En Italie, bien que le secteur masculin se soit continuellement développé (en atteignant son point d’orgue avec le fascisme), l’éducation physique féminine a rencontré des difficultés à être mise en œuvre dans un pays profondément pénétré de traditionalisme, de religiosité et de misogynie. Jusqu’à l’évènement de la révolution fasciste, a plupart des Italiens croyaient à l’infériorité physique et mentale des femmes et les pionnières du sport féminin étaient ridiculisées ou perçues avec suspicion. Le régime mussolinien a promu l’émancipation sociale des (...) Italiennes à contrecœur grâce à un programme d’activités physiques extensif et fortement organisé. Dans ces années, un corps féminin bien entraîné n’était pas seulement une forme d’expression de la modernité fasciste, mais aussi un moyen essentiel d’accroître aussi bien la démographie que la santé de la population. Les initiatives sportives féminines étaient également considérées comme une bonne manière d’afficher aux yeux du monde l’image d’une nation forte peuplée de citoyens physiquement et moralement robustes. Alors que l’esthétique du corps mâle idéal était clairement incarnée par Mussolini – l’exemple vivant de la virilité athlétique fasciste – le modèle idéal de féminité fasciste était moins figé dans la mesure où il a connu plusieurs transformations résultant de conceptions contradictoires et d’options politiques différentes. (shrink)

La prévention du vieillissement est au cœur des politiques publiques de la santé. De nombreux dispositifs sont ainsi proposés aux différentes échelles de l’action publique afin de promouvoir le vieillissement réussi ou le vieillissement actif ou encore le bien vieillir. Dans les plans et programmes, trois piliers semblent se dégager au cœur des mesures préventives pour la santé des personnes âgées : la nutrition, l’activité sociale et la pratique des activités physiques et sportives (APS).Notre intérêt se porte sur la (...) politique de prévention de la vieillesse de manière générale ainsi que sur l’usage des APS comme outil privilégié de celle-ci et du maintien en bonne santé des personnes âgées. Ces deux axes permettent de questionner les temporalités de manière plurielle et de faire ressortir leurs articulations et leurs éventuels désajustements.Poser la question de la temporalité invite à questionner le temps long des transformations économiques, sociales ou scientifiques et les temps moyens ou courts des incitations des organisations internationales et des plans et programmes nationaux. De surcroît, en tant que politique préventive, la prévention du vieillissement a un rapport singulier à la temporalité en termes d’anticipation des risques. L’action publique doit ainsi articuler urgence et anticipation, se déployer dans le court terme en intégrant une projection d’un futur plus ou moins lointain. Enfin, les temporalités jouent aussi au niveau du public cible et des effets escomptés. Les plans reposent sur des transformations des conduites qui ont une portée temporelle très différente de celle des réformes et se confrontent aux parcours de vie des acteurs concernés inscrits dans un temps plus long et dans un temps subjectif. (shrink)

À partir de textes officiels, de publications professionnelles et de représentations d’enseignantes d’EPS ayant vécu la mise en place de la mixité, cet article analyse la construction du genre en éducation physique durant les années 68. Si la mixité est d’abord évacuée au profit de l’officialisation sportive de l’éducation physique, les dissidences acquièrent une légitimité certaine durant la crise de mai-juin 68. Pourtant, l’organisation de l’EPS conserve une frontière et maintient les distinctions sexuées. Au terme des années 68, la mixité (...) n’est plus ignorée et les discriminations se sont déplacées. Elles sont paradoxalement le fruit des enseignantes elles-mêmes qui déconsidèrent la féminité au regard de leurs attentes sportives. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage de Christine Mennesson, maîtresse de conférences à l’Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse, membre du laboratoire de recherche « Sports, Organisations, Identités », est fondé sur son travail de thèse de doctorat. Ce travail repose sur une grande enquête de terrain, menée de 1995 à 2000, concernant l’engagement des femmes dans trois sports de tradition masculine, le football surtout, mais aussi la boxe et dans une moindre mesure l’haltérophilie. À partir de cette enquête de type eth...

