Sociology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2804
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Item Innovation as Group Process: Hierarchy, Status, and the Dilemma of Participative Leadership(2010) Huey, Wesley Scott; Lucas, Jeffrey W.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations that are characterized by vertical authority structures, where decisions are made and implemented through a clear chain-of-command, are commonly seen as less responsive, less innovative, and less dynamic than organizations that have authority distributed more horizontally. This study takes aim at this presumption by miniaturizing authority structures to the level of the group, where group process theory can be marshaled to predict, measure, and assess outcomes for group innovation in an experimental setting. Using status theory, I propose that hierarchical groups will be more rather than less innovative than egalitarian groups. I conduct an experimental test by manipulating hierarchy in groups instructed to complete a common task, with outcomes mapped to innovative performance. Findings show that hierarchical groups are actually no more, and no less, innovative than egalitarian groups. Irrespective of authority structure, innovation appears to be most likely in groups in which a clear leader emerges who makes others in the group feel like her equal during group interaction. Other findings are presented to explain the apparent no-effect of authority structure on innovation. I will show that status processes advantage each type of group differently with respect to innovation. Hierarchical groups are advantaged by the presence of a clear leader; egalitarian groups are advantaged by the participative interaction that comes naturally to status peers. But the two conditions must occur together to maximize the likelihood for innovation, and this poses a problem for groups who seek to innovate, because status dynamics that promote one of the conditions undercut the status dynamics that promote the other. In egalitarian groups, when authority seekers try to take charge and lead, participative interaction is endangered because members resent the status move. In hierarchical groups, when higher ranking members act participatively, group leadership is contested because others feel empowered to take charge. Each group type therefore faces a dilemma of participative leadership, and because the dilemma is reversed across group types, the net effect of authority structure on innovation is no apparent effect. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.Item "Walking Around Like a Panda Bear": Feelings of Stigma among Nontraditional-Age Students(2007-12-10) Norris, Dawn Rebecca; Milkie, Melissa A.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Conceptions of the creation and maintenance of stigma center on interactions and the role of external feedback. Substantive work on stigmatized groups illustrates that cognitions play a role in stigma development, but does not use a social psychological approach to examine this systematically. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 undergraduates age 25 and older to highlight the role of cognition in stigma maintenance, even in situations in which there is little or no negative feedback. Results show that, even in the absence of negative feedback, reflected appraisals and social comparisons produce three aspects of stigma - a sense of: 1) standing out; 2) exclusion; and 3) others' negative evaluation of them. Results show that social comparisons maintain and moderate stigma. Results highlight the importance of cognition in the maintenance of stigma. Implications for studying stigmatized groups, such as racial minorities and the physically disabled, are discussed.Item Institutional Involvement and the Mental Health Effects of Perceived Neighborhood Disorder in Old Age: The Role of Personal and Divine Control(2007-04-23) Bierman, Alex; Milkie, Melissa A.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous research has shown that perceptions of neighborhood disorder are related to increased levels of psychological distress. Neighborhood disorder may be especially salient for older adults because the transitions associated with aging heighten the salience of the neighborhood as an arena for social interaction. A stress-process perspective suggests that the effects of neighborhood disorder on mental health may be indirect, and mediated through harm in elders' self-concepts, but also that the structural arrangements in which individuals are embedded may protect elder's mental health by protecting the self. I add to this perspective by focusing on engagement in family and religious institutions as primary indications of enmeshment in the structural arrangements of society. Using a longitudinal study of older adults, I examine whether marriage prevents the mental health effects of perceived neighborhood disorder by protecting mastery, and whether attendance at religious services and prayer protect elders' mental health by preventing loss of a second type of perceived control, sense of divine control. Results show that marriage prevents the effects of neighborhood disorder on depression and anger by preventing a loss of mastery. Further, losses in mastery strengthen the effects of neighborhood disorder on mental health, but only for women and the less educated. Neighborhood disorder is also related to loss of sense of divine control, but only for elders with greater levels of education, and religious involvement helps prevent these effects. However, this moderation provides no mental health benefits, and change in sense of divine control does not alter the relationship between neighborhood disorder and mental health. A primary contribution of this dissertation is that it places the effects of perceived neighborhood disorder in a larger structural context by demonstrating that they are contingent on engagement in the social structures which pattern human behavior and sustain the structure of society.Item PEACEKEEPING PARTICIPATION AND IDENTITY CHANGES IN THE JAPAN SELF DEFENSE FORCES:MILITARY SERVICE AS 'DIRTY WORK'(2005-08-04) Kurashina, Yuko; Segal, David R; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines (a) how a professional organization dealing with 'dirty work' (Hughes 1951, 1958) shape organizational practices and professional identity of its members in the process of seeking legitimacy and (b) how adaptation to a new task transforms these micro-institutional dynamics in the organization based on a case study of the Japan Self Defense Forces (SDF) and their peacekeeping participation. I utilize in-depth interviews with approximately 30 Japanese service members and survey data from 618 Japanese peacekeepers. Given an anti-militaristic culture in society and Constitutional restrictions against the possession of military power, the SDF have been developed as a