1,721,279 research outputs found
Doorzetters : een onderzoek naar de betekenis van de arbeidersafkomst voor de levensloop en loopbaan van universitair afgestudeerden
No full textGo-getters. An inquiry into the Meaning of a Working-class Origin for the Life Course and Career of University Graduates Mick Matthys ‘Go-getters’ discuss the meaning of working class origin for the life and career experiences of university graduates. Thirty two in depth interviews with 32 respondents are analyzed and interpreted from ‘inside out’. The theoretical framework integrates the notions of the social identity theory; identity construction; the concepts of social and cultural capital; the notion of agency and the theory of identity capital. Data show that despite the fact that respondents were stimulated by their parents to pursue higher education, this stimulus was nonetheless limited by commonplace class expectations for the future. At the same time, a shared outspoken positive sentiment towards further education was a reason for parents to raise themselves socially within the working class. The families respondents are coming from, have a rich tradition of practical creativity, technical ability and a deep interest in math and science disciplines. This interest has a profound influence on choices for further education and career. Moreover, this choice works to avoid a cultural split with family and past. The choice for the humanities or social sciences has been preceded by explicit acquaintance with alternative or high culture. A very meaningful stimulating aspect is identification with role models, who presents the world of the higher class as a desirable concept, where concrete models are available for intellectual interests and competences. Teachers and others who had detected students’ intellectual qualities and thus encouraged parents to send their children to more challenging schools were discussed. One of the most striking results is that a working class background manifest itself in attitudes of hard working and seriousness. These attitudes, learned at home, are based on a deep-seated professional ethos, where hard and secure work, unfailing collegial solidarity and at times a difficult relationship with authority, play a part. The lack of an adequate social network and cultural and communicative competences and the absent sense of an assertive self presentation is experienced as a pivotal barrier to gain management functions. ‘Running in the outside lane’ is a very common experience. Another conclusion is that social transition from a working class background to a middleclass milieu results in loyalty conflicts but not quarrels or hostility to the family. Respondents experience the oppressive along with the liberating aspects of dialogical communication, in the adopted milieu. It is in this environment where an appropriate form for their intellectual needs is met; still they have to contend with strange rituals, codes and ambiguities. Professional communication appears to be the most fitting method of acquiring a social position in the workplace. But here too, experience shows that the allocation of positions in certain (key) sectors is not necessarily a matter of professional capacity but of obscure social connections, regulated by cultural codes and tests. However, in those contexts where communication in the technical and practical realm dominates, more openness and accessibility to higher-level functions exists
Management interventions as conditions for motivation crowding of motivation in the European commission : a mediational analysis of basic needs satisfaction. Paper
No full textMotivation of employees is crucial to achieve results within any organization, be it a public or a private organization (Rainey and Steinbauer 1999; Kojasteh 1993). It therefore can be considered to be one of the big questions in current public administration research (Behn 1995). Despite its importance, motivation is not easily grasped, being a multi-faceted and dynamic phenomenon. Nevertheless, recent efforts have provided openings to more fully understand the motivational processes of public servants. In particular, the current surge of public service motivation research (Perry and Hondeghem 2008) has been helpful in explaining why and how public servants are motivated by the idea of contributing to society. The state of affairs in public service motivation research highlights the impact of institutions in explaining public service motivation, the international incidence of public service motivation and conditions in which public service motivations resorts effect. However, public service motivation is not the only motivation that plays a role in motivating people to be employed, to perform and to retain in/with the public sector. This amalgam of motivations, of which public service motivation is only one, but which includes, among others, salary, work-life balance, tenure or pension rights, is generally considered as public sector motivation (Vandenabeele and Ban 2009). Little is known about the interaction of public service motivation with these other elements of public sector motivation
Grid-group cultural theory and the causal mechanism approach as requisite partners. Explaining enforcement decisions in West European labor inspection
No full textAs street-level bureaucrats, labor inspectors enjoy much autonomy and discretion in the performance of their job. To avoid this freedom being abused, two measures are often taken. First, supervisors keep oversight by inspecting case files. Second, labor inspectors are subjected to a competitive system of targets that encourages competition. These two measures resemble two subtypes of organizational control in grid-group cultural theory, respectively hierarchical and individualistic control. The impact of both types of control has been analyzed in an ethnographic case study in four field organizations of West European labor inspection. The overarching grid-group cultural theory framework was particularly valuable to illustrate how tensions between hierarchical and individualistic control lead to inconsistencies in the enforcement styles that labor inspectors apply. However, it did not seem sufficient to explain why labor inspectors apply a hierarchical enforcement style in some investigations and an individualistic enforcement style in others. This paper illustrates how the integration of grid-group cultural theory with two middle-range theories in the causal mechanism approach (i.e. moral disengagement and role strain theory) could provide such proximate explanations and thus strengthen the explanatory power of grid-group cultural theory