Cet article examine le régime sexuel du sport en se fondant sur des recherches récentes portant sur les hommes et les masculinités. Malgré le caractère tenace des liens entre les hommes, les masculinités et le sport, nous croyons que le sport constitue un contexte idéal pour « étudier par le haut », comme le propose Connell (1990), l'ordre hiérarchique de genre. Cinq secteurs de recherche sont abordés : les organisations sportives, les corps et le modèle de « puissance (...) et performance » du sport, la violence, les médias, et les défis et transgressions. Nous concluons en présentant diverses avenues de recherche pour « étudier par le haut » l'ordre hiérarchique de genre en sport, i.e. comment les hommes qui sont relativement privilégiés devraient utiliser leur position sociale pour examiner les inégalités de genre et promouvoir l'équité en sport. (shrink)

À partir de textes officiels, de publications professionnelles et de représentations d’enseignantes d’EPS ayant vécu la mise en place de la mixité, cet article analyse la construction du genre en éducation physique durant les années 68. Si la mixité est d’abord évacuée au profit de l’officialisation sportive de l’éducation physique, les dissidences acquièrent une légitimité certaine durant la crise de mai-juin 68. Pourtant, l’organisation de l’EPS conserve une frontière et maintient les distinctions sexuées. Au terme des années 68, la mixité (...) n’est plus ignorée et les discriminations se sont déplacées. Elles sont paradoxalement le fruit des enseignantes elles-mêmes qui déconsidèrent la féminité au regard de leurs attentes sportives. (shrink)

Analyse de la fonction et caracteristiques de la liaison entre la victoire sportive et le passé ‘mythique’ par l’intermédiaire du lien généalogique avec un dieu et/ou un héros. Examen des exemples suivants: Olympique 2, Isthmique 3, Ol. 6, Ol. 9, Ol. 7, Pythique 4, Pyth. 5, Néméenne 11. La mention généalogique renforce le moment de gloire de la victoire , ajoute parfois une perspective religieuse, génère une dimension spatiale , contribue à l’organisation du poème et devient un recours encomiastique très (...) efficace.Myth and Genealogy in Pindar. An analysis of the function and characteristics of the link between the victory in the games and the ‘mythical’ past, through a genealogical relation­ship with a god and/or hero. An examination of the following poems: Olympian 2, Isthmian 3, Ol. 6, 9 and 7, Pythian 4 and 5, Nemean 11. The genealogical refer­ence reinforces the glory of the victory , adds sometimes a religious perspective, creates a spatial dimension , contributes to the organisation of the poem and becomes a very efficient encomiastic resource. (shrink)

Cet article s’intéresse à la question de la politique sportive en faveur des femmes sous le régime de Vichy et aux obstacles qui ont empêché sa mise en œuvre. Si la plupart des études sur le sport féminin au cours de cette période sont consacrés à l’action de Marie-Thérèse Eyquem, alors directrice du sport féminin au sein du Commissariat général à l’Éducation générale et aux Sports, cette étude adopte une démarche qui veut éclairer, à partir de deux indicateurs et à (...) l’échelle des départements du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais, les réactions des acteurs et leurs degrés d’adhésion par rapport à la politique sportive de Vichy. (shrink)

Both natural and engineered systems are fundamentally dynamical in nature: their defining properties are causal, and their functional capacities are causally grounded. Among dynamical systems, an interesting and important sub-class are those that are autonomous, anticipative and adaptive (AAA). Living systems, intelligent systems, sophisticated robots and social systems belong to this class, and the use of these terms has recently spread rapidly through the scientific literature. Central to understanding these dynamical systems is their complicated organisation and their consequent capacities for (...) re- and self- organisation. But there is at present no general analysis of these capacities or of the requisite organisation involved. We define what distinguishes AAA systems from other kinds of systems by characterising their central properties in a dynamically interpreted information theory. (shrink)

Dans le monde contemporain, la majorité des acteurs sociaux fait quotidiennement l’expérience d’une accélération effrénée des rythmes de vie. Cette course contre la montre, qui tend à devenir chronique, semble affecter non seulement la sphère des obligations professionnelles et familiales mais aussi le champ des pratiques de loisirs. Dans un contexte de pénurie temporelle, où le temps est devenu une denrée aussi rare que précieuse, consentir d’y consacrer une partie à des activités non productives suppose de pouvoir obtenir un retour (...) sur investissement. Quels types d’activités sportives peuvent satisfaire cette condition en permettant désormais aux pratiquants d’en avoir non seulement pour leur argent mais surtout pour leur temps? À partir d’une étude de cas, la pratique d’un sport de combat de synthèse, le Mixed Martial Arts, par des étudiants de l’École Normale Supérieure de Lyon et anciens élèves des Classes Préparatoires aguerris à la gestion de l’urgence temporelle, nous montrerons que les activités sportives que nous qualifierons d’« hybrides » apparaissent, pour cette population, comme une réponse particulièrement pertinente au manque de temps en autorisant un engagement jugé rentable et efficient. (shrink)

