The consequences of functionalist assumptions in the epistemology of organizational culture : the perspective of Critical Management Studies

W artykule zaprezentowano refleksję nad konsekwencjami założeń filozoficznych charakterystycznych dla paradygmatu funkcjonalizmu w epistemologii kultury organizacyjnej. Refleksja prowadzona jest z perspektywy nurtu krytycznego w naukach o zarządzaniu, który stoi w opozycji względem funkcjonalizmu, proponując rozstrzygnięcia teoretyczne i praktyczne o charakterze emancypacyjnym. Prezentowany artykuł ma spełniać cel emancypacyjny związany z denaturalizacją funkcjonalizmu i zaproponowaniem ramy teoretycznej dla krytycznego wglądu w konsekwencje, jakie wynikają z przyjęcia jego założeń w teorii i praktyce zarządzania i organizowania.The author presents the reflection about the consequences of assumptions characteristic for the functionalist paradigm in the epistemology of organizational culture in the management sciences. The study was conducted from the perspective of Critical Management Studies, which stands in opposition to the functionalist paradigm, offering theoretical and practical settlement of an emancipation

Corporate Culture and Its Connection with External and Internal Public Relations

The main aim of this article is to present the influence of corporate culture on company's stakeholders. This paper signalises the tendency in corporate communication with its internal and external publics. It is focused on two issues: corporate social responsibility and employer branding. Those two categories are consequences of corporate culture model.Głównym celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie wpływu jaki wywiera charakter kultury korporacyjnej na związanych z przedsiębiorstwem interesariuszy (stakeholders). W artykule zasygnalizowane zostały główne tendencje wyznaczające charakter komunikacji między organizacją a jej wewnętrznym i zewnętrznym otoczeniem. Tekst koncentruje się na dwóch kwestiach: społecznej odpowiedzialności przedsiębiorstwa (corporate social responsibilty) i budowanie wizerunku pracodawcy (employer branding), które zaprezentowane zostały jako efekty określonego modelu kultury organizacyjnej

Organizational cultures: Obstacles to women in the UK construction industry

The global economic downturn coupled with recent changes in UK law have led to a sizable reduction in public sector funding. As a result, both public and private sector organizations are under greater pressure to provide evidence of their activities in promoting equality and diversity in their use of public sector funds. This requirement poses a particular challenge for the UK construction industry, which remains largely White male dominated. Empirical data gathered from a series of semistructured questionnaires and focus groups that have received managerial and soft skills training are analyzed and discussed in this article in an effort to establish the organizational cultural obstacles that women face in working in the UK construction industry. The findings outline that White male-dominated organizational cultures, inflexible work practices, and a lack of supportive networks serve as obstacles to women in the UK construction industry. This study concludes with recommendations for the expansion of training opportunities for women to encourage workforce diversity within the UK construction industry

Perspectives on safety culture

Overviewing selected elements from the literature, this paper locates the notion of safety culture within its parent concept of organisational culture. A distinction is drawn between functionalist and interpretive perspectives on organisational culture. The terms ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ are clarified as they are typically applied to organisations and to safety. A contrast is drawn between strategic top down and data-driven bottom up approaches to human factors as an illustrative aspect of safety. A safety case study is used to illustrate two measurement approaches. Key issues for future study include valid measurement of safety culture and developing methods to adequately represent mechanisms through which safety culture might influence, and be influenced by, other safety factors

