Little things that count: A call for organizational research on microbusinesses

The purpose of this Incubator is to encourage organizational researchers to attend to the most common type of business in the United States—the microbusiness. After defining and describing these businesses, we propose research questions on defining and managing performance, organizational citizenship, and work–family conflict in this novel business setting. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Loyal rebels? A test of the normative conflict model of constructive deviance

Constructive deviance is a voluntary behavior that violates organizational rules but is conducted with honorable intentions to benefit the organization or its stakeholders. Despite emerging interest in this behavior, the antecedents of constructive deviance remain unclear, with particular ambiguity concerning the relationship between organizational identity and constructive deviance. In this article, we address this ambiguity with the normative conflict model, which posits that organizational identity drives constructive deviance in the workplace only when people perceive normative conflict with organizational rules. In Studies 1a and 1b, we develop and validate a measure of normative conflict. In Study 2, we conduct a preliminary test of the model with employed students and find that identity is positively related to constructive deviance only when normative conflict is high. In Study 3, we replicate and extend the model to show that the moderating effect of normative conflict is mediated by experienced psychological discomfort and that organizational identity is positively related to constructive deviance among working adults only when discomfort is high. In total, our findings demonstrate the utility of the normative conflict model for explaining when constructive deviance is mostly likely to occur in the workplace.     

A question of justice: are holiday clubs serving the most deprived communities in England?

In response to the problem of holiday hunger, hundreds of local “holiday clubs” have recently been established across the UK. This research examines the spatial relationship between income, childhood deprivation, ethnicity and holiday clubs across 32,844 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in England to determine if these clubs are currently operating in an inclusive fashion. Data on the location of holiday clubs comes from a national survey. Binary logistic regression results suggest that holiday clubs are likely to operate in economically disadvantaged areas. At the same time, clubs are not distributed equally by ethnicity. That is, holiday clubs operated by voluntary organisations are more likely to be situated in LSOAs that are disproportionately white and English\British and less likely to be situated in LSOAs that are disproportionately ethnic minority. This finding has important implications for the pursuit of holiday clubs as a policy mechanism for addressing access to food in light of the state’s failure to adequately feed all of the country’s children.     

(Mal)Adaptation opportunism: when other interests take over stated or intended climate change adaptation objectives (and their unintended effects)

This paper introduces the terminology of (mal)adaptation opportunism – a situation in which projects undertaken in the name of climate change adaptation (CCA) are overrun by interests other than the stated or intended objectives of the CCA project. A goal of CCA projects is to reduce poverty and promote social justice. The case of the threat of displacement of the community of Kewunor by the Trasacco Estate Development Company (TEDC), after the construction of the Ada Sea Defense System (AdSDS) of Ghana as a CCA, is illustrative of this concept of (mal)adaptation opportunism. Through a narrative presentation of eight different accounts concerning this issue, I demonstrate how (mal)adaptation opportunism arises and is often motivated by economic interests. This case illustrates how economic interests can take over not only CCA projects but also their maladaptive effects.     

Open data and stormwater systems in Los Angeles: applications for equitable green infrastructure

Urban stormwater systems traditionally used “grey” infrastructure to manage runoff. Contemporary designs now incorporate “green” infrastructure, which offers additional potential benefits such as urban amenities and health. Understanding how green and grey infrastructure investments are distributed across urban areas is important for new goals of promoting environmental justice in planning. In California, for instance, public investments increasingly require a percentage of funds to be spent in disadvantaged communities. Recent advancements in the availability of high-detail geographic data in cities can support prioritising investments to fulfil these multiple benefits. This paper analyses the distribution of stormwater infrastructure in Los Angeles (LA) County in relation to design criteria, urban structure and sociodemographic information. It demonstrates an approach for identifying projects that simultaneously address engineering needs and promote equity. Statistical analysis of high-detail sewer locations reveals geographic correlations with key local design parameters, urban characteristics and sociodemographic indicators. Watershed areas in LA County were identified that support multi-benefit projects, meeting dual criteria for infrastructure improvements and disadvantaged community status. As stormwater systems are increasingly designed for multi-benefit outcomes, new design frameworks can emphasise both performance and social equity.     