This paper aims to provide a philosophical and theoretical account of biological communication grounded in the notion of organisation. The organisational approach characterises living systems as organised in such a way that they are capable to self-produce and self-maintain while in constant interaction with the environment. To apply this theoretical framework to the study of biological communication, we focus on a specific approach, based on the notion of influence, according to which communication takes place when a signal emitted by a (...) sender triggers a change in the behaviour of the receiver that is functional for the sender itself. We critically analyse the current formulations of this account, that interpret what is functional for the sender in terms of evolutionary adaptations. Specifically, the adoption of this etiological functional framework may lead to the exclusion of several phenomena usually studied as instances of communication, and possibly even of entire fields of investigation such as synthetic biology. As an alternative, we reframe the influence approach in organisational terms, characterising functions in terms of contributions to the current organisation of a biological system. We develop a theoretical account of biological communication in which communicative functions are distinguished from other types of biological functions described by the organisational account (e.g. metabolic, ecological, etc.). The resulting organisational-influence approach allows to carry out causal analyses of current instances of phenomena of communication, without the need to provide etiological explanations. In such a way it makes it possible to understand in terms of communication those phenomena which realise interactive patterns typical of signalling interactions – and are usually studied as such in scientific practice – despite not being the result of evolutionary adaptations. Moreover, this approach provides operational tools to design and study communicative interactions in experimental fields such as synthetic biology. (shrink)

Durant la fin des années 1940, les sections de sport et le comité national olympique soviétique intègrent les fédérations et le Comité international olympique, ce qui leur permet de prendre part aux compétitions et à la communauté mondiale des sportifs. Très vite, les championnes d’URSS remportent de francs succès. La participation soviétique y a une double fonction dans la « politique extérieure de l’image » (R. Frank). D’une part, elle donne à voir les succès en matière d’égalité femmes-hommes. D’autre part, (...) elle permet d’obtenir des médailles, essentielles à la mesure de la suprématie soviétique en matière de sport. Cet article étudie la manière dont l’administration et les médias soviétiques ont construit – en pratique et en représentations – la supériorité sportive féminine soviétique en interaction avec l’étranger. Loin d’être isolés, les acteurs du sport soviétique s’adaptent aux règlements internationaux, aux réactions que les performances des athlètes d’URSS suscitent et aux controverses qui surgissent dans la presse de l’adversaire. (shrink)

Une étude sociologique critique du fait sportif contemporain, dans laquelle l'auteur montre que dans le contexte de la mondialisation capitaliste, le sport est devenu une marchandise globale.

The ethics of artificial intelligence is a widely discussed topic. There are numerous initiatives that aim to develop the principles and guidance to ensure that the development, deployment and use of AI are ethically acceptable. What is generally unclear is how organisations that make use of AI understand and address these ethical issues in practice. While there is an abundance of conceptual work on AI ethics, empirical insights are rare and often anecdotal. This paper fills the gap in our (...) current understanding of how organisations deal with AI ethics by presenting empirical findings collected using a set of ten case studies and providing an account of the cross-case analysis. The paper reviews the discussion of ethical issues of AI as well as mitigation strategies that have been proposed in the literature. Using this background, the cross-case analysis categorises the organisational responses that were observed in practice. The discussion shows that organisations are highly aware of the AI ethics debate and keen to engage with ethical issues proactively. However, they make use of only a relatively small subsection of the mitigation strategies proposed in the literature. These insights are of importance to organisations deploying or using AI, to the academic AI ethics debate, but maybe most valuable to policymakers involved in the current debate about suitable policy developments to address the ethical issues raised by AI. (shrink)

Integrity is often conceived as a moral virtue that pertains to the coherence between one’s moral convictions and actions, as well as consistency in convictions over time. By contrast, I argue that integrity is primarily an epistemic virtue. To act with integrity, an individual or organisation must engage in responsible inquiry; that is, the collection, processing, sharing, and storage of information in ways that promote truth. Organisational structures such as division of labour and hierarchy present challenges to responsible inquiry, thereby (...) making epistemic integrity in organisations inherently vulnerable and increasing the risk of unintentional unethical behaviour. This epistemic perspective on organisational integrity emphasises the importance of developing virtuous epistemic infrastructure and an ethical epistemic culture. By aligning their beliefs with facts, organisations can also improve moral behaviour and reduce the risk of culpable ignorance. (shrink)

