THE RATIONALIZATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING: IMPLICATIONS OF GROUP SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR POWER, SYMBOLISM AND FACE-VVORK

Current Group Support System (GSS) theory is heavily influenced by a rational model of human behavior, which in turn leads to some fundamental assumptions about what meetings are all about and what can be done to improve them. The purpose of this paper is to examine these fundamental assumptions, but from a perspective other than the more typical one of small-group processes and dynamics. Instead, we draw on organizational theories of power and politics, organizational culture and symbolism, and interactionism to provide new vantage points from which to examine these fundamental GSS objectives. Each of these perspectives represent fundamentally different philosophies on the nature and processes that characterize organizational meetings. From this theoretical triangulation, a much richer picture of organization meetings emerges. In particular, it becomes apparent that the rich shading and nuances of meaning that characterize organizational meetings are not adequately captured by a strictly small-group based, rational model of human behavior. To hope to understand how technology will change the dynamics of decisionmaking, hidden agendas, veiled threats, hidden meanings, the formation and disintegration of alliances, the shifting nattire of power and status, to name but a few, a theory base as rich as these dynamics will be needed

Trivial and normative? Online fieldwork within YouTube’s beauty community

In this article, I discuss methodological understandings around qualitative research and online ethnographic practice to bring forward a reflexive account on the particularities of doing fieldwork on YouTube. I draw from a multiyear ethnographic examination of YouTube’s beauty community that sought to understand online popularity framed by local norms and practices and shed light into the local significance of knowledge, expertise, and self-development. I argue for an epistemological perspective that acknowledges the diversity of viable, conceivable fieldwork experiences while distancing from prescriptive modes of argumentation. I propose seeing fieldwork in and through its richness and predicaments, persistently naturalistic while interpretive. I approach online popularity, fandom, and even YouTube itself from a perspective that tolerates ambivalence, contradictions, and embraces the complexity of social worlds and human interaction

UNDERSTANDING GDSS IN SYMBOLIC

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Work computerization as symbol and experience : an empirical inquiry into the meanings of technological transformation.

ManagementDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.

Drug-Testing as Symbolic Managerial Action - In Response to a Case Against Workplace Drug-Testing

In contrast to much of the management and organizational literature supporting drug testing (Coombs and Coombs 1991, Cowan 1987, Harris and Heft 1992), Debra Comer\u27s (1994) A Case Against Workplace Drug Testing presents a refreshing series of arguments against this practice. Comer (1994) carefully scrutinizes and summarizes a substantial body of empirical and conceptual literature on workplace drug testing, on the basis of which, she makes a compelling argument against it. Comer even suggests that frequently, drug testing can have adverse consequences for organizations in terms of hurting employee morale, productivity and performance. For the most part, we are in agreement with Comer\u27s findings. However, we suggest that her paper falls short of offering a convincing explanation for the continued use of drug testing in the workplace. Her case against drug testing is marshalled from two distinct vantage points: (1) normative, and (2) instrumental. Both are incomplete when it comes to explaining the prevalence of workplace drug testing. In the remainder of this paper, we explain why we think these two perspectives are inadequate, and suggest an alternative way of looking at the phenomenon