This paper investigates sensemaking by rural community residents concerning a large scale, broad band computer network - the Alberta SuperNet. Our goal is to understand the impacts of this broad band network on rural communities and to use critical theory to understand these impacts. Data were collected during 9 town hall meetings held in rural communities. Discussions during the meetings were recorded, transcribed and digitized. We identified key themes in the discussions and focused on opportunities and risks rural residents conceived as emerging from SuperNet. We investigate the personal and collective identities constructed during the town hall meetings. We then interpret the data in terms of Habermasian critical theory and the risk society thesis of Ulrich Beck.

This article is about why organizations should take time to understand and care for employees and why they probably do not. The discussion is set against the backdrop of stories from 28 people separated from the job in August 2000 during a downsizing event at TREBCO (pseudonym), a manufacturing automotive firm based in a large midwestern U.S. city. A total of 1,100 white-collar workers were sent away at that time. The first author presents findings from a qualitative study she conducted in 2001 to explore these workers' experiences of the same downsizing event and their perceptions about whether or not TREBCO knew that its decision might adversely affect some lives. She ends her section by suggesting that because of the varied experiences that emerged from the study and because of the unique relevancy structures from which each emerged, TREBCO should have taken time to know these employees as persons and found alternative means of achieving corporate profitability ends. The second author then presents a counter-argument based on some of the organizational literature that questions why TREBCO should care, from an organization's perspective. He also presents a position from a labor point of view, which argues that the proposed action may actually be detrimental to those same employees. The purpose of this paper is not to resolve this perspectival dilemma; rather, it is to promote dialog toward possible transformation.

This article revisits a previously published case study of group dynamics that related to when a leader dies (or is absent). The conceptual lens used to re-read these group dynamics, is one derived from psychoanalysis and specifically features the notion of the death instinct and the work of C. Fred Alford. The paper frames its discussion of the case study using Alford's five dramas of “acting out the missing leader”. Like a drama, the paper locates the case study as a series of acts and scenes with a specific psychodynamic script that is being played-out. The paper has broader implications than simply “When a leader dies” as the discussion speaks to an understanding of larger leader - follower behaviour.

Spirituality and religion have gained increasing prominence in recent years. Several critical reviews of spirituality have pointed out ways in which spirituality can be misused by both employees and management. Yet, many of these critical authors are drawn toward a need for more spirituality in their own lives and work. This paper will review some ways in which spirituality can be misused or used as an addiction. We will then explore ways in which spirituality and spiritual practices can and have been used in a positive, healthy way in organizations.

In this article, we outline our organizational change initiative, our “small experiment,” and our attempt to understand how organizational change is actually accomplished. It is our desire to first change our selves and how we perform gender and through this local initiative, to eventually change how our organization as a whole performs gender. In our effort to accomplish this goal, we began by attempting to understand the issue, our experience, and the performance of gender within our organization. Based upon these understandings and because of this understanding, we will identify initiatives that change our organization's performance of gender. Finally, in an attempt to understand the microprocesses of change, of how organizational change is accomplished - “its dynamic, unfolding, emergent qualities (in short its potential) (Tsoukas & Chia, 2002, 568),” we will document and attempt to understand our experience of change from within.