Dès les années 1960, la mixité s’instaure progressivement dans les établissements scolaires du secondaire sous l’effet de la réforme Berthoin. Pourtant l’Education Physique et Sportive échappe à l’impératif de cette mise en place. A partir d’une analyse de la revue Education Nationale de 1959 à 1975, cet article élucide les résistances de l’école à l’égard de la mixité et les représentations qu’elle véhicule sur l’éducation des filles et des garçons. Ainsi, le cas de l’EPS constitue un effet de loupe non (...) seulement des résistances de l’école à l’égard d’une rencontre physique des corps, mais aussi de la conviction, unanimement partagée par les acteurs du système éducatif, d’une différenciation affective, physique et sociale naturelle entre les sexes. (shrink)

An ethical evaluation of employee participation to decision-making has to be based, obviously, on a theory about ethics, but also on an understanding of the role and the impact of participation in the organisation. This paper aims at sketching different organisational paradigms, and analysing their normative prescriptions w.r.t. participation. It will appear that the recognition of the social nature of man and the acknowledgement of the existence of differentiated goals could enhance the positive outcomes of participation. Next, we will examine (...) to what extent a systemic approach and a stakeholder concept of the firm can meet these requirements. The necessity of a global approach to participation will be emphasised. Consequently, we suggest in the last section of this paper that participation should be extended to the definition of a shared value horizon. (shrink)

D'après Confucius, il y a six « arts libéraux » qui sont : la musique, le cérémonial, l'arithmétique, la calligraphie, l'escrime et « l'art de conduire un char ». Donc pas de gymnastique encore. L'escrime donne satisfaction à l'instinct combatif, mais il ne paraît pas que cet instinct ait suffi à la propager en Extrême-Orient. À remarquer que la première escrime naturelle n'a pu être celle du poing qui demande une contrainte et un assouplissement artificiels préalables. Il était plus naturel (...) à l'homme primitif de s'emparer d'un bâton ou même de lutter simplement corps à corps ou encore de chercher à frapper par le jet d'une pierre. Les escrimes d'Extrême-Orient sont demeurées des spectacles et n'ont donné naissance à aucune institution pédagogique sauf -- plus tard, au Japon -- le jiu-jitsu. (shrink)

Envahissant, saturant l'espace et le temps, le sport est vécu aujourd'hui comme une activité allant de soi. Il n'est jamais questionné, échappant à toute critique approfondie. Le sport est pourtant, en quelque sorte, le moule dans lequel notre société est formée. Il est le nouveau pouvoir spirituel. Il façonne les âmes autant que les corps. Il promeut un corps fabriqué de type inédit, quand l'âme du sportif lui a été enlevée pour être remplacée par le mental. Robert Redeker se livre (...) à une attaque sans concession du sport contemporain. Il en dénonce les mutations, les travers et surtout les fonctions nouvelles: transformation des organismes humains, culte de la performance infinie, ersatz de religion, substitut de relations internationales. Les sportifs sont-ils des mutants? Le sport est-il l'usine où se fabrique un nouveau type d'être humain? (shrink)

Examination of the application of virtue ethics to business has only recently started to grapple with the measurement of virtue frameworks in a practical context. This paper furthers this agenda by measuring the impact of virtue at the level of the organisation and examining the extent to which organisational virtue impacts on moral attentiveness and the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility in creating organisational effectiveness. It is argued that people who operate in more virtuous organisational contexts will be (...) expected to be more attentive to ethical issues and in turn perceive a greater role for ethics and social responsibility in business. Analysis of results based on a sample of 137 HR professionals shows that where people report that their organisation provides meaningful work, they are more likely to display reflective MA and the belief that ethics and social responsibility are compatible with business objectives, suggesting that organisations who are interested in promoting an ethical culture should focus on their work structures and practices. More generally, OV is shown to have a more complex relationship with PRESOR than hypothesised pointing towards a more nuanced view of OV. The paper examines the implications of the results for organisations and research. (shrink)

