...Organization Management Journal Linking Theory & Practice: EAM White Papers Series 2006 Vol. 3, No. 3, 210-231 © 2006 Eastern Academy of Management ISSN 1541-6518 www.omj-online.org Effective Empowerment in Organizations GARY A. YUKL University at Albany WENDY S. BECKER University at Albany Psychological empowerment is the perception that workers can help determine their own work roles, accomplish meaningful work, and influence important decisions. Empowerment has been studied from different perspectives, including employee perceptions, leadership behaviors, and management programs. Despite positive rhetoric, programs designed to increase empowerment seldom achieve the benefits promised. Inconclusive and seemingly contradictory outcomes stem from the fact that few companies give employees significant control and access to management information. A half century of research suggests that empowerment strategies can offer real benefits. We outline facilitating conditions for effective empowerment, including characteristics of organizations, leaders, employees, and the work itself. Keywords: Empowerment, Leadership, Teams, Power Sharing Effective Empowerment in Organizations Psychological empowerment in organizations is the perception by members that they have the opportunity to help determine work roles, accomplish meaningful work, and influence important decisions. Over the past several decades an interest in empowerment can be seen in many subject areas within psychology...
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...For the academic journal, see Criminology (journal). For the Raekwon song, see Criminology (song). Criminology and penology Pentonvilleiso19.jpg Theory[show] Types of crime[show] Penology[show] v t e Sociology Social Network Diagram (segment).svg History Outline Portal Theory Positivism Antipositivism Functionalism Conflict theories Social constructionism Structuralism Interactionism Critical theory Structure and agency Actor-network theory Methods Quantitative Qualitative Historical Mathematical Computational Ethnography Ethnomethodology Network analysis Subfields Conflict Criminology Culture Development Deviance Demography Education Economic Environmental Family Gender Health Industrial Inequality Knowledge Law Literature Medical Military Organizational Political Race & ethnicity Religion Rural Science Social change Social movements Social psychology Stratification STS Technology Urban Browse Bibliography Index Journals Organizations People Timeline v t e Three women in the pillory, China, 1875 Criminology (from Latin crīmen, "accusation"; and Greek -λογία, -logia) is the scientific study of the nature, extent, management, causes, control, consequences, and prevention of criminal behavior, both on the individual and social levels. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioral and social sciences, drawing especially upon the research of sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social anthropologists, as well as scholars of law. ...
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...Introduction Each family is unique and unrepeatable and hence the impossibility of creating family types to accommodate certain patterns. Thus, this case study research will research on the issue that how the diversity in different aspects of family affects the day – to-day life of the family and family dynamics. The basic task is to gather information about the family members and then discuss how the how the family dynamics is affected due to diversity. The changes in modes of family life arouse intense debate in as to the permanence and balance guaranteed by traditional models. Reconstituted families, single parents, arising from divorce, unwed motherhood or other factors, or complex families, among others, represents an innovation compared to traditional modes of nuclear family, consisting of a man and a woman with dependent children or families with one parent as a result of widowhood. In this family the person learns how to be and what to do once adult, who must assume the role of head of household, husband or wife, father or mother. This learning will be influenced by the models of relatives of his clan and its environment and cultural models of their studies of literature, film, television, etc. But it is essential the individual's experience in his own family. Although family diversity is not new, the extent of this phenomenon was only noticeable during recent years, in both past generations and we believe that this time is not sufficient for "Roles" have been codified...
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...Chapter Eight: Deviance and Social Control Chapter Summary Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any violation of rules and norms. From a sociological perspective, deviance is relative. Definitions of “what is deviant” vary across societies and from one group to another within the same society. Howard S. Becker described the interpretation of deviance as, “…not the act itself, but the reaction to the act that makes something deviant.” This coincides with the symbolic interactionist view. In some cases, an individual need not do anything to be labeled a deviant. He or she may be falsely accused or discredited because of a birth defect, race, or disease. Even crime is relative when interpreting the deviance of the actor. Deviance is based on adherence to and violation of norms. Human groups need norms to exist. By making behavior predictable, norms make social life possible. Consequently, all human groups develop a system of social control, which involves formal and informal means of enforcing norms. Those who violate these norms face the danger of being labeled “deviant.” Violators can expect to experience negative sanctions for the violation of norms. Members of society who conform to societal norms, especially those who go above and beyond what is commonly expected, receive positive sanctions. In some societies, such as the Amish, shaming is a common negative sanction that acts strongly as a means of social control, minimizing deviance. Biologists...
