Characterizing organizational spirituality: An organizational communication culture approach

This study focuses and extends the academic literature on spirituality in organizations. Although spirituality has gained attention in organizational scholarship during the past decade, there has been little systematic development. Current literature on spirituality in organizations is characterized by divergent approaches to spirituality and a number of organizational foci. The present study, based on qualitative field research in a nursing home, advances understanding of spirituality in organizations by identifying three central characteristics of organizational spirituality: value alignment, personal spirituality, and relationship‐based organizing. These central characteristics, supported by the field research and current literature on spirituality in organizations, lead to issues for further research. The study concludes with an invitation for dialogue on the emergent topic of organizational spirituality.     

Mission Statement and Consolidation of the Efforts of Its Staff

ABSTRACT

Crafting the mission statements of organizations, enterprises, etc., is a regular part of the management policy in a number of Western countries (especially the USA, Canada and UK) nowadays. Many American and British readers know what an important role the mission statements play in the activity of libraries and information centers. In the Republic of Belarus, the very first mission statement appeared in a library, in 1996. Designing and creating a mission statement is explored.     

Academic Library Mission Statements,Web Sites,and Communicating Purpose

Continual changes in information technologies over the past three decades have wrought substantial changes in library services and in information-seeking behavior among the general public. Thus the necessity for libraries to utilize the internet to communicate with stakeholders is even more important for academic libraries, as the rate of internet usage among those with college degrees continues to outpace that of the general population. The online availability of a well-crafted mission statement is therefore crucial. This analysis of the web sites of 113 ARL academic libraries—an update of Kuchi's (2006) study—considers the inclusion (availability) and placement (accessibility) of mission statements on library web sites and provides insights into the academic library's use of such statements for communicating mission and purpose to different stakeholders.     

Surviving to Thriving: Advancing the Institutional Mission

ABSTRACT

Academic research libraries can employ several approaches to advance the institutional mission. First, libraries can shift from goals focused on collections and traditional library services and instead align with their campus academic plan and an emphasis on supporting the institution's strategic initiatives. A second approach is for libraries to modify their organizational structures from being function-based on the tasks that traditional libraries performed (e.g., public services, technical services, collection development) and move instead toward organizational units that directly support their university's missions (e.g., undergraduate education; graduate and professional education; research, scholarship, and creative activity; and public engagement). The key is to have library staff engaged in work that contributes to vital institutional outcomes such as student success and faculty research productivity. Academic research libraries should also continue to work towards an assessment program that demonstrates the value of the academic research library in providing quality services that advance the institutional mission.     

Is It Necessary to be Clear? An Examination of Strategic Ambiguity in Family Business Mission Statements

Family businesses comprise the largest portion of organizations in the United States. Although much is known about how individuals interact in these businesses, little is known about how family businesses function at an organizational level. Family businesses are likely to use strategic ambiguity in their mission statements to allow for multiple interpretations of the same message by their stakeholders. This study analyzed the mission statements of the 20 largest family businesses in the United States to explore their use of strategic ambiguity. Family businesses used strategic ambiguity for the purposes of unified diversity, promoting varied understandings of goals, and for facilitating organizational change, but not for the purposes of deniability. This research begins to provide an explanation of the potential driving factors of family business mission statements.     

论高校图书馆在构建和谐社会中的使命

构建社会主义和谐社会是我国现阶段社会发展和党的建设所面临的重大课题。高等院校是我国人才聚集、知识聚集、构建社会主义和谐社会的中坚力量,而高校图书馆作为高校的重要组成部分,在构建和谐社会物质文明、政治文明、精神文明建设中所担负的使命是不言而喻的。     

Cultivation and the Elaboration Likelihood Model: A Test of the Learning and Construction and Availability Heuristic Models

An analysis of 19 care-provider interviews demonstrates four different orientations toward spirituality: exclusive spirituality, inclusive spirituality, conflicted spirituality, and spirituality as separate from care. Two prominent ethical dilemmas experienced by care providers are discussed. Care providers face an internal dilemma presented by competing discourses that suggest different ways to incorporate spirituality into care. Care providers also face an interactional dilemma as they seek to balance their own spiritual needs with the needs of care recipients.     

Reconsidering Consultants' Strategic Use of the Business Case for Diversity

The business case for diversity—the practice of connecting human differences to an organization's bottom line—has been critiqued for its compromised treatment of human difference. Through a grounded in action discursive analysis of 19 interviews with diversity consultants, this research identifies three occupational demands that prompted consultants to use the business case: organizational access, motivation, and emotion work. The analysis also identifies strategies consultants used that met these demands without relying on the business case: connecting to mission statements, connecting to individual tasks, appealing to personal experience, sequencing, combining, balancing discourses of emotion and business, drawing on spiritual grounding, and using humor. By identifying these alternatives, this analysis seeks to decrease consultants' dependence on the business case when meeting occupational demands and consequently mitigate the negative effects that scholars have attributed to its common use and consequent discursive dominance in diversity work. Additionally, the conclusions suggest that diversity professionals and scholars might more explicitly use the notion of “discursive merger” to advocate for social change in organizations.     

