Center for Organizational Research (COR)

Colloquium

The Search for a Theory of Novelty

       

February 22, 2:00 – 3:30 PM
School of Business, Room 117

James March

James Steele Parker Professor of International Management, Emeritus

Stanford University

Biography

James G. March is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, where he has been on the faculty since 1970. He holds appointments in the Schools of Business and Education and in the Departments of Political Science and Sociology. Before that, he was on the faculty of the University of California, Irvine, and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has received honorary doctorates and honorary professorships from several European and North American universities and has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the National Academy of Education, as well as several overseas academies.

He is best known professionally for his writings on decision making and organizations, including: Organizations: A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Leadership and Ambiguity, Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations, Decisions and Organizations, Rediscovering Institutions, The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence, Democratic Governance, A Primer on Decision Making, The Dynamics of Rules,and On Leadership.

Abstract

Theories of adaptation combine (a) ideas about the refinement of practice through differential survival and reproduction of ideas, routines, or properties associated with success with (b) ideas about the generation and early survival of new ideas, routines, or properties, that is, ideas about the sources of novelty.  The theories are better developed with respect to the former, but there are some rudiments of the latter, which can perhaps be called a theory of novelty.  The remarks on February 22 will examine some elements of such a theory and some problems in understanding the sources of novelty in a way that is precise and useful.  There will be no significant surprises. 

Seminar

Does STS Have a Special Sauce, or Is It Just Gravy?

Cautionary Notes on Cautionary Notes about STS Interventions in Law

                                                          

December 7, 12:00 – 1:30 PM

Social Ecology, Room 306

Simon Cole
     Professor of Criminology, Law and Society
University of California, Irvine

     

Discussants

Evan Schofer

Department of Sociology

UCI

Carroll Seron

Department of Criminology, Law and Society

UCI

Biographies

Simon A. Cole specializes in the historical and sociological study of the interaction between science, technology, law, and criminal justice. He is the author of Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification (Harvard University Press, 2001), which was awarded the 2003 Rachel Carson Prize by the Society for Social Studies of Science. Dr. Cole is a member of the American Judicature Society Commission on Forensic Science & Public Policy, he has spoken widely on the subjects of fingerprinting, scientific evidence, and science and the law, and he has consulted and testified as an expert witness on the validity of fingerprint evidence. He has also written for many general interest publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New Scientist, and Lingua Franca. His current interests are the sociology of forensic science and the development of criminal identification databases and biometric technologies. He teaches courses on Forensic Science and Society, Surveillance and Society, Miscarriages of Justice, The Death Penalty, Historical Criminology, and Science, Technology, and Law.

Download Discussion Paper

Evan Schofer has made wide-ranging contributions to the field of sociology, with studies in the sociology of science, civil society, education, environmental sociology, and globalization.  He has published prolifically in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and other top journals.  Professor Schofer recently arrived in Irvine with several major projects underway.  One uses cross-national data to examine the impact of educational expansion on patterns of economic inequality.  Another looks across societies to explore how global and national institutions shape political participation and associational life. 

Carroll Seron joined the Department of Criminology, Law and Society in 2005. Her research examines the social processes of legitimating legal activities. In earlier work, Seron studied the organizational structure of the federal courts, focusing on the ways in which techniques of administration and rationalization of dispute resolution may compromise the core legal values of due process and a rule of law.  Seron’s recent work flows from a fundamental commitment to understand legitimation of legal activity. Currently, she is completing a study of how citizens and police officers form judgments about the boundary between appropriate police practices and brutality.

Symposium

Conducting High Quality Field Research In (And With) Organizations

November 16

Panel Presentation: 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Social Ecology I, Room 306

Discussion: 2:00 – 3:30 PM

Social Ecology I, Room 300

Gary Alan Fine

John Evans Professor of Sociology

Jean Gimbel Lane Professor of the Humanities

Northwestern University

Kimberly D. Elsbach
Professor of Management
Co-director of the Center for Women and Leadership
UC Davis

Susan A. Mohrman

Senior Research Scientist

 Marshall School of Business

University of Southern California

Discussant

Michael Montoya

Departments of Anthropology and Chicano/Latino Studies

UCI

Abstract

Organizational field researchers using qualitative methods often become deeply immersed in the contexts where they conduct their research.  Conducting research of this type necessitates developing relationships, techniques and processes in, and with, the organizations involved that are often quite different from those established when other research methodologies are utilized.  Under such conditions, informants can become more than sources of data, even participating in research design, data collection, and data analysis.  In this symposium, our expert panelists explore the various meanings of “high quality” research in these situations and the challenges and tradeoffs that are involved.  They will draw extensively from their own research experiences and offer suggestions for conducting rigorous, high quality, and impactful qualitative field research in (and with) organizations.

About the Panelists

Gary Alan Fine is currently examining the multiple social worlds of chess as a leisure and competitive activity, examining the role of technological change and changes in global-political politics (e.g., the breakup of the Soviet Union) on chess as a community. His recent ethnographic publications include: Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work (University of California Press, 1996); Morel Tales: The Culture of Mushrooming (Harvard University Press, 1998); Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture (Princeton University Press, 2001); Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity (University of Chicago Press, 2004); and Authors of the Storm: Meteorology and the Culture of Prediction (University of Chicago Press, 2007). 