Organisations are computing systems. The university’s sports centre is a computing system for managing sports teams and facilities. The tenure committee is a computing system for assigning tenure status. Despite an increasing number of publications in group ontology, the computational nature of organisations has not been recognised. The present paper is the first in this debate to propose a theory of organisations as groups structured for computing. I begin by describing the current situation in group ontology and (...) by spelling out the thesis in more detail. I then present the example of a sports centre to illustrate why one might intuitively think of organisations as computing systems. To substantiate the thesis, I introduce Piccinini’s restrictive analysis of physical computation. As I show, organisations meet all criteria for being computing systems. Organisations are structured groups with the function of manipulating medium-independent vehicles according to rules. Furthermore, I argue for the modal claim that this is a necessary feature of organisations. Having sketched the computational account of organisations, I compare it to other proposals in the literature. (shrink)

Definition of the problem Organisations play a vital role in modern societies. This article presumes a lack of sufficient organisational reflection of well-established forms of ethics and ethics counselling in institutions belonging to the health sector or sees particular challenges where it is implemented. Arguments We have therefore conceived a procedural type of organisational ethics which critically examines the organisational fit of processes in terms of ethical reflection, leading to practicable suggestions. Conclusions On the one hand they relate to (...) where differences are established when asking for the good; on the other hand they are concerned with background theories and the organisational fit of the reflection settings. (shrink)

Environmental organisations have been active since the early 1960s in putting environmental issues on the political agenda and in strengthening the environmental consciousness of the public. The struggle has been successful in the sense that there is now a strong demand for practical solutions among all kinds of actors. It is, however, difficult for states and political actors to manage environmental problems by traditional forms and instruments, due to the complex character of the problems. Therefore, environmental organisations take (...) their own initiatives to participate in policy-making by developing new forms, within new arenas, with the help of new instruments. Special attention is paid to the possibilities of identifying and developing constructive roles in relation to other actors and institutions as well as the capacity to organise standardisation projects and to mobilise and make use of power resources such as symbolic capital and knowledge. In order to interpret characteristics and implications of standardisation strategies, I draw on the ecological modernisation perspective. Empirically, I refer to the role of Swedish environmental organisations in standardisation projects such as eco-labelling. (shrink)

Guidelines provided by the Director of Public Prosecutions suggest that anyone assisting another to commit suicide in England and Wales, or elsewhere, will not be prosecuted provided there are no self-seeking motives and no active encouragement. This reflects the position in Switzerland. There, however, no difference is made between assistance and inducement. In addition, the Swiss approach makes it possible to establish organisations to assist the suicides of both their citizens and foreign visitors. It should not be assumed that (...) this approach is without controversy in Switzerland. Proposals for reform continue to be debated there, not least because of the concern about some of the actual practices of certain end-of-life organisations. It is likely that a few English citizens will continue to avail themselves of these services in Switzerland if they cannot find the help they require here. This paper explores the legitimacy of the current restrictive position adopted towards assisted suicide in England. It argues that the provisions within the guidelines prohibiting organisations that assist suicides, leaves some without the help they need. While legislative decriminalisation of assisted suicide and the establishment of state-sponsored suicide centres would represent the most permissive regime, this paper proposes that this would be a step too far. The preference here is for decriminalisation but adopting a ‘middle way’ between the two extremes: the more permissive approach provided by the ‘Swiss model’ is one that could be employed here, albeit within a more robust regulatory regime. (shrink)

John Searle has mistakenly claimed that emergence is the central concept in the account of social ontology defended by Tony Lawson, the central figure in the project now regularly referred to as Cambridge Social Ontology. This is not the case. Rather, if any concept can be considered central for Lawson, it is organisation. In this paper, I explain how Searle could misunderstand Lawson and, in doing so, I bring out the importance of organisation for understanding how phenomena, both social and (...) non-social, are constituted. (shrink)

