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The Adoption and Diffusion of IT Management Innovations: Adaptation, Reinvention, Alternative Designs, and Rhetorical Persuasion
Get PDFThis research examines the adoption and diffusion process of Information Technology (IT) management innovations—ones that focus on the organizing logics and governance of IT activities. IT management innovations are inherently important to organizations as they can dramatically transform the way businesses are organized and operated. However, because those innovations are tacit and composed mostly of abstract ideas, their adoption and diffusion are often plagued by ambiguity and fads, at times best described as a solution in search of a problem. Against this backdrop, using theories from communication, sociology, Information Systems, and organizational studies, this research focuses on three underexplored aspects of IT management innovation adoption and diffusion: adaptation and reinvention processes, alternative designs, and rhetorical persuasion.
The research advances our understanding on the differences in adopting and diffusing IT management innovations as compared to product innovations and management innovations. Particularly, it contributes to prior theories on post-adoption behaviors, innovation diffusion, and communication and dissemination strategies. The findings suggest the possibility of limited diversity in innovation adoption and highlight the roles of diverging mechanisms in the diffusion processes (e.g., alternative designs as opposed to a single dominant design). To practitioners, this research stresses the importance of mindfully adapting and modifying a particular innovation rather than blindly following management fads. Future research is encouraged to further investigate the issues and challenges of IT management innovations, especially mechanisms that lead to the limited diversity in adoption behaviors and diffusion patterns
From Social Media to Social Movement: Developing a Secondary Stakeholder Model for the Information Age – The Case of Deepwater Horizon
Get PDFSecondary stakeholders are thought to differ from primary stakeholders in that they interact with the firm mainly for the purpose of changing its ethical, societal, and environmental policies and practices. Research on secondary stakeholders has shown that they are successful in influencing their corporate targets despite the relative lack of power, legitimacy, and urgency of their requests. One explanation for the success of secondary stakeholders can be found in the `political process model\u27 from the social movement literature. The political process model describes and predicts how social movements are formed and the conditions that are necessary for them being sustained and successful. Originally developed to explain state-level social action, such as the civil rights movement or the French revolution, the political process model sees successful stakeholder action as a function of political opportunities, framing, and mobilizing structures. King (2008) suggests that this model can be used to shed light how secondary stakeholders influence their corporate targets. However, the political process model was developed in the pre-internet era and social media and the internet connectivity have had a significant impact on the way that social movements communicate, coordinate and act. This research seeks to update the political process model to the internet age by posing the question: How does social media and internet connectivity change the political process model for secondary stakeholders?
To answer this question this research looks at the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the rise of stakeholder outrage against BP, and the way in which social media was used by stakeholders to influence the company. The study contributes to existing stakeholder theory by developing the political process model into a \u27stakeholder process model for the internet age.\u27 Specifically, the enhanced framework redefines and introduces new elements into the traditional political process model: \u27Political opportunities\u27 are differentiated and redefined as \u27pre-existing conditions\u27 and \u27disruptive events\u27; \u27framing processes\u27 and \u27mobilizing structures\u27 are reinterpreted; and \u27stakeholder action\u27 differentiated into \u27direct\u27 and \u27indirect\u27 influence strategies. The implications of the new model for theory and practice are explored
Corporations, the Democratic Deficit, and Voting
Get PDFMany writers argue that a “democratic deficit” is created when private actors such as corporations take on state functions. The problem, it is said, is that the course of public life is being shaped by agents who are not accountable to the public. We evaluate this claim and consider what should be done about it. We focus in particular on a recent attempt, put forward principally by Palazzo and Scherer, to address the democracy deficit by “democratizing” corporations. We argue that their proposal, while promising, has a significant defect. We then propose a remedy for this defect. In sum, our goal is to call attention to a new kind of corporate political activity, to highlight its main ethical defect, and to examine in detail an attempt to address it. More generally, this paper contributes to our understanding of the evolving role of corporations in society
Wearing Different Hats: Micro Role Transitions in Two Contexts