Conserved motifs in nuclear genes encoding predicted mitochondrial proteins in Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan parasite that causes Chagas’ disease, exhibits peculiar biological features. Among them, the presence of a unique mitochondrion is remarkable. Even though the mitochondrial DNA constitutes up to 25% of total cellular DNA, the structure and functionality of the mitochondrion are dependent on the expression of the nuclear genome. As in other eukaryotes, specific peptide signals have been proposed to drive the mitochondrial localization of a subset of trypanosomatid proteins. However, there are mitochondrial proteins encoded in the nuclear genome that lack of a peptide signal. In other eukaryotes, alternative protein targeting to subcellular organelles via mRNA localization has also been recognized and specific mRNA localization towards the mitochondria has been described. With the aim of seeking for mitochondrial localization signals in T. cruzi, we developed a strategy to build a comprehensive database of nuclear genes encoding predicted mitochondrial proteins (MiNT) in the TriTryps (T. cruzi, T. brucei and L. major). We found that approximately 15% of their nuclear genome encodes mitochondrial products. In T. cruzi the MiNT database reaches 1438 genes and a conserved peptide signal, M(L/F) R (R/S) SS, named TryM-TaPe is found in 60% of these genes, suggesting that the canonical mRNA guidance mechanism is present. In addition, the search for compositional signals in the transcripts of T. cruzi MiNT genes produce a list, being worth to note a conserved nontranslated element represented by the consensus sequence DARRVSG. Taking into account its reported interaction with the T. brucei TRRM3 protein which is enriched in the mitochondrial membrane fraction, we here suggest a putative zip code role for this element. Globally, here we provide an inventory of the mitochondrial proteins in T. cruzi and give evidence for the existence of both peptide and mRNA signals specific to nuclear encoded mitochondrial proteins

What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) Affects the Feeding Ecology of Early Stage Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) in the Hudson River Estuary

Variability in the feeding ecology of young fishes over short and long time scales in estuaries is likely to affect population dynamics. We studied 14 years of early stage Striped Bass feeding ecology in the Hudson River Estuary over a 25-year time span, including years in which invasive zebra mussels markedly altered energy flow within the estuary. We predicted that feeding success would be low and that diet composition would be altered during years of high zebra mussel impact, particularly in upriver locations where mussels occur. Feeding success in the short term was indicated by volume of gut contents and in the long term by dry mass at length, i.e. condition; these measures were positively intercorrelated and varied significantly year to year. We tested for associations between condition and multiple biotic and abiotic environmental variables. There was a strong negative effect of zebra mussel grazing rate on condition in upriver locations and a weak positive effect in downriver locations. In upriver locations, condition was 33% higher when local salinity was high and zebra mussel grazing rates were low, whereas in downriver locations, condition was 35% higher when zebra mussel grazing rates and copepod abundance were high and local dissolved oxygen was low. Copepods, amphipods, mysids, and Leptodora constituted the highest prey-specific index of relative importance throughout the estuary. There was no evident effect of the zebra mussel invasion on diet composition. This long-term study corroborates the inferences of earlier studies that zebra mussels reduced early-stage striped bass growth rate

Intrinsic DNA curvature in trypanosomes

Background: Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma brucei are protozoan parasites causing Chagas disease and African sleeping sickness, displaying unique features of cellular and molecular biology. Remarkably, no canonical signals for RNA polymerase II promoters, which drive protein coding genes transcription, have been identified so far. The secondary structure of DNA has long been recognized as a signal in biological processes and more recently, its involvement in transcription initiation in Leishmania was proposed. In order to study whether this feature is conserved in trypanosomatids, we undertook a genome wide search for intrinsic DNA curvature in T. cruzi and T. brucei. Results: Using a region integrated intrinsic curvature (RIIC) scoring that we previously developed, a non-random distribution of sequence-dependent curvature was observed. High RIIC scores were found to be significantly correlated with transcription start sites in T. cruzi, which have been mapped in divergent switch regions, whereas in T. brucei, the high RIIC scores correlated with sites that have been involved not only in RNA polymerase II initiation but also in termination. In addition, we observed regions with high RIIC score presenting in-phase tracts of Adenines, in the subtelomeric regions of the T. brucei chromosomes that harbor the variable surface glycoproteins genes. Conclusions: In both T. cruzi and T. brucei genomes, a link between DNA conformational signals and gene expression was found. High sequence dependent curvature is associated with transcriptional regulation regions. High intrinsic curvature also occurs at the T. brucei chromosome subtelomeric regions where the recombination processes involved in the evasion of the immune host system take place. These findings underscore the relevance of indirect DNA readout in these ancient eukaryotes