Read Fine (1993) — “Ten Lies of Ethonography: Moral Dilemmas of Field Research”

Kimberly D. Elsbach focuses her research on the acquisition and maintenance of organizational images, identities and reputations, especially images of legitimacy, trustworthiness and creativity. She also teaches and studies negotiation skills in competitive business environments. Her research provides a framework for communicating with shareholders, customers and employees in the immediacy of a reputation crisis and through long-term recovery. In a recent paper published in the Harvard Business Review and the Academy of Management Journal, Elsbach presented findings that demonstrate how Hollywood movie and television producers judge the creativity of people pitching story ideas.  Her work has also appeared in Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Academy of Management Review.

Read Elsbach (2003) — “Relating Physical Environment to Self-Categorizations”

Read Elsbach and Kramer (2003) — “Assessing Creativity in Hollywood Pitch Meetings”

Susan A. Mohrman is widely known for her research in the area of organization design and effectiveness. Recently she has focused on learning in organizations and design for knowledge management in the contexts of companies undergoing fundamental change as global technology firms. She also examines the research process itself, and how to create university/company partnerships to yield useful knowledge.  She has been actively involved as a researcher and/or consultant to a wide variety of organizations, including Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Pratt and Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Medtronic, Texas Instruments, 3M, Xerox, Pfizer, and Avery Dennison, and a number of school systems and police departments.  She is author/editor of numerous books, including: Managing Complexity in High Technology Organizations (Oxford University Press, 1989); Tomorrow’s Organization: Crafting Winning Capabilities in a Dynamic World (Jossey-Bass, 1998); Doing Research that is Useful for Theory and Practice (Jossey-Bass, 1999); Organizing for High Performance (Jossey-Bass, 2001); and Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization (Stanford University Press, 2003).

Read Mohrman, Mohrman, Cohen and Winby (2007) — “The Collaborative Learning Cycle”

Read Mohrman, Gibson and Mohrman (2001) — “Doing Research That is Useful to Practice”

Michael Montoya is an Assistant Professor in the Chicano/Latino Studies program and the department of Anthropology. Prior to his appointment at UC-Irvine, Montoya was an Affiliate Fellow at the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, CA. He also served as the Associate Director of the University of Wisconsin Institute on Race and Ethnicity and as a program analyst/planner for the University of Wisconsin System Administration. Prior to graduate school, Montoya worked for over seven years in non-profit human service program development and management in the areas of housing, health care, anti-hunger and literacy.  Michael Montoya received his Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University in 2003. Montoya’s research is in the field of medical anthropology and the social and cultural studies of science and technology.

View the Presentations and Comments

Elsbach Power Point

Mohrman Power Point

Fine Comments — Taken from Fine (2003), “Towards a Peopled Ethnography”

Seminar

Antislavery in America: The Press, The Pulpit, and the Rise of Antislavery Societies                                                           

October 19, 12:00 – 1:30 PM

Social Science Plaza B, Room 4206

     Heather Haveman
      Department of Sociology and Haas School of Business
University of California, Berkeley
             

Biography

Dr. Heather Haveman is Professor of Sociology and Business at the University of California, Berkeley.  Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty Professor Haveman taught at Duke, Cornell, and Columbia Universities.  She holds a B.A. in history and a MBA both from the University of Toronto, and received her Ph.D. in organizational behavior and industrial relations from UC Berkeley.  Her research lies on the macro side of organization theory, focusing on the intertwined evolution of organizations, the fields in which they are embedded, and the careers of their members and employees.  She investigates questions that relate to organizational stability and change: How strong are the forces that impel or inhibit change in organizational structures, strategies, and actions? What are the consequences of organizational change for organizations themselves and for their employees? 

Professor Haveman’s published studies have investigated California thrifts (1872-1928 and 1960s-1990s), Iowa telephone companies (1900-1917), Manhattan hotels (1898-1990), California hospitals (1978-1991), American magazines (1741-1860), and U.S. electric utilities (1980-1992).  She is currently engaged in research on U.S. wineries and magazines.  Her work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, and Administrative Science Quarterly.  Her research has received the Max Weber Award from the Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the American Sociological Association and the Lou Pondy Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management.

Abstract

We analyze how communications networks and social institutions influenced the antislavery movement.  Communications networks fueled by broadcast media transmitted news about the movement to the public and so helped mobilize a broad base of support.  Among social institutions, churches were especially supportive because their emphasis on morality and community was conducive to antislavery activism.  Our analysis focuses on antislavery societies, the formal organizations that underpinned this movement, and makes three contributions to our understanding of social-movement organizations in general and antislavery societies in particular.  First, we show that the impact of broadcast media was strong as far back as the early nineteenth century. Second, we demonstrate that theology, specifically an orientation toward this world or heaven, determined whether religious resources were available to antislavery organizations.  This-worldly religions supported abolition organizing, while other-worldly religions undermined it.  Third, we resolve an important causal ambiguity:  was the development of the media a cause, consequence, or merely a companion to growth of antislavery organizations?