知识管理与高绩效行政组织的建立

高绩效行政组织是知识经济时代对政府管理提出的新要求,而新公共管理理论表明,公共组织可以通过模拟私有企业成功的技术工具,如全面质量管理、知识管理等来改善其管理流程。通过对马克·G·波波维奇创建高绩效行政组织四原则的分析,说明知识管理在高绩效行政组织起着“引擎”的重要作用。在电子政务环境下,知识管理不仅为行政组织的发展指明了方向,而且能够提高行政组织的财务绩效,提升其组织文化,从而为高绩效行政组织的建立提供强大的物质和精神动力。     

青树乡村图书馆建设之路

2010年美国青树教育基金会和其执行机构中国青树乡村图书馆服务中心在中国偏远地区的服务已经整整9年.围绕着宗旨和理念,青树在其建设的各方面不断探索,形成了较为清晰的图书馆发展模式和与之相对应的项目运作和图书馆人员培训的方式.文章分析和总结了青树在项目运作、人员培训、组织建设和合作交流方面的探索心得,如经验、问题和挑战,以期这一回顾能启示青树未来的发展之路,并为非盈利组织援助乡村图书馆事业的探索提供参考.     

1995—2010年我国图书馆使命研究评析

1995—2010年,我国图书馆使命研究总体上呈增长趋势,并且呈现出角度多样、重点突出等特点。图书馆使命研究主要围绕泛论图书馆使命、视某一图书馆社会责任为使命、使命管理、图书馆人使命等角度进行,但存在图书馆使命概念不明确、对图书馆使命功能过分夸大和对个体图书馆使命研究不足等问题。因此,图书馆使命研究应重视对图书馆根基使命的研究及对个体图书馆使命功能的优化设计,将服务至上作为图书馆员的永恒使命。     

图书馆核心价值辨

图书馆核心价值的定义根据其内容可概括为4种观点:职业价值论、管理职能论、责任使命论、精神文化论。图书馆核心价值观体系属于精神文化范畴,应包括愿景、使命与核心价值。图书馆核心价值应该具有独立性、稳定性、本质性与社会性,这是由核心价值的独特定义所决定的。     

社会包容：现代公共图书馆的使命

社会包容越来越被更多的人们认可为现代公共图书馆的使命之一.社会包容与社会排斥相对立,在论述社会排斥涵义的基础上对社会包容的概念进行解释,指出社会包容的核心精神是宽容和公正.公共图书馆是社会包容的重要载体,而社会包容对公共图书馆提供平等服务、缩小数字鸿沟、促进社会和谐具有重要意义.社会包容使命要求公共图书馆必须避免政治排斥、人格排斥、设施排斥和制度排斥.公共图书馆的社会包容使命是非公理性的,它有可能与社会责任使命相冲突.     

“Keeping it real:” Identity management strategies used by teens in conversation

This paper explores the alignment of individual and organizational identity management. Two videotaped conversations between adolescents and teachers were analyzed in order to discover the extent to which individuals enact particular strategies to manage both individual and institutional identities. These episodes demonstrate little support for Pratt & Foreman's (2000) identity management strategies of deletion, integration or aggregation. Compartmentatlization, or the separation between conflicting identities, was the most prevalent strategy employed in both conversations. These findings raise questions about individual's positions within organizations and their abilities to enact various strategies and identities. The authors conclude by urging a reconsideration of the term, “identity management.”     

美国专业图书馆的战略规划--个案研究

图书馆通常注重制定馆藏计划,但忽略战略远景规划;即便制定了规划计划,总得不到贯彻执行。有的图书馆并没有从满足用户需求、确保完成主管单位(母机构)使命的角度出发来确立起相应的最终目标和阶段性目的。当前的经济形势迫使图书馆必须努力证明自身的存在价值。越来越多的专业文献开始探论图书馆的规划、组织战略、战略管理和战略计划等命题,以期帮助图书馆在主管单位(母机构)的各组织部门中保持战术性优势。通过对图书、管理人员的招聘广告展开调查和分析,不难发现战略规划已经成为图书管理人员的重要工作部分。战略规划已成为现代图书馆管理的核心。小型图书馆的馆长则必须一手制定和实施所有的计划。本文将通过个案调查,解释并且展示美国专业图书馆如何制定和执行战略计划。它同时也将证明专业图书馆能够为确保主管单位(母机构)宏观使命的成功扮演起不可或缺的重要角色。     

图书馆引入使命管理的探讨

使命管理是一个全新的管理理念,图书馆引入使命管理有利于明确图书馆发展方向和服务主题,有利于协调图书馆内外各种矛盾冲突,有利于建立起馆员约束规范,使命管理内容主要包括管理目标、服务哲学、服务形象,它主要通过表述图书馆使命、结合个人职业期望、培养共同价值观、培养共同语言、培养优秀服务团队、实现自我超越、建立责任制度来完成。     

Communication network dynamics during organizational crisis

Communication network is a personal or professional set of relationships between individuals or organizations. In other words, it is a pattern of contacts which are created due to the flow of information among the participating actors. The flow of information establishes various types of relationships among the participating entities. These relationships eventually form an overall pattern that could form a gestalt of the total structure within organizational context. In this paper, we analyze the changing communications structure in order to investigate the patterns associated with the final stages of organizational crisis. Organizational crisis has been defined as organizational mortality, organizational death, organizational exit, bankruptcy, decline, retrenchment and failure to characterize various forms of organizational crisis. We draw on theoretical perspectives on organizational crisis proposed by social network analysts and other sociologists to test 5 key propositions on the changes in the network communication structure associated with organizational crisis: (1) a few actors, who are prominent or more active, will become central during the organizational crisis period; (2) reciprocity within the organizational communication network will increase during crisis period; (3) organizational communication network becomes less transitive as organizations experience crisis; (4) number of cliques increases in a communication network as organizations are going through crisis; and (5) communication network becomes increasingly centralized as organizations go through crisis.     

面对使命的图书馆人

公共图书馆在发展历程中其职能经历了数次变化，体现了图书馆人对图书馆使命的认识的深化，正确认识使命则有助于事业发展，否则会给事业带来损害。