Dear OMT list subscribers,
I would like to kindly invite you to write a chapter to a collected
volume on "Managing Dynamic Technology-Oriented Business:
High-Tech Organizations and Workplaces" Abigail Marks and I are
editing.
The call is enclosed below, please forward it to your colleagues who
might be interested. I will be more than happy to answer any
questions you may have.
best,
Dariusz
__________________
Dariusz Jemielniak, Ph.D.
associate professor of management
head of Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces
http://www.crow.kozminski.edu.pl
Kozminski University
Jagiellonska 59, 03-301 Warszawa, Poland
darekj@kozminski.edu.pl
==================================================================
CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: May 30, 2010
Managing Dynamic Technology-Oriented Business:
High-Tech Organizations and Workplaces
A book edited by Dariusz Jemielniak, Kozminski University (Poland) and
Abigail Marks, Heriot-Watt University (UK)
To be published by IGI Global:
http://igi-global.com/AuthorsEditors/AuthorEditorResources/CallForBookChapters/CallForChapterDetails.aspx?CallForContentId=0d3e732f-c98d-4ddc-8078-bcd5a3995b13
Introduction
High-tech corporations rely heavily on the normative/ideological control over their employees. While in manual labor the strict reign over body movements in Taylor-like manner suffices to achieve satisfactory results (a person is but a substitute to a machine), in the case of knowledge-work, it rarely does. The companies supplement the control of bodies with the control of minds. Paradoxically, in this sense, “blue collar” workers may enjoy more freedom of thought and more intact integrity than the “white collar” workers. Where behavior cannot be bracketed and prescribed by procedure or direct supervision, the self-definition and devotion of the worker play a crucial role.
Still, innovation management and learning organization concepts strongly emphasize the highest role of human/intellectual capital of the company and the crucial function of knowledge in modern society. The popularity of this discourse in management literature consulting and official organizational language leads to an interesting paradox: on one hand, knowledge-workers are perceived as the most valued members of an organization, but on the other hand, they are being manipulated and “engineered”, commonly driven to burn-out, and deprived of family life. Such a discrepancy between the official managerial language and the actual practice is by no means new, but in the case of high-tech companies, it is particularly striking. Moreover, in the case of high-tech employees, it is concurrent with a very specifically-developed occupational culture. Manager-worker conflict is taken to a different level. All this leads to the emergence of new, insufficiently analyzed and described organizational phenomena.
Although there have been excellent books on this subject (e.g. Kunda, 1992; Hochshild, 1997; Perlow, 1997), in none has this problem been researched thoroughly from an internationally–comparative, cross-cultural perspective The purpose of the book, then, is to present a collection of papers on management practices in American, European, Asian and Middle-Eastern high-tech companies, with particular focus on fieldwork-driven, but reflective, contributions.
Objective of the Book
• Collect various workplace studies from high-tech environment in different cultures,
• Present different management practices in IT,
• Offer a comparative preview of high-tech working reality from a number of countries.
Target Audience
• Cross-cultural management scholars,
• High-tech business practitioners,
• High-tech employees,
• Anthropologists and sociologists of work,
• Organization theorists,
• High-tech organization consultants,
• Innovation management scholars and specialists,
• Future managers and engineers.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Organizational practices specific to, or particularly relevant for, high-tech organizations.
• The interplay between management, technology, and power.
• Motivation in the high-tech sector.
• Gender, family, and work relations, and the specificities of technology-based organizations
• Time and space in IT.
• Relation between culture and technology. How are technologies embedded in cultural contexts, as well as transferred and translated between them?
Submission Procedure
Please submit a 500-1000 word abstract or an informal chapter suggestion (could be a declaration of commitment and the general idea, if you do not want to go through with a regular abstract at this stage) by June 15, 2010. Preliminary acceptance decisions will be made by June 30, 2010. Full papers of between 6,000 and 8,500 words will need to be submitted by September 15st, 2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis.
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit
www.igi-globalcom. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2011.
Important Dates
June 15, 2010: Proposal Submission Deadline
June 30, 2010: Notification of Acceptance
September 15, 2010: Full Chapter Submission
October 15, 2010: Review Results Returned
November 15, 2010: Final Chapter Submission
December 15, 2010: Final Deadline
Editorial Advisory Board Members:
TBA
Please e-mail your abstracts to
darekj@kozminski.edu.pl and
A.Marks@hw.ac.uk; we are able to process most common file formats. Please make sure that the document clearly indicates your name, affiliation, and contact information.
Do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions.
References
Hochshild, Arlie R. (1997). The time bind: When work becomes home and home becomes work. New York: Metropolitan
Kunda, Gideon (1992). Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Perlow, Leslie A. (1997). Finding Time. How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices. Ithaca-London: ILR Press