Eric Lesser and Lawrence Prusak (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195165128
- eISBN:
- 9780199835751
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195165128.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
The mid-1990s saw the rise of an important movement: a recognition that organizational knowledge, in its various forms and attributes, could be an important source of competitive advantage in the ...
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The mid-1990s saw the rise of an important movement: a recognition that organizational knowledge, in its various forms and attributes, could be an important source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. Knowledge management has become one of the core competencies in today's competitive environment, where so much value in companies resides in their people, systems, and processes. This book examines a variety of important knowledge-related topics, some of which has been previously published in such journals as the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, and the Sloan Management Review, such as the use of informal networks, communities of practice, the impact of knowledge on successful alliances, social capital and trust, narrative and storytelling and the use of human intermediaries in the knowledge management process. The book includes contributions from such leading thinkers as Lawrence Prusak, Dorothy Leonard, Eric Lesser, Rob Cross, and David Snowden. This book synthesizes some of the best thinking by the IBM Institute for Knowledge-Based Organizations, a think tank whose research agenda focuses on the management methods for deriving tangible business value from knowledge management and their real-world application.Less
The mid-1990s saw the rise of an important movement: a recognition that organizational knowledge, in its various forms and attributes, could be an important source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. Knowledge management has become one of the core competencies in today's competitive environment, where so much value in companies resides in their people, systems, and processes. This book examines a variety of important knowledge-related topics, some of which has been previously published in such journals as the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, and the Sloan Management Review, such as the use of informal networks, communities of practice, the impact of knowledge on successful alliances, social capital and trust, narrative and storytelling and the use of human intermediaries in the knowledge management process. The book includes contributions from such leading thinkers as Lawrence Prusak, Dorothy Leonard, Eric Lesser, Rob Cross, and David Snowden. This book synthesizes some of the best thinking by the IBM Institute for Knowledge-Based Organizations, a think tank whose research agenda focuses on the management methods for deriving tangible business value from knowledge management and their real-world application.
Maryjane Osa
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199251780
- eISBN:
- 9780191599057
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199251789.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Explores changes in the informal networks of overlapping memberships between opposition organizations in Poland between the 1960s and the 1980s. When civic organizations are subject to severe ...
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Explores changes in the informal networks of overlapping memberships between opposition organizations in Poland between the 1960s and the 1980s. When civic organizations are subject to severe constraints, as in Communist regimes, informal networks are particularly important as alternative sources of resources. There, networks not only operate as micro‐mobilization contexts but also provide the basic infrastructure for civil society. The chapter explicitly takes the time dimension into account, using individual affiliations to chart the evolution of networks over time, and offering an accurate reconstruction of changes in the Polish political system and the emergence of a strong democratization movement.Less
Explores changes in the informal networks of overlapping memberships between opposition organizations in Poland between the 1960s and the 1980s. When civic organizations are subject to severe constraints, as in Communist regimes, informal networks are particularly important as alternative sources of resources. There, networks not only operate as micro‐mobilization contexts but also provide the basic infrastructure for civil society. The chapter explicitly takes the time dimension into account, using individual affiliations to chart the evolution of networks over time, and offering an accurate reconstruction of changes in the Polish political system and the emergence of a strong democratization movement.
Ben Hillman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804789363
- eISBN:
- 9780804791618
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789363.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Chapter Four examines the hidden sinews of political power in the local state by examining the role of patronage networks in county and prefecture government. The chapter explains the origin of ...