The duty to protect patient welfare underpins undergraduate medical ethics and patient safety teaching. The current syllabus for patient safety emphasises the significance of organisational contribution to healthcare failures. However, the ongoing over-reliance on whistleblowing disproportionately emphasises individual contributions, alongside promoting a culture of blame and defensiveness among practitioners. Diane Vaughan’s ‘Normalisation of Deviance’ provides a counterpoise to such individualism, describing how signals of potential danger are collectively misinterpreted and incorporated into the accepted margins of safe operation. NoD is an (...) insidious process that often goes unnoticed, thus minimising the efficacy of whistleblowing as a defence against inevitable disaster. In this paper, we illustrate what can be learnt by greater attention to the collective, organisational contributions to healthcare failings by applying NoD to The Morecambe Bay Investigation. By focusing on a cluster of five ‘serious untoward incidents’ occurring in 2008, we describe a cycle of NoD affecting trust handling of events that allowed poor standards of care to persist for several years, before concluding with a poignant example of the limitations of whistleblowing, whereby the raising of concerns by a senior consultant failed to generate a response at trust board level. We suggest that greater space in medical education is needed to develop a thorough understanding of the cultural and organisational processes that underpin healthcare failures, and that medical education would benefit from integrating the teaching of medical ethics and patient safety to resolve the tension between systems approaches to safety and the individualism of whistleblowing. Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. (shrink)

Theorists of democratic multiculturalism have long-defended individuals’ religious exemptions from generally-applicable laws. Examples include Sikhs being exempt from motorcycle helmet laws, or Jews and Muslims being exempt from humane animal slaughter laws. This paper investigates religious exemptions for organisations. Should organisations ever be granted exemptions from generally-applicable laws in democratic societies, where those exemptions are justified by the organisation’s religion? The paper considers four arguments for this, which respectively rely on: the ‘transferring up’ to organisations of individuals’ (...) claims to autonomy or recognition; organisations’ own claims to autonomy or recognition; organisations’ status in the accountability-community; and organisations’ procedural constraints. The paper concludes that only the last argument works—and then, only with caveats. (shrink)

Public or stakeholder participation in environmental governance has been strongly advocated within the United Nations (UN) since the early 1990s. A relatively new mechanism for global climate finance that emphasises stakeholder engagement is the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a UN strategy for channelling funds from the Global North to the Global South. Drawing on previous critical approaches to multi-stakeholder involvement in global governance, this article explores stakeholder involvement within the GCF. The study combines ideas from institutional logics and resource dependency (...) to provide a better understanding of how stakeholder arrangements are shaped in climate organisations. Results show that the GCF stakeholder arrangement favours private sector stakeholders – stakeholders that take a technical and apolitical approach to climate finance – and disfavours smaller, less resourceful stakeholders as well as those who perform a politicised watchdog function. (shrink)

Organised crime is chameleonic in nature. It is transnational, dynamic, overlapped criminal activities and pervasive in nature. In the same way, money laundering is the predicate offence and it is naturally linked to other organised crimes. After the cold war, this nexus culminated during the occurrence of 9/11 in particular which was a lethal combination of money laundering and terrorist financing. This combination is currently being experienced by Pakistan; where various terrorist groups are involved with direct and indirect support of (...) proceeds from drug trafficking, assassination, land grabbing, arms smuggling and various other organised crimes routing through the abusage of financial and non-financial channels and support to terrorism. This has left serious socio-politico and economic consequences in the south Asian region and global as well. The researcher found very limited evidence of money laundering characteristics in the existing research literature on Pakistan. Thus to carry out research work on the subject was need of the hour in Pakistan. This led the researcher to find out root causes and existing weaknesses at the regime’s end in countering financial crime and financing of terrorism. (shrink)

The aims of this study were to investigate what kinds of personal work goals managers have and whether ethical organisational culture is related to these goals. The sample consisted of 811 Finnish managers from different organisations, in middle and upper management levels, aged 25–68 years. Eight work-related goal content categories were found based on the managers self-reported goals: (1) organisational goals (35.4 %), (2) competence goals (26.1 %), (3) well-being goals (12.1 %), (4) career-ending goals (7.3 %), (5) progression (...) goals (6.8 %), (6) prestige/influence goals (4.2 %), (7) job change goals (4.2 %) and (8) employment contract goals (3.9 %). Ethical organisational culture operated as a context for personal goal setting: Those managers who evaluated their organisational culture as more ethical were more likely to report organisational goals (e.g. goals toward the success or performance of the organisation). However, if managers gave lower ratings regarding ethical culture, then they named job change and career-ending goals in more cases. Therefore, investing into ethical virtues of the organisational culture can promote managers’ personal work goals, which also benefit the organisation. (shrink)