constabulary military with limited legitimacy. Lack of legitimacy led the SDF to use symbolic management strategies to gain legitimacy, but their attempt unexpectedly put the organization into a 'vicious circle of legitimation' (Ashforth and Kreiner 1999), in which the aggressive attempt to pursue legitimacy aggravated skepticism of the observers and failed to increase legitimacy. Nonetheless, the SDF survived as a dirty work organization to protect the purity of the larger society. Contexualized by these institutional environments, service members have developed highly constabulary, less masculine, and civilianized identities. Since the early 1990s peacekeeping participation combined with the transformation of the work force structure has gradually lifted dirty work status of the SDF and provided service members with positive possible selves in their professional life. Regardless, the stigmatized status continues to regularize service members' behavior and professional identities. Increasing exposure to soldiers from other nations underscores their marginal position as military professionals. Japanese peacekeepers systematically focus on technical aspects to neutralize the militaristic nature of the contact. Moreover, the stringent rules of engagement (ROE) institutionalized by the anti-militarism sentiment in Japanese society help the SDF to maintain the consistency with the existing norms on the exercise of military power. At the same time, these imposed behavioral norms promote the fundamentally troubling, crisis-bearing arrangements that may routinize harmful practice and risk the safety of service members in the field. This dissertation contributes to the study of work organizations by illustrating the meaning creation and negotiation of identity in the micro-institutional dynamics in a socially stigmatized professional organization.Item Reinsert Life Stories: A Description of the Colombian Ex-Guerrillas´Life-Course From a Sociological Perspective(2005-06-03) Florez-Morris, Mauricio; Milkie, Melissa; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation describes the life histories of 42 former left-wing Colombian guerrilla members of the M-19, ELP, and CRS. These reinserts' life course experiences are investigated using a descriptive, life course approach and a qualitative methodology. These life courses are studied in the form of personal life course trajectories that are influenced by the individual (or his or her human agency) and by social circumstances (linked lives, locations in time and place, and timing of lives). Three stages in the reinserts' life course involving the key transitions into and out of the movement are investigated. The first stage, acquiring a rebel identity, involves leaving civilian life and joining a guerrilla movement. Becoming a member of the insurgency is the first turning point in the reinserts' life course. The study identifies seven factors that influence the subjects' decision to enter these groups: (1) family, (2) peers, (3) conflict escalation, (4) generational imprint, (5) biographical availability, (6) individual ideology, and (7) desire to improve economic and social status in the community. The second stage consists of reinserts' adoption and maintenance of their guerrilla identity. Four factors that influenced subjects' staying in the group were: (1) heavy dependence on the group, (2) shared values, (3) clandestine behaviors, and (4) the influence of the group on the subjects' self-identity. The third stage occurs when the subjects undergo the transformation from guerrilla to reinsert status. This involves first leaving the guerrilla movement and then abandoning the political party, AD-M19. This third stage involves a second turning point in the reinserts' life course where first military and then political activities are abandoned. Factors that influenced the subjects' decision to abandon political activities were: (1) the individual's perception that he or she did not matter to the group, (2) an increase in social obligations due to new roles in civilian society, (3) the stigma associated with being a reinsert, (4) political violence against reinserts, and (5) the stripping away of representative functions which had been carried out by the political party.Item Civilianization of the Military: Social-Psychological Effects of Integrating Civilians and Military Personnel(2005-05-25) Kelty, Ryan D.; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The U.S. Federal government is increasingly civilianizing the military as a manpower management strategy. Combining military personnel with civilians creates a bifurcated work setting resulting in differential structural and environmental job characteristic between service members and civilians. Analyses of the process and outcomes of Federal civilianization of the military have focused predominantly on economic outcomes and have failed to confirm or refute its effectiveness as a management strategy. In this study I argue that social-psychological outcomes must be considered in evaluating the effects of military civilianization. Data gathered from case studies of the Navy and Army are path analyzed to determine the direct and indirect effects of two civilianization variables on retention intentions. Sailors and soldiers report feeling relatively deprived compared to the civilians with whom they work. For sailors, but not soldiers, these feelings of deprivation decrease with level of contact with civilians. Soldiers and sailors report being satisfied with their jobs, but less satisfied than their civilian co-workers. Civilians are significantly more committed to their employers than service members are committed to the military. While at least 75% of the civilians in each case study lean toward or plan to stay with their current employer, just over a third of service personnel expressed positive intentions to remain with the military. Social comparisons significantly and negatively impact sailors' and soldiers' intentions to remain in military service past current enlistment obligations, but this effect is only indirect through job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Neither level of contact nor social comparisons with civilians have a significant direct effect on intention to remain in service for military personnel. Consistent with prior research, job satisfaction significantly increases organizational commitment, which, in turn, significantly increases retention intentions. Civilian mariner data indicate that social comparisons did not directly or indirectly affect retention intentions. Though sample size limited the ability to path analyze the data from the Army civilian contractors, correlation analysis suggests that similar patterns among variables are present in terms of direction and magnitude of the partial correlation coefficients. Implications of these results and recommendations for future research are discussed.