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...Chapter Eight: Deviance and Social Control Chapter Summary Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any violation of rules and norms. From a sociological perspective, deviance is relative. Definitions of “what is deviant” vary across societies and from one group to another within the same society. Howard S. Becker described the interpretation of deviance as, “…not the act itself, but the reaction to the act that makes something deviant.” This coincides with the symbolic interactionist view. In some cases, an individual need not do anything to be labeled a deviant. He or she may be falsely accused or discredited because of a birth defect, race, or disease. Even crime is relative when interpreting the deviance of the actor. Deviance is based on adherence to and violation of norms. Human groups need norms to exist. By making behavior predictable, norms make social life possible. Consequently, all human groups develop a system of social control, which involves formal and informal means of enforcing norms. Those who violate these norms face the danger of being labeled “deviant.” Violators can expect to experience negative sanctions for the violation of norms. Members of society who conform to societal norms, especially those who go above and beyond what is commonly expected, receive positive sanctions. In some societies, such as the Amish, shaming is a common negative sanction that acts strongly as a means of social control, minimizing deviance. Biologists, psychologists, and...
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...Summary: Chapter 1 - Outsiders The author defines a deviant as one who deviates from the rules of some social group (and who therefore is an outsider to that group). An outsider is also defined from the point of view of the deviant as those from the social group who act as judges and arbiters of the rules. The author explores deviant behaviour as a phenomenon of definition, as opposed to one of characteristics. That is to say that deviant behaviour is more a question of judgement by a group than a characteristic of the deviant person. Therefore accepting the label 'deviant' means implicitly accepting the values of the social group making the judgement. Chapter 2 - Kinds of Deviance - A Sequential Model In order to discuss models of deviance, the author introduces four types of deviant behaviour: 1. conforming; 2. pure deviant; 3. falsely accused (i.e. perceived as deviant but exhibiting obedient behaviour) and 4. secret deviant (i.e. exhibiting rule-breaking behaviour but not perceived as deviant). The author examines two types of models that could be used to investigate what causes the deviant behaviours to develop:- 1. simultaneous - which assumes that the behaviour develops simultaneously through many causes 2. sequential - where patterns of behaviour develop according to an orderly sequence of stages Simultaneous models are often used in investigations of pathology, to determine the combination of variables that may predict the behaviour...
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...The subject of social problems is one discipline of ever-increasing need for social inquiry. Conventional theories have just but only justified the existence of these conditions and have remained in their normative school. Critical theories have tried to push their historical materialist approach but could not bring any formidable solutions to avert social problems. By definition a social problem is an elusive concept to define and it takes forms that are the subjective and objective understanding. Eitzen et al. (2009:8) argue that some social conditions are detrimental in any situation. In this sense, they have an objective character. There are conditions in society such as poverty, racism, sexism that cause material or psychological suffering for parts of the population. Those conditions are, therefore, social problems in any social setting. Social problems are those conditions which are universally agreed upon by society to have adverse effects many people and those conditions which causes material and psychic suffering of the body or society such as HIV/AIDS, terrorism, war, poverty, conflict, corruption and crime (Eitzen and Bacca-Zinn, 2009). Thus, social problems have their roots form the social, economic, political, environmental, cultural and geographical contexts, thus they are socially constructed. This essay assesses the Marxist explanation and its applicability to the study of social problems and on the whole what solutions it suggests to address them. The conflict...
