Deborah B. Balser

Selecting Repertoires of Action in Environmental Movement Organizations An Interpretive Approach

Environmental movement organizations (EMOs) that have similar goals frequently rely on different tactics and strategies to advance their agendas. This article uses an interpretive perspective to examine the factors influencing EMO selection of a repertoire of action. Building on concepts from organization and social movement theories, and relying on interview and archival data from Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, this study suggests that experience, core values and beliefs, environmental philosophy, and political ideology work together to create distinct organizational interpretations of the political environment, efficacy of action, acceptability of tactics, significance of an issue, and source of the problem. These interpretations combine to shape EMO determinations of what types of action will be most appropriate and effective. Although structural factors influence the decisions that are made within EMOs, organizations also rely on interpretive processes in their selection of a repertoire of action.

Perceptions of On- The-Job Discrimination and Employees With Disabilities

This study examines factors that predict perceptions of workplace discrimination by employees with disabilities. Individual level variables are combined with organizational level variables in a single model of perceived inequality. Data came from surveys administered to employees with disabilities and their respective employers. Individual and organizational variables together provide a better understanding of perceived discrimination than either set alone. Despite the predominance of studies that demonstrate inequality in compensation, this study shows that employees experience discrimination over most terms/conditions of employment.

Predictors of Workplace Accommodations for Employees With Mobility-Related Disabilities:

Our understanding of reasonable accommodations in the workplace is incomplete. Frequently, research on disability either neglects issues of accommodation or examines the receipt of any accommodation, without specifying type. However, people with disabilities need specific accommodations, not any accommodation. This article uses comprehensive models to test the predictors of four types of accommodations received by employees with mobility-related disabilities. Overall, the results show that different factors predicted receipt of different types of accommodations. Furthermore, factors that facilitate or constrain an employers capacity to make particular accommodations were more powerful predictors than an individuals need for accommodation or socioeconomic status.

Organizational and institutional determinants of B2C adoption under shifting environments

This study examines the adoption of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce by bricks-and-mortar companies comprising the Standard & Poors 500 (S&P 500) listings between 1992 and 2003. B2C represents a Type III information systems (IS) innovation that integrates IS with core business technologies. Extant studies on Type III innovations have examined organizational and institutional factors, solely or collectively, in explaining adoption, but not how their effects change under shifting environments over time. We develop an integrated model comprising organizational factors (i.e., espoused values and resources) and institutional factors (i.e., normative and mimetic pressures), as well as the moderating influence of shifting environments (i.e., early period and late period demarcated by changes in the environment). Using a piecewise event-history model specification, we examine the adoption of B2C innovations by 93 organizations over time. Our results show that both organizational and institutional factors influence B2C adoption; however, their effects varied with the environmental shifts. Specifically, senior IS executives influenced adoption in the early period whereas bandwagon mimetic pressures and business norms influenced adoption in the late period. The findings of our research demonstrate the importance of explicitly modeling environmental shifts in theorizing organizational adoption of innovations.

The Bully of Bentonville: How the High Cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices is Hurting America. Anthony Bianco

As the book’s title suggests, Bianco draws two conclusions from his investigation: (1) Wal-Mart uses practices that intimidate and bully most stakeholders who come into contact with the corporation; and (2) Wal-Mart’s business model has a negative impact on the United States. Bianco supports his first conclusion very well. Although the book is not formally framed as a stakeholder analysis, in successive chapters, he effectively shows how Wal-Mart uses its power and wealth in dealing with employees, organized labor, suppliers, local governments, competitors, and community groups in order to keep costs low. While it is clear that Wal-Mart expects others to bend to its interests, Bianco could make a stronger case in explaining how its practices are hurting America. He spells out the impacts that Wal-Mart has on wages, employment rates, the trade deficit, store closings, and unions. But he does not always explain how these impacts are harmful to the country as a whole.