Danna N. Greenberg

Agency and social networks: Strategies of action in a social structure of position, opposition, and opportunity

This study uses social movement concepts to explain the success and failure of actors in a network of relationships trying to influence policies on environmental issues in a small city. Results show that strategies to take action and mobilize others in a network of interorganizational relationships can vary depending on the social context, which consists of the political opportunity structure defined by government regulators, whether the actor faces opposition, and the actors position in the network. Decisions to engage in strategies to try to influence government regulators directly, to use a broker to reach agreements with the opposition, or to form a coalition with actors in other organizations to influence government decision makers are affected by this social context. Results also show that even peripheral actors, usually assumed to be powerless in network studies, can influence policy if they use a direct-contact strategy and the political opportunity structure is favorable.

The Formal Analysis of Narratives of Organizational Change

Formal analysis of narrative descriptions of events allows the researcher to rigorously examine processes of organizational change. Event-structure analysis (ESA), a rule-driven formal technique of narrative analysis, is applied to a narrative description of an environmental dispute. Various organizations and government agencies engaged in this dispute. ESA is applied to the narrative to clarify the causal linkages among the events and to demonstrate the advantages of studying organizational change through the formal analysis of narratives.

Consistent and Inconsistent Impacts of a Teacher-Led Empowerment Initiative in a Federation of Schools

This study explores the impacts of a teacher-led empowerment initiative in a federation of independent schools. The authors used survey and archival data as well as a conceptual basis in consistency models to examine the relationship between participation in this organizational change initiative, individual behavioral changes pertinent to it, and ratings of its effectiveness. Results indicated that behavioral changes were strong predictors of individual ratings of the effectiveness of the initiative and partially mediated the relationship between participation and effectiveness ratings. Some results supported a consistency framework; others did not. Based on these results, the authors suggest implications for research and practice regarding empowerment-oriented and other types of organizational change initiatives.

Chris Pierce and the Yankee Donut Company: An E-Mail-Based Management Simulation

In this article, the authors describe an e-mail-based simulation that helps students experience the fast-paced, complex world of the middle manager. In this electronic in-basket exercise, students assume the role of a district manager in a doughnut company as they respond to a rapid series of high- and low-priority e-mails ostensibly sent from superiors, subordinates, colleagues, and customers. The simulation creates an engaging learning environment that helps students understand the complex world of managers and stimulates their interest in organizational behavior. Because the exercise is designed around standard e-mail technology, the simulation is straightforward and can be easily customized to support other learning objectives.

What to Expect When She’s Expecting

There has been extensive writing both in the popular press and the academic literature on the unique work-life challenges of professional working mothers. Professional working mothers often must manage competing gender biases – being perceived as cold-hearted (Cuddy et al., 2004) or worse, bad mothers (Epstein et al., 1999) on one hand and less committed to their work roles (Correll et al., 2007) on the other.

Identity and the Transition to Motherhood: Navigating Existing, Temporary, and Anticipatory Identities

Over the past two decades, there has been extensive research across diverse disciplines exploring the treatment of pregnant women in the work context (Gatrell in Human Relations 1–24, 2013). One of the most significant challenges women experience during pregnancy relates to their ability to manage their evolving sense of self as work and motherhood intersect—often for the first time. Pregnant working women are undergoing an identity transition that relates to three distinct, and often conflicting, identities: their existing professional identity, their emerging mothering identity, and their temporary pregnancy identity. In this book chapter, we engage an identity based perspective to explore this transitional period of pregnancy for working women and how women engage in identity work as they manage the tension between who they are, who they want to be, and who their organizations want them to be. When women are able to successfully navigate this identity transition and establish a strong vision of their future self as a working mother, they are more likely to stay engaged and committed to their professions and be more satisfied at work and at home.