Organizational Development

Leadership Education and Development programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels are implemented with an overall objective to prepare students for the dynamic ‘complex global working’ environment. Case-In-Point teaching in leadership education is an emerging pedagogy that is gaining ascendancy and relevance both in theory and practice. The pedagogy is predicated on the conception that leadership is a function of self-awareness and knowing oneself, ability to articulate one’s vision, capacity to create a community of trust among colleagues, and the ability to take effective action to realize one’s own potential; and that linear epistemology as a dominant and prevailing epistemology in leadership education can no longer be the dominant epistemology. This paper discusses how Case-In-Point Pedagogy can be used in teaching organizational leadership.  The discussions are based on Ron Heifetz’ Case-In-Point Pedagogy as situated in the realist ontological frameworks of teaching leadership outlined in Sharon Parks’ Leadership Can Be Taught. The paper takes a look at the epistemological and conceptual framework of the Case-In-Point Pedagogy, the theory and practice of Case-In-Point Teaching, and how it could be incorporated into leadership courses. The themes and issues related to the adoption and use of Case-In-Point are outlined.

""What would it entail to take the meaning of an organisation as an ‘Incorporation’ seriously? What does it imply to interpret organizations as in-corporated arrangements that is as embodied life-worlds? Beyond seeing artifacts and buildings as the physical embodiment of organisation and its change and history (Marrewijk, 2009), specifically one might ask, what and who is in-corporated in organisational processes and practices and in which way? What would it mean to take the body and embodiment as starting points or accompanying moves and realities for re-searching and re-thinking about and living in an organisation as a company? Furthermore, what would carnal organisation and management studies mean and imply? What implications would approaching an organization and its management from an embodied point of view render. What different understandings and practices might be gained and developed by placing an embodied orientation as centre-stage?
This book responds to these open questions. It does so by inquiring into what roles the body and embodiment play as a constitutive and integral part of the life-worlds of organising and managing. In particular this inquiry aims at contributing to recognise embodied processes and practices in order to overcome the prevailing neglect, problematic status and treatment of bodily dimensions in organisations.
Phenomenology, and in particular Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, provides an important contribution in exploring ignored, undervalued, marginalized or mistreated bodily dimensions and thereby contributing and advancing the body-turn in organisation and management research and practice. The proposition here is that his further development of phenomenology offers a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of bodily and embodied organisational phenomena. By following his approach, the following endeavour supports rearticulating a systematic and creative account of the lived body as well as processes and forms of embodiment in its intertwining within the life-world of organising.
Correspondingly, this book endeavors to re-vive and re-store the pre-cognitive, affective and sensual experiences conditions and implications of the body and embodiment in organisational life-worlds to its apt place, while re-configuring its status. Re-visiting and re-interpreting the significance and ‘moving standing’ of bodies and embodiment in a phenomenologically based corporeal light, allows seeing the corporeal and corporealities within so-called ‘corporations’ in a post-representational and post-dualistic way. This becomes important as there is an urgent need for overcoming the prevailing representationalism and dualisms as part of the Western ‘Weltanschauung’ that is dominating social, organisation and management studies and practices. This representational orientation and separating duality of the body from the mind as well as other dichotomised polarities has and still influences how organisations and its members are understood and treated. Therefore, it is a vital to show how the reproduced heritage of representational and dualistic thinking has mapped onto and is used in inscribing, prescribing and effecting organisational concepts and realities with its unsustainable consequences.  Merleau-Ponty’s indirect, relational post-dualistic ontology of ‘being-in-&-towards-the-world’ carries a tremendous potential for avoiding or overcoming dichotomic simplifications and attempts to reify embodied living phenomena, rhythms, processes as representational objects or categorical representations.
Merleau-Ponty’s rejection of the modernist version of referentialist-representalism and critique of reductionistic paradigms open up fertile fields and ad-ventours journeys of inquiry. Grounded in appreciating constitutive, bodily presences and embodied participations in being and becoming, his pre-saging anti-foundationalism, anti-essentialism as well as his advocacy of good ambiguities offer creative paths-ways and ‘spirals of flight’ for re-searching, re-interpreting and enacting sense-based, sustaining meaning and more meaningful, sustainable practices in, of and through organisations and management.
The body of text in this book is organized in two parts. While the first part introduces phenomenology in general and Merleau-Ponty in particular, the second part focuses on the role of the body, embodiment and embodied practices in organization. First basic ideas and terms of phenomenology, especially the role of intentionality, meaning, life-world and methodologies as wells as some critiques and further developments of phenomenology are discussed. Then the phenomenology and ontology of Merleau-Ponty with his focus on the body and embodiment, senses, sensations and perceptions are presented. Correspondingly, the standpoints and perspectives beyond empiricism and intellectualism are offered.
The next section elaborates in detail the role of embodied intentionality, including its we-mode and embodied forms and responsiveness. This is followe by showing the relevance of inter-corporeality of social bodies and embodied inter-subjectivities as part of the fabric of social becoming. Related to the later works of Merleau-Ponty the concepts of reversible and folding ‘Flesh’ as elemental carnality and formative medium is delineated. Especially, the interwoven structure of flesh as ‘chiasm’ is outlined and the post-dualistic ontology of ‘wild being’ presented. The first part ends by providing perspectives on the ‘proto-integral’ process-character of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of in-between. It finishes with some critical warning against dangers of retro-romanticsim and an invitation towards an engaged ‘letting-be’ (Gelassenheit).
The second part of this book elaborates the constitutive role of bodies and forms of embodiment in and of organisations. Here organisations are interpreted as embodied life-world and practice. The significance of embodied senses and a corresponding sense-making that is mediated through perceptions are revealed. Taking the form of experimental writing, the senses themselves are then given a voice to express their experiences. Then a subsequent section shows the importance of senses as affective and pathic events in organizational life-worlds. Afterwards, the constitutive operations of embodied intentionality and responsiveness in relation to organizing are presented. Intentionality is interpreted as embodied moving, affective and e-motional processes in organisation. Based on this extended understanding the ‘prakto-gnosia’ of the “I can” and projection- or symbolic functions and meaning in organisations are discussed. This includes also the role of break-downs and skillful coping as realisations of pre-reflective, operative intentions and their tensions. As a further development of classical phenomenology affective we-mode-intentionalities and joint, plural inter-actions are explored in their particular relevance for organisational contexts.
The ensuing section regards then responsivity as an embodied modality in organisations and specifies the role of responsiveness in relation to managers, groups, customers, competitors and stakeholders. Moreover, some connections to corporate and corporeal social responsiveness and responsibilities are addressed.
A further extension is gained by considering the intercorporeality of social bodies and embodied inter-subjectivities with a focus on the role of dialogue and conversation in organisations. For preparing the emphasis on practice, the subsequent sections discuss embodied acting, actors and agencies and ‘bodies at work’ as well as embodied performance and performativity in organisations.
Based on these acting-oriented elaborations, the multi-dimensional concept of what will be called embodied ‘inter-practice’ in organisations is presented. As part of its holonomics, developmental stages, lines and integral cycle are differentiated. Following a processual turn the trans-(re)lational nexus of organisational practices are expounded. Succeeding to these understandings, conditions, forms and processes of an en-fleshed inter-practicing and integrated pragmatism, the concept of a ‘pheno-pragma-practice’ of situated creative action is presented. Closely related to this practice, the next section explores embodied and reflexive habits and habitualisation as forms of pre-reflexive knowing, along with a link between reflexivity and creativity of habits and de- and rehabitualisation. As part of an integral pheno-pragma-practice, constructionism and practicalism are critiqued and possibilities of an embodied improvisation as enactment of inter-practice exemplified.
Turning to Merleau-Ponty’s late ontology, forms of embodied chiasmic organising are then outlined. In addition to relational dialectics of the working relationship, the roles of a chiasmic unfolding and learning, dilemma and paradoxes in chiasmic organisation as well as viewpoints on an embodied trans-formative aesthetics and creativity are outlined.
A final section provides practical, political, methodological and theoretical implications, along with some concluding thoughts and future perspectives on incorporated embodied organising to provide an opening end. "

