Macabre ceremonies: How Los Zetas produces extreme violence to promote organizational cohesion

Why do some organized crime groups (OCGs) carry out face-to-face killings where perpetrators debase their victims and defile their bodies? Leading criminologists contend that OCGs carry out extreme killings deliberately to attain specific performance objectives. Conversely, psycho-sociological scholars argue that extreme killings only occur in situations that affect perpetrators’ reasoning and emotions. In their view, these situations are largely beyond OCGs’ control. I argue that analyzing extreme killings as organizational rituals can contribute to reconciling these seemingly conflicting views. More specifically, I contend that the OCG known as Los Zetas ritualizes executions to generate the conditions that make extreme violence possible. Through ritualization, Los Zetas influences executioners’ perceptions of extreme behavior from something abhorrent into something valued, desirable, and enjoyable. Once the conditions conducive to extreme violence emerge, Los Zetas exploits it to attain utilitarian objectives.

Islam and its role in the civilizational development of Côte d’Ivoire

The article analyzes the evolution of Islam in Côte d’Ivoire in the light of the profound changes that have taken place in the country since independence in 1960 and up to the present day. The author explores the reasons for the rapid increase in the number of Islamized residents compared to other West African countries, especially during the first 30 years of independent development. This was a period of awakening of the collective consciousness and organizational cohesion of Ivorian Muslims. The second stage, since the first multiparty elections in the early 1990s, is associated with the politicization of religion, with a new form of Islamic religious culture, especially in cities - proselytism. The tariqas, due to their lack of organization, play a secondary role in the modern history of the Muslim societies of Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, the modernization processes have further weakened their influence. Spiritual brotherhoods did not become a barrier to the spread of reformist teachings that were associated with Sunni Islam, a departure from Sufi spirituality. The reformist elite of the Ivorian Muslim community made extensive use of the Quranic concept of da'wa in their religious propaganda, with its ideology borrowed from the Arab-Islamic world. Its main goal was the re-islamization of Muslim society, the introduction of political Islam. The paper examines the problems of relations between Ivorian Muslims and Christians, which have not always been peaceful, especially during periods of military and political crises, when they were intertwined with ethnic ones. The coming to power in 2011 of A.Ouattara, the first Muslim president, contributed to the preservation of a stable balance between faiths thanks to his clerical policy.

Organizational cohesion: harmonization of cooperation in the aspect of selected elements of organizational culture – the perspective of Chinese organizations

Maintaining a competitive position requires optimization activities in various areas of functioning of both business and public organizations. One of the manifestations of such optimization is organizational harmonization resulting in cohesion both inside and outside the organization. The article presents the issue of organizational coherence in the case of implementation of virtual structures involving organizations from the region of China. The analysis of the problem of building organizational integrity in the aspect of operations performed by process nests located in various geographical areas was analyzed. The focus is placed on the issue of different organizational cultures that need adaptation. The article aims to present the results of research in the field of selected elements of corporate culture (cultural artifacts) concerning Chinese organizations, which will enable organizations from other regions of the world to develop coherent mechanisms of cooperation within virtual structures. The results of the research clearly showed that Chinese organizations have a specific organizational culture in the studied areas, characterized by ambiguity, general language, secretiveness of attitudes and high importance of interpersonal relations.

Controlled networking Organizational cohesion and programmatic coherence of Swiss parties on Twitter

Political parties are under increasing pressure to extend and activate their voter bases by employing more innovative communication strategies. This article focuses on the social media platform Twitter to explore how well Swiss parties performed in terms of employing digital communication during the 2015 federal election campaign. As such, it uses the follower network as an indicator of organizational cohesion, along with two indicators for programmatic coherence based on Twitter message content. Computing density and centrality statistics allow for the quantification of these two aspects in the party networks, while the nonparametric bootstrap introduces uncertainty of the account sampling process into the analysis. Our results suggest that smaller and newer parties, as well as the Social Democrats, tend to exhibit disproportionally high levels of organizational cohesion. At the same time, most parties show comparable—and also disproportionately low—levels of programmatic coherence compared to those displayed by the Social Democrats.

Organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance in two emerging markets: The moderating effects of institutional environments and organizational cohesion

As a source of competitive advantages for firms, innovation has boosted scholars’ interest in the identification of its main determinants from the perspective of organizational culture. However, there is a lack of research on innovation cultures in the context of emerging markets. Based on survey data from 433 manufacturing firms (331 Chinese firms and 102 Vietnamese firms), this study addresses this research gap using a hierarchical regression analysis to explore the impact of organizational innovation culture on firms’ new product performance and to examine the moderating effects of institutional environments and organizational cohesion on this relationship. We find that there are positive relationships between organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance. In contrast to recent research on organizational cohesion, we report that organizational cohesion has both a direct, positive effect on new product performance and a positive moderating role in organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance. Furthermore, regarding the institutional environment in the context of emerging markets, we find that the effects of organizational innovation culture on firms’ new product performance are stronger in China than in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper enriches organizational culture research by providing a multidimensional theoretical framework and extends institutional theory in the context of emerging markets by examining the moderating effect of institutional environments on the relationship between organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance in both China and Vietnam.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Conception of Citizenship Rights in Egypt

How do Islamist movements perceive citizenship rights, particularly in conservative societies such as the case in the Middle East? This study attempts to answer this question by examining the case of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Conventional wisdom demonstrates that Islamic movements adopt illiberal views towards women and minorities, particularly non-Muslims, because of their conservative and rigid interpretation of religion. This study argues that religion is not the only factor that shapes these views. By unpacking the position of the Brotherhood towards women and Christians’ rights in Egypt, it shows that the Islamists’ conception of citizenship is driven by ideological and political considerations. It contends that the Brotherhood adopts an ambivalent and ambiguous understanding of citizenship that can be construed by three key factors: ideological stance, organizational cohesion, and political calculations.

Emerging state–business contention in China: Collective action of a business association and China’s fragmented governance structure

Based on an in-depth case study of a business association, this article explores how private entrepreneurs are organizing for their rights and highlights contentious facets of the state–business relationship in China. In contrast to depictions common in the literature, this business association actively asserts and seeks to maintain its autonomy vis-a-vis the state and uses innovative strategies to strengthen its own organizational cohesion. It organizes collective actions to defend members’ interests and to enhance the transparency and accountability of the local government. It even advances universal values, such as equal rights to justice. Importantly, however, the initiation and effects of collective actions are contingent on the opportunities embedded in China’s fragmented governance structure. I argue that corporatist analyses characterizing Chinese business associations as lacking autonomy and as partners of the state have overlooked such associations’ potential to engage in confrontations with the state. Combining involvement in the formal institution and contentious collective actions, the association studied displays the tension between the incorporation system and social resistance in contemporary China.

Using Soft Systems Ideas within Virtual Teams

Recent research adds support to the view that the way that individuals act as part of a virtual group is different from behavior in face-to-face meetings. Specifically researchers have discovered that conflicts are more prevalent within virtual teams as opposed to face to face teams. This is because research has shown that participants are more likely to change their initial points of view (shaped by personal values, biases and experience) when discussions are held in a face to face environment rather than through virtual means. This insight raises doubts upon the effectiveness of CMCs as an instrument of organizational cohesion. In this paper we reflect upon this position and attempt to discover if these concerns can be overcome through the employment of Systems methods used in organizational inquiry. We do this through an evaluation of the results of a preliminary study between Curry College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and Richmond University in London, UK.

Using Soft Systems Ideas within Virtual Teams

Recent research adds support to the view that the way that individuals act as part of a virtual group is different from behavior in face-to-face meetings. Specifically researchers have discovered that conflicts are more prevalent within virtual teams as opposed to face to face teams. This is because research has shown that participants are more likely to change their initial points of view (shaped by personal values, biases and experience) when discussions are held in a face to face environment rather than through virtual means. This insight raises doubts upon the effectiveness of CMCs as an instrument of organizational cohesion. In this paper we reflect upon this position and attempt to discover if these concerns can be overcome through the employment of Systems methods used in organizational inquiry. We do this through an evaluation of the results of a preliminary study between Curry College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and Richmond University in London, UK.