Cette étude s’insère dans une recherche-action ethnométhodologique sur la vie des pères et de mères divorcés. Dans le groupe étudié, après le divorce, hommes et femmes ont connu un vécu parental différent, qui tient sans doute à une répartition différenciée des rôles pendant la vie conjugale. La co-parentalité subsiste après séparation, ce qui entraîne la persistance d’un lien et requiert la mise en place délicate d’une juste distance. Ce qui, corollairement, rend plus difficile le deuil de la relation conjugale, l’ex-conjoint (...) restant présent à travers les enfants. (shrink)

This paper explores the possible impact of the recent legal developments on organizational whistleblowing on the autonomy and responsibility of whistleblowers. In the past thirty years numerous pieces of legislation have been passed to offer protection to whistleblowers from retaliation for disclosing organisational wrongdoing. An area that remains uncertain in relation to whistleblowing and its related policies in organisations, is whether these policies actually increase the individualisation of work, allowing employees to behave in accordance with their conscience and in (...) line with societal expectations or whether they are another management tool to control employees and protect organisations from them. The assumptions of whistleblower protection with regard to moral autonomy are examined in order to clarify the purpose of whistleblower protection at work. The two extreme positions in the discourse of whistleblowing are that whistleblowing legislation and policies either aim to enable individual responsibility and moral autonomy at work, or they aim to protect organisations by allowing them to control employees and make them liable for ethics at work. (shrink)

To understand the mind, we need to draw equally on the fields of cognitive science and neuroscience. But these two fields have very separate intellectual roots, and very different styles. So how can these two be reconciled in order to develop a full understanding of the mind and brain.This is the focus of this landmark new book.

This paper argues that biological organisation can be legitimately conceived of as an intrinsically teleological causal regime. The core of the argument consists in establishing a connection between organisation and teleology through the concept of self-determination: biological organisation determines itself in the sense that the effects of its activity contribute to determine its own conditions of existence. We suggest that not any kind of circular regime realises self-determination, which should be specifically understood as self-constraint: in biological systems, in particular, self-constraint (...) takes the form of closure, i.e. a network of mutually dependent constitutive constraints. We then explore the occurrence of intrinsic teleology in the biological domain and beyond. On the one hand, the organisational account might possibly concede that supra-organismal biological systems could realise closure, and hence be teleological. On the other hand, the realisation of closure beyond the biological realm appears to be highly unlikely. In turn, the occurrence of simpler forms of self-determination remains a controversial issue, in particular with respect to the case of self-organising dissipative systems. (shrink)

How can organisations survive not only the substitution of members, but also other dramatic changes, like that of the norms regulating their activities, the goals they plan to achieve, or the system of roles that compose them? This paper is as first step towards a well-founded ontological analysis of the persistence of organisations through changes. Our analysis leverages Kit Fine’s notions of rigid and variable embodiment and proposes to view the (history of the) decisions made by the members (...) of the organisation as the criterion to re-identify the organisation through change. (shrink)

The article discusses the philosophy of sportive existence, as put forward by Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. Ortega is widely recognized as the major figure in Hispanic philosophy in the 20th century. Sports are an integral aspect of Ortega's philosophical output, both as aids toward understanding more general issues in ontology and philosophical anthropology and as explicit topics for reflection and analysis in and of themselves. Issues to do with sports and the sportive aspects of life were central to (...) Ortega's reflections on the nature of the human condition. Ortega argued that in many ways, the figure of the sportsperson represented more than any other symbol the human being's quintessence. (shrink)

Le Bureau international des poids et mesures fait partie en 1940 des quelques organisations intergouvernementales dont le siège est en zone occupée. Pendant toute la durée de la guerre, il est soumis à la pression du _Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich_ (MbF), le commandement militaire allemand, et entretient des relations continues avec le gouvernement de Vichy et de nombreuses institutions françaises. Cette contribution a pour ambition d’apporter une vue d’ensemble sur l’histoire de cette organisation sous l’Occupation en analysant son fonctionnement et (...) ses points d’appui dans ce contexte particulier. Elle examinera la trajectoire de son directeur, Albert Pérard (1880-1960), et de son réseau, les stratégies déployées pour s’adapter aux contraintes de la période et plus généralement pour maintenir une coopération scientifique à l’échelle internationale dans un monde fracturé par la guerre et une Europe sous domination nazie. Quelles conséquences de la « parenthèse Vichy » peuvent-elle... (shrink)