Get PDFIndividuals make transitions between roles everyday as they move from home to work to other settings. This dissertation extends the work of Goffman (1959), Hall & Richer (1988), and Ashforth et al. (2000, 2001) on the topic of micro role transitions, which are the frequent and usually recurring transitions, such as the commute between home and work (Ashforth et al., 2000: 472). While the context of most of the research on micro role transitions has typically been focused on the work-home boundary (e.g. Rothbard et al., 2005; Nippert-Eng, 2008; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; Hall & Richter, 1988), the three studies of this dissertation elaborate on the extant research by examining the inter-role transitions between two different occupational roles and the intra-role transitions between physical and virtual worlds. By changing the focus from the work-home context to these other boundaries, it was possible to create a more nuanced theoretical understanding of how individuals experience micro role transitions and the agency that individuals have when they switch from role to role. On a practical level, the findings are expected to be helpful to individuals who have multiple occupational roles, create appropriate boundaries around their occupational domains by systematically thinking about different variables that are related to the self, the structure of their domains, and the relationship between their multiple roles
How to lie with (FDA) statistics
Get PDFThe FDA approved 27 new drugs in 2013. Is this a downward trend? Is it an upward trend? Does it suggest that the pharmaceutical industry is failing, or that genomics is finally paying dividends? We revisit Darrell Huff’s 1954 classic How to Lie with Statistics for insights into these pressing questions
The Connection between Stakeholder Theory and Stakeholder Democracy: An Excavation and Defense
Get PDFIn early writings, stakeholder theorists supported giving all stakeholders formal, binding control over the corporation, in particular, over its board of directors. In recent writings, however, they claim that stakeholder theory does not require changing the current structure of corporate governance and further claim to be “agnostic” about the value of doing so. This article’s purpose is to highlight this shift and to argue that it is a mistake. It argues that, for instrumental reasons, stakeholder theorists should support giving all stakeholders control over the corporation, in the form of control over its board. That is, stakeholder theorists should support stakeholder democracy over the status quo. A larger goal of this article is to steer the conversation about stakeholder theory toward questions of governance and control. Stakeholder theorists tend to sidestep these questions, but it is vital that they be addressed
The “Outsider/Insider” Assignment: A Pedagogical Innovation for Teaching Cross-Cultural Understanding
Get PDFIn this paper, I describe an innovative assignment for teaching undergraduate students cross-cultural understanding. The Outsider/Insider assignment simultaneously teaches facts about cultural difference and skills for managing cross-cultural encounters. Briefly, the assignment is to write two short papers, one in which the student describes a situation in which he or she was the outsider, and the other a situation in which he or she observed a newcomer to a group where that person was an insider. The paper begins by reviewing previous research on cross-cultural interaction and its relevance for pedagogy, and describing the course, its goals, and the “Outsider/Insider” assignment. The effectiveness of the assignment is demonstrated through an analysis of excerpts from student papers. This analysis shows how the assignment can accomplish learning on a range of dimensions. The main themes that will be addressed are the following: (a) being seen as the outsider; (b) challenges related to outsider status; (c), the relevance of social class, poverty, and wealth on insider/outsider status; (d) strategies for coping in cross-cultural encounters; and (e) benefits to the student of being willing to cross boundaries. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the assignment facilitates student learning and its relevance for a range of undergraduate courses
Compensation Ethics and Organizational Commitment
Get PDFIf an employee is committed to his firm – if he is “attached” or “bound” to it – then his firm may be able to obtain a discount on his labor. This paper asks: Is it wrong for firms to do so? If we understand just or fair pay solely in terms of voluntary agreements between employers and employees, the answer seems to be ‘no’. Against this, I argue that, in some cases, it is ‘yes’. In particular, it is wrong for firms to try to obtain discounts on their committed employees’ labor when their employees reasonably expect that they will not try to obtain them. In the process, I probe the limits of exploitation and question the relevance of contribution to fairness in compensation
Statement Before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
Get PDFStatement of Fred David Ledley, M.D.Director, Center for Integration of Science and IndustryProfessor, Natural and Applied Sciences and ManagementBentley University, Waltham, MA
Before the House of RepresentativesSubcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
Hearing: 21st Century Cures: Examining the Role of Incentives in Advancing Treatments and Cures for Patients
June 11, 201
Why does society support science? And how to meet the expectations?
Get PDFPublic support for science is related less to the wonder of scientific discovery than the expectation that scientific and technological advances will lead to new product, jobs, and economic growth. Recent evidence suggests that these outcomes are not certain. Fred Ledley argues that the public is often promised the benefits of scientific discoveries without adequate consideration of the business challenges inherent in translating science for public benefit