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Chapter Four examines the hidden sinews of political power in the local state by examining the role of patronage networks in county and prefecture government. The chapter explains the origin of patronage networks in Poshan, tracing the configuration of present-day networks to the early post-Mao years of decentralization and economic reform. While analysts have long been aware of the importance of personalistic ties and informal networks at the elite national level of Chinese politics, this is one of the first studies to systematically examine the origins, structure, and function of patronage networks within the local state. Despite often being seen as a parasite on the formal institutions of state, in a political system characterized by fragmented authority and personal power relations rules, patronage networks play a vital role in bureaucratic coordination and in maintaining order through the informal regulation of political competition.Less
Chapter Four examines the hidden sinews of political power in the local state by examining the role of patronage networks in county and prefecture government. The chapter explains the origin of patronage networks in Poshan, tracing the configuration of present-day networks to the early post-Mao years of decentralization and economic reform. While analysts have long been aware of the importance of personalistic ties and informal networks at the elite national level of Chinese politics, this is one of the first studies to systematically examine the origins, structure, and function of patronage networks within the local state. Despite often being seen as a parasite on the formal institutions of state, in a political system characterized by fragmented authority and personal power relations rules, patronage networks play a vital role in bureaucratic coordination and in maintaining order through the informal regulation of political competition.
Kiril Tomoff
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780801444111
- eISBN:
- 9781501730023
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801444111.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter addresses the ubiquitous unofficial networks, primarily of patronage, that permeated the official bureaucracy. In the 1930s and 1940s, an elaborate bureaucratic apparatus emerged to ...
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This chapter addresses the ubiquitous unofficial networks, primarily of patronage, that permeated the official bureaucracy. In the 1930s and 1940s, an elaborate bureaucratic apparatus emerged to administer the production and performance of music in the Soviet Union and provide for the material well-being of the musicians who produced and performed that music. For the second of these tasks, a subsidiary system of material support grew up within the bureaucracy. However, the official bureaucracy and related resource allocation institutions could not fulfill their respective tasks. As such, on a case-by-case basis, individuals could and did utilize unofficial networks to facilitate their negotiations through the official bureaucracy. At the same time, the existence of unofficial networks was a continual source of suspicion for those outside each one. The entire music system cannot be understood without coming to grips with the significance of these informal networks.Less
This chapter addresses the ubiquitous unofficial networks, primarily of patronage, that permeated the official bureaucracy. In the 1930s and 1940s, an elaborate bureaucratic apparatus emerged to administer the production and performance of music in the Soviet Union and provide for the material well-being of the musicians who produced and performed that music. For the second of these tasks, a subsidiary system of material support grew up within the bureaucracy. However, the official bureaucracy and related resource allocation institutions could not fulfill their respective tasks. As such, on a case-by-case basis, individuals could and did utilize unofficial networks to facilitate their negotiations through the official bureaucracy. At the same time, the existence of unofficial networks was a continual source of suspicion for those outside each one. The entire music system cannot be understood without coming to grips with the significance of these informal networks.
Peter Hart
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208068
- eISBN:
- 9780191677892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208068.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses why people joined the Volunteers and how some of the Volunteers became guerrillas, exploring the experiences, networks, and loyalties that shaped them. Volunteers regarded ...
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This chapter discusses why people joined the Volunteers and how some of the Volunteers became guerrillas, exploring the experiences, networks, and loyalties that shaped them. Volunteers regarded their political commitment as completely natural and their motives as self-evident, requiring little reflection. The political beliefs of the early Volunteers were not significantly different from those of their peers. Opposition to martial law, military recruitment, and conscription and dissatisfaction with the Irish Party were almost universal in Cork after 1916. For the majority of them, the decision to join was collective rather than individual and rooted more in local communities and networks rather than in ideology. Young men joined the organization together with family members and friendship groups. Such informal networks and bonds gave the I.R.A. a cohesion that its formal structure could never produce. On the other hand, Volunteer units also inherited the local rivalries, factionalism, and territoriality that went with these loyalties.Less
This chapter discusses why people joined the Volunteers and how some of the Volunteers became guerrillas, exploring the experiences, networks, and loyalties that shaped them. Volunteers regarded their political commitment as completely natural and their motives as self-evident, requiring little reflection. The political beliefs of the early Volunteers were not significantly different from those of their peers. Opposition to martial law, military recruitment, and conscription and dissatisfaction with the Irish Party were almost universal in Cork after 1916. For the majority of them, the decision to join was collective rather than individual and rooted more in local communities and networks rather than in ideology. Young men joined the organization together with family members and friendship groups. Such informal networks and bonds gave the I.R.A. a cohesion that its formal structure could never produce. On the other hand, Volunteer units also inherited the local rivalries, factionalism, and territoriality that went with these loyalties.
