Paul F. Salipante

Bridging Scholarship in Management: Epistemological Reflections

If the relevance gap in management research is to be narrowed, management scholars must identify and adopt processes of inquiry that simultaneously achieve high rigour and high relevance. Research approaches that strive for relevance emphasize the particular at the expense of the general and approaches that strive for rigour emphasize the general over the particular. Inquiry that attains both rigour and relevance can be found in approaches to knowledge that involve a reasoned relationship between the particular and the general. Prominent among these are the works of Ikujiro Nonaka and John Dewey. Their epistemological foundations indicate the potential for a philosophy of science and a process of inquiry that crosses epistemological lines by synthesizing the particular and the general and by utilizing experience and theory, the implicit and the explicit, and induction and deduction. These epistemologies point to characteristics of a bridging scholarship that is problem-initiated and rests on expanded standards of validity. The present epistemological reflections are in search of new communities of knowing toward the production of relevant and rigorous management knowledge.

Knowledge Representations and Knowledge Transfer

Cognitive and learning theories were used to develop a framework in which different knowledge representations prime recipients with different schemata and thereby differentially affect their decisi...

Start‐Up Social Ventures: Blending Fine‐Grained Behaviors From Two Institutions for Entrepreneurial Success

Social entrepreneurs develop market–driven ventures to produce social change; some succeed while others fail. This research advances our understanding of start–up behaviors of ventures that span nonprofit and for–profit institutional boundaries. A rigorous qualitative study of 23 social ventures reveals that entrepreneurs employ a blend of nonprofit and business venture behaviors, suggesting the importance of contextual factors. Only selective behaviors from each institution differentiate the successful from the struggling ventures. But while the higher level organizing tasks and activities of successful and struggling ventures may appear similar, fine–grained analyses of their behaviors show stark differences, emphasizing the need for such analyses.

A Grounded Theory for Building Ethnically Bridging Social Capital in Voluntary Organizations

The study of diversity in nonprofit organizations is at a nascent stage. Using a grounded theory process centering on the racial composition of Girl Scout troop members and volunteers, this study proposes a two-pronged theory of diversity in voluntary organizations. Building upon Adler and Kwon’s three aspects of social capital—opportunity, motivation, and ability—the study concludes that even when sufficient opportunity and mission-based motivation exists, social capital of the bridging type will likely be insufficient to sustain interactions among diverse members. To remedy this problem, the theory suggests that a voluntary organization can first rely upon the bonding type of social capital to increase representational diversity, then structure mission-relevant interactions among diverse members to create bridging social capital, and sustain pluralistic diversity. New directions for research and practice are also discussed, with the theory indicating that many nonprofits possess characteristics favoring the creation of bridging social capital.

Cultural Knowing As Practicing Extending Our Conceptions of Culture

A program of research designed to provide understanding of effective cross-cultural interaction in international joint ventures led to anomalous findings. Through a grounded theory process, consideration of the anomalies led to exploration of alternative conceptions of the constructs of culture and cultural knowledge. Contemporary conceptualizations of culture and of cultural knowledge represent individual cognitions about broad cultural assumptions underlying behavior. Drawing on anthropological literature, the authors suggest that culture in such joint venture settings is in the making. Borrowing from Anthony Giddens’s ideas of practical consciousness, the authors call for new concepts of cross-cultural knowing, portraying cultural understanding as locally situated, dominantly behavioral, and embedded in mundane and evolving social practices that are jointly negotiated by actors within specific contexts, constituting situated learning. This emergent perspective recognizes the fragmented, improvisational, and contested nature of culture and the increased overlapping and intermixing of people from diverse social settings around the globe. Consequently, cultural knowing can be conceptualized as socially produced, dynamic, practical, and locally situated.

Governance for broadened accountability : Blending deliberate and emergent strategizing

The nonprofit sector is challenged by increasing public and stakeholder demands for a broadened accountability. Strong expectations for performance accountability now accompany those for fiscal accountability. In response, better concepts of nonprofit accountability are being developed in the literature. However, knowledge of governance practices that can achieve broadened accountability has lagged. This article attempts to stimulate research and contribute to such knowledge by (a) synthesizing concepts of accountability presented by Behn (2001), Kearns (1996), and Boland and Schultze (1996) into two categories: rule-based and negotiable accountability; (b) developing grounded concepts concerning the practice of governance by nonprofit leaders; and (c) exploring the interrelationships of the previously discrete concepts of deliberate strategy, emergent strategy, and accountability. The studys ethnographic methods recorded and analyzed real-life interactions involving a board chair—chief executive officer pair. The article presents a detailed narrative description of these actions to convey its key concept, blended strategizing, and to provide stimulus for new practice by leaders in governance situations.

Environmental Scanning and Problem Recognition by Governing Boards: The Response of Hospitals to Declining Birth Rates

This study investigates the problem of organizational adaptation to environmental change, focusing on the variables of information sources and governing board structures. The overall findings strongly suggest that early problem recognition can be enhanced by the structures and the sources of data used in the decision-making process. An additional hypothesis growing out of a pilot study and supported by the main study concerned the positive impact of a new administrator on early problem recognition. The implications of thesefindingsfor the process of problem recognition are discussed.

Human resource indicators for hospital managers.

Hospitals often have large amounts of information available about their human resources, but this information is usually inadequate. The nature of existing human resource information is examined in one large hospital, and the concept of a human resource indicator system is developed. Methods for deriving meaning from the indicators are discussed.

The Practices of a Non-Diversity-Focused Organization and Their Impact on its Members’ Intercultural Behavioral Comfort

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact that university student groups’ practices have on their members’ intercultural behavioral comfort and interactions and their cultural learning. We surveyed 360 undergraduate members of a national voluntary service organization at 50 U.S. four-year colleges. Findings indicate that an organization’s ability to nurture a sense of feeling welcome and identification with organizational purpose predict skills and confidence in dealing with diverse intra-group members – a competency we call behavioral comfort. An additional practice using proactive efforts to promote social interaction predicts behavioral comfort when mediated by a sense of belonging. These findings have important implications for institutions of higher learning, student affairs staff and administrators, campus co-curricular associations, and voluntary organizations.

Intercultural Comfort through Social Practices: Exploring Conditions for Cultural Learning

High quality cross-ethnic interactions contribute to college students’ development, but knowledge is scant concerning campus settings and conditions that promote these interactions. This study indicates that distinct social practices in particular settings create such conditions. Phenomenological analysis of current and past members of a voluntary community service association (VCSA, a pseudonym), appropriated to meet their social needs, revealed practices leading students from differing ethnic backgrounds to challenge stereotypes and engage in cultural learning. Inductively-derived findings led to a transdisciplinary analysis that synthesizes concepts from institutional (higher education), organizational (voluntary service organization), interpersonal (social ties), and individual (personal development) levels. The emergent concept of intercultural comfort differentiated between meaningful diversity interactions within the student association and apprehensive ones elsewhere. Members experienced this intercultural comfort and an ethnically inclusive moral order due to mission-driven practices emphasizing shared purpose, fellowship, and structured interactions.