施工组织非正式网络结构特征与组织安全行为的关系研究

为了提升建筑施工安全管理水平,从社会网络的视角分析了施工组织非正式网络的结构特征对组织安全行为的影响关系,构建了施工组织非正式网络结构特征、安全沟通和组织安全行为的理论模型,实证分析了91个施工组织非正式网络的结构特征,使用多层回归分析的方法验证了上述模型。结果表明:网络密度对组织安全行为有显著正向影响,安全沟通在密度与组织安全行为的关系中起到了部分中介作用;出度中心势对组织安全行为有显著正向影响,安全沟通起到了完全中介作用;入度中心势对组织安全行为没有显著影响,安全沟通没有起到中介作用;中间中心势对组织安全行为没有显著影响,安全沟通没有起到中介作用;平均路径长度对组织安全行为有显著负向影响,安全沟通起到了完全中介作用;聚类系数对组织安全行为有显著正向影响,安全沟通起到了完全中介作用。     

Anil Agarwal (1947-2002) From Rio to Rio + 10: An appreciation

This article explores how the geographic boundaries of who could participate in the decision processes of two community-owned wind energy projects (WEPs) was evaluated in terms of their fairness by project leaders and local residents. In particular, it analyses the varying ways that the justice principle of “those affected by a decision have a right to be involved in making that decision” was utilised to make claims about the fairness of each boundary. In both case studies, even though this justice principle was often shared by local stakeholders, defining exactly what a “fair” boundary encompassed was problematic and strong disagreements emerged. Three factors that contributed to this disagreement are highlighted, and the significance of the findings for the implementation of community WEPs is reflected upon.     

Measuring Biotechnology Employees’ Ethical Attitudes towards a Controversial Transgenic Cattle Project: The Ethical Valence Matrix

What is the relationship between biotechnology employees’ beliefs about the moral outcomes of a controversial transgenic research project and their attitudes of acceptance towards the project? To answer this question, employees (n=466) of a New Zealand company, AgResearch Ltd., were surveyed regarding a project to create transgenic cattle containing a synthetic copy of the human myelin basic protein gene (hMBP). Although diversity existed amongst employees’ attitudes of acceptance, they were generally: in favor of the project, believed that it should be allowed to proceed to completion, and that it is acceptable to use transgenic cattle to produce medicines for humans. These three items were aggregated to form a project acceptance score. Scales were developed to measure respondents’ beliefs about the moral outcomes of the project for identified stakeholders in terms of the four principles of common morality (benefit, non-harm, justice, and autonomy). These data were statistically aggregated into an Ethical Valence Matrix for the project. The respondents’ project Ethical Valence Scores correlated significantly with their project acceptance scores (r=0.64, p<0.001), accounting for 41% of the variance in respondents’ acceptance attitudes. Of the four principles, non-harm had the strongest correlation with attitude to the project (r=0.59), followed by benefit and justice (both r=0.54), then autonomy (r=0.44). These results indicate that beliefs about the moral outcomes of a research project, in terms of the four principles approach, are strongly related to, and may be significant determinants of, attitudes to the research project. This suggests that, for employees of a biotechnology organization, ethical reasoning could be a central mechanism for the evaluation of the acceptability of a project. We propose that the Ethical Valence Matrix may be used as a tool to measure ethical attitudes towards controversial issues, providing a metric for comparison of perceived ethical consequences for multiple stakeholder groups and for the evaluation and comparison of the ethical consequences of competing alternative issues or projects. The tool could be used to measure both public and special interest groups’ ethical attitudes and results used for the development of socially responsible policy or by science organizations as a democratizing decision aid to selection amongst projects competing for scarce research funds.     

An Analytical Review of Environmental Justice Research: What Do We Really Know?

This article presents a review of major empirical research on environmental justice. Forty-two empirical research studies spanning three decades were evaluated and categorized on the basis of how well they meet reasonable scientific standards. Twelve of those studies are described and critiqued in detail, and an overview of trends in the literature is presented. The author concludes that the empirical foundations of environmental justice are so underdeveloped that little can be said with scientific authority regarding the existence of geographical patterns of disproportionate distributions and their health effects on minority, low-income, and other disadvantaged communities. If environmental managers and policy-makers do not recognize the high levels of empirical uncertainty surrounding the issue, they are apt to attribute an empirically unwarranted level of concreteness to the empirical research findings, thus leading to poorly conceptualized and therefore potentially harmful policy and management decisions.     

‘Optimal’ pollution abatement—whose benefits matter, and how much?

We examine the determinants of environmental regulatory activity (inspections and enforcement actions) and levels of air and water pollution for 409 US pulp and paper mills, using data for 1985–1997. We focus on the benefits to the surrounding population from pollution abatement. Plants with larger benefits emit less pollution, as do those with more kids and elders nearby. Plants in poor areas emit more pollution, though (surprisingly) we find less pollution in minority areas. Out-of-state neighbors seem to count less than in-state ones, although this effect diminishes if the bordering state's Congressional delegation is strongly pro-environment. We use ‘spatially lagged’ instrumental variables to control for the potential endogeneity of which individuals choose to locate near the plant. The results for regulatory activity are noticeably less significant than the emissions results.