"It is widely believed that the state in developing countries is weak. The public sector, in particular, is often regarded as corrupt and dysfunctional. This book provides an urgently needed corrective to such overgeneralized notions of bad governance in the developing world. It examines the variation in state capacity by looking at a particularly paradoxical and frequently overlooked phenomenon: effective public organizations or “Pockets of Effectiveness” in developing countries.
Why do these pockets exist? How do they emerge and survive in hostile environments? And do they have the potential to trigger more comprehensive reforms and state-building? This book provides surprising answers to these questions, based on detailed case studies of exceptional public organizations and state-owned enterprises in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The case studies are guided by a common analytical framework that is process-oriented and sensitive to the role of politics. The concluding comparative analysis develops a novel explanation for why some public organizations in the developing world beat the odds and turn into pockets of public sector performance and service delivery while most do not.
This book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, development, organizations, public administration, public policy and management."

This article addresses the dovetailing of two higher education changes impacting CTLs: the growing population of adjunct instructors and the increasing responsibility of CTLs to take on organizational development roles.  Based on data collected through a needs assessment at a mid-size, urban, commuter college campus in Massachusetts, the author suggests five areas through which CTLs can reconfigure existing spaces to be more inclusive of adjuncts.  The author argues that by reconfiguring spaces of teaching and learning, CTLs can move beyond a focus on individual instructor support and begin to play a role in organizational development at the institutional level.

The report presents some of the most commonly used techniques for each of the six Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (CPE) enabler categories. Examples are given of tools, measures and competencies for each of the techniques and they are linked to CPE scoring bands where this is valid. By understanding the scope and limits of the techniques and tools, which are based on a range of management theories, managers can select appropriate tools for their business context and apply them successfully in a Business Excellence program.

""Since its very inception, social work has been considered an organizationally based profession, with the majority of its workforce employed within formal organizations. Whether in nonprofit, for-profit, or governmental agencies, the practical realities of human service organizations are a central element of professional social work. This book explores the climate and culture of these agencies and provides essential information for surviving and thriving in this setting. It prepares students for their future careers so that they will feel empowered in their work and be able to fulfill their responsibilities toward organizational, community, and social change. Using real-life examples, the authors examine the internal structures of management, financing, and supervision and discuss common conflicts between agencies and professionals. The book’s straightforward tone and practical advice make it an asset to anyone entering human service organizations.

This new edition contains updated examples, case studies, and references. It also contains valuable information on the effects of the recent financial crisis on human service organizations. Agencies now face increased caseloads and more complex social problems with fewer resources and less money. Understanding how these events have changed the nature of human service organizations will allow students to be better prepared for the work ahead of them.

Features

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Expanded content on the practical aspects of organizational theory and suggestions for developing leadership skills
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Updated examples, case studies, and references throughout the book
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Key points and discussion questions following each chapter
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Updated instructor’s manual available online as a PDF or Word document""