International research collaboration is a way to facilitate original knowledge production, share research equipment, promote learning together and talent pooling at a cross-border level. However, it takes place in a hierarchical and unequal global research space. Conditioned by various structural factors, researchers actively exercise their agency…

New technologies transform research specialties and potentiate new fields. Sociometers--wearable electronic sensors collecting quantitative, dynamic data about embodied social interactions at hyperfine scales--represent such a possibility for small group research. This article introduces this new method and its distinctive qualities and…

This conceptual paper suggests and elaborates on the use of physiological metaphors pertaining to the systems and parts of the body as an approach for fostering an understanding of organizational theories among students of educational administration. The importance of this pursuit is related to the recognition that the students often reject the…

Facilitating successful focus groups requires both science and art. One element that can fully challenge focus group facilitators includes how to handle the unfocused focus group. This article describes "unfocus" and the benefits and disadvantages of unfocus in focus groups. Lessons learned from and approaches taken on this journey are shared to…

Formal organizations share a common set of characteristics that include identifiable operating principles and coordinating mechanisms as well as lines of authority and communication. However, some organizations--especially those on the margins of institutional fields--creatively combine institutional and anti-institutional characteristics. This…

Shows that use and effects of punishment are significantly altered by average levels of reward power and punishment power in power-dependence relationship. The power-balancing effect of punishment is most likely to occur when an actor lacking reward power has punishment power that is stronger in relation to the other actor's punishment power but…

This article discerns the role that Mexican American gang members play in drug markets, and the relationship between gang members' drug use and drug selling in South Texas. A four-part typology based on the two dimensions of gang type and gang member emerged from this qualitative analysis of 160 male gang members: Homeboys, Hustlers, Slangers, and…

Little is known about subordinate attributions connected with perceptions of supervisory influence. Data about first- and second-level supervisors from a nationwide insurance organization revealed that perceived supervisory influence was significantly related to perceptions of supervisory effectiveness, influence over valued rewards and the task,…

Research showed that the center-periphery pattern of social structure, characteristic of many academic communities, also applies to political science. This pattern consists of a tightly knit group of leaders and increasingly looser groups of followers arrayed about them. Within the social structure, all members are familiar with the top…

Uses a laboratory experiment involving role-playing groups to show that an assigned majority rule is likely to lead to higher-quality solutions than unanimity and no-decision rule. Results indicated under majority rule workers resistance to the foreman's power often resulted in a successful search for a better solution. (JAC)

Investigated relationship between aspects of organizational structure and alienation as experienced by personnel (N=603) employed in nine social services organizations. Interviews with personnel making executive decisions, those making supervisory assessments, and those concerned with client interaction revealed that the best predictions of…

A hierarchical structure is a widespread organizational form in many areas. My aim in this paper is to provide a rationale for this fact based on two premises. First, a group organizes itself so as to achieve efficient coordination. Second, efficient coordination is achieved only if subgroups as well as individuals agree to cooperate. Even in…

Contemporary theories of organizations are assessed to determine whether their propositions and empirical findings can be directly applied to understand and explain voluntary associations. The inquiry is arranged under five types of characteristics: incentive systems and participant commitment, formal structures, leadership and authority,…

Hypotheses linking positional power in bargaining networks to evaluations of self and others were supported: (1) persons in central exchange network positions evaluate themselves as feeling more pleasant and more exhilarated; and (2) central persons impute lower status and higher positive evaluations to peripheral positions. (Author)

Interviews and observations at the Children's Center, a Bronx (New York) psychiatric hospital, yielded data about the effects on individual power of network relations at the individual and work-unit levels. Regression analysis indicates individuals' participation in work units that are integrated into organization-wide networks enhances individual…