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...WHAT IMPACT DOES TRAINING HAVE ON EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND EMPLOYEE TURNOVER? SCOTT BRUM University of Rhode Island Training is of growing importance to companies seeking to gain an advantage among competitors. There is significant debate among professionals and scholars as to the affect that training has on both employee and organizational goals. One school of thought argues that training leads to an increase in turnover while the other states that training is a tool to that can lead to higher levels of employee retention (Colarelli & Montei, 1996; Becker, 1993). Regardless of where one falls within this debate, most professionals agree that employee training is a complex human resource practice that can significantly impact a company’s success. The training industry as a whole has shown significant growth through the years. Statistics indicate that investment in training is continuing to grow as more and more companies realize its importance. In 1995, $7.7 billion was spent on the wages and salaries of in-house company trainers and $2.8 billion was spent on tuition reimbursement (Frazis, Gittleman, Horrigan, Joyce, 1998). The American Society for Training and Development found that in 2004, the average annual training expenditure per employee was $955, which is an increase of $135 per employee from the previous year. The number of formal learning hours per employee also rose from 26 hours in 2003, to 32 hours in 2004 (atsd.com, 2005). As the investment in various training...
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...WHAT IMPACT DOES TRAINING HAVE ON EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND EMPLOYEE TURNOVER? SCOTT BRUM University of Rhode Island Training is of growing importance to companies seeking to gain an advantage among competitors. There is significant debate among professionals and scholars as to the affect that training has on both employee and organizational goals. One school of thought argues that training leads to an increase in turnover while the other states that training is a tool to that can lead to higher levels of employee retention (Colarelli & Montei, 1996; Becker, 1993). Regardless of where one falls within this debate, most professionals agree that employee training is a complex human resource practice that can significantly impact a company’s success. The training industry as a whole has shown significant growth through the years. Statistics indicate that investment in training is continuing to grow as more and more companies realize its importance. In 1995, $7.7 billion was spent on the wages and salaries of in-house company trainers and $2.8 billion was spent on tuition reimbursement (Frazis, Gittleman, Horrigan, Joyce, 1998). The American Society for Training and Development found that in 2004, the average annual training expenditure per employee was $955, which is an increase of $135 per employee from the previous year. The number of formal learning hours per employee also rose from 26 hours in 2003, to 32 hours in 2004 (atsd.com, 2005). As the investment in various training programs...
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...Delinquency 1 The “Broken Home” or Broken Society A Sociological Study of Family Structure and Juvenile Delinquency By Hillary R. Sheehan Advised by Professor Chris Bickel SocS 461, 462 Senior Project Social Science Department College of Liberal Arts CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY Winter, 2010 © 2010 Hillary Sheehan Delinquency 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page Research Proposal…………………………………………………………………………3 Annotated Bibliography…………………………………………………………………...5 Outline……………………………………………………………………………………10 Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..14 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………15 The “Broken Home”: Truth or Trend……………………………………………15 Statistics on Single-Parent Families and Juvenile Delinquency…………………21 Case Study……………………………………………………………………….23 Theories…………………………………………………………………………..27 Criticisms………………………………………………………………………...32 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….34 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..36 Delinquency 3 Research Proposal The goal of this research paper is to explore the topic of juvenile delinquency and to analyze the cause of such behavior. The topic of most interest is how the family structure plays a role in delinquent behavior and what can be said about the so called broken home. There is a lot of research in criminal justice that tries to explore the reasons behind people’s behavior and this paper is intending to address youth who have been involved in the system. By exploring this topic I hope to get a better...
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...Labelling Theory and Symbolic Interaction „No very sharp line can be drawn between social pshycology and individual pshycology” George Herman Mead Introduction In recent years, renewed and increased attention has been given to the need to organize a variety of theories into an interdisciplinary or integrated theory that captures tile contributions that can be made from the many explanatory approaches that have emerged over the last one hundred years. This move towards integrated or interdisciplinary theory represents a new stage of development in the field and requires a careful reassessment of the perspectives that have formed the core of criminological thought.[1] Each era of social and political turmoil has produced profound changes in people’s lives. Perhaps no such era was as significant for criminology as the 1960s. A society with conservative values was shaken out of its complacency when young people, blacks, women and other disadvantaged groups demanded a part in the shaping of national policy. They saw the gaps between philosophical political demands and reality: Blacks had little opportunity to advance women were kept in an inferior status; old politicians made wars in which the young had to die. Rebellion broke out, and some criminologists joined the revolution.[2] These criminologists turned away from theories that explained crime by characteristics of the offender or of the social structure. They set out to demonstrate that individuals...
