response to coexisting demands of increased student retention and performance involves the development of various pedagogical approaches to the students: an active ‘caring’ approach, a passive ‘wait until this class is over’ approach, an active ‘vocational gate-keeping’ approach, and a passive ‘wait and see whether they drop out’ approach. Based on the findings, it is argued that the various pedagogical approaches are developed through social negotiations with leaders, students, and other teachers. Moreover, these pedagogical approaches lead to the development of further negotiated, dilemmatic decisions to be made. Thus, a dynamic approach to teachers’ dilemmatic decision-making is proposed.

Group Conflict and Faculty Engagement: Is There a Moderating Effect of Group Trust?

In educational settings, substantial scholarly interest has focused on student engagement as an antecedent for educational development and positive school outcomes. Very limited research, however, has focused on the engagement of academic staff members. This may be a crucial oversight because engagement has been argued to lead to more satisfied, more productive and healthier staff. In this study, based on a sample consisting of 489 members of multicultural university departments, we set out to investigate the relationship between trust, conflict and academic staff engagement. More specifically we assessed the effect of group trust, group relational conflict and group task conflict on indicators of behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement. Our findings show a strong positive association between group trust and all academic staff engagement variables as well as a strong negative association between group relational conflict and all staff engagement variables. Task conflict was negatively associated with indicators of staff cognitive engagement. However, surprisingly, group trust did not have any moderating effect. Implications for educational organisation managers and policy makers are discussed in detail.

How do Assigned and Self-Initiated Expatriate CEOs Differ? An Empirical Investigation on CEO Demography, Personality, and Performance in China

Abstract Purpose In this chapter, we focus on expatriate CEOs who are assigned by the parent company to work in a subsidiary and compare them to those who themselves have initiated to work abroad as CEOs. Since we do not know much about these individuals, we direct our attention to: (1) who they are (demographics), (2) what they are like (personality), and (3) how they perform (job performance). Methodology/approach Data was sought from 93 assigned expatriate CEOs and 94 self-initiated expatriate CEOs in China. Findings Our findings demonstrate that in terms of demography, self-initiated CEOs were more experienced than assigned CEOs. With regard to personality, we found difference in self-control and dispositional anger: Assigned expatriate CEOs had more self-control and less angry temperament than their self-initiated counterparts. Finally, we found assigned expatriate CEOs to rate their job performance higher than self-initiated CEOs. Originality/value Although there may not always be immediate benefits, career consideration often plays a role when individuals choose whether to become an expatriate. For many years, organizations have used expatriation to develop talented managers for high-level positions in the home country. Recently, however, a new trend has emerged. Talented top managers are no longer expatriated only from within parent companies to subsidiaries. Self-initiated expatriates with no prior affiliation in the parent company are increasingly used to fill top management positions in subsidiaries.

Knowledge processing and faculty engagement in multicultural university settings: A social learning perspective

In educational studies much attention has been directed to engagement as a precondition for positive student outcomes. Very few studies, however, have focused on the engagement of the faculty members. This is a regrettable omission because engagement has been argued to lead to more satisfied, more productive and healthier faculty members. In this study, based on a sample consisting of 489 members of multicultural university departments, we set out to investigate the relationship between internal knowledge processing – conceptualised as the ability to locate and share knowledge in the faculty group – and faculty engagement. Our hypotheses are based on social learning theory and social exchange theory predicting that increased knowledge sharing activities could facilitate an environment in which faculty engagement thrives. In order to test our hypotheses we use multiple regression analysis. We assessed indicators of behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement. Results showed consistent positive associations between group knowledge processing and all the studied faculty engagement indicators. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed in detail.