Naturally? A research contribution to how parents construct gender in the ways they are involved with their son's soccer play.the
No full textDit artikel laat zien hoe gender een rol speelt in de betrokkenheid van ouders bij hun voetballende zoon. Doorgaans moedigen ouders hun kinderen aan om te sporten, omdat zij er vanuit gaan dat jongeren hierdoor positieve waarden mee krijgen die een belangrijke basis vormen voor hun latere leven. Veel ouders zijn betrokken bij hun sportende kind, bijvoorbeeld als toeschouwer, coach of scheidsrechter. Ook in deze betrokkenheid geven ouders hun kinderen diverse waarden mee, zoals in de manieren waarop zij genderonderscheid maken. Dit artikel laat zien hoe vanzelfsprekende gewoontes en omgangsvormen bijdragen aan het creëren van genderongelijkheid in een voetbalvereniging. Meer dan de helft van de jongens die lid is van een sportclub, is lid van een voetbalclub. De voetbalclub speelt een belangrijke rol in het leven van veel jongens en hun ouders. In dit onderzoek zijn zowel vaders als moeders van voetballende jongens geïnterviewd. De resultaten laten zien dat vaders niet alleen vaker bij hun voetballende zoon betrokken zijn dan moeders, maar dat vaders en moeders ook op een verschillende manier betrokken zijn bij hun voetballende zoon. Vaders nemen gemakkelijker een superviserende rol in en moeders wat eerder een ondersteunende rol. Deze rolverdeling werkt niet alleen door in de vrijwilligersfuncties, en daarmee in de structuur van de club, maar is ook van invloed op hoe vaders en moeders zich opstellen en gedragen op het voetbalveld. Dergelijke processen waarin ouders genderonderscheid maken binnen de context van de voetbalvereniging lijkt zich ‘van nature’ te voltrekken. Toch liggen hier keuzes aan ten grondslag, zij het dat deze niet altijd bewust worden gemaakt
The mediating effect of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on self-reported performance: more robust evidence of the PSM—performance relationship
No full textPublic service motivation (PSM) has been linked to various outcome variables, but as more and more public administration research is devoted to improving performance, the possible link between PSM and performance is increasingly of interest. The current study contributes to this literature by investigating whether this relationship is present in a dataset of Belgian civil servants. The results corroborate the general thesis and demonstrate a mediation effect (to some extent) of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on this relationship. By doing so, the present study partly unveils the mechanisms upon which the PSM—performance relationship is based
Motivation and values of European Commission staff
Full text linkThe concept of public service motivation has been central to the discussion of motivation in the field of public management but has never been studied in international organizations. This paper reports on a preliminary study of motivational issues within the European Commission, including motivation for entry and public service motivation. Based on a survey distributed to the entire staff of the European Commission, supplemented by personal interviews, we demonstrate the importance of public service motivation within the Commission and explore the antecedents of public service motivation, including socio-demographic variables, organizational position, and entry motivation. Results have significant implications for human
resources management policy and efforts aimed at motivating staff
The impact of public service motivation in an international organization : job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the European Commission. Paper
No full textPublic service motivation has increasingly been accepted as a central construct in public personnel management and public HRM research. In recent years, research on public service motivation has grown substantially (Perry and Hondeghem, 2008) and has now reached a point where it finally lives up to its status of being ‘one of the big questions of public management’ (Behn 1995). In the existing body of literature, public service motivation has been linked to various HRM outcomes (Vandenabeele 2008), such as performance, employer attractiveness, ethical behavior and turnover. Often, these relationships are mediated by means of concepts such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Park and Rainey 2007 & 2008; Vandenabeele 2009)
De gevolgen van onderwijshervormingen voor relaties en loyaliteiten van schoolmanagers in het voortgezet onderwijs. Paper
No full textDoor verschillende bestuurlijke, organisatorische en maatschappelijke veranderingen kan sinds de jaren ’80 een opkomst van bestuurders en managers in de publieke dienstverlening worden waargenomen. Deze opkomst van publieke managers lijkt druk te zetten op de dienstverlening in verschillende publieke sectoren (bijvoorbeeld Trommel 2006; Noordegraaf 2008). Werken in publieke sectoren als zorg, welzijn en onderwijs zou steeds meer een kwestie van productiviteit zijn geworden; instrumenteel denken zou de overhand hebben gekregen, waardoor professionals ‘beklemd’ zouden zijn geraakt (Tonkens 2008). In publieke debatten over en academische reflecties op de relatie tussen professionals en managers in publieke domeinen heeft dat geleid tot scherpe controverses, die worden gedomineerd door een voortdurende voorstelling van tegenstellingen tussen beide beroepsgroepen (Noordegraaf 2008). De relatie tussen professionals en managers wordt niet slechts voorgesteld als spanningsvol, afstandelijk of tegengesteld, maar beschreven in termen van ‘kloven’ en ‘verbroken verbindingen’ (bijvoorbeeld in Van den Brink, Jansen en Pessers 2005). Vermeende problemen in de maatschappelijke dienstverlening worden toegeschreven aan bestuurders en managers, die zouden zijn ‘afgedreven’ van professionals op werkvloeren (Noordegraaf 2008). Managers zouden zijn ‘vervreemd’ van professionals en geen zicht meer hebben op de werkvloer, bijvoorbeeld doordat ze – alleen al door fusies en schaalvergroting – te veel op afstand van professionals zouden staan
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