Anna L. Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501724374
- eISBN:
- 9781501724381
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501724374.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
In 2009, the Russian government launched a much-publicized new initiative to tackle excessive alcohol consumption. This has subsequently been presented in simplistic terms as a top–down ...
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In 2009, the Russian government launched a much-publicized new initiative to tackle excessive alcohol consumption. This has subsequently been presented in simplistic terms as a top–down implementation of policy, imposed in the national interest to preserve the nation’s health in face of the ravages inflicted by widespread alcohol abuse. The book challenges this widely accepted narrative, by showing how policy more commonly results from the competitive interactions of stakeholders with vested interests – with the state itself divided. Rather than a benevolent public health agenda, the interests in vodka production of some of Putin’s closest cronies provides a hidden explanatory factor behind increasingly harsh regulation of beer in Russia. The book uses the lens of alcohol policy to examine the complex kleptocracy in the Russian political economy, and to show how informal power networks can undermine formal state priorities. The analysis reveals the many ambivalences, informal practices and paradoxes that abound in contemporary Russian politics.Less
In 2009, the Russian government launched a much-publicized new initiative to tackle excessive alcohol consumption. This has subsequently been presented in simplistic terms as a top–down implementation of policy, imposed in the national interest to preserve the nation’s health in face of the ravages inflicted by widespread alcohol abuse. The book challenges this widely accepted narrative, by showing how policy more commonly results from the competitive interactions of stakeholders with vested interests – with the state itself divided. Rather than a benevolent public health agenda, the interests in vodka production of some of Putin’s closest cronies provides a hidden explanatory factor behind increasingly harsh regulation of beer in Russia. The book uses the lens of alcohol policy to examine the complex kleptocracy in the Russian political economy, and to show how informal power networks can undermine formal state priorities. The analysis reveals the many ambivalences, informal practices and paradoxes that abound in contemporary Russian politics.
Anna L. Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501724374
- eISBN:
- 9781501724381
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501724374.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The formal state ownership of alcohol production assets detailed in chapter 4 was far from the only way in which economic interests and alcohol policymaking collided under Putin. This chapter ...
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The formal state ownership of alcohol production assets detailed in chapter 4 was far from the only way in which economic interests and alcohol policymaking collided under Putin. This chapter provides a case study of the complex kleptocracy in the Russian political economy. The interests in vodka production of some of Putin’s closest cronies – and their perceived influence on state policy – are analysed in the context of sistema, the informal network-based system of governance in Russia through which allies of Putin are rewarded with business rents.Less
The formal state ownership of alcohol production assets detailed in chapter 4 was far from the only way in which economic interests and alcohol policymaking collided under Putin. This chapter provides a case study of the complex kleptocracy in the Russian political economy. The interests in vodka production of some of Putin’s closest cronies – and their perceived influence on state policy – are analysed in the context of sistema, the informal network-based system of governance in Russia through which allies of Putin are rewarded with business rents.
Barbara Bombi
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198729150
- eISBN:
- 9780191795879
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198729150.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, Political History
This chapter investigates how in the later Middle Ages the English crown also actively cultivated unofficial contacts at the papal curia thanks to networks of ‘friends’ and ‘protégés’. During the ...
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This chapter investigates how in the later Middle Ages the English crown also actively cultivated unofficial contacts at the papal curia thanks to networks of ‘friends’ and ‘protégés’. During the fourteenth century informal contacts between England and the Apostolic See supplemented administrative deficiencies, whereas the process of bureaucratization in both polities facilitated Anglo-papal diplomatic discourse. Three specific questions are answered in this chapter. First, who were the English crown’s contacts at the papal curia during the first half of the fourteenth century? Second, how did informal networks at the papal curia facilitate Anglo-papal diplomatic discourse, particularly during the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War? And finally, how did the English crown reward its ‘friends’ at the papal curia for their services?Less
This chapter investigates how in the later Middle Ages the English crown also actively cultivated unofficial contacts at the papal curia thanks to networks of ‘friends’ and ‘protégés’. During the fourteenth century informal contacts between England and the Apostolic See supplemented administrative deficiencies, whereas the process of bureaucratization in both polities facilitated Anglo-papal diplomatic discourse. Three specific questions are answered in this chapter. First, who were the English crown’s contacts at the papal curia during the first half of the fourteenth century? Second, how did informal networks at the papal curia facilitate Anglo-papal diplomatic discourse, particularly during the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War? And finally, how did the English crown reward its ‘friends’ at the papal curia for their services?
