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Is the Self-Managed Organisation Essential in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?
No full textPurpose
This paper investigates whether self-managed organisations (SMOs) − characterised by minimal hierarchy and distributed authority − can become a dominant or widely adopted model in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. This study aims to understand how advances in AI reshape organisational coordination, decision-making and control, and to determine the extent to which self-management enables firms to thrive amid these changes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a literature review approach, drawing on existing research on self-management and organisational theory.
Findings
This paper finds that AI enhances some of the conditions that favour self-management, particularly in knowledge-intensive and adaptive work environments. However, it also introduces challenges that limit universal applicability. SMOs offer notable advantages in flexibility and responsiveness but are unlikely to replace traditional hierarchies entirely. Hybrid, context-specific models are projected to prevail.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original and timely contribution by linking self-managed organisational theory with the transformative effects of AI. Its value lies in bridging two research domains − AI-driven organisational change and decentralised management − highlighting how AI challenges traditional hierarchies and supports distributed decision-making. Rather than advocating a universal model, it provides a nuanced framework for when and why self-management becomes advantageous
Exploring Professional Dynamics in Addiction Treatment: A Parsonian Perspective on Normative Culture and Action Orientation
Get PDFThis study examined the relevance of Talcott Parsons' action theory in understanding the complex dynamics of values, norms, and professional action within multidisciplinary health contexts, specifically focusing on public services for addiction in northern Italy. Employing an ethnographic research strategy that included participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 28 professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists), this study identified five interconnected themes: symbolic and normative systems, formalized norms, value systems and normative models, alternatives of professional action (pattern variables), and action orientation. The findings reveal that Public Services for Addictions’ cultural system, comprising formalized norms, symbolic-normative patterns, shared values, rituals, and social practices, serve as an effective mode of control and shape professional action. The study also highlights the significance of the "equidistance in the listening" model, which encompasses values such as equality, professional respect, and unanimity. Furthermore, the analysis of pattern variables elucidates the decision-making processes underlying professional actions, while the examination of action orientations (structural, expressive, moral, and relational) reveals the motivational drivers that influence professional behavior. The predominance of relational orientation underscores the importance of teamwork and professional recognition in public services for addiction. The study concluded by emphasizing the enduring relevance of Parsons' action theory in understanding the complex interplay of values, norms, and professional actions within multidisciplinary health contexts, thereby contributing to the development of a unified framework for cross-disciplinary collaboration in social control systems
Differentiation, Integration, and Control Dynamics in Multidisciplinary Teams: An Ethnographic Study of Northern Italian Public Addiction Services
No full textThis ethnographic study explores the complex dynamics of differentiation and integration within multidisciplinary teams in Northern Italian Public Services for Addictions. This study investigates the challenges arising from ambiguous role boundaries and overlapping functions as well as the control mechanisms that maintain system equilibrium. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 28 professionals from three addiction services, this study reveals a nuanced interplay among professional roles, team structures, and organizational control. The findings highlight the varying degrees of formalization among specialized subsystems, leading to overlapping responsibilities and blurred boundaries that impact professional recognition and identity. Three distinct levels of control were identified: hierarchical, horizontal, and decision-making control at the collegial team level. These control mechanisms, coupled with various sanctioning strategies, play a crucial role in enforcing adherence to organizational norms. The micro team structure emerges as a fundamental unit of control, shaping role expectations and behavioural norms through continuous social interaction. This study underscores the importance of balancing differentiation and integration as well as the critical role of control mechanisms in maintaining system functionality. These findings have implications for policymaking, service quality improvement, and enhancement of multidisciplinary approaches to address addiction-related challenges in healthcare system
Conceptualizing and Measuring Violence: A Feminist Critical Measurement Analysis of Gender-Based Violence Research in a Government Policy-Based Setting.