The last decade and a half has seen an ardent development of self-organised criticality, a new approach to complex systems, which has become important in many domains of natural as well as social science, such as geology, biology, astronomy, and economics, to mention just a few. This has led many to adopt a generalist stance towards SOC, which is now repeatedly claimed to be a universal theory of complex behaviour. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, I provide a (...) brief and non-technical introduction to SOC. Second, I critically discuss the various bold claims that have been made in connection with it. Throughout, I will adopt a rather sober attitude and argue that some people have been too readily carried away by fancy contentions. My overall conclusion will be that none of these bold claims can be maintained. Nevertheless, stripped of exaggerated expectations and daring assertions, many SOC models are interesting vehicles for promising scientific research.Author Keywords: Self-organised criticality; Scaling law; Models; Formal analogy. (shrink)

Measuring outcomes using quantitative analytic methods is the hallmark of scientific research in healthcare. For clinical ethics support services (CESS), tangible outcome metrics are lacking and literature examining CESS quality is limited to evaluation of single cases or the influence on individual healthcare professional’s perceptions or behaviour. This represents an enormous barrier to implementing and evaluating ethics initiatives to improve quality. In this context, Kok _et al_ propose a theoretical framework for how moral case deliberation (MCD) can drive quality at (...) an organisational-level, termed _morisprudence_ 1. By offering mechanistic insights into how MCD can lead to organisational learning and quality improvement (QI), they provide a roadmap for actionable items to measure quality. As conceptualised, _morisprudence_ follows accumulation of organisational practical wisdom from a repertoire of ‘paradigmatic’ MCDs, aiding identification of patterns of morally important features. Here, there are parallels between healthcare professionals’ clinical judgement, where past experience... (shrink)

There is presently considerable interest in the phenomenon of "self-organisation" in dynamical systems. The rough idea of self-organisation is that a structure appears "by itself in a dynamical system, with reasonably high probability, in a reasonably short time, with no help from a special initial state, or interaction with an external system. What is often missed, however, is that the standard evolutionary account of the origin of multi-cellular life fits this definition, so that higher living organisms are also products of (...) self-organisation. Very few kinds of object can selforganise, and the question of what such objects are like is a suitable mathematical problem. Extending the familiar notion of algorithmic complexity into the context of dynamical systems, we obtain a notion of "dynamical complexity". A simple theorem then shows that only objects of very low dynamical complexity can self organise, so that living organisms must be of low dynamical complexity. On the other hand, symmetry considerations suggest that living organisms are highly complex, relative to the dynamical laws, due to their large size and high degree of irregularity. In particular, it is shown that since dynamical laws operate locally, and do not vary across space and time, they cannot produce any specific large and irregular structure with high probability in a short time. These arguments suggest that standard evolutionary theories of the origin of higher organisms are incomplete. (shrink)

This book addresses how people and organisations sometimes respond to uncertainty in making decisions. Those decisions are rooted in beliefs and behaviours that are not always rational, especially in response to perceived randomness, chaos and unexpected circumstances. The author uses a transdisciplinary approach to the study of superstition in the context of business and management, taking care to acknowledge that what is regarded as superstition to one person may well be constructed as a spiritual belief by another. Respect and (...) sensitivity in explicating individual and social constructions of spirituality is a core value in structuring the narrative of the text. The work also explores the interwoven relationships amongst superstition, religion, spirituality and empiricism and how cultural, political, economic and environmental factors are likely to influence organisations and those who are employed by them. Further, it examines the influence of beliefs related to topics such as feng shui, astrology, phrenology and the I Ching in recruitment. This comprehensive treatment of the role of superstition in business will advance the scholarly conversation on uncertainty in decision making. It points to the power of belief that defies empirical validation and how it can be used in a variety of contexts, such as the marketing of products and images to manipulate unwary consumers or inhibit the implementation of health advice in times of COVID-19. (shrink)

The original intent of business education in America focused on the development of professional managers who would look after the interests of society. As economic and shareholder theories influenced business education, firm performance became the manager’s top – if not only – priority. The economic responsibility of the firm also appears to be dominating scholarly interest in organisations as well. However, business firms constitute part of the fabric of society and closer attention should be paid by organisation researchers to (...) the social responsibilities of the firm. In doing so, a more balanced research approach can be achieved. In this article, we give evidence that research within the study of the organisation, specifically in the field of management, has predominately turned its attention to the economic responsibility of the firm. We close by demonstrating that other fields within organisation research also appear to be favouring the study of performance and we offer suggestions as to how scholars might better address the firm’s role in society beyond its economic responsibility. (shrink)