Geoffrey Finlayson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198227601
- eISBN:
- 9780191678752
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198227601.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book presents an analysis of social welfare in Britain from 1830 until the present day. The book explores the changing relationship between voluntarism and the state throughout this period, ...
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This book presents an analysis of social welfare in Britain from 1830 until the present day. The book explores the changing relationship between voluntarism and the state throughout this period, unravelling the complex interactions of government, commerce, and individuals. It examines the provision of welfare and the attitudes and beliefs surrounding it, in all its many guises, from Victorian private philanthropy and informal social networks to the collectivist ideals of the Welfare State and the convictions of Thatcherite individualism. This book is, in addition, an intellectual study of the concept of citizenship over the last two centuries, tracing developing notions of the duties and obligations implicit in the idea of the citizen, as well as the rights and entitlements.Less
This book presents an analysis of social welfare in Britain from 1830 until the present day. The book explores the changing relationship between voluntarism and the state throughout this period, unravelling the complex interactions of government, commerce, and individuals. It examines the provision of welfare and the attitudes and beliefs surrounding it, in all its many guises, from Victorian private philanthropy and informal social networks to the collectivist ideals of the Welfare State and the convictions of Thatcherite individualism. This book is, in addition, an intellectual study of the concept of citizenship over the last two centuries, tracing developing notions of the duties and obligations implicit in the idea of the citizen, as well as the rights and entitlements.
Susan L. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520286085
- eISBN:
- 9780520961463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520286085.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Chapter 5 extends the issues discussed in the previous two chapters and explores women’s use of informal and formal support networks. It also describes the structural challenges women confront, such ...
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Chapter 5 extends the issues discussed in the previous two chapters and explores women’s use of informal and formal support networks. It also describes the structural challenges women confront, such as their religious communities and/or the criminal justice system, as they move forward in the years following the termination of their abusive relationships.Less
Chapter 5 extends the issues discussed in the previous two chapters and explores women’s use of informal and formal support networks. It also describes the structural challenges women confront, such as their religious communities and/or the criminal justice system, as they move forward in the years following the termination of their abusive relationships.
Megan Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833520
- eISBN:
- 9781469604367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898352_sweeney.6
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter discusses the phrase “the Underground Book Railroad,” used to describe the informal networks through which prisoners share books. The Underground Book Railroad serves as a crucial ...
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This chapter discusses the phrase “the Underground Book Railroad,” used to describe the informal networks through which prisoners share books. The Underground Book Railroad serves as a crucial reminder of the historical continuities between slavery and incarceration, as well as the ongoing ways in which racial ideologies delimit conceptions of prisoners' humanity and capacity for change. The phrase also underscores the connections that reading can foster in prison—connections that sometimes trespass the boundaries separating incarcerated women from one another, from people outside prison, and from the world of ideas. Furthermore, the Underground Book Railroad evokes the imaginative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual ways in which reading allows some women to proceed to new destinations, even if they will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.Less
This chapter discusses the phrase “the Underground Book Railroad,” used to describe the informal networks through which prisoners share books. The Underground Book Railroad serves as a crucial reminder of the historical continuities between slavery and incarceration, as well as the ongoing ways in which racial ideologies delimit conceptions of prisoners' humanity and capacity for change. The phrase also underscores the connections that reading can foster in prison—connections that sometimes trespass the boundaries separating incarcerated women from one another, from people outside prison, and from the world of ideas. Furthermore, the Underground Book Railroad evokes the imaginative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual ways in which reading allows some women to proceed to new destinations, even if they will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
