New Article: Klein & Shimoni-Hershkoviz, Privatization and Competition in the Education System

Klein, Joseph, and Lizi Shimoni-Hershkoviz. “The Contribution of Privatization and Competition in the Education System to the Development of an Informal Management Culture in Schools. A Case Study in Israel.” International Journal of Educational Management 30.4 (2016).

 

URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJEM-08-2014-0113

 

Abstract

Regulation and privatization of education systems has led to a “league standing” mentality regarding school achievements. The present study examines how school principals deal with the pressures of competition and achievements while aspiring to imbue pupils with values and a broad education. 12 high school principals were interviewed about external demands imposed on them, their educational policy and modes of operation. Publicly, school supervisors advocate a balance between core studies and education for values and enrichment. Informally they pressure principals to allocate maximal resources to preparing for high risk tests at the expense of other educational activities. School administrators and teachers, while dissatisfied with this approach, maintain a covert informal culture that concentrates mainly on external test achievements, which contrasts to their public value-rich educational vision, and undertake actions that raise educational, management and ethical questions. Placing the schools’ informal culture on the research agenda will increase institutional transparency and may contribute to a greater correspondence between school visions advocating knowledge and values, and the policy actually implemented. Raising this subject for discussion may contribute to a demand for more transparency in how schools allocate their resources. It may also help to increase the correspondence between the values and vision promulgated by schools and the educational policy they actually implement.

 

 

 

New Article: Swed and Butler, Military Capital in the Israeli Hi-tech Industry

Swed, Ori, and John Sibley Butler. “Military Capital in the Israeli Hi-tech Industry.” Armed Forces & Society 41.1 (2015): 123-41.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327X13499562

 

Abstract

The unique relations between the Israeli-armed forces and the local hi-tech industry have been identified as a strong explanatory variable for the Israeli hi-tech boom. This article highlights the role of the military as a socialization institution in those relations. We identify how the accumulation of “military capital” during military in service contributes to soldiers as veterans and employees in the hi-tech sector. Military service brings with it professional training, social ties, and social codes that influence the composition of the hi-tech workforce and hi-tech industry’s organizational and functional culture. Examination of Israeli hi-tech workers’ profiles reveals not only a very high proportion of military capital amongst the employees but also an institutional preference for those who possess it.

New Article: Moskovich and Achouch, Metamorphosis of a Kibbutz Industry

Moskovich, Yaffa, and Yuval Achouch. “Metamorphosis of a Kibbutz Industry: An Israeli Case Study.” EuroMed Journal of Business 10.2 (2015): 181-97.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-08-2014-0023

 

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on a current trend in kibbutz industries, and to examine the numerous changes at Millennium Industries.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was carried out documenting the organizational biography of Millennium Industries. Ethnographic interviews were held with kibbutz members employed by the organization, former CEO’s and with other workers.

Findings

The research describes the life cycle of the plant from its beginnings, through its maturity, its growth until its decline. It also explains the organizational failure of the plant, in terms of its background and the difficulties of managing a kibbutz industry in an era of global economy. The causes of its decline stem mainly from a kibbutz-style management based on non-professional involvement of the community in business, and incompatible with the rough competition of capitalistic markets. The plant was finally sold to a private investor, thereby losing its identity as a kibbutz plant.

Research limitations/implications

As a single case-study this research cannot pretend to statistical generalization of the findings but linked to the kibbutz and the organizational literature, findings seem to allow generalization of theoretical propositions concerning evolution of the kibbutz industry (an analytic generalization according to Yin, 2013).

Originality/value

While the kibbutz society and its industry are involved in deep changes for the two last decades, very little research was made on kibbutz industry. This paper should contribute to actualize the social knowledge about these specific and interesting phenomena.

New Article: Marcus, Military Innovation and Tactical Adaptation in the Israel–Hizballah Conflict

Marcus, Raphael D. “Military Innovation and Tactical Adaptation in the Israel–Hizballah Conflict: The Institutionalization of Lesson-Learning in the IDF.” Journal of Strategic Studies 38.4 (2015): 500-28.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2014.923767

 

Abstract

This article highlights a pattern of military adaptation and tactical problem-solving utilized by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while engaged in protracted conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hizballah. It discusses the IDF’s recent attempts to institutionalize their historically intuitive process of ad-hoc learning by developing a formal tactical-level mechanism for ‘knowledge management’. The diffusion of this battlefield lesson-learning system that originated at lower-levels of the organization is examined, as well as its implementation and effectiveness during the 2006 Lebanon War. A nuanced analysis of IDF adaptation illustrates the dynamic interplay between both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ processes of military innovation.