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...“Crime is the result of individual behaviour, rather than the product of a socialisation process” Discuss. For decades sociologists from around the world have been debating what factors lead people to commit crime. Some have deduced that individual behaviour is the primary factor while others have concluded that crime is more the product of a socialisation process. In order to understand this contentious issue it is necessary to consider the credibility of a number of theories: physiological, psychological, right realism, Marxism, subculturalism, and left realism. Through the analysis of these theories, a conclusion will then be arrived at as to whether individual behaviour, rather than the socialisation process, is the main cause of crime. Physiological theories focus on the relationship between a person’s biology and crime. Therefore, this theoretical area of study clearly links the individual to crime. Today, a number of criminologists continue to support physiological explanations, even though, historically, many of theories linked to physiology have been disproved. Anne Moir and David Jessel are two such theorists who have proposed a link between biology and crime. They have suggested that a low IQ (which can be inherited) leads to impulsive behaviour, which may in turn lead a person to be more likely to commit crime. Moir and Jessel also claim that there is a link between crime and hormonal differences which make males more aggressive than females and therefore...
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...Examining the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence of Managers and Organizational Commitment of Subordinates Dissertation Submitted to Northcentral University Graduate Faculty of the School of Business and Technology Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by DANIEL R. BENNETT Prescott Valley, Arizona March 2011 UMI Number: 3452478 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3452478 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright 2011 Daniel R. Bennett APPROVAL PAGE Examining the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence of Managers and Organizational Commitment of Subordinates by Daniel R. Bennett Approved by: air: Robert Miller, Ed.D Member: Jaime J. Klein, Ph.D. Member: Penny Ann Wilkins, D.M. Date -14- Certified by: School Dean: Arthur Lee Smith, Ph.D. Date ABSTRACT Evidence from numerous studies suggests that Organizational Commitment (OC) among employees...
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...Deviant Behavior Social disorganization BIBLIOGRAPHY Both “deviant behavior” and “social disorganization” have been variously defined, but there have been few efforts to distinguish between the two concepts. In fact, it has been suggested that they are not different, that along with “social problems*’ and the somewhat outmoded “social pathology,” they signify only a potpourri of conditions that are considered undesirable from the standpoint of the observer’s values, conditions that vary at different times and with different observers. According to this view, these terms have no scientific value and no legitimate status as sociological concepts. Such nihilism and counsel of despair are not justified. True, there is no consensus on the meaning of these terms, and they are, indeed, burdened with value connotations. However, they point to a number of distinctions that sociology must take into account. Concept of deviance. Turning first to the concept of deviant behavior, we must distinguish among the several definitions of the term, which are discussed below. Behavior that violates norms. Deviant behavior is behavior that violates the normative rules, understandings, or expectations of social systems. This is the most common usage of the term and the sense in which it will be used here. Crime is the prototype of deviance in this sense, and theory and research in deviant behavior have been concerned overwhelmingly with crime. However, normative rules are inherent in...
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...scholars as to the affect that training has on both employee and organizational goals. One school of thought argues that training leads to an increase in turnover while the other states that training is a tool to that can lead to higher levels of employee retention (Colarelli & Montei, 1996; Becker, 1993). Regardless of where one falls within this debate, most professionals agree that employee training is a complex human resource practice that can significantly impact a company’s success. Krueger and Rouse (1998) examined the effect that training and workplace education programs can have on various organizations. The study included an analysis of numerous outcome variables that may be achieved through training. Variables relating to performance, wages, productivity, satisfaction, motivation, and absenteeism were all examined. These variables are analogous too many of those that are commonly scrutinized in the training and development literature. This paper seeks to move away from the frequently assumed training outcomes and focus more on the relationship of training and employee commitment. The effect of this relationship on employee turnover will also be explored. Through an analysis of pertinent literature and research, this paper will seek to better understand and clarify the impact that training has on employee commitment and employee turnover. The importance of...
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