Get PDFFeminist methodological advances in gender-based violence research have yet to be comprehensively integrated into policy-based research. This article discusses methodological concerns identified when reviewing the UK government's public consultation for its 2021 Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. We apply intersectional feminist perspectives and critical measurement analysis, and discuss two areas of methodological concern: issues with conceptualizations of violence, and issues with the measurement of public experiences, attitudes, and opinions, and implications for the accuracy of the survey. In response, we consider feminist research practices that could address these issues and support feminist goals in policy-based gendered violence research
Development and implementation of a novel approach to scaling the Meeting Centre intervention for people living with dementia and their unpaid carers, using an adapted version of The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist
Get PDFComplex interventions are often poorly described, making it difficult to understand their development, implementation, and evaluation (i.e., context), which can aid in replicating and translating evidence into practice and policy. Therefore, we examined the development and implementation of an approach to scaling-out (increasing the numbers of) a psychosocial intervention for people affected by dementia across a rural county in England during 2019–2024. We used an adapted version of the TIDieR checklist to consider key items essential for replicating complex interventions at scale. We triangulated document analysis with interview data, and key programme stakeholders ratified the results of this study. We identified three programme components and sub-components, including how planned components were delivered, by whom, and under what conditions. Implementation outcomes related to the inner (e.g., top-down structure) and outer contexts (e.g., market failures) led to modifications that increased programme complexity. This study highlights the importance of programme leaders who can convene and drive systems and culture change to address implementation challenges, as well as the need for scaling science during programme development, for example, to determine optimal scale. Further research should include testing implementation outcomes to understand if the intervention is a scalable solution to the gap in post-diagnostic support in the UK
Noble Needlecraft and Courageous Clothing: The value of needlecraft practices and clothing provision to women in Britain during the Second World War, circa 1939-1945
No full textExisting research into the role of women in Britain during the Second World War has recognised it as a turning point in the societal perceptions of what defines femininity. With the conscription of the country’s men into the military, women were tasked with stepping into vacant masculine roles, to keep the country functioning. Historically, a woman’s role was largely home-based, her duties centred around maintenance activities within her household, including needlecraft practices. Through the analysis of artefacts and narrative, quantitative, qualitative data, this dissertation seeks to recognise the value of needlecraft practices outside of the primary domestic purpose. By looking at this through the lens of employment, the class system, and propaganda, this research has revealed the significance that needlecraft had to women, their role in society, and the contributions to the war effort, both in Britain and undercover behind enemy lines. Needlecraft practices and clothing provision during this period, have been evidenced to boost morale, improve employment opportunities and the treatment of women within the workforce, improve access to quality clothing for those in lower socio-economic classes, and act as a signifier of patriotism and financial freedom. However, many of these benefits were shown to be limited to the confines of conflict and did not transfer into peacetime. Whilst existing scholarship provides insight into some areas discussed within this research, none have done so through the specific lens of how needlecraft benefitted women throughout the Second World War. Therefore, this study adds a different perspective to not only life for women in Britain during the war, but the relevance and importance of their maintenance activities beyond their immediate purpose
Engineering NLR immune receptors for resilient crop disease resistance
No full textPlants rely on sophisticated immune systems to defend against diverse pathogens that threaten their growth, development, and global food security. Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) are a central component in plant immunity. Innovative NLR engineering may improve plant disease resistance and offer new opportunities for sustainable crop production
Ability emotional intelligence amplifies affective responses to social media content in young people
Get PDFSocial media can be a pertinent stressor for young people. Exposure to distressing material online can be especially challenging to navigate in adolescence, since self- regulation skills are still developing. Emotional intelligence (EI) represents a range of emotion skills and self-perceptions, including emotion regulation that, in theory, should help adolescents regulate their emotions online effectively. The current paper uses mixed methods to explore whether EI, measured as both a trait (TEI) and an ability (AEI), amplifies or reduces affective responses to emotive social media posts. In contrast to the conventional social media research method of testing for an association between EI and self- reported social media behaviours, we examine the active workings of EI using an innovative, applied approach. We constructed an artificial yet ecologically relevant social media ‘newsfeed’, comprising both positively and negatively valenced stimuli. After completing a battery of measures, 189 adolescents (73.5% females; ages 16-18 years) viewed the newsfeed and indicated how each post made them feel. Findings provide support for the hypersensitivity hypothesis: adolescents adept at managing and perceiving emotion (AEI) were more likely to experience an amplified reaction to emotive social media posts. Such findings suggest that adolescents’ emotional skill (i.e., AEI), but not emotional self-perceptions (i.e., TEI), may influence how emotionally reactive they are to the content they encounter on social media. Furthermore, mediation analyses tentatively suggest that the magnification of positive emotional experience could be one mechanism through which AEI contributes to wellbeing